Find Her - Author's Notes

• I originally wanted to write a story using the Three Fates as the inspiration, but ended up with the four Elementals instead.  They're represented by the four young women in the story: Earth - Allison, Wind - Peek, Fire - Grey, and Water - Mizi.  We see their powers, of course, in the battle at the Bottoms.  Peek (wind) throws the Dixons away from the girls.  Grey (fire) burns one with lightning.  Mizi (water) drowns another in the river, and Allison (earth) buries the last one against the embankment with mud.
• Mizi, or Mizuko, gets her name from the Japanese word for water, mizu.
• While thinking up this story, it evolved into a follow-up to another story that featured Kyle Donovan.  Find Her occurs after another story where the detective has to solve a different crime.
• Allison actually gets her name from All-is-one.

Find Her; Chapter 20 -- Part Four; Epilogue, Appendix

            The next morning, the detective returned to the hospital.  “Doctor Lane?”  Donovan leaned into the psychologist’s office.  “Is it okay if I ask Allison some more questions?  There’s a few things I want to try and clear up.”

            “That should be fine, Detective.”  She looked up from the notes on her desk.  “By the way, I had an interesting conversation with her after you left yesterday.”  She stood and motioned Donovan to walk with her.  “She had some things to say about her friends-” she paused to speak to the nurse, “Is Allison awake?”

            The nurse’s smile faded, “You didn’t see her just now?  She said she was going down to see you.”  Donovan shot a quick look down the hallway as Dr. Lane looked in Allison’s room.  She was gone. 

Allison Cooper had simply walked away.

=

            Later that night, Donovan woke from his slumber and sat bolt upright in his bed.  Tess had explained how the three Dixon boys had died at the Bottoms…

            But who killed Danny in the corn field?

 

Part Four

 

Epilogue

            “New student?”  The teacher looked at the office form.  “Allison Jordan, is it?  Go ahead and have a seat.”

            “I prefer to be called Allis, if that’s alright.  A-L-L-I-S.”  The instructor made the change in his gradebook. “Thank you,” she said and made her way to an empty seat toward the back of the room.  As she turned to sit down, she heard a boy behind her say, “I pre-Fer to be called Allis…” 

He snickered, “Nice ass, Allis...”

She turned and gave him a hard stare, then gave a slight smile as the bookcase behind him began to tilt away from the wall.

 

The Voices

A Transcript from an Interview with Allison Cooper by Dr. Cynthia Lane

Dr. Lane:        This is Dr. Cynthia Lane, staff psychologist at Mercy Hospital.  The date is 29 August, time 1:14pm.  I’m speaking to patient Allison Cooper, case #4649.        Hi Allison.  How are you feeling?

Allison Cooper  I’m okay.  Just a little tired.

DL                 You’ve been through a lot.  You’ll be feeling better soon.

AC                 I hope.

DL                 This morning, you mentioned your friends, Grey, Peek, and Mizi.  Do you remember that?

AC                 I do.

DL                 Your friends have such interesting names.  I was hoping you could tell me about your friends.

Voice #1         We’re her friends.  Friends take care of each other.

DL                 (Pause) That’s so true.  And who am I talking to?

V1                 I’m Grey.  Just call me Grey.

DL                Hi, Grey.  You know that I want to take care of Allison too, right?  I don’t want to hurt her or upset her in any way.

V1                 That’s good.  She’s been through a lot.

DL                 I’m glad you were there to help her, Grey.  She said you saw where the bad men went...

V1                 (Evasive) Yeah, sometimes I can see things.

DL                 Oh really?

V1                 It’s like things are moving around in a mist, or some static or something. And some things are like big shapes moving around in a fog, you can sorta see them and see where they’re going.  So you just follow the swirls and eddies they leave behind and you can see where they go.

DL                 That’s very interesting.  Allison also said you set one of the men on fire?

V1                 Well, yeah.  He was a very bad man.  He wanted to hurt Allison.  I stopped him.

DL                 Stopped him?

V1                 I grabbed some lightning and burned his ass, Doctor Lane.

Voice #2         Watashi no imōto no kotoba o yurushitekudasai.  (Please pardon my sister’s language.) [Translated post-interview]

DL                 (Pause) Who am I speaking to? Watashi wa dare ni hanashite iru nodesu ka?

V2                 (Surprised) Anata wa nihongo o hanasu? (Do you speak Japanese?)

DL                 Not very well.  I was an ALT for the JET program for a few years.

V2                 A,-sō. (Ah, okay) I can speak English.

DL                That would be easier for me.  Who am I speaking to?

V2                 Watashi wa mizukodesu.  I am Mizuko.

DL                 Oh, okay.  You’re the friend that Allison calls Mizi?

V2                  Hai. (Yes.)  She is my friend.

DL                 How did you meet?

V2                 Allis-san needed help.  So we came.

DL                 She said that you-

V2                  I did not want him to hurt Allis-san.  When he landed in river, I went to hold him down so he would not hurt anyone ever again. He was a bad man. 

DL                 Yes, he was.

Voice #3         They were all bad men.

DL                 (Pause) Are you Allison’s friend Peek?

V3                 (Whispered) Yes.

DL                 How are you Peek?

V3                 (Quietly) I’m okay.

DL                 Do you mind talking?

V3                 It’s okay, I guess.

DL                Why do they call you Peek? Can you see into the future?  Do you have x-ray vision?

V3                 No, nothing like that.  It’s actually for the letters P and K.  So, P, K…Peek.

DL                 Oh, your initials then?

V3                 Yes…and that other thing…

DL                 I’m sorry…PK? What’s that?  P is phosphorus, K is potassium?…

V3                 Psychokinesis.

DL                That’s like moving stuff with your mind, isn’t it?  Like using the Force?

V3                 Yah, I get that a lot.  Something like that.

DL                Allison said you pushed or threw the men away to protect everybody.

V3                 They were going to hurt her like they had hurt me.  How they had hurt all of us.  So I – We made it so those men won’t be hurting anyone ever again.

DL                 Protecting your friends is a good thing to do, Peek.  I’m just trying to find out if Allison is going to be okay.

Voice #1         She’s going to be fine, Doctor.  Allison will always have us.

DL                 I just want to make sure.  May I speak to Allison?

Allison           (Pause) Doctor Lane?

DL                 How are you feeling sweetie?

AC                 I’m good, just a little tired.

DL                 It’s all good, Allison.  Just get some rest.  I’ll see you tomorrow.

*Recording ends*

Find Her; Chapter 19

            After listening to Allison and then Dr. Lane’s explanation, Donovan drove to the Bottoms to try and make some sense of the story.  He shook his head and hoped that Allison’s friends could fill in the blanks.

When he got to the clearing, he was surprised to see Tess and her team still working.  “Well hey there, Donovan.”  The M.E. called and waved, “I was just about to text you.  What brings you down here?”

            “I dunno, Tess.  Allison Cooper had a hell of a story about what happened here.”  He looked over the scene.  Tess made her way over to the detective and said, “What did she say?”

            “She told a story about how she and three of her friends came down here and killed those boys,” he said.  “She said how one of her friends threw the Dixon boys around-”

            “The tornado,” Tess said.

            “-and then one of the girls burned one of boys by that tree,” he continued.

            “The lightning strike.”

            “Then the second boy was drowned by still another of her friends-”

            “The branch from that tree,” she offered.

            “Then Allison says she crushed the last boy with the van and buried him alive.” Donovan finished the story by pointing where the van had been pulled away from the riverbank.

            “I’m pretty sure the tornado pinned him with the van and then the rain loosened the embankment and buried him.”

            “Well damn, Tess.  It makes so much sense when you tell the story.” He shook his head ruefully.  “I gotta tell you though, when she was telling it, the hairs went up on the back of my neck.”  Donovan absentmindedly rubbed his neck remembering.  “I actually came down here to try and make sense of her story or see if I could find any trace of her three friends.”

            Tess looked at him strangely.  “Now you’re starting to creep me out, Donovan.  The reason I was going to call you… Here, come look at this.”  She walked over to the ridge where her team was working.  “When we pulled Duane out of here and bagged him up, one of the guys saw this…”

            The detective looked closer at the embankment and his face turned white.  Tess muttered, “They’ve been here awhile; couple of months, maybe a year.  I count three sets of remains. Looks like the Dixons used this as a dumping ground.”

=

            Later that afternoon, Donovan made his way over to the morgue.  The three bodies recovered from the embankment were laid out and the M.E. was studying the contents of a bin at the base of one of the tables.  “Well, Tess, any luck identifying these three?” he asked.

            “We’ll have to get some dental records to verify.  If not, we should be able to get some DNA samples.”  She held up a piece of plastic.  “Lucky for us, these bodies were dumped with all kinds of belongings and identification.  The Dixons were either in a hurry, lazy, or just didn’t give a damn.”  Tess walked over to the first table.  “Jordan Grey aged 17.  Disappeared seven months ago, couple of counties over.  She went for a bike ride, never made it home.”

            She stepped over to the next table and held up a medical bracelet. “Pamela Ketterling, 13.  About three months ago, her family went tubing down the Guadalupe River.  She went around a bend and when her family floated around to where she went, she was gone.  Everyone figured she had drowned.”

            “Finally, we have Mizuko Sato.  A 20 year old exchange student who was attending the University of Texas in Austin.  Last month, she left her apartment to go to a friend’s wedding in Houston.  She called her friend to say she had car trouble.  Mizi, as her friends called her, never showed up.”  Tess looked up, “I’d guess we might find her car, or parts of it, over in Devil’s Den.”

            The detective staggered to a chair and sat down, his face ashen.  Tess cried out, “Kyle? What’s wrong? You okay?”  She hurried over and knelt down next to him.

            “Grey?? Jordan Grey? And Mizi??”  Donovan looked up at Tess. “I bet Pamela Ketterling was known as Peek….How did she know?  How did Allison know?” he moaned.  He struggled to get up.  “I need to talk to her.”

            “How did she know what, Kyle?” She held his hands and searched his face.

            “How did she know these girls??” he said, exasperated.

            Tess pushed him back down.  “Shh, settle down.  You can talk to her later; she’ll still be there tomorrow.”