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“We’re going to need it. I can’t believe this is happening. Not again,” he mutters.
The last words come out of his mouth softly, almost like he isn’t saying them to us but to himself. Perhaps to thecampground.
“Garrison was a rookie twenty years ago,” Sam whispers to me by way of explanation.
He doesn’t have to go any further with the explanation. It’s enough to give me a hint of what he’s feeling. The things he knows but hasn’t shared with us yet settle over his skin like the cold mist of fog, sinking into his bones where images that haunt him still linger. The look in his eyes as they reflect the flashing red and blue lights around him seems to hold those images as well. It’s as if he can look beyond the office building and into the shadows of the camp and instantly see the scene from twenty yearsago.
He was a brand-new police officer then, there to fill space and provide boots on the ground of the sprawling crime scene. Now, he’s a detective, in charge of the investigation. I can imagine very little has changed. He’s still standing in the parking lot, at the edge of the scene itself, as if hovering just beyond a barrier that keeps him from everything, prevents him from fully immersing himself.
He can’t stay here long. He’s going to have to step through that invisible barrier and into the horror, to sink beneath the surface into where he’ll stay until this is brought to a close. But for now, he’ll wait. He’ll take those breaths and reconnect with the young officer who was changed because of the last time he stood here looking out over these same grounds.
It’s impossible that he wasn’t affected by it. There’s an old clichépeople love to trot out that every person in law enforcement has the one case in their career that lingers with them. Sometimes they say that these are the cases that make them into the officers and detectives they become. Others say these cases break them, ruining them as the people they could have been and changing the type of officer they are.
As Xavier likes to say, there’s a reason clichés exist. They are just like foot-worn paths. They are what they are because people have gone over them time and time again. Because they are the right way, accurate and reliable. And until someone changes direction and creates something new, they will remain that way. But even when that happens, the old one will remain, worn into memory, until time makes it fade anddisappear.
The one about the cases changing people is far from fading. And I don’t know if it ever will. It is far too precise, too deep cutting for anyone who has ever gone through a truly traumatic case and come out the other side. We emerge, but not the same people we were. For those of us for whom this kind of life was forged, the ones who see this as our calling, this is like exercising a muscle. The crimes leave us with countless tears, but those only make usstronger.
It might be hard to recognize, but that is what’s happening with Garrison. He looks tired and overwhelmed already, but he’s here. He is standing in a place every bit of human instinct and emotion would want him to forget even exists. He’s here. He’s ready to face this all again.
“What can you tell us?” I ask.
“The crime scene people are still processing the camp, so I don’t know the full extent yet. We’re working with multiple crime scenes here,” hesays.
“Multiple crime scenes?” Samasks.
“Yes. The initial call help came from a house in a neighborhood a couple of miles from here. Responding officers found a girl saying she was a camper from here along with two bodies. Her story led us to finding a vehicle crash with another body nearby. That was located just beyond the bounds of camp. The girl insisted we come here and the team that responded found morebodies.”
“How many more?” Iask.
He sighs.
“Ten so far,” he says.
The “so far” tacked to the end of that sends a chill along my spine. That’s never a phrase that’s good to hear at the beginning of a murder investigation. Especially when it involves children. These are older teenagers, but that’s not old enough. Not that there is an age where being murdered is acceptable.
“You said there were bodies in the house where the call came from. Do you think the girl could have done this?” Iask.
Garrison doesn’t hesitate in shaking his head. “No. This girl, her name is Lisa, is clearly traumatized by what happened. She was terrified when officers arrived at the house and didn’t want to come out of hiding. As soon as she was talking with them, she was in a complete panic and officers could barely understand her enough to get the instructions to find thatcrash.”
“That doesn’t always mean anything,”Sam points out. “There have been plenty of people who have presented as complete emotional wrecks right after a crime and then turn out to be theculprit.”
“That’s true,” the detective agrees. “But not this time. Lisa is a small girl. There’s no way she could have done this to this many people. She wouldn’t be able to overpower the victims or chase enough of them down. Someone would have easily been able to stop her. And there’s simply not enough blood on her. Not for what was done to thesepeople.”
“Can I talk to Lisa?” I ask. “I know she’s been through a lot tonight and she’s probably been asked a lot of questions already, but it would help if I could hear everything fromher.”
“She’s been brought to the station to wait for her parents. I’ll get in touch with them. It’s late so you might have to wait until morning,” Garrison tellsme.
“I understand. As soon as possible would be preferable. Details can disappear fast. I don’t want her to lose things that might be important before we get a chance to get the full story from her,” I say.
He nods and walks over to a cluster of other officers. I turn toSam.
“What the hell is this?” Iask.
Sam shakes his head slowly. “I don’t know. It’s why people didn’t want this placereopened.”
“Sam,” I say, stopping him. “Please don’t say it’scursed.”
He shrugs but doesn’t go any further with the argument. He looks out over the camp and I follow his gaze. Light beams have appeared in the distance, just little dots right now, but they’re getting closer as people approach. Garrison comes back up tous.
