Cut and Run(54)

Hayden motioned for her to pause as he entered the room and spoke in low tones to the technician. The man soon appeared at the door, nodded to her, and stepped aside. Hayden stood behind him and signaled her forward.

In the room she noticed the dresser was still away from the wall. But she also noted that a ventilation grate behind it had been removed and was encased in a plastic evidence bag.

“What did you find behind the grate?” Her voice sounded so professional that for a moment she wasn’t sure that it didn’t belong to someone else.

“Two magazines,” Hayden said. “They both date back to 1987. They’re on the table.”

She shifted her focus to the small round table and the two magazines. Both were fashion magazines and featured headlines such as “Beauty Blitz,” “100 Ideas for Spring,” and “How to Talk to a Boy.” The smiling girl on the cover had rich dark hair and wore a red sweater, striped miniskirt, white tights, and flats. A thick gold chain with a heart dangling from it hung around her neck. A black-and-white composition notebook in her hand, she stared coyly at the camera.

Hayden carefully folded back the wrinkled cover of one of the magazines to the title page. Words were written in a teenager’s loopy style all along the margins.

The first entry was dated 1988, the year Faith was born.

My name is Josie Jones. I’m nineteen. I am your mother, but you will never know me.

“Josie wrote messages in this magazine,” Faith whispered.

“Yes,” Hayden said.

Pain, sadness, and anger hitched in Faith’s throat as she scanned the words scribbled in fading ink. She imagined the young girl sitting at this very table, locked in this room, pregnant, and alone. Somehow Josie had known she wasn’t going to get out alive. “Does she name the man holding her?”

“She called him Daddy. He must have never told her his name.”

“Does she say who fathered her baby?”

“I haven’t gotten that far yet. It’s going to take some time to go through this.”

She turned to the next page, and in the white margin, the top line on the left page read,

I’ve begged and pleaded with him to let me go. He swears he’ll let me go, but he has lied before.

She pressed her trembling hand to the page and felt the deep creases the pen tip made in the thin, glossy paper. “She never stood a chance once she entered this room. None of them did.”

“No. But I’m hoping Paige Sheldon has a chance. She still might be alive,” Hayden said.

“I know, but she’s running out of time. Her baby has to be due any day, and who knows what will happen during a birth unattended by a doctor? Or what her jailor will do to her afterward?”

“You need to take a break. This is not a good place for you,” Hayden said.

“You’re right. I should leave. But this case has wrapped around me and frozen me to this spot.”

He laid a hand on her shoulder. “I’ll drive you back to town, Faith. Let’s go.”

“No, you’re going to be needed out here,” she said. “I can ask one of the uniforms to take me.”

“There’s nothing I can do here for the next couple of hours. No one is going to miss me. I’ll drive you.”

She dug her nails into her hands, focusing on the discomfort. “Sure. Thanks.”

In his car, she buckled up. He paused to speak to several officers and then slid behind the wheel. He tossed her a pointed glance before he backed up the vehicle and pulled onto the main road. “Are you doing okay?”

Of course she would be okay, if not for her own sake, then for Macy’s and Kat’s. But the road between right now and okay would be a long one. “I’m handling it.”

“That’s not what I asked. Talk to me, Faith,” he said.

“It wasn’t an easy sight to see,” she said.

“I suppose the day we get used to something like that is the day to worry.”

She watched as the barren landscape raced past and was glad each new mile put distance between her and that place. She was suddenly anxious to get back to the city and see Macy. “Can you drop me at the hospital? I want to visit Macy. I can make my way back to the office after that.”

“Have you received any new updates on her?” he asked.

“I spoke to a nurse this morning. She told me she’s still unconscious. But I want to see her today. She’s alone, and she’s the one who led us to those graves.” She thought about the date of birth on Macy’s driver’s license. It was her birthday. “Do you have any idea how odd it feels to think I could have a twin? From only child to having a twin sister and perhaps a half sister if Kat’s right—that is one hell of a jump.”

“Family is a good thing.”

“You have a sibling?”

“A younger sister. She’s with the FBI.”

“Are you two close?” She was suddenly curious to know what it felt like to have a sister.

“We were as kids. We had a falling out when we were teenagers.” He hesitated, as if the telling still troubled him. “Kate’s ex-boyfriend turned on her and tried to kill her. She was with our father at the time, and he ended up taking a bullet to save her. He died in Kate’s arms. For a long time, I blamed her for Dad’s death. None of it was her fault, of course, but I wasn’t seeing too clearly. After that, my relationship with Kate was strained. Sierra was the one who made me promise to fix it with her.”