CHAPTER NINE
Reese had never seen so many different types of law enforcement vehicles in one place at one time, not even when Sophia had gone missing and they had systematically searched the entire county.
There were two local police cars, along with the sheriff’s own official vehicle, as well as two state police cruisers and another two state unmarked detective cars parked behind Noah’s truck. A forensics van had arrived shortly after the police had pulled in, along with a satellite van with a media crew from Cleveland.
Blyth Lake wasn’t nearly big enough to have a local television station. The state police had made them park the TV van with its big tall dish antenna two hundred yards back from Noah’s property line. Hell, it was closer to her driveway than his.
As it stood, there was only one light bar still rotating the reds and blues on the sheriff’s vehicle. She was pretty sure it was out of habit, because he seemed to want to wash this most recent discovery off his hands and into those who had the proper resources to solve the nature of the crime made obvious by such a discovery.
“…had an inspector come out twice during the time the property was for sale,” Harlan Whitmore said to one of the detectives. They were standing beside the forensics van. The real estate agent’s eyes were glued to the house. “They never noticed a smell, let alone a body in the wall. Jesus.”
There wouldn’t have been a smell. Not after all these years. Add in the fact that the body had partially mummified within the plastic trapped inside drywall, it most likely masked any odors the Andersons might have noticed after they’d moved in all those years ago.
Noah and Gus were currently standing on the porch, talking to the sheriff. Miles Schaeffer had followed behind Gus when he’d come from the diner. The forensics team were currently extracting the skeleton from what was left of the wall. A deputy was watching the crime scene crew notate the location of every piece of broken drywall and placing it in evidence bags.
The forensics team were removing the entire wall and bagging the lot.
Another deputy was keeping the media contained to the side of the gravel lane up the road, while a state detective was speaking into his phone and ordering a search of the entire property using ground penetrating radar and divers for the pond.
Reese wouldn’t be surprised if more people showed up out of sheer curiosity.
Everyone had to be thinking the same thing—the body that had been hidden inside the walls of the Yoder’s farmhouse had to be Emma Irwin. The girl who everyone had known was dead, but had secretly hoped she’d run away.
Reese stood off to the side in the yard, making sure she wasn’t in anyone’s way. She’d already spoken to the taller homicide detective about how she and Noah had come to find the body. Dusk was falling and hours had passed since she’d set the sledge hammer down and tore off her goggles in disbelief at their grim discovery.
She couldn’t bring herself to leave. The forward motion just wouldn’t come.
“I heard what happened. Any word on whether or not it’s Emma?”
Reese had been so focused on trying to hear what was being said in multiple conversations that she hadn’t caught the rumble of additional approaching engines. A quick look told her that more people had arrived as she’d suspected and lined their vehicles along the lane back in the direction of her rental house. They were staying off Noah’s property, but only because of the deputy keeping them at bay beside the news crew.
It appeared the townsfolk didn’t want to wait to hear something secondhand. This was the biggest discovery in Blyth Lake history.
“Hi, Rose.” Reese folded her arms around her waist, wondering how Rose had gotten around the police line. That thought vanished after catching sight of Noah running his hand through his hair in frustration. She wished there was something she could do for him. The police had already told him that it could be at least a couple weeks before they released the crime scene and he was allowed back inside the house. If it were her, she’d have a For Sale sign up in the yard by tomorrow morning. “The homicide detectives are saying they won’t know anything until they get the…what’s left of the body back to their lab.”
Reese didn’t feel comfortable referring to the person as a skeleton or body. Whoever it might turn out to be had been an actual person, not just a bunch of dried-out tissue and bones.
“It has to be Emma,” Rose whispered, shaking her head in sorrow. “She’s the only one who went missing in the history of our town. Miles said that the body was found in that extra wall, which the Andersons had put into the house. That poor girl. To be killed and shoved into a wall to be entombed and forgotten for twelve years. No one deserves to be discarded like that. Lord only knows how she died.”
Reese had trouble swallowing, wondering if Sophia had suffered the same fate. Honestly, if it was revealed that the body was Emma Irwin, then it was possible that Sophia had run away or been murdered just like Emma. Had Reese been so blinded back then to whatever Sophia was going through that she refused to accept the truth?
“Your cousin, Sophia, was a nice girl. There isn’t anything definite saying she was hurt, too.” Rose wrapped an arm around Reese’s shoulders and squeezed. The kind gesture reminded her of what Noah had been trying to do. Look at how that turned out. “You should know that Sophia didn’t just teach Emma how to swim. She was having a real tough time after losing her grandmother. Sophia was the one to coax her out of her shell and get her to join in on the camp activities. When things calm down here in a day or two, come and talk to me. Maybe I can help you find closure in a way that helps you put this behind you.”
A thousand questions whirled in Reese’s mind, but she couldn’t form any questions. Maybe she didn’t want to come off as insensitive to what was taking place directly in front of them.
“Rose, how did you get past Deputy Wallace over there?”
The older, but lovely, woman raised an eyebrow at Sheriff Percy’s question. Her hair was cut short, but the grayish black strands somehow came off as stylish with her penchant for wearing silver. The light fragrance of her perfume was a welcome scent from the stale air inside the house.
“This young woman has not one soul in Blyth Lake to comfort her,” Rose pointed out, her bracelets creating a melody of sorts as she lowered her arm from Reese’s shoulders. “I was going to see that she got home safely.”
“Rose, I’m okay,” Reese murmured, noticing all eyes in the immediate area had drifted toward them. She patted the older woman’s hand. “Really. I’ll give you a call if I need anything, as well as take you up on your offer to talk about Sophia.”
Rose seemed to believe Reese’s declining of the invitation was the sheriff’s fault, and the two started nipping at one another. It appeared to be a common event, considering no one paid any attention to them after Reese stepped to the side and made her way toward Noah.
“You doing okay?” Reese wished she could say something that made all this okay. Words wouldn’t help. “Is there anything I can do?”
“I won’t be handing you a sledge hammer anytime in the near future,” Noah said wryly. His tired smile let her know that he was kidding, but she doubted she would ever pick up a tool of any sort and swing it through a wall again. “It appears we attracted quite a crowd.”
Reese glanced over her shoulder, seeing a couple more media vans plus a larger crowd than before.
“You know that they’re going to think…”
“I know what they think.” Noah didn’t look too happy when Reese turned back around. This was affecting him more than he was letting on. “Why don’t you head on home to salvage what’s left of your evening? I have no idea how long I’ll be here, but I’m not leaving until most of the authorities and everyone else have vacated the premises. I want to help lock up and secure the house. At least, what they’ll let me do.”
It dawned on Reese that he automatically assumed either a curious journalist or maybe even a group of teenagers looking for a scare might try and break in to find something of note that they could spread around town.
“Are you sure?” Reese’s gaze was drawn to the open front door where a forensics technician was crossing the threshold. “I can stay, if you like.”
“I appreciate the offer, but you haven’t eaten a thing all day.” Noah’s name was being called by the technician. “I also appreciate you staying as long as you did, but I’ve got this covered. I’ll touch base with you tomorrow morning.”
Noah made his way back toward the porch and then took a couple steps at a time until he was standing next to the forensics tech. The two engaged in a serious conversation, leaving her no choice but to wander toward the police line. She wasn’t sure why she was feeling so bereft.
The sheriff had walked Rose back down the lane toward her car, where numerous other vehicles were parked either in the small field or along the lane. The low murmurs of chatter could be heard from the path that would lead Reese back to her place. She wasn’t walking straight into that cluster of curious bystanders.
Reese discreetly made her way parallel to the police line back to the other side of the property near the woods, taking a shortcut through the dense vegetation that separated Rose’s property from Noah’s land. The sun was falling rather fast, but she should be inside before complete darkness descended. Anything was better than facing all the questions that would be hurled her way had she taken the road back.
It was eerily quiet as she broke through the line of the shrubbery. No birds were chirping, no frogs or crickets were singing their evening songs, and the wind had died down so that the leaves hung from their branches in complete stillness.
An image of the skull being revealed flashed through her mind. Emma Irwin’s innocent features morphed into the picture Sophia had in her room. Was it really Emma they’d found?
The implications were profound. Wouldn’t such a discovery mean that someone within the community of Blyth Lake was responsible for her death? Pete Anderson had been doing his own renovations on the farmhouse twelve years ago prior to moving in, just like Noah was doing now. He hadn’t wanted help from Schaeffer’s Contracting & Flooring, or anyone else for that matter.
Had Pete Anderson been responsible for killing that poor girl and sealing her body inside the wall?
Reese figured she was halfway to the side of her yard when something or someone moved in her peripheral vision. She stopped and surveyed the area to her right, taking in every tree within her distant field of vision.
Each stood still until one didn’t.
Reese covered her mouth with a trembling hand. She didn’t know if it was instinctive to keep her presence hidden, or she was just too scared to do anything else.
A dark silhouette stood no more than a hundred yards away looking back toward the direction from which she’d come.
Neither one of them moved.
It took her a moment to realize that the individual was now actually facing her, having known all along of her presence.
Was it a man or a woman?
Reese deduced it was a man from his height and build, but he slowly faded into the shadows before she could make a decision to run back the way she came. She remained still, searching everywhere for which direction he might have taken.
She hadn’t realized just how fast her heartrate had accelerated until she tried to swallow. Her carotid arteries were pulsing at a heart-racing pace.
Had the individual simply been someone from the main road searching for a way onto Noah’s property? If so, why hadn’t he just said so? Or had the man been there all along, watching her progress, waiting for her in the dark?
Reese looked back the way she came, assessing her choices. She slowly turned in a full circle, wanting to check every angle where someone could sneak up upon her. Little by little, she relaxed until she could force her legs to move in the direction of her house once again.
The clearing finally appeared in front of her, but the sun had set even farther west. She hadn’t planned on being gone all day, so she hadn’t left the porch light on in anticipation of her return. The glare of headlights approaching from the main road gave some illumination, but that quickly faded as the vehicle passed by to reach its intended destination farther down toward the crime scene.
Reese didn’t waste time and quickly jogged across the side of her yard to reach her porch. She took the steps at a rapid pace, almost missing what was out of place before she lunged over the rotted board.
Only there wasn’t decayed wood where there had been since she’d arrived over a week ago. At least, she didn’t think there was as she stared down at her feet.
Reese unhooked the small key ring she’d clipped to her belt loop on her jean shorts, sliding the key inside the deadbolt. She avoided the area as she leaned forward and slipped her arm inside to flip the light switch.
Instantly, the porch was bathed in a golden hue.
Sure enough, the old board had been replaced with a brand-new plank. All it needed now was a light coat of finish or stain in order to match the others. Chad must have stopped by earlier today, though she was surprised that he hadn’t driven over to Noah’s when the dirt road had basically turned into a parking lot.
She was appreciative that Chad had fixed the porch, but her previous anxiety had settled in her shoulders.
Had he been the one in the woods earlier?
Her gaze was immediately drawn in that direction, though the light from the porch made it hard for her to see so far out in the darkness. That didn’t stop her from dragging her gaze down the edge of the trees. The hairs on the back of her neck tingled.
Someone had been watching her.
Or was it all in her mind?
She did find a body today, and one that had been hidden for many years without fear of discovery. What if that wasn’t all that had resurfaced? She had come here to town to stir up long forgotten pain, and while in the process, she’d uncovered someone else’s secret.
Distant sounds from next door carried over in a gentle breeze that had finally resumed. An owl began to call for its mate, and a few of the crickets in her yard started to chatter.
Everything was returning to normal, yet she couldn’t shake off the impression that it was all a prelude to the coming crash.
Someone was still there out there. He or she had to be wondering why Reese had come here and unlocked their fear of discovery.
Had she just made herself a target?