missing and whose remains were found on the preserve back in 2000. Do you know if he had a deer stand nearby?”
“I’m sorry. A what?”
“A platform or a small structure up in a tree that he could sit in and hunt from,” Josie explained.
“Oh, I don’t know, but we had a recent survey of the land the last time we applied for a grant. There might be something on those maps.”
It took a half hour to find what they were looking for. On the maps that had been prepared in the last year, the surveyor had marked a “tree platform of unknown origin” at the southernmost point of the preserve property. His notes indicated that there was some uncertainty as to whether the platform was actually part of the preserve premises or if it was part of the privately-owned land adjacent.
Josie didn’t care.
It took them another half hour to find the elevated deer blind which looked like a small shed affixed to the side of a tall tree. Wooden footholds had been nailed into the tree from the ground to the hatch on the bottom of the structure. Before anyone could stop her, Josie started climbing.
“Josie,” Noah called. “We should get you a harness.”
She was already halfway up. She stopped and looked down. From this height, a fall wouldn’t kill her or break any of her bones, but at the height of the stand, she’d definitely die if she fell. “Too late,” she called. Without looking back, she scrambled to the hatch and pushed it open. Her head swiveled around, taking in the Bone Artist’s final creation. She nearly fell as her brain processed what she was seeing. The entire inside had been painted in a psychedelic swirl of pinks and reds. Hundreds of bones had been affixed to the floor and walls, and there, along the right-hand wall, cocooned in some kind of netting and tied to a square post that Alex had obviously installed, was Trinity, her body limp, head lolling on her chest. Her black hair hung across her face. He had screwed eyehooks into the ceiling and woven several threads of fishing line through them. He had looped the bottom of the fishing line around Trinity’s wrists, extending her arms from her sides. Behind her, on the wall, were thousands of different kinds of feathers.
She was spreading her wings.
Tears streamed down Josie’s face as she climbed into the small blind, careful not to disturb any of the remains at her feet. She heard someone below, climbing up the tree. She looked down to see Drake halfway there.
“Not yet,” she said.
“Is she alive?” he shouted.
“Please,” Josie muttered.
She walked over to Trinity, afraid to touch her and find her cold and completely still. “Trin,” she said, voice cracking.
No movement.
Josie’s hand shook as she reached out and pushed a shank of Trinity’s hair out of her face and behind her ear. She touched Trinity’s cheek, alarmed by the icy feel of it. Then Trinity’s body jerked, her head lifted, and she howled. Josie was so startled, she fell backward, landing flat on her back, and knocking bones everywhere. She heard the floor beneath her splinter and give way. As she went into freefall, her hands reached out, searching for anything to hold onto. A jagged piece of wood shredded her palms, but she held on.
“Josie?” Trinity hollered.
Josie looked up to see that she had fallen through a rotted piece of wood at Trinity’s feet. Trinity had broken the fishing line on one of her arms. She tugged hard with the other arm, trying to free it. After several tries, it broke loose, but her lower body was wrapped tightly in netting, immobile. Josie was aware of shouting from below and Drake hollering nearby. As her legs dangled, she craned her neck to look behind her, but he was too far down to help her.
Trinity said, “Can you climb up? Grab my hand.”
Josie grabbed onto Trinity’s feet, clawing until she lifted her upper body far enough to wrap her arms around Trinity’s calves and the post behind them. Trinity’s hands scrabbled in the air, trying to reach her. Josie shimmied up a little more until Trinity was able to slip her hands under Josie’s armpits and into an awkward embrace. Above the cacophony below, Josie could hear Noah’s voice telling her to hang on. She closed her eyes and released some of the tension in her upper body for a few precious seconds, letting Trinity take the weight. Then she