Page 38 of Her Last Whisper

McGaven nodded and continued to make notes.

“We need a background check on Dr. Smith from the psychiatric hospital. For due diligence. He’s odd and I want to see if he has had any issues, problems, or lawsuits revolving around the hospital, patients, or personally.”

“Noted,” he said.

Katie paused, staring at the board. She studied her notes on the killer as well as what they knew about Amanda. “I need to rework the preliminary profile once we get the forensics and autopsy results. I’m going to do some digging for property information.”

“On what?”

“First, the house in Basin Woods Development that Amanda described and the deputies searched seems strange to me.”

“Strange how?”

“I’m not sure. I’m certain it’s the right house, but there’s nothing there. I want to find out more about the homes that were built in the development and try to obtain the building plans.”

“Maybe there were building shortcuts? Payoffs? Somebody got shorted that worked the original project and the wrong person got pissed off?”

“I like the way your mind works,” Katie said. She took another look at the overview maps of the area. “You bring up a good point. What about all the people who lived there? How were they relocated? Were they compensated in any way?”

McGaven shifted in his chair, making it squeak. “Someone losing their home is pretty traumatic. Would that make for a motive to kill?”

Katie stood up and stretched her back. She had tacked a county map on the wall and marked all the areas of importance including the housing area, crime scene, hospital, Amanda’s apartment, and Emily’s apartment. “There’s no connection to Amanda or the people close to her—as of right now.”

“What about Amanda’s crime scene area?”

“I was thinking that too. Find out who owns the land, or what corporation does, and anything of interest.”

“It’s on my list now,” he said and smiled.

“I don’t know how good you are at spreadsheets, but we need to be organized with all this information.”

“Got it,” he said.

Katie picked up the internal phone, dialed extension #41 and waited. “Hey, Denise, how are you?” she asked. Denise had been invaluable helping her with background information and various searches on her last case involving a missing girl. She wanted to utilize her skills on Amanda’s case.

“Katie, I’m doing great. How’s the office?” Denise said.

“It’s really good. We’ve been moving stuff around to make it more efficient.”

“I heard you have McGaven working with you again.”

“Wow, word travels fast.”

“You know I’m plugged in around here. Nothing gets by me.” She chuckled.

“I was wondering if you had a few minutes to come down.”

“Sure. Give me five.”

“See you in a few,” Katie said and hung up.

“What’s on your mind?” McGaven asked.

“Well, Denise is a lot more proficient with computer searches than I am. And some of them take a while, so she can do her other duties at the same time.”

He nodded in agreement.

“Since I didn’t get to talk to Dr. Jamison at the hospital, or Emily Day, I thought we could find out more about them before our next attempt.”