her left shoulder. Jessica turned, slowly, following the woman's gaze.
Lauren Semanski was standing on the back porch. Her clothes were ripped; her knuckles were bleeding and raw. There was a long contusion on her right leg, a pair of deep lacerations on her right arm. On the left side of her head, a large patch of scalp was missing. Her left wrist appeared to be broken, the bone protruding through the flesh. The skin on her right cheek was peeled back in a bloody flap.
'Sweetheart?' Bonnie said, rising to her feet, a trembling hand to her lips. All the color had drained from her face. 'My God, what… what happened, baby?'
Lauren looked at her grandmother, at Jessica. Her eyes were bloodshot and burnished. A deep defiance shone through the trauma.
'Motherfucker didn't know who he was dealing with,' she said.
Then Lauren Semanski collapsed. Before The ambulance arrived, Lauren Semanski slipped in and out of consciousness. Jessica did what she could to prevent her from going into shock. When she had determined that there were no spinal injuries, she wrapped her in a blanket, then slightly elevated her legs. Jessica knew that preventing shock was infinitely preferable to treating its effects.
Jessica noticed that Lauren's right hand was clenched into a tight fist. Something was in her hand-something with a sharp edge, something plastic. Jessica tried gently to open the girl's fingers. Nothing doing. Jessica didn't press the issue.
As they waited, Lauren rambled. Jessica got a sketchy tale of what had happened to her. Phrases were unconnected. Words slipped between her teeth.
Jeff's house.
Tweakers.
Fucker.
Lauren's dried lips and ravaged nostrils, along with the brittle hair and the somewhat translucent look to her skin told Jessica she was probably a meth head.
Needle.
Fucker.
Before Lauren was loaded onto the gurney, she opened her eyes for a moment, and said one word that caused the world to stop spinning for a moment.
Rosary.
The aMbULaNCe LeFT, taking Bonnie Semanski to the hospital with her granddaughter. Jessica called the station house and told them what had happened. A pair of detectives were on their way to St. Joseph's. Jessica had given the EMS strict instructions to preserve Lauren's clothing and, to any extent possible, any fibers or fluids. Specifically, she told them to safeguard the forensic integrity of whatever Lauren had clutched in her right hand.
Jessica remained at the Semanski house. She walked into the living room and sat with George Semanski.
'Your granddaughter is going to be all right,' Jessica said, hoping she sounded convincing, wanting to believe it was true.
George Semanski nodded. He continued to wring his hands. He ran through the cable channels as if it were some sort of physical therapy.
'I need to ask you one more question, sir. If that's okay.'
After a few moments of silence, he nodded again. It appeared that the cornucopia of pharmaceuticals on the TV tray had him on a narcotically induced time delay.
'Your wife told me that, last year, when Lauren's mom and dad were killed, Lauren took it pretty hard,' Jessica said. 'Can you tell me what she meant by that?'
George Semanski reached for a bottle of pills. He took the bottle, turning it over and over in his hands, but not opening it. Jessica noted that it was clonazepam.
'Well, after the funeral and all, after the burials, about a week or so later, she almost, well, she…'
'She what, Mr. Semanski?'
George Semanski paused. He stopped fidgeting with the pill vial. 'She tried to kill herself.'
'How?'
'She, well, she went out to the car one night. She ran a hose from the exhaust into one of the windows. She tried to breathe in the carbon monoxide, I guess.'
'What happened?'
'She passed out on the car horn. It woke up Bonnie and she went out there.'
'Did Lauren have to go to the hospital?' 'Oh yes,' George said. 'She was in there for almost a week.' Jessica's pulse quickened. She felt the puzzle piece click into place. Bethany Price had tried to slash her wrists. Tessa Wells had a Sylvia Plath reference in her diary. Lauren Semanski tried monoxide poisoning. Suicide, Jessica thought. All of these girls tried to commit suicide. 'Mr. WeLLS? This is Detective Balzano.' Jessica was on her cell phone, standing on the sidewalk in front of the Semanski house. Pacing was more like it. 'Have you caught somebody?' Wells asked.
'Well, we're working on it, sir. I have a question for you about Tessa. It's about last year, around Thanksgiving.' 'Last year?'
'Yes,' Jessica said. 'This might be a little hard to talk about but, believe me, it won't be any harder for you to answer than it will be for me to ask.'
Jessica recalled the junk drawer in Tessa's room. There were hospital bracelets in there.
'What about Thanksgiving?' Wells asked. 'By any chance, was Tessa hospitalized around that time?' Jessica listened, waited. She found that she was clenching her fist around her cell phone. It felt as if she might break it. She eased up. 'Yes,' he said. 'Could you tell me why she was in the hospital?' She closed her eyes. Frank Wells took a rattling, painful breath. And told her. 'Tessa Wells took a handful of pills last November. Lauren Semanski locked herself in the garage and started the car. Nicole Taylor slashed her wrists,' Jessica said. 'At least three of the girls on this list attempted suicide.' They were back at the Roundhouse. Byrne smiled. Jessica felt a charge of electricity shoot through her body. Lauren Semanski was still heavily sedated. Until they were able to talk to her, they would have to fly with what they had.
There was not yet any word on what was clasped in her hand. According to the detectives at the hospital, Lauren Semanski had not yet given it up. The doctors told them they'd have to wait.
Byrne had a photocopy of Brian Parkhurst's list in his hand. He tore it in half, handed one piece to Jessica, kept the other. He pulled out his cell phone.
Soon, they had their answer. All ten girls on the list had tried to commit suicide within the past year. Jessica now believed that Brian Park- hurst, perhaps as penance, was trying to tell the police that he knew why these girls were being targeted. As part of his counseling, these girls had all confided in him that they had attempted to take their own lives.
There are things you need to know about these girls.
Perhaps, by some twisted sense of logic, their doer was trying to finish the job these girls had started. They would worry about the why of it all when they had him in irons.
What was obvious was this: Their doer had abducted Lauren Semanski and drugged her with midazolam. What he had not counted on was that she was full of methamphetamine. The speed had counteracted the midazolam. In addition, she was also full of piss and vinegar, a fighter. He definitely picked the wrong girl.
For the first time in her life, Jessica was glad that a teenager did drugs.
But if the killer's inspiration was the five Sorrowful Mysteries of the rosary, why were there ten girls on Parkhurst's list? Besides attempting suicide, what did five of them have in common? Was he really going to stop at five?
They compared their notes.
Four of the girls overdosed on pills. Three of them tried to cut their wrists. Two of the girls tried to commit suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning. One girl drove her car through a guardrail and over a ravine. She was saved by the airbag.
It wasn't method that tied any five together.
What about school? Four of the girls went to Regina, four went to Nazarene, one went to Marie Goretti and one to Neumann.
