Find Her Alive

by Regan, Lisa

  Shannon stood in the doorway with tears streaming down her face. Lisette adjusted her reading glasses and turned some more pages. “Let me just look and see,” she said. “Maybe I can figure out what it is she wanted you to read.”

  “No,” Josie said. “I want to hear it. Please. Go on.”

  Shannon walked over and sat beside Josie. As Lisette read on, Shannon inched her chair closer to Josie’s until they were touching. Josie leaned into her mother, letting her head rest on Shannon’s shoulder as Lisette read well into the night. The details were heart-wrenching. Trinity’s high school experience was far worse than even Shannon and Christian knew. The bullying was so relentless that eventually, Trinity began eating lunch in a bathroom stall. Her locker was vandalized on an almost daily basis—usually with something that smelled so that she’d have to walk around all day with one or more of her books stinking like urine or dog feces. She couldn’t even get partners in her classes when teachers assigned group projects. In biology class when she was supposed to be working with a partner, she cut class instead, too embarrassed to work alone. With each new revelation, anger flamed brighter in Josie’s core.

  Then an entry struck a more hopeful tone.

  Vanessa,

  I met you today. Okay, well not you, but what I imagine you’d be like if you had lived. Actually, the girl I met looked a lot like me only she had this bright teal scarf around her neck that didn’t really go with her outfit. Like I would never wear that scarf with a coral shirt, but that’s not the point. The point is that I couldn’t help imagining that she was you. Sometimes I like to pretend you didn’t die in the fire at all, but that we were separated at birth instead. If we had been separated at birth and you were alive, you’d definitely be like the girl I met today. By the way, I got in serious trouble, but I don’t even care. I didn’t get her name which is okay because I like to think it was you. We were on that stupid school trip I told you about. The one I didn’t want to go on. We went to a deer farm and pumpkin patch which is just dumb. What is this? Kindergarten? I had to sit by myself on the bus of course and that bitch, Melanie, messed with me the whole time. She even threw gum at me and it got in my hair. Then everyone laughed hysterically. Longest bus ride ever. We got to the farm and everyone went off on their own. I was actually glad to be alone for once. I wanted to try to get the gum out of my hair but all they had were portajohns. So gross.

  Anyway, there were a bunch of other schools there. At the end of the day I was walking back to the bus when I heard Melanie and her bitchy friends talking behind me. At first, I didn’t think they noticed me. Then this group of girls from some other school were walking past me in the other direction and I felt Melanie shove me right into the other girls. I know it was her. I fell right into one girl and knocked her down. She was pissed. Crazy pissed. She got up and started yelling at me. Before I could explain, she shoved me. I could hear Melanie and her friends laughing. I just lost it. I started shoving the girl back and the next thing I knew we were rolling around on the ground. I was trying to hit her, and she was pulling my hair. It hurt like hell. Then the girl ended up on top of me, and Melanie was standing behind her yelling about how she saw me knock her down and that she should kick my ass. Which she started to do. I’m ashamed to say it but ‘losing it’ didn’t get me very far. To tell you the truth—and I would only tell you this, no one else—I’m really pathetic. The worst part was when I started to cry.

  Then, out of nowhere, you were there. I thought I was hallucinating. Okay, so it wasn’t you. It was that girl I told you about with the bright teal mismatched scarf. I have no idea who she was or what school she was from, but she kicked that crazy girl right off me. She must have known her because she called her Beverly. She said, “Beverly, get off her.” Then she elbowed Melanie right in the face. It was amazing. I only wish she had broken Melanie’s nose. She made her bleed, but apparently it wasn’t broken. Then she dragged Beverly right up by her hair and told her to leave me the hell alone. Beverly told her to stay out of it but she said, “There’s nothing to stay out of cause you’re going to leave her alone or I’m going to make you sorry you got out of bed this morning.” Then she gave Beverly this glare. It was insane. I never saw anything like it. Beverly looked like she was going to piss herself. Meanwhile, dumbass Melanie was fake crying and got the attention of some teachers. They started running over and I knew I was screwed but I didn’t even care. You didn’t even care. You tossed Beverly aside and put your finger right in Melanie’s face. She even jumped back. You told her you’d make her sorry, too. Then you said if she wanted to keep her teeth in her mouth, she’d stop messing with me, too. By that time, the teachers were there. I told you to go so you wouldn’t get in trouble. You didn’t even seem like you cared. You gave Beverly and Melanie this warning look and then you walked off, all slow, like you knew neither of them would tell on you—and they didn’t. We all got in trouble, but no one said anything about you. Best of all, Melanie left me alone the whole bus ride home. I can’t wait to see her face at school tomorrow!

  Josie’s heart was a freight train trying to burst out of her chest.

  When Lisette stopped reading, Shannon said, “She never told me that. All she ever said was that she got into a fight with a girl from another school and that she accidentally hit Melanie. All three girls got in trouble.”

  “That’s when she had to do community service,” Josie whispered.

  “Yes.”

  Josie felt Lisette’s eyes on her. She knew. Somehow, Lisette knew. Of course she did. Josie had been living with Lisette by the time she was in high school. She said, “Josie.”

  “Not now, Gram.”

  “What?” Shannon asked, looking from Josie to Lisette and back.

  “Nothing,” Josie said. “Just something I need to tell Trinity when we find her.”

  Lisette smiled. She turned a page, and began reading again, but was soon interrupted by Noah. “Josie,” he said from the doorway. She looked up to see that his face was flushed. She jumped up. “What is it?”

  “The Bone Artist just made contact.”

  Fifty-Two

  Dawn was breaking in a splash of pink and purple on the horizon. Lisette and Shannon promised to continue working on the diary while Noah and Josie drove to the station house. Gretchen, Mettner, and Drake were already there, looking as though they hadn’t slept in a week which, essentially, they hadn’t. They met in the great room, all gathered around the detectives’ desks. Chief Chitwood was there as well, his arms folded over his thin chest.

  “What’s going on?” Josie said.

  Gretchen said, “The Bone Artist left you a package at Moss Gardens Trailer Park.”

  Josie stared at her for a long moment, not sure she was hearing Gretchen correctly.

  Drake said, “There are no cameras there, which works out perfectly for this guy, but your team says that the park has special meaning for you.”

  Josie nodded slowly, her mind working. “I was raised there. That’s where Trinity and I were when we first talked about the fact that we were probably sisters.”

  “The only way that the Bone Artist would know about the significance of the trailer park…” Mettner began but trailed off. None of them wanted to say it. It was as if saying it might jinx it somehow. But Josie knew what they were all thinking: Trinity might still be alive.

  Josie said, “Take me to the trailer park.”

  They rode in a caravan of unmarked vehicles. There was no need for their emergency lights as the traffic was almost non-existent that early in the morning. Moss Gardens sat on top of a hill behind the city park, a collection of about two dozen trailer homes. At the entrance, a wrought-iron archway announced the name of the park in large, ornate letters. Beyond it were brightly painted, well-kept trailers, their small yards cheerily decorated. It was a far cry from the dreariness of her youth. The caravan passed the lot where her childhood home had once been. The trailer she’d lived in with the people she’d believed to be her paren
ts had been torn down long ago after a fire destroyed most of it. The last time Josie was in the park, the lot had held nothing but a few pipes poking from yellowed grass. Now there was a new trailer with cream siding, its windows trimmed in burgundy. The driveway was freshly blacktopped, and the tiny yard in front of it had been turned into a large flowerbed boasting a large array of vibrant colors.

  Josie watched it pass by as the caravan headed toward the back of the park where a paved one-lane road ran alongside a wooded valley that lay between the trailer park and one of Denton’s working-class neighborhoods. The vehicles stopped in a line along the woodland side and they all got out.

  Josie asked Mettner, “Does the Price family still live here?”

  He nodded and gave her a grim smile. “That’s who called us.”

  Three years earlier during a different investigation, Maureen Price and her two boys, Kyle and Troy, had been instrumental in helping Josie and her team resolve a difficult case. The last time Josie had seen them, Kyle was twelve and Troy was eleven. Walking toward their trailer, Josie barely recognized Kyle, now fifteen, and taller than her. He was still thin, with thick brown hair that fell just above his eyes, but he looked much older. More like a college student, Josie thought. He stood at the edge of the Price driveway, dressed in jeans and a gray T-shirt with the periodic table on it and beneath that, the words: “I wear this shirt periodically”. He smiled when he saw her. “Detective Quinn.”

  “Just Josie to you, Kyle,” she said. “How are you? How’s your mom and Troy?”

  “Pretty good,” he replied, bobbing his head. He pointed to an area from their yard to the street that he had cordoned off using hockey sticks. In the center of it was a cardboard box, slightly bigger than the one Trinity had received at Josie and Noah’s house. On the top of it, large block letters spelled out Josie’s name. Kyle said, “I saw you on the news last night. I’m sorry about your sister.”

  “Thank you,” Josie replied. Turning to Mettner, she said, “Call Hummel.”

  “Already did,” he said. “The ERT is on the way.”

  “And Dr. Feist,” Josie said.

  “What?” Mettner said.

  Josie turned to see all three members of her team and Drake staring at her. “There’s only one thing that could be in that box,” she said. “Remains. Let’s just hope they’re not Trinity’s.”

  No one spoke.

  She turned back to Kyle. “Did you see who left this?”

  He shook his head. “No, I’m sorry. My bedroom is on this side of the trailer. Near the road. A noise woke me up. Like a low rumble. Took me a few minutes to realize it was a car or a truck idling. Probably a truck by the sound of it. By the time I got up to look out the window, I heard the sound of screeching, like tires burning rubber to get the hell out of here.”

  “We’ll canvass the park,” Gretchen said. She, Noah, and Drake walked off.

  Kyle continued, “I saw taillights, that way, but I couldn’t make out a plate or anything. Looked like a white pickup to me, but it was really dark. I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay,” Josie said. “You did great.”

  “I grabbed a flashlight, came out here, and looked around. I checked to see if our bikes were still here. That’s what I thought—that someone had come to steal our bikes, but they were fine. Then I looked at my mom’s car, thinking maybe someone was back here vandalizing stuff. That kind of thing happens around here, unfortunately. Car was fine. I was just shining the light around to see if anything was messed with and I saw the box. When I saw your name on it, I had a real bad feeling. I knew something was up cause, like I said, we saw you on the news last night.”

  “I appreciate you calling us,” Josie said. “Did you put the hockey sticks out?”

  “Yeah, I didn’t want anyone to walk by and try to touch it or step on it or anything. I’ve been out here the whole time. My mom got up and drove around, trying to see if she could find the truck but it was gone. Then she had to take my brother to school and go to work. I figured it was okay if I was late to school for something like this.”

  Josie smiled. “I’m sure I can work it out with your principal. What you did was very smart.”

  The sun peeked over the horizon by the time Hummel and his team arrived to process the scene. Josie and Mettner conferred with Noah, Gretchen, and Drake while the ERT got to work. Unfortunately, no one else in the trailer park had noticed a white pickup or anything else unusual. The Bone Artist had escaped into the night like a ghost. Again.

  “Boss,” Hummel called.

  Josie walked over to the area Kyle had marked off where Hummel now knelt. In his gloved hands was the box, its flaps now open. Inside, in a bed of what looked like paper towels, lay a small curved bone about three inches in length. Josie knew immediately what it was, and her throat filled with bile. She thought of Bobbi Ingram’s ghastly scar and hoped the rib bone she was looking at didn’t belong to Trinity.

  “I’d like Dr. Feist to have a look at it, see if she can glean any information from examining it. Then it needs to be sent to the FBI lab immediately for expedited processing,” Josie said, trying to keep her voice steady. “There was no note?”

  “Only this,” Hummel said. He turned one of the cardboard flaps all the way out and pointed to two words written in black Magic Marker. ‘Your move.’

  Josie felt a crush of bodies behind her and moved aside so the rest of the team could have a look. She took a few steps toward the street. Jenny Chan, a newer member of the ERT, knelt in the road. “Detective Quinn,” she said. “It looks like the killer left something behind.”

  Josie dared not get excited as she moved closer to Chan and peered down at the asphalt. “Here,” Chan said, pointing to a small amount of mud on the otherwise pristine road. “Look what it’s in the shape of.”

  Josie’s heart gave a little flutter. “A tire tread.”

  Chan nodded. “From a truck, judging by the size of it. We’ll get it off to the lab and see if the soil can tell us anything about where this guy came from.”

  Josie knew this was unlikely, but it was more than the killer had ever left behind at any scene before. “Thank you, Officer Chan.”

  Fifty-Three

  “I think I’ve found what Trinity wanted you to read,” Lisette said when Josie and Noah returned to the house. “Sit.”

  Exhaustion clouded Josie’s mind, but she sat at the kitchen table anyway. Her head pounded harder than ever. She knew she needed to rest but not until she knew what else was in the diary. Noah made more coffee. Shannon had gone to bed, while Christian and Patrick sat in the living room. Christian had dozed off, and Patrick scrolled on his phone. Once Noah had supplied both Josie and Lisette with fresh cups of coffee, Lisette began to read again.

  Vanessa:

  Oh boy, did I ever get in trouble. All for being pushed into a girl and then getting my ass kicked by her. It hardly seems fair, but whatever. The good news is that Melanie got in trouble, too. Big time. Well, we both got suspended. I’m in worse trouble than her though because she told everyone I was the one who elbowed her in the nose. I promised I wouldn’t tell on you—okay, well on the girl who actually hit her—so I’m taking the blame. Her mom pressed criminal charges against me. Can you believe that? I wonder if she knows what a mean, lying, manipulative cow Melanie really is. Mom and Dad got me a lawyer though and he made some kind of deal with the judge or the DA, or whoever, so I only have to do community service. I thought they’d make me pick up trash on the highway or something but instead, I have to go to this nature preserve and help out there. It’s mostly picking up litter and helping to clean out the animal enclosures. That might sound great—Mom said, “Oh, how fascinating”—but it’s disgusting. I never knew there were so many different kinds of poop. (Gag.)

  The good news is, there are a couple of other kids volunteering there who are around my age and they’re all pretty nice. Other teenagers who don’t treat me like garbage. Imagine that! I don’t think any of them are th
ere because they have to be, though. They all seem pretty into nature and stuff. They get to do cool stuff, like give tours to people and do crafts with groups of kids who come to visit, like from daycares and schools and stuff. There’s this one kid, Max, who might be there on probation like me. He’s a little creepy but I think it might just be the way he looks. He’s got some big red scar running down the middle of his face. He must get crucified at whatever school he goes to, if the kids there are anything like the kids at my school.

  “Oh my God,” Josie said.

  “Do we know the name and location of this nature preserve?” Noah asked.

  “Go get Christian and see if he remembers. If not, wake Shannon and find out.”

  Noah raced into the other room.

  “Keep going,” Josie told Lisette.

  Lisette said, “Many of these entries are just about the disgusting work she had to do at the preserve. She talks about Max but mostly just about how mysterious he is and how he never talks to anyone. But this one… here, listen to this one.”

  Vanessa:

  I finally got Max to talk to me today. Turns out he’s sixteen. He claims he’s not there for community service. He laughed when he found out that I was. I was a little offended at first but then he said it was hard to imagine someone like me getting into enough trouble that I’d have to do community service. I wanted to ask him what he meant by ‘someone like me’ but I didn’t have a chance because then we got sent over to clean out the cages where they keep the raptors who are recovering from injuries. There’s a red-tailed hawk and two owls in there right now. They’re kind of cool. Max didn’t like them much but he knew a lot about them. Turns out his dad is some kind of professional bird watcher or something. Works at a college. Or he did, I guess. The way Max talked, I wasn’t sure if his dad was still alive or not. He got real weird when I started asking him about his family so I stopped.