AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She put her hands over her face. “God. I don’t believe this. I do not believe this! Where would she get this?”
Josie didn’t tell her that marijuana use among teenagers in Denton was rampant. She would have been more surprised if she hadn’t found it in Kayleigh’s room. Josie texted Hummel and asked him to come inside to collect it. “I’ll have to take this into evidence,” she said. “My colleague will be in to do that.”
As she snapped off her gloves, her phone chirped again. The line search was starting.
SEVENTEEN
Behind the Patchett home there were easily thirty people lined up side by side, several feet apart from one another. The Chief was gone, off to supervise the line search at Henry Thomas’s cabin, but one of their uniformed officers, Brennan, had taken over to coordinate the search. Josie took her place in line. While she waited, she checked her phone to see if there were any updates from Noah. As she pulled up the messaging app, the screen blurred. She blinked, feeling the grit of exhaustion in her eyes. She’d been awake for nearly twenty-four hours, and she still had several hours to go before she could go home and rest—not that she’d been sleeping much lately anyway. These were the hours in which Mettner’s absence was most noticeable. No one wanted to replace him, but the truth was, they needed a fourth investigator. Josie had seen a stack of résumés on the Chief’s desk but there had been no discussion of hiring anyone new.
Amber nudged her way into line beside Josie. Somewhere down the line, Brennan began to shout instructions. “Stay in line. It’s very important that you stay lined up and move together with no one getting ahead or falling behind. You can stay a few feet apart from each other but stay side by side.”
Ahead of them, atop the tree line, the sky was a periwinkle blue. Behind them, it was a fiery orange-red as the sun began its ascent into the sky. Josie looked over at Amber but she was staring into the woods, pulling the lapels of her jacket more tightly around her. Josie was so tired, she hadn’t even noticed the chill in the air. It would burn off as soon as the sun was overhead.
“We will move slowly, in a line, all together at the same pace,” Brennan went on. “As you walk, you’ll want to look at the ground directly ahead of you and then left and right so that the entire area between you and your fellow searchers has been checked.”
Someone along the line called out, “What if there’s a tree right in front of us?”
“Search the ground beneath it and then carefully and slowly, while keeping pace with the line, go around it as best you can,” Brennan answered. “Then immediately resume your place in line. The same goes for any other obstacles.”
Josie studied the patch of forest directly ahead of her. Other than some thick brush, it would be several feet before she was forced to go around a tree. She couldn’t say the same for everyone else. There were some dense parts of the woods they were about to search. It was going to be a long morning.
Brennan paced back and forth in front of the line, one of his arms held high over his head. “Remember, Kayleigh was last seen wearing a blue sweatshirt and a pair of black shorts, as well as white sneakers, according to her younger sister. If you find something, whether it is clothing or anything else you think is important, call out. Loudly and firmly. Raise your hand and keep it up so we know which one of you hollered. Do not touch anything. Simply alert us that you’ve found something and raise your hand. The rest of you should stop as soon as you hear this alert. We’ve got three officers following behind the line. One of them will come over to you so you can show them what you’ve found. We will determine whether or not it should be marked as evidence. If we mark it, and you’re close to it, simply go around it when the line begins moving again. Do not move unless the line is moving. Does everyone understand?”
There were mumbles of agreement up and down the line.
Brennan took a long stick from one of the uniformed officers and held it up. “We’ve got a pile of sticks in case you want to use them to move aside any brush or undergrowth as we search.”
A few people stepped out of line and walked over to Brennan to take sticks. Amber followed and returned seconds later with two sticks. She handed one to Josie, who mumbled a thanks. Josie waited for her to take her place in line a few feet away, but she was close enough for Josie to feel her breath against the side of her neck. “Do you have your gun?” she whispered.
“What?” Josie said, lowering her voice to match Amber’s. “Please tell me you’re not worried about the Woodsman.”
Amber laughed softly. “No. I’m worried about bears.”
It was a legitimate concern although Josie’s Glock wasn’t going to stop a bear. However, she didn’t tell Amber that. “Yeah,” she said. “I’ve got it. The other officers are armed, too.”
“I know,” said Amber. “But I’m not walking beside any of them.”
“Well, then,” Josie said. “Consider me on bear duty.”
Brennan instructed them to begin, and the line began moving as one, each person focused on their lane, eyes fixed on the ground. The progress was slow. As they got deeper into the woods, the terrain was more difficult. Some searchers had to skirt ravines, detour around boulders, and climb over downed trees. The sun climbed higher in the sky, heating the air around them. No one spoke. There were no calls or shouts about findings. A sheen of perspiration covered Josie’s face. She estimated that they’d traveled almost three miles when Amber put her hand in the air and called out, “I think I found something.”
The line stopped moving. Josie looked from her lane over into Amber’s while Officer Chan jogged up from behind them. “What do you have?” she asked.
Amber pointed to a large, flat rock at the base of a birch tree. Josie saw several round droplets, the color of rust. “It looks like blood.”
Wordlessly, Chan moved in to mark it. Once she gave the signal, Brennan instructed the line to move on. Amber edged her way around the birch tree so as not to disturb the blood evidence. Seconds later, Josie heard her ask, “Do you think that was her blood?”
“We won’t know until the ERT tests it. It may not even be human,” Josie said automatically.
“Does that mean yes?” Amber whispered.
Josie kept her eyes straight ahead. She didn’t answer. The line hadn’t moved more than five or six feet when a heap of leaves and twigs appeared at Josie’s feet. There was something about the pile that didn’t seem natural. Josie raised her arm and called, “Found something.”
The line stopped. She felt all eyes on her. Chan made her way over and looked at the mess. “This?” she asked.
“Yes.”
Amber said, “It’s just some downed branches.”
