From a Single Seed: A Novel

by Teri Ames

  “So what happened next?”

  “I took her keys.”

  “Why did you take the keys?”

  Keenan looked puzzled. “So she couldn’t drive, obviously. If she’d tried to drive to Maine in the condition she was in, she would have killed herself and her friends.”

  “How did she react to you taking the keys?”

  “She wasn’t happy, but she didn’t go crazy or anything. She just left.”

  “Did you see her again?”

  “No. I assumed she had found her friends, and they’d gone off somewhere. I couldn’t find any of them at the party, so I drove the car back to her dorm.”

  “What were you thinking?”

  “I was thinking she needed to catch a plane the next day and it would be easier for her if she didn’t have to worry about going back for her car.”

  “Was it a shorter walk for you from her dorm?”

  “Actually, it would have been shorter if I’d walked home from the party.”

  “So you were just being a nice guy?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Even though you thought she was going to break up with you?”

  “Is that so hard to believe?”

  Evan looked away for a few seconds while he pondered the possibility. “Why didn’t you tell the police any of this when they came to your house?”

  “They didn’t ask.”

  “Maybe not specifically, but they asked you to tell everything.”

  “That Shores guy isn’t exactly easy to talk to.”

  Evan laughed. “Yeah, he’s a bit uptight. So, who do you think I should talk to to figure out what happened to Shannon?”

  “I would talk to the two girls she was with that night. They were probably the last ones to see her.”

  “Did you try to get in touch with her after she left the party?”

  “Yeah. I called her cell a bunch of times.”

  “Did she answer?”

  “Not once. So I walked over to her dorm room to return her keys.”

  “But she wasn’t there?”

  “Nope. That’s why I threw her keys in my desk drawer. I didn’t know what else to do with them, and my brother was coming to pick me up.

  “Okay, thanks for talking to me.”

  “Thanks for lunch. Can I ask you something?”

  “Sure, go ahead.”

  “Do you believe me?”

  “Why wouldn’t I?”

  “Because the police seem to think I did something to Shannon. It’s crazy.”

  “The police are conducting a criminal investigation. I’m trying to find a missing person. We have a different focus.”

  “You didn’t actually answer the question.”

  “Do I believe you? I don’t know yet.”

  “At least you’ve been honest with me.” Keenan sighed.

  “Can I contact you if I have more questions?”

  “Sure, but next time call my cell, okay? I’m getting sick of people coming to practice to find me.”

  After Keenan left, Evan turned off the digital recorder he had in his pocket.

  DUSTIN WAS supposed to pick up Sienna and Quinn after school. He hadn’t seen them since Christmas because they’d been away with Joanne for the rest of school vacation.

  He waited in his Explorer in the pickup line at the elementary school with his engine running. There were No Idling signs everywhere in front of the school, but lots of the drivers were ignoring them. It was too cold to care about air quality. With the heat blasting into the car, he closed his eyes and, without meaning to, dozed off.

  He woke up when the car door slammed. Quinn was strapping himself into the back seat.

  “Anson got a bloody nose so we couldn’t have art today,” Quinn said.

  “I’m sure you’ll get to do art another day.”

  “Art’s my favorite class.”

  “I’m sorry,” Dustin said. He hadn’t seen his son in ten days, the longest they’d been apart since Quinn was born. It felt like their reunion should have been more momentous, at least warranted a hug.

  Sienna was getting in her side. “Mrs. Bevins gave us homework,” she said. Dustin saw that tears were forming in the corners of her eyes.

  “I’m sure you’ll get it done. I can help if you want.”

  “We need to use a computer, Dad. You don’t have a computer at your apartment.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “You know what? You can do your homework at Grandma’s. I need you guys to go there tomorrow anyway.”

  “I thought we were spending the weekend with you.”

  “You are. I just need to work for a couple of hours tomorrow.”

  “Oh.”

  “How was Florida?” Dustin said, hoping to change the subject. “Did you have a good visit with Nanna and Papa?” Joanne’s parents had moved to Florida the previous fall.

  “We ended up going to Puerto Rico. It was too cold and cloudy in Florida, so Gregor decided we needed to go somewhere warmer. He wanted to go to the Dominican Republic, but we didn’t have passports.”

  “Gregor went with you guys?” Dustin said.

  “Yeah,” Sienna said.

  “Wow.” Dustin wanted to say more, but didn’t know where to start. His kids had spent Christmas break with Joanne and her boyfriend in Puerto Rico. Which he had just learned did not require passports. He pictured Gregor and Joanne lounging on a beach while his kids splashed in the waves. It was so totally fucked up, he didn’t know where to fucking start.

  It was quiet in the car while he drove to the apartment. He had meant to do something to make the apartment more like a home, maybe get a couch. But there hadn’t been time while the kids were away. He’d been working around the clock on the missing girl case. Hell, he’d even forgotten about getting a Wii. He needed to find Shannon Dawson so he could get on with his life.

  “Can we watch TV?” Quinn said.

  “Sure,” Dustin said.

  “I call the chair,” Sienna said. At least he had food in the house this time.

  Chapter 17

  Sunday, November 24, 2013

  KEENAN AND Shannon had spent Saturday night in her dorm room since her roommate was out of town for a change. They got up too late for breakfast at the dining hall, so they decided to jog into town for bagels before going for a workout. Keenan needed to lift weights. Shannon had her own workout routine.

  They sat in the back of The Bagel Shoppe drinking hot coffee and eating warm bagels with cream cheese. Shannon’s phone made chiming noise, so she picked it up.

  “What’s up?” Keenan asked.

  “Just a text from my friend Sophie in California. She wants me to look at a video she just shared on Facebook.” Shannon put her phone between them on the table and played the video. The video was entitled Restoring Your Faith in Humanity. It combined clips of ordinary people saving wild animals in trouble around the world.

  “That’s totally cool,” Keenan said. “My parents would love that.”

  “Yeah. I’m going to share it and post a comment to Sophie. That way you can share it too.”

  While Shannon typed, Keenan caressed her cheek. He couldn’t help it, he just wanted to touch her all the time. When she finished, she smiled at him and took his hand, but let go a minute later so she could finish her bagel.

  “We can’t sit here all day, you know,” Shannon said.

  “I know. We both need to work out. Then, there’s practice and studying.”

  “I’ve got a chemistry lab report due on Tuesday, so I probably won’t see you for a couple of days.”

  “That’s okay. But I want to see you before you leave for Thanksgiving.”

  “I’ll make sure to save Tuesday night for you.”

  “You could always come home with me for Thanksgiving, you know.”

  “I’m not sure I’m ready for that. It’s a little soon.”

  He wanted her to change her mind, but he had a sense that, if he pushed too hard, she would pull back from him. H
e feigned nonchalance. “My parents are cool. And my mom’s a great cook. They’d put you in the guest room, of course, but I could sneak in and visit you.”

  “It’s tempting, but I already told Amy I’d go home with her. Besides, I want to do some things in the city.”

  Keenan realized he had been holding his breath, hoping for a different answer. He exhaled and tried to give her a smile that looked genuine. “You’d rather spend the weekend in New York City than Lyndonville, Vermont. Are you crazy?”

  “Yup. Crazy for you.”

  Keenan smiled for real.

  Chapter 18

  Saturday, January 4, 2014

  THE JUDGE was quick to sign off on the warrant to search the Maple Street house. The chief was a little surprised, but with a young woman missing, the judge probably thought it prudent to do what he could to help. The chief recruited Sergeant Dave Patterson to help him and Dustin execute the warrant. They went to the house first thing the next morning.

  “Is anyone staying here now?” Patterson asked as they mounted the front steps.

  “I don’t think so,” Dustin said. “The property is owned by Ken Perkins. He owns a dozen or so rental properties near the campus. He said this one is rented to three male seniors. I drove by last night after I submitted the paperwork to the judge. There were no lights, so I figured we could wait until this morning to search.”

  “The students probably won’t be back for another week or two,” the chief said.

  “That’s what I figured,” Dustin said.

  Except for a lone red Solo cup tipped sideways and wedged under the porch railing, there was no evidence of the party from a few weeks before. The chief knocked. There was no sound or movement within the house.

  “You want me to break the door down?” Patterson asked.

  “Let’s see if we can find a less destructive means of entry first,” the chief said.

  “On TV, they would just break the door down,” Patterson said.

  “Good thing we don’t just play cops on TV,” the chief said. “Look around for a hidden key.”

  “A key, really?” Patterson said with a snort.

  “Humor me,” the chief said.

  “Got it,” Dustin said a minute later, holding up a key. “It was stuck to a magnet under the mailbox.”

  “Hmph,” said Patterson. “How’d you know?”

  The chief shrugged. “They’re a group of college students. Probably always forgetting their keys.”

  The three cops let themselves in and shut the front door against the cold. It was clear that the house was uninhabited. The thermostat was set just high enough to keep the pipes from bursting.

  “If the girl’s here, she’s dead from hypothermia,” Patterson said.

  The chief nodded. “Don’t touch anything without taking photos first.”

  “What are we looking for?” Patterson asked.

  “Signs of a party. Signs of a struggle. Particularly on the back deck. That was where the witness said Shannon and Keenan argued. Look for blood.”

  “Who cares if there was a party?” Patterson asked.

  “We have a working theory on what happened to the girl, but we don’t know for sure. We may never pin a murder on anyone, but if people find out that the renters of this house were serving alcohol to minors, and we didn’t do anything, that looks bad. We may need to charge them with the alcohol violation as a public relations move.”

  “How thoroughly do we search?” Dustin said.

  “Just look through everything, but don’t tear the place apart. For all we know one of these kids has a parent who’s a high-powered lawyer. The warrant give us authority to search for evidence that alcohol was served to minors and evidence of a struggle on or near the back deck, anything belonging to Shannon Dawson, and a body. I think that gives us a right to look around the whole place, but don’t go overboard. Capisce?”

  “Gotcha,” Dustin said.

  The house was surprisingly clean. The garbage can in the kitchen was empty. As was the larger can in the garage. There were two six packs of empty Budweiser bottles in the garage and a nearly full bottle of Stolichnaya vodka in the freezer. The officers poked around in the three upstairs bedrooms, but found nothing. Either the party was a low-key affair or someone had taken the time to clean up afterwards.

  By unspoken agreement, they were saving the deck for last. It was the place they most expected to find something useful. It turned out the deck was not sheltered from the elements, and everything was covered by twelve inches of crusty snow.

  “This is a wild goose chase,” Patterson said.

  “Sure looks that way,” Dustin said.

  “Take photos,” the chief said. “I’m going to get some shovels from the vehicles.”

  The chief was back a few minutes later with two shovels. “Let’s look under the deck first. Just in case.”

  Dustin got down on his hands and knees. “There’s nothing here.”

  “Let’s start slowly and carefully removing the snow,” the chief said.

  “What are we looking for?”

  “Evidence of foul play.”

  “Can you give me some idea what that looks like?”

  “Not really. Just wing it.”

  An hour later, the deck was clear.

  “That was a waste of time,” Patterson said.

  “No, it wasn’t,” the chief said. “Sometimes when you investigate, it’s just a matter of ruling things out. We now know the girl’s not here and there’s no evidence that anything happened to her here. Whatever happened probably happened after she left. We need to keep talking to witnesses. Somebody saw her leave the party.”

  “Where does the backyard go?” Dustin said.

  “That’s a good question. Go check,” the chief said.

  Dustin carefully made his way across the backyard, stomping the icy crust to reach solid footing. A few minutes later, he made his way back using the same footprints.

  “It backs up to Mear Woods.”

  “Maybe we need to search the woods?” Patterson said.

  “I think we’d be remiss if we didn’t,” the chief said.

  “It’s a couple hundred acres,” Patterson said.

  “We’ll need volunteers,” Dustin said.

  “We won’t have trouble getting them,” the chief said. “The disappearance has gotten a lot of press. People will step up.”

  Dustin scowled. “Hey chief, do we really want some local yokel finding this girl’s body? It could really screw up our crime scene. Besides, if she was killed two weeks ago, she’s buried under a foot of snow. She’s nothing more than a mound.”

  The chief nodded. “If we round up all the law enforcement officers in the county, how many you think we can get on the search?”

  “Thirty?” Patterson said, shrugging.

  “Is that enough to canvas the woods?” Dustin said.

  “Depends on what we’re looking for,” Patterson said.

  “At this point, I just want to find her body,” Dustin said.

  “It’ll probably do,” the chief said.

  Chapter 19

  Sunday, January 5, 2014

  THE DAY of the search dawned clear and painfully cold at minus twelve degrees Fahrenheit. It was still twilight when everyone gathered at 7:00 a.m. in the backyard of the Maple Street party house. Dustin counted twenty-seven law enforcement officers. Most of them were off the clock, but everyone was wearing their department-issued parkas. Two departments brought their K-9 units. The air was cloudy from respiration and steaming coffee. Every few seconds someone stomped to stay warm.

  Glenn Peterson had a German Shepherd named B.J. “It may be too late for the dogs,” he said. “How long has the girl been missing?”

  “Fifteen days.” Dustin said.

  “I’ve heard of dogs picking up a scent ten to twelve days old, but the conditions have to be right,” Glenn said.

  “The snow probably killed the trail,” Dustin said.

  “Actual
ly, the snow could have the effect of preserving it. Dogs can smell through snow. But fifteen days is still a long time.”

  “Will the dogs be able to help find the body, assuming there is one?”

  “B.J. and Duke aren’t trained as a cadaver dogs, but if her body is out there, they may pick up on her scent somewhere near the body.”

  “So it’s worth a try?”

  “Definitely.”

  At 7:10, the chief started speaking. “Okay, everyone. First, thanks for coming out today, You’re all a credit to our profession. Second, we’ve got two hundred acres of woods to comb. This house was the last place anyone saw Shannon Dawson. I want you all to fan out from here, form a line, then head north. The woods border Route 57 on one side, Route 12 on the other and residential properties on the other two. It’s not really a rectangle, but it’s close. If everyone gets to the north end and we haven’t found anything, we’ll try it again going east to west.

  “Also, there’s a fair amount of snow and there’s been some drifting. As soon as possible, find yourself a long stick. If you see anything that looks like it could have a body buried in it, poke it with the stick. It’s a lot faster than digging up every snowdrift in the woods. If anyone finds anything, call my cell. If you don’t have my cell, hang back and I’ll give it to you. Good luck, and thanks again.”

  The dogs were shown a piece of Shannon’s clothing, but neither one seemed immediately to pick up any trail. The crowd started moving.

  By eight thirty, the first of the officers reached the other side of the woods. At nine o’clock, the group started again in a perpendicular direction. As they trickled out of the woods, they got into their cars and left. They were probably all feeling as deflated as Dustin, and just as eager to get back to a heated building.

  At noon, Dustin and the chief met with the Dawsons and their investigator at the station. Evan Halliday had been invited to help with the search, but had apparently thought it beneath him. The guy had probably spent the morning in the sauna at the Marriott while everyone else had been out freezing their nuts off.

  The chief described how they had conducted the search. “We knew it was a long shot,” he concluded.

  “The time to search was right after Shannon disappeared,” Halliday said. “I’m not saying it was a complete waste of time, but––” His phone vibrating in his pocket was audible in the quiet room. He pulled it out and swiped the screen, not bothering to finish his sentence.