Page 106 of The Graveyard Girls (Detective Ellie Reeves #11)

ONE HUNDRED FIVE

DAY FIVE

Briar Ridge Mobile Homes

Kat snuck back into the house, grateful her mama was in her room still asleep. She should be; it was already past midnight.

Her stomach knotted though as she slipped into her bedroom and closed the door. She felt dirty all over from being in the woods but didn’t dare shower for fear she’d wake her mama.

But the image of that grave and the bone and her granddaddy’s hat haunted her. If he’d buried Ruth Higgins there or another girl, she had to tell. Maybe her mama and Hetty could keep a secret like the one they’d kept for over a decade, but her conscience wouldn’t let her.

She paced the room, rubbing her arms with her hands, anxiety clawing at her. She had to do something. She couldn’t go to bed and sleep, not knowing she might have just found the girl the whole town had been looking for for the last decade and a half.

Shoving her hair behind her ears, she dropped onto her bed and opened her laptop. She googled the number for that tip line the detective had mentioned on the news. Her breathing quickened, her heart beating so fast she could hear the blood roaring in her ears.

She could call in an anonymous tip. She didn’t have to leave her name. No one would know it was her, especially not her parents.

Blowing out a shaky breath, she pulled her cell phone from her pocket and called the number for Crooked Creek’s Police Department. A man answered and identified himself as Deputy Landrum.

Before he could ask anything else, she blurted, “There’s a body in the woods by the graveyard. About three miles to the north at the ravine.”

“You saw this body?”

“A hat and… bones poking through the brush.”

“May I ask who’s calling?”

She didn’t respond. She hung up, her hands trembling as she stripped her clothes, then put on her pjs.

Hoping she did the right thing, she crawled into bed and yanked the covers over her head to block out the night and the image of her grandaddy’s hat beside that grave.