McGaven took off his shoes and lay down on the sofa completely exhausted. Katie went to get him a fresh pillow and a quilt after rechecking the house, windows, and doors. When she returned, he was already asleep softly snoring. She smiled. He was always there for her. Gently putting the blanket over him, Katie turned off the lights.
“Night, partner,” she whispered.
FORTY-EIGHT
Wednesday 0915 hours
Katie awoke to the sun streaming into her bedroom. She sat up and looked at the chair in the corner, but Cisco wasn’t there. Then the smell of coffee hit her senses.
“Coffee,” she managed to say as she finished waking up. She swung her legs over the edge of her bed, sitting for a moment. She stretched and thought about the events of last night before grabbing a robe.
Opening her bedroom door, the smell of breakfast cooking made her smile even more. Her uncle and McGaven were sitting at the counter talking and eating. Both looked in good spirits.
“Hey, sleepy head,” said McGaven, eating a piece of bacon.
“Morning.”
“It looks like you slept well,” said her uncle.
Katie immediately went and poured a cup of coffee. “Yeah, I think I did. Eventually.” She sipped the hot java.
“I was just giving the sheriff the main points of last night,”said McGaven.
“That Junior is slippery,” said Uncle Wayne.
“You’re not kidding,” she said sitting down with them.
“Well, I slept great,” said McGaven. “I can’t believe your sofa is that comfortable.”
Katie laughed as her uncle brought her a plate with eggs, bacon, and fruit. “Thank you.” Katie looked around. “Where’s Cisco?”
“He’s outside doing his doggie thing,” said McGaven.
Katie went to the sliding door and let the dog in. She always had to have her morning moments with him.
The three of them chatted while finishing breakfast.
“I’m going to take a shower and get ready for another day of adventure,” she said.
“Thanks for the great breakfast,” said McGaven. “I’m going home to shower and change. See you in a bit, partner.”
Katie took a longer shower than she had planned, hoping to wash away everything about the case that didn’t move it forward. She got dressed and grabbed what she needed for the day. Her uncle had already left.
After saying goodbye to Cisco, more than once, Katie headed to work. She tried hard to figure out what “He” meant and who Junior was talking about who was going to pay. At all costs, everyone needed to be careful—anyone connected to the investigation and the construction company. Detective Hamilton and a couple of police officers were at Grand’s house, searching for anything that might prove useful or answer more questions. She hadn’t heard from him, but that wasn’t unusual until something significant happened or something was located to shed more light on the case.
Katie parked in the employee parking lot, surprised she didn’t see McGaven’s truck. She quickly went inside the building and entered the forensic division. Just as she thought,John and Eva were hard at work and she didn’t want to bother them. They had a tremendous amount of work and with Sydney’s and Grand’s crime scenes, it only added more to their load. She paused at the office door and could hear John speaking on the phone. She had the urge to run in and talk to him. To see him. And be with him. But she also had a big job to do and she entered her office. She knew she would see him later and that had to be good enough for now.
On the table was a new file with paperwork inside. There was a yellow sticky note on top saying: “Background and history of land in Pine Valley.” It was signed: Denise. She must’ve come in early. Katie put down her jacket, box, and briefcase. She immediately took a seat and began reading from the file. It was thorough and interesting. She read through each section carefully.
There was an interesting report and news article that stated the property where construction was to begin for the police and fire departments’ training centers was supposedly protected. Several preservation groups had tried to stop any construction more than a decade ago, talking about protecting the native wildlife and forests, but that had been a debate ever since Katie could remember.
She continued to read about a William Collins Jr. and Sr., who were Bruce Collins’s father and grandfather. According to the articles and county papers that supported the stories, the grandfather was originally the sole owner of the entire area, including where the construction was to begin. Later, due to financial difficulties, Collins’s grandfather began to sell off parcels of land, but he had been swindling other families around the county and subsequently was arrested and jailed. There wasn’t much information about what happened next until there was an article stating that William Collins, Bruce’s dad, later committed suicide due to the fact he had lost nearlyeverything apart from the small farm that became—and still was—the family home.
Katie was intrigued, but there was nothing there she could work with. She understood more about the family and perhaps those events had made Bruce into the abusive man others had witnessed. She was just about to put the files away when she caught a very small article as a follow-up to the article about William Collins Sr.’s incarceration. Interestingly, the article stated that some people believed Bruce’s grandfather had not only swindled money from families, specifically cash for investment of properties, but that he had buried money, gold, and deeds from all those he stole from. It was estimated at the time to be worth over a million dollars, but today’s estimate would be double or even triple that. However, nothing had ever been found or even validated.
“Morning,” said McGaven as he entered, looking chipper and wearing fresh clothes. “What’s that look?”
“Your lovely fiancée did some great digging and found some interesting articles about the history here. And?—”
