“You are awful, Laura,” said Diane.
“I know. But I get things done. I’ll talk to you later. I’m eager to see what you make of it all. Juliet’s having a hard time right now. Thank you for helping.”
“Sure, as you say, it beats going on a killing spree.” Diane looked accusingly at her phone after Laura hung up. “I can’t believe I said yes. As if I don’t have enough to do.”
Diane closed her office and went back to the crime lab where Jin, Neva, and David were bouncing ideas off each other.
“Any new theories on the crimes?” asked Diane.
“Nothing that makes any sense,” said David. “I think the kid just had his hand-pardon the pun-in too many pots.”
“You know, David,” said Jin, “I’ve been counting the number of times you’ve used a word that starts with
David glared at Jin for a long moment. “You what? Jin, that doesn’t make a bit of sense. Why would you do that? Why not the number of words that start with
“Because you use
David looked at Jin, amazed. “To know that, you would have to count all the first letters of all the words I use when I talk. Why do you have so much time? And why in the hell would you care?”
“That’s just something I notice,” said Jin.
“He’s right,” said Neva. “And they tend to cluster. That’s called something.”
“Alliteration,” said Jin. Then he grinned. “Or is it onomato-pee.” Both he and Neva lauged at what Diane thought was a rather lame joke. Diane rolled her eyes and shook her head.
David looked from one to the other, then at Diane. “See what I have to put up with? They have far too much time on their hands.”
Diane laughed, too. She had a slight feeling of d’ja vu, but couldn’t put her finger on the source. It was odd that she would, because this was such an unusual conversation. She shook her head as if she could shake out the feeling.
“As much as I’d like to continue this conversation,” said Diane, “I’ve got work to do. I’m going to my museum office. Remember, Jin, you have a DNA lab riding on your work.”
“Gee, no pressure, Boss.”
David went back to his computer, still shaking his head and casting glances of consternation at Jin and Neva.
“Now you’ve made him paranoid,” said Diane. “He’ll never again use another word that starts with the letter
Chapter 30
Laura Hillard’s package had been delivered by the time Diane got back to her museum office. Andie had put it on her desk. Diane opened the envelope and spilled the contents out on her desktop. There were copies of police reports, newspaper clippings, and a tape. She picked up the yellowed pages of the newspaper clippings. They were arranged in chronological order and held together with a paper clip. The first thing that occurred to Diane was that they needed to be treated with a deacidifier. She smiled to herself. First thoughts are of preserving the paper-a consequence of working in a museum.
The lead article, dated September 29, 1987, was the first news account of Juliet’s disappearance. It contained a school photograph of a young Juliet. A smiling little girl, she looked happy. Diane wondered if that picture was the last time Juliet looked happy. She read the article over a couple of times. Not much information in it other than Juliet’s description, that she had been missing since the day before, and was last seen playing in her backyard. Diane wondered if it was fenced in or not. How much trouble had the kidnapper gone to to take her?
The second clipping, dated October 2, 1987, described Juliet being found. A group of kids discovered her when their basketball rolled down an embankment and into a concrete culvert. She was stuffed in the culvert with mud and rocks as if she’d washed in. The preteen boys pulled her out. One ran for the police. There was a picture of a row of smiling boys, one holding a basketball. There was a picture of the empty culvert.
The article said she had been drugged and strangled. When she passed out, the kidnapper apparently thought she was dead. He’d put her in the cement pipe and left her. A light autumn rain had washed mud, rocks, and leaves around her body. She was lucky she hadn’t drowned.
The third clipping, dated November 7, 1987, was a follow-up. It simply said that after a month, the police had no leads as to who had kidnapped Juliet and left her for dead, and no information as to the motive.
Diane looked at a copy of the police report. It was sketchy. It included the missing person’s report, the school picture of Juliet, a doctor’s report, which said that she wasn’t molested but had a bruised trachea, arms, and ribs.
The police had interviewed the parents, grandparents, teachers, neighbors, and friends. They found nothing. The interviews were included in the report and Diane read through them. Only a couple of items jumped out at her. One was a report of a woman who had fallen while jogging on the road in front of Juliet’s home at about the time of Juliet’s abduction. Several neighbors saw her, including Juliet’s mother. Two neighbors went to help her up. The police were unable to find her even after an appeal in the newspaper. The other item of interest was a report from a child who lived next door and was a year older than Juliet who heard her say, “I don’t know you,” an hour before she was reported missing. That seemed to suggest that Juliet hadn’t recognized whomever she was talking to. Then was it a stranger? Was it the kidnappper?
What if, Diane thought, the woman was a ruse whose purpose was to keep the neighborhood eyes to the front of the houses and not the backs where they might see Juliet being snatched? Diane wondered if the police had a composite sketch made of the jogger. She searched and didn’t see one among the papers.
She picked up the tape, weighed it in her hand, and looked at it before inserting it into a player. She felt really reluctant to listen to Juliet in one of her sessions with Laura. It was as if she would be listening to something she had no business hearing. However, if Juliet thought it was a good idea… Diane slipped on the earphones, and pressed the PLAY button.
“Juliet, tell me what you remember.” This was Laura’s voice.
There was no introductory conversation. Laura had edited the tape. Diane felt better.
“Dark and hard to breathe. I’m afraid of being closed in,” said Juliet. Her voice was low and soft.
“Just tell me what you remember. We’ll talk about your fears later,” said Laura.
“I remember dark, and something in my eyes that hurt. I do remember that. I don’t know when that was-I could have been playing outside, for all I know,” said Juliet.
“That’s OK. We just want to look at your conscious memories right now,” said Laura. “Do you have any other memories that frighten you or that you find mysterious or simply can’t connect up with anything that your parents remember about your childhood?” asked Laura.
There were a few moments of silence. “I had a doll that Gramma said I must have stolen. I didn’t, but I don’t know where I got it,” said Juliet. “Gramma was a strict woman, but she could be fun sometimes, especially when she baked or when we collected seashells on the beach.”
There was a pause, and Diane could hear Juliet breathing.
“I remember being in a dark room with new dolls. I remember a baby doll, and I remember being afraid in the room.” She paused again. “The room had hardwood floors.” Juliet laughed. “I’m not afraid of hardwood floors.”
Diane heard Laura laugh, too.
“I remember running from something,” continued Juliet, “just running. I remember someone saying, ‘She said you took it.’ I don’t know if any of these memories are connected to the same thing, but they all give me the same fear when I think of them. I have very few memories before the age of seven. That’s when it happened, and I don’t really remember getting kidnapped at all. I don’t know if any of these memories are from the kidnapping. I used to
