Chapter 41
FORTY-ONE
It hadn’t rained in over an hour, but the temperature seemed to drop, making it very cold. It took more than an hour for help to arrive at the trailer park, but when it did it was a large scene with police cruisers, two more detective sedans, an ambulance, the fire department, and a CSI van.
Katie sat in the ambulance where they had checked out her vitals and were giving her fluids from an IV.
She was feeling a lot better ever since she changed into some dry sweats that John had brought her, and a warm blanket had made her temperature climb back to normal.
She watched McGaven updating deputies, Detectives Hamilton and Ames, along with a couple of the firefighters.
Everyone spread out to scour the area and to see if they could recover anything from the trailer downstream.
One of the EMTs asked how she was doing.
“I’m fine,” she said.
“Everything looks good,” said the EMT.
All Katie wanted to do was join John and find out who the woman was. She couldn’t help but think that if trailer #12 hadn’t taken a header into the water, they probably wouldn’t have discovered the body.
McGaven had minor cuts and bruises—and had also changed into dry clothes John had brought. The EMTs had bandaged the wound on his face and suggested he have his ribs looked at.
John emerged, carrying some evidence bags. He had a heavy workload already and things were obviously weighing on his mind. Katie wanted to help but had been given strict instructions to not do anything at the moment.
She thought it was strange her uncle didn’t show up, but he could have been tied up. She had McGaven call and leave a message for him. She wished she could shake the feeling that something was wrong—terribly wrong.
Climbing into the back of the ambulance, John sat across from Katie. “How are you doing?”
“I’m absolutely fine.”
“And you hate sitting on the sidelines.”
“Of course.” Katie noticed something was bothering John—more than just the usual forensics and police work. “What is it?”
“I have to tell you something.”
That sounded ominous. Katie remained quiet and held her breath.
He held a bag containing the expensive purse. “There was a driver’s license in the purse and it matches the victim.”
“Okay…”
“Her name is Sydney Butler.”
“What?” It couldn’t be the same woman her uncle was dating. Katie had told John about Sydney, so he would have recognized the name, but it couldn’t be her.
“She also had the sheriff’s business card on her,” he said.
Katie knew then it had to be the same woman.
“There were also business cards with her name, saying she was a commercial real estate broker.”
Katie could barely breathe. “I… can’t believe this…. Was there a cell phone?”
“No cell, just some personal items.”
“But…”
John touched her arm and then held her hand. “I know what you’re going to ask next. And no, we haven’t been able to contact the sheriff. The last time anyone saw him was on Friday.”
“He left me a message yesterday that he and Sydney were on a road trip—to where I don’t know—and would be back later in the evening. We were supposed to have lunch…” Katie couldn’t complete her sentence. “If Sydney was found here dead, then what happened to my uncle?”
“We can’t jump to conclusions—” he began.
“How could we not?” She began pulling out her IV. “Get this out.”
The EMT came to her aid and carefully removed it.
Katie stood up and hugged John. “I can’t have anything happen to him. The entire area has to be searched… just in case…”
“It’s okay. We don’t have all the facts yet. McGaven and Hamilton are going to begin working on it. Apparently, your uncle put in for a couple of PTO days and he’s supposed to be back tomorrow. But in the meantime…”
Katie shed her blanket and jumped down from the ambulance.
“Katie, wait,” said John as he caught her. “Try to relax. We’ll let you know everything as we go. We don’t know for sure if he’s missing—he took two days of personal time. There’s probably a logical explanation.”
“What do you mean?” she said. “Are you saying I can’t work this case anymore?”
“Gav is going to update you.”
“How long has Sydney been dead?”
“I don’t know.”
“An estimate. Recent? Twenty-four hours or longer?” she said.
“If I had to guess by her condition, yes, within twenty-four hours.”
“No…” Katie’s heart raced and everything became blurry. At first, she thought she was going to faint, but she took slow deep breaths until the scene came into view again.
“You okay? C’mon, sit back down.” John tried gently to get her back in the ambulance.
“No.” Katie turned to look at him. “I can’t. I can’t rest until I know my uncle’s safe.”
Reluctantly, John said, “Okay, but you have to do what we say. You’ve had a traumatic experience and need to rest.”
“I have to be part of this.”
John gently touched her face. It was clear he was upset as well. “We’ll figure this out.”
Katie tried to smile because she knew that John always had her back and her best interests at heart. It was his way of caring. She walked to McGaven who had just updated the patrol officers on their search. They had to be sure there weren’t any other bodies or evidence in the park.
“Gav,” she said, pulling him aside. “What’s going on?”
“We don’t know yet. Right now, we can’t contact the sheriff, but that doesn’t mean he’s missing. We found a friend of his dead and we don’t know if it’s connected to our cases.”
“Of course it is.”
“You know more than anything that we need to follow the facts and clues.”
Katie was angry, frustrated, and concerned about her uncle. “So how can the sheriff suddenly disappear? We’re talking about the top law enforcement officer, and we don’t know where he is.”
McGaven paused, obviously trying to find the right words to support his partner. “We have to finish up here.”
“Give me the keys. I’ll drive the sedan back and pick up my Jeep.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“My orders come from the sheriff,” she said adamantly. “You can catch a ride from Hamilton, right?”
“Well, of course, but…”
“Shouldn’t someone be at his condo to wait until he returns? Or I could wait at my house with Cisco in case he comes there.” She looked at her partner and could see by his expression that he thought she was right, but didn’t want her to be alone for a number of reasons.
“I can’t just let you—”
“Sure you can,” she said. “Can I have the keys?”
McGaven hesitated as he glanced around the area that was under a complete search mode of activity. “Katie, you have to be careful and you can’t just go off on an investigation by yourself.”
“Of course. Catch up with me when the scene is completed.”
McGaven retrieved the keys. “Be careful and check in. Okay?”
Katie kept her composure. She could only think about her uncle now.
“I will be careful.” As she walked away, she wondered how on earth this could have happened.
Had Sydney been killed because of her uncle?
Because of her and the case? She had no doubt someone was watching their investigation.
She just wished she knew who and what it was they wanted.