He looked up. “Okay, that gives us nineteen properties.”
“Now I need to know their proximity to other buildings. And it would be helpful to see how close they are to a power substation.”
Lynch shot her an incredulous glance. “A power substation? Really?”
Kendra nodded. “I’ll explain later.”
Zane pointed to the large bound volumes on his shelves. “We have neighborhood survey maps, but to be honest I usually just use Google Earth. That will give you an idea what’s nearby.”
Kendra unzipped her folio case and pulled out her tablet computer. “Mind if I do that here? If I need anything else, I’d like to be nearby.”
“No problem. Set up on the table in the corner.”
“Thanks.”
With Lynch holding up the printouts in front of her, Kendra’s fingers flew over her tablet screen. One by one, she looked at a satellite view of each of the property sites. She discounted most immediately since they sat in heavily-trafficked areas with high visibility from the road and neighboring lots. Four seemed to fit the bill fairly well.
On the last property, she pulled up the satellite image. “Think we can count this one as a possible hit. There’s the outline of a pool, but there doesn’t even appear to be a paved driveway.”
Lynch studied the printout. “It’s a motel, but it looks like they didn’t have the funds to finish it. Construction started over six years ago.”
Kendra ran her fingers over a dark object immediately adjacent to the lot. “Could this be…?”
“Wow.” Lynch smiled. “I’d say that’s a power substation. How in the hell…?”
“Let’s go.” She jumped to her feet. “I’ll explain on the way there.”
CHAPTER
8
“MINERAL OIL?” LYNCH PULLED onto the I-8 freeway and accelerated.
“There was a slight residue on the chair with Amanda Robinson’s burned corpse. I was pretty sure it was mineral oil, but I had no idea what it meant. So I did a little online research. Mineral oil is used as a coolant in power transformers, but only for outdoor installations. Fire codes prevent it from being used indoors in case of leakage. That’s what made me think to look for a nearby outdoor transformer substation.”
“Hmm. Did it occur to you that the mineral oil just may have been there to lubricate the casters of that chair?”
“It did. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”
A few minutes later, they pulled up to the construction site and parked on a shadowy street in the Jamul neighborhood. The two-story motel was little more than a shell and the property had been overrun by weeds and vegetation.
“Except for the vines, it looks exactly as it did in the Google Earth satellite image,” Lynch said.
“Exactly. This place hasn’t been touched in years.” Kendra looked down at the gravel and dirt path. “But I think a vehicle has been here recently. Looks like the rocks have been freshly punched into the earth.”
Lynch glanced at the humming transformer and nearby power lines. “Poor placement for a motel. No wonder it’s sat here unfinished all this time.”
Kendra pointed to the dirty stucco that faced the transformer substation. “Probably some leakage from the transformer. There’s a light film of oil on that wall.”
“Looks like you were right,” he murmured.
Kendra glanced up at the two-story structure, which had no doors or windows. It consisted of thirty-two guest rooms, sixteen on each floor, each facing what would have been the parking lot. Beyond the stucco exteriors, the guest rooms were littered with trash and construction debris, separated from each other only by thin wooden framing.
“See anything?”
Kendra squinted into the building. The sun had set over the adjacent hillside, casting long shadows over the abandoned structure. She pointed toward the dark front office. “Let’s go in here.”
Lynch followed her as she moved through the wood-and-stucco opening. A stale odor permeated the room.
Something rustled in the corner.
Lynch instinctively stepped in front of her. His gun was suddenly in his hand and his entire body was in attack mode.
More rustling, moving among discarded bags of cement mix.
Three rats emerged and scampered into the darkness.
Lynch lowered his gun.
Kendra took the lead again, moving through a back doorway. She pulled out her phone, flipped on the light and held it over her head. “A hallway. Looks like it runs the entire length of the building.”
Her nose tingled with a familiar odor.
Death.
“She was here.”
“What?”
Kendra’s stomach tightened. “I think Amanda Robinson was here. She’d been decomposing for a few days before she was dropped in front of the school. That same stench is coming from this hallway.”
“How do you know it’s from her?”
“I don’t. That means there could be another body back there right now.” She turned toward him and cocked her head toward the dark hallway. “One way to find out.”
He raised his gun again. “What if I told you to hang back here while I go down by myself and clear the scene?”
She gazed at him in disbelief. “I’d tell you to go to hell.”
“Of course you would. Just checking.”
They stepped over a pile of lumber scraps and moved down the dark hallway. The shadows swallowed them whole, even with her phone’s flashlight showing the way.
The hallway was just wide enough to allow them to walk side-by-side. More rats skittered in front of them. The scent of death grew stronger.
“See that?” Lynch’s grip tightened on his gun. He nodded toward the end of the hallway where something glistened in the shadows.
Crack.
Crack.
Crack.
Kendra stopped.
“We’re stepping on something.” She aimed her phone at the floor. The light reflected hundreds of pieces of broken glass, surrounded by dozens of intact clear capsules. The capsules were littered over the hallway, strewn into the darkness.
Kendra knelt to examine the glass pieces. They were each about two inches long and perhaps a half-inch thick.
“What are these?” she asked, puzzled. “Something a construction crew would use?”
“No crew I’ve ever seen.” Lynch looked down the hallway. “Let’s see what’s down there.”
Kendra stood and continued down the hallway, breaking even more of the glass capsules as they walked.
Crack.
Crack.
Crack.
Another rat scampered across the floor in front of them.
“Hold the light up,” Lynch said.
She did and what they saw made them both stop.
There, at the end of the hallway, was something she hadn’t expected to see.
A car.
“A black Toyota Camry,” Lynch said. “The victim was picked up by a dark-colored car, right?”
“Yes.” Kendra slowly walked around and shone her light on the vehicle’s passenger side.
Oh, shit.
An icy chill crept over her neck and scalp.
On the door was a magnetic Vroom sign.
“This was it,” she whispered. “This was the car. How did he get it in here?”