The Body Finder

by Kimberly Derting

  Unfortunately three sets of eyes, including Jules’s, who was peering at Violet from the rearview mirror, were now staring back at her.

  Okay, Vi, just play it casually. “Weird? Why would it be weird? Jay and I are just friends. And Lissie seems okay.”

  Eyebrows raised.

  “Ri-ight.” The word was dragged out skeptically. Of course it was an unconvinced Chelsea who asked, “Why would you be jealous that he’s taking a senior…no, no, check that, the most popular senior in school, to Homecoming?”

  “Yes,” Violet answered, making it sound like Chelsea had made a statement rather than posed a damning question. “That’s right, I would have no reason to be jealous…since we’re just friends.” Now she was the one speaking slowly, as if they might have trouble comprehending her words.

  They did, but not because they were too slow to understand them. They just weren’t as clueless as Violet wanted them to be.

  Claire reached over and patted Violet’s leg in what was supposed to be a comforting gesture. Instead, Violet was annoyed by the condescending quality to it.

  “Seriously, why is that so hard to understand?”

  Why? Probably because it wasn’t true. Or at least because even she didn’t really want it to be true.

  Jules turned her attention back to the road, and Claire shrugged her narrow shoulders delicately but unconvincingly. Chelsea glanced back over her shoulder at Violet, giving her a look that said she wasn’t buying it at all, but at least she didn’t say it out loud.

  Violet was glad when Claire begin prattling on again, filling the awkward silence that had settled inside the car.

  Violet knew, of course, that she had no business being jealous that Jay was going to the dance with Elisabeth Adams. He hadn’t even actually asked the It-Girl until after he’d found out that Violet had agreed to go with Grady, and she’d been regretting that particular moment of weakness every second of every day since. And somehow the perfect shoes, to go with the perfect dress, didn’t make her feel any better…even now. Because in the end, she was going to have to stand across the dance floor from the boy she really wanted to be there with and watch him dance with his own perfectly perfect date.

  She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate on the endless stream of words dribbling from Claire’s never-silent mouth.

  She was really starting to worry about what she had gotten herself into.

  Violet didn’t have much time to think about the dance and how disappointed she was to be going with Grady instead of Jay. All worries about herself, and her own insignificant problems, were overshadowed by the news that greeted her when she arrived home the next morning, after staying the night at Chelsea’s house.

  Both of her parents were waiting for her in the living room when she walked through the front door.

  Her mother was pacing in front of the fireplace, and her dad gave the impression that he’d been relaxing as he leaned back into the couch, his long legs stretched out in front of him. But it was the preoccupied look on his face that gave away his discomfort.

  Violet immediately felt her guard go up when she saw them like that. The hairs on the back of her neck prickled involuntarily. “What’s wrong?” she asked, closing the door behind her.

  They looked at each other, an unspoken conversation passing between them, before her father stood up and crossed the room to where she stood. He reached out and squeezed her upper arms in a gesture that, coming from him, was meant to be reassuring.

  Violet could feel the panic rising within her.

  “What?” she wondered aloud, looking past her father to her mom, knowing that her mother had never been good at hiding things from her. Her mom was as incapable of disguising her thoughts and feelings as her dad was good at concealing his.

  “Sit down, Vi. We need to talk,” her mom instructed, brushing past her husband and pulling her daughter toward the sofa.

  Violet didn’t fight her. “What?” she asked again. This time her voice felt like a hoarse whisper being ripped from her throat as she pled with them to tell her what this was all about.

  Her mom spoke first. “It’s Hailey McDonald…she’s been missing since last night.” She sat next to her daughter and put her arm around her. “Her mom called Uncle Stephen in the middle of the night last night to say that Hailey never made it home. They’ve checked everywhere they could think of…at all of her friends’ houses, the places where she was last seen… and no one knows where she could be.”

  Violet felt sick. Her hands started to shake in her lap, and the shuddering spasms moved up her arms and coursed through her body like electric currents.

  Hailey McDonald was only in middle school, she was maybe thirteen, much younger than the other two girls whose bodies had already been discovered. And Violet knew Hailey, she used to babysit her when the younger girl was only in grade school. Hailey’s older brother, Jacob McDonald, was a year younger than Violet at White River High School.

  This was close. Too close.

  “Do they think that…you know, do they suspect…” She took a breath to stop the quivering in her voice. “Do they think he took her?”

  Her dad sat down on the other side of her. “Yes.” His voice sounded too calm to be saying something so horrendously unacceptable. “Stephen said she was supposed to be walking home from her best friend, Elena Atkins’s, house, but that she never made it. Her parents waited for over an hour past the time she was due back before they started calling around, but by then it was probably too late.”

  “Maybe she’s just pissed at her parents and she’s hiding out at another friend’s house.” Violet tried to sound convincing even though she didn’t believe a word of it herself. And then, because she couldn’t think of anything else to say, she just covered her mouth with her own trembling hand. “Oh my God,” she whispered.

  Violet wanted to cry, to let out her frustrations and fears. It would be healthier that way, and she might even feel a little better if she could release her feelings…share, as her mom would say. But instead she felt herself shriveling up, drawing inward. Shutting down.

  It was the same way she’d felt after discovering the dead girl at the lake. A hopeless feeling that sucked her deeper into the mire of her own inner turmoil. She felt vulnerable and despondent.

  And determined.

  Everything had just changed for Violet. Knowing this girl…and knowing what she was capable of doing to help, even if it was futile, and even if it turned out to be dangerous, she knew she could no longer just sit around and wait to see if—or when—they found Hailey.

  Violet was done waiting around for someone else to find the psychopath who was preying on these girls. She was going to do something, even if she had to sneak around to get it done.

  She excused herself to her bedroom, telling her parents that she wanted to be alone, and grabbing the house phone as she passed it on her way.

  She was going to do something. But she wouldn’t do it alone.

  She was going to ask for help.

  CHAPTER 10

  JAY CAME OVER AS SOON AS VIOLET CALLED HIM; she didn’t even have to give him a reason. He was there in less than ten minutes.

  Of course, he’d heard about what had happened to Hailey. Everyone had. Buckley was a small town, and news traveled fast…especially bad news.

  When he got there she told him what she was thinking about doing. It was nothing dangerous, at least as far as she was concerned, and she hadn’t expected Jay to disagree with her about it. So when he did, she was more than a little bit surprised by his stubborn reaction.

  “No way,” he insisted, and his voice left little room for argument. “There is no way you’re going to go around looking for this guy.”

  Violet was shocked by the tone in his voice, and by the harsh look he shot at her. She thought maybe he misunderstood her plan, so she tried to explain it to him again. “Jay, I’m only going to public places, like malls and parks, to see if I can get a feeling for who this guy is. Who
knows, maybe he goes to places like that to find them, maybe he hangs out there waiting to pick out a girl to…you know, kidnap.” She tried to make her argument sound logical, but there was a desperate edge to her voice. “I’m not going alone…you can go with me. We’ll just hang out at different places to see if we can find him. And if we do, we’ll call my uncle. It’s not like we’d do anything stupid.”

  “‘Anything stupid’ would be going out to look for a killer. I won’t let you go looking for trouble, Violet. This guy is dangerous, and you need to leave it to the cops. They know what they’re doing. And they’re armed.” He sounded like he thought she’d lost her mind, and maybe she had, but she had already made her decision.

  “Look, I’m doing this. I was just asking you to come along with me.”

  “You’re not,” he insisted. “Even if I have to tell your uncle and your parents what you’re planning. I promise you, you’re not doing it.”

  She could feel her temper flaring. “You can’t stop me, Jay. If you tell on me, then I’ll lie. I’ll bat my eyes innocently and promise not to go looking for this guy. But I swear to you that every chance I get, even if I have to sneak out of the house to do it, I will be trying to find him.” She stood up, meaning to glare back at him, but instead found herself craning her neck just so she could see his face. The awkward position didn’t steal any of her thunder. She refused to back down. “I mean it, Jay. You can’t stop me.”

  Jay glared incredulously back at her. Emotions ranging from disbelief to frustration and back to disbelief again flashed darkly across his face. He seemed to be fighting with himself now. But when she heard him sigh, and then saw him raking his hand restlessly through his hair, she knew she’d won. His icy determination seemed to melt right before her eyes.

  “Damn it, Violet.” He sighed brusquely, wrapping his arms around her and holding her tightly. “What choice do I have?” he asked as he practically squeezed the life out of her.

  She wasn’t sure how to react to him now. It definitely wasn’t a tender hug, but the close contact made her undisclosed desires stir all the same. She couldn’t help wondering if he felt even a fraction of what she did.

  His arms were strong, and she felt safe in the circle of them. She’d never imagined that she could feel so comfortable and so uncomfortable at the same time. She waited within the space of his embrace to see where this was going.

  “So, how is this going to work?” he demanded roughly against the top of her head.

  She froze. “What do you mean?” she asked as her heartbeat sped up.

  He released her, and she realized that he wasn’t talking about them—he was talking about her plan to find a killer. She tried to ignore the sharp stab of disappointment she felt.

  But she recovered quickly. “I was thinking that we would start going out, you know, to places where our friends, and girls from other schools, might hang out. We can go after school and on weekends, for as long as it takes, until either the police catch him, or until I cross paths with him. Either way, he needs to be stopped, Jay.” She looked up at him again, this time feeling vulnerable for an entirely different reason. “I just don’t think I can sit by while more girls are abducted, or worse, found dead.” Her voice fractured on the last word, even though she was trying to stay composed. She hated feeling so helpless and weak, and she hated admitting that she needed help. But she did.

  She needed Jay to go with her. Because despite her bold words about doing it by herself, it was all just a bluff. She really wasn’t sure if she could do it on her own.

  “All right,” he finally agreed, flashing her the same stupid grin that always made her heart stutter, even though he still seemed uncertain. “How ’bout we start by going to the movies tonight? We can make sure the theater is safe.”

  It took some doing to convince her parents to let her go out after the news of Hailey McDonald’s disappearance. If it hadn’t been for Jay’s promise not to let her out of his sight, they would never have agreed at all. They seemed to feel even better when Jay insisted on driving, since his mom’s car was infinitely more modern than her beater Honda.

  After checking the movie times online, they decided on an action flick that had just opened and was playing at the nearest theater, in Bonney Lake, the city where Brooke Johnson had lived.

  If someone had been searching for teenage girls to abduct, Saturday night at the multiplex would have been the perfect place to go. Clusters of kids, ranging from probably eleven or twelve all the way into young adulthood, moved in swarms around the freestanding building and drifted aimlessly around the crowded parking lot. Inside the lobby, they were like energetic herds as they moved into, and out of, the theaters.

  Violet had never really stopped to watch the groupings before, and it was a bit like watching spastic monkeys at the zoo. But they weren’t really what she was interested in tonight.

  She was there to find a killer. It was only a bonus that she was there with Jay.

  They ran into a group of friends from school who were seeing the newest gross-out comedy release, and they stopped to chat for a few minutes. The girls in the group perked up the moment they realized that Jay Heaton was around, and Violet felt a twinge of satisfaction that he was her date tonight…even if it wasn’t really a date.

  Once Jay was in her sights, Amanda Kaufman’s appreciative gaze never left him. “Hey, Jay,” she said, practically purring at him, ignoring everyone else around her—including her boyfriend, who wasn’t paying any attention. “You look great.” She reached out and rubbed his chest. “I like your jacket. It’s sooo soft,” she cooed.

  Violet looked at it, wondering if she’d missed something special. She hadn’t. It was just a plain gray hoodie—pretty much like every other hoodie that every other boy in school wore every single day.

  Violet looked at Jay and raised her eyebrows. She knew he noticed her glance, even though he was pretending to ignore her.

  “Thanks,” he said to Amanda in a voice that was a little too congenial, and Violet realized that he liked the attention.

  Amanda giggled, and Violet nearly laughed out loud at the high-pitched sound that came out of her mouth. Amanda’s boyfriend, Cameron, a senior football player, was too busy talking about next week’s game with his buddies to even notice that his girlfriend was flirting right under his nose.

  Violet tried to pay attention to her surroundings, concentrating on sensing anything unusual.

  She already knew that one of the imprints would be a glowing, oily sheen like that from the girl in the lake, and she would easily recognize it on the killer if she saw him. She just didn’t know what his other imprints would be.

  But it didn’t take Violet long to realize that there was nothing out of the ordinary in the lobby, so instead she sipped her Coke and watched the girls fawn over Jay. She kept thinking that she should be jealous of all their attention, but she just couldn’t manage it because she was having too much fun watching them make fools of themselves. And that included Jay.

  The other two girls in the group were encouraged by his reaction to Amanda. Yvette Siegel tried next, and her boyfriend was just as clueless as Amanda’s. “I bet you’ll look great in your tux,” she praised Jay.

  “Did you already pick one out?” Alexandra Yates asked. She was the only one without a boyfriend, and she stepped forward, practically shoving the other two girls—her friends—out of her way to get closer to him.

  Violet would have laughed out loud, but instead she choked on her soda when it went down the wrong way. All three of the girls suddenly noticed her standing there for the first time. She tried to suppress the coughing fit, but she couldn’t stop it.

  Jay reached out to smack her on the back harder than he really needed to. “You okay?” he asked, and Violet shot him a deadly look as she coughed into her closed fist.

  “I’m fine,” she gasped, barely getting out the words in between her own choking. She nudged his helping hand away and glared at him.

  He
grinned back at her.

  “Hey, Violet.” Alexandra was the only one who actually acknowledged her there. “What about you? Have you picked your dress for the dance yet?”

  Violet cleared her throat once more as she nodded her head. “I’m all set, I think.”

  “Where are you guys eating that night?” Amanda’s voice had taken on a pouting quality that didn’t suit her at all. “Have you made reservations?”

  Violet realized that the girls thought that she and Jay were going to Homecoming with each other. “Oh, no”—she corrected the mistake—“we’re not going together.”

  That seemed to immediately cheer up Amanda again, even though Violet was pretty sure that the other girl was already going to the dance…with her boyfriend.

  “Really?”

  “Really. Violet’s going with Grady Spencer,” Jay told all three girls as he smiled oh-so-innocently at Violet.

  “And Jay’s going with Lissie Adams,” Violet revealed to the trio, smirking back at him.

  “Oh,” Amanda whined again, sounding completely dejected. And from the tone of her voice, Violet was a little surprised that Amanda didn’t stomp her foot when she said it.

  “Hey, we gotta get going, our movie’s about to start,” Cameron reminded Amanda as he reached out and pulled his girlfriend away from Jay. “It was nice talking to you.” He actually said that last part with a straight face, even though he hadn’t spoken so much as a single word to either Violet or Jay.

  Violet watched them go, while all three of the girls, at different times, glanced back over their shoulders to get another look at Jay before they left. Jay nudged Violet conspiratorially.

  Violet’s eyes widened as she glanced up at him. “What the hell was that all about?”

  Jay looked serious for a moment, and then he winked at her. “It’s good being one of the beautiful people, that’s all.”

  “Oh my God, Jay, they were practically slobbering on you.” For the first time in a long time, Violet was nothing but amused by another girl’s antics around her best friend. It felt good…not feeling even a little bit resentful about the attention they were showering on him.