A woman in a vest appeared from around a thick cluster of dormant blackberry bushes, and Violet practically fell on top of her, not realizing how panicked she was.

“Where’s your team leader?” Violet asked hoarsely, grabbing the surprised woman by the sleeve. “I need to find someone with a walkie-talkie.”

The woman looked shocked by Violet’s unexpected ambush, but she didn’t hesitate. “He’s…over there,” she said, pointing. “On the other side of those trees.” But Violet was already gone, rushing off in the direction the woman had pointed.

She knew she looked wild. She felt wild. But she had just found the killer. She had just stood, practically within arm’s reach, of the man who had murdered God only knew how many girls.

And she had just detected another body. Maybe Mackenzie Sherwin’s.

She saw the man ahead of her, with a map in his hand, and she knew he was a team leader. She couldn’t see his walkie-talkie, but she was certain that he had one. Another man stood beside him, and they were talking when Violet exploded on them.

“You have a walkie-talkie?” she asked, sounding breathless even to herself.

The stern-faced man looked at her, taking note of the volunteer vest she wore before answering her. “You’re not on my team.”

“I need you to call for help. I need you to ask for Stephen Ambrose.”

The man placed his hand over his pocket protectively. Violet was sure that was where his walkie-talkie was stashed. “Where’s your team, young lady?” he asked with authority.

Violet was suddenly angry, her fear eclipsed by something more potent as she lost her patience. “I need you to tell someone to send Chief Ambrose out here. Tell him Violet needs him!” she demanded. She couldn’t believe this guy was giving her a hard time about teams-they were all out here for the same reason: to find Mackenzie.

A look of irritation flashed across his face as he slowly-hesitantly-removed the walkie-talkie from his pocket. He eyed her suspiciously, gauging whether he should be following the orders of a hysterical kid demanding to see the police chief.

“Now!” she screamed at him when he took too long. And then she fell to her knees. She looked up at him, pleading now. “Please!” she begged the man. “Please… call my uncle and tell him I need him.”

Something, either in her actions or her words, must have gotten through to him, because he was suddenly on the walkie-talkie, telling whoever was on the other end that he needed to get in touch with Chief Ambrose, and that it was an emergency. When he was finally patched through, it wasn’t her uncle on the other end but one of her uncle’s police officers who was acting as an intermediary for the chief on this chaotic day.

The team leader in front of her repeated what she’d told him, only pausing to ask her to state her name again, to make sure he’d gotten it right. The man was asked where he was and he repeated his coordinates twice. The officer on the other end told the team leader to wait a moment, and there was an extended silence that ensued.

Violet shivered there, staying where she was on the ground, unable to find the strength to get back up again. She thought that she should feel uncomfortable, huddled at this man’s feet, while they waited for word from the other end. But she was too tired, and too afraid, to care what any of them thought of her.

Finally there was a crackling sound from the walkie-talkie that filled the silent space, and Violet heard the words she’d been waiting for.

Chief Ambrose was on his way.

Violet leaned forward, putting her face in her hands, and started to cry tears of relief.

CHAPTER 18

BY THE TIME HER UNCLE REACHED HER, VIOLET felt only a little more in control of herself. She was still terrified by the secret she was carrying, but her resolve had returned, strengthening her will and building an outer wall of composure. She had stopped crying and she was pacing around in circles while the team leader stood impassively, waiting to see how this played out.

She ran toward her uncle when she saw him heading like an unstoppable force in her direction. His arms closed up around her, and she felt safe at last.

She didn’t want to waste any more time, and she couldn’t afford for anyone else to hear what she knew. “He’s here,” she whispered against her uncle’s chest.

He didn’t let her go, and she thought that his grip might have even tightened a little bit. “What are you saying, Violet?” he asked, even though she thought he knew exactly what she was saying.

She pulled away, just enough to breathe but not enough to be overheard by listening ears. “I saw him. He’s just over there.” She nodded her head in the direction from which she’d come.

Her uncle Stephen stiffened like a statue, and Violet thought that he was probably deciding what to do next. “Are you sure?”

She nodded.

He mulled that over for a minute. “Have you sensed her?” He seemed to have a hard time asking the question. “Mackenzie Sherwin?”

Violet wasn’t sure how to answer that, so she answered the only way she could. She kept her voice to a pale whisper. “There’s someone there…buried. And he’s watching over the body.” She swallowed, only half wondering what she and her uncle looked like right now, huddled together and exchanging whispered words. “I think he’s making sure that no one finds her there.”

He chewed his lower lip as Violet looked up at him, watching and waiting to see what he planned to do. He looked down at her and it was no longer her uncle staring down at her, it was the police chief of a town terrorized by the disappearances of its own children. His resolve was matched only by her own. “What does he look like?”

Violet shook her head, wishing she could tell him. “I don’t know, really. Just ordinary-looking, I guess. I only knew it was him…” She struggled for the right words, and as always when she tried to put her feelings into words they somehow seemed inadequate. “…You know, because of what I sensed around him.”

“Violet! Violet!” The shouts were from her father as he came crashing toward where she and her uncle stood.

He pulled Violet away from his brother and buried her in an embrace that was as comforting as her uncle’s had been but in a completely different way.

“Oh my God, I’m so glad you’re safe,” he breathed against her head. “What are you doing out here? How long have you been here?”

Violet silently glanced at her uncle for help. She knew that her dad was going to freak out when he realized what she’d really been out there doing…and what she’d discovered.

Her uncle winked at her but offered no rope to save herself with. “By the way, I let your dad know you were here.” And then he looked over her head to her dad and, all business again, he said, “We need to talk.”

Normally this would have been the time when Violet was brushed aside so the adults could speak in private. But her father refused to release her, and everything her uncle had to say to him was the direct result of what Violet had just confessed. They moved away from the prying ears of both volunteers, who had begun to gather with the appearance of the police chief, and away from his own officers, most of whom he’d brought along with him when he’d gotten his niece’s distress call.

Stephen Ambrose quietly repeated what Violet had told him, about what she’d seen, and with each word she could feel her dad’s heavy arm tightening around her shoulders protectively until she felt as if she might splinter apart beneath his iron grip. Her dad asked almost the exact same questions her uncle had but directed them at his brother instead of at her, as though by pretending Violet wasn’t there he could somehow shield her from reliving the experience.

When they were finished with their hurried whispers, her uncle told her father the plan he’d come up with. Her father didn’t like it a bit.