Page 16 of Everything She Feared

“Did Anna say anything before she fell?”

“Just that she wanted a picture—” Katie struggled with her words “—and, and, and I kept telling her—” Katie’s voice broke. “I kept telling her to be careful.”

Pierce let a long moment pass, then patted Katie’s arm.

“Katie, you did good helping us. We’re done for now. We’ll let the paramedics take a look at you, and then we’ll get you home.”

Pierce left Katie with the paramedic and the deputy, stepping away to review her notes, taking a deep breath and surveying the other kids.

They were huddled in groups, some talking with deputies and troopers. Some consoled each other in a portrait of despair.

An innocent outing ended in tragedy.At least, that’s what it looks like, Pierce thought as her phone rang.

It was Benton. She answered.

“Pierce.”

“Anna Shaw’s parents have arrived in the parking lot,” he said. “Word’s getting out. They need to know.”

“Did you tell them anything, Carl?”

“No, you’re the lead.”

She pressed the phone harder to her ear and steeled herself for what she had to do next.

“I’m on my way.”

8

Near North Bend, Washington

Worry was etchedin Lynora Shaw’s face.

She clutched her phone over her heart; her other hand dug into her husband’s arm.

The backs of Chuck Shaw’s tanned hands were scarred, splotched with dried concrete after rushing from a jobsite. His eyes like bullet tips drilling into Pierce.

Whenever she faced the families of victims in the moment their lives would be changed forever, details would burn into her memory—like a nick on someone’s chin from shaving that morning, or the way fists banged down on kitchen tables, or how people recoiled, staggering from her with aching groans, refusing to let the horror in.

These moments would haunt Pierce on sleepless nights, in quiet pauses of her day.

For her, this was the hardest part of her job, but one of the most important, and today she was determined to do the best she could under the circumstances. Rumors were flying among parents in the parking lot who were reading texts from their kids still in the day camp. Speculation was swirling in news and social media posts.

Pierce had requested Anna Shaw’s parents be taken to a far corner of the lot between emergency trucks and an ambulance, and that the section be cordoned off with tape, shielding them from media and others. She wanted to afford them some privacy.

Benton and Tilden had escorted the Shaws and their in-laws to the area. The two paramedics with the ambulance had been alerted and stood ready nearby. Minutes later Pierce arrived with Grotowski and Hirano, and as she neared Anna Shaw’s mother and father, she began absorbing their demeanor, locking in details and readying herself.

“I’m Anna Shaw’s mother,” Lynora said to Pierce. “Where is she?”

“Are you in charge?” Chuck said. “What the hell’s going on?”

“Is Anna hurt? People here are saying things!” Lynora’s eyes searched Pierce’s. “Tell us what’s happened!”

Reading their faces, Pierce knew that they knew.

The families always knew just before they were told. They knew from the police activity, the scope, its intensity, the overpowering alarm in the air. They knew. But they didn’t want to know. They begged to Heaven that they were wrong, because like every parent, deep in their hearts, they prayed that it couldn’t be true—that the worst thing in the world wasn’t happening.

But they knew it was.

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