Karen glanced at a clock as she walked back through the hospital. Almost seven a.m. Franny would be returning to the hospital soon. Stop by Joshua’s room, get their stories straight; then there was one more thing she needed to do before the police returned.
In his room, Joshua was still sleeping. Shoulder bandaged up. A few bruises on his face. There were specks of dirt in his blond hair. Maybe it was blood. She leaned over his bed and shook his arm. His eyes fluttered open.
“Hey, you,” she said.
“Hey, Mom.”
“Feeling okay? How’s your head?”
He shrugged. “Better. I guess.”
“I need to talk with you,” she said.
She looked over her shoulder, out at the hallway. Just to be safe. It was empty.
“I still haven’t given my statement to the police, but they’ll be talking to me soon,” she said. “You, too. I want to talk about what we’re going to say to them.”
“What do you mean?”
“The accident. The dead body. I was talking with your father. We’re not going to mention what happened in the forest to the police. It just . . . it seems too risky. I don’t want this to end with you going to jail. I can’t stand that thought. But I want to leave it up to you. The decision is yours. If you’d rather come clean and tell them everything, we will.”
Joshua shook his head. He turned away from her. His lip started quivering. He turned and buried his head in his shoulder, the one that hadn’t been dislocated. His eyes became watery.
“Don’t do that,” she said, reaching over and stroking his hair. But maybe it was for the best. Just let it all out. Cry it away.
Joshua wiped his eyes and turned to her.
“Do you really think it’s the right thing to do? Not tell them?”
“No. It’s not right. Definitely not. But it’s what I think we should do.”
Joshua sniffled. “Okay.”
“We’ll begin our story the night we were ambushed, out in the woods. Like nothing happened before that. We’ll say we were out looking at the stars. Ross and Amber confronted us, a fight broke out, and Amber was shot. Just like what happened. He forced me to take Amber to the hospital by holding you at gunpoint. Told me if I said anything about him, he’d hurt you. Sound good to you?”
Joshua nodded.
“Okay. That’s our story. We’ll stick to that.”
“The clothes I wore on the night of the accident,” he said. “They’re still at the house. Under the deck. They’re all bloody.”
“Why are they there?”
“When I got home that night, there wasn’t time to get rid of them,” he said. “I pulled back that loose board and threw them under the deck. Figured I’d do something about them later.”
Karen stood up from her chair.
“I’ll grab them from the house, get rid of them,” she said. “Then there’s one final thing to do.”
She leaned over, kissed Joshua on the top of his head, and left the room.
She hurried through the hospital, out to her car in the parking garage. Left the hospital and drove away. She stared out the windshield, solemn-faced, as she drove through the city. A mixture of nerves and dread in her stomach. The smell of blood in the car’s backseat had only gotten stronger overnight.
Her first stop was their house. She parked out front and walked around the back. Pulled the loose board on the side of the deck and there it was: a plastic garbage bag. She grabbed it and opened it up. A charred, burned smell rose from inside. She could see a pair of pants, what looked like two deformed shoes. And the coat. The coat she’d bought Joshua for Christmas.
She carried the bag out to the car and pulled away. She drove on the interstate, turned onto a few gravel roads, and eventually reached Hawkeye Wildlife Management Area.
Trees everywhere. The sheet of paper she’d printed off showing Joshua’s cell phone location was still in her car cup holder. She referenced it as she drove on.
She did her best to avoid thinking about what she was preparing to do. Tried to clear her mind and remain calm—but that was impossible. She drove on, deeper and deeper into the forest. The morning sun was rising in the distance; it was actually a pleasant sight. The forest wasn’t nearly as creepy as it had been in the middle of the night, when darkness surrounded her.
As she drove, she thought about backing out. Reconsidering. She knew this was wrong, but she kept driving, her car bumping and jostling on the uneven road.
She looked at the sheet of paper.
Getting close.
More driving.
Closer.
A few more minutes of driving and she arrived. The body was right there, on the edge of the road. A huddled mass. Black coat. Dark pants.
She slowed her car and pulled just past the body, so it was near her trunk. She stayed in her car and stared out the windshield, her expression blank, all business. She had to do something about the body. It was the final loose end. Right now, the police didn’t even know the body was there, but once Amber was healthy enough to give her statement, she’d surely mention the dead body that was out in the forest when she and Ross had encountered Karen and Joshua the first time. After the police came and found the body, there was no telling what would happen. They’d have questions for Joshua and her. What had happened? How had the person died? Why was the body out in the middle of nowhere? Maybe they’d even find something on the body linking it to Joshua—his DNA or some sort of trace evidence that had gotten on it during the scuffle after the accident. A million things could potentially go wrong once the police found the body.
No, if she wanted to end this for good, she had to get rid of the body.
She gave herself a final chance to turn around and drive back. Instead, she opened the car door. Stepped outside. Took a deep breath. She popped the trunk with the button on her key fob and walked around to the rear of the car.
The body was faceup in the same location it had been in the first time she’d seen it. It hadn’t started to smell much, just a musty odor like wet sneakers: a scent of rot and decay. The smell wasn’t overpowering, but it was enough to make her gag.
She stared down at the man’s ghost white face. Open mouth. Unblinking eyes. A large gash on the side of his head, near his temple. Blood covering his face, splattered onto his coat.
She still had no idea who this man was or what he’d been doing all the way out there. Seemed like an odd place to go for a stroll, but that was about the only explanation she could come up with.
She doubted they would ever know.
She took a few steps and stood directly over the body. She clenched her jaw, braced herself, then leaned down and grabbed the arms. She dragged the body over to her open trunk. She clenched her jaw even harder, ground her teeth together, and bent over. She closed her eyes as she worked her arms around the body—she couldn’t handle such an up-close view of the dead man’s face. She picked up the body and tried to hoist it into her open trunk, but the body kept slipping out of her hands. It was heavy—even worse, it was awkward. Hard to get a good grip.
After a few failed attempts, she was able to work her arms around the back of the body and get the torso into the trunk. Then the legs. The head. The arms.
She slammed the trunk shut and walked around to the driver’s seat. She sat down and exhaled so deeply she thought she would pull a muscle in her back. A few more deep breaths. She nearly started crying.
After she’d calmed herself, she pulled back onto the road and drove away.