Before She Was Found. Heather Gudenkauf

time and help and with some luck she’d gather herself up and see to it that her family get through this and whatever else was to come.

      No matter how determined I was to leave work at a reasonable time, I got home well after nine o’clock that evening. As usual, the house was dark and quiet. I immediately peeled off my clothes to shower but couldn’t wash away the thoughts of Cora Landry and what happened to her in that train yard. The world was a dangerous place even for a little girl from small-town Iowa.

      I stepped from the shower, toweled off and put on my favorite pair of sweatpants and a University of Grayling Wolves sweatshirt. All I wanted to do was go to bed but instead I poured myself a glass of wine, opened my laptop and logged into the hospital’s secured online system. I pulled up Cora Landry’s medical records and learned that Cora was born at the hospital five weeks early. She spent some time in the NICU and made several follow-up visits to the pediatric specialty clinic over the years.

      I jumped to the clinic visit just prior to her attack. Eight months earlier she saw one of the docs for a routine checkup and overall Cora appeared healthy. Height and weight measures indicated that Cora was quite a bit smaller than her peers. The physician wrote that Cora conveyed feelings of extreme anxiousness and worry when it came to school and relationships with her peers. When he broached the subject with her parents, they chose to forgo any sort of psychological or pharmaceutical treatment at the time.

      The doctor also noted that Cora had a series of scratch marks at various stages of healing on the inside of her forearms. Cora explained that they were from her cat and the doctor suggested an over-the-counter antibiotic ointment.

      I closed the laptop and flipped on the television. I scanned the channels in hopes of finding some mindless sitcom but landed on a video of a reporter standing in front of the emergency room of the hospital. The tagline read Urban Legend Main Suspect in Train Yard Attack on Preteens?

      I sat up and increased the volume. The reporter spoke into a camera while a flurry of insects buzzed around the bright red emergency room sign above his head. “Two twelve-year-olds are the purported victims of a decades-old urban legend known as Joseph Wither. Sources say that at least two Pitch girls were hospitalized early this morning after a brutal attack at the abandoned Pitch, Iowa, train depot.

      “Though police and hospital officials remain mum on the investigation and the condition of the girls, an anonymous source tells KQIC News that at least one of the victims pointed the finger at Joseph Wither.”

      “Oh, Jesus,” I murmured and increased the volume on the television.

      The reporter glanced down at the notebook in his hand and then back at the camera. “According to the legend, Joseph Wither began his crime spree back in the 1940s, over seventy-five years ago. While only a few disappearances of young girls have been officially credited to Wither, over the years Johnson County residents have reported sighting a shadowy entity matching the description of Wither corresponding to the time of a disappearance.

      “Tonight, the small community of Pitch is on high alert and eagerly waiting an official statement from law enforcement as to what happened to these young girls. Stay tuned to KQIC for the most up-to-date information on this bizarre, frightening case.”

      The news report sealed it for me. Ghoulish, I know. This case had it all: a vulnerable little girl, a crime apparently carried out by a fictional villain, a family in crisis. A challenge. I was up for it. In fact, I couldn’t wait to get started.

       Case #92-10945

      Excerpt from the journal of Cora E. Landry

       Nov. 10, 2017

       So all of a sudden there are now three people in our group and we have a completely different topic. Deanna Salas and her family suddenly up and moved to Saint Louis so Mr. Dover asked Violet and me if Jordyn could join us.

       Like we had a choice. Of course we weren’t going to say no even though I wanted to. Violet and I have become really good friends and having Jordyn work with us is not great news. She’s just really hard to figure out. One day she’s aiming volleyballs at your head and the next day she’s smiling at you like she’s your best friend.

       When Mr. Dover told Jordyn to work with us on our project she didn’t seem all that happy about it. She was like, “You’re really going with the Pop Rocks and Coke thing?” and she said it all snotty.

       Violet and I looked at each other, both of us not sure what to say. I wanted to tell Jordyn to go find another group if she didn’t like our idea but of course I just sat there. “Listen to what Deanna and I were working on.” She looked around to see if anyone else was listening.

      I rolled my eyes at Violet and she gave me a look that said, I know, she’s ridiculous. Jordyn leaned in so close that I could smell the tacos from the lunchroom on her breath. “Joseph Wither,” she whispered, like we were supposed to know what she was talking about.

       I’ve heard of Joseph Wither. I knew he was supposed to be some kind of ghost but I didn’t really know why everyone was supposed to be afraid of him. Thankfully, Violet was the one to speak up and ask who Joseph Wither was so I didn’t feel quite so dumb.

       Of course, just as Jordyn was going to tell us, the fire alarm went off and we had to spend the next fifteen minutes standing outside. By the time we got back to the classroom, the bell rang and Jordyn didn’t get a chance to tell us what his deal was.

       But get this! When Violet, Jordyn and I were going to our next class Gabe started walking with us. He made a point to walk between me and Violet. Jordyn was NOT happy. Gabe asked Violet how she liked Pitch so far and she blushed bright red and said it was okay. Then he said, “See you at lunch,” and I swear he was looking right at me! Jordyn huffed off and ignored us for the rest of the day, which was perfectly fine with me.

       Whenever Violet comes over, she lets me use her phone to text back and forth with Gabe. I try not to spend too much time on her phone, though. I mean, best friends don’t ignore each other because one of them has a boyfriend. Okay, maybe Gabe isn’t my boyfriend yet, but I think he might ask me. That’s if Jordyn doesn’t get in the way. I’ve never had a boyfriend before and Gabe is perfect. Things are looking up! It’s going to be a good school year. I can feel it.