Page 65 of Race to Save Her

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.”

THIRTY-SEVEN

Friday 0925 hours

Katie and McGaven were back at their office trying to make some connections between all the different pieces of evidence and the information they’d gleaned to see if a suspect emerged. Katie added to the murder boards the new information about the other metal fastener Anderson found and the deliberate digging of a water trap. She also added the kidnapping from that morning and would continue to add information as it became available from patrol and Detective Alvarez.

McGaven expertly worked his way through social media profiles with the name Shelby Roberts and its variations.