“Okay, I guess.”
The guys placed me down gently, my one sneaker touching the tuft of soft grass in front of me, my right leg bent, foot swung in front of me. I could feel my eyes widen. My teeth started a chatter that had nothing to do with the cold. My stomach folded in on itself.
“Wh-wh-what is that?” I asked, pointing.
“Don’t freak out, Lawson.”
Will still had my arm as Alex whipped a Ziploc bag from his pocket and used it to gingerly remove the thing that was hanging from the cuff of my jeans.
He moved his hand and I saw what he’d picked from me as it crossed the yellow beam of light.
“Is that a—”
Will’s grip on my arm tightened and I heard Alex say again, “Lawson, don’t freak out.” This time his words were stern, but they did nothing to slow me down.
“That’s a hand! That’s a hand!”
I felt the heat shoot up the back of my neck and throb in my temples. Suddenly, I was doubled over, then on my hands and knees, my body jerking and heaving as I vomited.
I barely had enough time to register my rage when I heard Alex yell, “Keep it away from the hole!” because the sudden stench of moist dirt and decay assaulted my nostrils and I heaved again.
I felt Will’s cool hand lace through my hair as he pulled it back from my face, his other hand touching the small of my back tenderly as I sputtered and coughed, hot tears mixing with snot dribbling over my chin. I sat back on my haunches and Alex handed me his handkerchief. It may have been my nerves or my recent assault by a disembodied hand, but I thought I saw a flash of jealousy in Will’s eyes as I took the white cloth from Alex.
“What—whose—who does that belong to?” I croaked, dabbing at my nose and mouth.
Alex had the hand laid out on the plastic bag as Will shone a light down on it.
“Doesn’t look too recent,” Will said, squinting.
“Most of the flesh has been eaten away. Kind of hard to determine time of death at this point.”
My stomach lurched and I prepared for another round of vomit that thankfully, never came.
“It’s a female,” Alex said. He pulled a pencil from his pocket and pointed it toward the hand’s clawed index finger.
“Is that a ring?” Will asked.
“Looks like it.”
I crawled over, unable to help myself, and stared. Among the dirt and muck was a tiny band of something silvery, pushed up against the knuckle. “It has a stone in it,” I said, amazed.
Will pushed the eraser end of the pencil toward the stone that I pointed out and nudged the moist earth aside. A sliver of emerald green—muted and fogged—caught the light.
I swallowed heavily and sat back on my haunches, suddenly overcome with grief.
“Hate to break up the bio lesson but, wouldn’t you say where there’s a hand there’s probably—”
Alex glanced up at Will, his eyes reflecting the light. “An arm?”
Will nodded solemnly and they both looked at me. My heart thumped. “What are you looking at me for? I found that, I’m done for the night.”
Alex handed Will the flashlight as he pulled his cell phone from his back pocket. “I’m going to call this in. There’s probably a body in there.”
“A body.” I heard myself say it, the word dropping solid on the cold air.
Will rolled the extra flashlight to me. “Just take a look.”
I chewed the inside of my lip and begged that this hand had come upon this hole independently. But when the yellow streak of my light caught the glossy mud walls I’d had leaned up against, my stomach went to liquid.
Suri. Gretchen. Cathy. And now—Alyssa?
“It’s not a body,” I said slowly. “It’s a couple of bodies.”
Fingers of color were just starting to streak through the night sky as the police began making their way toward the bluff. A news crew followed the cavalcade and onlookers came behind them; I shuddered when Alex directed a few officers with metal gates to hold back the sudden proliferation of people.
“You okay, love?” Will asked.
I swallowed and sighed. “Yeah. Just got a very unfortunate case of deja vu.”
The last time I had been on a beautiful, grassy bluff overlooking the bay, I had also been at a crime scene. There, the bodies of two women had been found, decimated. And now, before the majority of the city even roused from their beds, the police were digging up the remains of more women. The realization was like a steel band tightening around my heart. I glanced toward Alex as he was meeting the coroner’s van in the parking lot.
“Sometimes it seems like we’re all under attack,” I muttered.
Alex tossed a glance over his shoulder as Will and I made our way toward the parking lot. I wanted to say good-bye to Alex, to explain—something—but exhaustion and a numbness that seeped all the way to my bones prevented it.
Chapter Ten