Page 101 of Last Girls Alive

“Yes, I’ve been thinking about it. I wanted to explore it again, since it was under such difficult conditions.”

“Well, why don’t we use that as a trap?”

“I like where you’re going, but obviously ‘they’ are keeping a close eye.”

McGaven grabbed a piece of paper and drew a basic area of the park and where the body was located. “Okay, I was thinking that we could get surveillance cameras at these points,” he said, indicating areas of the trail and the main one heading to the crime-scene area. “It would be actual footage that someone has been following us.”

“That’s great, but black-hoodie guy will no doubt see us setting up.”

“Not if we have someone else do it.”

“Okay,” she said slowly, not sure who it would be.

“Who do we both know that can set up surveillance without drawing attention?”

“Of course,” she said. “John.”

“Exactly. What if we have him set up some basic cameras? Even if hoodie guy sees him, it’ll look like a birdwatcher or nature lover setting up.”

“That might work, and we’re keeping it by the book within our department. We have reason to believe that hoodie guy has been following the investigation, spying on us, and he was the one that trapped us, so this would be a way to get proof and hopefully record an identification.” She made a couple of notations on the sketch. “But we’re going to need these three areas watched so that there’s no chance of hoodie guy escaping without an ID.”

“We can handle it,” he said with confidence.

“You’re assuming two things: that the brass are going to let us do this; and that John has time to set up cameras for us.”

“Of course he will.”

“What makes you say that?”

“I already asked him on the way in.”

“Of course. What if our guy is armed? And what if he brings a friend to complicate things?”

“Well, we’ll be ready. I’ve thought about that.”

“You sound like you’re going to enjoy this too much.”

“So what do you think?” McGaven asked intensely, waiting.

“I think it might work.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Let’s do it—I’ll run it by the ‘proper’ channels. It shouldn’t make anyone upset that we’re trying to find a possible witness in two homicide investigations.”

“I’ll go set it up with John right now,” he said, standing up. “We’ll be there ahead of you tonight. I’ll text you when it’s time and hopefully hoodie guy will be watching… and with some good ol’-fashioned police luck… we’ll have our guy before the end of the night.”

“And hopefully, we will have more answers than questions for a change.”

Forty-Three

Wednesday 1745 hours

Heavy clouds and thunder brought some heavy rain bursts throughout the afternoon, but it was good that the weather was dismal because it would lessen the chance of running into anyone else at the park just before dark.

Katie went home to take care of Cisco and then came back to work for about an hour, to make sure she had the okay from the proper channels, before McGaven gave her the go-ahead in a text:Ready to go.

He and John had made sure that the areas were set with weatherproof cameras and they each had taken their watch positions around the creek.