Page 95 of The Graveyard Girls

Kat didn’t know. But she wanted to see the spot where her mama had watched her granddaddy haul that girl and she didn’t really want to go alone.

“Never mind, Carrie Ann. Stay here or go home. I don’t care.”

She whirled around and shined her flashlight into the woods to light a path. Behind her, she heard grumbling but everyone except Carrie Ann followed her. The others whispered as they hiked.

“It’s so dark,” Bebe said in a tiny voice.

Woody flipped on a flashlight. “Stay close to me, Bebe. I’ll protect you.”

Raphael shined his own light around as they walked, pushing brush away with his gloved hands.

Kat thought she knew the general place her mama had talked about in her journal and stayed razor focused as she climbed over rotting tree stumps and maneuvered through patches of knee-high weeds.

She scoured the land for the rock formation her mother had described.

They must have walked at least three miles, and Bebe was complaining about her legs hurting. “Let’s go back,” she begged. “I’m cold and tired. I thought we came to party, not ghost hunt in the dark.”

“I’m with Bebe,” Woody said. “I want another beer.”

“Go back if you want,” Kat said, annoyed with the whining. Besides, she felt bad for leaving Carrie Ann alone.

A killer was on the loose and they should have stayed together.

Raphael suddenly halted at the edge of a ravine. “Look, guys, there’s a shovel.”

Kat rushed up beside him and stared at the shovel which had been tossed in the brush. She didn’t dare touch it, but she and Raphael both stooped down and pushed away some weeds.

Raphael’s breathing quickened and Kat sensed Bebe and Woody inch up behind them and look over their shoulders.

“There’s an old hat stuck in the dirt,” Raphael said.

Kat leaned closer, saw the brim of a baseball cap and gasped.

She’d seen that hat before. In the pictures in her mama’s old photo album.

That hat belonged to Kat’s grandfather.

“We should get out of here,” Bebe cried.

Kat held her breath as she spotted a section that looked as if a dog had been digging in the dirt.

“Shit,” Raphael muttered. “That looks like a bone.”

Bebe screamed and everyone turned to run.

Kat stared at the bone in horror.WasRuth Higgins buried here?

ONE HUNDRED ONE

Brambletown Police Station

After leaving Tilly, Ellie made a phone call and confirmed that Hayden Higgins had been working with a mentorship program for boys. The director of the program sang Hayden’s praises, claimed he was one of their most effective leaders, and that he hadn’t traveled to any of the cities where the girls went missing.

She hung up, satisfied to dismiss him as a suspect, then drove straight to the sheriff’s office and asked to speak to Clint Wallace.

While she waited, she surveyed the bulletin board in the bullpen area and noted a few fliers for missing and wanted people. A couple were outdated, the criminal caught, and two of the missing were old photos; one of an elderly woman and another of an infant who was believed to have been taken by his father in a domestic dispute.

When Clint finally appeared, his look was guarded. Ellie wondered if he’d intentionally stalled just to annoy her but decided not to ask. She had more urgent questions on her mind.