Page 17 of Dead Man's Hollow
Maisy narrows her eyes. “Do you, though?”
“Yes,” she insists.
“The slow build is a thing, sugar.” Maisy pats her arm. “Besides, I’m not worried.”
“Why not?”
She smiles. One thing she’s learned from her decades in television journalism is that people love nothing more than to prove their friends wrong. It’s impossible to overestimate the appeal of a gotcha.
“Because Diana’s insistence that they were this happy, normal family before Heather’s disappearance will be like catnip to people who know better.”
Jordana furrows her brow. “I don’t understand. You think they weren’t? Diana’s lying?”
“I don’t think she lied, at least not deliberately. But everyone’s got their secrets, Jordana. Nothing’s as picture-perfect as it seems. People who knew the Ryans will hear Diana describe their idyllic life before Heather disappeared and will think she’s either lying or deluded. And I’ll bet you peaches to peanuts someone’ll either call in or email us a tip to let us know what life in the Ryan household in the mid-90s wasreallylike.”
Jordana perks up at the thought. “I hope you’re right.” Then she gives Maisy a sidelong look. “Peaches to peanuts? Really?”
“It’s like dollars to donuts, only Southern. And more delicious.”
“I think you make up half of these Southern sayings.”
“I most certainly do not.” This one, however, is a pure Maisy Farley creation. She’s going to have to remember to use it regularly. It’s some of her better work.
“Hmm.” The younger woman seems unconvinced.
Maisy flashes her brightest smile. “I’ll go ahead and start on the files while you finish editing the episode.”
Jordana holds Maisy’s gaze a moment longer. Then she shakes her head, settles her noise-cancelling headphones over her ears, and queues up her editing software. As she returns to her work, Maisy hears her mutter, “peaches to peanuts” under her breath.
Maisy smothers her smile. She’s glad she’s assuaged her producer’s worry, and she believes what she said. In every investigation she can recall, when she’s turned over the rocks, creepy crawly things have skittered out from underneath. There’s no reason to believe this one will be any different.
A sudden chill races along her bare arms, like an invisible spider scuttling across her skin. She shivers, grabs her sweater from the back of her chair, and shoves her arms into it. Then she puts all thoughts of critters firmly out of mind, opens the nearest box, and pulls out the topmost folder.Let’s see what crawls out from under these rocks.
ChapterTwelve
Transcript of “The Farley Files Podcast Season Two:
Dead Man’s Hollow—The Disappearance of Heather Ryan”
Episode 1: Who Was Heather Ryan?
Late on the evening of May 27th, 1994, a group of high schoolers gathered in what is now known as Dead Man’s Hollow, but was then abandoned woodlands. It was a muggy, humid night, but they didn’t mind the oppressive weather. They were there to celebrate the start of the Memorial Day weekend and the fast-approaching end of the academic year. They danced, drank, and hooked up—blowing off steam.
Most, but not all, of the assembled teenagers attended the nearby high school, which was just twenty minutes down the road. One of the partygoers was Heather Ryan, then age sixteen and a high school sophomore. Her older sister Amy, eighteen and a graduating senior, was also there. The sisters had arrived together but eventually went their separate ways in the woods.
Shortly after midnight, the police arrived to break up the party, and the students scattered. Amy searched the woods for Heather, so they could leave together, but she couldn’t find her younger sister that night. In fact, as we approach the thirtieth anniversary of Heather Ryan’s disappearance, she’s still missing.
What happened to Heather Ryan that night in Dead Man’s Hollow?
Someone knows and isn’t saying.
I’m Maisy Farley, former investigative reporter and host of The Farley Files, and this season on the podcast we’ll be looking for answers to the disappearance of Heather Ryan.
Today I’m talking to Diana Ryan, one of Heather’s sisters. At the time of Heather’s disappearance, Diana was a twenty-year-old business administration student finishing up her sophomore year of college. Today, she still lives in the Pittsburgh area where she provides human resources consulting services nationwide for a large manufacturing company. She’s the divorced mother of two young adult children, and she’s never stopped wondering what happened to her sister.
DIANA: We were a typical middle-class family. Our mom worked at the dentist’s office as a receptionist. Dad was a carpet installer. We went to church, took a vacation to the Jersey Shore every summer, and lived an ordinary, maybe even boring, suburban life.
That all changed when Heather Ryan disappeared.
