Nothing like being the most popular girl in town.
Happened every time.
The difference between her and Alicia Appleton was Sarah never got a crown.
After going through her research material and comparing what she’d learned before arriving in Youngstown to what she’d discovered firsthand, Sarah hit the streets. She needed to think without any distractions—particularly Kale Conner.
Without a doubt, she appreciated his rescuing her the night before, but that was the exception to the norm, not the rule. Sarah wasn’t in the habit of needing a rescue. She had been taking care of herself for a very long time.
As if the thought had triggered the wrong file retrieval, memories flooded her brain, swelled in her throat. Her fingers tightened on the steering wheel as she attempted to push them away. Blood-soaked earth. Bones ... so many bones. Rotted dresses. Disintegrating purses. Shoes with broken heels.
Her mind conjured up the image of a little blond-haired girl—needy and vulnerable—hugging her pillow beneath the stairs. The sound of heavy footsteps on the wood floor.
That was a long time ago, she reminded herself. Sarah Newton would never be vulnerable again. And she damned sure didn’t need anyone.
“No way in hell,” she muttered.
Not even a guy who seriously stirred the desire for sex.
That was why she never let anyone close.
It was far too easy to become dependent.
She didn’t like being dependent.
Dependency fostered weakness.
More clips from her childhood flashed in her head. Praying that her mother would come find her before the voices got her. Burrowing her way to the very back of the closet to hide.
“Stupid.”
The voices she later learned were those of her mother’s victims.
The chill seeped deeper into Sarah’s bones.
That was the thing about a really shitty childhood—you learned that prayer was a waste of time.
Sarah braked for a pedestrian crossing the street. She surveyed the village shops that lined the street. The people here were deep in denial. Certain that no one they knew would commit such a heinous deed and that earnest prayer would somehow turn this tragedy around.Didn’t they understand that Alicia Appleton would die soon if she wasn’t found?
According to the police reports she’d reviewed, every registered cave and abandoned or unused structure in the Youngstown area as well as the surrounding woods had been searched repeatedly. Neighboring villages had cooperated by conducting their own searches in similar areas.
With no results.
If it weren’t for the roses, Sarah would take a hard look at the possibility that the kid had hitched a ride to New York. Less than eight hours’ driving distance, it wouldn’t be that difficult. Just risky when one took into account the freaks, kooks, and perverts on the road.
The bus lines, airlines, and trains that served the region had all received the bulletin with her photo as soon as she was reported missing. No one had seen her. If she’d left Youngstown, it hadn’t been via public transportation.
Yet she was nowhere to be found. Alicia Appleton had simply vanished.
There were no suspects. No nothing. Not in Alicia’s case or Valerie’s.
Who hated Valerie Gerard enough to want her dead? Who hadn’t forgotten that she’d won a spelling bee in fourth grade? Who considered her a liar? Chief Willard insisted that friends and family had been interviewed repeatedly and that Valerie had no enemies. But that wasn’t true.
The truth is what it is.
And someone killed Valerie with considerably more hacking than was necessary. Labeled her a liar in her own blood. After viewing all the crime-scene photos, Sarah’s confidence in the investigation had boosted a little. Photos of the victim before her arms and legs had been scraped loose from the stone had been taken. Maybe they’d done a better job than she’d first thought. The newly revealed detail about the missing organs from the victims in the twenty-year-old case confirmed her conclusions that they were unrelated to Valerie’s murder.
Brady Harvey’s sister, Melody, was nineteen. She would have known Valerie. But her mother hadn’t mentioned Valerie’s murder. Only Alicia’s disappearance.
