Page 99 of The Graveyard Girls (Detective Ellie Reeves #11)

NINETY-EIGHT

Green Gardens Cemetery

Kat peeked into her mama’s room. Finally, she’d turned in for the night and was sleeping like the dead.

Her daddy was on a long-haul delivery and wouldn’t be back till the next day and Kat had the night to herself.

He was so protective he watched her like a hawk.

Her mama probably liked it when he was gone, too.

On those nights, sometimes they ordered pizza or had sandwiches instead of cooking all the stuff her daddy liked… and demanded.

Carrie Ann had texted that a group of kids were going out to the graveyard to hang out tonight, and Kat decided to join them. Maybe she and Carrie Ann could hunt for that grave where Mama had seen her grandfather.

If the girl he’d buried was the missing girl Ruth, maybe she could find her body and she’d be the hero and put an end to all the gossip about her mama and Hetty. If Mama thought her daddy was guilty of all these murders, why didn’t she go to the police now?

People in town thought he was still alive though so maybe she was still afraid of him.

Kat had never met him but the thought of being a murderer’s granddaughter was disturbing.

A few of the kids at school had started talking about it, saying evil must run in her veins.

Asking if she ever had the urge to kill somebody.

If her mama helped him lure Ruth to her grave because of that big fight at the DQ.

Kat bundled up in her coat and ski hat, tiptoed through the hall to the kitchen, grabbed the flashlight from the drawer and ducked outside. The wind bit at her, and the sky was so dark that fear slithered through her.

Still, she snuck along the bushes of her backyard, then darted toward the graveyard.

Weeds choked the path along the way and clawed at her legs, but she ran on, crossing the field and taking cover behind rocks and trees as she went.

She spotted the little church at the top of the hill and a few people lingering in front of the memorial with candles and cameras.

Some family members and friends had left flowers and gifts, even small toys, to honor the men, women and kids who were buried there and also for those named on the memorial whose bodies had never been recovered.

The tall trees on the edge of the woods beyond it were still mysterious and she wondered if some of the dead who hadn’t been recovered were buried there or if their bodies had disintegrated into bones and dust. At one time, she was squeamish, but after biology class she’d overcome it and decided she wanted to be a doctor.

Some areas had deep ridges and gulleys that reminded her of sink holes or quicksand. A foul odor usually clogged the air but tonight she smelled the pungent odor of pot.

Kat had tasted beer before, but she’d seen her daddy act stupid when he drank too much, so she steered clear of it now.

The acrid scent of marijuana made her feel ill, so she hadn’t dabbled in that either.

Low voices echoed a few hundred feet in, and the glow of a small campfire sparkled against the inky night.

A noise sounded behind her and a twig snapped.

But when she turned to see if anyone was there, there was no one.

Heart hammering, she crossed to the group of teens huddled by the fire. Carrie Anne was already there in a short skirt and red boots which seemed ridiculous to Kat since it was forty-five degrees tonight.

“Look who’s here, the graveyard girl,” one of the boys named Woody said with a laugh.

Kat glared at him, irritated to be dubbed the same nickname as her mama and Hetty. Was she doomed to relive her mother’s life?

“Better watch out,” one of the soccer players said. “If her grandfather’s killing these girls she may know where he is.”

Everybody laughed and Kat bit her tongue to contain a smart-ass remark. She slipped around the circle and seated herself on the ground beside Carrie Ann. Raphael, a jock with a cocky attitude took a toke of the joint and passed it to Carrie Ann. She inhaled a long drag, then handed it to Kat.

But Kat passed it along to a girl named Bebe Butterworth on her left.

“Graveyard girl too stuck up to take a hit?” Woody said with a snide look.

Kat gave him a sour smile. “It’s not my thing,” she said although Carrie Ann nudged her as if to say she should just go along.

Maybe this was a mistake.

“Tell us about your murdering grandfather,” Bebe said.

“Never met the man.”

“Did your mom know he was a psychopath?” Raphael asked.

Anger sent Kat up from her seat on the ground and sympathy for her mother followed. Why had Mama stayed around this Podunk town and put up with this shit her whole life?

She didn’t intend to. She’d hightail it out of Brambletown as soon as her diploma was in hand.

Frustrated because she wanted to tell Carrie Ann about the journal entry and convince her to help search for that grave, she decided to challenge the group.

“You talk like a big guy,” she said, addressing Woody. “If that girl Ruth was buried out here fifteen years ago, prove how brave you are and help me look for it.”