Page 120 of The Graveyard Girls

Ellie shook her head no. “I’m sorry, but not now. We still have to interrogate him. And right now we’re busy collecting evidence.”

“I don’t want to see him,” Kat said shrilly. “Not ever again.”

Ellie understood the girl’s anger. She and Ida had a hard road ahead of them.

Kat glanced at Ida. “What’s gonna happen to my mom?”

Ellie offered her a tentative smile. “I spoke to Hetty and she’s writing down a detailed account of what happened with the abuse and the night Earl died. I can’t promise for certain, but considering you were both minors, Ida, and the abuse. I don’t think the DA will press charges.”

Ida slumped in relief and Kat pulled her mother into her arms. “Don’t worry, Mama, we’re going to be okay.”

Ida pushed her tangled damp hair from her wet cheeks then lifted her chin, and cupped Kat’s face with her hands. “We will,” she said firmly. “But I’m not gonna let you suffer like I did the last decade and a half. When I’m clear, we’re packing our bags and leaving this town for good. We’ll find a small place somewhere and start over.”

A smile tilted Kat’s lips. “I’d like that, Mama.”

“I love you, girl,” Ida whispered.

“I love you, too,” Kat said brokenly.

Ellie smiled and left them hugging each other, then went to collect Hetty’s statement and call the DA’s office.

Ida and Hetty and Kat had been through enough. She didn’t want them to suffer a minute longer.

ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-NINE

Ellie’s phone call to the DA went exactly as she’d hoped. He would not press charges against Ida and Hetty and was happy they’d solved the teenage murder cases.

She hurried and told Ida, Kat and Hetty and they had a tearful reunion.

“I want to see Carrie Ann,” Kat said. “I have to, Mama.”

“Just be warned, Kat, that she and her mother may not take it well,” Ida said.

Kat nodded. “I know. But it’s the right thing to do.”

Ida agreed, and Ellie arranged for Deputy Landrum to drive them to Ida’s to retrieve her car and take Hetty home as well.

Then she went to meet with Derrick. He stood, raking photographs and notes into a stack and said, “ERT found two bodies on the premises of the house where Joe grew up. Laney already identified them as Ruth Higgins and Joe’s mother.”

Ellie’s stomach clenched. She wasn’t surprised but dreaded telling Tilly.

“Let’s interrogate that animal,” Derrick said. “We can use the evidence to pressure him into telling us where the other victims are.”

“Hopefully that will work,” Ellie said. “Then we can put this one to rest. But we have to tell Tilly.”

Derrick’s jaw tightened. “I’ll handle that. I know you have to deal with McClain.”

His words sucked the wind from her, but he was right.

She walked to the third interrogation room while Derrick retrieved Joe from the holding cell. He looked rough around the edges, pissed, and smelled like sweat and dirt.

Joe grunted as Derrick pushed him into a chair and handcuffed him to the metal table in the middle of the room. Ellie seated herself opposite him while Derrick stood, towering over the short squatty man.

“We have you dead to rights,” Derrick said matter-of-factly. “So don’t bother to deny anything. We caught you red-handed after dumping Carrie Ann Parker in that pond.”

Joe’s chubby cheeks reddened, and he stretched out his legs as if to indicate he wasn’t worried.

Fool. He damned well should be worried.