Page 20 of The Fragile Ones
She nodded. She was shaking, but John’s strong embrace and calm voice brought her the stability she needed.
“You’re sure?” he said as his eyes showed deep concern. Something Katie had never witnessed in him before.
“Yes. We need to do this—who knows what damage to the scene more weather could bring. We can’t wait any longer if we want to find any remaining evidence today.”
He hesitantly released his hold, allowing her to swing back into formation. Nodding, he began to climb. As Katie followed she felt her body relax, enjoying the sensation of working up toward something instead of falling into the unknown. She didn’t look down, but kept her eyes on the ledge where she knew the two girls were.
John moved as close as possible to the crevice and secured the ropes. She allowed herself to take in the horror of the scene before her as he fitted lightweight earphones into his ears.
“Blackburn,” John said, looking at Katie with a sly smile. “Yes, she’s fine, just some loose footing down here. We’re beginning the search now.” He turned to Katie and nodded.
Katie dragged her eyes from the rock formation in front of her and took in the faded blue sneaker on the foot of the girl closest to her. Then her eyes moved across to the girl’s other foot, which was bare, and several toes were missing nails—as if they had simply melted away. Was this part of the natural decomposition? she wondered. The sickly bluish-purple skin looked weathered and shriveled from exposure to the elements, and even though the bodies were somewhat shielded in the crevice there was still a significant amount of skeletonized decomposition—Katie estimated a third to half of the bodies. Part of the skin on the exposed area had completed dried up, leaving areas of bone visible. If it weren’t for their small size and the remains of childlike clothes, you’d assume them to be elderly.
Looking up the petite legs, there were several areas of missing flesh and deep dark marks that most likely were the result of tumbling down the gully. The blackened areas coincided with compound fractures with a bone poking up through the dead skin.
Katie moved slightly to the side so that John could digitally document the bodies—both up close and overall. He, too, studied the bodies.
Since the bodies faced inward to one another, the girls’ arms and hands weren’t immediately visible, but it was as if they were hugging each other as they said goodbye. This thought caused a lump in Katie’s throat as she imagined the terror they had endured up to their brutal deaths.
Katie leaned in closer, trying to get a better view of their heads and necks. One girl, with blonde curled hair still fastened with a barrette, had what appeared to be a pink T-shirt, now deteriorating and shredded in places, and the other wore a yellow T-shirt with some type of iron-on picture that had long faded from the outdoor exposure.
The first girl had a deep indentation around her neck in a distinct pattern—what appeared to be some type of chain or rope. The other girl had an impact wound to the back of her exposed skull. Questions began to form in Katie’s mind that only the medical examiner could answer.
“Her hand,” said John, motioning to the hand of one of the girls which was curled into a tight fist around what looked like a strip of fabric of some kind. He leaned in and photographed it in its current position. “Let’s not pull the fabric, but protect their hands in case there’s anything else,” he said, as he cautiously took out an evidence bag and began covering her hand and securing it with tape, carefully pulling it from its position. Katie did the same for the hands of the other girl. She saw that both girls had the remnants of friendship bracelets with faded pink and yellow threads. Best friends? Sisters?
Next, Katie looked around the surrounding rocks and inside the crevice to see if they’d missed anything—but there was nothing she could see.
The air temperature was dropping quickly as clouds gathered overhead and the daylight ebbed away—it was nearly dusk. Katie knew they would have to be out of here soon, but something caught her eye.
“What is that?” asked John, following Katie for a closer look as she gently turned the girl’s torso a little to reveal the back of her head. With a gloved hand, she brushed away the blonde locks to reveal a set of numbers. “Does that look like a tattoo of 372 to you?” she asked, fear flooding her body as she ran through different scenarios; GPS, tracking, tracing, trafficking, and worse.
John used his camera lens to get a closer look and clicked several images. “I think you’re right,” he said, nodding.
“What would those numbers mean?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never heard of a child’s scalp being tattooed with a number.”
Katie ran her eyes over the girls’ broken bodies to take everything in one last time.
“I think we need to have the rescuers pull them out. We’re running out of daylight and we need to preserve what we have,” John said.
Katie knew that this was the only chance they might catch some evidence before the rescuers got them out. They would need to pull them, and risked losing any evidence that was on the bodies or caught in their clothes or hands.
“Okay, our job is done,” he said.
Katie nodded—then hesitated. It was a long shot, but she had to try. “Wait,” she said. “Let’s extract and bag their clothes and the remaining shoe ourselves. The rescue team will do their best, but they’re not trained for retrieving evidence from crime scenes in the way that we are.”
“Okay.”
Working as fast as they dared, Katie and John gently cut the clothing from the bodies with a small pair of scissors and a pocket knife that John had. After packaging the clothing and shoe as carefully as possible, they were done.
Katie readied herself to climb back up. As she checked everything in her gear, she looked over the bodies one last time. It was difficult not to cry at the sight of the two little girls, now stripped of their clothes, dead, and broken. She wanted to cover them with a blanket, to keep them warm and give them their decency, but the circumstances didn’t allow for that and there was nothing more she could do for now.
John updated the sheriff from his cell phone and told him that they were on their way up, ascending without any problems.
They both used a bit of extra strength to pull their body weight upward. Katie huffed more than usual as she thought about the two little girls and their final resting place. Her pulse pounding with adrenalin as she reached the top.
As Katie stood on the sidelines, glad to be free from the climbing gear and wrapped in a warm coat, she watched as the rescue stretcher was hoisted to the top to a waiting gurney. Both bodies were so small they were able to fit on one stretcher. Again Katie felt a deep sadness weighing on her soul as she witnessed how fragile the girls were, finally free from their rocky tomb.
