Before She Was Found(48)

“Well, given her current circumstances,” I said before I could stop myself, “I think that is a pretty accurate perspective.”

“No, no.” Mr. Dover held up his hands as if to stop whatever path my thoughts were heading down. “Obviously, someone hurt Cora badly. I didn’t mean to suggest that wasn’t the case. What I’m trying to say is just the opposite.”

I must have looked skeptical because Mr. Dover took a deep breath and tried again.

“From having Cora in class I’ve noticed that she takes things to heart whether the slight is real or imagined. One wrong look from a classmate and Cora is crushed. One misinterpreted comment and she starts to cry and runs to a teacher. She tends to build up the event into something it really isn’t. She embellishes. Kids resent it and this causes some friction. So what I’m trying to say, and doing so poorly, is on a good day Cora struggles to keep it together, so I can imagine how hard this is for her.” Mr. Dover let out another breath and furrowed his brow. “I just want her to be okay. Cora’s a good kid.”

“That’s all we want for Cora,” I said, forcing a smile. “Thanks for sharing your thoughts, but I have to get to my next appointment.” I turned and headed away from the elevators, opting for the stairs and leaving Mr. Dover behind.

As my footsteps echoed down the concrete steps, John Dover’s words ran through my head. He made it sound like Cora was known for reporting slights, real or imagined, to the teacher. Could the attack on her have been in retaliation for this? That seemed like too much of a stretch.

Besides, there was something about John Dover that made me bristle. For someone who purportedly cared so much about his student why would he take the time to seek me out only to tell me what a basket case Cora is? She embellishes, he said. She lies. Why, I wondered, was it so important to John Dover to tell me this?



Case #92-10945


Excerpt from the journal of Cora E. Landry


Dec. 5, 2017

My mom came home while I was in the middle of emailing JW44, so I had to get off the computer really fast. I ran out to the kitchen and sat at the counter like I was doing my homework.

I don’t like being sneaky. It makes me feel bad but I know my mom would freak out if she found out I was talking to a stranger online. My mom is so happy that I actually have two friends that she has stopped asking me a thousand questions about school and who I sit by at lunch. She even lets me go over to Jordyn’s house once in a while, but I can’t go to the bar and only if Jordyn’s grandma is there.

She still hasn’t let me go over to Violet’s house. When I ask her why, she just makes a dumb excuse even though we both know it’s because of the neighborhood that Violet lives in and the fact that Violet’s mom hasn’t lived here for a hundred years.

My mom wouldn’t be so happy if she knew how Jordyn has been acting toward me lately. Jordyn has been so impatient. Everything I do is stupid or dumb or I’m being a baby. I never know what she’s going to be like when I get to school. Honestly, it’s exhausting.

I woke up in the middle of the night last night because I suddenly remembered that I didn’t erase the history on the computer. If my mom or dad checked, they would know that I’ve been on the DarkestDoor website and I’d be dead and grounded from the computer forever and I’d never be able to talk to JW again. I had to sneak past my mom and dad’s room and Kendall’s room and get downstairs to the computer room and I swear the floor creaked with every step I took.

It only took me a few seconds to clear the computer’s history but then I started thinking about what Joseph said about looking into what happened to Rachel Farmer. First, I went to Mr. Dover’s class website where he lists all the homework assignments. If someone walked in on me I could at least say that I had forgotten to do an assignment and was working on it because it was due the next day.

I even started writing an email to Mr. Dover with a question about the bibliography we had to write for our project so I could show my mom or dad if they walked in.

Then I opened another window and typed “Rachel Farmer” in the search bar. A ton of results popped up, so I added “Pitch, Iowa” and “1991” and hit Return. That narrowed the results down to just a few pages so I clicked on the first link that brought up a newspaper article about Rachel. It said that Rachel disappeared one evening after an argument with her mom. The police thought she had run away and was asking anyone with information to contact them.

The same picture of Rachel that was in the yearbook was included with the article. She didn’t look like the kind of girl who would run away. She looked normal. I expected her to be prettier. Suddenly I hated her and I don’t know why.

I clicked on the next link when I heard my sister say, “What are you doing up?” and I nearly had a heart attack. I clicked on Mr. Dover’s school page really fast and told her that I forgot to do an assignment and that I’d be in big trouble if I didn’t get it done. She said I better get to bed before mom or dad found me on the computer. When she left I clicked on a few more links about Rachel Farmer. From what I could tell, the police decided she ran away and they never found out where she went.

So Rachel Farmer ran away with him. But why would Joseph pick her? What was so special about her?

I went ahead and sent the email to Mr. Dover with my question about the bibliography and within like two seconds he answered back. What are you doing up at one in the morning, Cora? he asked. Go get your beauty sleep and you can ask me your question in the morning.