Booktree.ng_Forgotten-Witness

Poor thingpoorgirl isamarigold.
Ultraartichokechatter!Marigold.
1945195331976SWGBS1986EB.
Stars and flowers punctuated the missive at intervals, tiny
little fairy drawings, delicately adorned the narrow edges at
the top of each page.
Josie turned the first page over only to find more of the
same on the back. She would Xerox this, magnify the pages,
and analyze them properly with Archer when she got home.
She turned the second page front to back and then the third.
There was no writing on the back of the third page, only a
drawing of a woman in a chair obscured by a pattern that
could have been bricks or bars. Josie squinted but couldn’t
make out who the woman might be. She looked even closer
and saw the intricately drawn picture was actually made up of
pinhead printing even more amazing than the notes. The
woman looked like a prisoner. Her arms were bound.
Sitting up slightly, Josie dropped her forehead onto her
upturned palm. The bottom of the paper curled up but didn’t
completely obscure the picture. If the situation hadn’t been so
weird, Josie would have laughed at herself. The bag was new
and maybe even the small bag with the white powder in it, but
this paper, the tape around the lock of hair, and the rubber
bands were old and fragile as if they’d been stuck away in a
drawer for years. The person in the drawing, the person whose
curl of hair had been so neatly kept was probably real but none
of it had to do with Hannah. More than likely, whoever this
woman was, she was real only to Ian Francis.
Suddenly, the paper rolled up and spun off the table. Josie
lunged for it but succeeded only in knocking everything else to
the floor. Heads turned and a guy in a well-worn khaki jacket
and jeans got up to help.
“Hang on. I got it.” He plucked the little roll of paper from
under his table. Josie picked up the plastic bag.