Page 52 of Her Last Whisper

Tuesday 1430 hours

The Adirondack Plaza was a special place, a park where locals loved to spend time and a place where out-of-towners always visited. It was the perfect hunting ground. He sat on a bench in the shade of several large trees, wearing dark sunglasses. No one looked at him, no one sat next to him, and he knew that no one would ever remember him. He watched a group of three women sitting at a table, obviously on a break from work by the way they were dressed. The trio wore plain beige pantsuits with their jackets off in the heat revealing sleeveless blouses in various pastel colors. The sun kissed their arms and shoulders.

Intriguing.

Exciting.

Two of the women were brunette and one a strawberry blonde, the loudest and most animated of the group. He watched her lips when she spoke, imagining what truth would come pouring out of her mouth. What she could share with him. It made his extremities tingle.

He inhaled deeply, trying to get a read of the wonderful scents of them as they passed.

A noise drew his attention away from the women suddenly as a slender young woman in jogging clothes pushing a baby carriage sat herself down next to him on the bench and gave a smile. She rocked the stroller gently back and forth.

The fragrance of baby powder, baby lotion, and something sweet, most likely orange slices, hit his senses and sent him into a frenzy. He couldn’t bring himself to look into the stroller.

He was trapped. His legs felt frozen to the bench.

Terror filled him. His throat constricted.

Looking down at his hands, they looked red like blood.

He couldn’t take it anymore. Leaping up, he rushed away from the park.

Thirty-One

Tuesday 1645 hours

Katie walked as fast as she could back down to the forensics division after the meeting at the county building, so fast that McGaven had to run to keep up.

“What’s the emergency?” he asked as he jogged alongside.

“Itisa homicide,” she retorted with a tone that was out of character for her. She swiped her badge at the keypad in front of forensic services.

“Hey, I’m on your side, remember? I seem to recall you asking me if I had your back.” He blocked her with his lumberjack-sized body. “What’s going on?” he asked with a stern tone, and then relaxed when he saw the expression on Katie’s face.

The door disengaged and Katie entered followed closely by McGaven. She kept walking to the office, down the main hallway past the examination areas, and then made a left, following another hallway until she reached the cold-case office.

Neither of them spoke until they were inside and the door shut behind them.

McGaven leaned against Katie’s desk with his arms crossed. “What’s up?” He had rolled up his shirtsleeves.

She put down her notes. “First of all, I’m sorry for being abrupt with you. It’s wrong and unprofessional.”

“I’m a big guy—I can take it,” he said with a lighter tone.

Keeping her voice low in case someone could overhear, she said, “You know, I’ve been faced with stress before, not knowing if the bad guys were going to blow us up. You would think that would prepare me for working a homicide. Right?”

“You have worked a homicide before—those missing girls—remember?” he said.

“This is different.”

“How? There’s no difference except for the victims.”

“I hear what you’re saying, but thisisdifferent. I talked with Amanda; I told her that I would look out for her and keep her safe. I sent patrol by the apartment, and it still didn’t save her life.”

McGaven took a deep breath, choosing his words carefully. “Katie, the sheriff wouldn’t put you in charge of this case unless he thought you were ready. You rocked the crime scene according to the officers that were there. They said if they didn’t know better, they would have thought you’d been doing this for years. It was seamless.”

Katie was taken aback for a moment.