Page 35 of The Sleeping Girls

“Where is she? Who took her?” Jean cried. “What did he do to her?”

Ellie wished to hell she had some answers. “Have you had any repairmen or workers come to your house in the last few months?”

The couple shook their heads.

Ellie studied the photo more closely. She didn’t see any visible wounds.

“Let me send this to the lab,” Derrick said. “Maybe our cyber team can determine where the photo was taken.”

“Send it to Deputy Landrum, too,” Ellie said. “His computer skills might come in handy.”

She snagged her phone and called the sheriff. If some maniac had been stalking Kelsey, he might live in the vicinity of the Tillers.

“Sheriff Waters,” she said, then explained about the photo. “We don’t know where he left her body so have your deputies start searching abandoned properties. Focus first on properties within a twenty-five miles radius of the Tillers.”

If Kelsey was nearby, they had to find her. They had to.

THIRTY-SIX

BACKWATER’S EDGE

Tears burned Ruby’s eyes as she finished scrubbing the kitchen and piled fast food wrappers, empty cigarette packs, Mountain Dew cans and sticky old magazines from her mother’s hoarding into a garbage bag to carry outside.

Her mama’s words taunted her.Trash. Slut. You’ve ruined your life, girl. I oughta kick you out now.

“I didn’t do anything,” Ruby had argued.

“Don’t lie to me, girl. Now I gotta get to The Hungry Wolf. You stay in that trailer and don’t cause me any more trouble.” Her breath sounded wheezy from the last drag of her Camel. “I’ll deal with you when I get back.”

Ruby shivered at the thought.

Shoving the blackened bananas into the trash bag, Ruby tied it closed and carried it outside to the bin in the mud hole the trailer park called a yard. Rain dripped from the trees and pinged off the metal can, and somewhere nearby she heard a cat fight. There were half a dozen feral strays around, pawing for scraps and marking their territory. They climbed under the trailer, making the sagging back stoop reek of cat pee.

The trash stunk just as bad and there was a mountain of it overflowing. Flies swarmed around it; a couple of bags on the ground had been ripped apart by wild animals.

Thunder rumbled above and Ruby ran back to the trailer. Footsteps sounded behind her and she glanced over her shoulder. A dark figure moved between the trees.

Probably just old man Huddie two doors down. He was a meth head and she stayed away from him. She picked up her pace and ran, slipping in the mud and falling on her butt. A limb cracked off from a nearby tree and flew to the ground at her feet.

She pushed herself up, slipping and sliding until she made it up the concrete steps to the back door. She wiped her muddy feet on the old doormat, then grabbed a kitchen towel to wipe her hands as she stepped inside.

But suddenly she thought she heard a voice. But it was so low she couldn’t tell if it was a man or woman. Or… maybe Kelsey?

Praying it was, she stepped back onto the porch and scanned the yard. The swing creaked at the old playground. The one where she and Kelsey and June liked to hang out.

Hope and curiosity drove her, and she ran down the steps and headed to the playground.

THIRTY-SEVEN

RED HAWK RIDGE

Deputy Heath Landrum had had a bad feeling ever since he’d seen the news of his brother Digger’s release from prison. That do-gooder O’Connor woman with the Innocence Project had dredged up all the horror when she’d questioned him about his sister’s murder.

Something he never talked about. Had tried to forget.

Could not outrun.

That one night had completely destroyed his life.

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