Page 66 of Race to Save Her

From John, Katie had obtained a photo of the metal staple or fastener that had been used on Shelby’s body. She put up an image of the body from both before and after extraction. She studied them on the board. When the hardware device was securing Shelby’s body to the tree, it looked like something that might be used to hold the bones together in hip or knee replacement. But after it was carefully cut and the body removed, the two pieces making one looked oddly out of place with any other medical fasteners or hardware devices. It was specialized and Katie wondered where and how you would acquire something like this.

McGaven stared at the photos too. “That looks almost ancient, you know. Some kind of medieval device for holding bodies upright,” he said.

“Interesting perspective and choice of words.”

He shrugged. “Okay, I found Shelby’s page. It was actually really easy.”

Katie joined him and pulled up a chair.

McGaven turned the laptop slightly toward her. “Here’s her page. That’s definitely her, right?”

“Yes,” said Katie. She watched the images McGaven scrolled through. They were typical photos people seemed to feel the need to take when they went places or ate food.

“The usual in the city, vacation, with Tyler, holding a kitten…” said McGaven.

“When was the last posting?”

“Looks like around a week or so before she disappeared. Tricky, since we don’t have an exact date, but it’d be close to that.”

Katie looked at each one. “Let’s take a closer look at those from the coffee house and with Tyler.”

There were two images on the patio of the coffee shop. McGaven put one into a software program where it showed the entire image and not just what was seen on the social media page. He carefully enlarged the photo and moved it around.

“Look at that,” said Katie, amazed at everything in the background. “You can see people enjoying their coffee at tables.”

McGaven stopped on a section where there was a man in a baseball cap, heavy sweatshirt, and sunglasses. He was half in the frame, but had his face turned slightly toward the camera. He was expressionless, lips tight, jaw clenched.

The detectives stared at him.

“He definitely doesn’t look like he belongs there. Everyone else seems to be enjoying the moment,” she said. “There’s not enough for an ID. But he certainly seems to be watching and surveying.”

“It’s creepy,” he said. “But I don’t think there’s enough for the barista to identify him.”

“He’s definitely watching Shelby. What’s the timestamp or posting date?” she said.

“Looks like morning around 9 a.m. eleven days ago.”

“Patricia disappeared this morning around that time.”

“True.” Katie tried to imagine the man in this grainy image was their perpetrator, but there were too many variables. “Let’s see if there’s a guy lurking in the background in any other photos.”

The detectives spent more than a half hour looking at posted photos with Shelby. Nothing proved to be worthy of more investigation.

“There’s not even enough of the photo to use for a database search,” said Katie. “It’s frustrating. Can you send it to John? Maybe he can work some magic?”

McGaven’s cell phone buzzed. He looked at his text message. “It’s Chris. He’s asking if there’s anything we need him to do.”

Katie’s thoughts immediately went back to yesterday and how the deputy saved her and Cisco from harm—or worse. She realized the near-drowning incident bothered her more than she originally realized. “What do you think about having Chris tail Tyler? It might be useful. I don’t completely trust he’s been honest with us and there’s too much at stake. And then we can pose as a couple at the hotel?”

“We haven’t done that in a while. Do I need to clear it with Denise?” He smirked.

“You’re funny.”

“Well, that’s easy for you to say… I don’t want John mad at me. He has Navy Seal moves.”

“While we’re waiting for forensics and anything new from today, we need to make every second count.”

“Agreed,” he said.