Page 24 of Last Girls Alive

“Thank you.” Katie turned and faced McGaven before carefully stepping around the area. He had been waiting patiently in the background, like a bodyguard, keeping quiet until needed.

“What’s going on? Why did you bolt?” he asked.

“I saw this guy following us and when I tried to talk to him, he ran.”

“What did he look like?”

“I couldn’t really tell. He had a black hoodie obscuring his face. And he was really, really fast on foot.”

They walked back toward the house on Green Street.

“Anything about him seem familiar?”

“Yeah, I think he was at the crime scene.”

“Maybe a fan of the police?”

Katie said slowly, “Maybe, but I think he was after something else. Or knows something that we don’t know about the case.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “Find anything interesting about the house?”

“Nada. It’s just like the rest of the places. The crew is finishing up the interiors and soon people will begin moving in.”

They reached the car and paused.

“Mr. Big Guy back there said that all the houses have been sold.”

“Really?”

Katie opened the car door. “So if they have been sold, why can’t we find anything?”

“You know how slow these things work. Maybe all the information hasn’t been entered into the system at the title company and assessor’s office.” McGaven studied his partner. “What? You’ve got that look. I don’t know whether to be happy or brace for the worst.”

Katie smiled. “Well, I know that property taxes wait for no one. There’s must be a record somewhere.”

“I saw a real estate sign down the street for MayFare Realty. I’ll dig around there.”

“We need to find out why Candace Harlan and Amy Striker are somehow connected to this house on Green Street.”

Twelve

Tuesday 1530 hours

Katie leaned over McGaven’s shoulder as he ran through several police reports for Carol Harlan. To their surprise, there were numerous reports for vandalism and trespass, but nothing else popped.

“It looks like these charges were all dropped,” McGaven said.

“All those dates are from several years ago, nothing current,” Katie said, discouraged. Reading on, she said, “Actually, it looks like Carol was kicked out of places where she was sleeping. It makes sense that she was homeless.” Reading on, she said, “What about the contact information she gave?”

“It looks like 1477 Spring Street.”

“Why does that sound familiar?” she said.

“It’s because it’s the government building downtown. It’s common for inmates to use that address when they are transient.”

“Okay, what about Amy Striker?”