Page 45 of Deeper Than the Dead

Eve stared at the screen, then blinked. “Yeah. I got one of those too.”

Vera’s jaw dropped. “And you didn’t tell me?”

Eve shrugged. “I just told you. And you just told me about yours.”

True. But Vera had only just gotten hers like five minutes ago. “When did you get yours?”

Eve checked her cell. Showed Vera the screen. Four seventeen. Only two minutes after Vera received hers.

God, she wanted a drink. Something to steady herself, but she couldn’t go there. It wouldn’t be fair to her sister. Who the hell would be sending messages like this? No one knew ... at least not if Eve was to be believed. Was it someone toying with them? Someone who hoped to prompt a response of some sort?

Eve searched her face. “They found another set of remains. Really?”

This was her reaction? Really?

Vera reached deep for calm. “Really. The latest victim was male and appears to have been put in the cave three or four years ago.”

“Shit.” Eve’s eyes widened with something like surprise.

Vera studied her pupils. Had she been smoking pot? She was way too calm. The truth was, Vera could only control so much, and there was even less she could do. Particularly if Eve wasn’t being completely forthcoming.

Just keep going. “The females were all posed exactly like Sheree. But not the male. Apparently he was shoved into a crevice.” Vera closed her eyes a moment. Dear God, she couldn’t get the image of Eve posing Sheree out of her head. Just a kid trying to make this dead woman look like the people in the coffins at all those damned viewings they’d attended. Vera had rounded up and placed the rocks. Eve had run back outside to gather wildflowers to put on the rocks.

All the while the bodies of two other women had been only a dozen or so feet away.

Who the hell had been using their cave? Even before they did?

Vera’s heart pummeled her sternum.

This was insane. She had to sit down. She shuffled into the living room and collapsedm into the nearest chair. “I don’t understand.” She watched as Eve came into the room and settled onto the sofa. “How the hell could this happen? How could we not know about the others?”

This part—this unbelievable escalating development—was far more troubling than some jerk sending the two of them messages. The messages could be some fool playing games.

“No clue,” Eve said, her voice sounding weary of the subject, her face equally so. “But whoever did this seems to know we were the ones who put Sheree there.” She shook her head. “I mean, the text messages sort of suggest that’s the case. What else could they mean?”

Eve had a valid point. Vera scrubbed at her forehead. “Who could possibly know what we did?”

More importantly, who could have been killing people and leaving their bodies in that damned cave on their damned farm?

Take a breath. This was not the time to lose it.

“I’ve racked my brain, and nothing comes to mind.” Eve stared at her cell. “This is really crazy. Who would hate us this much? Enough to try and run me off the road and to send these messages?”

Oh Jesus. Vera had put the event at the curve completely out of her mind after learning about the other remains. Maybe the driver actually had been nothing more than an idiot who’d been preoccupied with his phone and ran to avoid the insurance and legal issues of an accident. Then again, what if the driver was the person who killed those other victims? Had he watched their inept efforts with Sheree? Had he gotten a good laugh? Or was he pissed that their carelessness—compared to his disposal of victims—had caused his work to be discovered?

“If they’re connected,” Vera ventured, “the accident and the text messages, then we’re in over our heads and we’re going to need help.”

“You want to tell Bent what we did?”

That was the last thing she wanted to do. “I honestly have no idea what to do.”

“Well,” Eve offered, “considering you’re a cop yourself with fifteen years’ experience, if you don’t know what to do, I sure as hell don’t know what to do.”

Vera rolled her eyes. “On an ethical and cognitive level, I know what to do, Eve. I just don’t know what to do on an emotional level. This was always about protecting you. Now it’s grown into something far larger.”

“Now it’s about protecting you too,” Eve suggested.

“Clearly.” Vera hated that she sounded sarcastic, but it wasn’t necessary for her sister to point out the obvious. Eve was likely thinking the same way. They couldn’t go down that path. Playing the blame game wouldn’t help. “What happened was an accident,” Vera went on. “If I’d been the one at home that day, it would have probably turned out the same way.”

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