Before She Was Found(36)

Jordyn weeps into his neck. This isn’t a spat-with-friends, sorry-for-being-naughty kind of cry. These are bone-deep sorrow-filled cries.

“No one was supposed to get hurt, Grandpa. It was all just a stupid game,” she croaks.

It takes a moment for Jordyn’s words to register with Thomas but still they make little sense. What kind of game would lead to two girls being hospitalized? He thinks of Jordyn’s earlier confession that they had taken some beer from the bar. Had alcohol played a role? The train yard was filled with old junk; maybe after drinking the girls had been horsing around.

“I never meant for something bad to happen,” Jordyn cries. Thomas awkwardly pats Jordyn’s head, his mind racing. She pulls away from the hug and holds her phone out to him. “We didn’t do anything. I promise. It’s not us.”

Thomas takes the phone from Jordyn and examines the screen. It’s a horrible picture of Jordyn and Violet holding knives and covered in blood. “It’s not us. It’s fake, but people are sending it around to everyone and saying we hurt Cora,” Jordyn says, leaning into him, her shoulders rising and falling with each sob.

Thomas squints at the image on the screen and upon a closer look he can tell the photo has been doctored. He has so many questions but he starts with a simple, “What happened?”

“We snuck out to go look for Joseph Wither.” Jordyn sniffles. Thomas knows this game. The boys did the same thing when they were kids. They would creep from the house and run down to the railroad tracks searching between boxcars.

“I took the beer from the cooler.” She looks up at her grandfather. “I know I shouldn’t have. It tasted gross. We were telling ghost stories and going to hunt for Wither. I was going to run into the field and hide and then jump out and scare them but we didn’t get that far.

“Just before we got to the train yard we thought we heard someone else coming. We got scared and ran off in different directions. After a few minutes I started going back to see if I could find Violet and Cora but then I heard the screaming and the train coming and I ran home. I know I should have gone back to help. I thought at first maybe one of them got hit by the train and I couldn’t stand the thought of it.” Jordyn screws her eyes shut and shakes her head from side to side. “I couldn’t stand the thought of seeing it.”

“But Cora wasn’t hit by a train, Jordyn,” Thomas says patiently. “Someone stabbed her and beat her. Badly. What do you think happened? And don’t tell me it was Joseph Wither. He isn’t real.”

“I know, I never thought he would show up. It was a game but I think Cora and Violet really believed it. They talked about it all the time. I’m so sorry.”

“So you have no idea what happened? What were you going to do when you found him?” Thomas tries one more time. Jordyn hesitates a second too long. “What? You need to tell me,” he says firmly.

“We were just trying to protect ourselves,” Jordyn says. “We brought the knife thingy.”

“Protect yourself? How?” When Jordyn doesn’t answer he knows. “You brought a weapon?” Thomas asks.

Jordyn nods. “The knife thingy from the kitchen drawer.”

Thomas thinks of Cora—the stab wounds, her damaged face. “Jordyn, where’s the knife?”

“I don’t know. I think Violet was carrying it last. But she would never hurt Cora,” Jordyn adds in a rush.

A wave of nausea sweeps over him. This can’t be happening. “Jordyn,” he says, cupping her chin so she is forced to look at him. “Is there anything else? Anything at all that I need to know?” Thomas asks, praying that there isn’t.

Jordyn shakes her head. “No, I promise.” Thomas releases her chin and again Jordyn collapses into him. “What should I do?” she asks, her voice muffled against the nubby fabric of Thomas’s sweater.

“Nothing for now,” Thomas whispers into her ear. “Don’t worry, we’ll clear it all up.” Jordyn lifts her head and looks up at Thomas for further reassurance. “You look tired,” Thomas observes but he really just needs to be alone for a minute and think about what Jordyn has just told him. “Go and lie down, close your eyes for a bit.”

Jordyn is hesitant but allows Thomas to guide her back into the bedroom and into her bed. Thomas pulls the quilt up around Jordyn’s shoulders and reaches over to the bedside lamp to turn off the light and the room dims to a hushed gray.

Thomas sits on the edge of the bed and listens as Jordyn’s sniffling slowly subsides. He watches as Jordyn’s eyes grow heavier and heavier until they remain shut. He waits until he is sure that Jordyn is fast asleep and then carefully rises from the bed, reaches down and retrieves Jordyn’s book bag from the floor.

He rifles through the laundry basket of clean clothes until he finds the fleece jacket and the other clothes that Jordyn was wearing yesterday and shoves them into the backpack. Beneath a small wooden desk where Jordyn sits to do her homework are her tennis shoes. Thomas bends down and picks them up and examines the soles. The microscopic dark specks could be blood or could just be mud. He thinks of the picture on Jordyn’s phone and her bloodstained jacket.

Knowing that Jordyn will most likely sleep only for a few hours or so, he needs to get going. He has work to do.



Case #92-10945