About nine inches down, the tip of my shovel revealed a pale nub, glowing in the reflected flashlight beam. I bent and, working with my gloves on, finger-scooped around the object until I could see it. A toe. A small toe with chipping purple nail polish.
I moved back, drawing in a ragged breath.
"Want me to -?" Jack began.
"No."
I crawled to the other end of the hole and began scraping away at the earth. Soon, yet another pale nub showed through the inky earth. A nose. Using my fingers, I cleared away the final layer of dirt. Then I leaned back and sat there, looking down at Sammi. A bloody gag covered her mouth. Her eyes were open, those beautiful violet orbs streaked with dirt and filled, not with shock or fear, but rage. A last snarl at the world that had ignored her.
Jack's fingers brushed my arm. I instinctively pulled back, then stopped, letting his fingertips rest there, warm against my cold skin, my jacket long since discarded.
"I didn't even like her," I whispered, staring down, trapped by the force of Sammi's final rage.
"You gave her a job."
"Because I felt sorry for her. She knew that and she hated it. Hated me for it. Can I blame her? That's all she ever got in her life. Pity and antipathy."
"First is better than the second."
"Is it?" I glanced up at him. "I could have helped her. Really helped her. Not just given her handouts and patted myself on the back for it. Girls like Sammi..." I shook my head and looked back at that paint-chipped toenail, unable to look at her eyes again. "People see a pretty girl with a short skirt and a big attitude, and they think they know her. They think they know the type. Girls like Sammi... like Amy... People think they've got them all figured out."
His fingers wrapped around my forearm. "She's not Amy, Nadia."
"I know that," I snapped, yanking away. "I just meant that I knew better. I knew, from Amy, what it must have been like for Sammi. I could have done more."
"Didn't have to do anything."
I looked at him.
He shrugged. "Just saying..."
I knelt and started digging again.
"Nadia..."
"I need to find her."
He lowered himself beside me, awkwardly, struggling with the cast. "You know it's her. You don't need to - "
"Not Sammi. Her baby. I need to find her baby."
He nodded, straightened, and started scraping at the earth as I dug with my hands.
To Sammi's killer, the baby would have been inconsequential, a minor obstacle to be removed. Before he had his fun with Sammi, he'd have killed Destiny to silence her cries. To minimize effort, it would make sense to bury the baby's body in the same grave.
I dug down within an inch of Sammi's body, still wary of disturbing her, in case someone later found h
er. When I uncovered nothing on top of her, I dug on either side, going down until the earth went hard, less than a foot lower.
"Baby's not here," Jack said.
I stood and looked around.
"Nadia - "
I shook off his restraining hand. "There's only one thing in the world Sammi cared about, Jack, and I'm not leaving until I give that back to her. Yes, I know, that doesn't make a lot of sense. But I need to, okay?" I tossed him the truck keys. "You go on, and I'll walk back."
He handed them back. "Let me help search."