Page 36 of Forever Gone

Relief came first. Another investigator meant someone to share the interviews, reports, and long hours inside the empty field office.

Then suspicion followed.

Meg knew Selena well enough to include the warning for a reason.

She read the message again, wondering who Meg had sent.

CHAPTER SIX

The unfamiliar car sat in the morning gray, alone in the parking lot outside the Harlan County field office.

Selena slowed as she turned in, studying the dark blue sedan beneath the maple near the entrance. Kentucky plates. No government markings. The windshield was clean except for a visitor permit resting on the dashboard, though she could not read the writing from her car.

Meg’s message returned to her.

NEW AGENT ARRIVING TOMORROW. BE NICE.

Selena parked two spaces away and shut off the engine. The sedan remained empty. Whoever owned it might already be inside, but the front doors appeared closed, and Selena had not issued anyone else a key.

Perhaps the agent had gone to find breakfast. Perhaps the car belonged to a contractor who had finally come to repair the heating system. That possibility seemed less likely. Contractors announced themselves with vans, ladders, and reasons the work would cost more than the estimate.

Morning mist clung to the upper branches beyond the school. The early sun had begun thinning it, revealing strips of orange and red among the trees. Eagleton’s main road carried light traffic, mostly pickups heading toward work and parents dropping children at the newer school across town.

Selena collected her bag and climbed the front steps.

The lock resisted before turning. Inside, the old lobby held the night’s chill. She switched on the lights and listened to the fixtures hum awake one by one. No voices reached her from the corridors. No footsteps. Nothing suggested another agent had entered without permission.

After checking the visitor log to see if the new agent had let themselves inside, Selena continued to the former teachers’ lounge.

The office was as she had left it. Three empty desks. Four metal filing cabinets. The dented student lamp beside her laptop. Karen Sloane’s file rested in the center of the blotter, with Hannah Montgomery’s notes clipped to the front.

Selena set down her bag and removed her jacket.

The new agent had not contacted her directly. Meg had not supplied a name, which was unusual enough to feel deliberate. Whoever was coming had either been selected in a hurry or chosen for reasons Meg preferred to explain after the fact.

Selena opened Karen’s file and read the summary from the previous day. Her attention paused on the storage-unit burglary. Connor was arranging access through Loyall police. If the stolen property included Karen’s writing, the break-in might carry more weight than Gerry Tomes understood.

A knock echoed from the front of the building.

Selena raised her head.

Another knock followed, louder this time.

She left the office and started along the corridor. The sound carried through the school, flattening against classroom doors and returning from the stairwell. Through the glass entrance, a woman waited on the top step with one hand resting on the handle of a rolling case.

Recognition came before Selena reached the lobby.

Kelly Voss.

For a moment, Selena stopped walking.

Kelly wore a gray suit with a knee-length skirt and low black heels. A laptop bag hung from one shoulder. Her black hair had been pulled into a neat knot, the color too dark and uniform to be natural. Makeup softened the lines around her mouth but did little to obscure the features Selena remembered.

Sixteen-year-old Kelly appeared beneath the adult version without effort.

A locker room after gym class. Damp tile beneath Selena’s sneakers. Locker doors slamming while the other girls hurried away. Kelly catching a fistful of Selena’s hair and pulling her backward because Selena had laughed at something on the other side of the room. The pain along her scalp. The sharp corner of a bench striking her hip. Kelly asking whether anything seemed funny now.

Selena crossed the remaining distance and unlocked the door.