Page 44 of The Sleeping Girls

Behind him, June spotted Ruby’s mother, tugging a flowered bathrobe about her. Her hair was mussed as if she’d just crawled from bed. Disapproval darkened her scowl indicating June had interrupted her morning.

Was Ruby hiding in her room with her earbuds to keep away from them?

If she was, why not answer her phone?

“What are you doing here so early?” Mrs. Pruitt asked, her voice slurred.

Early? It was almost eleven o’clock. “I came to see Ruby.”

“She’s probably in her room.” Mrs. Pruitt turned and wove back through the mess. “You tell her she better get in there and clean that mud off the kitchen floor.”

June watched her stagger down the narrow hall to her bedroom and she darted to Ruby’s room. But when she looked inside, Ruby’s bed was made as if she hadn’t slept in it.

Nerves on edge, she hurried to the kitchen and spotted the mud on the floor. It looked like it had been tracked in from the back door. Maybe Ruby was outside, hiding until her mother’s latest creepy guy left.

June sidestepped the mud on the floor as she made her way to the back door and stepped onto the stoop. The wind brought the stench of garbage and cat pee again. She covered her nose and followed the footprints in the mud in the direction of the old playground where they met to hang out.

Suddenly, she spied Ruby’s silver headband a few feet away from the garbage cans. Then she saw drag marks on the wet ground and what looked like handprints in the mud.

Fear clogged her throat as she followed the drag marks around the dumpster to the edge of the woods. Holding her breath, she crept into the thicket of trees, peering left and right. “Ruby!” June called.

Another few feet and she called out again. “Ruby, are you out here?”

A dog barked nearby. The wind whistled off the mountain and hurled a tree limb down in front of her. June jumped back, scanning the playground, but it was empty.

She eased around a few more trees, searching and calling again until she reached the creek. There, she spotted Ruby’s friendship bracelet. It was just like the one she and Kelsey wore. They never took them off. Never.

June pressed a hand to her chest. She had to get help.

She turned and ran back to the house, careful not to step into the muddy print. Just as she reached the back porch door, she heard a shriek from inside. Terrified, she sprinted up the porch steps.

Ruby’s mother was standing in the kitchen, staring wide-eyed at her phone.

“Mrs. Pruitt,” June whispered.

The woman blinked several times, her hand shaking as she dropped the phone. With a groan, she collapsed into the kitchen chair.

June picked up the phone to hand it back to her and gasped at the picture.

It looked like Ruby was… dead.

FORTY-SEVEN

Ellie had just settled into her office to search for cases with similarities to Kelsey’s when Captain Hale knocked on the door.

“Detective Reeves, 9-1-1 call from some girl named June Larson. Said she’s at her friend Ruby’s mobile home and she’s scared something happened to Ruby.”

Ellie and Derrick both stood abruptly, and Ellie snatched her keys. “June and Ruby were Kelsey’s best friends.” She and Derrick rushed from the station and hurried to Ellie’s Jeep.

“Two girls missing in two days,” she said to Derrick as she drove past the Corner Café. “We may be dealing with a serial predator.”

“I know,” Derrick said. “But what is he doing to them? And why target these girls?”

“That virgin pact. It’s going viral on TikTok,” Ellie said. “Maybe he saw it and became obsessed with the girls because of it.”

“That’s possible, I suppose,” Derrick said.

“That could mean June is also in danger.” Ellie thumped her fingers on the steering wheel as she veered onto a narrow dirt road that disappeared in an overhang of trees that formed a tunnel.

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