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They ordered food and found a table far from where Josie and Misty sat—in the corner of the dining area, away from others. Dave and Shelly ate quietly while Savannah ran toward the arcade, quickly leaving their sight.
Misty said, “What a horrible tragedy.”
It would be a long road for the Patchetts. The wheels of justice were slow to move once a case reached the court system. It could be years before Kayleigh went to trial. There was still some debate as to whether or not she would be tried as an adult. At first, her defense attorney had appeared on every news program that would have him, talking solemnly about how Henry Thomas had taken a young, impressionable girl and twisted her mind around until she was so frightened of him, she felt she had to kill. Clearly, this was the defense he intended to use when the cases went to trial—if they did—or while he was trying to negotiate plea deals. Kayleigh, however, told a very different story to investigators when she was interviewed. Josie had been present for one such session where she thought the defense attorney might have a serious medical event listening to Kayleigh give a completely different account to what he’d been spinning in public. She sounded proud of the story she had created and seemed to think she deserved recognition for it. Her attorney had ended all police interviews shortly thereafter.
Henry Thomas still had not said a word. He’d retained an attorney and that attorney had declined all requests by police or prosecutors to ask him any questions. Luckily, between Kayleigh’s accounts and the DNA evidence, when it finally came in, the evidence against both of them was pretty damning. Kayleigh’s DNA had been found in Thomas’s cabin in multiple places. The DNA found on Felicia Evans’s sneaker had matched to Kayleigh. The snare that had been found in Thomas’s septic tank vault had yielded DNA from all the victims as well as him and Kayleigh.
Asher Jackson Jenks had filled in a lot of the rest. Kayleigh had met Thomas through him when he’d gone to Thomas’s cabin to turn in his profits and get more drugs to sell. He’d felt uncomfortable about how much interest Thomas had shown in Kayleigh, but had simply stopped taking her with him. However, forty-eight hours after her supposed abduction, she had shown up at his apartment looking like she’d just spent the prior two days in a dungeon—which she basically had. She’d told him that she was the author of the legend of the Woodsman and that, to make it more real, she’d staged her own abduction. He’d let her stay at his apartment because she had promised to turn herself in after a few days. She’d say she’d simply been lost in the woods. He had no idea she was involved with Thomas until after the two of them had been arrested. After a day, he got nervous and told her he was going to take her to the police station with some story that he’d found her along the road. They’d driven a few miles when she tried to convince him to turn around and hide her for a bit longer. He refused and kicked her out of the car. He theorized that this was when she had left her sweatshirt under his seat, unbeknown to him.
However, she had returned a day or two later, begging him to let her stay just one more night, to let her take a shower. He’d relented. She had been hiding in his apartment when Josie and Noah showed up at his house. By the time they returned with search warrants, she had fled. Asher had not seen her after that.
“Josie?”
Misty’s voice brought her back from thoughts of the case.
“What’s that?” Josie said, turning to her friend.
“I asked if you were sleeping or if you’re still having the…dreams?”
“Still having the dreams,” Josie answered.
Misty put an arm around Josie’s shoulders and squeezed her. “Stress can make it hard to conceive. You know, Noah told me that Dr. Rosetti recommended a retreat…”
She trailed off and Josie realized that Noah hadn’t casually told Misty about the retreat. He’d asked her to talk Josie into it. She’d be angry, but she was too grateful that the two of them cared about her enough to try to help her.
“I missed the summer retreat,” Josie said.
“But?”
Josie sighed. “There’s another one in the fall or winter, I think. Dr. Rosetti said she’ll make some calls.”
Before Misty could say anything else, Harris came barreling toward them. Misty withdrew her arm just as he leaped onto Josie’s lap and wrapped his arms around her neck. His cheeks were damp with sweat. “Aunt JoJo! Aunt JoJo! Uncle Noah said no one could beat him at Mario Kart. I tried but I couldn’t. Can you beat him? Can you?”
Josie stood up and swung Harris around her body until he was in piggyback position. When he giggled, she felt a wave of joy wash over her. “Are you kidding me?” she said. “Of course I can beat him.”
* * *
