When she arrived home from the mines that night, she checked her webpage and Missing Persons of America again. She stared at the bright screen until it seemed to move like water. The missing people drowning there. Dog hauled his massive head onto her lap, and she could feel the brush of his whiskers and his eyelids fluttering against her hand. She rubbed his ear, the one with the bite taken out.

“I’m sorry, I know. I get you and then I leave you,” she told him. “I understand.” But although she could empathize, she told herself she didn’t really understand abandonment, at least not the way Cyrus had. Izzy’s parents were unpredictable, but they had always been there. And it was likely, now, she realized, that Cyrus had not abandoned her.

She checked the SBPD website. The words rang in her head, as if read by the automated, uncanny valley voice from the video she’d watched.

The victim was discovered in the backyard of an abandoned home.

Manner of Death: Homicide.

State of Remains: Charred/Burned.

Estimated Age: 12-18 years old.

Approximate Height and Weight: 5’ 4”, 110 lbs.

Clothing: There was a small amount of charred T-shirt and a small amount of a sock.

Dentals: Available. #1,16 Unerupted.

Fingerprints: Available. Fingerprints submitted to San Bernardino County Sheriff.

DNA: Samples submitted—tests not complete.

Body had been burned over 95% of body (charred and unidentifiable).

Identity may be confirmed by fingerprints, dental X-rays, or DNA.

The body of John Doe was discovered in an open-topped rail car. Based on the condition of the body, it is believed he had been deceased less than 24 hours at time of discovery. He is believed to have been in his mid-late teenage years, had dark hair and scars on both arms. He was found wearing blue jeans with a black belt, a gold belt buckle skull with wings, a white shirt with an apple and silhouette of New York City, and black cowboy boots. The reconstruction featured above is an artist’s rendering of what the John Doe may have looked like. The additional photo has been enhanced to aid in visual identification and may not reflect the original case file image.

She was walking home from her job at the beauty salon. The next day, the 23-year-old was found shot to death and partially nude in the desert. A student walking to school discovered her body. Accounts of the murder and investigation at the time reported one person was detained for—

Not him. Not him. But still. Each of these people was someone’s child, perhaps someone’s lover. Secretly suspicious that she was indulging some ever-growing appetite for other people’s pain to distract her from her own, Izzy shut the computer, but the tinny voice still ricocheted around her head. If the Colt Army Special Larry had given her could talk, it might sound like that voice.