Page 27 of The Change
“Yes, it was horrible,” Nessa confirmed. “She was just a young girl. They killed her and dumped her by the highway like a piece of trash.”
They. The word had slipped right out of her mouth. She’d always assumed there was a single killer. But the truth was, she didn’t know that for sure.
“Oh my God, Mama, that’s awful,” Breanna moaned. “Do you need us to come home to be with you?”
“No!” Nessa wasn’t going to say so, but the last thing she wanted was her two girls in town with people going around killing women their age.
“I wish the gift had gone to someone else. You sure you don’t need our help?”
“I’ve got help,” Nessa told her.
Breanna knew what that meant. “You’re saying you found a witch like Miss Ella?”
“I found two. A protector and a punisher.”
“InMattauk? Hold up. Jordan just came in.” Breanna put the phone down, but Nessa could hear her talking to her sister in thebackground. “Mama found a dead girl today.” Then she heard a thump and a thud as the phone changed hands.
“Where’d you find her?” That was Jordan—just like her father the cop. Loving and warm, but always straight to business.
“In some scrubland between the beach and the road.”
“Which beach? Which road?”
“Danskammer.”
Jordan’s next question followed so quickly, it took Nessa by surprise. “Was she redheaded?”
“No,” Nessa said, thinking only of the girl in blue. “Why?”
“Hey, Breanna.” Nessa heard her daughter put the phone down. “Mama found the girl out by Danskammer Beach,” Jordan told her sister.
“You’re kidding!” Breanna responded in the background.
“You remember Mandy Welsh?” Jordan asked her mom.
“No,” Nessa said. “Don’t think so. Should I?” There were vast stretches of time when Nessa had been oblivious to everything but her daughters, her parents, and her patients.
“She was the girl who went missing when Breanna and I were juniors in high school.”
That rang an unpleasant bell. “Remind me?” Nessa said, sitting up a bit straighter.
“They say she left her house one evening and never came back. The last place she was seen was Danskammer Beach. The cops claimed she ran away. But no one at school believed them. Mandy wasn’t the type.”
Nessa shivered. “You said someone saw her? Who was it?”
“Someone out fishing on the beach. They said they saw Mandy walking past all alone, wearing a fancy outfit. She didn’t even have a suitcase. And no one gets dressed up to run away.”
“Why do you think she was out by Danskammer Beach?” Nessa asked.
“No clue,” Jordan said. “But it was sometime in April, so she definitely wasn’t out for a swim.”
“What did Mandy Welsh look like?” Nessa felt dread rising inside her.
“White girl with red hair and freckles. When we were little, she looked just like that girl from the books.”
“Anne of Green Gables!” Breanna called out in the background.
“Hold on a minute, baby—” Nessa got up and cracked open the laptop she’d left sitting on the kitchen counter. She typed in the girl’s name. The first image that popped up was a missing person poster. Nessa’s heart sank. “I saw her ghost today, too,” she said. “She was standing on the beach not far from where we found the other girl.”
