Page 79 of Everything She Feared

But Anna’s death had deepened her fears, making them more real.

Sara went online, checking the latest news reports on Anna’s death. In some of the early stories, she found news pictures of her with Katie, but none had named them. In a couple of cases, they were identified asa mother comforts her daughter at Sparrow Song Park. The press may not have published Sara’s and Katie’s names, but they knew enough to call Sara and come to her house in attempts to get interviews.

But it seemed like that had happened a long time ago.

Now the news stories had faded away, along with the social media chatter on the case. Sara found herself going back to one of the earliest comments on Anna’s death.

Taking a breath, she reread it.

Two people on a cliff. One dies. No witnesses.

The post, signed byAnon E. Muss, underscored Sara’s anguish about Katie; and how Katie now had Anna’s necklace, how Katie had revealed havingbad thoughts, forcing Sara to admit to herself that she had lied about her own bad thoughts—I’m trying to protect her. But now, like a claw, the truth seized her, pulling her back across time to...

...the night...the rain...the dark forest...stopping, waiting and waiting...then the heart-wrenching screams...the pain...oh, God the pain...the horror of being caught up in a whirlwind of evil...

Tensing her body, Sara pulled out of the memory, massaging her wrist, looking at the flowers of her tattoo, then at her laptop’s screen. Steeling herself, she began clicking her mouse and typing.

Still rattled by the memory, she had to check again, but not about Anna. Sara had to go online to the places she hated. She went to the sites and social media pages of the people hunting for her and the link to her dark past: the justice hunters, the finders or whatever they were now called.

They were the self-appointed, self-righteous searchers obsessed in their pursuit of every aspect of a life, a lie and a nightmare that had nothing, and yet had everything, to do with Sara.

She opened a page:

Can’t believe she’s been free so many years, she should be in prison.

—Louise from Omaha

A friend with a women’s support agency is hearing that she now lives in Wichita.

—Rolinda B.

That could be outdated because my cousin in law enforcement has her in Cleveland, maybe Shaker Heights.

—Lynn R. from Dayton

Check out this security still we got from a friend last month. We think this might be her walking into this Houston 7-Eleven.

—Jock from San Antonio

No. Look at the height strip at the door. It doesn’t fit with her height.

—Chris from Norfolk

Didn’t she find her daughter and move to Birmingham, England? That’s what we heard from a friend at the US Embassy.

—Polly from Arlington, VA

We heard she died in a house fire in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada, like 4–5 years ago.

—May from Toronto

How fitting for her to burn. Good riddance.

—Zelda from Utah

Sara breathed a small sigh of relief because there was nothing recent about Seattle, or even Washington. As always, the sites were awash with rumor and theories.

As always, they were wrong.

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