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Two hearts had been drawn under her name. As Josie expected, the letters were large and awkward, spread apart in some places and crowded together in others. It reminded her of the cards that Harris made for her and Noah.
Noah said, “Do they do this on a regular basis? Walk in the woods?”
Dave motioned to the trees all around them. “Well, yeah. That’s all there is to do out here. We put up a playset for Savannah but she’s kind of outgrown it. The girls practice as much as possible in the yard—soccer for Savannah and softball for Kayleigh—but they get bored and sometimes wander into the woods.”
“That’s not entirely true,” Shelly said, “Savannah’s been afraid of the woods the last several months so I’m kind of surprised that she went.”
“Why is she afraid?” asked Josie. “Did something happen?”
Both parents shook their heads. Dave said, “Some stupid story going around school. Something about a bogeyman.”
“The Woodsman,” Shelly offered. “All the kids started talking about him one day. He takes kids and never brings them back to their moms.”
Dave rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, and he’s ten feet tall and eats fully grown deer for breakfast and leaves his mark in the woods to warn people to stay away.”
Although she’d never heard those particular details, Josie was well aware of the lore of the Woodsman that had been making its way through the schools of Denton. It had been months since Harris had sat in her lap and confessed to having nightmares about a man the kids at school called “The Woodsman.” It had been a rumor going around the elementary school. A shadowy man lurking in the woods who stole children and never brought them home to their moms. Josie had instantly deemed it a silly child’s story, like the kind kids made up on playgrounds and at slumber parties. When Josie was a little girl, her classmates used to claim that if you said a particular phrase three times while looking into a mirror, a woman would appear behind you and “get you.” Naturally, they all tried it. None of them were ever “gotten.” In fact, nothing ever happened.
Harris had gone through a phase where he had nightmares about the Woodsman. Misty, Josie, and Noah had finally gotten him to stop believing in the Woodsman three months ago. Or at least, he’d stopped having night terrors.
“What school does Savannah go to?” asked Josie.
“Wolfson Elementary. She’s in second grade,” Shelly said.
“My…” She hesitated, never sure how to refer to Harris when speaking with other people. She settled on, “Nephew goes there as well. Same grade. We heard all about the Woodsman from him.”
Dave mumbled, “It’s so damn stupid.”
Shelly shot him another look, this one a mixture of irritation and incredulity. Redirecting her attention to Josie, she said, “Kayleigh kept telling Savannah they would take a walk together so she could show her that there’s no reason to be afraid, but Savannah was always too petrified. Until today, I guess.”
Noah said, “Kayleigh is sixteen. I assume she has a phone? Have you tried contacting her?”
Shelly looked down at her feet. “She doesn’t have it with her.”
Dave added, “We’re very strict about the phone. You see how kids are with them these days. How much trouble they get into with these phones.”
The three of them nodded. They knew better than anyone what types of terrible things happened as a result of teenagers having unlimited and constant access to cell phones. In Josie’s experience, most problems that arose had to do with bullying. Then there were situations in which pedophiles and sex traffickers posed as young people and used social media to groom teenagers, eventually convincing them to meet. It never ended well. No matter how much outreach the Denton PD did to educate students and parents at local schools about these issues, bad things continued to happen.
Gretchen cleared her throat.
Dave glanced at her and then said, “Kayleigh was being punished. No phone for a week. So no, we didn’t contact her because we couldn’t.”
“But we looked for them,” Shelly said, voice getting higher. “For hours.”
Josie asked, “You said you got home from the grocery store around ten. At what point did you begin searching for them?”
“We waited until eleven thirty. We had no idea what time they’d left so we figured we’d give them a little bit of time in case they were on their way back. I thought they must be getting hungry for lunch by then because it didn’t look like they’d eaten anything but cereal while we were gone.”
Dave said, “Kayleigh never does her dishes no matter how many times we remind her.”
Another look of frustration from Shelly went unnoticed by her husband.
“It’s not like them to not come home,” Dave added. “When we couldn’t find them after a few hours, we panicked and called you guys.”
“You did the right thing,” said Josie.
Noah asked, “There’s a pretty big forested area behind your house—and every other house on this road. How big was your search area?”
Shelly and Dave looked at one another. Shelly opened her mouth as if to speak but closed it again. Dave scratched his temple. “Uh, I’m not sure because Shel got lost for a bit.”
