Chapter 7

Veronica ran through the woods and into a field. She remembered playing here as a child after she got Curtis from school. The field was close to the academy, and she ran through the grass, but this time she was 16 years old, not six. She looked around the place and remembered all the markers like the big tree that doubled as a deer stand, the old structure was still there, the mile-long trail that went to the river and the old well house built out of stone. Veronica knew this area well, she felt the breeze, smelled the cedar and heard the river crash over the rocks.

Veronica was happy here, but then the clouds covered the sky, the wind shifted and she started to get scared for some unexplained reason. Then Veronica saw her standing on a large oval shaped stone: Casey.

“Casey,” Veronica screamed. “Casey, wait, where have you been?”

Casey pointed to the rock and disappeared. Veronica woke up, this time she didn’t scream, but she knew Casey was telling Veronica where she was. Veronica looked at the clock at the end of her bed; it read 6 a.m. She had to be up in an hour and ready for practice. She got up, put a running suit on and started to stretch. She had a competition this weekend, but her heart wasn’t into it. She needed to focus. She knew Curtis was going to take the day, but that didn’t mean she was just going to roll over. She was going to make him work for it. She didn’t want him accusing her of throwing the bout, which she would never do. She knew they both would get to the final round and face off again. Sometimes it helped to have visions, it put things into perspective and allowed her to focus on her goals. She needed to get through the next four hours and then find the spot Casey pointed to.

Veronica went for a run and saw Curtis running ahead of her. Figures, Veronica thought, he would be out early. He was totally focused and getting leaner which meant he was getting faster. She had to get faster as well in order to compete with him. Another thought occurred to Veronica, she really didn’t want to find Casey alone and she knew she didn’t have to. She wasn’t going to take Maddison as finding Casey’s body might be too much for her sister to handle, but she could ask Curtis to come with her. He will keep a cool head and allow her to fall apart, which was exactly what she was planning to do when she finally uncovered what happened to Casey.

Curtis noticed Veronica running on his way back. He didn’t want to break his pace and she was just starting. He noticed something was on her mind; she had another vision.

“I will see you when you get home,” He said between breaths.

Curtis always knew when something was up. It was like her whole family had developed some sort of telepathy when she started to have visions. A little unnerving, but sometimes the psychic connection was comforting. She wasn’t going crazy and she wasn’t alone.

Veronica ran the same three-mile loop Curtis just finished. She kept a good pace and finished just as Curtis was practicing his hold and stance. He had perfect form and just his feet moved as he advanced. Veronica dressed in her practice uniform, one that was thinner than the competition uniform which allowed the fencer to feel any mistakes made with the blade. They both used foils and crossed blades. Maddison watched from the side waiting to take the winner. It was an intense battle, each one thrusting, parrying, advancing and retreating.

After all three were covered with sweat and Veronica had two whelps from misstepping, they grabbed drinks to rehydrate and both Maddison and Curtis looked at Veronica.

“OK,” Maddison said, “Tell us what you saw?”

“How do you know I saw something,” Veronica asked as she took another drink from her bottle.

Both Curtis and Maddison looked at each other and didn’t say anything for several minutes. Veronica felt like they were trying to weigh their words or were involved in some nonverbal form of communication.

“We adapted to your ability to see things by noticing subtle changes in your expressions,” Curtis said. “We can tell when you are about to go into a trance, we can tell when you had a vision or when you dream.”

“That is not creepy,” Maddison said. “But, yeah, it has been kind of a coping mechanism. Something we use to prepare ourselves for the magical adventures you are going to take us on.”

“There is no call for sarcasm,” Curtis said.

“Hey, I am a sarcastic person,” Maddison said. “It comes from being the youngest.”

“I had a dream, I was in the field right by the Styles Academy, it was all sunny and the breeze felt good, then all of a sudden it got dark, the wind picked up and I saw Casey. She was standing on a stone. I asked her where she had been and she pointed to the stone. I think she is trying to tell me where she is.” Veronica finished her story.

“You know, that is new,” Maddison said. “Having an actual conversation or communicating in these visions. Usually you are rather passive. Like watching a film.”

“That is very astute, Maddison,” Curtis said. “I didn’t even pick up on that. So, I guess we are going to the field to see if she is really there.”

“Great,” Maddison said. “How are we going to get there?”

“I thought you would stay here,” Veronica said to Maddison.

“Why would I stay here?” Maddison asked. “I can be just as, well, I don’t want to be left out.”

“I understand that, Maddie,” Curtis said. “It is just that you are 12 and we are going to find a dead body. I don’t think that is age appropriate.”

“You are 14!” Maddison said. “That is not age appropriate for you either. She is 16, not age appropriate for her. None of this is age appropriate, yet here we are all going to a field to find a body. Didn’t Steven King write a book about that? Stand By Me? It was terrible.”

“OK,” Veronica said to Maddison, “if you want to come, great. We are going to ride there and see if we can find her.”

“Bike ride?” Maddison said. “Oh, no thank you, you know how much I hate cycling with all these hills. I will be at the pool.”

They both watched Maddison throw her jacket over her shoulder and saunter out of the gym and to her bedroom.

“We could have just opened with that,” Curtis said drily. “Come on Veronica, let’s get this over with.”

Forty-five minutes later they were in the field, Veronica walked through it the same way she did in her vision. She saw the trail leading to the river, she saw the top portion of the large live oak tree used for a deer stand and old stone well house. She looked for the oval shaped stone that designated where Casey might be buried. She and Curtis walked around the field and noticed several stones.

“I wonder which one she was pointing at,” Veronica said looking around.

“I don’t like the look of this field,” Curtis said. “There is something off about it. We played here when we were kids. I understand things change, but these stones, there are about twelve of them, they don’t belong here.”

“I think it is this one, it was the closest to the stone well house and the ground has been disturbed,” Veronica said as she started to move the dirt.

Curtis didn’t want Veronica to uncover Casey’s body and he also didn’t want her to disturb anything, “hey, Veronica, let’s let the police know this is here.” He opened his pack, dug out his cell phone and called dispatch. He requested a few police officers to respond to the field near the Styles Academy.

Two police officers came to the field to take their statement. They asked Curtis and Veronica what they were doing there and what they thought they were going to find. Veronica said she thinks there is someone buried in the shallow grave over by the stone well house. They walked over to the spot she pointed to and started to move the loose dirt from the mound. After about ten minutes they uncovered a pair of legs and Veronica noticed an identifying birthmark on the right leg. It was Casey.

Veronica screamed and Curtis pulled her back. They both stumbled and fell over another stone. Curtis picked Veronica up and noticed there was another hand not far from where she was sitting.

“Oh no,” Curtis said. “Hey guys, we have a problem here. Veronica, I have to get you off this field.” Curtis guided a sobbing Veronica to the street and sat her down. He then removed the bikes.

The officers called in the crime scene unit and the medical examiner told Curtis to get back and started to tape off the small area around Casey’s grave.

“I will be happy to get back,” Curtis said. “I just need to tell you that you have to widen your tape. This whole field is a crime scene.”

The officer followed Curtis to another stone where he pointed out a hand in the dirt. The officer started to look at all the other stones and called for homicide.

“Lieutenant,” the officer said when Lloyd answered. “We have a situation. You need to get here fast.” Then he called out to all the other officers, “Hey, guys you have to tape this whole field off.”

Lloyd drove his police unit to the crime scene, parked across the street and walked past the tape. He saw Veronica and Curtis Conway across the street. Curtis was comforting his sobbing sister. She was hysterical and Lloyd couldn’t blame her, she found her friend’s body.

He walked over to the shallow grave where the technicians were removing the dirt very carefully from Casey Hammond’s body. Now, her face, torso and legs were uncovered. Her clothing was torn, her body was bruised and he didn’t need a kit to tell him she was raped.

“We will have time of death in a few hours,” the medical examiner said. “I will have to perform a rape kit along with an autopsy, but on a curs ry examination it looks like she was strangled.”

The case felt very familiar to Lloyd, the torn clothing, beating and rape along with strangulation, he felt like he was looking at Molly Hemsworth’s case. Lloyd walked around the crime scene and noticed a second unit of technicians uncovering another body. It was a young, Hispanic girl, about 17 or 18 years old. What was left of her clothing was torn, the body had started to decompose and there wasn’t much left except hair and bones.

Lloyd looked around the field, and officers were uncovering more human skeletal remains. The clothing and hair was still present in some cases. The hair was brown and the clothes were torn. There were some girls who had been in their graves for months, and others who had been in their graves for years.

Lloyd almost lost his breakfast. He was looking at twelve uncovered bodies when the technicians were done. The medical examiner noted that the cause of death for most of the victims was strangulation. They were looking at the work of a serial killer who has been killing for years and whose last victim was just two days ago.

Lloyd needed to create a team and get them to work on this fast.

Curtis watched all the activity while he held Veronica who was in shock. He opened his pack and opened up a bottle of water.

“He is going to come after me, Curt,” Veronica said, looking at what she managed to uncover.

“Who is,” Curtis asked. “Who is going to come after you?”

“The man who did this to her, he is going to come after me,” Veronica said as she took a drink of the water. “He is going to come after me and he is going to make sure he gets me here. This is personal, Curtis.”

“All right,” Curtis sat down next to Veronica, “we know he is coming. So, we can decide how to counteract, like any good swordsman.”

“I know this area better than he does,” Veronica said. “I played here, I know where the school is, I know where the river trail is and where it leads, I know about the old well house. I even know about the deer stand.

“I will be ready for him.”