Page 38 of The Whispering Girls (Detective Katie Scott #14)

THIRTY-FIVE

Katie drove into the driveway at Crane Flooring.

What should have taken ten minutes at the most to get there took almost twice as long.

It was located in the industrial area, so it was highly unlikely anyone would see them.

There were no cars in the parking lot and the building looked dark.

She continued to drive around to the back.

There was a large area with leftover carpeting, tiles, and wood planks, which had a plastic tarp acting as a roof. They were behind chain-link fencing. Next to the back door were stacks of garbage and several high stacks of wooden pallets.

“I don’t think we can say there are exigent circumstances for entry,” said McGaven.

“Perhaps not,” she said smiling. “But there’s no lock on the door.” Katie pointed to the entry for the remnants.

“Let’s check it out. John was here talking with the owner. We’re following up.”

Katie grabbed two sets of gloves, and the detectives got out of the Jeep.

Katie shuddered. She wasn’t enjoying the cold weather, but it could’ve been worse.

The air was cold, but not as bad as last night.

She pushed through her uncomfortable feelings and glanced over to McGaven as he walked toward the storage area.

She noticed he walked stiffly, slowly, and every so often he put his left hand on the side of his chest. It was clear he was still hurting from the aftermath of the hospital explosion.

“Gav, you okay?” she said.

“Fine. Why?”

“Well, I don’t know, we were nearly blown up last night.”

He stopped and turned to face Katie. “It’s uncomfortable, I’ll admit, but it’s healing. When we get back, I’ll have the doc take a look and change the bandages.”

Katie was relieved to hear that. “Good.”

They looked around again, ascertaining that the store was indeed vacant. McGaven flipped the metal gate lever up and pulled the door open. It was fairly organized with like things piled together. There were many piles of carpet remnants that probably wouldn’t sell even at a high discount.

Katie immediately spotted the green carpeting. It wasn’t the typical medium or dark green; it was a lighter version, more yellowish green. She pulled out the larger pieces and worked her way to small remnants that had been cut off from corners, and trimming lengths and widths.

“This is what John checked out,” she said. “But I’m wondering how long they keep these pieces here.”

“There’s probably a trash area or recycling,” he said.

Katie exited the enclosed area and walked farther to the back of the property. That was where she saw a van that was obviously used for deliveries. Her first thought was…could the van’s tire impressions have been found at the crime scene?

“Gav,” she said.

He joined her.

“Didn’t John say that the tire impressions from the crime scene were from a truck or van? ”

McGaven nodded.

“We need to dig more up on the owner, employees, and Bill Westin so we can clear them of being suspects.”

McGaven made notes in his phone.

“Do you have a dollar bill?” she said.

McGaven handed one to her and she went to the area where the old van was parked. Katie took photos of it and the license plate. She tried the doors, but they were locked.

“Anything?”

“Not yet.” Katie scrutinized the van, especially the side sliding doors.

Not seeing anything suspicious, she took close-up photos of the tires and then of the tire impression leading out the back entrance—even with the snow the tracks were discernible, which meant it had been used not long ago.

Using the dollar bill to give the size and dimension of the tire treads, Katie finished with a couple more photographs for John to compare to the crime scene impressions.

The detectives were just about ready to go when Katie spotted a large dumpster along the alleyway.

“Wait a minute,” she said.

McGaven looked toward the alley. “Oh no, not another dumpster,” he said with sarcasm.

“Why not? It’s not on their property, so it’s open season.”

“It’s freezing out here.”

“So?” Her thought was that they needed to follow every lead and make sure to be thorough.

“So?”

“You can wait in the car with Cisco.” She smiled and walked to the dumpster. It was an extra-large one and it didn’t have a lock. She wrestled with the lid and finally flipped it up. Immediately, the horrendous smell hit her in the face and she retreated.

“What’s up?” said McGaven hurrying to her. “Yikes, that’s horrible.” He covered his nose and stepped away .

Katie didn’t want to say it, but there was no other choice. “Something’s dead in there.”

“Oh man. You think?” said McGaven. “You’re not going in there.”

“Just give me a leg-up so I can see.”

McGaven shot her an “I don’t think so” expression.

“C’mon, let me just check it out. What if it’s something worse?” she said. Katie had all sorts of notions running through her mind.

“Fine.” He walked up to Katie as she was putting on her gloves.

The snow had become icy around the dumpster and made it difficult for the detectives not to slide or fall down. Katie steadied herself with McGaven and placed her hands on the dumpster rim.

She peered inside. “Don’t drop me.”

“I won’t,” he said, with stress, trying not to inhale the stench.

At first Katie thought it was a dead dog, but upon closer inspection she saw that it was a possum someone had tossed in there—likely from being run over on the street. “It’s a dead possum.”

“Okay, mystery solved.”

“But wait, wait a minute.” Katie hoisted her body closer to the other side of the dumpster and grabbed the edge of a rolled piece of carpet with heavy plastic scraps attached. It wasn’t huge, she estimated, maybe three feet wide and four feet tall.

“What are you doing?” McGaven was losing patience.

“I’ve just about got it,” she replied and yanked the carpet piece out. She jumped down.

“Is that…?”

“Without testing we can only speculate,” she said. “But it looks like there are some small blood smears on this green carpet. ”

“It wasn’t near the possum, was it?”

“Nope.”

“We need to take this back,” he said.

“We can cut out a small piece for testing. I saw some plastic rolls and a carpet cutter in the storage area.”

Katie took photos first and then ran to get the cutter and plastic. She was now so focused that she didn’t feel as cold anymore. The snowfall had taken a break and it should be out of the freezing temperatures tomorrow.

They retrieved the evidence. The find gave Katie instant energy and her focus cleared. If they could test not only the carpet fibers, but the blood and match it to either Theresa or TJ, it would be a huge piece of the puzzle.

But as Katie drove back to the lodge, she began to lose hope about the evidence.

“Okay,” said McGaven. “What’s wrong?”

“Matching the fiber and blood is great, but it doesn’t mean that anyone from Crane Flooring is the killer.”

“But it could.”

“Maybe the killer wants it to look like someone from Crane Flooring is the killer. Remember, the crime scenes, especially Theresa’s and TJ’s, seemed to be well planned out. We don’t know how long all this has been set in motion.”

McGaven sighed. “True. But we still need to verify the evidence.”

“I think it’s possible there were more than one person involved.”

“More than one killer?”

“No. Just one killer, but more than one person involved.”

Katie, McGaven, and Cisco were driving slowly to get to 2710 Cedar Oak Street, the house of Bill Westin.

The day was overcast, but it wasn’t snowing, and the town was extremely quiet.

There were no cars on the road and no snowplows either, which meant that most people wouldn’t be out.

Driveways weren’t cleared. There was just a huge vision of white everywhere. It was a little unsettling.

Katie had no trouble navigating through and around deep snow. She left tire impressions behind, which would make it easy for someone to follow them.

“How do you want to handle this?” said McGaven. He had been looking up background information on Westin.

“I don’t think we should go up to his door and knock.”

“Then what?”

“We need to sit back and watch, for now,” she said.

McGaven looked at the digital map on his iPad. “It looks like his house is at the end of the street and there are adjacent roads, which would be good places to park and not be noticed.”

“Sounds good,” she said.

“There’s also an empty lot across the street.”

“Even better.”

Katie weaved the Jeep around difficult places, up and around where the sidewalks were buried by the storm.

“I’ve kept calling Chief Cooper and his officers,” said McGaven.

“And?”

“Nothing. Clark’s and Banning’s just go to voicemail. And voicemail for the chief too.”

“Do we have the capability to ping their phones?” she said.

“I’ve tried to use the software on my laptop, but I haven’t had much luck.”

“These might just be their work phones. Maybe they have personal cell phones?”

“It’s worth a try.”

“Ugh,” said Katie frustrated. “We don’t have all the information and we don’t have access to our working stuff. ”

“Hey, I get it. But we are making progress and we will figure this out. I know you, partner, you will find a way.” He smiled.

Katie nodded. She hated showing her annoyance. “That’s only because I have you as a partner.”

“Turn there,” he said. “I think you can access the vacant lot.”

“I see it. There are a lot of trees for cover.” Katie managed to pull into the property and found a flat location where they could see in between the trees but no one should be able to see them parked there. “What do you think?”

McGaven craned his neck and looked in all directions. “It works.”

Katie managed to retrieve some binoculars to see the house more clearly. There was a truck in the driveway, and by the looks of the snow in the back, it had been there for at least a day. It also appeared that someone had helped to clear the snow from their street.