“It was nice meeting you,” said McGaven.
The detectives stood up.
Katie gave Ventura her business card with her personal cell phone number. “Please call us anytime.”
“You have my word,” he said as he escorted them to the door.
Katie and McGaven made their way back down the stairs to their car before either of them spoke. Katie was lost in her thoughts. She knew she was right about who the mother and daughter were, but now they had to track down any other family members, and run background checks to see what they could find out about their victims.
Once the detectives were in the car and the doors were shut, they each sat a moment.
“Well, that was weird,” said McGaven.
“I wouldn’t say weird… Maybe interesting, creepy, like we’ve just been told a ghost story.”
“You got that impression too?”
“Yeah. It makes me believe the bodies have nothing to do with the construction. It’s just been the killer’s unfortunate luck that the bodies were found.”
“What about the trap?” he said.
“That is the big question. The person who assembled it… Did they want the construction to cease, maybe permanently? Or did they not want the bodies to be found…?”
McGaven fastened his seatbelt. “That is what we need to find out. And I have a gut feeling it’s a major piece to the puzzle.”
“It will definitely give us more insight into all three victims.”
“This is going to be a long day…”
TWELVE
Tuesday 1015 hours
After the detectives returned to the police department, Katie found herself in the records archive room, looking for the missing person report for Ian Griffin from almost twenty years ago. Paper reports still weren’t digital—or kept in alphabetical order—so Katie began rummaging through boxes. Dust filled the air. Forty-five minutes later, she pulled a file and the tab read: “Griffin, Ian.” It was written in pencil in neat letters. She immediately flipped it open to find several written pages and copies of Misty’s report. There was an additional page of her report that they didn’t have. She returned boxes to their rightful places and left the archive room.
“I’m back,” said Katie as she entered the detectives’ office.
“About time. I thought I was going to have to send in SWAT to save you.” McGaven was sitting at his laptop with papers spread all around.
Katie chuckled. “They’d have to wear respirators with all the heavy dust in there.” She sat down andopened the file. “I think we have Ventura’s notes in here,” she said, skimming the information.
“He’s pretty sharp, but he might’ve missed a few things he didn’t readily remember,” McGaven said.
“Maybe.”
“You think he’s keeping information from us?”
Katie turned to McGaven. “Is something bothering you?”
“No, not really.”
“Spit it out.”
“It seemed as if he was waiting for us.”
“He probably read about the skeletal remains being found.”
“Or he knows more.”
