Page 68 of The Whispering Girls

“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.”