Page 39 of Her Last Whisper

“Background search?” he asked.

“More like social media.”

“Perfect, people say and post things like the entire world can’t see it.”

“Exactly. I also want Denise to see if she can find out anything else about the ex-boyfriend, Marco Ellis.”

“Great idea,” he agreed.

McGaven studied her preliminary profile of the kidnapper, now killer, and the victimology for Amanda Payton. “You’re sure that the kidnapper is the same person as the killer?”

“Of course, don’t you think?” Katie asked. “I know I don’t have solid proof, but I’m going to proceed as if I do.”

“Are you sure? As I read your notes here, and I get what you mean, but what makes you think it’s the same guy unequivocally? Okay…” He got up. “The linkage isn’t here, at least not yet.”

“I see where you’re going with this, but—”

“And until we know for sure from John that there’s linkage in these cases, shouldn’t we move forward objectively and systematically by not zeroing in on one thing?” he said.

“You’re right,” Katie agreed. “What stands out to you?”

McGaven studied the board and the case files for a couple of minutes before he answered.

“I know there are notypicalmurder crime crimes, but this doesn’t seem familiar. You know what I mean?”

“You mean like a crime of passion—from a lover or someone she might have crossed paths with. There’s no overkill. Only her restraint marks on her wrists and ankles.” Katie thought about the extent of the crime.

“Is that from Sherlock’s ideology?” asked Denise as she stood at the doorway holding a notepad.

“It could be,” said Katie smiling.

McGaven stood up to greet her and seemed to light up.

“Wow, this office is great, in an underground bunker sort of way,” Denise said looking around. She was dressed more casually than normal in slacks and a short-sleeved sweater.

“Thanks. It’s going to take a bit to get used to, but I think I’m really going to like it down here,” Katie said.

“Now you’re not completely alone,” she said, referring to Deputy McGaven. She smiled at him.

“It’s hard to overlook someone of my height,” he said, almost embarrassed.

Katie grabbed a sheet of paper with the names of the people on their list that knew Amanda. She sat on the corner of her large desk. “I’ve already okayed this with the sheriff. But, if you don’t want to participate or if you feel uncomfortable doing it, it’s voluntary, so there’s no hard feelings. Okay?”

“Okay,” Denise said slowly. “You’ve definitely got my attention now.”

McGaven perked up due to the fact he was just hearing this.

“Here’s the list of people that are on the radar who knew or had contact with the victim: friends, supervisor, ex-boyfriend. I need you to make up a profile on social media that you’re a single woman that’s a nurse and friend some of the friends of the people on this list before you actually friend them specifically. Or however that works. It will help to make your profile look legitimate. I don’t particularly like social media sites, but they can be extremely useful for information…”

“Like where they like to frequent, favorite restaurants, and even what they’re doing right at any given moments,” chimed in McGaven.

“Exactly,” said Katie.

“Do I interact with them?” Denise asked.

“No, I don’t want you to do that because there could be some legal consequences if any of this is brought into court—then it’ll get messy and I don’t want anything to jeopardize the case with some type of technicality. You can see what you can find before making your own profile, but you will have full access when you friend them.”

“I can do that,” she smiled. “I’m going in undercover—that’s more exciting thananyrecords work.”