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“Yeah. She said initially they thought that the kid who survived made it all up but then two other kids went into the woods about three weeks ago up in Montour County.”
Josie felt the first stirrings of nausea deep in her stomach. “Let me guess. Only one came out.”
“Yeah. Same thing. They went for a walk in the woods in the dark. One of them got attacked and died. The survivor didn’t see anything that could help Heather or her team. Again, no leads.”
“What was the cause of death?” asked Josie. “Was it the same in both cases?”
“Blunt force trauma to the head. I don’t know much more than that. Didn’t seem important until now.”
“I don’t remember seeing either of these cases in the press,” Josie said.
“They weren’t. You know how it is—not every death gets picked up by the press, especially with local news outlets having to cover such a large area of Central Pennsylvania.”
Lenore County was about a half hour south of Denton. Montour County was about two hours north of Denton. The cases were nowhere near each other and certainly nowhere near Josie and Noah’s jurisdiction.
So why did Josie’s gut feel like someone had filled it with concrete?
She took one last look at the faces of Kayleigh and Savannah Patchett before switching from her text app to Google Maps. Frowning, she said, “How many is this, Noah? For us? Here in Denton.”
He didn’t need an explanation. He knew exactly what she was talking about. “In the last three months? We’ve had three kids get lost walking in the woods on their own and a few weeks ago, a pair. All located thanks to Luke and Blue.”
Josie punched the address of the Patchett home into Google Maps. She was already familiar with the area, but the satellite view confirmed her suspicions: behind the Patchett home was an area of forest that stretched for miles.
Josie said, “Gretchen called Luke already?”
“He’s meeting us there.”
For the first time, the prospect of running into Luke Creighton didn’t make Josie the least bit uncomfortable. Luke and his bloodhound, Blue, had started working with the Denton PD as their K-9 liaison months earlier. Their department had not been able to afford its own K-9 unit, and City Council had turned down the Chief’s most recent request for one. Chief Chitwood had found an alternative, partnering with a nonprofit organization that supplied search-and-rescue dogs at nominal fees to police departments that could not afford their own. It just so happened that the handler he’d chosen was Josie’s ex-fiancé. Seven years earlier, their relationship had ended in an ugly and public way. Josie and the team hadn’t taken well to his return to Denton at first, but after he and Blue saved Josie’s life, the tide started to turn. So far, Luke and Blue had found all of the kids who had recently wandered off and gotten lost in the woods around Denton.
“We need radios,” Josie said.
“Back seat.”
She took off her seatbelt and turned, leaning into the back and rooting around for their radios. She found them under a plastic bag from a local pharmacy. She plucked that up with the radios. Once she was seated again, she opened it and peeked inside. Heat crept into her cheeks as she saw the three new pregnancy tests inside.
Noah glanced over at her. “Those are for you.”
She couldn’t tear her eyes from them. Her heart sped up a little. “Thanks,” she said. “But I—” She broke off. She felt his eyes on her as she tied the bag closed and returned it to the back seat.
“You already got your period,” he said. It wasn’t a question. There was no recrimination in his voice. Not even a note of disappointment. There was nothing at all in his voice to make her feel badly but she still did.
“Right before the game started,” she mumbled.
They’d only begun talking about having kids three months ago after Mettner died. At first, Josie had told him she just wanted to think about it, to make the choice of whether or not to have children without letting fear cloud her judgment. When Josie was three months old, she was abducted by a woman so evil, she made Satan look mild in comparison. That same woman, Lila, had burned down Josie’s family home to cover up the crime. Josie’s twin sister, Trinity, survived but the authorities had told Josie’s parents that tiny Josie perished in the fire. No one had even known that Lila was there that day. Lila had brought Josie to Denton. She was hell-bent on getting her ex-boyfriend, Eli Matson, back. She used Josie, telling him that she was his baby. Back then, there weren’t mail-in paternity tests or anything that the average person could avail themselves of in order to prove parentage. Eli had fallen instantly in love with Josie and raised her as his own. But his love had cost him his life, leaving Josie in Lila’s care until finally, when Josie was fourteen, Eli’s mother, Lisette Matson—the only grandmother Josie had ever known—had gotten custody. Lisette had given her a good life after that but the damage that Lila had done in those intervening years was permanent, and for as long as Josie could remember, the lasting effects of the trauma that Lila inflicted on her was the filter through which Josie made all decisions—including whether or not to have children.
Josie had been convinced that she would be a horrible mother to any child she bore since Lila was the example she had grown up with. Only after Mettner’s death had she come to see how ridiculous this logic sounded. After Mettner’s funeral, Josie had told Noah she wanted to think about having children but then, less than a week later, she worried that waiting to decide was just her subconscious way of continuing to put off having children because she was still secretly afraid. They hadn’t exactly decided to go for it. They were taking a “let’s try and see what happens” kind of approach. So far, nothing had happened.
Noah’s palm was warm on Josie’s knee. “Hey,” he said, drawing her out of her thoughts. “It’s only been a few months. Don’t worry. We’ll keep trying. Those pregnancy tests will keep.”
She gave him a wavering smile.
He squeezed her knee. His eyes stayed on the road. “Josie, I’m sure this isn’t something that happens immediately for most people. Let’s give it some time.”
“What if it—what if it doesn’t happen?” she said. “Ever?”
He gave her a quick glance. “You already know the answer to that. I never wanted anything more than you. If we have a baby, I will love that baby like no one has ever loved their kid before, but I don’t need kids to be happy. Just you.”
She swallowed over the lump in her throat, feeling embarrassed for needing his reassurance, again.
