Page 75 of My Child is Missing

“That’s not technically true,” Josie said.

This earned her a glance. A lock of his black hair fell across one of his eyes and he pushed it aside.

“Mr. Thomas, when I interviewed you, you told me that you didn’t know Kayleigh Patchett, that you had never seen her before.”

He picked up a roll of tape and started taping off the headlights. “That’s right.”

“We found a partial handprint on the hood of Kayleigh’s parents’ sedan that we were able to match to you. You want to explain to me how it got there?”

He sighed heavily. “I can’t because I don’t know the Patchetts, and if you lined up one hundred cars and asked me which one was theirs, I couldn’t tell you. What I do know, thanks to this kid going missing and your little investigation, is that they live just over the mountain, which means that we probably use the same grocery store, the same bank, the same urgent care, so there’s a good chance that their car was in the same parking lot as my car at some point. Maybe I dropped something and when I leaned over to get it, I touched their car.”

“Our search dog followed Kayleigh Patchett’s scent here, Mr. Thomas. You’re going to have to do better than that.”

“The Patchett kid,” he said. “She play sports? She ever drive her car over to the town park? I’m part of the clean-up crew there. That includes parking lots.”

He stood up, twirling the roll of tape between his hands, and came within inches of her. She could smell his sweat, see the individual hairs on his chin that formed his five o’clock shadow. When he spoke, his breath washed over her face: meat, beer, and something else. Something sour. “Look, Detective, there are about a half-dozen ways I could have come into contact with that car, and none of them involve me kidnapping that Patchett kid.”

Josie didn’t move, keeping her posture straight and still, as if it didn’t bother her in the least to have him invading her personal space. She’d be damned if she showed him just how much she wanted to recoil. “Is one of those half-dozen ways you stalking Kayleigh Patchett?”

He tipped his head back and laughed. Josie wanted to take the opportunity to move away from him, but she didn’t. When he looked back at her and realized she was still waiting for an answer, he said, “No. I was not stalking that girl.”

Josie took out her phone and pulled up a photo of Asher Jenks, one she’d pulled from his driver’s license rather than the secretive pictures that Kayleigh had taken in profile. “You recognize this guy?” she asked Thomas.

“No,” he said easily.

“He said he knew you.”

There was no reaction, not even a micro expression indicating that he was lying. “Then he’s lying or mistaken, Detective.”

Josie put her phone back in her pocket. She was about to ask another question when they heard a vehicle gunning it up the driveway. Gravel spit in every direction, pinging off the underside of Josie’s SUV as a red Dodge Challenger roared into view. Its driver turned it slightly to avoid hitting the back of the El Camino. Josie looked back at Henry Thomas and was surprised to see his normally serene expression change over to fear, then anger. She turned back to their visitor, a young man no older than twenty-five, with long, greasy brown hair, a patchy goatee and beady brown eyes which were locked on Josie’s breasts. A sneer curled his lips and he started to nod—along to music or in appreciation of what he saw, she wasn’t sure—until he noticed Henry Thomas’s glare.

Thomas edged around Josie and strode over to the car. Josie watched the man’s face as Thomas approached. He opened his mouth, lips forming what she was sure was a word beginning with H. Hey, hello, hi, Henry, maybe? He recognized Thomas. The word never made it across his tongue. He clamped his mouth shut quickly, his eyes widening.

Thomas waved the roll of tape at the man, yelling. “Who the hell are you? What are you doing up here? This is private property. If you want to visit Murder Mountain, find another way.”

A momentary blip of confusion flashed over the driver’s face. Then he looked back at Josie and seemed to come to some kind of understanding. He lifted a hand and waved it at Thomas. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, man. I made a wrong turn. I-I’ll just go now.”

Thomas kicked the driver’s side door and then spit into the open window. “Get off my property and don’t come back!”

The kid couldn’t throw the car into gear fast enough. More gravel turned up and hit Josie’s vehicle as he made an awkward turn and raced back down the driveway. Josie studied the license plate, committing it to memory. A new thought took hold in her mind, this one not as shadowy as the one she’d been trying to pin down since the night before.

“Sorry about that,” Thomas said, offering an uncharacteristic smile, as if they were on a date and they’d just been disturbed.

The coffee Josie had had earlier congealed in her stomach. “It’s fine,” she said. “I’ve got to go anyway.”

On her way back down the driveway, she noticed the rows of purple wildflowers in the distance, growing beneath a giant oak.

FORTY-EIGHT

It’s daytime. I don’t usually operate during the day, but I couldn’t help myself. Besides, who would even know that I’m here? Who would expect me to be here? Really, I’ve always been hidden in plain sight. Until now, it was never this much fun. I wait near the edge of the woods and watch her, alone in her yard. She’s so small and thin, light on her feet. Agile. I feel a surge of pleasure pulse through my body thinking about how horrified her family would be if they knew that the feared Woodsman was so close to her. I can’t contain my excitement. A branch snaps beneath my foot. My breath stops as she freezes and scans the trees. For a moment, I’m sure that I’m still invisible, but then I see the realization in her expression as her eyes zero in on me.

She sees me.

FORTY-NINE

Morris Lauber worked at an auto parts store in South Denton. Josie and Gretchen drove there in Josie’s vehicle. Noah had been sent home for more rest after questioning Asher Jackson Jenks about the sweatshirt in his car. As expected, he denied owning it and said he had no idea how it had found its way under the seat.

Lies, Josie thought. Everyone lied.

---