McGaven pushed boxes out of the way to join her.
“These boxes correspond with banking deeds. They’re old and incomplete but it might give us a better understanding.” Katie looked at the third box, which didn’t have anything useful. “Let’s put everything back as it was and take these two into the office.”
“Yay,” he said.
The detectives spent some time putting the property room back the way they had found it before going back to their office. Katie set the two boxes on the table, then stood in front of the murder board. It had good information and told a story, but notthe ending. She knew the land was a pivotal part of all of this. But how exactly?
An idea occurred to her.
“What about news stories?” she said.
“What stories?”
“If we take the dates from the bank information and deeds and so forth, and search that date in the news to find out what was going on relating to land in the county: real estate, investing, historical significance… And if anything occurred that would make those properties valuable.” She started organizing the pertinent paperwork by date.
“I like where you are going with this. It will take some time, but I’ll ask Denise to help with looking up historic events in that area of the county.” He checked his email. “Great. Here’s the preliminary findings from Junior’s trailer. Photos coming.” He printed them out.
Katie began looking at them. She was surprised by the shock she felt seeing the empty space where the trailer had slid down the hill into the creek. It looked as if a tornado had come through. But what interested her were the images of the other trailers and the crime scene with Sydney’s body. It represented something… something to the killer.
She handed them to McGaven.
“Why would Sydney’s body be left at this location?” she asked. “She wouldn’t have driven there. Why was she brought all the way to the trailer park?”
“It was a place the killer knew she most likely wouldn’t be found—at least not for a while,” he said.
Katie looked at the photos of the bodies on the board. They were in order of death: Meredith and Misty, Bruce Collins, and then Ian Griffin. Who killed Ian Griffin? The question kept resonating through her mind. A single gunshot to the head. Could the gun still be found?
“What’s been bothering you?” said McGaven.
“It’s the trail of bodies and the sequence. We need to find the gun that killed Griffin. And I know it seems like it would be his son—but I don’t think so. I think they were close and had the same mindset.”
“Do you want to talk to retired Detective Ventura again? He might have more insight about Griffin’s character. Little details.”
“Yes, I think so.” She pulled down the photo of the remains of Bruce Collins. “Look at these injuries.”
“I don’t think I’ve seen anything like this before,” he said.
“When you see overkill like this, disproportionate damage, more than necessary to kill a victim, it usually indicates intense rage or even sadism. Bottom line, it’s extreme stress and uncontrollable anger.” She looked at the photo. “Look at the damage to the body and bones after death.”
“It would make sense that Griffin killed Collins becausehekilled his sister and niece. Even though the bodies hadn’t been found, it seemed he must’ve known about the abuse and that they were going to flee. Maybe he was helping them… and when he found out they were dead he became enraged and killed Collins.”
“Yes, that makes sense. But remember, Dr. Dean said the torture occurred multiple times. So that rage wasn’t in one moment. And looking at the body, it almost looks as if there was more than one person committing the act.”
“You think Griffin Sr. and Jr.? But Junior would have been around ten or so.”
“I’ve studied family murder cases where children were part of the killing and showed tremendous rage, especially if they had been abused or witnessed terrible abuses in the family.”
“The more I look at this photo, the more I’m inclined to agree with you,” he said. “Do you think that’s what we have here?”
“I don’t know for sure, but it’s a distinct possibility.” Katie grabbed her things along with one of the boxes, photos, and files.
“Where are you going?” he said.
“Home. I need to spend time with my uncle. And?—”
“And you’re going to take work with you.”
“Yes. This case isn’t going to slow down and wait for morning.”
