Chapter 12
TWELVE
After the detectives returned to the police department, Katie found herself in the records archive room, looking for the missing person report for Ian Griffin from almost twenty years ago.
Paper reports still weren’t digital—or kept in alphabetical order—so Katie began rummaging through boxes.
Dust filled the air. Forty-five minutes later, she pulled a file and the tab read: “Griffin, Ian.” It was written in pencil in neat letters.
She immediately flipped it open to find several written pages and copies of Misty’s report.
There was an additional page of her report that they didn’t have.
She returned boxes to their rightful places and left the archive room.
“I’m back,” said Katie as she entered the detectives’ office.
“About time. I thought I was going to have to send in SWAT to save you.” McGaven was sitting at his laptop with papers spread all around.
Katie chuckled. “They’d have to wear respirators with all the heavy dust in there.” She sat down and opened the file. “I think we have Ventura’s notes in here,” she said, skimming the information.
“He’s pretty sharp, but he might’ve missed a few things he didn’t readily remember,” McGaven said.
“Maybe.”
“You think he’s keeping information from us?”
Katie turned to McGaven. “Is something bothering you?”
“No, not really.”
“Spit it out.”
“It seemed as if he was waiting for us.”
“He probably read about the skeletal remains being found.”
“Or he knows more.”
“Is that your opinion or your gut talking?” she said.
He shrugged. “I might change my mind the more we get into this case.”
Katie considered whether there could be something to McGaven’s uneasy thoughts. She had instincts like that at times, and respected his. They would have to wait until things played out.
“The only thing my gut is telling me now is that I’m hungry,” said McGaven.
Katie laughed. “You’re going to have to wait a bit longer to eat.”
“Maybe we can have John meet us,” he said, raising his eyebrow.
“Stop… not today with the jokes about me and John.”
“Speaking of… how are you two getting along?”
“Fine.”
“Fine. That’s all I get?”
“I don’t ask personal questions about you and Denise.”
“True. But you could.”
“All right. Everything is great. We’re learning more about each other. And we seem to…”
“Seem to what?”
“We click. I thought working together would be a problem but we leave work where it belongs when we have our time together.”
“Wow… that sounds good.”
“It is,” she said.
“You two make a cute couple,” he said. “Well, maybe more of a badass couple.”
She rolled her eyes. “Okay, that’s all I’m going to say.”
McGaven nodded and continued his searches.
Katie read through Ventura’s notes. “This is interesting. The house that was reported to be the Collinses’ home is out at 2655 Old Mill Road.”
McGaven pulled up the county maps and typed in the address. “Huh…”
“What?”
“It looks like the house isn’t there anymore. The property is on a twenty-acre parcel and was foreclosed. But that’s not the interesting part.”
Katie looked at the computer screen.
“It’s about three miles from the construction site,” said McGaven.
“Okay,” she said. Her mind fast-forwarded to the bodies and how they got there. “Would there have maybe been some trails or a back way there?”
“There could have been, but who knows what it’s like now? It could be completely overgrown and impassable. What are you thinking?”
“Not sure.”
McGaven and Katie’s cell phones alerted at the same time. Katie read out a text message from John.
The rushed analysis came back from dental records. The skeletonized bones are that of Meredith Collins and her daughter Misty Collins.
“It’s official now,” said McGaven. “We can go full steam.”
“C’mon, let’s go to the old property. We’re still waiting for the ID on the third victim, as well as the autopsy and forensic reports.”
“And I’m waiting for reports to come back on the two construction guys,” said McGaven. “Sounds good. Road trip.”