The Body in the Woods (21 page)

VOCALIZATION

Quiet, soft-spoken, with good vocabulary.

 

SPECIES NAME

Teenager.

INDIVIDUAL SPECIMEN

Ruby McClure, age 16.

STUDY SPECIFICATIONS

This 16-year-old female was first observed on November 8. Her movements and daily activity have been monitored since November 13, using GPS coordinates provided by the tracking program incorporated in a unit disguised as a thumb drive and hidden in subject's backpack.

STUDY FINDINGS:

APPEARANCE

Approximately five foot four, 120 pounds, Caucasian with milk-white skin. Hair is straight, approximately 60 cm in length, and an unusual and striking true red. Dresses plainly and practically in neutral-colored sweaters, jeans, Nikes, and a navy blue parka.

HABITAT

Nocturnal: Spends nights at familial home on NW Pettygrove.

Diurnal: Weekdays are spent at Lincoln High School. Many evenings and weekends are dedicated to outings or classes with Portland County Search and Rescue in a three-county area.

FEEDING HABITS

Healthy diet. Is almost always chewing gum.

BEHAVIOR

Awkward, intense, fixated on certain topics. Does not make much eye contact.

VOCALIZATION

Can be loud and insistent when interested in topic.

CHAPTER 39

TUESDAY

CRY FOR ALL THE GIRLS

They had done it! She and Nick had caught the killer and saved a girl! Even Detective Harriman had gruffly thanked them—before lecturing them about the importance of leaving things to the professionals. Then the police had briefly questioned both of them and taken them home.

Alexis should have been relieved, even happy, as she walked up the stairs to her apartment. But she just felt shaky and empty. The adrenaline had worn off, and now she barely had the energy to lift her feet. Even though they might have saved future homeless girls and women, her mom was still missing. Maybe dead. She hadn't even been able to find Raina before she met Nick in Forest Park. Who knew how many bodies the runner was responsible for?

Alexis couldn't think of anywhere else to look for her mom, any other way to find her. What if her mom never came back? Could she make it on her own?

In the short term, the answer to that was easy. She had been forging her mom's signature on the disability check for years, just as she had been forging it on anything else important, like the application for SAR.

But eventually some adult was going to figure out that Alexis was alone, and then what?

She let herself into the apartment, so lost in thought that at first she didn't realize that someone was already there. But a tall, thin figure was standing in the kitchen.

“Mommy?” Alexis said, in a voice so high-pitched and soft even she didn't recognize it.

Her mom turned and smiled. “Oh, honey, you're home.”

Alexis couldn't speak. Instead she wrapped her arms around her mom so tight they both lost their balance and bumped into the counter. She pressed her nose against her mom's neck. It had been months, maybe even years, since Alexis had held her mom so close, but she almost couldn't believe that she was real. That she was alive.

Finally she pulled back. “Where
were
you?”

Her mom smiled ruefully. “I got picked up because the cops thought I was drunk. I don't really remember much about what happened next, but I guess they decided I wasn't drunk, I was crazy. So I ended up in a locked hospital ward while they evaluated me. But they can only hold you so long, and I wasn't about to let them put me away. Not when I needed to get back to my baby girl. So I was as sly as a fox.” She grinned and laid her finger against her lips. “I knew they might take you away if I whispered one word about you, so I kept quiet.”

Her mom was back. Her real mom. In spirit as well as body. On her feet were cheap white tennis shoes, and she was dressed in purple sweatpants and a gray sweatshirt that hung on her skinny frame. Her nails were clean and short. Her eyes clear. But a tic flicked underneath her left eye, and she kept smacking her lips.

“So you're taking your meds again, Mom?”

“They gave me a lot of pills. A lot. Some of them new.” She pointed at a crumpled brown paper bag.

Alexis opened it. It was full of paperwork and pill bottles. Even more pills than her mom normally took. Drugs for depression, for anxiety, for delusions, for insomnia. Some you took with food, some you took on an empty stomach. All of them had to be taken at set intervals, although some couldn't be taken together. How her mom was supposed to continue on this regimen without someone to supervise it was beyond Alexis. And that assumed she continued to be willing to take them at all.

Her mom licked her lips again and then opened her mouth, revealing thick ropes of saliva. “You know I don't like the way they make me feel. So slow. Slow and tired.”

“But you have to take them, Mom. You have to. Promise me. Because”—Alexis's voice broke—“because I can't be on my own like that again. I can't. Not knowing where you are! Thinking you might be dead!”

The events of the last few days caught up with her. Her legs felt shaky. She sat down on the couch, put her head in her hands, and started to cry. Cry for all the girls and women they hadn't saved.

And a few tears for herself.

CHAPTER 40

WEDNESDAY

LIFE LIST

The house phone was ringing when Ruby got home from school. She had been distracted all day, thinking about how Alexis and Nick had caught the runner and saved the girl. Her only regret was that she hadn't been there. Last night, she had barely slept. Once her parents were in bed, she kept checking websites, waiting for the story to go live. But so far, the police were keeping a lid on it.

When Ruby answered the phone, it was her mom.

“Your father and I just met with that Jon Partridge. From Search and Rescue. When we called to tell him we were pulling you out, he asked if we could talk.”

“Yes?” Ruby said slowly, not daring to let herself hope.

“He told us that you've been acing all your tests. And he said you're becoming a real asset to SAR.” Her mom's voice was filled with some emotion Ruby couldn't name. Was it—pride? “He said you actually stopped one of the other volunteers from touching some important evidence. And he said they needed you.”

“Uh-huh.” This wasn't news to Ruby, but it clearly was to her mom.

“He also said volunteering for SAR was excellent preparation for being a doctor, especially working in emergency medicine.”

“I think I would be good at that,” Ruby said. It was 100 percent true. She pressed her lips together so she didn't add that she had also decided it was not what she wanted to do.

“So we worked out an agreement. SAR won't call you in if they're recovering the body of a murder victim or even looking for crime scene evidence if it's gruesome in any way. You're only sixteen. We don't want you exposed to things like that.”

“Okay,” Ruby said slowly.
Was her mom saying…?

“And you have to clear it with us if you're asked to leave school.”

“Okay.” She was nodding her head as if her mom could see her.

“And we can change our minds at any time if we feel you're getting too obsessed.”

“Okay.”

“Aren't you happy, Ruby?” her mom said, and only then was Ruby certain she was back in SAR.

“It's what I want most in the world.” Emotion thickened her voice. “Thank you. I won't let you and Dad down.”

“We just want you to be happy, Ruby. Happy and healthy.”

“So can I go to class tonight?”

Her mom sighed. “Your keys and cell phone are in my underwear drawer.”

“Is it okay if I leave a little early?”

“Why?” Her mom drew out the word, as if she were suspicious.

“Because the swifts are back at Chapman, and I want to go see them.”

Her mom let out a laugh. “Of course, honey. Enjoy.”

Ruby ran to get her cell phone so she could tell Alexis and Nick the good news.

 

 

It was just an hour until sunset, when the swifts would roost. Every space along Northwest Portland's narrow streets was taken. Cars were even parked in loading zones or in front of driveways.

“This had better be worth it,” Nick said as Ruby drove in ever-widening circles, trying to find a parking space. “Because we are going to have quite a hike.”

“It might be the last chance to see them. Ever,” Ruby said. “Since they're so late this year, who knows if they'll ever come again? So this might be your once-in-a-lifetime chance.” It had been a shock to learn that neither Nick nor Alexis had ever come to watch the swifts. She finally spotted a tiny parking space and backed expertly into it, ignoring the honks of the car behind her. They were actually closer to Forest Park than to Chapman Elementary.

Nick was still complaining as they got out of the car. Then he tipped his head back and his mouth fell open. The sky overhead was thick with birds, swirling like innumerable flecks of black pepper. “There must be hundreds,” Nick said. “Thousands.”

“At least,” Ruby agreed. “Chapman is one of the largest known roosting sites.”

They joined the crowds on the sidewalk walking toward the school grounds. Ruby was used to seeing pedestrians looking down, distracted by their smart phones. It was weird to see so many people nearly running into telephone poles, signs, and each other because they were looking
up
. All of them taking in the spectacle of the dark whirling clouds of birds.

“Have you seen that movie
The Birds
?” Nick asked. His shoulders hunched as if he expected an imminent attack. “They wouldn't hurt us, would they?”

“That was a
movie
.” Ruby tried not to sound impatient. Next he would be asking her if zombies were real. “A movie based on a short story, except all Hitchcock took from it was the idea of birds attacking people. Don't worry. The birds have a lot more to fear from us than we do from them. In fact, we're the ones who've destroyed their habitat and made the world so hot, which is what is probably screwing up their migration.” She thought of a joke. “If they ever did turn on us, you could say it was the swifts coming home to roost. Get it? Like when they say the chickens come home to roost?”

“Ha ha,” Nick said, but Ruby wasn't certain he really thought it was funny.

Hundreds of people were gathered on the school grounds. Some stood, others sat on camp chairs or folding aluminum lawn chairs. A few families had spread out blankets and were picnicking despite how cold the ground must be. All of them had their heads tilted back, their faces lit by the salmon-colored light of the setting sun. People pointed fingers and cameras. Kids chased each other through the crowd. Dogs on leashes barked.

As the birds continued to gather overhead like iron filings swirling around a magnet, Ruby and Nick hunted through the crowd for Alexis. After watching the swifts, they would go to the sheriff's office for class. They finally found her standing by the swing sets. She hugged Nick. Then, to Ruby's surprise and delight, turned and hugged her.

“I'm so proud of both of you guys for catching the killer!” Ruby grinned at them, feeling almost giddy.

“All I did was call 9-1-1 and Detective Harriman,” Alexis said. “Nick's the one who broke that guy's nose. Just straight-up head-butted him.”

“And what about you, Ruby?” Nick said. “You're the one who knew Adams didn't kill Miranda. You're the one who realized how those three dead girls were connected. And you're the one who figured out how to find the real killer.” He turned to Alexis. “And if you hadn't spotted the runner with that girl downtown, Ruby might not have been able to put everything together.” He grinned. “I think Detective Harriman might owe us a medal. Or three.”

“Yeah, that sounds
exactly
like the kind of guy he is,” Alexis said. She put on an exaggerated frown as she tilted her head back and looked down her nose at them. “Now, don't you go thinking you're some kind of heroes,” she said in a gravelly voice, “because you're not.”

It was a pretty good imitation of the detective. Ruby laughed along with Nick, although she felt a little disloyal. After all, Detective Harriman
had
come when Alexis called.

Ruby asked, “So have you guys talked to him since last night?”

Nick shook his head. “We still haven't been called back in.”

From behind them, a man's voice said, “Enjoying the show?” It was the bird-watcher, the one who looked like Santa Claus. Caleb Becker. His binoculars were around his neck, and a big silver thermos was tucked under his arm.

“I'm so glad they came back,” Ruby said. “Thank you so much for telling me about it.”

“You guys want some cocoa to celebrate?” He pulled a short stack of paper cups from the patch pocket of his coat.

“Sure,” Alexis said with a little shiver. “It's cold tonight.”

“But clear,” Becker said as he poured cocoa for Alexis and then Nick. “Perfect weather for bird-watching. After the swifts roost, I'm going to head over to Forest Park. I'm hoping I'll get lucky and get a peek at that northern spotted owl.” He fumbled a little with Ruby's cup before handing it over and then tapped his own paper cup against hers. “To life lists,” he said, making a little birding joke.

“To life lists,” she echoed, and then raised the cup to her lips. It tasted like instant cocoa, not so much of chocolate as of chemicals and salt and artificial sweetener. Ruby drank it down fast, to be polite, the way her parents had taught her to deal with food she didn't like. Since Becker was watching, she tried not to make a face.