Page 84 of Reckoning

“Detective Alvarez, thank you for calling in. My name is Tate Bandy. The Shipleys have reached out to me about helping locate their missing daughter.”

Tate saw recognition dawn on Alvarez’s face. “You’re the guy who claims to be psychic,” he said.

“I’m not here to argue the point. I am here to tell you what I know…what I saw…when I spoke to the Shipleys. You’ve checked every other lead for the last year without success. It’s not gonna kill you to follow this one, but it will close your case. Are you ready? Take notes.”

“Listen…just because…”

Yvonne started crying. “Don’t play games with this man. This is me, begging you. You’re gonna look like a fool if we have to drag this boy all the way to New Mexico to prove a point. Just please God…one more time.”

Alvarez crumbled. He was as bothered by not finding their daughter as they were losing her. “Yes, ma’am. I will. I promise to follow up on this information too.”

Tate waited until Alvarez was ready, then started to talk. “Bethie never left the school grounds. Her body is in a basement…either in the school or in the gymnasium. The body is inside what looks like an old laundry chute, or what a coal chute would look like. The chute’s location isn’t obvious anymore. It’s hidden behind metal shelves holding stacks of something—boxes, I think. Maybe old school records from before computers? When you finally find the chute, and the door to the chute, her body will be there.”

The Shipleys were in shock at the description, and Alvarez was wavering. The certainty in Bandy’s voice was scary real.

“There’s one other thing,” Tate said. “The DNA of her killer will be all over her clothes, and beneath her fingernails. You don’t have to believe me now, but you will later. The Shipleys have my contact info if you need further assistance. Did you get all that?”

“Yes. Yes, I did,” he said.

“Okay, then we’re done here,” Tate said. “Godspeed your search. Bethie needs to come home.”

He signed off and shut his laptop. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry you had to hear all that, but he needed to know you were here to even listen to what I had to say.”

Yvonne hugged Tate where he sat, and Louis kept patting him on the shoulder.

“You did more in five minutes than the entire Las Cruces PD could do in a year,” Louis said.

Tate shrugged. “It’s not their fault. Not everyone can see through walls.”

“When they find her, we will send you the reward. Please give Yvonne your address. So many people donated to it. It has to be given, to honor the givers.”

Tate nodded. “Understood. I will be moving soon, but I will leave a forwarding address. Now, let’s get you two back to your motel. You have a long drive to get home, and I know you’ll want to be on-site when the search begins.”

As they got up, Tate went to the back door. Lilith was in the garden as he called out again. “Mama, I’m taking the Shipleys back to their motel. Be right back.”

She waved, then went back to her gathering.

A short while later, Tate drove up to the Star Ridge motel and stopped at the office. “I’m truly sorry for your loss,” he said.

Yvonne just shook her head. “Thank you, but we lost Bethie a long time ago. Now when she’s found, we will finally get to bring her home.”

He waited until they let themselves into their room before he drove away, then thought of what Briar said, about him already being gone. Now he understood what she meant. He was a link between the lost and the found. The living and the dead. And they were out there, waiting for him.

* * *

Even though Bethie Shipley’s Las Cruces high school had yet to begin a new semester, administrators, support personnel, and the teachers who were already on-site had just been notified of the impending search. They were all on edge, horrified to even think of what this could mean. Had something happened at the school overnight? Were students and drugs involved? It never occurred to them that it would be related to a girl who’d gone missing so long ago.

Detective Alvarez didn’t tell his team where the new lead on Bethie Shipley came from, and when they showed back up at the school campus with squad cars and unmarked cars, the superintendent was waiting for them in the parking lot. He approached the officers and detectives as they began exiting their vehicles.

“I’m Lars Redding, the superintendent. I have keys to access every building on campus, and am at your disposal,” he said.

Detective Alvarez nodded. “Before we begin, I have questions. Clearly, these buildings are old, and I’m certain all of the heating and electrical systems were updated years ago. But do you have any knowledge of old coal chutes on campus? I know in the early days, this part of the state was once involved in coal mining, and I assume buildings this size would have used coal for furnaces to heat them.”

Redding nodded. “Yes, they were. I know the chute that once existed in the school was removed during renovations, but I believe there’s still one in the basement of the gymnasium. Of course, it’s long since been boarded up, but—”

“Can you show me?” Alvarez asked.

“Of course,” Redding said. “Follow me.”