by PJ Fernor
“Go on,” I said.
“Now, you take that out…”
He ran his index finger along the map and the road eventually came to its own end. But the end was at an interesting spot.
“This is the big decision,” Garrison said. “Pike meets up with Main and Main gets out to the highway.”
“Out of town,” I said.
“Connects to the interstate a few miles from there and you’re going east to Jersey or west to wherever the hell you want.”
I opened my mouth and Garrison stopped me.
“But… there’s that access road too. Now there’s nothing there. No houses, cabins, anything like that. Not even if you take the road up along the power lines. It’s nothing. But the land wraps around to here.”
Garrison pointed and looked at me.
“Where Lucy was found,” I said.
“Right.”
I stared at the map.
All of this was information we already had. But to see it condensed like this was interesting. Everything felt so close together yet so far apart at the same time.
Which meant whoever did this took Jessie out of town and brought Lucy back… or was still in town.
“I just don’t get why Lucy was dumped there,” Garrison said. “Maybe the guy knew about that spot? Dumped her there to take off?”
“There’s nothing in those woods, right?” I asked.
“Not there, no. Everyone tells me I’m the expert, but who knows… there’s so much up there, you know? You can start going near the ridge and down. Maybe there’s a way down there, but I’m not sure. Now, if you want to wrap around some more and start looking at more land… that could take forever. And going up the mountain is impossible. He would have had to have dumped the SUV somewhere.”
“I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but this was actually helpful.”
“I’m not as useless as you think,” Garrison said. “But that wasn’t why I brought you over here.”
“Oh?”
Garrison smirked and ran his right index finger along the map again. To another part of town. Near the train tracks and the river. Then toward another set of woods.
“Correct me if I’m wrong here, but isn’t this the spot where you and Tommy… you know… first…”
I turned away from Garrison, my nostrils flaring.
He cackled like an idiot.
“I was just asking,” he said. “I heard rumors a long time ago. Didn’t make you out to be such a wild young woman at the time.”
I swallowed hard and put distance between myself and Garrison.
Because if I didn’t I was going to hurt him.
I moved my mind back to the maps.
The spot where Lucy had been found meant something.
To Johnny it meant a shift in his case. From a missing girl to a murder.
To me it had always meant something more.
A symbol. A sign.
Maybe a slip up by the guy who took Jessie.
There was a reason he chose Jessie. And Lucy. They looked too much alike for it to be a coincidence.
I ended up driving the route Garrison showed me with his finger on the map.
Getting onto Pike and driving past all the stores, including the dance studio.
At the streetlight pole there were flowers, mylar balloons, and teddy bears starting to appear. Those in town were starting to throw in the towel on the fact that Jessie could still be alive.
Which was another reminder I didn’t need of what I was up against.
The cruelest thing ever… time.
At the end of Pike, I turned around to drive back a little to find the side road that led to where Lucy was found.
I parked my car on the side of the road and took the lonely walk down into the thick overgrowth.
The tree line and the mountain was picturesque.
One thing about Sandemor is that it came with a view. The summers were rich with greens and heat. The buzzing of cicadas. The annoyance of gnats and mosquitos. In the fall, the colors on the mountain changed to orange, red, bright yellows, and browns. With some of the trees forever green. In the winter there was nothing quite like the view of the mountain with fresh snow. And then the cycle repeated when the snow melted and the trees began to bud again during the spring months.
And right here… a young girl’s body had been dumped.
Which wasn’t my case to solve.
But it sure felt like it.
Because the guy that took Lucy and killed her… he had to have been the one who took Jessie. To replace Lucy with Jessie.
I looked around again, silence my friend, and I crouched down.
I pushed my hands through the tall grass.
“I’m sorry, Lucy,” I whispered. “I’ll do whatever I can to know your story… and Jessie, I’m not going to give up. No matter what anyone says…”
There were two girls! There’s another girl missing! Why won’t you listen to me?
I shut my eyes and cut the past and present from one another.
I started to stand and opened my eyes when something faintly caught my attention. A quick glimmer of something shiny.
I lost sight of it as quick as it happened.
As I shuffled my feet forward, I dug through the overgrowth again.
I gasped when I found something on the ground.
Somehow, someway, the sun hit the metal at the right angle to catch my eye.
It was a key.
A small key.
Definitely not a key to a vehicle, a house or a door.
But it was a key.
Next to the spot where Lucy had been found.
I scooped the key up with my hand, stood up and stared down at it.
Finding something was better than finding nothing.
But how would a little key like this help me find Jessie?
Chapter Fifty-Three
I stood at the spot where I found the key and gave Ben a call.
“A key?” he asked after I gave him the quick run-down of what I had talked about with Garrison and why I was back at the spot where Lucy was found.
“That’s right,” I said. “A key. A little key. I have no idea how I found it. It was just pure luck. I crouched down and the sun hit the key at the right angle… I don’t know.”
“But it’s not a good key? Not for a car? SUV?”
I shook my head even though Ben wasn’t near me. “No. It’s a small key. Not sure if you have one of those little fireproof safes or something like that. That’s the type of key it looks like.”
“Like a diary key?” Ben asked.
“Did you have a diary growing up, Ben?”
“No,” he said.
There was silence between us.
Even through the phone I felt the tension of our previous conversation. I should have known better than to bring his father up the way I did. It was just in that moment I felt like I had something deeper to connect to Ben with. That we both had lives outside of this case and even though we had spent years apart, at least we could still have something in common. And it had nothing to do with a relationship. That was the last thing on my mind, but just knowing that he felt something that I did. That he could be there for me to talk about Alex and Lo. And then in return I could be there for him to talk about his father…
“Allie Down, are you there?”
“I’m here,” I said. I blinked fast and set my sights to the woods. “I don’t get it though. This place was gone through that night.”
“It was dark,” Ben said. “You said it yourself, it was lucky you found it.”
“Does it even matter? I mean, it’s a little key. I scooped it up into my hand. We can probably run it for prints. Even though… I’m trying so hard here to hold on tight to that fact that she’s still here. In town. Somewhere. That I can solve this here.”
“I know you are.”
“I hope I’m not in the way,” I said.
“How would you be in the way?”
“Laura is push
ing one direction and I’m pulling in another,” I said. “I irritated Johnny for no real reason. Of all people, Garrison made sense today.”
“That’s a shock,” Ben said.
“Right? Yet here I am, at this spot because of Garrison, and I find this key. I’m desperate to find anything out about Jessie. Lucy. Something. Somewhere. Go door to door…”
“Mulvaney started that,” Ben said.
“What?”
“Laura sent him out. I told her it was your idea. She agreed to it. He’s been going up and down the street where Jessie went missing. Starting with Nelle.”
I shut my eyes. “Let me guess… nothing.”
“Nothing.”
“Nobody saw a thing,” I said.
“Nope.”
“He literally just swooped in and grabbed her, Ben,” I said. “Is this really a case of bad place, bad time? That makes me sick. Because her parents were too busy ignoring their daughter? Her mother is with a PI digging up dirt on her ex and her father is out pretending to be some high class businessman to get laid.”
“Allie,” Ben said. “Stop. Don’t do that. It’s going to mess up your judgment.”
“Mess it up?” I asked. “I don’t know who to blame anymore, Ben. Where to turn.”
“Well, avoid the TV for a while,” he said. “Laura’s press conference has a little bit of everyone and everything. Including an interview with both Connor and Cat. Their plea for the return of their daughter.”
“At this point, I’ll take anything we can get,” I said. “I wish we had been able to do more. Sooner. You know?”
“Can’t go back in time,” Ben said. “You know that.”
His voice was calmer, soothing, the normal Ben. The Ben I expected. The Ben I sort of needed.
“And, hey,” he said, “I know you won’t take this as the final answer, but do you remember when we were teenagers and there was that guy who crashed his car near the river?”
“Of course I remember,” I said. “It was big news. Everyone wondered which one of us it was. Everyone called me thinking it was Tommy.”
“Right,” Ben said. The word right coming out a bit painful, resentful, even jealous. “My point, Allie, is everyone was fascinated by it. It was just some random guy who got drunk, lost, and crashed. But we all had to see it, right?”
“What’s your point?”
“Maybe someone was over there,” Ben said. “You know teenagers. Wanting to see where the body was found. Wanting to take a selfie or something ridiculous.”
“So someone dropped the key by accident,” I said.
“Who knows.”
“Ben, if I say something, will you think I’m crazy?”
“Depends on what you say,” he said with a laugh.
“Thanks for that.”
“I’m joking. What’s up?”
“I can feel it,” I said. “Like he’s close. Like Jessie is alive. I just…”
“Then keep that feeling,” Ben said. “Keep doing what you’re doing. You trust your gut. I’ll give you the other scenarios. And I’m going to keep one foot in each pool, okay?”
“As much as I hate to say this, I’m going to have to give Johnny a call,” I said.
“Good luck with that. You want to meet up with him? I’ll meet you too.”
“I’m fine, Ben. Thank you.”
“Call me if you need anything else.”
We ended the call.
I didn’t like the way I felt. About anything, honestly.
The case. Ben. Old friends. Lo. My sister’s death. Coming back to Sandemor.
I walked back to my car and sat in the driver’s seat and put the key next to me on the seat.
As much as it pained me to do it, I called Johnny.
“Detective Barby,” his tough voice said.
“Johnny, it’s Allie.”
“Allie? Who?”
“Allie…”
“From the bar the other night? Hey, listen, sweetie, I’m sorry I had to kiss and run…”
“It’s Allie Down,” I said. “Detective Allie Down.”
“Oh,” Johnny said. He laughed. “Right. Detective Allie Down. Right. Well, how embarrassing for me, huh?”
“I think it’s more embarrassing for any woman that falls for your sweet talk,” I said.
“You say that now, but give it time. We can have a drink and talk about it. I can try some new material on you. See how it makes you feel.”
I shook my head. “I didn’t call to talk about your dating life.”
“You brought it up.”
“I did not…” I cleared my throat. “I called about Lucy.”
“What about her? We just finished the press conference. I’m on my way to talk to the parents again. Their case is becoming something big now. If they had only listened to me in the beginning…”
“I found a key.”
“A key?” Johnny asked. “To my heart?”
“Johnny, just listen. It’s a little key. Maybe to a safe. A diary. I don’t know. I found it at the spot where Lucy was found.”
“Ah,” Johnny said. “So a little key is going to crack this case wide open?”
“I still believe your case and my case are connected,” I said. “That’s the only reason I’m talking to you.”
“Sure,” he said. “So you’re calling about a key. What about it?”
“Does it a ring a bell to you? Anything in your case?”
“A key? No.”
“Maybe Lucy had a diary?”
“Don’t know,” Johnny said. “Not sure it matters.”
“Well, the key wasn’t found the night Lucy was,” I said. “But now I found it.”
“Maybe it was an oversight,” he said. “I remember how hectic that night was. Us trying to work. Your department and town getting in the way. Or maybe someone dropped it there. Someone snooping. Wanting to get the rush of seeing the place where a dead body was found.”
“Right,” I said.
“Look, I wish I had more. I’m going to go talk to Lucy’s parents again. In my experience, the harder you dig there, the more you find. Everyone has more than one secret. The reason why is because if you get called out, you give up the lesser of all evils of your secrets. Got it?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Just keep in mind I found a key.”
“How can I ever forget you calling me? Next time, we should meet up.”
“Goodbye, Johnny,” I said.
I ended the called and tossed my phone to the passenger seat.
I had a choice to make now.
Let the case open up more and see who called in with tips. Figure out if the kidnapper took Jessie out of town. Find something else to work on in town. Like Miss Westchester’s missing cat.
Or I could just keep going.
And as twisted as the day had been, first I took Garrison’s advice, and now I was about to take Johnny’s advice.
I was desperate.
And I wanted to talk to Jessie’s parents one more time.
Chapter Fifty-Four
I understood what Garrison meant by the condition of the town by going down a road for a mile or so.
Where Cat lived was a far cry from the peaceful neighborhood where Connor lived. And to top that off, it was where Cat had once lived. I pictured them picking out the house to buy. Maybe before Jessie was born. Maybe Cat was pregnant when they bought the house.
Either way, it was a purchase they made together, done with love and planning, and never the intention of going through a terrible divorce. Or having their only daughter go missing.
Which was completely their fault.
In the back of my mind I wanted to tell Laura to find a way to press charges against both Connor and Cat. For negligence. At the very least.
I collected myself as I sat outside the apartment building.
There were still plenty of parts of town that resembled the old coal cracker part of the state. Where houses were thrown up almost touching, factories opening near
the river, the tracks running town to town, and of course, coal mines everywhere.
A lot of buildings were torn down, left to rot, or converted into cheap apartment living. And the word cheap came with a price. Nothing was cheap. Nothing was free.
The concrete patio area outside the building was cracked and uneven.
Two women sat in plastic folding chairs that had rust on the metal handles.
One on each side of the door, both looking haggard and almost desperate for the grave. Their hair was disheveled, their skin so loose that their veins almost looked like blue and red wires ready to pop free. Their faces were skeletal when they looked at me. Their eyes were very much alive though.
Both with a cigarette burning in their left hands, the ashes long and hooked, ready to break off with the smallest flick of a breeze from Mother Nature.
“Did you find her yet?” the woman on the left asked me.
“Excuse me?”
“Jessie,” the woman said. “Did you find her?”
“Not yet,” I said.
“She was a sweetheart,” the other woman said.
“You knew her?”
“Of course. Always made us smile. Brought me my paper each morning. That son of a gun Henry won’t get out of his car to bring the paper to the door anymore. So he just flicks it here at the main door. For anyone to take.”
“But little Jessie always got our papers, the sweetheart she was,” the other woman said. “I always missed her when she was at her father’s house. That crooked piece of trash.”
“Well, I’m going to make sure Jessie gets home safe,” I said.
“Oh, Jesus, I pray you at least get her mother something to bury,” the first woman said.
My stomach felt sick.
I nodded to the women and went into the building.
The smell was overwhelming.
It smelled dirty and salty.
Like the steps and foyer hadn’t been cleaned in twenty years. And then there was the smell of someone cooking soup.
I walked down the hallway next to the steps to the first door.
There was a crooked wreath on the door that looked about as old as the building.
It read HOME SWEET HOME.
There were stickers on the O’s and it made me smile and made my stomach a little sick as I imagined Jessie decorating the sign for her mother. I imagined Jessie taking on a lot of extra roles in her young life because of her parent’s divorce and actions.