Page 25 of Her Last Whisper
McGaven looked shocked, then a slight smile broke out on his face.
“Unless of course you want to remain on patrol,” said the sheriff, now also smiling.
“I would love the opportunity to work this case. Thank you for thinking of me, sir.”
“Okay, we’re all in agreement here?” the sheriff said. “No problems?”
“Do we even have a choice?” said Hamilton. It was clear he was annoyed by a rookie detective taking over a homicide, but there was little Katie could do about it.
“Good. Let’s not waste any more time,” the sheriff said. “You’re all dismissed.”
Katie was heading for the door, her mind rolling, when Hamilton stopped her. “I suppose you’ll want all of the information I have forwarded to your office downstairs,” he said with sarcasm in his voice.
“Thank you,” she said, pretending not to have noticed his tone. He was going to need a little time to cool off, she understood that.
McGaven jogged up beside her and it was easy to see that he was eager to get started. “So,” he said. “I get to work down in the depths of the forensic basement?”
“How many detectives get to do that?” she asked.
“It’s kind of like law enforcement’s version of the bat cave.”
“C’mon, Robin, we’ve got a lot of work to do. So hurry up and finish your current assignment,” Katie reminded him.
“Hey, wouldn’t it make more sense if you were Robin and I was…”
“Don’t press your luck.”
Fifteen
Thursday 1530 hours
As promised, everything in the Amanda Payton homicide file was delivered to Katie by one of the administrative assistants. Obviously, Detective Hamilton wasn’t in the mood to offer any personal insight about the case. She couldn’t blame him for feeling put out.
Katie opened the brown folder and scanned everything collected in the few hours since leaving the crime scene. Hamilton had already begun to run a background on Amanda and he’d compiled a list of people he wanted to interview. There was also a printed copy of Amanda’s original police report regarding her kidnapping. It was clear to Katie that the detective knew how to run a homicide investigation and he was quick to get started, knowing that the first three days were the most important. After that, physical evidence becomes non-existent and people’s memories become fuzzy, or they just don’t want to cooperate with police.
Taking out her notebook, Katie jotted down the people to talk to along with their contact information: Emily Day (Amanda’s best friend/co-worker), Dr. Jamison (boss at First Memorial Hospital), Marco Ellis (ex-boyfriend), Dr. Smith (psychiatric hospital), Abigail Sorenson and Lisa Lambert (friends/co-workers). There was no mention of immediate family; no parents, no siblings, no next of kin that the detective was going to contact. But a hastily scribbled name, Bradley Olson, was added in as a cousin out of state in Connecticut, and Melissa Roe, another cousin in Idaho, who Katie remembered Amanda mentioning that she was going to be staying with; an aunt was contacted but she was traveling abroad and was unavailable. Otherwise, Amanda didn’t have any other immediate family.
Katie finished reading the file and found sticky notes indicating that they were still waiting on forensic results and the autopsy report. One particular note piqued her interest, an evidence number: PAY321. There was no further explanation and she didn’t want to call Detective Hamilton for help just yet. She leaned back in her chair realizing that she needed to combine all the information she had gathered from the cold case with the homicide file to make sure that she didn’t miss anything. Nothing was going to fall through the cracks on this case—not on her watch.
Katie tapped her pen against the side of her jaw; she stood up and added a few notes to her profile of the perpetrator on the board:
TRUTH? What does this mean to the perp? Why did Amanda repeat this?
Other definitions of TRUTH: fact, certainty, honesty, loyalty, devotion. Opposite: dishonesty lies, deception.
Katie contemplated the entire list. She wanted to have a confident direction before McGaven joined her, then she would divide the duties between them to cover more ground.
First, she needed to check out the evidence locker. She slipped the sticky note with the identifying number into her pocket.
Katie leftthe forensic section and hurried down the long dim hallway leading into the property and evidence unit. It was an area that she hadn’t had a chance to visit yet.
She reached the door to a caged office with two desks and a wall full of filing cabinets leading into a large storage area. It looked more like a bunker than an office or storage facility. There was no one there.
“Hello?” she called out.
Silence.
She tried the door and was surprised to find it unlocked. Walking inside, she stood at the entrance and said again, “Hello? It’s Detective Scott.”
