Because reason number one a pretty girl went into the woods when her parents were out of town…to meet a boy.
“If someone was with her, I damn well want to know who left her alone to die.”
A twig snapped. My head whipped up. Rafe stood there, staring at me and my dad with a furrow between his brows. “You found her.” No question.
Rafe started to push by us. My dad caught his shoulders. “Son, you don’t want to see that.”
No, no one wanted to see what was left of Sissy. Unfortunately, her parents would have to see their baby again. They’d be the ones to identify her, and the ones that would never forget the last image of their little girl.
As we headed into the clearing, I saw Sissy’s folks. Hope still lit their faces. I knew my dad wanted to be the one to tell them about the sad discovery. And he’d have to tell them soon, before the ME pulled up.
My dad eased away from me. I hunched my shoulders and watched him go. Rafe stayed beside me, silent.
My dad straightened his spine. He took off his hat. Held it between his hands. I couldn’t hear his words to the Hamilton’s, but I saw when the mother broke. Her knees gave way, and she would have fallen right to the ground if my dad hadn’t lunged forward and caught her.
Sissy’s dad just stood there, shaking his head, as tears streamed down his face.
Then I heard his words, because they were rising, louder and louder. “She’s just lost…she’s just lost!”
But Sissy wasn’t lost anymore. I’d found her. Too late.
“How did you know?” Rafe’s gruff question.
My dad took the mother inside the house. Sissy’s dad stared at the woods, with his hands clenched into fists.
“How’d you know where to find her?” Rafe demanded, and anger rumbled in his voice.
Anger? I glanced over at him. “We got lucky. We were out scouting in the woods, and…we just got lucky.”
Doubt stared back at me from his gaze. “The way you got lucky when you found Brent’s house on Friday night?”
“Yes.” I said the lie when I looked him right in the eye.
Then he called it.
“Bullshit, Anna Lambert.”
“Rafe!” His father’s voice.
But Rafe didn’t move. “You’ve got secrets, don’t you, Anna?”
I was starting to think everyone in this town had them. Some of those secrets were even scarier than mine.
His bright stare searched mine. “How do you do it? How does it work?”
My lips pressed together. For once, I’d actually like to tell someone. He’d seen what I could do, so he’d have to believe me. But then what would happen? Could I really take the chance? What if he shared my story all over school and everyone talked about what a freak I was?
No, thank you.
I turned away. I walked slowly and surely back to my dad’s car. Then I slid inside and slammed the door shut.
When I looked down, I realized my nails had dug into my palms, leaving little half-moon gouges.
A few minutes later, the ME arrived and the deputies headed with him into the woods.
Sissy Hamilton wasn’t lost any longer.
***
The next two days passed in a blur. Everyone at school was talking about Sissy. Freshmen were crying, walking down the hallways with red-rimmed eyes and runny noses.
Upperclassmen were shocked. They talked in excited whispers and spent more time with the freshmen—time that didn’t include pranks and teasing.
Valerie came back. She must have known Sissy because she was one of the girls with the red-rimmed eyes.
I didn’t cry. I know I should have, but when I thought of Sissy, I just felt kind of hollow.
And guilty.
I’d felt guilty before, when I arrived too late to help Caitlin. What was the point of me having this gift (AKA curse) if I couldn’t actually help anyone? Finding dead bodies wasn’t my idea of helping anyone.
Sissy Hamilton hadn’t even made it to her sixteenth birthday. She’d deserved to live.
Just as Caitlin had.
With Sissy…I just couldn’t shake the feeling that her death was my fault. That wolf had gone running from me…to her.
It had to be the same wolf, right? I mean just how many crazy wolves could be running free out there in the woods of Haven?
A day after we found Sissy, my dad recovered the remains of another hiker. Only with this one, the ME noticed the deep scratches on the bones. Scratches that had come from claw marks.
The ME, a guy my dad called Donovan, hadn’t been especially surprised by the marks. He’d said there were plenty of hungry animals stalking the woods.
But I didn’t think we were dealing with just any animal.
The wolf was making a habit of killing in Haven’s woods.
When I left school that day, I took the bus home. Rafe hadn’t exactly been appearing with an offer of a ride lately, so I was stuck with bus duty whether I liked it or not. I went home, I did my homework, then I stared at the woods until darkness fell.