Before She Was Found(93)

I wish I had never gone down to the train station. There are a lot of things I wish I had done differently. I still just don’t understand why Jordyn lied and kept on lying even though she didn’t do anything more than sneak out and try to pull a prank on a friend. She wasn’t the one who sent Cora those fake messages and she wasn’t the one who stabbed and beat her. But still she felt the need to accuse an innocent man, her teacher no less. I tried to get Jordyn to tell me why but she wouldn’t or couldn’t explain it beyond saying that she was scared and afraid they’d never let her come home again.

Tess tells me that we’ll probably never fully understand our granddaughter. She’s had a hard life. Her parents dumped her off on our doorstep. We’ve tried to be good parents to her, but it’s not the same as having your real mom and dad there to sit down with you at dinner and to tuck you in every night.

Mr. Dover resigned from his teaching position and last I heard had moved out of state. Wherever he is I hope he’s been able to make a fresh start.

After I fell on the train tracks and busted up my shoulder, I told Officer Grady about the book bag hidden in the chimney. He fished it out and it ended up there was zero physical evidence that linked Jordyn to any crime. By the grace of God, I wasn’t arrested for tampering with evidence. I guess no one saw the point of throwing an old man in jail for trying to protect his granddaughter.

Once a week we drive to Grayling and I drop Jordyn off at her counselor’s office and then take Tess to her physical therapy appointment. The deal was Jordyn had to go to counseling or be charged for making false statements to the police. The counseling seems to be helping. She’s a lot quieter now, though, stays pretty much to herself. Tess says that in a few months everyone will move on to the next scandal and Jordyn will be surrounded by friends again. But I don’t know. Small towns have long memories.



Beth Crow


September 14, 2018


We packed up the car with our clothes, a few belongings and Boomer and left in the dark of night when the neighbors were asleep. Pretty much like how we arrived—fitting, I guess. I’m afraid, though, that no matter how far we run, Violet and Max won’t be able to recover from our ten months in Pitch. I spent a long time talking with Dr. Gideon about the move. She warned us that running away from what happened wouldn’t be good for Violet, for any of us, but she did think that it might be best for Violet, for all of us, to get a brand-new start. I was sure that if we stayed in Pitch Violet would forever be known as one of the Wither girls and Max would feel like he would always have to defend his sister.

Dr. Gideon also warned me about just up and leaving without having a real plan in place. She suggested that I research where we were going to move, look for a job, find housing and arrange for ongoing mental health support for Violet. She has a lot to deal with. Violet’s best friend nearly died, and even though Violet was innocent, people still look at her like she’s a criminal.

We needed to go to a place where no one ever heard of Joseph Wither and that terrible night in the train yard. Max wanted to go back to New Mexico and Violet wanted to move to Hawaii. I said no to both.

I finally decided on Rochester, Minnesota, because when I searched best midsize US cities to live in, it came up as number one. I haven’t had the best track record in choosing where to raise my kids and I didn’t want to decide where we were going based on a man.

I thought for sure the Petits would move away from Pitch. But it doesn’t look like they will. My neighbor said that Thomas Petit had no intention of moving away from the place he called home for over forty years and that he couldn’t bear the thought of selling the bar to someone who didn’t know the heart and soul they’d poured into it, to someone who didn’t know its history.

I just want to give my kids what’s left of their childhoods. I want them to have fun, have some good memories, before they go off into the world on their own. Rochester has great schools, and a decent cost of living and the Mayo Clinic, one of the best hospitals in the world. Dr. Gideon even put in a good word for me when I said I was interested in getting a job there. I didn’t care what kind of job it was—as aide, housekeeping, food service, hell, I’d have agreed to be a candy striper if it meant I had a steady income.

In the end, I was hired as an assistant in the dietetics department. I work with the registered dietitians and help process diet orders and menus to patients. Maybe not my dream job but it provides health insurance, which we’re in desperate need of.

Violet still has nightmares about that night and sometimes wakes up screaming for me to get the blood off her. At night, in the dark, when I start thinking on these things I can almost feel his presence in the room and I have to remind myself he isn’t real, that Joseph Wither doesn’t exist.

In the end, no one was arrested for anything, although Jordyn was ordered to go to counseling for lying about her teacher being in the train yard. If you ask me, she got off easy. No one should be able to ruin someone’s life like that.

And part of me wishes that Kendall Landry and her friend Emery had been charged with something for their catfish game. They lied and pretended to be someone else. They convinced a vulnerable little girl that the person on the other end of the computer loved and cared about her. Even though they may not have meant for anyone to get hurt, three little girls and their families will never be the same.

When Violet doesn’t think I’m looking, I watch her. I watch as she draws in her sketchbook, while she reads, while she watches TV on the couch with Boomer. I watch her when she is daydreaming, staring up at the ceiling or into corners, and wonder if she’s thinking of that night. Then I make myself stop. I don’t want what happened in Pitch to define who she becomes. Dr. Gideon told me to be watchful but not to make myself sick with worry. I talked to Violet’s counselor in her new school. She’s going to meet with her once a week to help her make a smooth adjustment to seventh grade.