Page 25 of The Graveyard Girls

“Not well,” he said gruffly. “She believed they were just in it for the money. Funds stipulated for the children were used to enhance their own personal lifestyle. Expensive TVs, phones and other tech equipment were in the house. But the kids wore thrift store clothes, tennis shoes with holes and slept on ratty sheets.”

Ellie sighed in disgust. “What did the teachers and school counselor have to say?”

He ran a hand over his cleanly shaven jaw. “That Bonnie was a smart girl, studied and made good grades, but she was shy, awkward around the other kids and kept to herself. The counselor said she didn’t talk about her foster situation, but once said she was going to find a way to go to college.”

Emotions gathered in Ellie’s chest. The odds had been stacked against Bonnie from the beginning yet she’d had potential.

Only her dreams had been squashed when someone took her life.

TWENTY-SEVEN

Cord had only touched the surface of his search across the land near the graveyard. There were so many deserted areas providing optimum places to hide that the task seemed overwhelming.

He should know. He’d hidden in the shadows of the mountains as a teen. Had even combed this same land and remembered the day Ruth Higgins disappeared. The debacle between the Bramble girls and her had been the talk of the town. And when their father disappeared…

He shut out the memory of that day as he wound around the mountain road to Cleveland. The address for the Wiley family was on the outskirts of town. He didn’t know exactly the reason Ellie wanted him to come along to question them, but he guessed it was because of his background. Maybe she thought he’d have some insight on the foster family.

Naturally they were suspects in the Sylvester girl’s homicide.

Bitterness swelled inside him at the idea that they might have hurt her. But he knew firsthand it was a real possibility.

Trees swayed in the raging wind, tossing leaves and twigs across the road. A limb cracked and broke off, sailing in front of his truck and he swerved to avoid it. His tires churned over thestill damp asphalt from the rain the night before, but he veered onto the narrow dirt road leading to the Wiley house.

The mile-long drive seemed to be going nowhere but also highlighted the fact that the place was tucked deeply into the woods out of sight where anything the family did might go unnoticed.

Memories of his own foster father’s cruel abuse bulldozed his mind, causing him to sweat. He’d lived above a mortuary, another place that had been out of sight.

For good reason. It had given the son of a bitch the opportunity to do whatever the hell he wanted to do to the corpses without drawing suspicion.

Just like this house in the woods offered Bonnie Sylvester’s foster father the freedom to abuse the vulnerable children he was supposed to protect.

TWENTY-EIGHT

Pigeon Road

On the drive to the Wiley house, Ellie called the social worker Sally Emerson who’d handled Bonnie’s placement.

“Gosh, I’m so sorry to hear about Bonnie,” the young woman said. “She’d already been in five different homes when she was placed there. I inherited her case from my former coworker who retired of burnout.”

“And Bonnie got lost in the process,” Ellie muttered.

“I’m afraid so. I wish she’d have come to me sooner and told me if something was going on with that family. But she didn’t trust anyone, including me.”

Because no one had ever given her a reason to trust them.

“What can I do to help?” Sally asked.

“Tell me about the family. Did you see signs of physical abuse with Bonnie?”

A hesitant pause. “Some bruising occasionally. But she told me the same story a lot of counselors get. She fell down the steps. She tripped on the rug.” Her breath rattled out. “I sensed the foster father favored the boys in the house.”

“She was probably afraid to speak up,” Ellie said.

“Yeah, in a lot of cases when victims report abuse, if they aren’t removed from the home, the abuse worsens.”

“Exactly. Plus, Bonnie was a sensitive girl. Once she’d been moved from home to home, families assumed she was difficult, which made it even more challenging to find a family who wanted her.”

“Exactly.”