Page 59 of The Whispering Girls
“And close.”
“Like sisters,” said Katie.
McGaven stopped what he was doing and stared at his partner. “Sisters resembling each other.”
“Like TJ and Theresa. Just as I first thought. No wonder no one had seen TJ before. She had never been in town and was staying out here, secretly looking for Theresa.” Katie looked around the room. “C’mon, let’s bag everything up besides the boxes and bring it all back.”
“What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking we can run DNA to find out if the girls were related. We need to get this information to the county morgue so they can officially identify TJ.”
“So these killings must have had something to do with these two girls’ relationship,” said McGaven.
“I don’t know how, but we’re going to find out.” Katie headed to the Jeep to grab some bags. She stopped at the doorway. “The Woodsman…of course,” she said. “We’ve been overlooking it because it didn’t make any sense and there was no direct correlation to it so…”
“What about it?” he said.
“This is just a working theory…but I think the Woodsman is the key.”
“How?”
“I think it means something to both TJ and Theresa. TJ was terrified by the thought of him.”
“Like a belief…meaning…or something with the totems?” he said.
“No, like there really is a boogeyman out there.”
Three down…more to go…
TWENTY-SIX
Friday 1400 hours
Katie and McGaven packed the Jeep carefully with the belongings of TJ from the Valley Motel. Now they had an identity and a name—Tamara Lambert—but they still had to put all the pieces together in order to see how the murders were connected.
They had coordinated a time to chat with Theresa’s friend, Tami. As they drove over to a small coffeehouse, One Cup, to talk to Officer Clark’s sister, McGaven put a call in to Chief Cooper. No answer. He decided to send a text instead about the motel, what they had found, and where they were going.
“No answer?” said Katie.
McGaven shook his head. “He doesn’t seem to be available—even after last night. I tried a couple of times this morning. It’s odd.”
“Think he might be overwhelmed?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t been around him enough to get a strong sense of his personality.”
Katie figured she had about ten minutes before theygot to the coffee place. “Can I let you in on something that’s bothering me?” she said, gripping the steering wheel tighter.
Cisco whined and pushed his head toward Katie.
“Is it bad?”
“No,” she said slowly. “But it has bothered me for a while.”
“My breath?”
“What?”
“I know with all that beef I eat…”
