My earpiece crackles and then I hear Kate’s voice.
“Heading into the library.”
I’m starting to get restless when I have to wait for her to talk again.
“Kaylie? Can I sit down?”
A surprised, “Opal?” is followed by, “You look so…different. You changed your hair.”
Kate’s soft chuckle in my ear stirs my blood as well as my imagination. I can see her in my bed, that hair fanned out around her head, creamy skin and endless curves, as she smiles up at me.
Jesus, I need to get a grip.
Shoving the heel of my hand in my crotch, I force my hardening cock into submission.
Not the time, nor the place.
I focus back on the conversation.
“…a wig? Why?”
I listen to Kate explain how she purposely altered her appearance so she wouldn’t stand out.
“I’m actually hoping to find some information about some kids that used to come to the center.”
“I don’t know anything about that.”
Judging by Kaylie’s immediate response, the opposite is likely true. Kate was right, the girl knows something.
“Look. I don’t want to put you on the spot, which is why I wasn’t going to push you back at the center, but Kaylie, the truth is, I need your help. More importantly, I think Chantel, Bryonne, Jamie, Bobby-Jean, Jesper, and Melissa need your help.”
Wow. Kate’s voice may be soft and her words gentle, but she isn’t wasting any time putting serious pressure on the girl.
There’s quite a pause and I don’t know if I would’ve had the patience to wait Kaylie out, but Kate does and it eventually pays off.
“Georgia too,” Kaylie adds, and my heart sinks.
We received the medical examiner’s preliminary report and Matt went with Anderson County Sheriff Allen to notify the family. I don’t envy them that part of the job. Chief Furmont had been made aware already the morning of the autopsy, there was no way we could’ve kept it from him any longer, but at least we were able to spare him seeing his grandniece.
No way to spare him the details of her death however.
The ME concluded the girl had died from strangulation, but the extensive damage to her body had been done after she was dead. A small blessing but I’m sure it didn’t make her loss any easier, especially since the ME found evidence of sexual assault in the form of abrasions and traces of semen.
The knowledge she’d been dead at least seventy-two hours by the time she was discovered, or that drugs were found in her system, didn’t bring much comfort either. As far as we’ve been able to learn, Georgia wasn’t known to have used drugs. The ME found a single injection site, but in a habitual user you’d expect there to be more track marks. Hardly conclusive, but it does make the fact she had heroin in her system suspect, to say the least.
Maybe heroin in her system was supposed to suggest she had gotten in with a bad crowd or something. But we figure whoever killed her definitely tried to buy some time by making her identification difficult. What obviously hadn’t been known was Georgia had badly broken her leg when she was hit by a car a few years back. The state of the body had made identification through dental records nearly impossible. However, the autopsy X-rays taken of her body showed the metal plate left to fuse her bones matched the hospital X-ray perfectly.
“I’m sorry,” I hear Kate tell the girl. “Georgia was found dead a few days ago.”
Her death hasn’t been made public yet. In part to give the family a chance to process the news, but also because this is still an active investigation with the lives of other kids at stake.
We know we can’t keep it under wraps forever, which is why we’re desperate for a good lead.
The girl’s sniffles can be heard on the other end.
“Dead?”
“Kaylie, listen to me. If you know anything that could help us find—”
“I can’t. Melissa said if I told anyone, I’d get her in big trouble.”
“Melissa? You talked to her?”
“A couple of weeks ago, before she stopped showing up. She’d come to do her homework here at the library too. Sometimes we’d talk.”
“About what?”
“Whatever. School, parents, sometimes the center.”
“Kaylie, what were you two talking about last time you saw her?”
She doesn’t respond immediately and I’m afraid she’s shutting down when I hear her mumble, “She said if I let on I knew anything I could get hurt.”
“It’s okay,” I hear Kate calm the crying girl. “I can make sure nothing happens to you, sweetheart. I’m working with the FBI and I promise we can keep you safe. Was someone hurting Melissa?”
There is no audible response but Kate’s next question implies Kaylie must have nodded.
“Someone at the youth center?”
Fuck, we’re finally getting somewhere.
“Sort of,” she mumbles.
“Director Kramer?”
“No, he didn’t hurt her.”
Dammit. I guess that would’ve been too easy.
“He visits sometimes,” she goes on to say.
I shoot forward in my seat and adjust my earpiece, afraid I’ll miss something.
“Was he there a few days ago? When you were helping in the kitchen?”
Kate had mentioned the girl was nervous then.
“I’ve gotta go,” Kaylie abruptly announces,
I hear some rustling, like the sound of papers being gathered, and then Kate’s voice.
“Kaylie, wait.”
More background sounds.
“Shit. She’s spooked and took off.”
I’m already turning the key in the engine as I break my promise to stay quiet.
“Kate, see if you can catch up with her. I’m coming around the front.”
Unfortunately, I have to wait for a taxi blocking me in as they drop off a customer. While I wait for them to haul a few suitcases from the trunk, I can hear Kate’s heavy breathing in my ear.
As soon as the taxi drives off, I slip out of the parking spot and head for the corner.
“Kaylie! Watch—”
Then I hear an engine revving, someone screaming, and a thud followed by the screech of tires.
“Kate! Jesus, Kate!”
TEN
Mitch
“It’s just a scratch.”
Exasperated, I ignore the stubborn woman sitting in the back of the ambulance and turn my attention to my ringing phone. It’s my daughter.
“Hey, kiddo.”
“Dad, when are you coming home?”
I immediately feel guilty. I’m only forty-five miles from Richmond, but I’ve only been home once to grab more clean clothes and that was during a school day.
We often opt to stay near to the center of our investigations, especially when we are keeping a close eye on someone. A situation can change in a heartbeat and we want to be ready to move if it does.
The difference between life or death is often a very thin margin of time.
Still, it’s been almost two weeks since I’ve seen Sawyer.
“Not sure, Pumpkin. It’s a complicated case.” I hear her snort and tamp down on my annoyance before I continue, “Did you need me for something?”