Page 50 of The Catcher
“She misunderstood. I said I would need my beauty sleep by the time I got done. I worked through the night. I am exhausted.”
“Why did you work through the night? You had Noah,” Porter said.
“No, he was occupied, analyzing the previous evidence.” He glanced back at Noah and winked. McKenzie was covering for him.
“Then I could have helped.”
“Porter, you are light years away from trumping my experience in the field. That’s why Noah handed off the evidence collection to me and let you handle the death notification.”
“I figured I got the shit end of the stick.”
“Anyway… I found it," McKenzie said, tossing an evidence bag on the table. Noah peeked inside before slapping on some latex gloves and removing a magnet with GPS coordinates on the back.
Noah was confused. “I thought our guy was done.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. It’s not over,” McKenzie said. “Oh, and I got some results back from Addie. It seems the Matthews girl was intoxicated. Her blood alcohol level was 0.13. There was no way in hell she was getting out of that pool. Treading water with your hands tied behind your back is hard enough, but doing it while intoxicated? Yeah. Anyway, I figured if our perp wasn’t done and this was how he led us, how would he tell us again? Sure, he could phone it in, but he stands the risk of us pinpointing his location, even recording his voice. No. He already has our attention. So, I brought up the geocaching app and checked the map. Interestingly, a new geocache page was approved and published two days ago. A new multi-geocache existed. And look where it is,” he said, leaningforward and showing Noah the map. The icon was on the swimming pool building.
“Just our luck.”
McKenzie continued, “That’s right. So, I followed the instructions on the page, used the GPS, and found that magnet behind one of the pool signs. He’s not done.”
“How can you be sure?” Porter asked.
“Because look at the name assigned to the geocache page.”
They both leaned in to see it on McKenzie’s phone. PLACED BY: HAILEY MATTHEWS
Noah scrunched up his nose.
“Hold on a second. You’re telling me she posted a geocache at the location where her body was found?” Porter asked.
“No. It wasn’t her. It’s our perp,” Noah said. “Her phone was also missing.”
“Bingo,” McKenzie said. “I think our perp used Hailey’s phone to publish that geocache to make it clear it was him.”
“But her phone hasn’t given off a signal,” Porter said. “We checked with both phone companies.”
“You’re right; it hasn’t since the day of the disappearance. I got in touch with the Geocaching company. They told me that when someone sets up one of their own geocaches, you know, takes a container and hides it, the page has to be reviewed before it’s published. That one was sent in on the day the two teens went missing. It took less than twenty-four hours to go live. This sicko is not done.”
“Well, news flash, we already know that,” Porter said, handing him the report on the latest missing teen.
Noah’s attention returned to the present as he rose from his seat, his eyes fixed on McKenzie.
“Those coordinates. Where do they go?” Noah asked McKenzie, his voice laced with urgency.
“Somewhere not far from here, in fact, a spot right here in Ray Brook near the Ford dealership. There’s an old phone booth — probably one of the last in the county. It’s a two-minute drive. I went there but couldn’t make sense of the puzzle.”
His mind raced as he processed the information.
Determination flashed in Noah’s eyes.
“Let’s go,” Noah declared.
They all hurried out of the command post, their footsteps echoing in the corridor as they made their way to awaiting cruisers. Noah took the lead, his sense of urgency palpable as he directed them toward the location McKenzie had mentioned.
With sirens blaring, they sped towards the designated spot.
As they swerved into the High Peaks Ford parking lot, which was filled with gleaming cars, Noah’s eyes zeroed in on the wooden phone booth near a wooden fence. It stood tall and weathered, a testament to a bygone era. Few such booths remained in the Adirondack region, a relic of a time before cell phones dominated communication.
