Later she asked if she could have two extra blankets.

I gave them to her.

A few minutes after tucking her in, I discovered she had arranged them over an empty cardboard box to make a nest for her stuffed fox.

“I want him to know he can come out,” she explained.

That night I cried in the hallway where she couldn’t see me.

PART 13

Marlene was found in Fort Collins, working in a bookstore under her married name.

She agreed to speak with investigators after Bell explained what had happened to Piper.