A local woman missing- Mary Kubica

KATE
11 YEARS BEFORE
May
Three things happen in the coming days. A paternity test,
administered by the police with Jason’s permission, reveals that
Jason Tebow is not the father of baby Grace. The news stuns both
Bea and me. As it turns out, monogamy was neither Jason’s nor
Shelby’s cup of tea.
A day later, a nurse from Dr. Feingold’s office calls with the news:
the blood test results came back. “I’m sorry, honey,” she says over
the phone, “but it’s not good news. You’re not pregnant.” I pretend to
be sad as I mutter my thanks and hang up the phone.
The search for Meredith and Delilah continues and then stalls.
Josh’s grassroots effort waxes and then wanes as people start to
lose hope. They give up. Their lives move on while Josh’s,
Meredith’s and Delilah’s don’t. For a while, the police augment the
search with dogs and divers, searching the woods and the river for
Meredith and Delilah. The state police become involved; soon after,
Meredith and Delilah become national news. Still, they’re not found.
The weather doesn’t help. Almost every day the search is called off
because of unsafe river conditions and the threat of more rain.
And then one morning, I wake up to the ping of my phone, an
incoming message on the group chat. When I look, there on my
phone is a photo of the back end of a car and, on it, a close-up of a
license plate number.
I’m still out of focus from sleep. It takes me a moment to process
what I’m looking at. When I do, I see that the photo is of Meredith’s
license plate. It’s Meredith’s car.
I sit suddenly upright in bed. I shout for Bea but she’s outside in
her studio working again. Over the next few seconds, the group chat
becomes a flurry of activity. Meredith’s car has been spotted by a