At least he had a job. That was more than most Bramble men. Although he’d worked for Earl at the graveyard in high school, afterward he’d landed a job driving a delivery truck for a national chain of discount stores. Now he was gone a lot of the time so she and her fifteen-year-old daughter, Kat, had the place to themselves, and on those nights she could sleep without his pig-like snoring rattling the window panes.
She scraped the burned ends of meatloaf Joe had left on his plate into the trash, then lowered her Melmac dishes into the hot soapy dishwater to soak. Wiping her hands on the kitchen towel, she rubbed at her throbbing leg. When the rain came, it hurt like a mother, a reminder of the accident that had mangled her leg to the point that she had a bad limp now and had to prop it up on a pillow at night to ease the pain.
Rain hammered the tin roof of her doublewide, mingling with the rumble of her husband’s notorious snoring thatsounded like the roar of a tornado. His old hound dog whined at the door to get in the bedroom, and she called Kat’s name. Kat was parked in front of the TV glued to some teen show she probably shouldn’t be watching. But Ida gave all her fighting energy to Joe and lacked the bandwidth to argue with her daughter so she gave in. “Kat, put Rufus in the room with Daddy.”
Kat huffed and rolled her pale green eyes but dragged herself over to the door, opened it, ushered him inside then made her way back to the TV.
Ida’s phone buzzed, and she checked the number, praying it wasn’t one of the debt collectors or the power company warning that they were about to turn her power off because she was two months late paying. Joe kept swearing he’d get to it when he got his check, only she had no idea when that would happen.
Not a bill collector. Hetty.
Old familiar anxiety rose like fiery ants in her gut. She and Hetty rarely talked, the distance between them filled with a mountain of secrets, lies and blame.
If Hetty was calling, she had a reason.
The phone trilled a third time. Taking a deep breath, she answered with a mumbled hey.
“It’s Hetty.”
“I know. What do you want?”
“Have you seen the news?”
Ida glanced at the TV. When the hell did she have time to watch television? “No. Why?”
“They found a body near the graveyard. Police and reporters are there now.”
Ida sank into the kitchen chair and wiped at the sweat beading on her forehead with a dishtowel as she stared out at the night sky. For years, she’d been terrified this day might come.
That the nightmare from her teenage years would start all over again. And here it was about to blow up her life again.
ELEVEN
Green Gardens Cemetery
From the shadows of the rocks and trees, he watched the police scour No Man’s Land for clues he might have left behind. But they would find nothing. He had been careful. Besides, the recent rain would have muddied the scene and washed away any signs he was there.
He aimed his binoculars toward the medical examiner and her coworker in the white lab coat. They were using head lamps and equipment to excavate the girl’s bones. Adrenaline surged through him. He hadn’t meant for her to be found so soon but it would raise the stakes if the town was on edge. The idea of wandering through the streets with the locals undetected while he watched the fear grow on their faces, especially the young girls and their mothers, exhilarated him.
A smile curved his mouth at the sight of that detective’s frown. Detective Ellie Reeves. He’d seen her on the news before. She was known for tracking down killers but even she wouldn’t pin this on him. After all, he had gotten away with murder before.
More than once. And he would do it again and again and laugh at her as she failed.
He turned in a wide arc, his pulse racing as he stared into the woods. That coal mountain fire had made the graveyard here famous. But little did anyone know that the surrounding area was a graveyard of his own making.
That more bones dotted the parched land. And more would go in the ground to keep those company.
A limb crackled and footsteps echoed in the distance. He went stone still and held his breath as he listened. Brush rustled and he aimed his binoculars to the right. A shaggy-haired man in a ranger’s shirt pointed a flashlight his way.
He hunched behind a big boulder and waited until the guy passed, then decided to get the hell out of here. He could always come back and visit the graves another time.
He smiled at the thought.
TWELVE
Crooked Creek
By the time Ellie and Cord left, exhaustion tugged at Ellie’s body. She’d grown complacent the last few months and reveled into sinking into bed with Cord, making love and falling asleep in his arms.
