Page 91 of The Fragile Ones

“It’s going to take a while to watch.”

“Not really, it only records when there’s movement. But a moth could set it off, too.” He set some parameters and let it run its course. “While I’m doing that, here’s this list I saw in the chief’s office. It was really worn and sticking out of a plain file folder.” McGaven showed Katie.

“What do you think it’s for?”

“I don’t know. It looks like it was written a while back and has been handled quite a bit.”

Katie typed a few of the names and ran a search.

The lights flickered.

“C’mon, don’t fail me now,” she said. The first girl’s name popped up in a news article, Mary Matthews, age nine. She had been murdered and her body was found just outside of town twelve years ago. Another girl, Cynthia Evan, ten, murdered, body found down in the creek four years ago.

“What is going on?” she said. “Why haven’t we received this information before? Why didn’t it come up in our searches?”

“What?”

“Your list. Three of them, including Darla Denton, are girls that had been murdered. The others were all reported missing.”

“Where?”

“Here.”

“What do you mean here? InRock Creek?” he said.

“Why didn’t the chief tell us? Better yet, why didn’t these murders show up on the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report?” Katie kept searching for more information. “The local paper,The Pine Cone, said that Mary Matthews went missing from her front yard. There was a massive search with half the town. Her body was found a week later on the side of the road on Highway 9. What do you want to bet her body was found at the same location where the numbers were carved into that tree?” Katie kept searching but she could only find reference to the three girls: Mary Matthews, Cynthia Evan, and Darla Denton.

“Alright, now the chief has some serious explaining to do,” he said.

You know all about him. You can reach out and touch him.

“This is so much bigger than the murder of Tessa and Megan Mayfield.” Katie bit her lip and began spinning possible scenarios in her mind.

McGaven glanced at his screen, seeing the back of a man walking down to the creek. Then he went out of view, and came back. “Katie, look at this.”

She was immediately at his side viewing the movements of the man. “Who is that?”

“Watch his movements and his gait.”

Katie shook her head. “I don’t know, but it sort of looks like the build of Officer Mason.”

“That’s what came to mind.”

“I can’t tell for sure.”

“What do you want to do?” he said.

“Now it’s time to call the sheriff,” she said. He picked up after two rings.

“Katie, everything all right?” There was stress in his voice, which wasn’t typical.

“Well, actually, no,” she said. “Sheriff Osborne is nowhere to be found. There’s something very strange going on here in Rock Creek—and I don’t think we can trust the law enforcement. We found a list of girls that have been murdered here over the past ten years, but there’s no record of them in the system.”

“Are you sure?”

“From everything we’ve managed to find.” She steadied her breathing. “I think we need the sheriff’s department to back us up. No one is talking. The chief and both of his officers have gone missing—we’re unable to contact any of them.”

“Has the storm hit you there yet?” the sheriff said.