for blabbing to Burton. She didn’t know if she could ever forgive him.
“How’s Deputy Eastwood?” he asked gruffly.
“She’s in a bad way, but she’s tough.” Ellie crossed her arms. “You told Burton about the therapist. That’s how he found out everything about his victims.”
A muscle ticked in Bryce’s jaw. “I’m sorry, Ellie. I am. I… didn’t know.”
She shook her head in disgust, walking past him. Burton would have found another way to get to her, but it galled her that the man who’d replaced her father as sheriff had fed a serial killer crucial information.
She’d never trust him again.
Angelica Gomez cornered her father. “Mr. Reeves, is it true that Detective Ellie Reeves is not your biological daughter? That you adopted her?”
Ellie pressed a hand to her mouth––so the truth was out. It could only have been a matter of time, she guessed.
“Ellie is my daughter,” he said gruffly. “That’s all anyone needs to know.”
Angelica didn’t miss a beat, sweeping across the room to Ellie.
Bryce stepped up to intervene, but Angelica elbowed him aside. “I want to hear from Detective Reeves.”
Ellie had been running from the press for weeks, hiding from her problems.
She was tired of running. Head high, and ignoring the pain in her body, she stepped over to make a statement. “Ms. Gomez,” Ellie said. “I can confirm that that information is correct. But my family’s personal life is not important. What is important is that we caught the Weekday Killer.”
Angelica’s eyes glimmered as she aimed the mic toward Ellie. “Please fill us in on the details, Detective.”
Running a hand over her disheveled hair, Ellie looked into the camera and described the hunt for Hugh Burton, and how it had ended with his death.
As her father slipped back down the hall to see her mother, Ellie decided to follow.
“I’ll let Special Agent Fox fill you in on the details,” she said. “Right now, I need to visit my mother.”
Her phone buzzed just as she reached the elevator. A quick glance revealed it was an unknown number, making the hair on the back of her neck prickle.
Her finger shook as she answered the call. “Detective Reeves.”
“Hey, Ellie.”
At the sound of Hiram’s voice, she went completely still.
“First you took Mama, and now Vinny,” he said in a low sinister voice. “You take everyone from me, don’t you?”
“You sent him to kill me.”
“Oh, he offered to do that for me,” Hiram said. “I have other followers now, Ellie. Friends who’ll do anything for me.”
One Hundred Forty-Nine
Rose Hill
Eula Ann stared at the image of Detective Ellie Reeves on the TV, her knitting needles clacking together furiously as she worked off her nerves.
There was something about that girl that got under her skin. Something about the way she tilted her head when she spoke, or was it the tiny little birthmark on her neck?
She hadn’t noticed it before. But when she’d pushed her hair back tonight, there it was. Three tiny little dots below her ear lobe. For a minute she thought they were freckles. And maybe they were.
But the pattern of them was odd. Like something she’d seen before. But no… it couldn’t be…
The storm had died down outside now, the wind settling into a calm.
She looked out at the emerging moon, and spotted the three crows on the power line silhouetted against it. Lord have mercy. Their beady eyes bore holes into her, a sign they knew what she’d done.
And that death was not done on the trail.
Ellie Reeves was doing her darned best to fight it, though. The bruises on her face and hands attested to the fact that she was tough.
But evil had a way of growing and feeding on itself. And Eula feared it would get Ellie in the end.
One Hundred Fifty
Bluff County Hospital
Ellie was still shaken from Hiram’s call as she entered her mother’s hospital room. Machines whined, and her mother’s breathing was so shallow that Ellie had to lean forward to tell she was alive.
A cold sweat beaded Ellie’s skin and she sucked in a breath. It hurt to look at her mother. Her parents’ betrayal had carved a deep wedge between them.
But Vera Reeves was still her mom. At least the only one she’d ever known. She’d tended her wounds when she was little, brought her tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches, fed her ice cream when she had her tonsils removed.
For a brief second, she put herself in Vera’s shoes and her heart gave a pang.
She slowly approached the bed. She wasn’t sure she could