Page 125 of The Graveyard Girls (Detective Ellie Reeves #11)

ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-FOUR

Guns drawn, Ellie darted through the woods while Derrick charged toward the house in case Joe stashed Carrie Ann’s body inside.

Please let her be alive.

A boom of thunder startled her, and lightning flashed in the distance. Ahead she heard water lapping at the bank and veered toward the sound, searching the brush as she ran. Around trees and through thick foliage, over puddles then the swampy odor of stagnant water.

There it was. A pond.

“Joe, give it up!” she shouted. “Save Carrie Ann and it’ll look better for you!”

Even as she said it, she darted to the edge of the pond, searching for a floating body. “Carrie Ann!”

Somewhere in the distance, tree limbs snapped in the blustery wind, but she had a bad feeling the girl was drowning in that murky water. Yanking a flashlight from her pocket, she shined it across the pond then the embankment. Footprints. Large. A man’s boots.

Derrick’s voice bounced through the trees then he was a few feet away. “House and shed are clear.”

“I think he dumped her in the pond. He’s headed north. Go after him!”

Derrick ran past her, and she laid her gun behind a boulder, draped her jacket over it, removed her boots then dove into the pond.