Pretty Broken Dolls by Jennifer Chase
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Thursday 1635 hours
After interviewing Mrs. Winchell and Daniel Harper, Katie felt there was more beyond their answers to her initial questions; she felt they were telling the truth, but not offering up any other information.
She added to the board the new persons of interest and case characteristics for Darla Winchell:
DH left threatening emails/harassment. Was she hiding it? Is DH Daniel Harper?
Daniel Harper—boyfriend to friend. He wanted more.
*Spent 2 years in army as military K9 handler.
“I keep coming back to the military K9 aspect,” she said. “How could we not? I’ll call Sergeant Serrano about the list of names and ask him about Darla Winchell as well.”
McGaven turned and said, “Well, I have good news.”
“Oh great.”
“I have two lists from the fairgrounds,” he said and fished out the papers from the printer.
“Let’s see,” said Katie as her mood began to elevate.
“I also have bad news. On the more general list, I have a little over three hundred names. The more specific searches turned up seventy-nine names.”
Katie read down the shorter list but not one name even made her pause. She sighed. “What are the asterisks for?”
“An arrest report.”
“Track those down.” She handed the list back to him.
“I thought you’d never ask.”
There was a soft knock at the door. It opened and Denise poked her head in, “Knock, knock.”
“Hi, Denise,” said Katie. She was like a breath of fresh air, always upbeat.
Denise stepped inside. Her arms were loaded with two file folders.
“Hey, babe,” said McGaven. His face was a bit flushed with embarrassment due to the fact that Denise was his girlfriend.
“Oh, what do you have for us?” said Katie, eyeing the paperwork.
“Well, this is for Gav.” She put down the bulging paperwork on his desk.
He picked up it, pretending to shake it.
“No, silly. I copied some articles about fair and amusement park stories. Here you go.”
“Wow, you got all these?” he said, amazed.
“Denise can do anything,” said Katie.
“I wish. I found the subject matter on this site that specializes in out-of-date and difficult-to-find articles.” She handed Katie the other folder. “This is for you. I searched through newspapers, internet sites, and circus and fairgrounds newsletters.”
“They have newsletters for circuses?” McGaven said.
“Now you know,” said Katie. She opened the file and began thumbing through. There were articles included about accidents, famous people visiting, creative features for amusement park rides, and other miscellaneous topics that proved interesting enough to be written about. “Thank you. This is great stuff. Eye-opening.”
“Look at the back section. I filed articles pertaining to the local fairgrounds here in Sequoia County. Did you know it’s haunted?” she laughed.
“Great. Like our job isn’t difficult enough. Now we have to add a ghost as a suspect,” said Katie.
“That’s cool,” said McGaven. “Any murders?”
“One.”
“Really?’
“A woman was brutally raped and murdered. The case was solved—the son of one of the maintenance workers did it. But I thought it was worth including in the stack.”
“Thank you. You have a knack for finding information.”
“My pleasure. It adds a little fun to my boring days in records.” She blew McGaven a kiss. “See you later.”
“Bye.”
“Is it me or does she just keep getting cuter?” said McGaven.
Katie laughed. “I know. Does she ever have a bad day?”
“That was her bad day.”
Katie opened the file and began organizing the articles. Some were a year old and the oldest went back forty years. They were interesting to say the least, but the more she filtered through them, the more she began to feel like she might be looking for a needle in a haystack. But she pressed on, reading headlines and skimming articles, looking for anything that might break the investigation.
Katie’s cell phone buzzed with a text. She hoped it was John saying he had some news.
It read: Dead and gone. Now the house is going too.
The text was from Sadie Caldwell.