Page 113 of The Graveyard Girls (Detective Ellie Reeves #11)

ONE HUNDRED TWELVE

Briar Ridge Mobile Homes

Kat barely slept. She was so stupid. She should have known the police would trace her number.

And now Mama was mad as heck at her.

It was the right thing to do though. If that body was Ruth, her parents needed to know she’d been found.

She stared at a spider crawling across her ceiling, spinning its web. A shiver went through her as she remembered the night before. That grave. The bone.

She blinked to clear the images.

Thank goodness it was Saturday and she didn’t have to go to school or face the other kids.

She rolled to her side, wishing she’d never read her mama’s journal.

There’s still more to read.

The clock ticked in the silence. Minutes passed. It was only six a.m. and she was so exhausted. And afraid to face her mama. Had she called her daddy and told him what happened?

Suddenly a loud knock sounded at the door and her mama shoved it open. She stormed inside and stopped beside Kat’s bed, her arms folded. “Kat, Carrie Ann’s mother is on the phone and she’s frantic.”

Kat jerked to a sitting position. “What?”

“She says Carrie Ann snuck out sometime last night, took her car and she isn’t home yet.”

Kat’s heart pounded with fear. “What? But…”

“Was she with you and those other kids?”

Kat dug her fingers in the covers on her bed.

“Was she, Kat?”

Tears burned the back of Kat’s throat. There was no use lying. If Carrie Ann was in trouble, she had to talk. “Yes. But… she was freaked out and didn’t go with us into the w… woods. When… we got back to the campfire she’d… already left.”

Terror gripped Kat. Had that monster murdering teenage girls taken her?

She clutched her stomach. She was going to hurl.

“Lord have mercy,” her mama muttered as she pressed her phone back to her ear. “Kat says Carrie Ann was with her and some other kids at the graveyard.” Mama thrust the phone toward Kat. “Talk to her and tell her what you told me.”

The furious look her mama sent Kat could melt butter. Kat’s hand trembled as she took the phone. “Hello.”

“Where’s Carrie Ann?”

Kat pinched the bridge of her nose to stem the tears. “I… don’t know. I thought she went straight home last night.”

“What do you mean?”

Some of us went to the graveyard to hang out, then into the woods. But Carrie Ann didn’t want to go in the woods, and when we got back to the camp she was gone.”

“What time was that?” Carrie Ann’s mother said.

“Around eleven,” Kat answered.

“How could you guys be so stupid and go up there with a killer on the loose?” Carrie Ann’s mama screamed.

Kat burst into tears and her mama took the phone. “It was stupid and the police were here during the night but they didn’t mention Carrie Ann. I’ll deal with Kat. Now hang up now, Phyllis, and call the police.”

A minute later, her mama stomped out. Kat buried her head in her pillow, terror seizing her. She never should have left Carrie Ann at the camp alone.

If something bad happened to her best friend, it was all her fault.