“Not really,” Sue Ann said. “Jay’s grandparents’ve passed on, and he isn’t really close to any of his kin, not even his dad. He would’ve sent me a text message if he was fixin’ to go somewhere overnight. I guess it’s possible that Jay and Abby are sexually active and he lied about it. But even if that’s true, why wouldn’t they just use the apartment to be together? He knows Reggie and I won’t be home until Monday. He’s got the place all to himself.”
Virgil leaned on the squad car and noticed that a group of curious onlookers was beginning to gather. “Mrs. Stump, are you aware that Jay and Abby have been looking for a girl that Abby thinks could be her missing sister?”
“No … this is the first I’m hearing about it. Tell me more.”
Virgil told her everything he knew about Abby and Jay’s search for a little girl named Ella.
“We haven’t been able to locate this child yet,” Virgil said. “We’re doing everything we can to track her down.”
“And you think she’s the reason Jay and Abby are missing?”
“We think there might be a connection, ma’am. We just don’t know yet. But I assure you, we’re doing everything in our power to find out.”
“Should I be concerned enough to cut my honeymoon short?”
“That’s your call,” Virgil said. “Jay and Abby could surface at any time with a logical explanation. But right now, we’re acting on the missing-person report that Mrs. Cummings filed on Abby. And we think it’s likely that Jay’s with her.”
There was a long moment of dead air.
“Mrs. Stump, are you there?” Virgil said.
“Of course I’m here. I need a minute, okay? I’m about to go tell Richie the honeymoon’s over. I can tell you right now, that’s not gonna sit well.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Not as sorry as I am,” Sue Ann said. “We’ll catch the next flight home. But if Jay went somewhere and didn’t tell me, I’m gonna wring his fool neck.”
“Call us when you get here. In the meantime, we know how to reach you.”
Virgil disconnected the call. He probably should have given Jay’s mother a heads-up about the mass grave they found. But why worry her when there was no indication that discovery was related in any way to Jay and Abby’s disappearance?
;
Abby held her sister’s face and looked into her eyes. “Did Isaiah kill someone?”
A tear trickled down Ella’s cheek. “I ain’t supposed to talk about it.”
“He won’t know,” Abby said. “It might make you feel better to tell someone.”
“No, it won’t!” Ella buried her face in Abby’s chest. “I swore I wouldn’t.”
“Doesn’t matter what he did before,” Jay said. “He’s not about to go to prison for kidnapping, and the only way to cover his tracks is to get rid of the three of us. We need to find a way out of here.”
Abby wondered what her sister had seen in her young life to make her so afraid. In the long stretch of silence that followed, Abby figured everyone’s mind was reeling with the realization that they had no options.
Finally Ella’s voice broke the quiet. “Abby … was my real ma and pa mean?”
“No. They loved you very much. Mama still does. She just doesn’t know where you are. She’s been very, very sad about that.”
“How did my real pa die?”
Abby glanced over at Jay. “A shooting accident. Isaiah knew about it and must’ve taken you home with him. Raised you as his. But you’re not his.”
“I ain’t Otha’s neither.”
Abby kissed the top of her sister’s head and stroked her musty, tangled hair, remembering when it was soft as silk and smelled like baby shampoo. “You’re ours. You’re a Cummings. It must be confusing right now. The one important thing to remember is that there are lots of people who love you.”
“Tell me agin my real name.”
“Riley Jo Cummings.”
“I like Ella Tutt better.”
Abby wet her finger and wiped the smudges off her sister’s cheek. “That’s okay. Maybe your real name will grow on you after you get used to hearing it.”
“How am I gonna get used to it if we’re all dead?”
“Shhh, don’t say that.” Abby pulled her sister closer so she wouldn’t have to look into her eyes. “We’re still here, aren’t we? And as long as we’re here, there’s hope. Father, You know where we are. Please send someone to find us.”
Ella pushed back and looked up at Abby, her eyebrows scrunched. “Who’re you talkin’ to?”
“God.”
“Granny Faye says He lives way up in the sky—in heaven—where