Page 54 of My Child is Missing

Pam narrowed her eyes. “You think my son had something to do with that Patchett girl going missing, don’t you?”

“Brody was in the area at the time of the abduction,” Josie said. “We can’t ignore that. It’s standard procedure to look closely at anyone who was in the vicinity.”

Pam moved closer to her son, putting one hand on his shoulder. “My Brody is a good boy. He would never hurt anyone.”

Noah looked at Brody. “Let’s move on to last night. You were at the Stacks. It was dark, after eleventhirtyp.m. You and several other students from Denton East were drinking. You started discussing Kayleigh’s abduction and the story of the Woodsman. There was some kind of dare. What exactly was the dare?”

“A couple of guys said that one of us should spend the night in the woods.”

“For what?” asked Pam. “Brody, really.”

“Mom, I’m sorry. I didn’t think that the Woodsman was real! I told you that!” Turning back to Josie and Noah, he continued, “I said I’d do it because I wasn’t afraid of the woods or some child’s story about a guy lurking in the woods. Then someone said that it had to be two people because I could just say I was going into the woods and wait for everyone to leave and then go home. No one wanted to go with me. I thought that was going to be it but then Felicia volunteered.”

“Are you and Felicia dating?” asked Noah.

“No. I mean, not really. We just started getting closer the last few months. I thought maybe she was into me. I liked her. I was trying to work up the nerve to ask her out before the end of the year. Then she volunteered to go into the woods with me—overnight! I thought it was my chance, but then—”

He broke off, a sob rising in his throat. Fresh tears streamed down his cheeks. He clamped his mouth shut, as if trying to hold in his cries. What came out was a long, high-pitched keening noise. Pam perched on the edge of the bed and wrapped her arms around him, pulling his head to her chest and stroking his hair.

Josie and Noah waited a few moments for him to compose himself. Finally, he disentangled himself from his mother, leaving a wet imprint of his face on her shirt. Using the edge of the sheet to wipe his cheeks, he started to speak again. This time the words came rapidly, as if he was afraid if he slowed or stopped, he wouldn’t be able to begin again. “I told her all we had to do was find a good place to hunker down for the night. A sort of shelter. Somewhere kind of comfortable and we could just stay there, and once it started to get light, we’d be able to leave. We used our phones as flashlights. So we started walking, trying to find any kind of shelter. She was worried about finding our way back in the morning, but I told her not to worry ’cause we could just use the GPS and it would be light out.

“We finally found a place at the base of a pine tree that was kind of covered and we got under there. We were talking and we both got really tired. We lay down next to each other and kind of, like, cuddled, I guess. It got cold at night. She kept saying she heard something, but I told her it was probably just some animal. I mean, we were in the woods! I told her we’d be fine where we were. Eventually we both fell asleep and then I woke up later—I checked my phone and it was like after four thirty—and she was gone. I thought maybe she got up to pee or something. I waited about a half hour to see if she’d come back but she didn’t. It started to get lighter. I texted her because I thought she’d ditched me, but she didn’t respond. Then I was worried she got up to pee and got lost ’cause it had been dark. I started trying to find her. I thought I heard her crying or calling me or something. I heard something like that. I kept searching.”

“Why didn’t you call for help?” Pam said.

He didn’t look at her. “Because I didn’t want to get her in trouble for being out in the woods all night doing some dumb challenge. Felicia’s really smart. She’s like one of the smartest girls in school. Plus, my phone died.”

“How long did it take you to find her?” asked Josie.

“I don’t know. It felt like hours. I saw her there—” He choked up again.

Pam patted his shoulder. “Deep breaths.”

He nodded, sucking in several long breaths before resuming his story. “I found her laying there. Her head—her head didn’t look right. I tried to wake her up, to help her. I didn’t mean to make a mess but there was so much blood. I got it on me. I tried to feel her pulse, but I couldn’t. I kind of freaked out. Like, blacked out.”

Pam raised a brow. “What do you mean, blacked out?”

“I can’t remember anything after that until we got here. I remember finding her, trying to help her. Blood everywhere. Then I was here in the hospital.”

“Brody,” Noah said. “You’re doing great. We only have a few more questions. I know this is a difficult question, but we need to know: did you and Felicia have sexual intercourse last night?”

“What? No. No. It wasn’t like that. We just talked.”

“Okay,” Josie said. “When you found Felicia, do you remember seeing anything unusual at the scene?”

“Like what?”

“A snare trap, maybe,” said Noah. “Something like that?”

“No. I didn’t see anything. Why would there be a snare? It’s not even trapping season. Well, I guess coyote, but that’s it.”

“Do you trap?” asked Josie.

“No. My uncle does. I’ve seen him do it but I’ve never tried it. I don’t have my license. I prefer hunting.”

Josie took out her phone and pulled up a photo of Kayleigh’s secret boyfriend. She showed it to Brody. “Do you know this person?”

He stared at it, brow furrowing. “I can’t see his face. You have a picture of his face?”

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