Girl Found: A Detective Kaitlyn Carr Mystery

by Kate Gable

  "She wasn't just drawing the stuff," Lynn says.

  I wait for her to explain. She licks her lips, bites the inside of her cheek, and then finally brings her bright blue eyes to mine.

  "She was tattooing these images on people and herself."

  I stare at her, uncertain if I heard her correctly.

  "How can she tattoo anyone? You’re not even allowed in a tattoo shop until you’re eighteen." I shake my head, not wanting to believe her.

  Lynn nods and says, "She had a machine and everything. She was mainly doing them on herself."

  33

  I'm not sure how to react to what Lynn told me.

  This is wholly unexpected, but is it really that crazy? A lot of people have tattoos, but I've never heard of a pre-teen girl doing them, let alone on other people.

  "How did she get into this?" I ask.

  “She always liked to draw and then watched this show called Ink Master,” Lynn says, licking her lips. “That was just this revelation. She was like, ‘Wow, tattooing isn't just for bikers and old, scary men.’ She tried it out. She made those designs, like the skull and the flowers, and she kept working on them. Then she started watching all of these YouTube videos about how to do them on yourself because she couldn't get an apprenticeship anywhere.”

  "She couldn't?" I ask.

  Lynn hesitates and the way that she recoils from the question tells me that there's a good chance she's lying.

  "Okay, I'm going to tell you something, but you really can't tell anyone."

  I nod.

  This is something that people say a lot, but what do they expect me to do? I have to talk to the person to confirm the story.

  I don’t think that Lynn realizes any of this, but I want her to keep talking for as long as possible.

  She swallows hard and finally says, “Violet couldn't get an apprenticeship anywhere and it's really hard to learn how to tattoo if someone doesn't really show you. YouTube videos only go so far."

  “So, what did she do?"

  "She went around to all the local shops and a bunch of them told her to go to hell. I mean, she looks young and she has a fake ID, but..."

  "She has a fake ID?" I ask.

  "Well, she got one to try to get this job, but it didn't really work except for the last place that she went to, Mile High Tattoo. It's out in Big Bear City. It's kind of out of the way and it's like a two person place. They told her to come over and they’d show her a few things."

  "So, she was working there?"

  "We had a deal where whenever she went there, she would tell her mom that she was coming here."

  "How did she get there?"

  "She took the bus."

  I shake my head and state, "I can't believe that they let her into that place."

  "Yeah. Well, the guy who owns it, his little brother is in eleventh grade and kind of knows her from school."

  "You're in eighth grade," I say.

  “Cameron knows everyone.” Lynn laughs.

  "What's his last name?" I ask.

  "Shapinsky."

  "As in Mr. Shapinsky?" I ask.

  "Yeah, he's the chemistry teacher." She nods.

  "Wow."

  "Do you know him?" she asks.

  I immediately have a flashback to the stern, no-nonsense teacher that never accepted any of my excuses for turning in late work. He was obsessed with keeping the Erlenmeyer flask clean and the Bunsen burner had to be used just right. If you used the wrong flask for the wrong thing to do your chemical reaction, you lost a lot of points.

  I pace around her room, looking at all the paintings. I'm trying to figure out how I could have missed all of this.

  I was so focused on talking to Neil, Natalie, and then her brothers that I completely ignored a whole other part of her life.

  "Listen, I should have come forward earlier, but the cops came around and they asked me these questions."

  "So, someone asked you? Someone came here and talked to you?"

  "They talked to everyone at the school, almost everyone, I guess, but I was shy and I didn't want to get in trouble. I only really wanted to tell you. I'm really sorry."

  “I wish you had said something earlier. We lost a lot of time," I say.

  Lynn starts to choke up.

  A tear runs down her cheek and she begins to sob. I suddenly feel bad.

  I know that she's just a young girl who has no idea what she's doing. She’s just pretending to be an adult, just like the rest of them.

  "So, Cameron is a junior and you know him from school?"

  "Yeah. He would hang out around the playground and we kind of saw him around."

  "Saw him around, why? What was he doing?"

  She shrugs and wipes her tears.

  I let her get herself composed. I look around at some of the paintings on the walls. The one that is the most striking is the big dolphin jumping out of the water.

  Unlike Violet's work, Lynn's paintings are light and bright. They look like they are actually done by a middle schooler, rather than a twenty-year-old biker who just got out of prison.

  "You're very talented," I say. "Yeah, I really like this dolphin. I notice that you have a lot of ocean life."

  She pulls her hair up into a bun on top of her head. Lynn sits down at her desk, spinning around on the swivel chair to face me. She looks small, delicate, and hurt.

  "Please tell me everything that you know, even if it's illegal or improper. I'm her sister,” I plead. “I just need to find her and I need to know everything in order to do that. As a detective, I can tell you that a clue can be any insignificant thing. You may not think it's important, but when we start to connect the dots, each of those dots is super important."

  "Cameron sells a lot of weed," she says, shrugging her shoulders. "He's a drug dealer. He's very good and everyone likes him. He usually has really good stuff."

  “Thank you.” I nod.

  I was half suspecting that. That's why he hangs out by schools.

  "Is Violet… into drugs?" I ask, trying to be very careful with my words.

  "I wouldn't say that. I mean, there's people who get high at like seven in the morning, but we just smoked a few joints once in a while, like at parties and stuff."

  "Did you buy them from Cameron?"

  She nods.

  "You said that his older brother is the one who owns the tattoo shop?"

  "Yeah. He went to art school in LA and then dropped out so his dad paid for him to open that tattoo shop. He has a lot of friends and knows the locals. He's actually kind of active on social media. So, he's got some clients from LA as well."

  "What about Violet? What is their relationship?”

  34

  Lynn pulls her feet up to her chest and looks away from me. I pull my chair a little bit closer to her.

  “Violet was looking for a shop to teach her to how tattoo. Everyone said no. She talked to Cameron and he got his brother to kind of agree to it."

  I ask, "To what exactly?"

  "To letting her apprentice. She was mainly doing a lot of the cleaning and setting up. Then she could also hang out and see how it worked and how everything was done."

  "What about my mom?"

  "She didn't know anything about it."

  "Are you sure?" I ask.

  "Yeah. I'm certain."

  "Why do you say that?"

  "Well, we were friends and I was the place that she was going to be when she was getting the tattoos."

  I nod, taking it all in.

  "You mentioned that she had tattoos and she started tattooing people?"

  "Yeah. She's been working there for about half a year now. She was getting quite good. Here."

  Lynn pulls out her phone again from her back pocket and shows me another Instagram page. This one is called Violet Paige Tattoos.

  She starts to scroll through.

  There are hundreds of pictures. My mouth nearly drops open. Most are replicas from the artwork that I've seen on the other page and in
the folder, but there are some other ones, ones that don't seem to fit.

  One looks like the dolphin that's hanging on the wall.

  "This one looks like yours.” I point to it.

  She nods.

  "Did she do this tattoo?"

  "Yeah. On me."

  "Wow. Where?"

  She pulls up her shirt and I see a big dolphin jumping over her hip bone.

  "This is beautiful."

  The work is outlined perfectly and has amazing shading. The water droplets look so real that the dolphin looks wet. It has a little smile and it glistens in the sun.

  "This looks so real," I say.

  She nods.

  "I love it. Is this the only one that she did?"

  "Yeah. She started working on another one, but we didn't get that far. It was going to go on my back."

  "Your mom is okay with this?"

  "Violet is the one who did the rose and dagger on her forearm."

  "Really?" I gasp.

  "Yeah. She was actually one of her first real customers. My mom has a number of other tattoos, so she didn't see what the big deal was.”

  I nod.

  It’s suddenly dawning on me just how little I knew my sister.

  ”What about my mom?"

  "Your mom was really against tattoos," Lynn says as if she's reading my mind. "She's just... Violet told me all of these horrible things she said. The few times that Violet jokingly brought up getting one, your mom freaked out."

  I nod. That sounds about right.

  "Do you have any?" Lynn asks, walking over and reaching for my hand.

  I shake my head.

  "Never wanted one?"

  "I wouldn't say that, but when I was growing up, it was more taboo, I guess you could say. It was just something that a lot of men had and that tattoos weren't very attractive. I thought about getting one in college like a butterfly or some stars on my back, but I don't know. I could never commit."

  “Violet said that a lot of tattoo artists have a lot of crappy tattoos but it doesn’t really matter because they each tell a story. They're all memories.”

  We walk out to the kitchen where Mindy continues to sit at the dining room table covered with books and an open laptop.

  "I'm getting my bachelor's degree," she explains. "I want to go to medical school."

  That takes me by surprise. "Really?"

  "Yeah. Actually, Violet really encouraged me. I always wanted to be a doctor, but then I got pregnant and had to raise a child on my own. So, working in the medical field was the best that I could do, but now that my daughter is growing up and needs a little bit less supervision, why not?” Mindy smiles. “It will take me four years to get my bachelor's degree, maybe more, and then who knows? Maybe I can go to med school."

  “That’s great. I hope you do,” I encourage her.

  Slowly blood rushes away from her face.

  "What? What did I say?" I ask.

  She swallows hard, then forces herself to look at me and say, "The way you said it. You just sounded so much like Violet. We really miss her. She was like family. She was like my other kid."

  "Lynn told me that you let her tattoo you."

  "It's so special to have her artwork on my arm."

  I nod and suddenly realize that both of them here have something of Violet's that I will never have unless I find her again.

  They have a memento that's stronger than a photograph. It's part of them. It's ingrained on their skin.

  Every time they look at it, they can be with her.

  "You're going to find her, right?" Lynn says.

  "Yes, of course. I'm going to do everything I can and the next thing I want to do is talk to Cameron."

  "Please don't tell him that I was the one that told you. He's kind of a connected guy, you know? I don't want to get hurt."

  "Of course not. Your secret is safe with me.”

  I walk downstairs and instead of going to the parking lot to my car, I head toward the waterfront.

  There's a small park with a playground to the left and then a boat launch. The lake is mostly marsh upfront due to a series of droughts over many years, but this winter has gotten a lot of precipitation, so the marshy part is covered by water.

  I walk down the rocky path to get as close to the shore as possible. The wind picks up and I pop my collar wishing that I had a hat.

  I'm not going to stay out here long, but I need to take this place in for just a little bit longer, because this is where Violet spent a lot of happy time.

  This is where she could be her true self.

  I'm just sorry that she wasn't that way at home or with me.

  35

  I go by the tattoo shop, but it's closed. The sign upfront says they'll be open at nine the following morning and I plan to be there by at least eight thirty.

  Night has settled in now and the flurries continue to fall. I debate whether I should head straight to my mom's house who doesn't know that I'm coming or stop by and see Luke at the hotel.

  There are so many things that we have left unresolved. He asked me to be more serious with him and I told him no, but I don't even know why.

  The truth is that I want that.

  I knock on the door of his room, second floor up, with a wind gusting off the lake and hitting me straight in the face.

  He can't open it fast enough and when he does, I give him a big hug.

  At first, he's surprised, but after a moment, he embraces me back and pulls me into the room.

  I shut the door with my boot and I hold him for a while.

  "What's wrong? What happened?"

  "Nothing." I shake my head. "I just missed you."

  "I missed you, too," he says, kissing the top of my forehead and then going down my cheek, eventually finding my mouth.

  We hold each other for a few moments, locked in our kiss and everything seems to be okay.

  I haven't met someone I could talk to like this for a long time. I feel like I can tell him anything and he would understand where I'm coming from without judging me.

  I take off my jacket and sit down on the edge of the bed. I rub my hands together to warm up.

  I spent half an hour walking the lake shore after I talked to Lynn Wrasel, trying to piece all of Violet's secrets together into one cohesive unit. That's the thing about secrets, they don't always make sense.

  People are contradictions of themselves. The person you know is a face and a version of themselves, but there are many versions of them.

  It doesn't mean that they are liars, not necessarily. Some people are.

  In Violet's case, I think she was just keeping certain things to herself because she didn't think that anyone would understand or care to understand.

  "It's Violet's birthday," I say, my voice cracking. "She's fourteen today."

  "Oh, of course. Yes. I saw that in the paperwork."

  Luke sits down on the edge of the bed with me and drapes his hand over my shoulder as I start to tell him everything that I found out from Lynn and her mom and about this whole other life that my sister led.

  “Tattoos, huh?” Luke shakes his head.

  "I mean, that's not that horrible, right? It's not like she was into drugs."

  "No, it's not."

  “I think she was mainly doing it for art, but knowing my mom, she wouldn't understand. She's pretty open about some things and then others, she's just locked in her views. For her, tattoos are for bikers, criminals, and prisoners, not for sweet little girls. That's probably why Violet never told her anything about it. I just wish that she opened up to me.”

  He nods his head softly.

  “The thing is that I wasn't worth her honesty. I wasn't a good sister, not for the last six months or so. I was so busy with my promotion, with all of these cases, I was consumed with work and still am.”

  “Don't you see that this obsession is going to help you find her? You don't give up, Kaitlyn. Maybe that's what pushed you two apart," Luke says softly, patting my back. "Tha
t's also what's going to bring her home."

  We sit here in the damp room with deep blue carpeting and a light blush pink jacuzzi tub in the corner. The carpet goes all the way to the edge, so if any water spills out or when you step out of it, the area right in front gets soggy and wet.

  It's not a good look, but the room is otherwise clean and well kept up.

  I feel the tub calling me.

  "I have to tell you something," Luke says when I reach over to kiss him.

  He pulls away just before our lips touch and the serious expression on his face puts my stomach into knots.

  "I don't want to hear anything bad," I say. "Not now."

  I reach over and kiss him again.

  His hand slides underneath my shirt. "Not unless you tell me that you have a girlfriend or you're married or something like that."

  "No, it's nothing like that," he mumbles, pressing his lips to mine. “Well, let's talk about it after.”

  After we make love, he holds me for a long time. I press my naked body against his, snuggling up, and he wraps his legs around mine, draping his arms over my shoulders.

  For a moment, I forget who I am and I’m just Kaitlyn Carr, a woman falling for Luke Gavinson, the man that she's been looking for a long time and only recently found.

  We lie under a single sheet, letting the warmth of our bodies heat each other up. The chill of the night quickly covers us and it's not enough.

  "Have you used the hot tub?" I ask.

  "Yeah."

  "How was it?"

  "Not as nice as it's going to be." He smiles at me and even though I can't see it, I can feel it, and it warms my heart.

  He walks over to the tub, flips it on, and a rush of water starts to geyser out.

  The tub seems bigger than it is because it doesn't take that long for it to fill. Luke climbs in first and I watch as his sculpted, lean body descends under the water.

  Suddenly, I feel a little shy, even though the room is lit up by one faint light bulb from the nightstand, which resembles a candle.

  I’m self-conscious about my body as I make my way across the room, but when our eyes meet, I start to relax.

  "You are breathtaking," he says.

  Licking his lips, Luke reaches out for my hand to help me in. I descend into the water, watching the ripples spread in between us and I sit across from him, moving slightly to the side to avoid the faucet.