Page 92 of The Sleeping Girls
Like Kelsey, she used to strum the ukulele and make up funny words and wanted to be a songwriter. She was writing a love song when… it had all fallen apart.
Pain wrenched his insides every time he thought of her. She’d been innocent… until he’d learned the truth.
Kelsey and Ruby… virgins. They were so tempting, seductive in their innocence. Somewhere between a woman and a child.
But they’d made themselves targets with that pact.
Perspiration dotted his neck.
Bianca made no pretense at being innocent. At saving herself. She flirted with all the guys. Was chasing Mitch like her hair was on fire.
Now it was her turn to suffer the consequences.
The scratch she’d made on his arm stung like hell. The little bitch had drawn blood. She’d pay for that.
Grateful for the dark clouds and empty parking lot, he jumped in his vehicle and sped away.
Trees bent in the downpour as the rain intensified. The wind roared like an angry beast, twisting the branches, ripping off limbs and flinging them through the air like matchsticks. Rain pelted the windshield, beating it like a drum and his tires churned through mud, slinging gravel.
He pictured pretty Bianca lying side by side with Ruby, both sleeping, like angels, preserved in their innocence, saved from their unholy families.
A rhyme chimed in his mind.
The little girls lay sleeping, all nestled in bed, with dreams of sugarplums dancing in their heads. Then came the shadows, the prelude to the dead, the innocence destroyed as the seeds of desire spread.
“Soon it’ll all be over,” he whispered. Soon they would sleep forever.
And he would be free to visit Anna Marie any time he wanted.
ONE HUNDRED THREE
HOG HILL ROAD
Cord knew Ellie was beating herself up over losing Kelsey Tiller and was desperate to find Ruby Pruitt. Sometimes he was shocked at the violence and cruelty he’d seen, although he shouldn’t be. He’d grown up enduring unimaginable horrors.
It didn’t diminish the terror the families of those young girls were suffering now or the pain Kelsey and Ruby had endured.
A fierce protectiveness consumed him, eating at his calm and driving him as he searched the Landrums’ old house again. The ERT was usually thorough and didn’t miss much so he didn’t know what Ellie expected him to find. But she’d asked him to come and he’d do anything he could to help her find Ruby and get justice for her and Kelsey.
If this was his own kid missing, he’d be crazy with the need to find him or her.
He studied each angle of the room where Anna Marie had died and where they’d found Kelsey’s body, examining the windows, door and closet, then searched beneath the bed and mattress. He even lay on the floor and crawled under the bed to see if Anna Marie had hidden something beneath like a diary.
Nothing.
He went in and out of each room, focusing first on the girl’s, then Digger’s and Heath’s, and last the parents’. No journals or evidence he could find. No goodbye note from the mother.
Frustration built like a pile of rocks in his chest.
Next, he searched the exterior of the house and property, then the woods again. About a quarter of a mile in, he noticed an old dilapidated treehouse near the creek. It was almost hidden by overgrown brush and weeds. They’d looked for Ruby and Darnell out here but ERT must have overlooked the treehouse. Curious, he walked to it and studied the rotting wood then slowly climbed the ladder, testing each rung with his weight as he did.
When he reached the top, he crawled onto the floor, brushing leaves and twigs from the fallen tree. He imagined Landrum and his sister and brother playing up here or meeting friends. Surveying the tree trunk, he found a carving of a heart with the initials AML & AJ.
AML—Anna Marie Landrum. AJ—who was that? Anna Marie’s boyfriend?
Benji’s bark made him look down and he saw his dog pawing at an overgrown area by the creek water. Curious, Cord climbed down and slogged through the weeds until he saw what Benji was barking at. He’d found something.
Ruby?