Page 86 of Race to Save Her

He let out a noisy sigh. “On it. It will take time…”

“Great.” Katie turned to the murder board and studied everything again. This time she seemed to see things a little bit differently. Taking a deep, cleansing breath, she began looking at each scene individually, trying to see what was missing before pulling things together.

The wordplay game with McGaven had helped. He knew she was fading and not seeing things the way of a cold case detective. But she was now.

Katie turned to her partner. “Thanks, Gav. For those suggestions.”

“You’re welcome, partner.” He paused. “But, Katie, there’s something that scares me.”

Katie had never heard McGaven say he was scared. “What?” she asked, almost not wanting to know.

“He’s fixated on you. Don’t you see that? I think—now bear with me—his greatest objective is coming for you.” McGaven said this with seriousness; no jokes or making light. “You hear me?”

“Yes, but⁠—”

“No buts. Your safety has to be our priority.”

Katie nodded. “I agree. Thank you.”

McGaven looked relieved. “My pleasure. I want my partner back to her old self… and safe.”

“Special delivery,” said Chris as he toted two boxes into the office, each with a chain of custody and red taping. “Where do you want them?”

“Right there in the corner,” said Katie. “Great, they released them quickly.”

“I think there’s a pizza delivery upstairs too,” said the deputy.

“I’ll get it,” said McGaven. “You got the rest of the boxes?”

“No problem.”

McGaven and Chris left Katie alone in her thoughts. The quiet solace seemed to give her calm instead of the chaos that had been trying to bring her down and off her game. She was determined now to recharge and refocus to work this investigation before more lives were destroyed.

FIFTY-ONE

Saturday 2010 hours

“What a way to spend a Saturday night,” said McGaven, downing the last of the coffee.

“What else would you be doing?” said Katie. She sat in a corner of the office going through the paperwork from the cabin.

“I don’t know… not this.”

Chris was sitting in the other corner organizing the paperwork he had.

There were two pizza boxes with a couple of slices left. Several cups of iced tea and coffee were scattered on the table.

McGaven was running some background reports and trying to see if he could find out who the unidentified man was. He took a photo of the man’s image on his phone and used his phone to try and find him—specifically looking for him in social media on other people’s accounts.

Katie was concentrating on her stack of paperwork—it appeared to be a staged stack that the killer wanted to make seem real—and the box of the pictures.

“You’re so quiet,” said McGaven. “Anything?”

“I’m looking at these images the killer took. He’s definitely been following us. The backgrounds seem real and not AI generated.” She sighed. “I don’t think Luke Ames is involved.”

“He’ll be happy to hear that,” said McGaven with a slight chuckle.

“Seriously. I won’t apologize for doing my job. Besides he was playing games, which made him look like he had something to do with it.”