Pretty Broken Dolls by Jennifer Chase

Chapter Fifteen

Friday 0755 hours

Katie arrived at the Pine Valley Sheriff’s Forensic Department and made her way to the cold case office carrying two large cups of coffee. She pushed open the door and wasn’t surprised to see McGaven already working. Usually he was pecking away at the keyboard, but this time he was reading the lengthy reports from the Jeanine Trenton murder with a highlighter pen in his hand.

“Morning,” she said.

He nodded. “Mornin’,” but then realized that she had coffee. “Is that—?” He happily accepted it.

“Yep, your favorite.”

“Occasion?”

“Nothing in particular.”

“I thought you’d be late.”

“Why?” she said, putting her jacket on the back of her chair. “Am I ever late?”

“No, not really.”

“What’s all that?”

“Going through the reports. I’ve also searched the missing persons database but I can’t find anyone who matches our Jane Doe even though the 911 caller said she was missing.”

“Perhaps she’s not really missing.”

“Seems that way. A way to get the police out there. And I’ve been thinking about the third victim, Jeanine Trenton.”

“Yeah, I’ve been thinking about her too.”

Katie sat down and leaned toward McGaven, sneaking a peek at which reports he was so engrossed in. “And?”

“I realized, after reading most of the reports, that there’s quite a bit of repeated information—some of it is worded differently but it basically means the same thing. I think Agent Campbell has had more than a couple of people checking out this case. I mean, a lot of other people.”

“Interesting,” she said, more to herself than McGaven, taking a sip of her strong black coffee. “Remind me again what conclusion they came to? Suspects? Who might have committed the crime?”

“Okay, it came down to a few people—the usual leads.”

Katie rolled her chair closer to her partner and eyed the highlighted sections.

“First, Mandy Davis, the so-called best friend that found the body.”

“Okay.”

“Look, here, she said she arrived at the house after Jeanine didn’t show up at the party. But there are inconsistencies of time and how long it took her to find the body.”

“It was a horrible crime scene. Maybe she wasn’t sure.”

“And they had a falling-out in their friendship two months before the party.”

Katie skimmed the interview. “It’s possible they made up.”

“And…”

Katie read what McGaven was reading.

“They seemed to have an issue with a boyfriend.”

“Hmm… Looks like her friend Mandy was upset after she caught Jeanine with her boyfriend, Brady Randall.”

“That’s not good. Where was the boyfriend?”

“He has a solid alibi. He was at a conference in Indiana at the time. Verified by the hotel, conference people, and he was seen on security cams.”

“That doesn’t mean he couldn’t have had someone else kill her. Who were the other possible suspects?”

“I guess there was some issue at Community Health Alliance where she worked as an assisting nurse for those who are on assistance or social security.”

Gulping more than half her coffee, she said, “What kind of issue?”

“It was a lot of back-and-forth talk, but from what I could gather, it sounded like a hostile work environment,” he said and flipped through more pages. “There’s background on the staff, but it reads like a boring book. Nothing that stands out.”

“So our victim stole her best friend’s boyfriend and her work place was antagonistic.” Katie leaned back. “That could open up a whole host of other suspects—for all kinds of reasons—hate, revenge, jealousy. So what about neighbors?”

“Most are retired, except for next door. A Mrs. Sadie Caldwell who is also retired, but she’s…”

“What’s wrong with her?”

“She’s on record for calling the police on two occasions because of a loud party.”

“Not a big suspect list.” Katie was disappointed that after all the manpower and time that had gone into the investigation, this was all they had come up with. “So what did the profiler have to say?”

“How did you know there’s a profiler?”

“That’s just how these types of investigations go. And please don’t tell me ‘a white male between the ages of thirty-five and forty-five, single, blue-collar worker, no arrests except for something like trespassing or fighting in a bar, etc.’”

McGaven smiled. “Pretty close.”

Katie let out a loud sigh. “Agent Campbell is correct. They are all trained to investigate the same way, to not to see outside the box—for lack of a better phrase.” She frowned, thinking about killers’ motives.

McGaven handed her the pages he had highlighted.

“Let me see,” she said and skimmed through the information. “It is like they kept repeating the same things… like they didn’t have anything better to do. Making the report look bigger.”

“You can see how they’ve hit a dead end.”

“Let’s start at the beginning,” she said. “We have already spent time with military K9 training, but while we have to wait for information on our victim at the fairgrounds let’s dig deeper into Jeanine Trenton. When we went to her house, all of her personal belongings were gone. I’m still waiting to hear back from the attorney.”

“We might learn something new.”

“Until we get an ID on the vic from the fairgrounds, let’s dig in here.”

“I’ll contact Mandy Davis then,” he said, searching for her phone number. “It’s good to talk to the best friend and she’s had some time to think about everything too.”

“I’d like to know if she knew anything about the sergeant at the K9 training facility.”

“Sounds good.”

Katie reread the reports as McGaven spoke to Ms. Davis, and made several inquiries about Jeanine Trenton’s belongings. She wanted to know what John in forensics had to say about the crime scene. She made arrangements through Agent Campbell for John to receive everything that was collected and also the photographs of Jeanine Trenton.

“We can speak to Mandy Davis at eleven thirty,” McGaven said.

“Great.” Katie slowly shuffled the paperwork around on her desk.

“What’s bothering you?”

“No weapon found. No clear idea even of the type of weapon.”

“Nope.”

“It’s strange. Now, we haven’t completely gone through the two previous homicides yet. But… did you notice that it seemed very textbook with Jeanine? Originally the suspects were the closest friend, boyfriend, and people at work were antagonistic. It could be anyone.”

“Good point,” he said. “But that’s what we’re here for.”

“There’s something not right about this case. I get the distinct impression that we’re missing something—or something is being withheld from us.”