He told the story as if he were sitting at a campfire. It irritated Mackenzie a little but she also knew that people with a bent toward the dramatic were often good sources of information.
Ever find anything like that before? Ellington asked.
No. But I tell youIve had about a dozen or so units abandoned. Its in my contract that if the unit has not been opened at least once within three months, I call the user just to make sure theyre still interested in the space. If there has been no communication after six months, I sell the units at auction, belongings and all.
Mackenzie knew that this was a common practice but as far as she was concerned, it seemed nearly illegal.
Some of the things people leave in these units arewell, disturbing, Underwood went on. In three of the abandoned units Ive had, there was all kinds of sex toys. Someone had fifteen guns in theirs, including two AK-47s. One unit apparently belonged to a taxidermist because there were four stuffed animalsand Im not talking teddy bears, you know?
Underwood took them through a door at the back of the little entrance wing. There was no transition after the door; they walked through and were standing in a very wide hallway. The floor was concrete and the ceiling sat about twenty feet overhead. Now, more than ever, Mackenzie was convinced the place had once indeed been a warehouse of some kind. The units were broken into clusters of five, each cluster broken by a hallway that ran to the side of the building both ways. The clusters were on each side of the building, set up in a way that, when you looked down the central middle hallway, there seemed to be no end to them. Now that they were inside, Mackenzie saw the depth and range of the place for what it was. The building was easily one hundred yards long.
The unit you want to see is just right up here a bit, Underwood said. They walked along for about two minutes, Underwood going on and on about the odd collectibles he had found in some of the abandoned units, as well as treasures like mint condition toys, valuable comics, and one honest-to-God unopened safe that had more than five grand in it.
He finally brought them to a stop in front of a unit marked C-2. He had apparently pre-selected the key before their arrival; he dug a single key out of his pocket and unlocked the deadbolt lock on the door runner. He then slid the door up, revealing the musty inside. Underwood flicked a light switch on the wall and the light that shone down from the room revealed a mostly empty storage unit.
No family has been by to claim her things? Mackenzie asked.
I got a call from her mother four days ago, he said. Shes coming by at some point, but she didnt set a date or anything.
Mackenzie walked around the unit, looking for anything that might look similar to what they had seen in Claire Lockes unit. But either Elizabeth Newcomb had not had the fighting spirit of Claire Locke or the evidence of her struggles had already been cleaned up by the PD and local detectives.
Mackenzie went to the few stacked belongings in the back. Most of them were in plastic bins, labeled with masking tape and black magic marker: Books and Magazines, Childhood, Moms Stuff, Christmas Decorations, Old Baking Stuff.
Even the manner in which they were stacked seemed very organized. There were a few small cardboard boxes filled with photo albums and framed pictures. Mackenzie looked in a few of the albums but saw nothing that would help. She only saw pictures of smiling family members, beachfront vistas, and a dog that had apparently been a very cherished pet.
Ellington walked over to her and looked around at the boxes. He had his hands on his hips, one of his telltale indicators that he was at a loss. It still surprised her from time to time just how well she knew him.
I think anything that might have been here to find was already found by the police, he said. Maybe we can find something in the files.
Mackenzie was nodding, but her eyes had fallen on something else. She walked to the far corner, where three of the plastic storage bins had been stacked on top of one another. Tucked exactly in the corner, so far back that she had missed it during her initial inspection, was a doll. It was an older doll, its hair matted and little smudges of dirt on its cheeks. It looked like something that might have been stolen from the set of a cheesy horror movie.
Creepy, Ellington said, tracing her gaze.
And oddly out of place, Mackenzie said.
She picked the doll up, careful to keep her hands in one position on the back of it, just in case it might be some sort of clue. Sure, at first glance it seemed like just a random object in someones storage binperhaps something thrown in at the last minute, as an afterthought.
But everything else in this unit is meticulously stacked and organized. This doll stands out. And not only that, its almost as if it were meant to stand out.
I think we need to bag it up, she said. Why is this one object not boxed up and put away? This place is eerily neat. Why leave this out?
You think the killer placed it there? Ellington asked. But before the question was fully out of his mouth, she could tell that he was considering it as a very real possibility as well.
I dont know, she said. But I think I want to go take another look at Claire Lockes unit again. And I also want to see how quickly we can get a full case file for the murders in Oregon that you worked onback in the early days. She said the last bit with a smile, never missing an opportunity to tease him for being seven years older than she was.
Ellington turned back to Underwood. He was hanging out by the door, pretending not to eavesdrop. I dont suppose you ever spoke with Ms. Newcomb outside of renting her the unit, did you?
Afraid not, Underwood said. I try to be friendly and hospitable to everyone but theres just so many of them, you know? He then eyed the doll Mackenzie still held and frowned. Told youlots of weird shit in these units.
Mackenzie didnt doubt it. But this particular weird item seemed sorely out of place. And she fully intended to find out what it meant.
Chapter Nine
Due to the late hour, Quinn Tuck had understandably been pissed off when Mackenzie had called. Still, he told them how to get into the complex and where the spare set of keys were. It was just before midnight when Mackenzie and Ellington opened up Claire Lockes storage unit again. Mackenzie couldnt help but feel that they were running in circlesnot a feeling that was especially encouraging so early in the casebut she also felt that this was the right move.
With the doll from Elizabeth Newcombs unit in mind, Mackenzie stepped back into the unit. Perhaps it was just being aware of the late hour, but the place seemed a bit more foreboding this time around. The bins and boxes stacked in the back werent quite as perfect as the ones in Elizabeth Newcombs unit, but they were still tidy.
A little sad, isnt it? Ellington said.
Whats that?
These thingsthese bins and boxes. Chances are no one who cares about whats inside of them will ever open them.
It was a sad thought, one that Mackenzie tried to push to the back of her mind. She walked to the back of the unit, feeling almost like an intruder. She and Ellington both checked over the contents for any dolls or other disturbances, but found nothing. It then occurred to Mackenzie that she was expecting to find something as obvious as a doll. Maybe there was something different, something smaller
Or maybe theres no connection here at all, she thought.
You see this? Ellington asked.
He was kneeling next to the right wall. He nodded toward the corner of the unit, in a thin space between the wall and a stack of cardboard boxes. Mackenzie dropped down to her knees as well and saw what Ellington had spied.
It was a miniature teapotnot miniature as in a small teapot, but more like a playset teapot that little girls might use for an imagined tea time.
She crawled forward and picked it up off the floor. She was rather surprised to find that it was made not of plastic, but of a ceramic material. It felt just like a real teapot, only it was no bigger than six inches tall. She could set the entirety of the thing in her hand.
If you ask me, Ellington said, theres no way that was set there by accident or by someone just tired of packing shit into the unit.
And it didnt just fall out of a box, Mackenzie added. Its ceramic. If it had fallen from a box, it would have shattered on the floor.
So what the hell does it mean?
Mackenzie had no answer. They both looked to the little teapot, quite pretty but also dingyjust like the doll in Elizabeth Newcombs unit. And despite its small size, Mackenzie felt that it represented something much larger.
***It was 1:05 when they finally checked into a motel. Mackenzie was tired but also invigorated by the puzzle that the doll and the little teapot offered. Once in the room, she took a quick moment to change out of her work clothes and into a T-shirt and gym shorts. She powered up her laptop as Ellington changed into more comfortable clothes as well. She logged into her email and saw that McGrath had assigned someone to send them every single file they had on the Salem, Oregon, storage unit murders from eight years ago.
What are you doing? Ellington asked as he stepped up beside her. Its late and tomorrow is going to be a long day.
Ignoring him, she asked: Was there nothing in the Oregon cases that pointed to any of this? To a doll, a teapotanything like that?
I honestly dont recall. Like McGrath said, I just ran cleanup. I questioned a few witnesses, tidied up reports and paperwork. If there was anything like that, it didnt stand out. Im not ready to say the cases are linked. Yes, they are eerily similar, but not identical. Stillit might not hurt to eventually look into it. Maybe meet with the PD in Salem to see if anyone closer to the case remembers anything like that.
Mackenzie trusted his word but couldnt help but scan through several of the files before giving in to the need to sleep. She felt Ellington rest a hand on her shoulder and then felt his face next to hers.
Am I being lazy if I turn in?
No. Am I being over-obsessive if I dont?
No. Youre just being very dedicated to your job. He kissed her on the cheek and then fell into the rooms single bed.
It was tempting to join himnot for any extracurricular activities, but to just enjoy some sleep before the frantic pace tomorrow would be sure to bring. But she felt that she had to find at least a few more potential pieces to the puzzle, even if they were buried in a case from eight years ago.
From a cursory glance, there was nothing to be found. There had been five people killed, all found in storage units. One of the units had contained more than ten thousand dollars worth of valuable baseball cards and another had contained a macabre collection of medieval weaponry. Seven people had been questioned in regards to the deaths but none had ever been convicted. The theory the police and the FBI had worked with was that the killer was abducting his victims and then forcing them to open up their storage units. Based on the original reports, it did not appear as if the killer was stealing anything from the units, although it was obviously next to impossible to be certain of this.
From what Mackenzie could see, there were no peculiar items left behind at the scenes. The files contained pictures of the crime scenes and of the five victims, three of the storage units had been in a messy state, having not seen an obsessively organized touch like that of Elizabeth Newcomb.
Two of the crime scene images were strikingly clear. One was from the scene of the second victim, and the other from the fifth victim. Both units had been in a state of what Mackenzie thought of as organized chaos; there were piles of things here and there, but they were thrown together haphazardly.
Looking at the picture from the second crime scene, Mackenzie scoured the background, zooming in as much as she could without causing the screen to go all pixelated. Near the center of the room, on top of three precariously stacked boxes, she thought she saw something of interest. It looked like a pitcher of some kind, perhaps something to put water or lemonade in. It was sitting on what appeared to be a plate of some kind. While there were other random objects sitting out in the open, these appeared to have been placed with care in the very center of the room.
She stared until her eyes started to ache and could still not be certain what she was looking at. Knowing that it might be a long shot, she opened up an empty email to send directly to two agents she knew would act fast and efficientlytwo agents whom, she randomly thought, she and Ellington needed to invite to their wedding: Agents Yardley and Harrison.
She attached the files she had received to the email and wrote a quick message: Could either of you look into the files for these cases and see if anyone ended up taking an inventory of what was inside the storage units? Maybe check with the owners of the storage facilities.
Knowing that there was very little left to do, Mackenzie finally allowed herself to go to bed. Because she was so tired and the day came falling down on her in a heap, she was asleep less than two minutes before her head hit the pillow.
Even when the eerie sight of the doll from Elizabeth Newcombs storage unit surfaced in her head, she managed to ignore itfor the most partand drift soundly to sleep.
Chapter Ten
Mackenzie wasnt at all surprised to wake up at 6:30 and find that Agent Harrison had come through. He was practically a research guru and had quickly learned his way around files, folders, and copious amounts of data. His email contained two attachments and a typical to-the-point message.
The two documents attached are inventories taken by the FBI. These are all we have because the families of two of the other victims refused bureau requests to go through their stored belongings. The fifth is missing because the owner of the facility auctioned the contents off three days after the death. Seems like a bastard thing to do, but the victim had no family to come collect her belongings.
I hope this helps. Let me know if you need anything more specific.
Mackenzie opened up the attachment and found a very simplified list prepared in a simple Word document. The first was seven pages long. The second was thirty-six pages long. The longer document was an inventory for a unit belonging to Jade Barker. The name clicked with Mackenzie instantly; she pulled up the crime scene images from the original documents and saw that the messier one had been Jade Barkersthe same one with the possible plate and pitcher sitting directly in the center of the image.
Mackenzie did a quick search through the document and found the two items listed on page two.
Toy pitcher.
Plastic toy plate.
Behind her, Ellington was getting dressed. As he buttoned up his shirt, he came over to her and looked at the screen. Damn, he said. They came through for you, didnt they?