Page 69 of Last Girls Alive

Katie took a look around them, trying to find a name of a company that supplied them, but there didn’t seem to be any branding. “Strange,” she said.

McGaven walked over to her.

“There doesn’t seem to be a name or anything.”

“Maybe it’s on the inside.”

“Wouldn’t they want to advertise?” she said.

He looked around up high, low, and around the doors.

Katie pulled open the door. The inside of the storage container had corrugated walls with twelve-inch-square vented areas along both sides as well as the end. It was about twenty-six feet long and seven and half feet tall. Stacked inside she could see a pair of vintage doors and mantel from the fireplace. “There’s stuff in here, but it wasn’t locked,” she said and took a couple of steps inside, still looking for the name of the company.

McGaven walked in and said, “You know, we could ask the construction company.”

“I know, but I just wanted to see it. There should be identifying numbers too. All these types of containers have numbers—like license plates or VIN numbers.”

“These are nice pieces from the house that I’m sure people will want to buy for their remodels.” He referred to heavy, craftsman-style interior doors with carvings and carved glass doorknobs. Each door had to have weighed 200 pounds. There were also crown molding pieces in every length, and piles of intricately carved gingerbread bric-a-brac from the windows.

“What are you thinking?” he asked, looking at Katie curiously.

Katie was still searching the interior for some type of identification. She didn’t know exactly why but it bothered her. Then she saw at the bottom, behind one of the old interior doors with carved glass knobs, there was some information printed on the lower wall. She switched her cell phone to the flashlight mode and read:ETL Express, Moving & Storage LLC.

“ETL,” she whispered.

“What?” McGaven asked. He looked to see what she was talking about. “There’s the name, ETL Express. How does that help?”

“Oh my, wait a minute.” She frantically searched her cell phone photos where she had taken a photo of the piece of paper that was folded in her locker at the police department. She hadn’t bothered to tell McGaven about it because it could have been nothing. “I didn’t think it meant anything, but I still kept it and took a photo of it. So glad I did… I actually forgot all about it.”

“What are you talking about?”

“This,” she said, and turned her phone for McGaven to see.

He said out loud, “ETL Express. Where did you get this?”

“I found it folded at the bottom of my locker.”

“At the department?”

She nodded. “Yes.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” he asked. “Did anyone see anything? I know the security cameras are at the parking lot and the main door, but not the interior.”

“No. Nothing. I checked when I had the chance. First, I thought it was something and then I thought it was probably nothing. I didn’t think about it until now.”

“It seems strange that these are related, but you can’t dismiss it either.”

Katie’s phone rang.

“I better get this,” she said, seeing it was Chad. “Hi.”

Chad said, “You doing okay?”

“Just fine, Gav and I are at the Elm Hill Mansion checking out some storage containers—”

McGaven urgently said, “Hey!”

Cisco barked rapidly in the distance.