Killing Hour - Lisa Gardner [139]
Ray Lee Chee showed up shortly after seven. With him came Brian Knowles, Lloyd Armitage, and Kathy Levine. They unloaded two Jeep Cherokees filled with field equipment, camping packs, and bins of books. Their mood in the beginning was giddy, bordering on festive. Then they saw the body.
They put down their field kits. They held a moment of silence for a girl they’d never met. Then, they got to work.
Thirty minutes later Rainie and Quincy arrived, bearing Ennunzio in tow. Nora Ray left the camp shortly thereafter. And Kimberly followed suit.
The nature experts had the clues. The law enforcement professionals had the body. She wasn’t sure what was left for her to do.
She found Nora Ray sitting on a tree stump deeper in the woods. A fern sprouted green shoots nearby and Nora Ray was running her hands through the fronds.
“Long day,” Kimberly said. She leaned against a nearby tree trunk.
“It’s not over yet,” Nora Ray said.
Kimberly smiled thinly. She’d forgotten—this girl was good. “Holding up?”
Nora Ray shrugged. “I guess. I’ve never seen a dead person before. I thought I would be more upset. But mostly I’m just . . . tired.”
“It has the same effect on me.”
Nora Ray finally looked up at her. “Why are you here?”
“In the woods? Anything’s better than the sun.”
“No. On this case, working with Special Agent McCormack. He said you were illegal, or something like that. Did you . . . Are you?”
“Oh. You mean, am I a relative of one of the victims?”
Nora Ray nodded soberly.
“No. Not this time.” Kimberly slid down the tree trunk. The dirt felt cooler against her legs. It made it easier to talk. “Until two days ago, actually, I was a new agent at the FBI Academy. I was seven weeks from graduation, and while my supervisors will tell you I have trouble with authority figures, I think I would’ve made it in the end. I think I would’ve graduated.”
“What happened?”
“I went for a run in the woods and I found a dead body. Betsy Radison. She was the one driving that night.”
“She was the first?”
Kimberly nodded.
“And now we’re finding her friends.”
“One by one,” Kimberly whispered softly.
“It doesn’t seem fair.”
“No, it’s not meant to be fair. It’s meant to be about one man. And our job is to catch him.”
They both drifted off to silence again. There wasn’t much sound in the woods. A faint breeze crinkling the damp, heavy trees. The distant rustle of a squirrel or bird, foraging in a pile of dead leaves.
“My parents must be worried by now,” Nora Ray said abruptly. “My mom . . . Ever since what happened to my sister, she doesn’t like me to be away for more than an hour. I’m supposed to check in by phone every thirty minutes. Then she can yell at me to come home.”
“Parents aren’t meant to outlive their children.”
“And yet it happens all the time. Like you said, life isn’t fair.” Nora Ray jerked impatiently on the fern frond. “I’m twenty-one years old, you know. Frankly, I should be back at college. I should be planning a career, going on dates, drinking too hard some nights and studying diligently on others. I should be doing smart things and stupid things and all sorts of things to figure out my own life. Instead . . . My sister died, and my life went with her. No one in my house does anything anymore. We just . . . exist.”
“Three years isn’t that long. Maybe your family needs longer to make it through the stages of grief.”
“Make it through?” Nora Ray’s voice was incredulous. “We’re not making it through. We haven’t even started the process. Everything’s stagnant. It’s like my life has been cut in half. There’s everything that was before that one night—college classes and a boyfriend and an upcoming party—and now there is everything after. Except after doesn’t have any content. After is still an empty slate.”
“You have your dreams,” Kimberly said quietly.
Nora Ray immediately appeared troubled. “You think I’m making them up.”
“No. I’m absolutely sure you dream of your sister. But some hold that dreams