Now You See Her

by Paul J. Teague

  ‘Hey, I hope you don't mind me asking,’ Micky began hesitantly. ‘Is Bianca seeing anybody? Does she talk to you about stuff like that?’

  Cory felt like her father; immediately protective and at the same unwilling to think of her as the subject of a romantic attraction. He stumbled and searched for the right words.

  ‘Um, well… now that's a difficult question. We don't really have that kind of relationship; we mainly talk about the job. It's probably best if you chat to her yourself, Micky—I'm not sure it's appropriate for me to get involved, as her mentor. But if it's any help, I'm not aware of anybody.’

  ‘Sorry—I didn't mean to put you on the spot. She's nice, and I'd like to ask her out for coffee sometime. I just didn't want to put my foot in it in case there's some football jock on the scene. Guys like me have to try a little harder; a football beats a camera any time.’

  Micky walked off to finish taking photos.

  If only Micky knew about Bianca's recent experiences at the hands of the high school jocks, he'd probably see that a guy with a camera was probably an infinitely safer option for her at the moment. It was none of his business and he had no intention of playing cupid in any way, bearing in mind his own recent marital difficulties.

  Louise had spotted him and was dipping under the police tape to have a word.

  ‘No Bianca?’ she asked.

  Cory looked around, first seeking out Micky to see if he'd gone to chat to her. He couldn't spot her on a cursory glance.

  ‘She's here somewhere,’ he replied. ‘Is there anything more you can tell me?’

  Louise shook her head.

  ‘Much as I'd love to, I have to follow the chief on this one. It'll be a disciplinary matter if we discuss any details. Tarrant is prickly as hell about it, terrified one of you guys is going to screw it up and get it wrong.’

  ‘It's not Poppy down there, is it?’

  Louise looked at him sternly.

  ‘Come on, Cory, I could lose my job over this. The chief's been very clear. You'll have to wait for a briefing, like he said.’

  One of her colleagues called her over, so she said her goodbyes and left him on his own. Even Micky was heading back to the office to file the photographs, and Cory would have to do the same, too. The beast that was the website needed to be thrown constant scraps of food.

  He checked his cell phone for a signal. As he'd expected, the density of the surrounding foliage, the cover of the leaves and branches overhead, and the rural location of the falls meant he was in a dead zone. He needed to find Bianca and get on his way.

  This was unusual for her. He scanned the falls area; there was no way she could have wandered off down there, because the police had it cordoned off securely. Nobody was getting anywhere near that body.

  He looked across the road; had she gone off looking for more evidence of the vagrant that she thought she'd spotted? It seemed unlikely, but Cory didn't have any other ideas. And he needed to get that story filed.

  Feeling irritable, he crossed over the road, taking great care that there wasn't some maniac about to fly around the corner at great speed in an SUV. Nobody seemed to have spotted him heading into the woodland on the opposite side of the falls, so he carried on, looking for some sort of indication that Bianca might have been there.

  ‘Bianca,’ he began to call, but not so loud that he'd attract police attention. ‘Are you out here?’

  It was easier to move through the trees in the daylight; this time Cory could see the low twigs before they scraped his face and hands. He weaved in and out, the ground soft and damp underfoot, the sound of birdsong rapidly replacing the voices of the police officers. He began to shout, now that he was away from the crime scene. Instinctively, he checked his phone again, hoping that he might be able to rustle up a weak signal and call her. Nothing.

  ‘Bianca! It's Cory. Are you out here?’

  He felt stupid calling out to her, but he knew this much already: there was no way Bianca would have left the area without telling him. Which meant she had to be in the woods somewhere.

  Quickly his irritation turned to concern. What if she'd fallen or had an accident? What if she'd found her vagrant and been attacked? He knew he was overreacting, but the stillness of the woods and the complete lack of response from her was creating a rising tide of panic.

  He took less care walking through the trees now, allowing the low twigs to push against him, like spindly hands trying to force him back.

  ‘Bianca?’

  Then he saw something up ahead, hanging from a tree. He sensed it was an article of clothing before he was close enough to confirm it. Hung up in the V between a narrow tree trunk and one of its branches was Poppy Norman's dress, the same one that she'd been wearing in one of the photos that Reece had provided. It was streaked with mud and looked wet; Cory's instinct was to reach out and touch it, but he knew the police would need it kept exactly as it had been left.

  Something caught his attention several yards ahead. He struggled to make it out among the dense undergrowth. As his eyes focused on the object ahead, he realized what he was looking at. On the ground was a circle of stones where a campfire had been made and extinguished. And next to it, motionless on the leaf-covered ground, was Bianca.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  ‘Bianca! Are you okay?’

  Cory rushed toward her still body. To the side of her head was a stone, a splash of blood on its side. He put his hand on her arm, trying to get a response from her.

  ‘Bianca? Can you move? Are you hurt?’

  She began to stir. Cory hadn't realized that he'd almost stopped breathing with the tension.

  ‘My head hurts like hell…’ she began, struggling to find her voice.

  ‘Can you move?’ Cory asked, relieved that she was speaking to him now.

  ‘Yes, nothing is broken. I fell. I can't believe I'm so stupid.’

  ‘Take a moment,’ Cory advised. ‘Can you sit up?’

  ‘Yes, help me up, will you? My head is spinning.’

  Cory took her arm and she sat upright. She moved her legs and arms as if running an inventory check to make sure everything was where it needed to be.

  ‘What happened?’ he asked.

  ‘I saw somebody,’ she began. ‘I'm certain it was a man. But there were two of them. He might have had a dog; I couldn't tell. They were moving camp, and I picked up a sense of panic and urgency.’

  ‘Why did you even come out here on your own?’ Cory asked.

  ‘Impatience. I'm sorry. But we told the police that we thought there was someone out here. And what have they done about it?’

  ‘Louise came out here after I spoke to her. She raised the issue, as she promised, and some officers came out. Maybe Tarrant doesn't think it's important enough to check thoroughly. They have to take it seriously now that a body's--’

  ‘The dress… oh, no, I found Poppy's dress!’

  Bianca was suddenly distraught.

  ‘I saw it, too. You didn't touch it, did you?’

  ‘No, I learned my lesson after what Cabera told me when I handed over the stuffed toy. Oh, no… Cory, do you think that means it's her body down there? If her dress is so close, maybe she wandered down there and fell? What if somebody had snatched her and was keeping her out here? The poor child, she must have been so terrified.’

  The same possibilities had crossed Cory's mind; he'd tried to banish any thoughts of the terrible things that might have happened to Poppy. Poor Reece. A discarded dress was a terrible thing to find, whether it was Poppy's body down at the falls or not.

  ‘We have to stay calm,’ Cory said gently. ‘Chief Tarrant didn't say if it was Poppy's body or not. We have to tell the police about the dress right away, as soon as you're fit to move again. How did you fall?’

  ‘I was trying to creep up on whoever it was in the trees and get a good look at them. But I disturbed a bird in that hedge over there and it startled the life out of me. I shrieked when it flew off and, in my panic, I trip
ped over the campfire. I guess from the feel of my head, I must have landed on one of those stones—they're pretty big.’

  ‘We need to get you checked out at the hospital. I can't believe we're going back there for the third time this week. At least it's you this time and not me.’

  Bianca did her best to laugh, but her hand moved to her head, feeling the small gash that the edge of the stone had left there.

  ‘I bet they’ll put a stitch in it,’ she said. ‘There'll be no hiding it from Mom and Dad. We'll have to face this one head-on. If we can get ahead of it, even better.’

  ‘I'm beginning to think I’m a danger to you,’ Cory said. ‘Nothing like this run of events has ever happened to me before, I swear. It's normally such a safe job to do—it's not like this every day, I promise you.’

  ‘I think I'm all right to get up now,’ Bianca said. ‘Can you help me up again? My legs feel wobbly.’

  Cory did as she asked, ready to support her if she needed more help.

  ‘I'm okay,’ she said. ‘Do you have a tissue to stop the blood trickling down my face?’

  Cory felt in his back pocket and pulled out a clean tissue. Bianca seemed a little vague, as if she was dazed. He knew that concussion was a possibility from the nurse's questions to him after his own run-in with the car on the main street.

  ‘Let's get you back to the car and let the police officers know where that dress is,’ Cory said.

  As they passed the dress, Cory hesitated about whether to take a photograph. He knew what Mitchell Kane would say: it's the photo of the century, a poignant reminder of the stakes in Poppy's disappearance.

  Cory paused. What if it was Zach's clothing? His Spiderman t-shirt perhaps. How would he feel if his own son had gone missing and some opportunistic reporter had taken a photograph of his discarded clothes like that? He couldn't do it to Reece, even though he knew what a high price Mitchell Kane could put on an image like that.

  He walked on by, doing his best to recall where the dress was located so that he could give clear directions to the police.

  It was Louise who spotted them emerging from the woodland and she ran over to help when she saw that Bianca was having some difficulty walking.

  ‘What on earth happened?’ she asked. ‘You've got more than half of Shallow Falls police force out here and still you manage to get into trouble! What happened to you, Bianca?’

  ‘You need to get officers out there right away,’ Cory urged. ‘Poppy's dress is there—it's been left on a branch.’

  For a moment it looked like she might give the game away, but she corrected herself quickly.

  ‘But that can't be…’ she began. ‘Are you certain? Where was it, exactly?’

  Cory gave her the details.

  ‘Did you take a picture on your phone?’ Louise asked.

  ‘No, it didn't seem right,’ Cory replied, feeling sheepish now. Some journalist he was. He'd never get a career-changing scoop if he let his integrity stand in the way.

  The three of them crossed over the road and Louise caught the attention of Deputy Cabera who was now on the scene. Immediately he dispatched officers to check the area. Cory watched as three of them broke off and checked in with him to get directions.

  Louise walked back over.

  ‘Nice work, Cory; Cabera says he's going to get dogs out there once they have the dress. If there's someone out there, we need to track them down and find out if they have anything to do with all this.’

  ‘If there's someone out there?’ Bianca said, breaking her silence. ‘There is somebody out there! I'm not imagining it, and it's high time you started taking it seriously.’

  ‘Whoa—steady, Bianca, let's get you to the hospital and checked out.’

  Cory was keen to prevent fallout over the deployment of police resources. They were checking out the dress, so it was being taken seriously.

  ‘I'll catch up with you later,’ Cory said to Louise as he moved toward his car.

  Cory was anxious to get the story filed. He'd have Mitchell Kane on his back if he didn't. With no phone signal at the falls, the best option was to dictate the story to one of his colleagues on the phone when they got to the hospital.

  They were back in the ER within ten minutes. Seeing how out of it Bianca was made him thankful that everything was just a short drive away in Shallow Falls. The town's hospital would be better described as a very large doctor’s clinic. It was hardly state-of-the-art. However, one thing that it did boast was a short waiting time to be seen by a nurse. Cory was pleased to see it wasn't the same nurse who had patched him up twice that week. It was becoming embarrassing.

  ‘I'm going to leave you while you get checked over,’ Cory said to Bianca. ‘I'll just be in the waiting area outside. I have to check in at the office. I'd best call your mom and dad, too.’

  ‘Do you have to, Cory? They'll stop me working with you.’

  ‘I have to, Bianca. I can't keep this quiet—they'll need to keep an eye on you after your fall.’

  He moved outside the waiting room, relieved that she was now in a safe pair of hands. He called in to the office and dictated some copy to Oliver, who typed it directly into the online system as he spoke. Vasey checked it back for accuracy and then asked if it was okay to press the publish button.

  ‘Go ahead,’ Cory confirmed. ‘Let's get this news story out there.’

  Directly after hanging up with Vasey, Cory pulled up the contact numbers he'd gotten for Bianca. He'd keyed them into his cell phone the week before, ahead of Bianca's arrival. Emergency contacts were standard practice for the younger interns. It had been an administrative nuisance at the time, but now he was pleased he didn't have to go hunting for that information.

  The phone connected immediately; he'd gotten her mom's work. He was put through to her extension.

  ‘Hey, Mrs. Williams. It’s Cory Miles. It's nothing to worry about, but Bianca has had a small accident.’

  He would have reacted exactly the same if it was her informing him that Zach had just had a fall.

  ‘That's the last straw, Mr. Miles. We didn't think we were placing our daughter in danger when we let her work with you, but it's become quite clear to me that you're incapable of keeping her safe. I'm coming over to the hospital now and taking her home. That's the end of Bianca's internship with the paper, Mr. Miles. It's over.’

  Cory was about to plead his case with her, when he heard Bianca trying to get his attention from the treatment room. He could hear her voice from behind the curtain that had been drawn for privacy.

  ‘Mrs. Williams, I'm so sorry, but I have to go. I promise we'll talk later.’

  As he ended the call, he just caught her last words. ‘Your editor will be hearing about this.’

  Cory entered the curtained-off area of the treatment room after checking that it was okay for him to do so.

  ‘I need a quick word,’ Bianca said.

  The nurse had gone off to fetch a dressing, so she was on her own now. She seemed considerably more alert.

  ‘It'll take one minute,’ Bianca said. ‘Quick, before the nurse comes back. I don't want her to know that I passed this on to you. I'm supposed to keep it to myself, but this is dynamite.’

  ‘Go on, tell me, then. Your mom wants you to stop working at the paper, by the way. She's going to land me in it with Mitchell Kane. Just so you're prepared.’

  ‘Damn. Okay, I'll deal with that one when she gets here. Guess who the nurse is married to?’ Bianca smiled. She had the color back in her cheeks now.

  ‘Go on, tell me.’

  ‘Only the medical examiner.’

  She had a broad smile across her face. If it wasn't for the two small stitches in her forehead, you'd never know what had just happened. She looked a lot better with the blood cleaned off her face, too.

  ‘You're joking,’ Cory replied. ‘It'll be a crime if your mom stops you working at the newspaper. You've got a knack for this work. What did she tell you?’

  ‘She can't tell me w
hose body it is, but it's not Poppy's.’

  ‘Seriously? Are you certain?’

  ‘Yes,’ Bianca confirmed. ‘She said all she knows is that it's a male adult. It could be my drifter.’

  ‘Could be,’ Cory said, thinking it over. ‘Did she give away any more clues? I'll have to verify it all before we run it in the paper, but it's good to have a heads-up.’

  ‘Yes, this is the best bit about what she said. She wouldn't give me the man's name, but it's a local councilor. It looked like suicide; he was found hanging from a tree. But wait until you hear this. He was involved in town planning.’

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Cory ran through the list of councilors in his head. There weren't that many and some of them were women. He sent a text to Oliver Vasey, asking him to stay alert for two names coming up. If one of the freelance photographers took a drive past their houses, it would probably become quickly obvious which of the two it was. A police car out in the street, and a number of cars pulled up in the driveway—it was easy to spot if you knew what you were looking for.

  ‘The nurse is coming back. Make yourself scarce,’ Bianca warned. ‘I’ll see if I can squeeze any more information out of her.’

  Cory walked back to the seating area. He felt a massive sense of relief that the body was not Poppy’s, but it made the discovery of her dress even more sinister. He forced those thoughts to the back of his mind; he couldn’t bear to think about it. So long as they were all working to find Poppy and get her back with her family, that was all that mattered.

  Cory had barely sat down again when Bianca's dad came rushing up the corridor, a look of panic on his face as if someone had just given a five-minute nuclear warning.

  ‘Where is she, Cory? What the hell have you done this time?’

  ‘Whoa, calm down,’ Cory said. ‘She's fine, Paul; we've just been chatting. She's right through there, in the second cubicle—you can hear her talking to the nurse. Does that sound like someone with a bad injury?’