The Body in the Woods: A Point Last Seen Mystery

Ruby stiffens when a volunteer named Mandy tries hugging her. Ruby doesn’t like being touched by strangers. Finally, Detective Harriman shakes her hand, and she climbs into his police vehicle, examining the controls inside. Ruby asks him about interview rooms and one-way glass. She wants to know what a real investigation is like, but the detective steers the conversation back to what she saw that day. She gives him every detail, including the heights, weights, hair colors, and eye colors of everyone she encountered. He tells her she has quite the memory, impressed with her recall.

When Ruby explains that she has a knack for continuity errors, using a recent movie as an example, the detective is annoyed. He tells her not to get sidetracked. Ruby thinks he’s mad now, although his face and tone are flat. He asks her to tell him about finding the dead girl. Ruby tells him that she ran over and tried to assist the girl before realizing she was dead. Detective Harriman is surprised that Ruby touched the victim. Ruby tells him how she had used the girl’s leg to balance as she found the footprint and asks if he wants a cheek swab. He’s confused until Ruby explains it would be for touch DNA since she touched her.

Ruby likes knowing things, such as Locard’s exchange principle: Locard discovered that when two things touch, there is an exchange. When a shoe touches a carpet, the carpet goes on the shoe, and the dirt goes on the carpet. Ruby likes how balanced and logical the concept is. Ruby tells the detective that if they could find the ligature, they’d find the DNA of the killer. Ruby speculates aloud that the ligature was probably an electric cord, or thin rope, or dog leash. Detective Harriman comments that a lot of people walk dogs in Forest Park. Ruby tells him about one man they talked to had two dogs and had a red leash sticking out of his pocket. Ruby imagines that man killing the girl, but realizes that then there would have been paw prints on the girl’s jeans. Ruby noticed mud on the back of the girl’s jeans and believes she was killed on that spot.

Mitchell, who is worried he will get in trouble for grouping the newest volunteers together, tells Ruby that her parents know she was present during the discovery of a body. There will be a search during first light tomorrow, but nobody would question it if Ruby wants to opt out after today. She wants to be there—and that’s what Alexis and Nick said too.

Alexis is exhausted after so much waiting and questioning. Detective Harriman asks for her footprint: They need to identity the different prints around the body.

Alexis walks down the hill to the bus stop. She told the detective she didn’t need a ride, worried he might see a cop brining her mom home. Lost in thought, she runs into Bran. She tells him she’ll take the bus, but when he realizes how long and how many transfers she’ll need to take, he offers her a ride even though he’s not supposed to. She gives in, knowing she will just have him drop her off blocks away from where she really lives.

Bran tells her to excuse the mess in his Honda, but she doesn’t mind. Alexis asks why he volunteers with the trauma group. He says it’s a bunch of different reasons for him, and then changes the subject to how she may have a rough few days. She isn’t feeling much of anything right now, but Bran lists coping methods until she tells him she’ll be fine. Three blocks away from her house, she slips out of the car. Bran hands her his card, telling her to text or call anytime. Alexis nods though she has no intention of asking for help. She wants to keep people at a distance, despite their attempts to get close to her.

Ruby is aware of her awkwardness around others. She has a hard time fitting in. She thought she and Alexis were friends and isn’t sure why Alexis is avoiding her or to do about it. Teachers have told Ruby that the way her mind works is a good thing, but Ruby isn’t so sure. She doesn’t understand certain rules, such as don’t stand too close, stare, or assume everyone is interested in the same things you are. She’s also never understood why death and other taboo topics couldn’t be discussed: “You weren’t supposed to talk about how everyone died. You were supposed to pretend that everyone was going to live forever and ever” (60). Even Ruby’s parents avoid the topic of death, even though they are doctors. Ruby thinks about all the strange ways death can come.

At home, Ruby’s parents are still awake. It takes her some time to realize they are concerned about her. Her mother affectionately holds her shoulders and tells Ruby she knows that they found a body. Ruby explains that it all turned out okay and tells her mom not to worry, but her parents are upset. They allowed her to join SAR because they thought it would be hiking in the woods, not being a part of homicide investigations. Her parents forbid her from joining the search again. They think this is reinforcing her dark obsessions. She’s annoyed that their arguments aren’t logical. Someone has to help people, even if they’re dead.

Her father is stern and tells her it’s their job as parents to make sure she grows up to be a normal human being. Ruby shouts back that she isn’t normal, which upsets her mother. Her father says that tomorrow Ruby will tell the SAR that she’s withdrawing. Ruby is furious. She feels her parents are wrong. They think they’re doing this to help her, but SAR has given her a place where she finally fits in.

When Alexis arrives home, her mother Tanya bows and theatrically moves her hands around. She has a shawl that appears to be a curtain and her bare feet are covered in dirt. It has been many weeks since her mother stopped taking her medication. Her eyes are sunken and her cheeks hollow; she says she’s blessing people in the park. Alexis tells her mother should take her medication, but her mother protests—then she won’t be able to hear God’s voice. Her mother has lost twenty pounds. Alexis offers to make her mother toast. Tanya tells Alexis she’s beautiful as she strokes her cheek. The toaster pops, but there is no butter in the house, so Alexis and her mother eat dry toast.

Alexis can’t help but cry as she tries to tell her mother that they found a dead girl in Forest Park. She cries for the dead girl, and for her mother. Tanya tells Alexis she shouldn’t have had to see that. Alexis embraces her mom, resisting the urge to climb into her lap to feel like a little girl again.

That night, Alexis dreams of the girl’s eyes opening as if she’s a doll. A loud whisper wakes her at two in the morning: Her mother demands to make chocolate chip cookies with walnuts. When Alexis tells her she has school tomorrow and needs sleep, her mother tells her she’s never any fun. Tanya is bouncing up and down. She wants to make cookies and she can’t unless she goes to the store. Alexis knows there’s no use arguing so she gets up and grabs the food stamps card and her coat. They walk past unhoused people and Alexis fears she and her mother will be living alongside them someday. In Safeway, Alexis’s mom pushes the cart at full speed to the freezer aisle and hops on the back, laughing as the cart coasts. Alexis is acutely aware of people watching them and she offers a fake laugh as if Tanya is just joking around. Alexis has nightmares about people recognizing her in public with her mother. In line, her mother dances and tries to get Alexis to run out the door with her. Alexis feels judgment as she uses the food stamps card to pay for cookie ingredients, even though she also buys sliced turkey, eggs, fruit, and cabbage. She has seen people buy worse with food stamps.

At home, she tries to sleep as her mom makes the cookies. She pushes away images of the dead girl, the slight whites of her eyes showing.

After Ruby’s parents go to sleep that night, she gets on her laptop to research a story she saw a month ago: A ranger found woman’s body in Washington Park on a Tuesday afternoon along a footpath used by locals. In a follow-up story, police seek help identifying the woman, who had been strangled. Officials believe the woman had been without a home. Ruby looks at the black sweatshirt shown in the article. It has white angel wings drawn on the back. She recognizes the sweatshirt brand from girls at her school. Someone wearing that sweatshirt wasn’t an adult, but was more than likely a teenager, “just like the girl they had found” (75).

The next day, Wednesday, is the day of evidence retrieval. Alexis asks Nick if he’s feeling better—he looked pretty upset last night when talking to Kelsey, the counselor. Nick lies about having stomach flu, embarrassed that he was so upset that he threw up. He imagines his dad telling him stories about the war.

The volunteers line up. Mitchell explains that the body of the girl was found in the middle of the taped off square. They have to comb the area and keep an eye out for any small details. They split up into groups and get on their knees to crawl. It is freezing and drizzling. Alexis is the only one not wearing painter’s kneelers. Nick wonders why she hasn’t brought better gear. They move forward, inching along the dirt. He’s grateful there’s no bushes ahead of him, as the rule is to go right through them in case something was hidden in there. A certified named Jackie shows Mitchell and Detective Harriman a piece of gum, which gets marked with a small orange flag. Nick is so close to Alexis that he can hear her breathing. He feels her shivering and notices how thin her jacket is. Nick sniffs her and says she smells like cookies. Mitchell tells him to stay focused.

Hours pass and all they’ve found is cigarette butts and pieces of plastic. Nick is becoming restless; he had hoped this would be more exciting, but it’s been tedious work repeatedly inching forward on the cold ground in the woods. His luck turns as he sees something shiny in front of him.

There are half a dozen strands of blond hair, five inches long on the ground before them. Ruby is jealous she wasn’t the one to spot it. Mitchell calls a break for lunch. Ruby sneaks under the tape and watches Detective Harriman instead. Earlier that morning, she placed her SAR gear in her trunk before her parents woke up and called in sick to school. This is the first time Ruby has ignored her parents’ rules, feeling that their fear is irrational.

Ruby watches Detective Harriman photograph the crime scene and asks him about the girl strangled in Washington Park. He is aware of the murder but dismisses any connection. Ruby suggests that he look at her teen-seeming sweatshirt, suggesting they could be looking at a serial killer going after unhoused teens. Detective Harriman points out that unhoused people are vulnerable, but the blond murder victim wasn’t without a home and attended school in Portland, which likely rules out Ruby’s serial killer hypothesis: “We have a homeless black woman and a rich white high school girl. Serial killers have types. They don’t just go around killing anyone” (88).

After they finish searching, in the parking lot a reporter takes a photograph of the volunteers. Mitchell tells the team that this is good publicity and Ruby realizes her parents are going to see the paper tomorrow. She plans to hide the paper before they see it so they don’t find out she’s been lying and sneaking around.

On Wednesday night in SAR class, Nick is doodling a girl with blue eyes on her knees, gagged, with her arms tied behind her back. Jon is conducting a training lecture on urban searches, which are usually for young children or people with Alzheimer’s. Nick draws an idealized version of himself holding a girl. He notices that Ruby uses a napkin to touch the carton of lemonade.

Ruby offers to take Alexis and Nick home that night. Alexis says she’ll just take the bus, but when Ruby wants to tell them more about the dead girl, Alexis agrees to the ride. Ruby’s car is a mess—loose papers and notes, food and trash on the floor—which is surprising given her orderliness and precision. Ruby tells them the dead girl is Miranda Wyatt from West Hills and explains her serial killer idea, the other dead strangulation victim, and the sweatshirt that identifies her as another teen.

Alexis doesn’t think there’s a serial killer, but Nick’s interest is piqued. Nick notices Alexis shiver and secretly wishes she was cuddling with him in the backseat. Ruby believes the killer is targeting vulnerable people. Organized serial killers like this one are usually sociopaths, born without empathy.

The point of view switches to that of the killer again. He watches Tiffany Yee, a girl of 14 or 15 sitting against the kitchen door of a restaurant, her head on her knees drawn up close to her chest with a cardboard sign asking for money. She has a paper cup with coins in it and black thick hair, straightened and cut in a bob. He imagines inhaling it, listening to her last breath. He realizes she must have lost her home recently—her hair is still neatly trimmed.

When she startles herself awake, he approaches, makes up a homeless organization that he pretends to work for, and offers her a pair of gloves. The girl thanks him and he replies that she’s too young to be out on the dangerous streets. She says she can handle it and points to a camera. When he realizes he is staring right into it, his face fully exposed, the man feels sick. The girl explains that another unhoused woman told her to always sleep under cameras to protect herself.

The man studies the camera and sees there are no wires running to it. He asks the girl if she has a phone and she shakes her head. He offers her a prepaid smart phone, but she warily gives it back. He’s frustrated: The same ploy worked the first time with another girl. Finally, he offers her lip balm, which she accepts. He smiles as he walks away: The top third is lip balm, but under that is a GPS.

The same night, when Alexis arrives home, Tanya is playing solitaire and watching reruns of Seinfeld. Alexis asks her why she hasn’t eaten, but her insistence on eating makes her mother paranoid—she thinks there could be medication in the sandwich. Alexis tells her mom the truth: She didn’t put any medicine in the food.

Alexis texts Bran and tells him she had a long day looking for evidence. Quickly, Bran replies and asks how she’s doing. She tells him she had bad dreams and made cookies in the middle of the night, but hesitates to continue the conversation. Using her neighbor’s Wi-Fi, Alexis checks for Miranda Wyatt on Facebook. In her profile picture, Miranda has flowers on her head and she’s smoking a cigarette. Her page is filled with comments from friends saying how shocked and heartbroken they are. Miranda attended Alder Grove, a private alternative school. Miranda’s photos show her looking drunk in her underwear, in places with tagged walls and broken furniture. She’s still pretty, but her eyes look dead.

Tanya walks into Alexis’s room whispering that there’s no reason to be afraid and looks at the TV. She calls the actors in the show “watchers”—she can’t stay in the apartment while the watchers see everything she does. Alexis turns the TV off, but her mom still feels like they’re watching. She turns on Alexis: “You’re one of them now” (106). Alexis tries to calm her mom down, but Tanya runs barefoot out of the apartment.