Page 101 of The Graveyard Girls (Detective Ellie Reeves #11)

ONE HUNDRED

Kat was pissed at Carrie Ann. They’d been besties since kindergarten and Carrie Ann had never minded that Kat lived in a trailer and that gossip swarmed around her and her family like gnats on a muggy night.

In fact, sometimes she’d thought Carrie Ann was intrigued by the mystery and kept hoping Kat would admit that her grandfather was alive and that her mama had been covering for him all this time.

Knowing she and the whole group were high now, she fisted her hands on her hips and shot them another challenging look. “So y’all going to just get stupid all night or are you gonna help look for bodies out here?”

“You’re crazy,” Bebe said.

Woody picked up a stick and drew a big X in the dirt. “Is your grandaddy hiding out here?”

Raphael raised his dark brows. “Yeah, are you setting us up?”

Kat laughed. “Are you chicken?”

Carrie Ann glared at her as if to ask why she was being so weird.

Raphael lurched up, his teeth gritted. “I’m not chicken.”

Woody squared his shoulders and clutched the stick as he stood. “Me neither.”

Bebe rubbed her arms with her hands as if she was freezing or nervous. “He’s not out here is he, Kat?”

Kat wiggled her brows. “Of course not. He’d be a moron to make a move with the cops crawling all over Brambletown.”

Bebe gave a tiny nod then pushed to her feet and grabbed the biggest stick she could find.

Kat cut her gaze toward her best friend. “Carrie Ann, you gonna stay here by yourself?”

Carrie Ann bit down on her lower lip. “You really think there’re more bodies out here?”

Kat didn’t know. But she wanted to see the spot where her mama had watched her granddaddy haul that girl and she didn’t really want to go alone.

“Never mind, Carrie Ann. Stay here or go home. I don’t care.”

She whirled around and shined her flashlight into the woods to light a path. Behind her, she heard grumbling but everyone except Carrie Ann followed her. The others whispered as they hiked.

“It’s so dark,” Bebe said in a tiny voice.

Woody flipped on a flashlight. “Stay close to me, Bebe. I’ll protect you.”

Raphael shined his own light around as they walked, pushing brush away with his gloved hands.

Kat thought she knew the general place her mama had talked about in her journal and stayed razor focused as she climbed over rotting tree stumps and maneuvered through patches of knee-high weeds.

She scoured the land for the rock formation her mother had described.

They must have walked at least three miles, and Bebe was complaining about her legs hurting. “Let’s go back,” she begged. “I’m cold and tired. I thought we came to party, not ghost hunt in the dark.”

“I’m with Bebe,” Woody said. “I want another beer.”

“Go back if you want,” Kat said, annoyed with the whining. Besides, she felt bad for leaving Carrie Ann alone.

A killer was on the loose and they should have stayed together.

Raphael suddenly halted at the edge of a ravine. “Look, guys, there’s a shovel.”

Kat rushed up beside him and stared at the shovel which had been tossed in the brush. She didn’t dare touch it, but she and Raphael both stooped down and pushed away some weeds.

Raphael’s breathing quickened and Kat sensed Bebe and Woody inch up behind them and look over their shoulders.

“There’s an old hat stuck in the dirt,” Raphael said.

Kat leaned closer, saw the brim of a baseball cap and gasped.

She’d seen that hat before. In the pictures in her mama’s old photo album.

That hat belonged to Kat’s grandfather.

“We should get out of here,” Bebe cried.

Kat held her breath as she spotted a section that looked as if a dog had been digging in the dirt.

“Shit,” Raphael muttered. “That looks like a bone.”

Bebe screamed and everyone turned to run.

Kat stared at the bone in horror. Was Ruth Higgins buried here?