The Body Finder (7 page)

THAT DAY, THE ONE AT THE LAKE, WAS LIKE THE
last day of summer…not just for Violet, but for everyone. And even though the calendar didn't support that argument, the weather cooperated, ignoring the forecasts that had predicted summerlike temperatures, and turning sad and dreary by the following day.

Violet struggled to get through that first twenty-four-hour period. She continued to feel smothered, first by the darkness of night, and then by the oppressive gloom of that endless Sunday. She kept mostly to herself, staying in her room as much as possible, only half listening to the music coming from her headphones, and only half sleeping when
exhaustion overcame her.

Jay called several times, and as much as she wanted to hear his voice, she avoided his calls. She felt like she owed him an apology for what she had forced him to witness, but she wasn't sure what she could possibly say to him to make it better.

She felt like she was sleepwalking through those first painful hours.

The second night came, and sleep finally defeated her. She'd tried to avoid it, spending countless hours laying in bed and playing the what-if game over and over in her head.
What if she had never seen those haunting colors echoing up from the water? What if she had chosen not to explore them further?
Or best of all,
what if she had just been normal, going through life in ignorance…blissfully unaware of the dead?
She was exhausted from her own self-deprecation and inner turmoil.

But just like when she was eight, when sleep finally claimed her, it came at a cost. Nightmares of the dead girl drifted through the waves of her subconscious. Pale, lifeless eyes watched her closely whenever she closed her own. And no matter how shocking the images were, she couldn't avoid them as sleep reclaimed her, again and again, until the dawn.

She went back to school too soon, but didn't realize it until it was too late.

That Monday, as she ventured out, she thought the diversion would be good for her. Jay was relieved to see her, and even though Violet was still unable to ask for his forgiveness, his presence made her feel better…almost alive again.

He reached out to her and held her cold hand as they walked to class together. At any other time that simple gesture would have caused her heart to skip beats, but at the moment, it simply reminded Violet that she was still awake.

What she hadn't bargained for was that what had happened over the weekend, at the lake, hadn't happened only to her, or to the two of them. It was as if it had happened to the entire school. And every student who could get close enough wanted to talk about the events…. They wanted her to relive it for them, over and over again.

How did Violet see her, the dead girl?

Did she recognize her?

What was it like seeing a dead body?

Did she think the girl had drowned? Was there blood? Did she see bruises?

Was she missing body parts?

The questions were endless.

Those who really knew Violet, her friends, were more sensitive but no less chatty on the topic. And their questions, for some reason, bothered Violet more than the predictably grim curiosity of the others. They were too personal.

Was Violet all right? Did she want to talk about it? Did her uncle say if they knew who the girl was?

She felt like concern for her was being paraded around like an exhibition, and even when she tried to change the subject, which she did as often as she could, they always managed to bring it back around to the topic they really wanted to discuss: the dead girl in the water.

Jay was the only one who understood her, the only one who seemed to know that she wasn't ready for this yet. He stayed as close to her as he could throughout the day, and even though Violet thought that
she
should be trying to offer some sort of comfort to him, she doubted that she could have brought herself out of her own well of self-pity long enough to try. He didn't seem to mind, though. He didn't appear to be damaged the way she was.

At home, her parents were patient. They listened when she talked, and she
did
talk to them, but when she was finished they would leave her alone again. It was a cautious dance as they took great care to stay out of her way, and she wondered if they thought she were fragile or breakable. Instead of being grateful for the space they gave her, she felt annoyed that they considered her so weak.

Her uncle Stephen made regular appearances during that first week too, checking in on her and dropping off cookies that her aunt Kat had baked, the real homemade kind that didn't come in a roll from the refrigerated section at the grocery store. Violet tried but couldn't seem to find it in herself to appreciate the effort her aunt had made.

And then, almost simultaneously, two things happened that changed everything.

Just one week after Violet found the body in the lake, another dead girl was discovered.

It was
exactly
one week to the day.

Then, on the following day, and two cities away, on a Sunday afternoon, the girl from the lake—Carys Kneer—was
buried by her family…laid to rest in proper fashion.

Once and for all.

And despite the fact that another body had just been found, Violet was suddenly at peace with the world again. She seemed to abruptly wake from the haze that had claimed her.

And she stayed that way….

Until the next girl vanished.

BY MONDAY, EVERYONE AT SCHOOL HAD HEARD
about the discovery of a second body. The news was bigger this time, not just because another girl was dead, or because she'd been found so close to home. It was bigger news because of
who
the girl was.

Brooke Johnson might not have attended White River High School, but she
had
been a student in the next closest town. And as happens with kids in small towns, their social circles had overlapped: they attended the same parties, dated the same boys, and hung out in the same places. Brooke had been popular, which didn't necessarily translate into being well liked, but which definitely made her more important
on the gossip ladder. Violet hadn't known Brooke personally, but she knew who Brooke was, in the same way that kids from Brooke's school would know who Lissie Adams was.

The other thing that made Brooke's death more newsworthy was that it established a pattern…at least in the eyes of the community at large.

They knew now what Violet had known all along: that the girl in the lake had been murdered before being dumped in the water. And despite the fact that the authorities could neither confirm nor deny a connection between the two bodies, locally, no one really doubted it. Two girls abducted, and then subsequently murdered and discarded so close to each other, in such a short period of time, hardly seemed like a coincidence.

If it walks like a duck,
seemed to be the sentiment regarding the assumed correlation, and people were reacting accordingly.

Grief counselors had been made available at several area schools, including White River in Buckley. There were assemblies and after-school classes scheduled about personal safety, stranger danger, and self-defense. Suddenly every girl in school was preoccupied with concerns over her own well-being. And despite the fact that they were not actually
permitted
under the school's “no-tolerance” environment, tiny cans of pepper spray became something of a staple—like lip gloss and tampons—in nearly every purse in school.

But by the middle of the week, conversations began to feel more normal again, and while safety was still a real issue, even Brooke Johnson's death was eventually eclipsed by the trivial quest for lighthearted rumors to cut through the gloom.

Jay, on the other hand, was neither eclipsed nor forgotten. And as the last days of summer drifted toward fall, the number of lovesick girls trailing behind him on any given day seemed to multiply.

While she'd been locked in the grip of her own troubles, Violet had temporarily forgotten to be jealous of those other girls and had finally remembered how to just be Jay's friend again. During those days before the girl from the lake was finally buried in her hometown, Jay had been the one who kept Violet sane. He slipped candy bars into her backpack for her to find and left little notes in her locker just to let her know he was thinking about her. She leaned on him every step of the way, and he never once complained. And afterward, when she felt back to her old self again, at least mostly anyway, he was still there.

She wondered what she'd done to deserve a friend like him, someone who never wavered and never questioned. Someone who was always
there…
being supportive, and funny, and thoughtful.

Violet stood in the hallway and watched him. He was digging through his locker looking for his math book, and even though she knew it wasn't there, Violet just let him search, smiling to herself. Crumpled wads of paper fell out onto the floor at his feet.

He seemed to sense that she was staring and he looked back at her. “What?” he asked.

“Nothing,” she responded, the smile finding her lips.

He narrowed his eyes, realizing that he was the butt of some private joke.
“What?”

She sighed and kicked a toe at his backpack, which was lying crookedly against the wall of lockers. “Your book's in your bag, dumbass,” she announced as she turned away and started walking toward class.

She heard him groan, followed by the sound of his locker slamming, before he finally caught up with her.

“Why didn't you say anything? Sometimes you really piss me off.”

It was easy to ignore the harsh words when his tone was anything but scolding.

She shrugged. “It's fun to watch you scramble.”

“Yeah,
fun.
That's what I was thinking.”

Grady Spencer fell into step beside Jay.

Grady had started out as one of Jay's friends but had quickly become Violet's too. When they were younger, in fourth grade, she'd had a crush on Grady, passing him notes in school that asked him whether he “liked” her too. One even had boxes to check “yes” or “no.” He'd picked yes, and they were officially boyfriend and girlfriend for the rest of the year, which only meant that she chased him at recess, and he pretended he didn't want her to.

Later, after the first day of fifth grade, she'd cried when she'd realized that they wouldn't be in the same classroom that year. And that had pretty much been the end of that particular childhood crush. He had moved on to Miranda Grant, a new girl in his class, and Violet fell in love with her fifth-grade teacher, Mr. Strozyk.

“What's up?” Jay asked Grady.

It was funny to see Grady now, because, like Jay, he'd grown
nearly six inches since the last school year, and now he towered over her. Half of the boys in her class had suddenly sprouted and developed into men; the other half were still lingering in boyhood. The girls had been waiting for the boys to catch up for a couple of years, and those who had were considered fair game. It was like open season at White River High School.

“Not much, man,” Grady answered in a deeper voice than she remembered. “You guys going to the game on Friday?”

“'Course. Right, Vi?” Jay said, pretty much answering for her.

“Sure.” She shrugged.

She didn't mind; she knew they were going. It was autumn, which meant football season. And home games were practically a religion in her town.

They got to the classroom she and Jay shared this period, but it wasn't Grady's class. Instead of walking on, Grady paused.

“Violet, can I talk to you for a minute?” His deep voice surprised her again.

“Yeah, okay,” Violet agreed, curious about what he might have to say to her.

Jay stopped and waited too, but when Grady didn't say anything, it became clear that he'd meant he wanted to talk to her…
alone
.

Jay suddenly seemed uncomfortable and tried to excuse himself as casually as he could. “I'll see you inside,” he finally said to Violet.

She nodded to him as he left.

Violet was a little worried that the bell was going to ring
and she'd be tardy again, but her curiosity had kicked up a notch when she realized that Grady didn't want Jay to hear what he had to say, and that far outweighed her concern for late slips.

When they were alone, and Grady didn't start talking right away, Violet prompted him. “What's going on?”

She watched him swallow, and his Adam's apple bobbed up and down along the length of his throat. It was strange to see her old guy friends in this new light. He'd always been a good-looking kid, but now he looked like a man…even though he still acted like a boy. He shifted back and forth, and if she had taken the time to think about it, she would have realized that he was nervous.

But she misread his discomfort altogether. She thought that, like her, he was worried about being late. “Do you want to talk after school? I could meet you in the parking lot.”

“No. No. Now's good.” He ran his hand through his hair in a discouraged gesture. He took a deep breath, but his voice was still shaking when he spoke. “I…I was wondering…” He looked Violet right in the eye now, and suddenly she felt very nervous about where this might be going. She was desperately wishing she hadn't let Jay leave her here alone. “I was wondering if you're planning to go to Homecoming,” Grady finally blurted out.

She stood there, looking at him, feeling trapped by the question and not sure what she was going to say.

The bell rang, and both of them jumped.

Violet was grateful for the excuse, and she clung to it like a life preserver. Her eyes were wide, and she pointed to the
door behind her. “I gotta…can we…” She pointed again, and she knew she looked and sounded like an idiot, incapable of coherent speech. “Can we talk after school?”

Grady seemed relieved to have been let off the hook for the moment. “Sure. Yeah. I'll talk to you after school.”

He left without saying good-bye, and Violet, thankful herself, tried to slip into her classroom unnoticed.

But she had no such luck. The teacher marked her tardy, and everyone in class watched as she made her way to her seat beside Jay's. Her face felt flushed and hot.

“What was
that
all about?” Jay asked in a loud whisper.

She still felt like her head was reeling. She had no idea what she was going to say to Grady when school was out. “I think Grady just asked me to Homecoming,” she announced to Jay.

He looked at her suspiciously. “The game?”

Violet cocked her head to the side and gave him a look that told him to be serious.

“No, I'm pretty sure he meant the dance,” Violet clarified, exasperated by the obtuse question.

Jay frowned at her. “What did you say?”

“I didn't say anything. The bell rang and I told him we'd have to talk later.”

The teacher glanced their way, and they pretended
not
to be talking to each other. Violet decided that she didn't need to get in trouble for not listening, especially after being marked late, so she made an effort to pay attention to the lecture. It was nearly impossible to concentrate, though.

She had thought about going to the dance even before
Grady had asked her, and she'd hoped, probably in vain, that Jay might ask her to go with him, even if it meant they only went as friends. She would rather spend an evening in his company, even innocently, than in anyone else's. But now that she'd been asked by Grady, she had to at least consider the possibility of going with him. Why not? She and Grady had been friends for almost as long as she and Jay had been, and as long as he understood that was all they
would
be, it might be fun to go with someone else.

When class was over, Violet practically had to run to keep up with Jay, who had left the classroom so fast she barely had time to put her books away. She hurried after him, frustrated that he was making her chase him.

By the time she caught up to him, Violet didn't bother to hide her annoyance. “Why are you in such a hurry?”

He started to say something, and then he seemed to change his mind. “No hurry. I just don't want you to make me late too.”

Violet shook her head as she watched Jay disappear into the crowd, irritated that he'd left her feeling like she'd done something wrong. Between Grady and Jay, she was more than a little confused about guys in general.

 

When school was out, Violet wondered if Jay would still want a ride home. He'd spent the entire day snubbing her. That's what it felt like anyway. He even ate his lunch with some of his guy friends instead of sitting with her and Chelsea. She thought about leaving him at school without waiting to find
out what was up with him, but she wasn't quite mad enough to be that bitchy. So instead, she waited in her car for nearly twenty minutes.

When she heard the tapping on the passenger-side window, she looked up, expecting to see Jay standing outside, waiting for her to unlock the car's doors and let him in.

But it wasn't Jay. It was Grady Spencer, and suddenly Violet wished that she hadn't waited, that she'd followed her first malicious thought and left Jay behind altogether.

She rolled down the window, trying not to look horrified by the prospect of talking to Grady. “Um, hey there,” she said as cheerfully as she could. “What's up?”

“You're not waiting for Jay, are you?” Grady asked, surprising her with his question.

“Sort of.” She cringed, suddenly feeling foolish for sitting in her car for so long. “Why?”

Grady looked embarrassed to be the one to tell her, and he hesitated before blurting it out. “Jay got a ride with Lissie Adams and a couple of her friends.”

Violet wouldn't have been more surprised if Grady had just slapped her across the face, and the sting of his news was just as vicious. She sat there for a stunned moment, completely dazed and unsure of what she should say or what she should do.

And then a jealous, bitterly hot anger flashed through her, and she wasn't sure which was worse…that Jay had gone home without even telling her why he was avoiding her…or that he'd gone home with Lissie Adams.

It didn't really matter, though, because suddenly she wasn't
just annoyed with him…
she was furious
.

She was also acutely aware that Grady was still anxiously watching her, and she didn't want him to see how upset she was, so she shoved her hands beneath her legs so he couldn't see them shaking. She took a breath before rolling her eyes and saying, “It would have been nice if he'd said something to me.” Somehow she managed to say it in a voice that sounded teasing and light, even though she was filled with angry frustration.

Grady was visibly relieved, and that seemed to give him the courage he needed to do what he'd come there for. “So, I was wondering if you'd thought about the dance at all.”

Violet looked at his hopeful face. He was smiling at her as he leaned down and peered at her through the passenger window. It was just a dance, just one night, and it was a chance to dress up and hang out with someone she genuinely liked.

And then she thought of Jay, and bitter resentment washed over her.

She smiled back at Grady's handsome face, making her choice right then and there. “Yeah,” she said, feeling unexpectedly decisive about her last-minute decision. “I'd love to go to Homecoming with you, Grady. In fact, there's no one else I'd rather go with.”