Read The Girl in the Woods Online
Authors: David Jack Bell
The Girl in the Woods (22 page)
"No."
She switched the water to cold and splashed handfuls into her face, hoping to counteract any blotches or redness. The water felt good and helped her calm down. When she shut the tap off, she listened and heard no other words coming from the hallway. Diana couldn't decide if that was a good sign or not. She took a towel from the rack and patted her face and arms dry, then made sure there was no dirt left in the sink, nothing that could inflame Janine any more than she already was. As Diana hung the towel back up, she realized she couldn't blame Janine. Diana was the invader here, the one who had upset everything. If the roles were reversed, she'd feel the same way.
Before Diana could open the door and stick her head out, a tentative knock sounded. She pulled it open and saw Dan standing there, his face red, his eyes tired. He'd had a hellaciously long day at work and then came home to all of this. Diana thought she should have felt worse for him, but she didn't.
"Diana? Are you okay?"
"I'm just going to go."
"No," he said. "Let's talk. But we have to do it on your way to the car."
* * *
They were halfway across the lawn, approaching the spot where Diana had been digging, before anything was said, and then it was just Diana mumbling an apology she didn't think she owed but felt obligated to deliver. She was more sorry for herself, she knew, sorry to have been exposed as fragile and shaken in front of both Dan and Janine.
Dan ignored the apology.
"What did you want to talk to me about?" he said.
Diana shook her head. "You're not going to like it," she said.
"If you want some inside dope on the Foley case, I don't know anything more than what they're saying in the papers. I really don't. And you should let it go—"
"I've heard that before. Let it go." They were down by the street. Diana looked back at Dan's house and saw the curtains move in a bedroom window. Janine watching them, no doubt making sure Diana left without planting a wet goodbye kiss on her husband's face. If only it were that simple. "It's not about the Foley girl. Not directly anyway."
"Then what?"
"Margie Todd."
Dan's face changed. The anger and tension drained away in favor of something else, something that almost resembled fear.
"What about her?"
"I read an old newspaper article about her, written right after she disappeared. In the article you said that it looked like she was taken, that there was nothing to indicate she ran away. You sounded so certain. But in your office you told me that she ran away. Why the change?"
"You've never changed your mind?" he said, but he didn't sound convinced.
"Tell me what's really going on, Dan. Somebody took that girl, Margie Todd. She didn't run away. She was having an affair with her boss, John Bolton, and then she disappeared. What do you think happened?"
"We investigated Bolton, and we cleared him. He had an alibi. Solid as rock. You know, not every girl who has an affair with her boss is an innocent victim."
"What does that mean?"
"Maybe Margie Todd pursued him. Maybe she broke it off and ran away. Lots of girls run when the going gets tough, Diana. It happens."
Diana felt the tears burning her eyes again, and again she fought them off. She wasn't going to let them out here, not in front of Dan. Not again.
"As I recall, you made the first move," she said. "And I'm sure John Bolton did the same. It's an old tradition."
A car turned the corner and came toward them, its headlights cutting through the night. Dan squinted against the glare, then turned to Diana again.
"You ask me what's going on here, Diana? I want to know what's going on with you. Showing up at my house. Digging in my front yard like a rat. And then accusing me of things, suggesting I know something about a crime but am choosing not to do anything about it." He gestured behind him. "My house is in order now, finally. Maybe you need to get yours in shape. Get a job or go to school. Or move on. It's a big world, and you can do a lot in it, but you won't do anything if you keep chasing after ghosts. The Foley girl was kidnapped. And we'll find who's responsible. Soon. Margaret Todd and your sister...they're long gone. You don't want to turn into a lonely old woman with nothing to keep yourself company except bitter feelings about the past like that Todd woman."
"Or my mother," Diana said, mostly to herself.
The car had stopped in the street, and the driver's door opened. Diana looked up. It was Jason. He looked confused and worried, and he took two quick steps toward them and stopped.
"Are you okay?" he said. "I've been looking all over."
"She's fine," Dan said. "Make sure she gets home okay."
"Sure thing, Captain," Jason said.
Dan turned and walked back to his house, and Jason draped his arm over Diana's shoulders. He started guiding her to the car like she was a child, but she wriggled out of his grip.
"I'm okay," she said. "Don't listen to what he says. I'm okay."
* * *
Diana drove herself home, with Jason following close behind. His headlights filled her rearview mirror like giant, watchful eyes, ones she couldn't escape. She simply wanted him gone. She wanted to be alone, to not think anymore about everything that swirled around her. Maybe Dan was right. She should focus on her own life and let the problems of others go. If not, she'd be Kay Todd in forty years, filling a broken-down trailer with cigarette butts and resentments.
After she pulled into the parking lot, she turned off the ignition and waited without getting out of the car, hoping that Jason would take the hint and drive off. No such luck. He took a spot near hers and climbed out of his car, which meant she had to deal with him at a time when she had no capacity to deal with anyone. She opened her door and stepped into the cool night.
Jason just stood there.
"I'm fine," she said. "You can go on."
"Are you really?" he said.
Diana could read the mixture of concern and confusion in his eyes. She understood but didn't have the patience for it.
"Yes, I am."
"What were you doing at the captain's house? I mean—" He stopped himself. "It's none of my business, but if you're starting something up with him again, I'd just as soon know now."
"So that's what you're really worried about, whether I'm shacking up with the Captain again? You're not really worried about me."
"I want to be prepared, you know, for when everything falls apart again." Jason shrugged, a helpless gesture. "Can we talk inside rather than out here?"
"No, I don't want to talk. I just want to be left alone."
Jason let a long breath out through his nose. He placed his hands on his hips.
"You know," he said, "I thought about you all day. I thought about how much you care about that girl who disappeared, Margie, and how much you want to find her."
"Jason."
"And I found myself wishing that I could care that much, that I could do for this Foley girl what you're trying to do for the Todd girl. You know? And it kept me going all day, through all the woods and all the fields and all the bullshit, it kept me going. And you know what else, Diana? They're wrong about the Foley girl. They're wrong. They're looking in the wrong place."
"What do you mean?" Diana said.
"They're looking east of town, far away from where she liked to ride. But it doesn't make any sense. Who would kidnap someone out in the middle of nowhere like that and then drive the person they kidnapped so far away and just dump the bike like they were throwing away a paper cup? Would you do it that way?"
"I don't know what you mean."
"I mean that people are creatures of habit, right? They do the same things over and over again because it's easy or because it's safe or because they like it. Right?"
"Right."
"So the Foley girl rode her bike on the same route all the time, out there in the middle of nowhere on County Road 600. And that's where someone took her. But we're looking in the other direction just because we found her bike out there. But why would someone who lived east of town be driving around on County Road 600? Why? It doesn't make sense, does it?"
"You're saying that whoever took her probably lives out where the Foley girl likes to ride?"
"Of course. And the bike was dumped east of town to throw us off. It looks like it was planted, right there on the side of the road. Do you know that the woman who found the bike is eighty-five years old? A retired schoolteacher with cataracts and she can see the bike on the side of the road. Maybe it was meant to be found."
"I don't know," Diana said. "Think of all the stupid people and the stupid crimes they commit. Maybe it happened exactly the way they think it happened."
"But what if it didn't?"
Diana shook her head. "You know what? I don't care. I'm out of this business. If you think it happened that way, you should do something about it. I'm not a cop anymore. It's not my game. What do you think I can do?"
Jason grunted out of frustration. "I don't know, Diana. Just...don't give up on it. We'll figure something out."
Diana looked away. She let her eyes wander up to the sky where the stars were scattered and distant. She still felt a dull ache at the base of her neck and slight fatigue. The vision hangover. The two had to be related, she thought. She'd gone years without one, and then when Kay Todd shows up and muddies the waters, the visions start again. She didn't want to live that way. She didn't want to be that person. Dan was right. She had to stop chasing ghosts.
"I'm sorry, Jason," she said. "I just can't do it."
He looked sad, like a little boy, and Diana wished she could take him in her arms and bring him inside with her. They could spend the night together and hold each other and pretend the rest of the world didn't exist. But it did. It always came knocking. Better to limit the complications and false hopes before they grew too unwieldy.
"Are you sure?" he said, taking his last chance.
Diana started backing away.
"Yeah, I'm sure."
* * *
While she went up the stairs to the second floor landing, she heard Jason's car door slam and his ignition start. She felt a mixture of sadness and relief but told herself it was for the best. Telling herself that was easy, believing it was something else entirely. But she decided to work on that tomorrow. She wanted to go to bed, close her eyes and forget, although even the prospect of sleep scared her. She didn't trust her mind, didn't know what journeys it would take if left to its own devices.
But when her apartment door came into view, she froze.
Something sat on the ground just outside the door. A foot high, colorful.
Flowers?
"No," she said. "Oh no."
She hustled to the door and bent down. Sure enough, it was a tidy bouquet of wildflowers in a cheap glass vase. With a card from Carter Florists on the south side of town.
Diana found the small envelope with her shaking hand.
You can just throw them away. Ignore the note. Ignore the whole thing.
But that was just it—she couldn't. Whoever sent them—Kay? Jason? A psychopath?—knew she couldn't walk away either. She had to open that envelope. She had to know.
So she tore it open, right there outside her door.
Diana—Keep going. You'll find the girl in the woods.
She took the flowers in her hand, vase and all, and threw them as hard as she could out into the parking lot. They arced through the sickly glow of the streetlights and then shattered against the pavement, sending a spray of glass through the night.
"Fuck you!" Diana screamed. "If you want something from me, ask for it! Otherwise, fuck you!"
Her neighbor's door opened, the retired postal worker next door who never spoke to Diana, but slinked past her when they saw each other as though he thought she would bite. He stuck his head out, a turtle peeking out of his shell.
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