Upstate Uproar (7 page)

V
ivian’s jaw dropped
as she and the girls looked down at the jaw. A chill passed through
her. “I touched a dead person! Oh my god! I touched a dead person!
I need hand sanitizer! STAT!”

Kate gathered herself, then used the stick to
maneuver the bone as Austin pranced behind them, wanting to
continue with his game of fetch. “It looks like it’s a bottom
jaw.”

Lucy shivered and handed Vivian a small
bottle of hand sanitizer from her backpack. “This is so wrong. I’ve
had a weird feeling for a while, but I didn’t say anything. I just
figured it was because we couldn’t find blue dots, but this… this
is… ugh, I don’t even know.”

Vivian jumped up and down, rubbing her
freshly alcoholed hands together. “It’s disgusting! I just touched
a piece of a dead person!”

“Calm down, Viv. It’s not dripping in blood
or anything.” Wendy reached for Lucy’s backpack. “We need to call
the police. There’s probably more of this body out here
somewhere.”

“Oh, please god, no,” Vivian wailed and
leaned against a tree, sliding down it. “I thought the double
rainbow from yesterday was a good sign. This is definitely not
good.”

“It’s going to be okay,” Lucy said. “We don’t
have much of a story to tell. It won’t ruin our vacation, just mess
up our hike, which was already messed up because the trail isn’t
half marked. We would have probably gotten lost.”

Vivian felt like Lucy was just trying to ease
her nerves, but it wasn’t working. Finding some person’s bone,
partially covered in dirt and now dog slobber, had Vivian on the
edge.

Wendy’s signal was weak, but she managed to
call 911 and put it on speaker. It took her a few minutes to
explain their location and situation, and she had to repeat “human
jawbone” three times.

“Are you in a safe location?” the operator
asked.

“As safe as can be out here,” Wendy
responded. “I don’t think we’re in any imminent danger.”

“As long as the porcupine doesn’t come back,”
Lucy spoke up.

The operator informed them that it could take
an hour for the sheriff to reach them and to please not go
anywhere. Wendy clicked off.

Vivian groaned. “Why us? It’s always us! And
now we’re stuck here with it.” She cringed and looked down at the
u-shaped bone.

“I’m sure they need us to stay here so they
know where to start looking for the rest of the body,” Kate
said.

“Rest of the — ” Vivian’s stomach flipped and
she needed to put her head between her knees. “I’m gonna pass
out.”

Lucy sat next to her and handed her the
CamelBak. “Have some water.”

Wendy put her phone in the backpack and said,
“We ought to go look for the rest of the skeleton. I don’t like
this stuff, but it could speed up the process later when the
sheriff gets here. Get us back to civilization and our vacation
faster.”

Kate sat next to Vivian and leaned against
the tree. “I’ll be right here. Someone needs to stay with the
jawbone. If y’all find something, don’t touch it. Leave that to the
experts.”

“No way I’m going. Besides, buddy system,”
Vivian said, then looked at Lucy. “You’re it.”

Lucy threw her head back. “This is a bad
idea. I’m only looking for blue dots. That’s it. My eyes are not
looking at the ground.”

“Come on, chicken,” Wendy said, then looked
at Austin. “You, too, buddy.”

He jumped up and ran in a circle.

She rubbed his head, loving the feeling of
his soft fur. It reminded her of her flat-coated retriever,
Radar.

Lucy caught up with Wendy as they walked
uphill. “This is definitely a
really
bad idea. What if there
are other scavengers, bears or something?” She looked around, eyes
off the ground. “I’m pretty sure they have mountain lions up here.
And bears. Big ones.”

“Austin will fight them off for us,” Wendy
replied and watched Austin run ahead, nose to the ground. “He’s on
to something. Hurry!”

Austin weaved between the trees and
definitely off trail. The girls lost him for a minute, then saw him
in the distance at a shallow ravine. He paced up and down the bank
but suddenly stopped and started digging at the base of a tree.

“Austin, stop!” Wendy shouted as she and Lucy
raced to catch up with him.

No use. Austin had dirt flying everywhere and
kicked it all over Wendy and Lucy as they tried to stop him. They
finally managed to pull him away from the turned up ground.

Lucy led him a few feet away while Wendy took
in the scene. The ravine meandered through the trees and only had a
trickle of water. Leaves covered the banks and were bright red on
the tree Austin had dug under. Flooding had washed away the dirt
from the ravine side of the tree, revealing a tangle of roots and
leaving a cavity big enough to bury a large treasure chest, or
something much more sinister. If more soil were to wash away, the
tree would topple.

Lucy released Austin and joined Wendy and
pointed to the base of the tree. “Is this where you think he got
it? How would someone wind up underneath there?”

Wendy looked at a tree across the bank. A
pile of logs, leaves and mud partially surrounded the base. She
hopped across the stream and kicked at the closest log. It gave way
and rolled into the ravine with a splash. “Oops, I didn’t mean to
do that. The ground is really soft.”

“You think someone got caught in a flash
flood and this is where he was deposited?” Lucy asked.

Wendy hopped back across the ravine and bent
to get a closer look at where Austin had been digging. “I’m no
expert, but that sounds like a good theory. This tree could have
had a pile of logs and leaves like the one across from it, and that
could have packed in around the person and no one knew he was here
until another flood washed away the pile.”

“Or maybe no one is buried here and someone
somehow died and his body was scattered to the wind, compliments of
animals and, like you said, flooding,” Lucy said. “Maybe, it wasn’t
a man who died. Maybe it was a woman.”

“I swear to god, if you start talking about
aliens and shit I’m going to FLIP out.”

Austin splashed in the ravine and hadn’t
sniffed anything else out since they stopped him from digging.
Wendy had a feeling that whoever there was to be discovered lay
under the tree. She grabbed a stick, making sure first that it was,
in fact, a stick, and scratched at the dirt under the tree.

“I don’t think you should be doing that,”
Lucy said.

“Whoever’s jaw that is, he’s missing. Someone
has spent hours searching, hours worrying, wondering if he’ll ever
come home.” Wendy squatted down and started scratching a little
faster. “What if this was your loved one, you’d want him out of
here.”

Lucy laid a hand on Wendy’s shoulder. “Wendy,
I understand you’re upset, and I know why, but trust me, we should
leave this to the experts.”

Wendy kept scratching away at the soil.

Lucy squeezed Wendy’s shoulder. “Wendy, you
need to stop. Wendy.” No reaction, so finally Lucy squatted down
beside her and gently grabbed her hand and stopped her from
digging. “It’s not Jake. You’ll find him, but he’s not here.”

Wendy sank to her knees and started crying.
“I don’t know how to help him. He’s got to come home. He’s got
to.”

“We’ll figure it out, I promise,” Lucy said
and held Wendy’s hand. “But for now, we need to leave this to the
police.”

Wendy wiped her tears on her sleeve and
straightened up. “Let’s go back to where Viv and Kate are.” She
dusted off her hands on her pants. “I know all too well what this
person’s loved ones went through, and it caught me off guard.”

Lucy called Austin and then led the way down
the mountain. Though they didn’t have blue dots to mark a trail,
the girls had no problem finding their way back to Vivian and
Kate.

Vivian took in Lucy and Wendy’s somber
expressions and mud-splattered clothes. “What happened?”

Lucy pointed to Austin, who was sniffing the
jawbone. “He flung dirt everywhere when he was digging under the
roots of a tree.”

“Did y’all find anything else?” Vivian asked
and grabbed hold of Austin’s leash before he could grab hold of the
jaw.

Wendy and Lucy looked at each other before
Wendy responded, “No, but Austin went crazy around a tree base up
there.”

“Maybe there was another animal’s scent,”
Kate said, still sitting against the tree. She twirled a bright
orange leaf between her thumb and pointer finger.

Wendy reached for Lucy’s CamelBak. “It got me
thinking about Jake.” She started crying again and sat down,
burying her head in her hands.

Vivian sat down beside her. “You need to cry
about this. It’s good for you to get this emotion out.”

Wendy sucked in a ragged breath. “Y’all don’t
know everything.” She really started sobbing and could hardly catch
her breath.

Lucy dug in her backpack and walked over with
a pad of gauze. “I ran out of tissues, sorry.”

Wendy took the gauze and blew her nose.

Kate gave her a shoulder hug. “What else is
there to know?”

Wendy sobbed a couple of more times before
taking a deep breath. “I found something really weird when his
parents and I were cleaning out his apartment last week. I didn’t
show them because I didn’t want to freak them out, but I’m sure it
has something to do with his disappearance.”

“I’m sure whatever it is, it’s totally
explainable,” Lucy said.

“All guys have porn, Wendy,” Vivian said.

“It wasn’t porn.”

“What was it?” Kate asked.

Wendy looked up at the trees. “I think Jake
had another identity.”

V
ivian, Kate and Lucy
glanced at one another after hearing the shocking information about
Jake. Wendy just stared at the trees, almost in a trance, and then
wiped more tears from her eyes.

Vivian touched Wendy’s arm. “Excuse me? Did
you say Jake has another identity?”

“I know, crazy, right?” Wendy said.

“You need to tell us exactly what you found,”
Lucy said.

“It was when his parents and I were cleaning
out his apartment. His lease was up, and they told us to come get
the stuff or they’d put it on the curb. I was working in his
bedroom, and I went to pack up his autographed basketball. It’s in
a Plexiglas display case and it felt way too heavy. Basketballs are
full of air, but it shifted in the box funny. I opened up the case,
took out the ball and found a slit had been cut into one of the
back seams. I pulled it open and couldn’t believe what I
found.”

“What was it?” Vivian asked.

“A passport with his picture but under
another name, Paul Vaughn. Money from different countries, all in
South America. A lot of money, based on the currency exchange.”

“How much?” Kate asked.

“Close to $50,000.”

“Holy cow,” Kate said. “It’s times like this
I wish I could have a glass of wine.”

“Did you tell the police?” Vivian asked.

“No, I didn’t know what to do. I was so
freaked out I hid everything at my house. I have crazy scenarios
running through my head. Is he a spy? A criminal? I feel deceived.”
Wendy blew her nose again. “Maybe he wanted to start another life
somewhere? Maybe his name isn’t even Jake.”

“We’ll help you sort it out,” Kate said. “Are
you sure it’s real money?”

“Yes, I went to the main branch of my bank
and got some to compare it to. It’s definitely real.” She paused.
“There’s something else. I found another cellphone.”

Austin jumped up and started barking. Vivian
didn’t hear anything at first, but a few seconds later she heard
the buzz of engines. Soon after, two people in tan uniforms on dirt
bikes raced up the mountainside in their direction.

They pulled to a stop 10 yards away, and the
shorter of the two took off her helmet, revealing a French braid.
“I’m officer Cheri Stokola with the Essex County Sheriff’s
Department. You the ones who called about a bone?”

“That’s us.” Vivian introduced herself and
the girls, then pointed to the jawbone on the ground. “We haven’t
touched it since Austin dropped it.”

Austin barked in confirmation.

The other deputy walked up and Stokola
introduced him as Brad Young. He looked down at the jaw. “Yep,
that’s human.” He reached for his walkie-talkie. “This is Deputy
Young, we’re going to need the coroner.”

Vivian’s heart sank at Young’s request for
the coroner, even though she knew that would, and should, happen. A
gust of wind swirled around her, sending chills through her
body.

Stokola removed her sunglasses, showing off
inquisitive green eyes. A few freckles accented her face. She
pulled a pen and a notebook out of a leather bag on her bike. “Can
you tell us what happened?”

Lucy and Vivian gave her a brief explanation
of playing fetch with Austin and him returning with the jaw, and
then Lucy said, “Wendy and I followed Austin up the mountain where
he started digging frantically at the base of a tree. We think
that’s where he got the jaw. We can show you.”

The deputies looked at one another. Young
said, “I think it’s best we wait for the coroner and crime scene
techs to show up. They get pretty pissed when it comes to people
trampling their scenes.”

“I’ve got to pee,” Kate said and started to
stand up. “I’ll go down that way, so as to not trample anything.”
She pointed in the opposite direction from where Wendy and Lucy had
gone.

“I doubt you’ll be here much longer, but I do
need to get everyone’s contact information before you take off,”
Young said, helping Kate to her feet. She quickly gave it to him.
“The coroner is usually pretty quick, so be on the lookout. He’s a
maniac on a bike.”