Page 48 of Girl Between (Dana Gray FBI Mystery Thriller #5)

Dana strode after George in the parking lot. Her glasses fogged the moment she stepped into the overwhelming Louisiana heat. Three strides from the air conditioning and she was melting into the pavement.

“George!” Dana called, making him stop. She strode closer, facing him with a tentative expression. “If I overstepped in there …” she began, but George didn’t let her finish.

“You didn’t.” He wiped a hand gruffly over his tired expression, trying to brush away the eerie feeling permeating his skin. “I’m the one who asked for your help. And from the looks of things, we’re going to need it.”

“I know the work will be daunting, but TNCs are extremely rare. From what I’ve seen of Dr. Cruz, she seems perfectly capable of identifying the markers.”

“I’m not worried about Lena,” George said. “I’m worried you might be right about the harvesting.”

Dana blinked at him, concern filling her dark brown eyes. “What aren’t you telling me?”

George sighed. “We had a case like this before, about twenty years ago. Two sisters accused of practicing Voodoo in the bayou kidnapped four teenage girls in order to perform a harvest ritual to strengthen protection spells around New Orleans. The ritual supposedly required harvesting one organ from each girl to appease each element of nature.”

“Earth, wind, water, fire,” Dana said. “It’s a ritual sacrifice practiced in virtually every ancient culture.”

George nodded. “I grew up on the legends of the unexplained things that happen here, but when one of them makes the leap from fairytale to fact, it’s hard to wrap your head around.”

“What happened to the girls?” Dana asked.

“They were missing for a week. Turned the city upside down and inside out trying to find them. The backlash of accusations toward the Haitian and Creole communities was getting out of hand. Neighbor-on-neighbor hate crimes sprang up all over the city. Then all of a sudden, one of the girls showed up. She was found wandering her neighborhood injured and babbling nonsense. She was rushed to the hospital and treated, but her hallucinations continued.”

George paused when he noticed Dana visibly pale. He’d been a cop long enough to know when he struck a nerve. Not wanting to pry, he simply said, “Let’s get out of the heat,” ushering her back to his truck.

Once they’d pulled out of the parking lot, she asked, “The Harvest Girl, what happened to her?”

“She insisted she’d escaped from two witches in the bayou where she was being held captive with the other missing girls. She said the only reason she’d been able to escape was because the witches were busy harvesting organs from one of the other girls.

“Her story was unbelievable, but NOPD was compelled to go out and investigate. But the girl was disoriented and confused. Took a few tries to pinpoint the exact location she described in the bayou. When the police finally found the house where she’d been held, it was empty.

There were signs that the other missing girls had been there.

Clothes, personal items, and such, but they were gone, and so were the two sisters accused of abducting them.

None of them were ever seen again. Since then, they’ve been known as the Harvest Girls. ”

“And the girl who escaped?” Dana asked.

George shrugged. “She’s an urban legend around here. Story goes she checked herself out of the hospital and fled New Orleans before the witches could return for her.”

“It’s an interesting story,” Dana said. “It doesn’t necessarily make me think it’s linked to the two victims we found in the cemeteries.”

“No, but I’m not taking any chances. The great niece of the women accused of abducting the Harvest Girls still lives out in the bayou. She inherited the house. Stays out there by herself. Thinks it’s the only place she can get any peace.

“People ‘round these parts still blame her family for what happened to those girls. Not sure what we’re presently dealing with in this Casquette Girl case, but I don’t like the parallels it’s drawing to the Harvest Girls.

It’s worth taking a trip out to the bayou to talk to the great niece, see if anything feels off. ”

“Today?” Dana asked.

George glanced at his watch. It was too late in the day to head all the way out to the Barataria Preserve, plus he needed to take his own advice and not get ahead of himself. “I’ll give Lena the day to get some answers,” he replied. “Plus, I need to review the CCTV footage we gathered.”

“Hopefully that’ll give you some leads,” Dana said.

“Me or us?” George asked. “I couldn’t help noticing you said, ‘our case’ a few times back there.”

“Did I?”

He nodded.

“Sorry, it was unintentional.”

George grinned. “You don’t strike me as someone who does anything unintentionally, Dr. Gray.”

Dana’s lips quirked up as she fought her amusement, confirming he was right.

“Look, all kidding aside, I don’t want to pressure you. But if I’m right, this case is going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better, so I’ll take any help you’re willing to give.”