Page 26 of The Whispering Girls (Detective Katie Scott #14)

TWENTY-FIVE

Katie and McGaven headed to the small motel on the edge of town. It was difficult to find as it didn’t have proper signage.

“Are you sure this is the right way?” said Katie as she looked around. It appeared they were heading into nowhere but a dense forest.

“Yes. Keep going.”

Katie slowed her speed and couldn’t believe people could find the place. Then she got her answer. They had come upon what was once a nice little motel, but now it was clearly abandoned and ready for demolition.

“It doesn’t look like the photos that were on the internet,” he said and began to search more. “It looks like they closed about two years ago…and it opened in 1974. Sorry, I didn’t catch that.”

Katie parked next to an old oak tree. The branches had since drooped, making it appear hunched over with its limbs dangling .

“You don’t think TJ was here, do you?” said McGaven looking around.

“What I do know is that we’re here, so let’s take a quick look,” she said and got out. She decided to keep Cisco in the car. They weren’t sure what they were going to find. She had her remote for the door popper if they needed him.

Katie paused and made sure her weapon was secured.

There was no indication that anyone had been here in years.

There were no tire tracks or footprints, but it was difficult to see through all the overgrowth.

She could hear the sound of water indicating that a small creek was nearby, but it was difficult to ascertain in which direction with the way sound bounced in the forest.

“Okay, let’s go check it out,” she said beginning to walk through weeds and dead underlying brush.

McGaven slowed his pace behind Katie as he kept watch behind them.

The old motel was one story with eight rooms and a small office located in the middle.

The paint had long since peeled and flaked away.

All the exterior doors were intact, which seemed out of place.

Usually buildings that had been abandoned and were deteriorating had some indication of vandalism or tagging, but there was none.

It was as if a generation had moved forward and forgotten this motel was even here.

Katie stopped.

McGaven followed suit, not saying anything.

Not only was the site excessively overgrown, but Katie had a feeling of being watched and she didn’t want to get ambushed. Her fears were rational with her past experience in the military and previous police investigations.

Looking from left to right and back again, Katie thought it was best to begin from the left.

“Let’s start over there,” said McGaven indicating the left as if he had read her thoughts. His voice was low and his focus was intense.

Katie nodded. She loved it when her partner was thinking the same things she was. Usually they would break up and individually search, but she felt more secure searching each room together.

At the first room, a faint outline of a number “1” was still visible on the door. Katie tried it, but it was stuck. She looked to her partner and moved aside.

McGaven took a step and kicked the door open, causing it to smash back against the wall. The door was still on its old hinges. The room was empty. A bed frame leaned against the wall, the carpet had been torn out, and there were no fixtures in the bathroom. It was empty.

Katie looked at McGaven. “Let’s check them all.”

The detectives systematically checked each room. Most were empty with remnants of what had been inside, but nothing that suggested someone had been staying there. They closed each door after they left.

Katie and McGaven stood at the seventh room.

“Look at this,” said Katie. “That’s a new doorknob.

” It resembled the others, but it was clear it hadn’t stood the ravages of time out in the open.

It was clean. Katie tried the knob and it turned in her hand.

She glanced at McGaven. He readied himself with his gun drawn.

Katie nodded and then pushed the door open.

McGaven rushed in and made sure there was no one hiding in the closet or bathroom. It was vacant.

Standing at the threshold, the room had clearly been occupied—recently.

It had been cleaned and there was a broom leaning in the corner.

A mattress with a sleeping bag had been pushed to the right, where it was neatly folded with a pillow.

Two cardboard boxes were in the other corner as well as a duffel bag.

The bathroom contained some toiletries and two neatly folded towels .

Katie kept a watchful eye at the doorway, but knew that if anyone were to try to sneak up, Cisco would bark.

The detectives pulled on gloves—just in case.

McGaven came back near the entrance.

Katie knelt down and looked through the first box.

“Anything?” he said.

“It looks like…newspaper clippings,” she said. “They’re dated about twenty years ago.” There were copies of birth certificates, death certificates, printouts from websites of genealogy, and other miscellaneous papers someone would use to track down someone.

“Looks like she was researching,” he said.

Katie quickly moved to the duffel bag and unzipped it. She flipped through clothing and personal items, and then looking into a zippered area, she revealed a driver’s license. “Got it.” She stood up.

McGaven was quickly at her side.

“Tamara Jane Lambert, nineteen years old, with an address in Springfield, Missouri. There’s no other identification, no credit cards, nothing except for two hundred in cash.”

“No cell phone or tablet?” he said.

“Nothing.” Looking at the photo, she said, “But we found TJ.”

“I wonder how long she had been staying here?”

“Looks like for a while. It appears she wasn’t leaving until she found what she was looking for,” said Katie.

McGaven went back to the boxes and quickly rifled through them.

“Anything else?”

“No. More newspaper clippings and government paperwork. Wait…” he said. “Here’s an old photo.”

Katie looked at the worn snapshot of two little blonde girls around seven or eight years old, standing in a yard somewhere holding hands. She flipped it over but there was nothing notated.

“Is that TJ and a relative, I wonder?” McGaven said.

“Could be. Look at how they resemble each other. They definitely look related.”

“And close.”

“Like sisters,” said Katie.

McGaven stopped what he was doing and stared at his partner. “Sisters resembling each other.”

“Like TJ and Theresa. Just as I first thought. No wonder no one had seen TJ before. She had never been in town and was staying out here, secretly looking for Theresa.” Katie looked around the room. “C’mon, let’s bag everything up besides the boxes and bring it all back.”

“What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking we can run DNA to find out if the girls were related. We need to get this information to the county morgue so they can officially identify TJ.”

“So these killings must have had something to do with these two girls’ relationship,” said McGaven.

“I don’t know how, but we’re going to find out.” Katie headed to the Jeep to grab some bags. She stopped at the doorway. “The Woodsman…of course,” she said. “We’ve been overlooking it because it didn’t make any sense and there was no direct correlation to it so…”

“What about it?” he said.

“This is just a working theory…but I think the Woodsman is the key.”

“How?”

“I think it means something to both TJ and Theresa. TJ was terrified by the thought of him.”

“Like a belief…meaning…or something with the totems?” he said.

“No, like there really is a boogeyman out there.”

Three down…more to go…