over her shoulder and Ellie, stomach in knots, for the first time spotted her parents huddled together in the back corner of the room.
Maude lifted a haughty head and strutted past Ellie, with Carol Sue, Lily and other gossipmongers trailing after her like a brood of hens.
Derrick took Ellie’s arm, guiding her to their booth.
From the back of the café where her parents sat, she heard crying, before her mother jumped up from the table and ran out the back door.
Pulse racing, Ellie’s gaze met her father’s worried one, then he chased after her. At the back door, she heard raised voices and saw Philip Paulson, the father of one of the Ghost’s victims, and another man she didn’t recognize accost her dad.
So much pain caused by Hiram, she thought with a heavy heart. She wanted to talk to him today. Make him look her in the eye and see if he was behind these latest murders. If he had an accomplice or had garnered an apprentice.
“I heard you’re making a deal,” Paulson shouted. “How can they let you off for letting our little girls die?”
“Let’s get food to go,” Ellie muttered as she saw Angelica Gomez rush from her table to cover the debacle. “I want to question Hiram and see if he has something to do with this.”
Fifty-Six
Somewhere on the AT
He could not fight the demons inside him any longer. They ate at him like live beasts, tormenting him with the need to get justice for the one he hadn’t been able to save.
Gripping the woman’s face so tightly he thought her jawbone might crack, he stooped down to look at her. She disgusted him. They all did. “Do you know why I chose you, Cathy?”
Her hazel eyes were glazed with shock and defiance. “My name is not Cathy,” she snarled. “Now, let me go.”
“The only place you’re going to is hell.” His laughter boomed off the concrete walls, and he fastened the metal collar around her neck, making sure the chain was securely attached. She dug her fingernails into his gloved hands and spat at him.
“You bitch,” he said, giving her a hard slap across the face. “You’re a fighter, aren’t you?”
“Is that how you get off?” she asked as she turned a hate-filled look toward him. “Beating up on women?”
He dragged her toward the cage. “You talk like you’re some fucking saint.” He raised the whip and slapped it across her back. “Thursday’s child has far to go. But you’re going to hell, Cathy.”
He shoved her in the cage, then locked it. “You know what the Ten Commandments are, don’t you?” His laugh boomed from him. “You must not, because you didn’t obey them.”
Fifty-Seven
Bluff County Prison
An hour later, after Ellie and Derrick downed their dinner, they arrived at the county prison where Hiram was being held until he could be transferred to a federal facility. “Let’s get this over with,” Derrick said as he climbed from the car.
“You don’t have to go in there and face him after everything he did to you. I can handle it,” Ellie said, reaching out and touching his arm.
Derrick’s gaze locked with hers. “I was going to tell you the same thing, Ellie. After all, he tried to kill you.”
Ellie licked her suddenly dry lips. He didn’t have to remind her what Hiram had done. All the sweet children’s lives lost because of her. “All the more reason to confront him. I want to show him I’m not afraid of him anymore. And if he’s somehow pulling strings from in here to help this killer, or if they were working together, then I want to know.”
When they reached the front steps of the prison, Angelica Gomez was exiting the building. Damn, the reporter seemed to be everywhere they were.
Ellie’s first instinct was to run, but the reporter might have persuaded Hiram to talk about an accomplice in the Ghost murders, so she forged ahead.
“Detective Reeves, Special Agent Fox, nice to see you,” Angelica said.
Ellie couldn’t say the same. “You just interviewed Hiram?”
Angelica nodded, tucking a strand of her long ebony hair behind one ear. Her coal black pantsuit and heels looked expensive and sophisticated, out of place against the aging stone prison walls behind her.
“He’s interesting,” Angelica said. “He wants me to tell his side of the story.”
Ellie stiffened. “Interesting? That’s a strange choice of word for a serial killer. Did he give you any information about a possible accomplice?”
Angelica shook her head. “He mostly wanted to talk about his