Page 86 of The Graveyard Girls (Detective Ellie Reeves #11)

EIGHTY-FIVE

Brambletown

Tilly held her breath as she waited for her brother to elaborate. Had he really caused Ruth’s death?

“What do you mean?” she finally asked. “That it was your fault Ruth disappeared?”

Hayden pulled a hand down his chin, waited a beat, then released a pained sigh. “I was pissed at Ruth. She was such a brat and I… didn’t like the way she treated you and… to be honest, those Bramble girls. They didn’t deserve to be humiliated by her.”

Tilly stared at him in surprise. “I didn’t like it either,” she admitted. “I told her they couldn’t help how they were brought up or being poor or who their daddy was.” Still, the Brambles hadn’t been innocent either.

“Same,” Hayden said. “But Ruth thought she was better cause Mom and Dad doted on her and she made all our lives hell.”

Tension built in Tilly’s chest at the resentment in his tone. It took her a moment to summon the courage to ask. Did she really want to know? “Hayden, what did you do? You didn’t?—”

“No, I didn’t kill her,” he said quickly. “But I was mad and told her Clint was cheating on her,” he said. “I just wanted to hurt her, to make her realize she couldn’t have everything she wanted.”

“Was he cheating?”

“Hell, I don’t know. Clint was a player. He could have been.”

“And she believed you? And that’s why she broke up with him,” Tilly said, connecting the dots.

“Yeah, and they had a fight. But she was going to meet him that night. At least she thought she was.”

Confusion swirled in Tilly’s brain. “What are you talking about?”

Hayden’s breath wheezed out. “The guys I was with… we were drinking and I… sort of suggested that one of them leave her a note pretending to be Clint and ask her to meet that night.”

Tilly gaped at him in stunned silence. “You what?”

“It was just a prank,” he said. “I just wanted to teach her a lesson, that she could be dumped.”

“But she told me she wasn’t meeting Clint,” Tilly said.

Hayden shrugged. “She lied. Maybe she was afraid you’d tell Mom and Dad and Clint would get in trouble.”

Tilly massaged her temple. “Who left the note?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Hayden said. “We were all together and none of us left that night. That part is true.”

“So Ruth went out to meet Clint who didn’t show and… got abducted? Maybe by a stranger? Or did Clint know she was going out?”

“If Clint knew, we didn’t tell him,” Hayden said. “Although someone else may have. Or Ruth could have called him.”

“Maybe.”

The silence that ensued made Tilly’s skin crawl. “Who else knew?” Tilly gripped her brother’s arm and forced him to look at her. “Who, Hay?”

He closed his eyes, but not before she saw raw a seed of panic flash into them.

“Hayden, you’re scaring me,” she cried.

“Dad,” he said in a tortured voice. “I called Dad and told him I knew she was sneaking out to hook up so she’d get in trouble. And he flew into a rage.”

For a long moment, they simply stared at each other, questions hanging in the air. “Then why didn’t he stop her?”

Hayden’s eyes filled with misery and he shook his head. “I think he tried to find her.” Hayden made an agonized sound. “When I got home later that night, he was gone.”

“Oh, God, Dad lied to the police.” A dizzy spell assaulted Tilly. She’d hoped by searching for the truth she’d be able to bring her family back together.

But if her father was involved in Ruth’s disappearance, it would tear them apart forever.