Page 146 of Everything She Feared

“I tried. But when I asked Sara for more information to help counsel Katie, she refused and ended Katie’s sessions with me.”

Dr. Mehta reached for her phone.

“And there’s this.”

She showed the detectives her photo of Katie’s sketch.

Pierce and Benton studied it.

“At first, I interpreted it to represent just what Katie said it was, a depiction of Anna’s fall with Katie trying to help.”

“But now?” Pierce asked, her eyes on the sketch.

“Now I’m not sure. The bottom line here is I think Katie could have been abused, or she could be a violent abuser, or both. I’m just not sure. I only know that when taken together, there are sufficient factors for me to act on my professional duty to report this to you.”

Pierce and Benton traded glances.

“Can you send us that picture of the sketch?” Pierce asked.

69

Seattle, Washington

Scrolling through social media, Ryan read reports on how that wilderness death of the girl who fell taking a selfie was now considered a suspicious death.

Wow.

None of the coverage identified a suspect. There were few details, photos or names, likely because minors were involved. Yet the reports stirred Ryan’s curiosity again about whether the case had any connection to one of his subjects, Sara Harmon, from the Jet Town Diner.

He went back, pulling up the first reports from when the incident happened in Sparrow Song Park. He reviewed the news photos taken at the time of emergency units, police and families in shock.

He concentrated on one news image that he’d been drawn to earlier. It was tightly framed and showed a woman, her arms wrapped around a girl, their faces covered by their hair and buried into each other. They were photographed between two parked SUVs. The caption above the photo saidWilderness Tragedy. The cutline below it saidAn unidentified mother and daughter embrace after a teen was killed at Sparrow Song Park, southeast of Seattle. Photo credit was given to Newswire Services.

From what Ryan could see, and he was in no way certain, but to him, the woman resembled Sara Harmon. That’s what had caught his attention then, and it had him asking the question again now.

Is that Sara Harmon?

With the development on the tragedy, the possibility nagged at him.What if it is?The idea that Sara and her daughter were at the park when the teen died, and what that might imply, was hard to fathom. But the more he looked at the photo, the more he thought about it.

And after thinking about it—thinking how he was waiting to hear back on his DNA requests, and those he’d made toTell-Tale Heartson the bogus tip and the offer of documents—he decided to try something.

During his time as a reporter, when a vague aspect or inexact potential new thread of a story surfaced, he’d sometimes drive by the locations of the key players while thinking about it.

Because you never knew what could emerge.

And he had Sara Harmon’s address from his investigative work. In fact, he’d driven to it since his arrival in Seattle.

Ryan got into his SUV.

He didn’t know what to expect, or if driving by made sense, now that it was a day after the story had broken. He made good time getting to North Seattle. He turned onto Sara Harmon’s quiet street. As he neared her house, he slowed down.

A news van was out front.

Something’s up.

After parking a few doors away and across the street, Ryan got out and approached the SUV. Its station and logo on the doors in red, white and blue saidKT96-TV NEWS “WE’VE GOT SEATTLE’S STORY.”

A man in a ball cap, jeans and a flannel shirt was loading a tripod into the back. A woman wearing a jacket with the station crest stood on the sidewalk, ending a phone call.

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