Page 29 of The Whispering Girls (Detective Katie Scott #14)

TWENTY-EIGHT

The longer Katie stared at the fur-lined boot sticking out from underneath a pile of leaves, the more she felt her heart skip a beat and an extreme heaviness overcome her body. How was she going to be able to tell Officer Clark they had found his sister’s body?

“Tami…” she whispered. Katie began to slowly brush away the leaves. She expected to see a leg and the rest of the body, including the other boot, but she didn’t. With meticulous care, she kept digging the leaves until she found there wasn’t a body, or any body parts. It was just a boot.

“What the…?” said McGaven.

“There must be human scent on the boot, otherwise Cisco wouldn’t have alerted to it. And it must’ve been strong.”

“Is that really Tami’s boot?” he said.

“Don’t know for sure, but it looks like it. I haven’t touched it, so let’s bag it.”

“If the scent was strong, could the killer have been here?”

“That would mean the killer is following us or knows our schedule. Why else would this fur-lined boot happen to look just like the one Tami was wearing?” she said.

“That was only two hours ago that we met with her.”

“It could mean two things. The killer is toying with us—like telling us we’re never going to find him. Or the killer is sending us a message.”

“Like?”

“Like he could kill Tami Clark at any time and there’s nothing we can do about it.” Katie looked around them. “We need to warn Officer Clark that his sister’s boot was found.”

McGaven took out his phone and left a message for Clark to call them immediately.

Katie looked at her phone. “I think the signal is becoming spotty again.”

McGaven studied the area and the weather. “It’s getting colder and I would guess that storm is coming in tonight.”

“Let’s hurry,” she said.

Katie and Cisco started a grid search, making sure they weren’t missing anything important. After twenty minutes, Cisco didn’t show any behavioral change and hadn’t alerted on anything. Meanwhile, McGaven had documented and collected potential evidence.

The detectives packed the Jeep to drive back to the Echo Forest Lodge.

“You’re quiet,” said McGaven. “I know it’s not because you have nothing to say.”

Katie concentrated on the roads. It started to snow, making traction slippery. She made sure her four-wheel drive was enabled.

“Well, if I were Detective Katie Scott, I would be thinking that there are more things being thrown at us…and we need more people to help with the investigation. We owe it to the family and friends of the victims to solve these investigations,” he said. “Am I close?”

Katie had been thinking about needing more people, but what she was really thinking about was her name being said in the forest and how uneasy she felt about it.

It was somewhat unusual for her. She knew what it felt like to be in danger and to have difficult cases—but this rare perception had been how she had felt since she got to Echo Forest.

“You know I’m not making fun of you, but did I get it right?”

“You did. But I think it goes deeper than that.” Katie slowed her speed. “This weather isn’t going to help. It looks bad.”

“From what I’m seeing on the forecast,” he said, looking at the next twenty-four hours of weather on his phone, “the storm will be heavy and cold, but it will clear back to like today in a day’s time.”

“A day?”

“Sorry we can’t arrest the weather.”

Katie smiled. “I wish we could.”

“The high point of the storm won’t be for another six to eight hours. It gives us time to prepare,” he said.

Katie pulled into a parking place in front of the veterinary office next to Jack’s truck. She saw John’s and McGaven’s trucks as well, but there weren’t any other vehicles.

The detectives, followed closely by Cisco, hurried up the stairs to the entrance of the lodge. As they walked in, they found John busily working at a desktop computer and microscope. A stack of printed papers was neatly sitting next to him.

He looked up. “Hey, thought you got lost.”

McGaven shut the door and Katie carried the bagged boot to the dining table. Cisco went into the kitchen where his bowl of water sat and drank noisily.

Katie was exhausted and wanted to sit down on the couch for a few minutes, but she was drawn to what John had uncovered.

“What do we have?” she said.

“It’s interesting.”

“Wait,” called McGaven from the kitchen. He had grabbed a bottle of water and hurried back to the living area.

“Have you seen or heard from the chief or Officers Clark and Banning?” said Katie.

“No. It’s been quiet, which is great. But not hearing from them is a bit worrisome.”

“I agree,” said McGaven.

“We have to keep trying to get ahold of them,” she said. Katie leaned against the table as Cisco padded by, dripping water along the floor. “I don’t know what else to do. They all know we’re here working on these cases.”

“We need some updates and more results from the lab and medical examiner’s office,” said McGaven.

“The only thing we can do is keep working with what we have…and Katie needs to add to her criminal profile,” said John. “We have most of the forensics from the crime scenes, autopsy reports, and of course the behavioral evidence left at the scenes.”

“You’re right.” Looking at a small piece of paper, she said, “What’s this?”

“A list of items we need,” said John. “I have most of the technology things in case we lose electricity, but you can’t be too careful.”

Katie read down the list, “Batteries, compact chargers for phones and computers, firewood stocked inside, printer paper…I saw firewood on the other side near the downstairs entrance.”

“Good idea, John,” said McGaven. “We need more food supplies too. ”

“Who wants to go?” Katie said. “No sense two or three of us going.”

“I’ll go,” said McGaven.

“You sure?” she said.

“You guys will just slow me down…besides, it’s not far. I’ll go now before the weather gets worse,” he said.

Katie looked at the growing amount of information and something inside made her feel as if she were trying to hold tight to a sinking ship. She stood at the board.

“I’ll be back,” said McGaven with a silly voice from a famous movie. He shut the door behind him.

Cisco ran up to the door and then turned back.

“Do you want to hear what I found or wait for McGaven?” said John.

“I’ll update him. We need to move forward and I get a feeling the weather is going to be a problem for us.”

John nodded. His solemn demeanor and neutral facial expression made it difficult to read him sometimes. “I looked at the weather report too. The owner of the carpet and flooring store said not to worry—it can be bad, but it’ll be short lived.”

Katie pulled up a chair next to John. “What do we have?” She remained hopeful.

“I went to a couple of flooring stores, one in town and another heading into Walnut Creek. Both places said the same things…that this particular rug and color has been discontinued.”

Katie listened and felt her body get colder.

“But the store here in Echo Forest, Crane Flooring, said they have an old remnant pile out back that they give away for free.”

“Free?”

“This isn’t choice stuff but lower end, like colors that weren’t popular and weird sizing. They’re just castoffs. ”

Katie got up and stoked the fire, trying to bring more heat into the room.

“But the manager, Stu Jenkins, said that about a week ago he noticed that a large amount of these castoffs was missing when he came into work.”

This caught Katie’s attention. “I’m guessing the remnants were similar if not identical to the fibers we found.”

“If I were in my lab, I would be able to confirm that but here I can optimistically say that it’s ninety percent positive,” he said.

Katie sat back down. “So we know the killer must’ve used these old pieces of carpet to move the bodies to the crime scene areas. That would mean they had to know what this business did this with its offcuts.”

John nodded. “You can’t see them from the street or near the building.”

“So who would know about it? Customers? Carpet delivery personnel and installers?”

“Well, I can make this easy. Crane Flooring gets almost all their carpeting and flooring from a distributor, ATC Floors, out of Southern California. They’ve been doing business with them for more than twenty years. But they have only one installer locally and his name is Bill Westin.”

Katie stood up and went to the board. She had a renewal of energy. “We have another lead. We’ve got to chase this guy down. I’ll have Gav do a background when he gets back.”

“I’m sending the address and cell number to your phone,” John said. “And the manager said Bill would be dropping off some unused carpet pieces in the morning before noon.”

“Just because he has access to the carpet that left fibers at the crime scene doesn’t make him the killer…but it does make him someone we need to talk to. Great work, John.”

“I do what I can,” he said and smiled.

The lights flickered, but remained on.

“Is there a generator here?” said John.

“I’m sure Jack has one, but if not, we need to make sure everything is charged one hundred percent and there’s wood stockpiled for the fireplace.”

“That’s why I wanted Gav to get whatever battery chargers that he could.”

Katie began updating the lists, highlighting important information to include the new evidence and locations. She wanted to see if there were links or a consistent connection with their other clues.

Victims/Crime Scenes:

#1 Theresa Jamison

Nineteen years old. Good health. Found in woods near vacation cabin, hung in tree, cause of death strangulation , manner of death homicide, totem left at scene, drag marks behind tree indicating how she was brought to the location.

Her face was covered with a burlap bag .

She was a resident of Echo Forest working at the Sunrise Café and going to go to nursing school.

Boyfriend, Devin Bradley. Friend, Tami Clark.

TJ (Tamara Jane Lambert) found body and came to the cabin to ask Katie for help—then TJ disappeared. Striking resemblance to TJ (related?).