“Ellie?” Derrick said.
She jerked her mind back to reality. She’d deal with Cord later. Right now, she had a girl to save.
Focus on that.
“Yeah, I’m going in.” She opened the Jeep door, braced herself for whatever she found—did Ida know her father was dead? That Joe’s prints were on the scarves and shoes connected to the dead girls?
That her husband might actually be a killer.
All along they’d wondered if she’d covered for her father. What if she’d covered for her boyfriend back then? And her husband now?
She didn’t want to believe it. Ida had a teenage daughter. Would she really keep quiet if she knew her own husband was targeting other teens? Especially Kat’s friend?
Or could Ida be blind to it all?
Ellie inhaled a sharp breath and walked to the door while Derrick called the trucking company. With a heavy fist, she knocked. Inside, a tea kettle whistled. A light flickered on in the kitchen. Feet shuffled.
By the time the door squeaked open, Derrick appeared behind her. Ida stared at them, her eyes red rimmed, her face puffy as if she hadn’t slept all night. Or she’d been upset.
“Ida, we need to talk.”
Ida nodded as if she’d been expecting them. Maybe she did know about Joe. But if Ida had covered for him, she was complicit, too.
Ida waved them in and gestured to the kitchen table, then poured everyone a cup of hot tea and brought it to them. She set sugar and milk on the table. Ellie took sugar but Derrick shook his head in offering.
She swallowed a sip, then began. “Ida, we found your father’s body last night. It looks like he’s been dead for years, maybe since he supposedly left town.”
Ida’s spoon rattled in her tea cup as she stirred a mountain of sugar into it. She didn’t speak, but her glazed eyes showed no surprise.
“Did you know he was dead?” Ellie asked softly.
Ida lowered her head face down into her hands on a moan.
Ellie gave her a moment to compose herself, then asked. “You were dating Joe back then, weren’t you?”
Ida’s eyes widened and she nodded, confusion clouding her face.
“Did Joe kill your father because your father murdered Ruth?”
“W… what? N… no.”
Kat suddenly burst into the room. “It’s not Daddy’s fault,” she cried. “Grandaddy abused Hetty and he dragged her into the woods and was going to kill her that night.”
Ellie’s gaze swung from Ida to Kat. “You mean Joe killed Earl because he abused Hetty?”
“No…” Kat whispered. “It wasn’t?—”
“Be quiet, Kat!” Ida yelled.
“But, Mama, the police will understand. You were protecting Hetty…”
Ida shot daggers with her eyes toward Kat. “How do you know about that, Kat?”
Fear wrenched Kat’s face. “I found your journal, the one on your computer that you wrote back then.”
Ellie’s pulse quickened. She hadn’t seen that coming. If it was true though, she’d need the computer for evidence. “You killed your father, Ida?”
She moaned as tears spilled over. “He was so awful to Hetty, and everyone was sure he killed Ruth and… I couldn’t walk outside without some reporter taking my picture or asking questions and the kids at school were horrible.” Her sob wrenched the air. “He was getting more and more violent, and Hetty and I would hide in our room to get away from him. When he grabbed Hetty by the hair that night and dragged her to one of the graves he’d dug, I knew he was going to kill her…” Her voice cracked. “I had to save her.”
