After All We've Lost

Chapter One

I looked into the rearview mirror, smoothing back the frizzy hairs around my forehead. I cursed the humidity before applying a thick coating of chapstick to my lips, buttoning the top of my ivory blouse, and climbing out of the car. It was my day off. My first real chance at a break in a long time. Yet here I was, arriving at a crime scene instead of watching fictional versions of my real-life on TV in my footie pajamas, while simultaneously stuffing my face with cheese puffs and peanut butter cookies.

"Detective Rowan, I was called in from the state bureau of investigation," I said, pulling out my badge as I stepped across the parking lot. I could feel the eyes on me. The stares, the questioning glances. I simply couldn't be the detective, the person sent to take charge of the case. Of course not, I was a woman, first off. And as many had told me before, I barely looked past eighteen. I held back the urge to roll my eyes even though the probable discrimination had yet to begin, sliding the badge back into the inner pocket of my blazer. I had heard it all before. "What do we have here?"

The officer standing before me was an older gentleman, his belly protruding over his belt and extending the buttons of his shirt to their furthest point. He gave me one last, head-to-toe glance before clearing his throat. "Come see for yourself," he grumbled, and ushered me toward the back of the parking lot.

When we hit the edge of the gravel, which carefully transitioned into patches of grass, I examined the scene in front of me. We were standing at the base of an old school water supply tower, the poles rusted beneath the peeling seafoam green paint. The parking lot was nearly deserted, other than the few patrol cars and what I assumed as an unmarked coroner's vehicle, though I didn't understand why their job would need to be so conspicuous in the first place. Beyond the water tower was a scattering of dense woods, lined with redwood trees and pines shedding their needles in the dirt.

I slid on a pair of gloves and followed him closer toward the base of the tower, into the lackluster wrap-job of yellow tape. I stepped over the barrier, and finally caught sight of what I had come here for.

Just below the bottom rung of the rusted ladder was the obvious shape of a body covered with a blue tarp. The officer bent down, pulling the plastic away in one swift movement, and I swallowed the lump in my throat. Lying face down in the dirt was the body of a girl. Her blond hair was matted around her head, shielding her face from the world, hiding her innocence. But the mere shape of her body, the sinewy limbs, and the Chuck Taylors on her feet were all I needed to know. This girl was young, most likely a teenager. So how the hell did she end up here?

"Who found her?" I asked, carefully pulling strands of hair away to catch a glimpse of her left eye. It was wide and blue; a blank, hollow gaze staring back at me.

I looked away, feeling my stomach twinge. I didn't know if I would ever get used to the first sight of a corpse. Though I had only been on the job for a little over a year, each time I arrived on scene, my stomach lurched and my mind instantly flashed back to when I was twelve years old and walked into the bedroom to find that my father hadn't woken up.

"A kid on his way to school," the officer stated. "Poor fella was just trying to take a shortcut, now he's traumatized for life."

I nodded softly, my lips pressed into a thin line. The statement rang true to me, as well. I gently laid the strands of the girl's hair over her face, my gloved fingers reaching for the pendant necklace tight on her throat. I flipped it over, reading the inscription: I'LL ALWAYS BE WITH YOU

"A little cryptic, huh?" The new voice made me jump.

I looked up and met the eyes of a younger guy in a gray polo. His shirt read that he was with the county coroner.