Page 57 of Vanish From Sight
The search was conducted with meticulous care and every effort was made to cover as much ground as possible. The upside was the weather was in their favor. A bright blue sky stretched overhead. It was cold but nothing that would deter them from continuing.
The teams worked tirelessly, combing the terrain and calling out for Laura.
High above, two drones were brought in along with a helicopter using FLIR technology to get a better lay of the land.
As the morning wore on, the search became increasingly desperate. The voices of searchers echoed through the forest. “Laura!”
Despite their efforts, there was still no sign of her.
“High Peaks Academy isn’t far from here,” Noah hollered.
“Less than a few miles down the road,” Callie said as she brushed aside tree branches and gazed down into the thick underbrush.
Noah couldn’t help but wonder about the connection between Katherine and Laura besides their employer. His thoughts were distracted, circling between searching, NicholasEvans, Charlie Delany, Nate Sawyer and Ana Silva, when his radio crackled.
One of the teams had made a breakthrough. They had found a cellphone that matched the description of Laura’s provided by Ana. With renewed energy, and feeling as if they were heading in the right direction, the searchers pushed on, surveying the area close to where her phone was found discarded in a ditch.
It was the beginning of the end.
Several hours passed before they found what none of them really wanted to find. It took Noah a good 20 minutes to wade through the thick underbrush to reach the location. It was set far back from the road, about three miles from the trailhead where her sneaker had been found.
Laura was dangling from a tree, fully clothed, a rope of similar color and design to the one tied around Katherine was looped over her head.
Below her dangling feet, a small log kicked to one side.
There was no suicide note. Nothing to indicate she’d willingly done this. As several deputies took photos, others secured the scene. Noah’s gaze drifted through the tree line toward the historic property of High Peaks Academy.
His mind wandered.
Two victims found a few miles from each other, one in water, the other hanging from a tree. Both made to look as if they’d committed suicide, yet on closer inspection, it was much more.
“Noah.”
His mind was lost, making connections, thinking about times, days, the way each one met her end. “Noah!” Callie said again, clicking fingers in front of his face. He turned back in time to see deputies cutting Laura down. Searchers were turned away, thanked, and told not to speak to media or anyone until an official statement was made by the county sheriff’s office.
“What?” he replied.
“This place will be swarming with media and oddballs in the next hour. You know how it goes. We need to get the coroner out here.”
“Yeah, best of luck with that.”
He turned his attention to Laura. It didn’t matter how many times he saw the dead, it didn’t get any easier. As they set her down, he noticed her blonde hair was matted in blood. Noah got closer, gloving up. “Roll her over,” he said. He used a pen to lift some of the hair to get a better look. There at the back of her head was a deep laceration. Was it from being dragged or cracked on the back of the skull? He looked up, entertaining for a second the idea that she’d had some kind of manic episode. In his years, he’d seen it all. Those who had attempted suicide and failed, then tried again and succeeded.
He scanned the ground and noticed droplets of blood leading away to a jagged rock. “Bag that,” he said.
Noah stood below the branch Laura had been dangling from. He glanced down, noticing more blood. Although his mind wanted to go to murder, as everything was pointing to that, he couldn’t help but rule out what this attempted to look like.
“Seems someone cracked her over the back of the head with the rock,” Noah said.
“Then why hang her?” she asked
“To make it look like suicide. I figure she put up a fight,” he replied.
He stepped back and looked up at the knot around the tree. It was a similar knot to those used on Katherine. He’d have to break the branch and slide it off to get a better look.
Noah looked back at Laura. Her one foot was bare. There were grazes on the bottom but not on the heel as if to indicate she’d been dragged. Her other one still had on a sneaker and sock.
“The ankle sock?” Callie said, observing him. “It’s inside the other sneaker back at the trailhead.”
