“I know, but you have got to slow down with all of this. You haven’t slept in days, Emily. You stay up all night, tossing and turning. You’re checking your phone constantly. I know you want to find her; I want to find her, too. But after what happened with Mitch and what you saw, what he did to himself.” Hank sighed. “You need to take care of yourself before you lose yourself.”
“I’ve already lost myself,” Emily said as she glanced to Hank beside her, the tears slithering down her cheeks. “I can’t give up on the littlest piece of hope that she might still be alive, that she is still out there wanting to be found,” Emily said. Hank leaned back into on the sofa, staring at the sonogram in his hands.
“The baby was twelve weeks when this was taken.” Hank nodded. “So, if the baby was born in September, that means she was conceived sometime in December. I’d say right around Christmas or so.”
“I know. I know she went to the Christmas Eve party at Mitch’s. But I don’t remember what she told me. I mean, that was last Christmas.”
“Well, maybe the father of the baby was there.” Hank shrugged. Emily bit her bottom lip as she struggled to comb through the memories of the previous Christmas. That was the last time Blair had really talked to her father.
The sound of Emily’s cellphone ringing echoed through the living room, the ringtone bouncing off the walls surrounding them. Emily snatched her phone from the coffee table and answered.
“Hello?”
“Hello, Miss Keller, this is Sheriff Alan Ross. We need you to come down to the station. Now.”
her
The blinding fluorescent light shined down on Emily as she stared back at the thin female figure hidden beneath a white sheet on the silver autopsy table. Every goosebump on Emily’s arms rose to the surface as the cold air danced along her skin, her entire spine shivering as she glanced to Sheriff Ross beside her.
“Are you sure you’re up to this?” Sheriff Ross asked as his dark eyes glanced to the mortician beside the table across from them.
“Just do it,” Emily said, her eyes fluttering. She watched as the mortician grasped the edge of the sheet and lifted it back. Her heart sank when she saw her daughter’s pale, angelic face, her blonde hair spread out beneath her skull in curly waves of white highlights and blonde strands.
It was her.
It was Blair.
“Oh, my God,” Emily cried out, covering her mouth with her trembling hands as tears flooded down her cheeks. “Oh, my God. Oh, my God,” Emily said as she fell on the white floor, her knees slamming on the hard surface.
“Miss Keller,” Sheriff Ross said softly as he leaned down beside her, grabbing her trembling hands into his own.
“It’s her! It’s her!” Emily cried out. How could she let this happen? To her only child? To the only person she ever loved more than life? Her stomach turned as she turned away from the sheriff, vomiting on the floor. She couldn’t take this. She couldn’t do this. All this time spent on finding her, and she was gone. How could she be so blind?
“Miss Keller, please, come with me. We will clean that up. Just please come with me.” Sheriff Ross nodded as he helped Emily to her feet. The mortician quickly pulled the sheet back over Blair’s face as she turned away, making her way toward the door.
“Who did this? Who did this to her?” Emily cried as Sheriff Ross pushed the door open, leading her out into the deserted hallway of the Elwood Memorial Hospital.
“We wanted you to identify her before the autopsy. We will know a lot more by tomorrow morning. I promise you, Emily, we will find them. We will find who did this to your daughter.”
“And what if you don’t? She’s just going to be forgotten. She’s just going to be the girl that disappeared. She’s just going to be the daughter of Emily Keller, the mother who let this happen to her.” Emily sobbed into her hands.
“Miss Keller, this was beyond your control,” Sheriff Ross said. “There is nothing you could have done. You did everything you could do. Now, all we can do is get justice for her. That’s the most important thing right now,” he added. Emily felt her heart race as her breath sped up, faster and faster. Her legs wobbled as her tongue stuck to the roof of her dry mouth. She couldn’t handle this. She couldn’t take it anymore. There were so many questions she would never get the answers to now. There were so many memories left to be made: her wedding day, her graduation from college. Now, that was gone. Someone stole that from her.
“If you don’t find who did this, I will,” Emily said, her jaw tightening as the warm tears trickled down her cheeks.
“Did Blair have any enemies? I know we’ve been over this before, but we have to be sure. If we want to catch this son of a bitch, we have to focus. Who would want to hurt her? Did she have any enemies? Did someone have a grudge against her?”
“No, I’ve told you everything. I’ve told you about Cole and the professor; there’s no one left,” Emily cried. But there was one person, tucked away in the back of her head. If there was anyone that knew more about Blair than Emily did, it was her.
It was Zoey.
hush
Emily lowered herself down on the couch inside of Zoey Duncan’s living room, cupping the mug of hot chocolate in her cold hands. It was almost easier this way, distracting herself with the
