“No.” Kat pulled Carrie Ann to the bed where she opened her mama’s old computer. “I found the laptop Mama had in high school. You know she and that girl who went missing got into a brawl at the DQ.”
Carrie Ann bit her lip and glanced away for a minute. “Yeah, I heard about it,” she said softly.
Of course she had. It was legendary in Brambletown just like the rumors that her grandfather Earl killed Ruth Higgins.
“But that’s not your fault, Kat. You weren’t even born back then.”
Kat’s cheeks flamed. “Doesn’t matter. People still look at me and Mama like we’re roadkill. When they found that girl the other day at the graveyard, I heard some old ladies in town say my granddaddy did it.” She gestured toward the computer. “I thought Mama might have written about what happened back then in her journal.”
“You think she knows where he is or… if he did it?”
Kat shrugged. “Maybe.” She leaned closer and whispered. “She and her cousin Hetty used to play in the graveyard when they were little. If Ruth Higgins was murdered or buried there, they might have seen something.”
Curious excitement glittered in Carrie Ann’s eyes. “Then let’s dig in.”
Somehow it felt wrong to read her mama’s posts, as if she was invading her privacy. But she couldn’t resist. Mama and Hetty whispered things all the time and kept secrets. She wanted to know what they were.
Picking up where she’d left off, Kat clicked on the next entry. She and Carrie Ann put their heads together to read.
Today was the worst. When I opened my locker, dozens of tampons came falling out. It was lunch time, and the entire football team was passing by and the boys burst out laughing. When I stooped down to pick them up and shove them in my backpack, Ruth was watching me with a gleam in her eyes, and I knew she put them there to embarrass me. She’s such a rotten bitch. Just because her daddy is mayor, she thinks she’s better than everyone else.
It felt like hours that the other kids stared at me while I cleaned up all those damn tampons. Ruth smirked and started to walk away, and that pissed me off even more. So I ran over to her and dumped the tampons on her head.She yelled at me and the principal came by and saw what happened and ordered me to go to his office. Ruth just stood there and acted like some innocent dummy. In the principal’s office, I tried to explain but he wouldn’t listen and then he called Daddy and sent me home for the day.
Daddy was furious when he got there, and he smelled like whiskey and sweat and drove like a maniac, yelling at me the whole way home.
Sometimes I hate him and want to run away. Hetty and I planned it once, but that night Hetty smarted off to him and he slapped her. Now she’s too scared to do anything but what he says. I used to think he was nice to let her live with us, but he’s even meaner to her than to me and that wasn’t the first time he’d hit her.
Daddy ordered me to go to my room and not to come out. I slammed the door and stayed there fuming and beating my pillow like I was beating Ruth.
Sometimes I get so mad at her, I want to kill her.
SIXTY-FOUR
Watkinsville, Georgia
“The Wards are divorced, but the wife lives here in Watkinsville and teaches at the elementary school,” Derrick said as Ellie parked in front of a gorgeous two-story gray Victorian. Flowerbeds dotted the front lawn with pansies dancing in the breeze.
“Where’s the father?” she asked as they climbed from her Jeep and walked up the steps to the front porch.
A fat black and white cat lay curled on the porch swing, and windchimes played a symphony as a gust of wind blew through. Derrick rang the doorbell and seconds later a woman in a blue sweater and black slacks opened the door. A blond golden retriever ran up beside her, barking.
The woman’s eyes had looked bright when she opened the door, but her smile faded instantly when she realized they were police. She hushed the dog and Ellie introduced them.
“Why are you here?” she asked in a raw whisper as she strained to look over their shoulders. “Did you bring Jacey home?”
Ellie’s eyes burned with unshed tears. “I’m afraid not.”
Mrs. Ward’s face wilted. “But… she called this morning and left a message that she was coming home.”
Ellie swallowed back a sob. This part never got easier. “May we come in?”
The woman nodded shakily and led them through a set of French doors to a homey living room decorated in greens and cream colors. A fire burned in the stone fireplace. Several photos of Jacey at various ages were displayed on the rustic wood mantle.
Mrs. Ward sank into a club chair and her dog settled beside her as if to protect her.
“You said Jacey called and was coming home this morning?” Derrick asked.
Jacey’s mother nodded, tears glistening in her eyes. “I was at my prayer group, but she left a message.”
