Page 19 of The Change
“Nessa? What do you see?” Harriett asked, but Nessa was too overwhelmed to answer.
They were dead, their bodies resting on the ocean floor. How could two young women have died without anyone knowing? Where were their mothers? Why had no one come looking?
“Nessa?” It was Jo. “Tell us.”
“Somebody’s been killing girls,” Nessa said, her knees giving out once again. This time, Jo couldn’t hold her, and Nessa collapsed onto the sand and cried.
“What were you ladies doing out here this morning, anyway?” the police officer demanded. He was new to the area, and Nessa didn’t care for his tone. She’d accomplished more than enough in life to deserve some respect.
“Enjoying the public land that our federal tax dollars maintain,” Harriett said.
“We were heading down to the beach,” Nessa added. “I needed to go to the bathroom, so I stepped off the trail. That’s when I found her.”
“Was the trash bag closed when you found it?” the officer asked.
“Yes,” Nessa confirmed.
“And you took it upon yourself to open it up?”
“I didn’t know what was inside of it.” Nessa’s hackles were up. “Someone could have cleaned out their freezer and tossed the bag into the thicket. I didn’t want to call 911 to have y’all clean up a bunch of rancid garbage.”
“You contaminated the crime scene.”
“No I did not!” Nessa shot back.
“If she says she didn’t, she didn’t,” said a voice from behind her. “Nessa James is a nurse practitioner with a Ph.D. Her husband was a detective for the NYPD. She knows what she’s talking about.”
Nessa spun around to see a fiftysomething man in a navy suit. He stood just under six feet, though his perfect posture made him appear much taller. He’d thickened a bit since she’d seen him last, but in a way that made him seem sturdy, and the gray in his close-cropped hair added to the gravitas he’d always possessed. He wore glasses now, but the dark eyes dancing behind them were the same.
“My apologies, ma’am,” Nessa heard the younger cop say. He did a poor impression of sorry, but at least the words had been said.
“You can go now,” the older man dismissed him.
“Hello, Franklin,” Nessa said as the other cop slunk away.
“Nessa.” He didn’t seem at all surprised to see her in such surroundings. “I was wondering if you were still here after all these years. I always figured we might meet again someday.”
She’d known it, too. “What are you doing all the way out on the island?”
“Moved here about six months ago. Couldn’t bear to stay in the city after Aiesha died.”
Nessa reached out and laid a hand on his arm. “I’m so sorry to hear that she’s gone.” Nessa had met his wife once, long ago, at her own husband’s funeral. Aiesha had kept Nessa’s girls entertainedthat day with stories about her childhood in Kenya. If Nessa had stayed in the city, they might have been friends.
“Death comes for all of us. Aiesha was sick for a year. She had time to get ready. The poor girl you found this morning—” He looked past Nessa to where Jo and Harriett were watching the crime scene team assemble by the side of the road. “Those the two ladies who were with you?”
“Jo! Harriett!” Nessa called out and waved them both over. “Franklin Rees, this is Jo Levison and Harriett Osborne.”
“Ms. Levison, Ms. Osborne,” he said, shaking their hands. “I’m a detective with the Mattauk PD. I used to work with Nessa’s husband back in the day. I’ll be covering this case going forward.”
Nessa noticed Harriett giving Franklin an appreciative once-over. Given the circumstances, it couldn’t have been less appropriate. But Nessa wasn’t blind, either. Franklin looked good.
“What can you tell us about the girl we found, Detective Rees?” Jo wasted no time.
“Not much at the moment,” Franklin said. “She appears to have been out here for quite a while.”
“Given the weather, I’d say no more than two weeks, give or take a day,” Harriett said.
“How did you reach that conclusion?” Franklin asked. There was no challenge in the question. He sounded genuinely curious.
