Chapter Five
The field had been for sale since the late nineties. No one had bought it in the years between then and now. What was more, no one would buy it in the future. It wasn’t Old Man Becker’s land, but it might as well have been.
“No one wants to be next to Old Man Becker’s land, so it’s been sitting empty for years,” Price told JJ.
He pointed toward the trees that lined the field in the distance.
“There’s an access road there that technically cuts the Becker land off from this but, well, it’s usually only used by the workers and teens off doing something their parents don’t want them knowing about.
You said Josiah was coming from that way, toward the county road? ”
JJ had put her hair up in a ponytail. It swished from side to side as she turned to the direction Josiah had come.
“I can’t for sure say where he started but he definitely was coming from that direction.”
They had already run down everything that JJ had seen and done since Price had left her house.
Then she had said it all again to Rose when she had come upstairs to the surgery suite’s lobby.
JJ had been the one nice enough to offer to take them out to the exact place she had found Josiah before Rose had brought it up herself.
Then Price had been the one to offer her the ride.
“Winnie’ll have my head if she knows I’m not being as courteous as ever,” he had defended himself to Rose’s eyebrow raise.
“Plus, it’s not like we have a lot of manpower to push off everything on you and Darius.
I’ll get the story from her, take some pics, mark with a flag and wait for y’all to come out. ”
Rose must have been more stressed than usual. She dropped the subject with a quick thanks. Then she’d gone to talk to Lily, who had gone wide-eyed at the actual appearance of a uniform and badge.
Now, the field in front of Price and JJ was hot, bare and sporting a trail of blood that led him right to the tree line and back to the access road. There the trail stopped altogether. JJ followed but kept her eyes to the ground. She didn’t speak until she was at his side.
“There’s not enough blood here,” she said after a moment.
She ran her finger, pointing down at the ground and back toward where she had originally found Josiah.
“There’s more back there because he stopped but there’s only some spots leading back to here.
” She nodded to the road. “And since it ends at the road, I’m guessing that means he definitely didn’t get his injuries out here.
He was either dumped here by car or escaped from one. ”
Price felt his eyes widen. A half smile tugged up the corner of his lips. JJ saw the change and immediately shook her hands in defense.
“I watch a lot of crime series,” she said hurriedly. “There was an episode like this on an old show I watched. The woman escaped her kidnappers, and we spent half of the episode trying to figure out where the original attack took place.”
Price nodded.
“Well, however you got there, you’re not wrong.” He put his hands on his hips and looked down at the last drop of blood in the area. “It definitely seems like Josiah exited a vehicle here.”
But had anyone followed him?
“Why didn’t anyone stop him from going through the field?”
Price turned back to JJ again.
Her brow was drawn in.
“I mean, I guess if someone was after him, they could have been hidden in the tree line while I saw to Josiah,” she said. “That could have been his good luck out of all of this. I showed up when I did and spooked whoever did that to him.”
Price nodded. He hadn’t told JJ about how they had found Josiah’s house. It was part of an ongoing investigation and, even though he had no quarrels with JJ, he didn’t see the need to inform her of it. She had already done more than enough.
“Seven Roads might be small, but our Detective Williams is mighty,” he said. “We’ll get this figured out in no time.”
JJ straightened her back. She nodded but didn’t respond past that. Instead, she pulled her cell phone from her pocket and read a text in silence. Price used that time to mark the area. When he was done, JJ looked apologetic.
“If there’s nothing else you need me for, could I go home?” She motioned to her clothes. “The scrubs are nice, but I wouldn’t mind a quick shower.”
Price felt bad he hadn’t suggested it first. He walked her back through the field, both minding to step on the path they had carefully made before, and stopped by the hood of her car.
“Just so you know, this isn’t exactly the natural speed of Seven Roads,” he said. “It’s usually a quiet place. Well, minus the gossip.”
He grinned.
JJ opened her car door and let her hand rest on the top of the door.
There was some dried blood near her wrist.
“Don’t worry, I’ve seen worse.” Her frown went deep.
Then it swirled into a small smile of explanation.
“I’ve lived in a few big cities before coming here.
This place is silent compared to those.” She patted the top of the door.
“Let me know if you need anything else from me. You have my number and know where I live. And, I guess, where I work too.”
Price confirmed he did.
Before she could slide into her seat though, he reached out to stop her. Their hands didn’t touch but it was enough to make JJ pause. She gave him a questioning look.
“Sorry,” he said, pulling back. “But do you think you could do me a favor? Could you not tell Winnie about any of this until I talk to her first? The news will probably still get to her before I can but just in case it’s slow today, I’d like to try.”
JJ smiled.
“Don’t worry. The most I’ll do today is text Corrie to reschedule. If she needs more, I’ll cite car trouble again. After that, I’m staying myself right on my couch.”
* * *
JJ broke into the house in complete silence. No alarm beeps, no indoor chatter, no breaking glass or scraping metal. Nothing came before she slipped into the back door and nothing came after she closed it back up tight behind her.
The Alberts were on vacation and had never been a fan of digital security systems. They were from an older generation and had lived in Seven Roads since the seventies.
If it wasn’t for their kids probably insisting they lock their doors, they seemed to believe that their neighbors should be trusted no matter what.
That was probably why they barely made an effort to hide their spare key beneath the mat on the back porch.
Good for them, better for JJ.
She made her way across the hardwood until she turned into what looked like a guest bedroom. It was easy to navigate with the light from outside peeking through the small gaps between the curtains.
It was even easier when JJ used a gloved hand to make a bigger gap in the opening.
There were two people still milling around Josiah’s house.
Crime scene tape was on the front door and from her vantage point, she could see one of the uniformed men was making use of the back door.
He wore gloves and, she bet, booties. One of the two also had a camera bag slung across his shoulder as he stood there.
So Josiah’s attack had most likely occurred in his house.
The same house she had been searching hours before.
Which was bad for two different reasons.
One, it meant that whoever had done the deed had missed her and Price. Which would explain why Price was so obviously invested in the case, despite being off duty.
He probably felt some kind of misplaced guilt for not being able to protect Josiah.
Because he most likely thought that the masked person he had tussled with that morning was the very same person who had landed Josiah in such a state.
Which brought on the second, not-so-great problem.
The search for the masked person was now the top priority of the department.
JJ rubbed the side of her index finger with her thumb. The glove was smooth at both spots. She knew she didn’t leave any evidence behind during her search of Josiah’s home…but that sureness had rested on the fact that no one would be doing an in-depth search of the place behind her.
Had she made any mistakes in covering her tracks?
Was there anything in there that could tie her to the crime scene?
“No,” she whispered to herself.
Still, she couldn’t feel completely at ease about it.
This was the second person on her list who she had crossed off and she’d managed to get into not one but two things of hot water alongside of her goal.
JJ decided then and there she would cool off her search for a bit.
She wanted to find her brother but, more than anything, she needed to find him.
And she needed to find him before they did.
JJ stayed in the Alberts’ home until eventually all law enforcement left. If they found anything tying her to the scene, she never got a call or visit once she returned home. It should have made her rest easier but falling asleep that night was more difficult than she thought it would be.
She thought about Josiah falling in the field.
She thought about the blood on their clothes.
She thought about waiting alone in the lobby as he was rushed past to surgery.
JJ wondered if he was doing better. She wondered if he was alone.
Then, because her life had had moments of intense cruelty woven into its fabric, her thoughts slid even further back in time.
She saw her dark hair hanging down, reaching toward the roof of the car. There was glass everywhere. There was blood too.
There was no use in JJ squeezing her eyes shut. Then, or now. The image was there, and it would stay there for a while. So she embraced the pain and let her eyes lose focus on the ceiling above her now.
Like she’d told Price earlier, she had seen much, much worse than Josiah Teller in that field.