Chapter 36
THIRTY-SIX
“Sorry I canceled running this morning,” said Katie. Her body was aching and she needed to sleep.
“No problem. You needed your rest,” said John.
They were having their morning coffee and enjoying the quiet time before they had to go to work, where real stress and intensity reigned.
Katie’s phone rang and then John’s. They looked at one another, knowing there was another body—or part of one.
“Scott,” she said and looked at John as he answered his phone. “I’ll be there shortly.”
“What’s up?” he said.
“There’s been a woman reported missing and her last location was at seven this morning at the yoga and fitness studio on Pine where Shelby worked. What about you?”
“It was Eva. She wanted to remind me about some supplies coming in today.”
Katie looked down for a moment. What were the odds that a woman might’ve been kidnapped at the same location as Shelby—or near her workplace?
“You know, you could let McGaven handle it and take another day,” John said.
“No way. I’m going to get ready and get out there.”
Katie drove directly to the yoga studio and met McGaven there.
She could see several small groups of people hanging around and watching.
Two police cruisers were present. Down the street more officers were conducting a search of every business and most likely getting any video from security cameras.
There were county cameras on the traffic signals and the edges of some of the bigger businesses too.
They should be able to track what had happened to some extent at least. There were always uncovered areas and if the perpetrator knew it—then it was a problem.
McGaven jogged up to meet her. “Nice to see you, partner.”
Katie knew he was worried about her and relieved things hadn’t taken a different turn yesterday. He seemed stoic and wasn’t cracking his usual tension-breaking jokes.
“Hey. What do we know?” asked Katie.
“Apparently, one of the patrons of the yoga studio left early from one of the classes yesterday and hasn’t been seen since.”
“Her car?”
“Still parked in the parking lot. Her keys were found near it,” he said.
“No one saw anything?” she said.
“No one yet.”
“How can that be possible?” Katie walked across the street to the parking lot and saw they had already put yellow tape on the doors. She looked around and then across the street. “There’s a direct view from the coffee house. Unless…”
“Unless what?”
“What if there was a truck or van, or even a delivery type of vehicle pulled up right here blocking the view?” she said.
McGaven walked to the curb and studied the area. He nodded. “That’s a definite possibility and could be why no one saw anything. I’m going to talk to the canvassing officers to see if we can get some footage from here.” He hurried to speak with patrol.
Katie decided to talk to the owner of the studio, Cindy Ware. She saw her standing outside with two other women who appeared to be instructors.
“Ms. Ware,” said Katie. “Can I speak with you?”
The woman walked up to her. “It’s horrible.”
“Can you tell me anything about the missing woman?”
“Patricia Kahn has been coming to the studio for almost five years now. And…” She was barely able to speak.
“Take it easy. Inhale and slow down,” said Katie.
“She looks… so… much…” She could barely catch her breath.
“So much what?”
“Patricia looks so much like Shelby we used to joke about it, calling them long-lost twins…”
That surprised Katie. She hadn’t considered that the perpetrator would have a special physical type. It made things worse.
The time was running out to find her alive, but it may have already expired. “Ms. Ware, please make sure you give all this information to one of the officers and anything else you remember.”
She nodded, holding back tears.
Katie searched for McGaven.
“They’re getting footage from the old Mercantile Building,” said McGaven. He looked at his partner. “What’s up?”
“According to Cindy Ware, Patricia Kahn bears a very striking resemblance to Shelby.”
“The killer has a type?”
“Looks like it. Let’s go,” she said.
Katie and McGaven jogged to the Mercantile Building and went inside. There were a few people moving about. They found their way to the security office, where there were two police officers whose badges identified them as Hill and Dante.
The detectives watched the screen as security scrolled to the time of when the early class was over.
Katie hoped for something concrete, or at least something that would get them closer to the killer, instead of several steps behind.
She watched as the footage clearly showed Patricia leaving the studio.
The woman seemed calm, but she kept looking at her watch as if she were late for something. There was no one else near her.
They all waited as another camera with a different view was accessed. There was Patricia walking toward her car. A white delivery van pulled into the parking place on the street blocking the entire lot.
“There,” said one of the officers.
The delivery van seemed to know where to park to avoid being noticed.
It was plain white without any identifying names or letters and there were no license plates.
The security person replayed several vantage points but there was no view of the person driving the vehicle.
Security checked other CCTV cameras along the supposed route and there was nothing.
“How can that be?” said McGaven.
“He knew exactly where to park to not be seen,” said Katie, discouraged.
Katie and McGaven left the Mercantile and made their way back to their cars.
“I don’t get it. Why now is he showing us that he took another woman?” said McGaven.
“We don’t know for sure that it was the person leaving dismembered body parts.”
“True. But there are too many coincidences, the studio and resemblance of the women.”
“I know, but there’s no evidence putting that killer here.”
“This is getting frustrating,” he said.
“Getting? It’s been frustrating since I found that finger in my car.
” Katie looked around at the people, the stores, and the traffic.
She saw two young women taking selfies at the coffee house.
“We need to check Shelby’s social media pages.
Maybe we can get lucky with a selfie and see the killer watching Shelby. ”
“That would be lucky.”
“It’s worth a try. I get the feeling he watches for a long time before acting…”
“Due diligence.”
“Let’s see if we can find a common thread between watching Shelby, the black truck, and the man watching at the hotel.”