The Canavar

Chapter 10: Scottie

Shawn and Dan tossed a baseball to each other at Crabbe's Field as Johnny sat with Kristen on the bench. They had not yet finished their ice cream cones, having gotten theirs after Shawn and Dan.

"What do we do now?" Johnny asked.

"We let Officer Corbin deal with this," Kristin replied. "Now that he's seen it with his own eyes, I'm sure he'll figure out what to do next."

Johnny rolled his eyes.

"You still don't like him?"

"Let's just say I don't trust cops that much."

A toss to Dan bounced off his glove and rolled to the bench.

Kristen bent over and picked up the baseball. She held it in front of her for a moment. "I used to play catch a lot with my brother before he went off to college." She cocked her arm to toss it to Shawn.

"Kristen Jenkinson?" a woman's voice yelled from behind Kristen just as she started her throw to Shawn. She tried to hold up, but the ball sailed out of her hand anyway. Its altered trajectory was low and straight for Dan. He was too close to react before it bounced off the side of his nose.

The woman rushed up to Dan and put a hand on his elbow. "Are you alright, child?"

Dan wiggled the end of his nose with his thumb and pointer. "Starting to getting used this. At least it's not bleeding this time."

"I'm sorry. I was trying to hold up, but it just sort of flew out of my hand anyway," Kristen said.

Dan rubbed his nose and sighed. He didn't look like he believed it was an accident.

Kristen spun around and narrowed her eyes at the woman who had called her name. "What do you want with me? Do I know you?"

"So you're Miss Jenkinson?" The woman smiled through her pink-painted lips. Her blond curled hair was obviously dyed while the few wrinkles around the corners of her eyes suggested she was roughly the same age as Officer Corbin.

"You didn't answer my question." Kristen put her hands on her hips.

"I'm Scottie Cornwall, and I write for The Veridicus Press. Are you the sister of Cassidy Jenkinson, the girl who disappeared about a year ago?"

"Scottie?" Johnny questioned. "Is that your real name?"

"What can I say?" The woman rolled her eyes. "My dad wanted a boy."

"What do you want, Ms. Cornwall?" Kristen demanded.

The woman chuckled. "Oh, please call me Scottie. Everyone does."

"Fine. What do you want, Scottie?"

The reporter smiled. "Just trying to follow up on last year's disappearances, sweetie."

"Aren't you supposed to get parents' permission to talk to anyone under eighteen?" Dan asked, still rubbing his nose.

"Look, this is off the record. I'm just trying to get a lead on some information. I won't use anything you say as a direct quote. I know a little of your town already. Enough to know that four of the Helle's that founded this town disappeared without their bodies ever being found. Your sister and Joey Dansbury both disappeared last year much the same way. I know the police said they thought foul play was involved last year, but do you think maybe their disappearances could be due to anything else?"

Kristen scowled at Scottie. "I think you're just trying to make a buck off my missing sister."

Scottie gently shook her head. "I am just doing my job, honey. If there're stories hidden out there, buried because authorities don't want to believe, I try to expose them for the world to read about."