Mary's Bones

SIXTEEN

The press would have had a field day with me if my name was released to the public. That was what John had said to me when we got home that night. I had found not one, not two, but three of the children's remains. That meant I'd already been listed as the only witness. I could see how that wouldn't have been a good look. It was a recipe for controversy. John and I especially didn't need that on our plates.

"There's no need for the press to harass my wife," as John put it.

I remembered the way his teeth gritted as he uttered those words approximately four days ago. He took the heat when the cameras and the reporters were on the scene. To avoid adding fuel to the fire. I was thankful for his consideration. I couldn't imagine how our lives would have turned out if reporters were at our doorstep all day.

Halloween night ended with the discovery of Vivian Thomas' bones. She was only eleven years old at the time of her disappearance. A spunky little girl who rocked a curly black afro, shimmering brown eyes, and skin as dark as my mother's.

Her face was the spitting image of her parents, who were out of town at the time of the discovery. I couldn't imagine getting a phone call while visiting family to inform me that my missing child had been found dead after three years, practically rotten to the bone.

"Focus, Angie." I forced myself out of those thoughts. Cory's map was laid out in front of me. Still, it was nowhere near complete. With only three children found, there were only three locations to mark.

"You go here"—I whispered, dragging the permanent marker across the paper to form a line—"and you go here."

The lines trailed through each black dot I marked and circled with a red pen myself. Like a connect the dots activity. It was easier to keep using the process Cory had already been using. I had to start over on my own West Greenbush map because most of his points were incorrect. The arrows he had pointed to blank spaces, for starters. They weren't the right locations, but they were close.

The first marked location on my map was where I found Mary's bones in the middle of the woods. The second marked location was where I found Helena's bones in West Greenbush Park. And the third marked location was different from where we had found Vivian's bones.

John had told me her body must've been dumped near one of the factories that made toys or decorations in town. That was the only thing that made sense about how she ended up in a package of skeletal Halloween decorations. We could've been wrong, though.

I wasn't sure how her body could have gone unnoticed for that long until she was literal bones. It was weird. I had also done some research within the last four days on the nearest factories in West Greenbush. My father informed me the closest one was about thirty miles from West Greenbush Park, about a fifty-minute drive. He was right.

I huffed quietly, dropping the marker. "Unbelievable."

The ticking from our alarm clock pierced through the silence like a bullet in the air. I peeked up at the bed through my lashes. My shoulders stiffened when John stirred under the blankets. Damn, I almost forgot he was there. His breathing was soft and timid. I couldn't count not one stress mark on his face. He was at ease for once.

How long had I been awake, two hours? Wow, shit. It was almost three in the morning! I must've lost track of time when I pulled the files out. But I'd managed in the dark somehow.

"Ow, Rosemary!" I flinched.

A sharp pain shot through my lower abdomen. I clenched my jaw, wincing again. It felt nothing like her usual kicks. Rather, an invisible weight adding pressure onto my pelvic. As if Rosemary were trying to fight her way through the barrier of my skin, the pressure moved towards the bottom of my belly. This couldn't have been her kicking. It couldn't have been my menstrual either. My period was long gone by now.