Last Girls Alive (Detective Katie Scott #4) - Jennifer Chase Page 0,58
vintage doors and mantel from the fireplace. “There’s stuff in here, but it wasn’t locked,” she said and took a couple of steps inside, still looking for the name of the company.
McGaven walked in and said, “You know, we could ask the construction company.”
“I know, but I just wanted to see it. There should be identifying numbers too. All these types of containers have numbers—like license plates or VIN numbers.”
“These are nice pieces from the house that I’m sure people will want to buy for their remodels.” He referred to heavy, craftsman-style interior doors with carvings and carved glass doorknobs. Each door had to have weighed 200 pounds. There were also crown molding pieces in every length, and piles of intricately carved gingerbread bric-a-brac from the windows.
“What are you thinking?” he asked, looking at Katie curiously.
Katie was still searching the interior for some type of identification. She didn’t know exactly why but it bothered her. Then she saw at the bottom, behind one of the old interior doors with carved glass knobs, there was some information printed on the lower wall. She switched her cell phone to the flashlight mode and read: ETL Express, Moving & Storage LLC.
“ETL,” she whispered.
“What?” McGaven asked. He looked to see what she was talking about. “There’s the name, ETL Express. How does that help?”
“Oh my, wait a minute.” She frantically searched her cell phone photos where she had taken a photo of the piece of paper that was folded in her locker at the police department. She hadn’t bothered to tell McGaven about it because it could have been nothing. “I didn’t think it meant anything, but I still kept it and took a photo of it. So glad I did… I actually forgot all about it.”
“What are you talking about?”
“This,” she said, and turned her phone for McGaven to see.
He said out loud, “ETL Express. Where did you get this?”
“I found it folded at the bottom of my locker.”
“At the department?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” he asked. “Did anyone see anything? I know the security cameras are at the parking lot and the main door, but not the interior.”
“No. Nothing. I checked when I had the chance. First, I thought it was something and then I thought it was probably nothing. I didn’t think about it until now.”
“It seems strange that these are related, but you can’t dismiss it either.”
Katie’s phone rang.
“I better get this,” she said, seeing it was Chad. “Hi.”
Chad said, “You doing okay?”
“Just fine, Gav and I are at the Elm Hill Mansion checking out some storage containers—”
McGaven urgently said, “Hey!”
Cisco barked rapidly in the distance.
Katie looked over to see the silhouette of a man standing at the entrance of the container, dressed all in black with a hoodie over his head. His face was obscured. “Wait!” she yelled as she dropped her cell.
Both McGaven and Katie rushed the door just as it was closed, secured, and some type of lock was engaged.
“Katie!” Chad yelled down the cell phone.
“Open the door!” Katie screamed, hammering her fists. “We’re police officers, let us out now!”
McGaven joined in, kicking and punching the metal door—to no avail.
With no windows, it was now completely dark inside.
Out of breath, Katie said to McGaven, “Now what?”
“Your phone.”
Katie stumbled around and found her phone. She picked it up, “Chad? Are you there?”
Static crackled and then there were three loud beeps—then nothing.
“Shit!” She frantically kept trying to call him back but couldn’t make a connection. “It’s this container that’s interfering.” She moved around, trying to get a signal. “Nothing.”
“Me neither,” said McGaven moving his cell phone around. “What do you think Chad heard?”
“I’m not sure.”
The sound of a large earthmover started up in the distance and the smell of diesel fuel drifted through the air vents. Katie heard the construction machine shift and began moving—it became louder as it approached them. The floor beneath their feet vibrated.
“What the hell?” McGaven said.
“You don’t think—” was all she managed to say before the bulldozer slammed into the side of the container causing it to lurch, throwing Katie and McGaven to the floor.
Thirty-One
Saturday 1105 hours
The second hit was harder than the first—a deafening ringing throughout the metal container that rattled through Katie’s body as she was slammed against the corrugated wall. Pain spread throughout her body. She tried to gulp and cough to catch her breath, but the rumble of the giant earthmover brought back horrific memories from the battlefield. Things she never wanted to remember. Images of blood, casualties