Nice Girls(39)

John Stack shrugged.

“I think Olivia takes precedence today,” he said. His voice was like gravel.

I followed Kevin onto the trail. Dad was trapped behind with the others. As Kevin passed the entrance sign, I stopped, my heart beginning to race. The trees loomed over us, the woods stretching interminably ahead.

The thought seemed to hit me—I was stuck with the boy who’d pummeled me as a child. He was a man now, and I was going to be alone with him in the woods for hours, searching for a missing woman.

Kevin turned around to look at me.

“What? Are you afraid of me, Mary?” he joked.

I said nothing as I joined him, my stomach already churning.





20




Sunlight dappled through the trees above us. I could hear birds chirping nearby, the autumn air growing sharper and cooler now in the woods. There were groups of people scattered in the distance, their heads bent toward the ground as they searched. What for, nobody knew.

I followed Kevin’s lead. He made his way down a slight slope off the left of the trail, the brown and orange leaves crunching beneath our feet. At the bottom of the slope, there was a small creek, only a few feet wide. The water was shallow.

Without hesitation, we followed the creek. We heard the squawk of geese flying over the trees, the occasional scream of a child in the distance. At one point, there was loud barking—it sounded as if two dogs had gotten aggressive with each other. As we walked, there were always other people within our line of sight.

Neither of us spoke for a while. Kevin was continually scanning the area, his neck craning from left to right and back again. He was more attentive than I was. Kevin stopped a few times to turn over a rock or to examine a dense pile of leaves. But his diligence slowed us down. In half an hour, we’d only surveyed a few hundred feet of the stream.

“What exactly are you looking for?”

Kevin was squatting on the ground, prodding at some leaves with a branch he’d picked up.

“Just use your common sense, Mary. If you find scraps of clothing, a phone, or a bloodstain, that’s probably important. Anything that seems like a disturbance here is important.”

“People have been searching the area already. Everything’s a disturbance.”

“You’ll figure it out, Mary.”

“How do we know the area hasn’t already been contaminated?”

“If you’re going to whine the whole time, you can leave,” said Kevin, standing up again. “Meanwhile some of us are actually invested in helping Olivia.”

When his back turned, I flipped him a middle finger. I kept my eyes peeled throughout the area, but I saw nothing strange. There were too many dense leaves, branches, mounds of dirt everywhere. Too many people had wandered the park. Unless Olivia had dropped a giant neon sign, it didn’t seem likely that we’d find anything.

As the wind picked up, I was reminded of the scene at the beach. The day was just as cold, but grayer, cloudier. The crowd there had gawked at DeMaria Jackson’s forearm. I would always remember what it looked like—the bone peering through the raw, gray flesh. The decay of a murder victim.

And I wondered if, by some twist of fate, I would stumble onto Olivia’s body, too. I was marked now, dirty. I’d left school dirty and reckless, and now I’d lied and forced my way into the lives of two missing women. Deep down, I was tainted—things would only get worse. Whether through God or karma or mere coincidence, I was stuck in the narrative.

I didn’t want to find Olivia with my own two eyes. I couldn’t stomach the idea of it.

“You okay, Mary?” Kevin stared at me, the stick still in his hand. I realized I was standing close to the creek, the water only a couple of inches away from my boots.

“I’m fine. Just . . . winded.”

“If it’s about what I said earlier—”

“That was nothing.”

“Yeah, well . . . I’m sorry if I sounded like a dick,” said Kevin, not looking at me. “I’m on edge, Mary.”

“I think we all are.”

Kevin stared off in the direction of the main trail. A puppy was yapping in the distance.

“Did you know that it’s nearly been two weeks since she went missing?” he asked quietly.

I nodded.

“Every day that she doesn’t come home, things look worse. You know that?” Kevin looked like he was about to spit on the ground, but he didn’t. “And I think it’s kind of screwed up that everyone keeps hoping that she’s only been kidnapped and not murdered. We think that Olivia being taken hostage by some asshole is a good thing.”

“This whole situation is fucked up.”

“Yeah, it is. And if I find the son of a bitch who did it, I’m gonna bash a hole in his head. And that’s before I even get my hunting gear,” said Kevin darkly. I could tell he meant it, too. Kevin had always had a disposition for violence, but it was odd to see it now justified. He’d cared for Olivia since childhood. She might have even been the unrequited love of his life.

“Did you and Olivia ever get together?” I asked suddenly.

Kevin’s face reddened.

“I can’t answer that.”

“Why not?”

He didn’t answer.

“Why not, Kevin?”