Guilt twinged at Kat’s insides. Maybe if her mama hadn’t gotten knocked up with her, she would have found a way to further her education or at least learn a trade. As it was, she was stuck here and dependent on her daddy’s paycheck.
And he never let her forget it.
She vowed to do better, to never let a man rule her life, and when she decided she’d crawl in bed with some guy,if ever, she’d double up the birth control. Right now she had zero interest indoing the nasty—her mother’s description when she’d had the big talk that every girl dreaded with their mother.
She settled back on her bed with a bag of chocolate chip cookies, bowing out of kitchen chores claiming she had a history project due, which gave her a valid excuse to be on the computer if one of her parents poked their head into her room to make sure she was tucked inside and behaving herself. Mama would be especially irate if she realized Kat was reading her high school journal.
Although it felt naughty to spy on her mama, she was enthralled to hear about her teenage antics.
Kat set her water bottle on the side table and opened Mama’s laptop, keeping hers on the bed beside it in case she needed to do a quick switcharoo.
Leaning back against her giant stuffed bunny rabbit, she scrolled to another installment.
Today some of the kids at school decided to sneak over to the graveyard and Hetty and I crept outside and watched them as they spray painted the gravestones. Daddy was going to be mad because he was caretaker of the graveyard and headstones and would have to scrub and clean them off before the families came to visit.
He’d probably make me and Hetty do it. Or Joe who’d started working with him a while back. I don’t understand why he took the job but I heard he lived with his grandma and probably needed the money.
Hetty and I hunkered in the shadows and tried to see who was up to all the shenanigans. Hunky Clint Wallace was one of them. Every girl in school has a crush on him. I wish I didn’t because he’s so stuck up but I can’t help it.
Then that bitch Ruth was there, laughing and talking about me and Hetty being weirdos because we lived by the graves.
“No wonder they’re so pale,” Ruth whispered. “I heard their daddy makes them sleep in the freshly turned graves.” She sprayed the words devil’s child in red paint across one of the graves. “Maybe they’re even vampires and drink the blood of the dead.”
“Most people are embalmed so they’re blood has already been drained from them,” Jason, one of the baseball players, pointed out.
“Then they’re zombies,” Ruth’s friend Marnie said. “Especially that Hetty. I see her out here digging with her Uncle Earl. My parents say she’s touched in the head, that she might have been poisoned by the toxins and that’s why she’s so strange.”
“Ida is the dumb one,” another one of Ruth’s friends said. “You know she has a crush on you, Clint.”
Kat froze, her mind racing. Mama had had a crush on Clint but Clint was Ruth Higgins’ boyfriend? He was the sheriff now? What had happened?
Hoping to find out, she continued reading.
Clint pulled Ruth up to him, wrapped his arm around her and gave her a lip lock. “But you’re my girl, Ruth,” he said as he kissed her neck.
“I’m not worried,” Ruth said with a giggle. “I know you’d never go for white trash like Hetty or Ida Bramble.”
“That mean bitch,” Hetty whispered. “We oughta kill her.”
SEVENTY-ONE
Briar Ridge Mobile Homes
Tilly was still shaken from her confrontation with the sheriff as she drove away from the police station. She’d known coming back to Brambletown would be difficult, even dangerous, but if she uncovered the truth about what happened to her sister, it was worth the risk. Still, Clint’s warning echoed in her head.
Night had set in, the winds picking up and beating at her car, and traffic was minimal. She made a snap decision to stop by Ida’s house and point blank ask her where her father was. Although Clint’s relationship with Ruth raised flags in her mind, Earl Bramble was and had always been the primary suspect in her sister’s disappearance.
After Ruth went missing, two other girls in school told the sheriff that he’d been watching them and following them when they’d come to the cemetery to visit a family member. Ida and Hetty had admitted he was mean, and Tilly had heard the school counselor reported bruises on Hetty that she suspected came from Earl. Ms. Maeve claimed she saw him shove Hetty more than once when she took flowers to her beloved deceased husband’s grave.
Tilly had never been to Ida’s or Hetty’s homes, and noting the state of the run-down mobile home park, she felt sorry for Ida.
She’d told her sister that Ida and Hetty’s low-income lifestyle wasn’t their fault and to be kinder to her, but Ruth was stuck on herself and savored the attention their father gave her, taking advantage of his wallet to keep herself decked out in expensive outfits, shoes, purses and makeup.
Tilly pulled into the graveled parking lot past three mobile homes until she found Ida’s place. Mud streaked the side of the beige exterior and the yard was overgrown and unkempt. Obviously neither Ida nor her husband, Joe, were gardeners like Hetty.
Hoping Ida would open up to her seemed futile, but she had to take a stab at it. Taking a deep breath for courage, she walked up the graveled drive, climbed the two steps to the front door and knocked. The wind tossed her hair in her eyes, and she pushed the strands to the side and tapped her foot as she waited.
A noise sounded inside then the door squeaked open. Ida’s husband, Joe, stood in the doorway, staring down at her. In high school, Joe had been fairly good-looking, but he’d gained about thirty pounds, his hair was receding and his belly hung over his faded blue jeans.
