Chapter 10
Miranda stood in the middle of Harper’s apartment and just tried to get a feel for who the young woman had been.
Warm and loving was her first impression.
There were photos of her family along the main wall.
It was a very small living space. The living area was probably less than eight-by-eight.
There was more of a kitchenette than a full kitchen.
There were two doors along the back wall.
Bedroom and bath. Harper had hung butterfly tea lights over her bathroom door.
She’d decorated in more feminine colors.
It was obvious she’d cared about her space.
Miranda looked at a photo of four young girls surrounding a new baby.
She stared at it for a moment. She was eight years older than Meyra—she remembered when her sister had been born.
Remembered holding her almost in that same pose.
Meyra and Daisy, both. They’d only been a few months apart in age, those two.
And they’d grown side-by-side. Miranda loved them both so much.
Harper had loved her family. And they had loved her.
It hurt to see the pain in Harper’s mother’s eyes right now.
The Wycoffs had lost two daughters now. The trauma of that was something this family would never be able to forget. The loss would hurt them all for the rest of their lives.
“I’ve been keeping it clean. The girls…Faith is at FCU right now, in a dorm there.
She’s in law school there. Scholarships the entire way.
Sometimes she comes home. Sleeps out here.
All of them…have been taking turns with her…
stuff. I—don’t really know what to do with her apartment.
Her…things…and her father…he’s not ready, I don’t think.
It’s hard. When you lose a child…Harper’s twin—she was ill.
And we knew…ahead of time that she was…ill.
She was never in the best of health, Dr. Talley.
But Harper…that day…my two younger girls were the ones here when Sheriff Johnson came.
He told them. They are still in high school and he just told them ‘sorry about your sister’ and left.
And that was that. Kayley and Jana—they knew before we did. ”
Miranda couldn’t imagine what that idiot sheriff had been doing. Death notifications weren’t done with children. They just weren’t. “I’m so sorry.”
“Sheriff Johnson…well…he’s been a fixture in Helery County for a long while.
And…he’s not good at what he does, but he is of the right political party there.
I am not sorry we left Oklahoma for here.
Being more in the city—we were able to give the girls more opportunities overall.
” Mary Beth Wycoff had anger in her eyes now.
Green, like her daughter’s. Like Miranda’s own.
She reminded Miranda of her Aunt Jessica, in a lot of ways.
Jessica had had that same kind of utter fire when she was protecting those she loved.
“He just kept asking about Harper’s drug use.
Pushing the idea that she used drugs. Asking the girls about their sister’s drug habit and where she always bought her drugs.
Who at that trailer park sold drugs to her.
How often she was there. My girl didn’t use drugs.
I know every parent probably says that—but Harper wouldn’t.
And if that man had just listened when we said that, maybe they would have caught the man who hurt my little girl by now.
But no. Sheriff Johnson decided my baby girl was doing drugs.
And then they came in here and tried to go through everything.
We let them, even though it was across state lines.
They had a man from the TSP with them, but…
he was not much better. They didn’t find a damned thing, either.
Because my baby was a good girl. She didn’t do drugs, Dr. Talley.
She didn’t. She made her twin sister a promise to never do something like that. And Harper kept her word.”
Miranda nodded. She knew how addiction worked, though. And some addicts were very good at hiding their habits. She wasn’t going to form an opinion yet. Not until she had more time to figure out just who Harper Wycoff actually was.
But she wasn’t going to forget that Sheriff Johnson’s name had come up so quickly.
Again.
And not in a good way.
Again.
She had seen incompetence before. She rubbed her arm, where the scars were. Not every cop was good.
“We’re going to do everything we can to find the answers about your daughter.
” Miranda looked at the photos on the small half-wall that separated the living area from the kitchenette.
Harper had her arms around her youngest sister.
She wore a jersey—fan gear. For the uniform the teenager wore. She looked so proud.
Harper had been a good big sister. She’d loved her family; it was obvious.
“That was last year. Her sister had just gotten her first over-the-fence home run in 13U. They’d been working and working on Kayley’s hitting all winter.
Those two…really bonded over softball. Harper loved her sisters very much.
When we lost her twin—she changed, of course. Grew fiercer over her sisters.”
“I can understand that. I lost…my mother. When I was eleven, living in a foreign country for my father’s work. I have two younger sisters. I had real trouble letting my youngest sister out of my sight for several months after that.”
“I’m sorry about your mother. That is never easy. Harper had a close relationship with all of them. But softball was her and Kayley’s special thing.”
“Did she still spend a lot of time at the ball field?”
“Whenever she needed to think. She’d take a bucket full of balls and just go hit off the tee. Until she recentered herself.”
Miranda nodded. “So it wouldn’t be unusual for her to be at a ball field, even in the evening?”
Hit off the tee. A tee had been found in Harper’s trunk. But…hitting off the tee required something to hit with. Miranda would bet lunch that something was their murder weapon, and was softball-bat-shaped.
If they could find that bat, it would be a first step.
Harper’s mother shook her head slowly. “She was at a softball field every few days at the minimum. But I just don’t know why she’d be at those old fields all the way up in Buckbert.
It didn’t make sense. She hadn’t played there in ten years.
Most of the time…she was at the fields right here.
There is a complex not even two miles from here.
Her life was here. If…if she’d been at the fields here this wouldn’t have happened.
I just…don’t know why she was there. I just don’t.
And no one will give us the answers. Hagan is trying, we know she is, but… she’s just one girl…and…”
“I’m going to do my best to find the answers. I can’t…make any more promises than that. I will do everything I can.”
First order of business, why was Harper Wycoff in Buckbert that night?
That might just get them started.