Page 39 of Girl Between (Dana Gray FBI Mystery Thriller #5)

Dana stared at the artwork on her laptop. An eerie pencil sketch of six women gazed back at her. The fille a la cassette .

Ever since the crime scene she couldn’t get them out of her mind.

She could only imagine the fears they faced, not only on their perilous journey, but at the prospect of being forced to marry strangers once they reached the French colonies.

Their storied history was the stuff of legends, and the fact that someone was using it as a guise to kill irked Dana.

It was the sort of thing that drew her toward her field of study in the first place.

Shedding light on the darkness was her calling.

And the Casquette Girls were the perfect candidates.

The women in the drawing seemed to beckon her with a collective forlorn gaze, begging Dana to uncover their story.

Her attention shifted to the coffins the women were accused of carrying, which were merely small wooden trunks holding their only worldly possessions.

And the fact that they appeared pale and gaunt, blistering in the sunlight, was due to the long months they spent at sea, malnourished and confined to the belly of a ship.

They weren’t vampires any more than Dana was.

Beneath all the folklore, they were nothing more than unfortunate females who happened to exist under the rule of a monarch who viewed women as property and treated them as such. It made them easy targets for ridicule and rumors in the New World.

Perhaps that’s why Dana couldn’t get the Casquette Girls out of her mind. They were strangers in a strange land. Something she knew a bit about.

Thanks to her career choice, death ruled Dana’s life, making her an outsider everywhere she went. Everywhere but New Orleans.

From the moment she’d arrived in the eclectic city that celebrated all walks of life and death, she’d been accepted. Maybe the Casquette Girls could’ve fit in here as well if they hadn’t been labeled as something to be feared.

Though it was a departure from the research she was meant to be doing at NOSA, Dana couldn’t shake the nagging responsibility she felt to make sure more damaging rumors weren’t added to the unfortunate tale of the Casquette Girls.

She clicked through more and more photos, justifying it as research.

They were after all—if the legends were to be believed—the mothers of vampirism in New Orleans.

Plus, they’d arrived by boat. And since the endless Italian manifests Dana had been researching brought her no closer to identifying how the mysterious Venetian death mask arrived in New Orleans, she was open to considering the exploration of other options.

Maybe looking into the Casquette Girls would reveal new clues that would help her find what she’d been searching for regarding the mask. It’s not like she’d had luck with the current research she was doing.

An hour into her journey down the rabbit hole, Dana fought her disappointment.

The story of the Casquette Girls was as fascinating as it was frustrating.

For example, the historical representation showed the women dressed in traditional 17 th century French fashion.

So why did modern-day portrayals in films and festivals always show the Casquette Girls dressed in white?

“Their white dress is meant to represent purity and virtue,” said Taurant, replying to the question Dana hadn’t realized she’d asked out loud. “Something you obviously know nothing of given the frequency of your suitors.”

“Excuse me?” Dana challenged, but Taurant was already walking toward the front door.

For a fleeting moment, panic made Dana’s heart skip a beat as she imagined Jake walking up to the ornate front porch of her office. But it was George she found in the foyer when she poked her head into the hall.

He greeted her with his easy, dimpled smile. “Hello, Dr. Gray.”

“Hi,” she replied, unable to hide her surprise at seeing him at her office again.

George turned his attention to Dana’s surly co-worker. “Sorry to interrupt, but I wondered if you’d mind terribly if I borrowed Dr. Gray for the remainder of the afternoon?”

Taurant huffed a laugh. “Be my guest,” he said. “It’s not like she’s contributing to our research anyway,” he added loud enough to be overheard as he slinked away.

Dana was about to march after him and give the arrogant man a piece of her mind, but George hooked his arm through hers, pulling her away and saving her from another argument that would go nowhere.