Page 121 of The Graveyard Girls (Detective Ellie Reeves #11)

ONE HUNDRED TWENTY

“Please let me call Hetty and warn her that deputy is coming,” Ida begged as she and Kat settled into the back of Ellie’s Jeep. “She’s gonna be scared to death.”

Ellie slid into the driver’s seat and locked the doors. “I’m sorry, Ida, but we can’t do that,” she said softly. For all she knew, Hetty would take off and run. “But you both have the right to an attorney, if that’s what you want.”

“You can’t arrest Mama and Hetty,” Kat cried in distress. “They acted in self-defense.”

Ellie’s heart squeezed for all of them. “We need Hetty’s statement, and after we look at the journal, we’ll discuss how to move forward.

” Considering the time lapse, their accounts of the night Earl died, and statements about Earl from locals, she had a feeling the prosecutor wouldn’t press charges. But she couldn’t promise anything yet.

Kat slid her arm around her mother and hugged her. “It’s okay, Mama. Everything’s gonna be all right.”

Except nothing was all right.

They needed to find Joe. If he hadn’t killed Carrie Ann, maybe they could save her.

Then the cloud of suspicion and gossip would start all over again for Ida and her daughter. For years people had wondered if Ida and Hetty had covered for their father.

Now they would question if Ida had covered for Joe.

Even if she denied it, people would wonder how she could possibly be unaware she was living with a serial killer.