Ida’s legs buckled as she stood, and she had to hold onto the wall to make it to her bedroom and her phone. Chest aching with fear, she pressed Hetty’s number. The phone rang three times before she answered.
“Ida?”
A sob caught in her throat. “It’s happening,” she cried.
“What do you mean?”
“Kat and some of her friends were in the woods tonight and found a body. And Daddy’s hat was there.”
Hetty screamed into the phone and Ida pressed her fist to her mouth to keep from joining her.
ONE HUNDRED EIGHT
No Man’s Land
Cord was waiting at the graveyard when Ellie and Derrick arrived. His expression was closed, his posture rigid, his eyes somber.
Ellie showed him the map Kat had drawn and his jaw tightened.
“Can you help us find this place?” she asked.
His gaze met hers and she saw something disturbing in his eyes, something she didn’t understand.
“Cord?”
“Yeah, follow me.” He handed them flashlights and they followed as he guided them through the woods. An eerie quiet filled the air, the silence deafening, a reminder of why they were here. Dread mingled with hope that after all these years, they might finally find Ruth Higgins and get justice for her.
Tension built but no one spoke, each scanning the woods with their flashlights and maneuvering around rotten foliage and fallen trees. They found the spot where the kids had built a campfire and paused to look around.
“At least they put dirt on the fire to snuff it out,” Cord said.
Ellie nodded. “Good. At least they were smart enough to do that.”
Cord consulted Kat’s map and aimed his flashlight to the north. “This way.”
Ellie and Derrick followed. About three miles in, Cord halted, his heavy sigh breaking the quiet.
“There’s the ravine,” Derrick said.
Ellie inched closer, stooping to look through the brush and spotted the hat Kat had described. She pulled her phone and snapped photographs of the area as Derrick looked around.
“There’s a shovel.” He took a picture of it then with gloved hands dragged it from the brush. Ellie lifted the hat to send to forensics and saw a bone jutting through the soil. “Kat was right,” she said. “A body is buried here.”
She stood, called her boss, requested an ERT then called the ME.
“Bring your forensic anthropologist,” Ellie said. “This one may have been here a while.”
“Will be there ASAP,” Laney said.
Cord ran his fingers through his hair, ruffling the shaggy strands. “I’ll go back and meet them then lead them here.”
“Thanks, Cord,” Ellie said although he seemed disturbed as he looked back at the makeshift grave. Dammit, something was going on with him, and when this case was solved, she intended to get to the bottom of it.
While he hiked back to the graveyard, she and Derrick searched the area. Hopefully the shovel had prints on it and Kat said the hat belonged to Earl Bramble. If it matched the prints and DNA on the scarves, this might be the evidence they needed to connect him to this murder and the others.
ONE HUNDRED NINE
Somewhere on the AT
