Last Girls Alive (Detective Katie Scott #4) - Jennifer Chase Page 0,68
a ghost because I could never find out who it was. I would search, but never found her. Until one day. That’s when I saw it. The wall was partially open… and there was a secret staircase. It suddenly made sense to me about all the crying and other strange things… I would see one of the girls or someone visiting… and then I wouldn’t. There was a secret passageway that no one would admit to. Seemed strange to me.”
Katie was surprised that she knew about it. “Did you tell anyone about this secret staircase?”
“No, but I did make mention of it to Candace once. She just laughed and said that all old houses had their weird secrets.”
“Anything else?” asked Katie.
“I was never an eyewitness to anything except what I told you… but I knew in my gut and common sense I carry, there was something bad going on and those girls were the victims. I hoped that the county would do something about it but, as it turned out, they just closed the house.”
“Think she was telling the truth?” McGaven asked as they made their way back to the car.
“Definitely. It really doesn’t push the cases forward, but again, it confirms what we already know, which means we’re on the right track.”
McGaven’s cell phone rang. “McGaven,” he said. “Yes. When? I see.” He slowly ended the call.
“What’s up?” Katie knew something was terribly wrong. “Gav?”
“That was the prison. Shelly McDonald committed suicide two hours ago.”
Thirty-Four
Monday 1400 hours
Katie was still reeling over the news. “Gav, what have you been able to find out about McDonald’s death?”
“There was nothing suspicious and she hadn’t been suicidal at all during her incarceration, but she took her life when she was on kitchen duty. Apparently, she sliced her carotid artery. I’m still waiting for any final information.”
“She must’ve known more than what she was telling us—and something we said upset her enough to make her take her own life.”
“Maybe. She might have been hiding some issues too.”
Katie sighed. “It’s possible.” She still wasn’t convinced.
“We’ll know more later.”
“I think Hugh Keller is looking like our main suspect at the moment,” said Katie adamantly, even though she wasn’t completely convinced. There was more to his story, she thought, as she studied her notes back at the office.
“Aren’t there books written about guys like that?” McGaven concluded.
“Absolutely. I couldn’t say if he’s a textbook ‘psychopath’ but he sure ticks the boxes of several traits: lack of remorse, lack of guilt, lack of impulse control, shallow, superficial, and such. His alibi sticks, but it’s still sketchy. He could have left and come back.”
“Sounds like a dozen guys I trained with at the academy.”
Katie laughed. “Yep, the military too.” She perused her notes and began writing. Looking at her list again, she said, “When can we get into that bookstore?”
“I’m going to call back Mr. Holmes tomorrow to see if we can take a look at those books. I tried the library, the Internet, and other mystery stores and can’t get a copy. If these books were so important to the killer—and that’s a BIG if—it was a small print-run of the series.”
“You know, these girls were like family and they seemed to have distinct positions—like a hierarchy,” she said.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s like they each had a part. It’s small but there’s a pattern for a special group. All distinct. All serve a purpose. Could this be what the killer is attracted to? These girls, this family, their strengths and weaknesses. Is it something he wanted? Or hated?” Katie said as she wrote it out for viewing.
Candace Harlan—leader, everyone looked up to, respected (best friends with Tanis)
Mary Rodriguez—the loudest, and would fight for her sisters. Enforcer?
Tanis Jones—quiet, least combative, but took the punishment for all the girls (best friends with Candace)
Heather Lawson—the cheerleader, always positive, wanted to be part of the group.
Terry Slaughter—lots of aliases. Not sure of her identity—she didn’t open up as much as the other girls, but was involved in some of the fights with Shelly McDonald that required the police.
Karen Beck—deceased. Most likely to commit suicide and she did. Depression? Other mental illness? Not much information.
“Interesting clarification.”
“And where does Carol Harlan fit in?”
“And, why did someone attack us and basically try to kill us?”
Katie turned to McGaven. “Do you think they were trying to kill us—or scare us?”
“It seemed pretty serious to me.”
“Yes, but they could have killed us in the house. Shot us. Ambushed us.”