McGaven stood up to greet her and seemed to light up.
“Wow, this office is great, in an underground bunker sort of way,” Denise said looking around. She was dressed more casually than normal in slacks and a short-sleeved sweater.
“Thanks. It’s going to take a bit to get used to, but I think I’m really going to like it down here,” Katie said.
“Now you’re not completely alone,” she said, referring to Deputy McGaven. She smiled at him.
“It’s hard to overlook someone of my height,” he said, almost embarrassed.
Katie grabbed a sheet of paper with the names of the people on their list that knew Amanda. She sat on the corner of her large desk. “I’ve already okayed this with the sheriff. But, if you don’t want to participate or if you feel uncomfortable doing it, it’s voluntary, so there’s no hard feelings. Okay?”
“Okay,” Denise said slowly. “You’ve definitely got my attention now.”
McGaven perked up due to the fact he was just hearing this.
“Here’s the list of people that are on the radar who knew or had contact with the victim: friends, supervisor, ex-boyfriend. I need you to make up a profile on social media that you’re a single woman that’s a nurse and friend some of the friends of the people on this list before you actually friend them specifically. Or however that works. It will help to make your profile look legitimate. I don’t particularly like social media sites, but they can be extremely useful for information…”
“Like where they like to frequent, favorite restaurants, and even what they’re doing right at any given moments,” chimed in McGaven.
“Exactly,” said Katie.
“Do I interact with them?” Denise asked.
“No, I don’t want you to do that because there could be some legal consequences if any of this is brought into court—then it’ll get messy and I don’t want anything to jeopardize the case with some type of technicality. You can see what you can find before making your own profile, but you will have full access when you friend them.”
“I can do that,” she smiled. “I’m going in undercover—that’s more exciting than any records work.”
“Great. The best way to keep records is to keep computer files of screen grabs for documentation. Keep me updated when any movement or interaction happens from these people.”
“Easy enough,” she said, taking the paper from Katie and making some notes.
“Don’t hesitate to text or call me with any questions.”
“Will do,” she said and turned to leave. “Bye.”
“Bye, Denise,” Katie and McGaven said in unison.
Katie felt like she was in control of the investigation and had a direction and definite plan. “Okay,” she said. “Ready to continue to disseminate everything we have so far?”
McGaven sat at the computer and said, “Bring it on.”
Twenty-Four
Monday 1845 hours
After fading in and out of uneasy sleep, Tess tried to open her eyes. Everything was dark, but she thought she could detect some light in her peripheral—there was a sticky blindfold tied around her head. Licking her dry lips and taking several deep breaths, her head cleared.
She jerked her arms and legs before realizing her limbs were restrained, fully extended like a starfish. Her wrists and ankles burned from the ropes cutting into them every time she moved. She could tell that she was on a firm bed from the pressure beneath her and that there was a small pillow under her head. Her legs were cold as she realized that she didn’t have her pants on—only her undergarments. A fact that frightened her all the more.
“Where am I?” she demanded. “Is anyone here?” Her voice became more hysterical as she spoke. “Who are you? Please say something to me.”
Silence.
“Why am I here?” She began to cry as her anger turned to misery. “Why…”
Tess quieted her crying and strained to listen. Someone was in the room with her. She couldn’t hear them, but the air around her felt heavy with someone else’s breath. She took a sharp inhale and caught a hint of an exotic flower—lilac or gardenia, no, it was jasmine. She breathed deeply but the scent seemed to dissipate as quickly as it had appeared.
“Who’s there?” she asked again. “I know someone is there? Say something,” raising her voice louder with each plea.
She tried to quiet her own breathing, to listen carefully above the sound of her pounding heart. Her skin prickled as if someone lightly touched her.
“Who’s there?”
Finally, she heard someone quietly shush her.
“What are you saying? Who are you?” Her voice wavered in alarm as her worst fears were realized. Someone was standing next to her—waiting and watching.
She felt weight next to her on the bed and jerked herself away. She felt hot breath on the side of her face and the extra weight pressing down against the mattress as they leaned in close.
“Please… Please let me go…” she wheezed.
The silence finally broke and a man whispered with a low and deep voice, “I want you to tell me the truth…”
Twenty-Five
Monday evening
Katie went home exhausted. Every muscle and joint screamed with fatigue. She and McGaven had gone through every single piece of information that had been generated on Amanda Payton’s investigation and Katie’s mind was spinning as she left the department. She was moving forward with a plan and most of the next steps were dependent upon the results of forensics. It was too soon to feel good about the progress of the case, but tomorrow was another day.
It was going to be an early morning and a very long day for her. With a twinge of guilt, she played with Cisco in the garden for a little while longer than usual, knowing he would be cooped up in the house for most of the next day. He seemed to sense her concerns and took extra advantage of running around the yard, barking, and retrieving his favorite ball.
Every time Katie took time to walk around the large acreage, she couldn’t help but think of her parents and the wonderful times they’d had at the house as she grew up. She and her dad would play hide and seek for hours, especially in the summertime. It was one of Katie’s favorite games. Anything to stay outside just a little bit longer.
She watched Cisco trail something, nose down on the ground, as he made his way to the farthest perimeter of their land. Then he grew bored, losing the scent, and began zigzagging across the yard with a large stick in his mouth.
Katie slowly began to unwind from the day—if she was going to make it as a detective she was going to have to learn how to shut off and relax. She breathed in the outdoors and her muscles and the tension headache slowly began to release its grip on her body.
After spending enough time with Cisco, Katie made her rounds through the house cleaning up the kitchen and picking up anything that wasn’t in its place. It made her feel better knowing that everything was in order when she began a new day. She fell into bed an hour later and within minutes was sound asleep.
A low growl woke her. She opened her eyes to the unmistakable silhouette of a German shepherd standing guard at her bedroom door listening and sniffing the air for danger. She called him over, but he remained on high alert.
Something bumped against the side of her house, causing her to sit straight up in bed and drop her feet to the floor, her hand silently reaching for the drawer to her nightstand. With a slow deliberate slide of her hand, Katie pulled out her handgun.
Wearing only a tank top and pajama shorts, she crept from her bedroom, down the hallway, and then to the sliding doors at the back of the house. It was dark, only the faintest sliver of the moon to illuminate her backyard. As she stood motionless, waiting, nothing moved or seemed out of place.
Retreating back into the kitchen, Katie picked up her cell phone from the counter and pressed the house alarm application from the main phone menu. Two cameras appeared in a window, one showing the front yard while the other displayed her backyard. Nothing moved
. No alert showed itself.
Maybe it was an animal?
Glancing at the small neon kitchen clock on the stove, it was barely past 1.00 a.m. She felt as if she had slept almost the entire night, but in reality, it was only a couple of hours. However, she felt strangely alert.
Bump.
There it was again.
This time Cisco barked twice as a warning to who or whatever was outside.
“Easy, boy,” she whispered, still not knowing where the thumping sound originated from.
Glancing at her security camera from her phone, it clearly showed that the yard was empty, but there were a few blind spots. One was on the farthest side of the house and the other was down the driveway.
Katie contemplated the risk for a moment, but decided to investigate, otherwise she would never get back to sleep. Flipping the lock mechanism of the sliding door, she slowly pulled it open with little sound. Cisco’s nose pushed toward her and she gently signaled her hand to make him stay—to his frustration, he begrudgingly waited, staying behind.
The damp air made her shudder as she slowly made her way toward the other side of the house. Her bare feet felt the damp dirt. Directing her weapon ahead of her, she moved the barrel slightly from left to right keeping everything in prime view, inching forward until she reached the end of the house. Sucking in a deep breath and then letting it out, she moved around the corner.
Nothing.
Katie felt silly, but in the past there had been some real dangers lurking around her home. It didn’t hurt to be extra cautious and not take anything for granted.
Looking down, strange indentations in the dirt caught her attention. They looked like drag marks in the soil. Katie stood her ground and looked around in a one-hundred-eighty-degree view. She strained to hear anything unusual. A soft scratching sound came from the sliding door, which she knew could only be Cisco wanting out to find a bad guy.
Lowering her weapon slightly, she continued to walk toward the front of the house when she saw a figure leaning against the outside wall. With her weapon raised, Katie ran toward him. “Put your hands up now! Sheriff’s department, put your hands up!” she yelled, still keeping a solid stance in her flimsy pajamas.
Cisco’s bark became rapid and louder as he raced over to the window nearest Katie.
The man slowly raised his hands. Since Katie didn’t have a flashlight, she couldn’t see the details of his face. The low wattage outside lights cast a shadow on the man’s appearance. There was some type of duffle bag sitting next to him.
“Who are you?” demanded Katie as her breathing became shallow. “I said, who are you?”
“US Army Sergeant Nicholas Haines at your service,” he replied with a slight southern drawl.
What?
Katie moved closer and could see that he was wearing army fatigues, but she still didn’t believe her ears.
Nick?
“Who are you?” she demanded again, this time with less authority.
“Scotty, it’s me, Nick,” he said with a familiar tone and still a slight Kentucky accent. No one called Katie Scotty except her sergeant from the army.
“Nick?” she said, almost breathless.
He slowly stood up with slight difficulty, revealing one prosthetic leg. “It’s really me, Scotty.”
Realizing that her eyes weren’t deceiving her, she lowered her gun and rushed to him. She hugged him tight. “Nick, it’s so great to see you. What are you doing here at this hour? How’d you find…? What happened to your…?”
“Well are you going to ask me inside before you run out of questions?” he asked. “Is that Cisco I hear? I’d recognize that huge bark anywhere.”
Katie suddenly focused on Nick with his dark wavy hair, intense green eyes, and a three-inch scar on his right cheek near his jawline. On so many missions, he had been the soldier that had her back while her attention was on Cisco’s behavior—he was her cover. Their relationship grew with her time in the army. He was known as a lifer—someone who would spend his lifetime in the military until retirement. Her house was the last place she ever thought she’d find him. He would have given his life for her, and she’d have done the same for him.
“Of course, please come inside.” Still with their arms around each other’s waists, Katie guided him around back to enter through the sliding door. He didn’t have a crutch to lean on but managed fairly well. Cisco met them with plenty of yips and happy puppy barks. Katie grabbed a robe and put it on.
“Why didn’t you call?” she said and took a deep breath. “Why didn’t you just knock on the front door?”
The sergeant hobbled slightly toward the kitchen and opted for a seat at the counter. “Well, first I wasn’t sure if I was going to find you. I caught a ride here and it was late, so I was going to knock on the door in the morning.”
Katie was taken aback but happy to see him. He had been her support and friend through so many times. Those familiar feelings, both good and bad, tumbled back into her. She thought about her team every day and especially just before she went to sleep at night. Her body trembled inside, as old memories threatened to surface.
“You know you’re always welcome here,” she said.
“It’s great to see you, Scotty. I didn’t think you could look this good, but you do.”
“You woke me up, I hardly would say that.” She went to brew some coffee. “What can I get for you to drink? Coffee? Tea? Soda?”
“Yeah, actually coffee sounds good.”
Katie quickly set the coffee maker, her mind in a flurry as to why Nick showed up unexpectedly and how he lost his leg. Her gut told her to wait and let him tell her in his own time. She loved him like a brother, like family, all of her team was like family with a special bond that no one outside of the military would totally understand. She knew that he would tell her everything eventually, so she didn’t bombard him with too many initial questions.
“I can see civilian life is agreeing with you,” he said and gazed around. “This was your parents’ house, right?”
“Yep. It’s been mine for a while though. I’ve been asked to sell it, but I love it here too much.”
Cisco ran around, still excited about the late-night guest.
Petting the dog, he said, “You’ve probably figured out that I’ve been honorably discharged.” He patted his leg.
Katie nodded and remained silent.
“One of those damn things you couldn’t plan for—you fear, but don’t plan. It happened when we had some time off, would you believe? Remember when we would have those barbecues?”
“Like it was yesterday,” she said.
“Yeah, well we were all drinking, more than we should have, blowing off steam. When there was a commotion going on—we thought it was just an altercation between a few guys at the restaurant.” He paused for a moment, petting Cisco who sat patiently. It was clear he had relived the incident many times. He caught his breath, and said, “So, Freddy went to see what the problem was and I followed him. The rest…” His voice trailed off.
It stung Katie because by Nick’s tone she instantly knew that Freddy hadn’t made it. He didn’t have to say it. She closed her eyes for a moment as she braced for the worst.
“… I remembered the sound and a huge bright light, then nothing; I woke up five days later at a hospital where they had removed my leg above the knee to save my life. Out of all the damn places to get hit like that… a restaurant, not the battlefield.”
Katie turned to him, tears in her eyes.
“And that’s when I found out that Freddy never had a chance. Bomb took down the whole restaurant. There were seven casualties in total, including Freddy.”
“Nick, there are no words…”
“I’m just glad you weren’t there. I know—we all know—that you would have marched in there to save everybody and it would have been you they buried and sent back to the States.” He paused to keep his grief under control. “I loved Freddy too, but the thought of losing you… well�
�”
Katie hugged Nick for a couple of minutes, each lost in their own grief, each with their own story that they had to manage and live with every day.
With an upbeat voice, he said, “Now, I bet you’re wondering why the hell such a sorry ass like me is sitting in your kitchen.”
Katie laughed wiping the tears from her face, “I don’t care, I’m just glad you’re here. I just hope I don’t wake up and find out this was a dream.” She poured a cup of coffee and slid it over to Nick.
He drank a couple of sips before he continued, reaching into one of his jacket pockets and pulling out several pieces of paper. Unfolding them, he said, “Apparently, since you’ve been home you have already caught a serial killer. And, it’s not completely clear from the articles, but you were kidnapped and still managed to beat him and save a little girl?”
“It’s not exactly like that, but I did get ambushed and kidnapped.”
“Damn, girl, I always knew you were tough, but that’s the stuff for horror movies.”
“I’m doing okay, getting better every day,” she said forcing a smile.
“Well there was quite a bit of info on you, so it wasn’t difficult to find you. Besides, you described this house and property perfectly. Congratulations on your promotion to police detective.”
She smiled. “Thanks. It feels good, you know?” She sipped on a soda, enjoying the cold sting as it slid down her throat.
“Do I detect a bit of uneasiness?”
“It’s just I’ve been thrown right into a current homicide barely out of my first week. It’s pretty intense.”
“Scotty, don’t you worry. I know you, and I know that you will find the person who did it.” He sipped his coffee, still eyeing her.
She pulled up a stool next to him. “Tell me what’s on your mind?” she said softly as she squeezed his arm.
“Well, since I can’t be in the military anymore, it’s got me thinking.”
“About what?”
Her Last Whisper: An absolutely unputdownable crime thriller (Detective Katie Scott Book 2) Page 11
