Page 74 of Pretty Broken Dolls

“No, but she was at least honest in answering my questions. Virginia Rodriguez is an unlikely suspect, but we’ll keep her on the board just in case.”

Katie pointed to a padded envelope on her desk. “Right, shall we see what this is?”

“I was waiting for you to open it,” said McGaven with a curious expression.

Katie opened the envelope from the army K9 training facility in Sacramento. She pulled out two flash drives with USB plugs and a handwritten letter.

Detective Scott, please find a few videos from K9 training that I hope will help in your investigations. The sound isn’t the best—I apologize for that. These were the only video documentation I could find of Jeanine Trenton, but there were others in which recruits washed out. I thought that would be of interest to you. If I come across anything else, I will send it on. It was a pleasure meeting you. Kindest Regards, Sergeant Anthony Serrano

“Interesting.”

“What?” she said.

‘“It was a pleasure meeting you’…” he repeated.

“Give it a rest, Gav.”

“I’m just saying. He was extremely impressed by your K9 training abilities.”

“And Cisco,” she added. “Here, plug these into your laptop so we can check them out.” She handed him the flash drives.

McGaven took the drives and inserted them. After a few moments, a window opened with ten video images.

Katie rolled her chair closer to McGaven.

He clicked on the first video icon. “Here we go.”

There were muffled voices, which Katie assumed was Sergeant Serrano giving instructions. Standing at the front of the group was Jeanine Trenton; she had a regal German shepherd sitting at her left side. There was a group of recruits watching, but it was difficult, if not impossible, to see the identities of the soldiers as the view was of the backs of their heads. There were a couple of women, based on their ponytail or braid down the back. Jeanine was showing basic obedience, and Katie assumed this session would have been the very beginning, or orientation for the training course. Jeanine was cheerful and energetic as she moved through the exercises. She definitely was a good dog handler and clearly loved it.

“We can’t see much,” said McGaven.

“Maybe not, but we can see Jeanine Trenton alive and happy.”

“True.”

“And she definitely loved working with the dogs. That’s why I can’t figure out why she quit and why she never talked about it much.” Katie watched the other videos.

There was nothing out of the ordinary until they reached the second to last video. It appeared that Jeanine was arguing with one of the recruits and she was angry. Her words were difficult to make out but she said something like,“You shouldn’t be anywhere near animals and don’t know anything about the gift of bonding with dogs.”But the person she was speaking with had their back to the camera. It was clear that it was a woman and there was a man next to her.

“Wow, now there’s a different side to Jeanine Trenton,” said McGaven. “A little out of line.”

“Not really,” said Katie. “You don’t know the army. It can be a tough pill to swallow if you’re not used to criticism. It can be fierce. But I think Jeanine was being passionate and maybe this person wasn’t at all cut out for being a dog handler.”

McGaven rewound the video a few times. “I can’t see who she’s talking to or the person next to them.”

“I know. Not very useful.” Katie was a bit disappointed, but not defeated. There was always something to learn from every clue.

Katie and McGaven watched the videos again.

After the last video, Katie said, “I think I’m going to send an email to Sergeant Serrano and ask if he could identify these recruits, since he sent videos and all.”

“It’s worth a shot.”

Katie quickly sent an email from her cell phone.

She studied the murder board. “So what do we have on Jeanine Trenton’s journal? Anything worth mentioning?”

McGaven flipped through his notebook. “Nothing more than about her work nightmare and harassment. I’ve read most of it, skimming through really mundane stuff. She did mention about the neighbor, Mrs. Caldwell— apparently, she was accusing her of having too many people at her house. She thought the neighbor was weird.”