Page 63 of Her Last Whisper
Standing up and joining Katie at the doorway, he said, “Sure, follow me.”
Katie followed the special effects director down another hallway where there were open rooms on both sides. She saw people working on models and robotic monsters.
Tim stopped at one of the rooms toward the end. “This is it. Look around as long as you like. It was nice meeting you and I hope you find him,” he said, pausing a moment before he left. “Oh, if, or rather when you find him, tell him he always has a job here.” Tim left.
Katie stood looking around at all the unusual equipment and materials used to make special effects. There was a large table in the middle of the room with smaller work areas around the walls. Two silicone dragon masks were in one corner and pieces to some hideous red monster lay on one of the other work areas. A tall stand with special small drawers and cubbyholes stood in the farthest corner. A blue rolling suitcase, partially open, revealed a variety of heavy makeup colors from every skin shade to a vast array of rainbow shades.
She looked out the door and down the hall. Loud voices were coming from another area. Otherwise, it was mostly quiet and no one seemed to be near. She waited another few moments in case someone wanted to come forward and give her any information—but no one did.
Beginning from left to right, similar to searching a crime scene, Katie looked through James’s stuff to see if she could find anything that might give new information to where he might have gone—or who he might be with.
She opened every tiny drawer, where she found props from huge false eyelashes to glass eyeballs. Systematically searching, she only came up with things that were work related. Sticky materials and various shapes of clay, silicone, and other substances adhered to her fingertips, making her hands feel oily.
She kept examining every item.
She stopped at a mechanical monster still in the early stages of a head, torso, and arms. Stuck between an intricate jawbone in the face was a small torn section of paper, obviously tucked securely so that he wouldn’t lose it. Written in pencil was the name “Nadine” and a phone number in the same local area code.
Katie tucked the paper in her pocket. She finished the pursuit of finding anything that would lead to James, but there was nothing else.
Feeling somewhat disappointed, Katie quickly dialed the phone number and it immediately went to voicemail with a computerized voice. She would keep trying and do a search in phone records when she got back to her desk.
Katie retraced her way through the building and finally back to the parking lot; leaving the area, she headed toward Silver Springs Hospital to meet with Jane Doe with just enough time during the allotted afternoon visiting hours.
Her cell phone buzzed. There was a text from Nadine’s number:
Who is this?
Thirty-Five
Wednesday 1330 hours
McGaven was still on an emotional high after leaving the hospital and felt like he was actually a fully sworn police detective running down clues. He tried not to dwell on the fact that it took a woman being murdered for him to get a chance to show that he could contribute to an investigation.
When he returned to the office, several CDs had been forwarded to the department from multiple businesses and the state transportation department along the route between Emily Day’s apartment and the Whispering Pines area. McGaven began the painstaking task of trawling through all the footage.
He stretched his arms over his head, rubbed his eyes, and tried to make himself more comfortable in the chair. It was quiet. Too quiet. Even the chairs didn’t squeak loud enough down here. He thought you actually could hear a pin drop if he decided to test that theory.
He stood up as the videos were still running and moved around the room examining everything closely—especially the notes Katie posted on the board.
Sitting back down, he tried to make a game out of watching the boring surveillance footage. There were more women featured than men. Men seemed to walk slower and take their time to get into their vehicles, while women hurried, sometimes dropping their keys, before getting into their cars. There were dogs with their owners, usually small dogs. He noted there was one Labrador and a German shepherd too.
Two hours had passed and he was finally approaching the time that Amanda must’ve left the apartment. He looked at the timestamp and it read 11.05p.m. She was walking down her road and waited at the corner of Forest Avenue and Spruce Street. The video was taken by a nearby convenience store and gas station. She appeared to be waiting for someone and it didn’t take long before a dark, high-end sedan pulled up next to her. She bent over and talked to the person driving. Amanda blocked the view of the driver, but she seemed relaxed and chatted a moment with the unknown person.
McGaven then saw the car pull to the side of the road near the store. The vehicle was barely in range of the surveillance camera, but McGaven could still see a man get out of the car and open the passenger door for Amanda. It was all cordial and there wasn’t anything that suggested there wasn’t a mutual friendly trust between them.
Interesting.
Doesn’t match her story.
McGaven watched the footage several times, but he couldn’t get a clear photo of the driver. The videos were blurry and the resolution was extremely poor. He made several stills, but the man in question could be twenty or sixty. It was hazy to be able to tell what kind of hair he had, but he was wearing some type of dark jacket and pants. There was no way to properly identify him. The video was a tool to begin to retrace the timeline of Amanda’s last moments.
One thing was for sure, Amanda wasn’t under duress or kidnapped—she went willingly.
Thirty-Six
Wednesday 1445 hours
Katie sat in the parking lot at Silver Springs Psychiatric Hospital. She tried to respond to the text she received from Nadine, but she got no reply. She tried a couple of more times. No answer.
