Page 41 of A Sea of Unspoken Things

Micah rubbed his face with both hands.

“What about Josie?” I pressed.

“The CAS girl?”

“Yeah.”

“I have no idea. I mean, maybe.”

“Do you know her?”

Micah shook his head. “No, not really. Met her once when she was here getting Johnny set up for the project.”

“Was she around in November?”

Micah licked his lips, frustrated now. “What are you getting at, James?”

“I don’t think he was really alone out here when it happened. Is it possible that Josie was in town?”

Micah considered it. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Would he have told you?”

Micah let out a heavy breath. “What does that mean?”

“Olivia said there was something going on between you two. She implied that you were fighting about something.”

“That’s just Olivia being Olivia. We were fine, okay?”

I waited, and when he didn’t say anything else, I gave in to the temptation to push even harder.

“Then why do I still feel like there’s something you’re not telling me?”

“Look, is it possible he had someone with him? Maybe. But there was no one here when we got here, and the truck was left behind. Where did they go? How did they get out of the gorge?”

“Maybe he met someone here.”

I reached for the bag at my feet, pulling out the folder with the prints. When I found the one I was looking for, I set it on the seat between us. It was the photograph of the pink backpack.

“This was taken out here just a couple of days before he died.”

He went still when he glanced down. I could see right away that he was tempering his reaction, reeling back the look on his face.

“What? What is it?”

“Nothing,” he said, but the word was only half formed, buried in thought.

“Do you recognize it?”

Micah tucked the photo in with the others. “This is from the gorge? You’re sure?”

“Yeah, it was on a roll of film from November tenth.” I studied him, asking the question again. “Whose is it?”

“Maybe he labeled it wrong. Or maybe you misread the numbers? The guy had shit handwriting.”

“Micah, whose backpack is it?”

He leaned back against the seat, eyes still on the photo. “It’s Autumn’s.”