The Body in the Woods: A Point Last Seen Mystery

The phone ringing wakes Alexis. She asks if it’s her mom, but it’s Bran. She tells him about finding the lost hiker and reflects on how it felt to save someone. It was a complete contrast from Miranda Wyatt. Alexis has to find her mom, but she doesn’t tell this to Bran. When he offers to buy her a cup of coffee, Alexis’s first instinct is that she should have never texted him, but she says that would be great.

At the Perk Up a few blocks away, Mara asks Alexis if she’s found her mom. Alexis panics, and Mara gets the hint that it’s not a good time to talk about it, but Bran overheard and wants to know more. After Bran assures Alexis that he only reports someone who will hurt themselves or something else, Alexis tells him that her mom is missing, that she’s bipolar, and that she has stopped taking her medication. In her manic states, Tanya doesn’t sleep. It’s scary, but Tanya can also be fun, spending all day baking cookies. As Alexis explains this to Bran, she thinks about what Ruby said—that there is a serial killer hunting vulnerable women. Alexis bursts into tears. This is the first time she’s ever opened up to someone about her mother.

Ruby and Nick are in a small clearing in Forest Park. Nick insists this is the spot they saw the runner. Ruby doesn’t argue, but she knows he’s wrong. She knows the exact times and locations where they met everyone along the trail. They wait for the man to appear, hoping to follow him to his house in Ruby’s car.

Nick and Ruby continue up the hill and come across the older birder. He has an expensive camera aimed at a Cooper’s hawk. He shakes hands with Nick and Ruby and introduces himself as Caleb Becker and says he’s sorry they discovered the girl—how awful that must have been. Becker asks Ruby if she’s heard the news about the swifts sighted up north. They should be in the area in a few days. Ruby grins—it’s not really fall until the swifts arrive. She asks Becker if he’s seen the northern spotted owl yet. He hasn’t but shows them photos he just took of the Cooper’s hawk. When Ruby hands the camera back Becker leans on Ruby’s shoulder to catch his balance on uneven ground and apologizes. Ruby thinks how terrible it must be to get old, but decides it’s better than the alternative, never getting the chance to age.

Bran takes Alexis’s hands in his, crouches next to her, and tells her it’ll be okay. It’s possible to live through things you think would kill you. Embarrassed about crying, Alexis collects herself and becomes paranoid. What if Bran reports her to children’s services? She decides to search for her mom alone.

Walking around, Alexis shows people who don’t scare her Tanya’s photograph. No one has seen her. Then she comes across a girl sitting on the sidewalk who saw Tanya barefoot and talking about God. Alexis is shocked, but the girl pats Alexis on the head and tells her that it’s okay—sometimes shelters separate families. Alexis nods, not wanting to admit that she has a home.

The girl’s name is Raina. She offers to help her look for Tanya, suggesting they check out McDonald’s, the library, the church basement, or the day services center. At the center, Alexis sees a memorial wall: “It was bad enough that there was someone out there, killing girls like this one. It was worse that they were killing themselves” (178). Raina tells her they can also check “Hell,” an underground parking lot. Alexis sees a woman that looks familiar, but when she reaches down to wake the woman, it’s not her mother.

On Monday morning, Ruby checks the latest crime stories and sees that a body was found in Macleay Park. The article details the discovery of Tiffany Yee, a 16-year old-runaway. Her death is suspicious: She ran away from home, but was an honors student. Ruby is certain this is another victim of the same killer: “now there were three dead girls found in Portland parks. A black girl, possibly homeless, and still unidentified. A rich white girl who liked to pretend she was homeless. And now a runaway with a Chinese last name who was from a high school in one of Portland’s poorest neighborhoods” (181-82).

Ruby thinks about why the killer went after three very different girls. It has to be something more than homelessness. She’s lost in thought when she joins her parents for breakfast. They confront her about the newspaper photograph of her with the SAR team. After a colleague saw Ruby in the paper, Ruby’s mom found the newspaper Ruby hid in her bedroom. Ruby’s father tells her to give him her car keys. She is grounded. She can take the bus to school and come home right after. He is going to call SAR and pull her out of the group. Her dad shakes his head—they trusted her, and she lied to them.

Ruby apologizes profusely but they won’t listen. She pleads and says she was going to catch a killer, immediately realizing she said the wrong thing. Her mother says being obsessed with death is unhealthy. Instead, they’ve signed her up for horseback riding lessons. Ruby tries to think of a persona she could play in response, but instead all she can do is throw a childish tantrum.

On Monday morning, Alexis wakes up and doesn’t know where she is. Then she remembers she stayed with Raina in the shelter. An older woman tells the girls it’s time to get up. In the main room, everyone is gathered around a new photograph on the memorial wall: a picture of an Asian American young woman taken in the same room. Raina asks what happened to Tiff, completely in shock. Another girl says bluntly that she was strangled to death in Macleay Park.

Raina and Alexis sit down to breakfast. Raina can’t believe Tiff is dead. Alexis tells her she’s the third unhoused girl to be found strangled in a park. Alexis asks Raina about Miranda and the man with dogs who was arguing with a girl who looked unhoused. Raina explains that she tries not to look people in the eye too much since she’s embarrassed to be out here. She ran away after a big fight with her mom about sharing a room with three of her sisters. Raina realizes how stupid it is in hindsight, but she’s afraid her mom won’t take her back. There are so many things she took for granted: laundry, clean socks, pillows, and stuffed animals. Alexis asks why she doesn’t ask her mom to come back, and Raina explains that if she doesn’t call, then the answer can never be no. Raina has to meet with her caseworker and says she’ll see Alexis around.

Alexis goes to a church that offers lunch for unhoused people and sees the unhoused man they ran into during the search for Bobby. She can tell he doesn’t recognize her and cautiously says hi. He grins, moves closer, and asks her to party with him someplace away from there. Alexis wonders if he had said that to Miranda and Tiffany. She says sure, and goes to the bathroom to call Detective Harriman.

Ruby is complying with her parents rules, but is spending most of her time curled on her bed, giving only in one or two word answers to questions, and is refusing to eat. She hopes this behavior will show her parents how much losing SAR is affecting her.

Despite losing access to her phone and car, Ruby is still determined to figure out the murders. Texting via computer, Ruby knows that the unhoused man offered Alexis drugs, but then disappeared, which makes him less likely to be the killer. Alexis and Nick are going to try to find the runner with the dogs that night.

Ruby mulls over theories. On the house landline, when Ruby and Nick discussed Tiffany Yee, Nick wondered what kind of serial killer murders girls who aren’t anything alike. Inside her house, Ruby sees her mother’s collection of owls. She can’t stop buying them: If she sees one she doesn’t have, she has to get it. Ruby suddenly realizes what the serial killer is after: a collection.

Alexis is exhausted. Her mother still hasn’t returned, Bran has texted her several times, and she’s too preoccupied to function at school. Ruby calls to tell Alexis her collection theory. As Alexis thinks about Miranda’s half open eye, Tiffany’s photo on the wall, and the newspaper article about the nameless girl, Ruby warns that a Latina girl might be next. The girl arguing with the man with dogs looked like she might be Latina. Alexis and Nick have to find out who the runner is that night and then go to Detective Harriman. Alexis agrees, as she thinks about how to protect Raina from danger too.

Nick scans the trail and wonders if this is what it was like for his dad in Iraq, imagining an enemy soldier sneaking up on him. After the runner with the dogs passes, Nick and Alexis follow him home. The man lives only about five blocks from the park. They watch him go inside, turn the light on in a back bedroom, and seemingly attack the silhouette of a smaller figure. They can hear faint yelling, and then a girl runs out the front door barefoot. The man follows and yanks her down. She screams as he drags her back inside and slams the door. The girl is the one Alexis saw arguing with him at the bus mall. Alexis calls 911 and Nick feels sick to his stomach. He doesn’t think the police will arrive in time.

Nick takes out a notebook and rings the doorbell insistently. The man finally answers the door, flushed with anger, and Nick tells him he is petitioning for Ruby McClure for mayor. The election just happened a week ago, so the man is immediately suspicious and asks Nick if he knows Mallory. Nick tries to stall. The man steps forward until they are standing chest to chest and tells Nick he better leave. As Nick taunts him, the man swings his fist. Nick ducks and his temple hits the man’s face. Blood pouring, the man exclaims that his nose is broken.

Three police cars and Detective Harriman’s unmarked car pull up. Alexis tells the detective that the bleeding man is the killer and that he has a girl captive inside. The runner protests, but officers go inside the house with guns drawn. The girl walks out with the officers and Nick is relieved to see she’s uninjured. She runs over to the runner as he’s handcuffed and slaps him across the face.