Page 82 of The Sleeping Girls
Another section of graves and then he’d be there with her.
But as he crested the hill, a parked police car slipped into view. His hands tightened on the steering wheel and his lungs screamed for air. A man in uniform climbed out.
Deputy Heath Landrum. Not someone he wanted to see or be seen by now.
Sweat exploded on his skin and he turned his car at the fork and moved on. But fury burned in his gut.
His need to finish this thrived deep in his belly.
Tonight, he’d take Bianca. Then he could end it.
NINETY-ONE
CROOKED CREEK POLICE STATION
As soon as Ellie entered, she looked for Deputy Landrum but he was not at his desk. Sensing he was avoiding her, she called his number.
He didn’t answer, so she left another terse message. “Landrum, get into the office ASAP. We need to talk.”
“I called this morning to check on Caitlin O’Connor,” Derrick said. “She’s still unconscious.”
Ellie sighed. They needed her to wake up and identify her attacker.
“Last night, I did some digging into her prior podcast series and discovered the reason she works with the Innocence Project,” Derrick said as they spread their breakfast on the table in the corner of her office. “She served time in the pen herself. An attorney with the Innocence Project helped clear her.”
“Ahh, so helping others became her passion project,” Ellie said as she bit into her sausage and cheese biscuit.
Derrick sipped his coffee. “Yeah. I also spoke to Joleen Hunt, the female attorney who works with Caitlin. She sang Caitlin’s praises, claimed she had no enemies. She’d worked three cases before Digger’s and was successful each time.”
“Then none of the inmates she represented had reason to kill her,” Ellie said, still mulling over Digger’s motive.Innocent until proven guilty, she reminded herself.
“I also asked Ms. Hunt to send over any notes or information she had on Digger then I did some research on him. Mary Landrum, Digger’s mother, left him and the family the week before her daughter’s murder.”
“I read that in the police report,” Ellie said. Which meant Heath had only been eleven when his mother deserted the family.
“According to the prison warden, the only visitor Woodruff had in the fifteen years of his incarceration was Ms. O’Connor.”
Ellie tilted her head in thought. “You mean Heath never visited him?”
Derrick shook his head. “Not even once.”
“Hmm. I guess there’s no love lost between them.” So why would he cover for Digger now? “I would have thought as he got older, he’d want to talk to him, find out why he killed his sister.”
“Maybe he was too traumatized by the murder,” Derrick suggested.
“What about Heath’s father?” Ellie asked, her mind beginning to race.
“According to the police report, his name is Gilbert, AKA Gil, Landrum,” Derrick said. “As Landrum said, Gil works for Red Clay Mountain Construction.”
“We need to talk to him,” Ellie said.
Her phone buzzed. Dr. Whitefeather. She quickly connected and put it on speaker so Derrick could hear. “You have news for me, Laney?”
“Yes, confirming that Kelsey was smothered. The fibers on the pillow match one from the interior of her mouth.”
The poor baby had probably bitten it when the killer had crammed it over her face.
“There’s something else that’s interesting,” Laney said.