Page 54 of Only Girl Alive

The team followed her from the room. She didn’t plan to spell it out; she wanted them to see it themselves. When the church didn’t protect women and children from the monsters they created, the loss of innocent lives was the consequence.

Twenty-Six

She sat in the chair farthest from the bed so they had room to move. “I walked around the photos and mixed the order,” she told them. “Take your time.” She thought about the media and the hype this case would generate once the reports were public record. Hannah would ultimately be the one hurt. In Eve’s opinion, she’d been through enough. She wasn’t letting Hannah off the hook. She was a very emotionally disturbed child. Fundamentalist doctrine said the age of accountability was eight. That, Eve did not agree with. Hannah was a product of everything wrong with their beliefs.

She checked her watch. They’d been examining the timeline and photos for twenty minutes. Ray was staring at the images from the opposite side of the bed. His eyes went to Eve and then back down. He grabbed the two door prints and held them side by side. His gaze snapped back to Eve’s. He shook his head, his gut having understood what his brain hadn’t caught up with. Slowly he laid them on the bed and moved to her side.

“Let’s go to your room and we can talk about it while the others keep working,” Eve told him.

“Smarty-pants,” said Collin, engrossed by the photos.

Ray didn’t say anything until they were in his room. He dragged his fingers slowly through his hair.

“Christ,” he said. “It makes sense but I’m having trouble wrapping my head around it.”

“What makes sense?”

“It was the daughter. Damn, I can’t believe this.”

Eve was relieved. She’d needed to hear him say it out loud.

“Hannah killed four people,” she said softly. “I didn’t want to believe it either.”

“I’m struggling here. The brutality. They were deliberate, planned assassinations. I can’t picture a child doing something so horrific.” He began pacing.

“Do you think she had help?”

He shook his head. “The evidence doesn’t show it.”

“Not in the way you’re thinking. What if someone incited her hatred? They told her how to do it and put everything into place. The family was drugged. Would Hannah have the mental ability to come up with the idea, wait long enough for the drugs to work, know what knife to use, and then deliberately kill them?” These were questions that had been running through Eve’s mind and it felt good to share her thoughts.

“You’re right. Rationally, it would be hard for a child to plan it alone. The brainwashing that goes on here is beyond anything imaginable. It’s not too much of a leap to think someone could push a child into doing something like this.”

“Let’s check on the others,” Eve said now that she and Ray were on the same page. They walked back to her room and she used her keycard to open the door.

Collin and Bina were sitting on the bed, the stacked images pushed to the side. Their expressions were almost identical. Clyde left without meeting her eyes.

“A very short man or woman?” Bina asked. She was serious.

“I’m not counting anything out at this stage,” Eve replied. “The fact Hannah was the only one alive does not prove she killed them. Circumstantially she had motive. We don’t know if she even went to her aunt’s house for the night. Fundamentalist children do not do sleepovers. I should have questioned that from the beginning.”

“I have daughters her age,” Collin said, staring at the floor. Bina placed her hand on his shoulder and squeezed.

Eve hadn’t considered the ages of his twins. She could see the hurt in his expression.

“Why did they call us to investigate?” he asked in frustration. “Why not hide the murders, hold one of their late-night funerals, and cover the deaths up completely?”

“Too many people knew about it,” Eve said. “With law enforcement oversight they couldn’t take the chance of being caught covering it up. In their minds, the only thing worse than a child killing four people is the church being seen as the bad guy that caused it.” Eve looked at them and took a breath. “We need to reinterview everyone as soon as possible. I need everything we have for Judge Remki. He will be key. Until I speak to him, we build our case. First up, Ray readies a warrant for the Wall home. I’ll need to use someone local to get it signed. That could cause even more trouble and let what we know out of the bag.”

She could practically see their minds clicking on the logical conclusion that they had overlooked earlier. She’d chosen them because they weren’t just good at their jobs; they were the best.

“Bina, go through the photos again with me,” Collin asked, already positioning the images again. “I need to get this right in my head.”

“I’ve had longer to think about it than you,” Eve told them. “We knew the killer had an emotional attachment to the victims. The mother and father’s joined hands, the hand propped beneath Tracy’s chin, her hair arranged over her shoulder. Collin, you noticed something off with the blood spatter in the hallway and bedrooms. It bothered you. There was little spread, which would have happened if the blood fell from higher up. Even with the knife held low at a person’s side, the distance from the floor was too small for it to have been an adult. I looked it up. The average height of a ten-year-old ranges between three feet six inches and four feet. That would place the bottom of her hand, extended straight down with the tip of the knife at about ten to twelve inches.”

Collin nodded and Eve continued. “Hannah wouldn’t think twice about using the towels in the bathroom. Like I mentioned before, children don’t spend the night at relatives’ homes. I shouldn’t have missed that.”

Her gaze traveled to each of them, knowing how hard this was. “We’ll never feel right about this case. We shouldn’t; but maybe we can prove Hannah was somehow coerced.”

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