“Since Saturday night, Lynne has been glued to the news. It was all I could do to keep her from going outside Maggie’s house, stand there and cry. A puzzle like this will do her good,” Jim insisted, “and no one knows this neighborhood like Lynne.” Evie reluctantly followed him up the steps to the Benoit home. She wanted Jim’s help, not to get pulled into a thousand and one questions about Maggie. She didn’t know precisely those answers anyway, as she hadn’t seen Maggie since early Sunday morning.
Lynne was the one who opened the door. “Oh. Hi.”
“Lynne, this is one of those no-question times,” Jim said firmly. He looked past her into the living room. “Nancy, can we use the kitchen table? The lieutenant here needs some help.”
“Of course, Jim. Come in, both of you.”
Evie knew immediately that Lynne was dying to ask at least a few questions, felt sorry for her when the girl promptly sealed her lips at Jim’s remark. Evie followed them into the kitchen and said mostly for Lynne’s benefit, “Maggie is fine. She’s staying with friends. She didn’t see what happened that night. Her home has one of those safe rooms where the door shuts and no one can open it. When her security sounded the alarm, she went inside the room and waited until David came to get her.”
“She wasn’t scared?” Lynne asked, her tone one of worry.
Evie gave her a reassuring smile. “It was quiet, she had music, some pillows to get comfortable. She was playing cards to keep herself occupied when David opened the door. I was there. I promise, she’s okay.”
“But she can’t go back home, can she?”
“I imagine not, but Maggie’s resilient. She’ll find another great home to call her own.”
“I made her a card. It’s not much, just a sympathy card. Would one of you give it to her for me?”
“I can do that, Lynne,” Evie said, thinking it might do Maggie good.
“I’ll go get it and be right back.” Lynne darted away.
Evie pulled out the materials she’d brought along. Nancy promptly put a plate of cookies on the table. “One good deed deserves another.”
Evie picked one up with a smile. Jim pulled out a chair beside her, took a cookie, and began to arrange the aerial photos in order. Nancy came around to watch what he was doing. She put a finger on a house. “This is us.”
“Yep.”
“It’s a very different view of the neighborhood looking at it from above,” Nancy said. “You can see how large the yards really are compared to the houses.”
Lynne returned with a light-blue envelope. “Thanks.”
“Sure.” Evie stored it in her backpack. “I’ll see Maggie gets it as soon as I see her.”
“You’ve brought a puzzle?” Lynne asked, looking curiously at the tabletop.
“I don’t mean to be morbid, Lynne, but we might be able to find Jenna’s remains if we can figure out these sketches,” Evie explained. “These are topography sketches—the lines mark the way the land gets flatter or steeper. The lines aren’t necessarily roads, trails, or landmarks. The man who drew these used other sketches like them to show where he put a body. We’re assuming one of these two sketches might tell us where he buried Jenna. There might be a clue in the sketches, some feature in the landscape like a bridge, a culvert, a railroad crossing.”
Lynne picked up one of the sketches, turned it several directions. “Okay, it’s a land graph, like when you play a golf green and want to know how the land slopes and rises, it shows where to putt to reach the flag.”
“Exactly,” Jim replied, choosing a copy of the other sketch. “But it doesn’t have a scale marked, so we can’t put it beside the map and find the location. We have to think about the locations, see if we can see that land graph fitting the place we remember.” He put his finger down near the first open area behind Jenna’s apartment building. “Think about that tree behind Jacob’s shed. Does this area match your sketch?”
“Too flat,” Lynne said. “When it rains, that whole area is a puddle. This sketch looks like a round bowl.” She glanced over his shoulder at the one he held. “That’s closer, but you need long and narrow and steep at one end.”
“Okay.” Jim moved his finger south on the aerial map to the next open area. “The bike trail by the drinking fountain. If you were to go toward the stream, that land falls off quickly.”
Lynne shook her head. “It’s too . . .” She made a gesture with her hand. “You slide on your butt to the bottom, but then it goes flat again. There’s no curve. Yours needs a curve too.”