Page 62 of Deeper Than the Dead

She wagged her head slowly side to side as if it took every ounce of strength she had to respond. “Mrs. Higdon ordered him out of the library.” She rolled her eyes. “The idea that he and I graduated together should have made him nicer to me, under the circumstances. Instead, he treated me like a criminal, demanding answers and making accusations.”

Vera didn’t need to ask what sort of accusations. She could imagine. “Folks will be saying a lot of things about Daddy and your mom,” she said. “About the farm and that cave. About us, too, probably. We have to keep in mind that people talk when something like this happens. It’s not personal. They’re just doing what they do. As for the reporter, there will be more. They will push hard and play all manner of dirty tricks in an effort to get the story. And when they can’t get something to use, sometimes they make it up. So don’t be surprised at what you hear and see—even from people you thought you knew. Just remember that it will go away eventually. Something else will happen to distract them. We just have to be strong enough to ride it out.”

Luna drew in a big breath and nodded. “Okay. But I would stay away from the library if I was that sort of reporter.” She gave Vera a knowing look. “Mrs. Higdon carries a tiny little pistol in her purse, and she insists she knows how to use it.”

Vera made a face. “Really? Well, I suppose—given the circumstances—that’s ... handy.” She couldn’t think of anything else to say, and the goal here was to calm Luna down, not tell her that her boss might be a little off her rocker.

“Lots of folks carry weapons,” Eve reminded her sisters. “This isn’t the big city.”

Vera had nothing against weapons or those who owned them, as long as they were mentally balanced, properly trained, and smart about the handling and storage. It was the mentally balanced part that worried Vera where Mrs. Higdon was concerned. She was just as likely to go off half-cocked—no pun intended—as not.

“I’m aware,” she said to Eve, before going on. “We should warn Hillside not to allow anyone at all to talk to Daddy unless one of us is there. We’ve already seen there’s no telling what he might say.” He’d proved that again when Bent questioned him.

“I called them,” Luna said. “Right after Nolan—the reporter, Nolan Baker—left the library. I was terrified he’d go there next.”

Vera’s mouth gaped. “Carl Baker’s boy Nolan?”

Luna nodded.

“I can tell you,” Vera warned, “he inherited that mean streak from his mother. She was awful back in high school.” She turned to Eve. “You remember her? Elizabeth Bogus—Baker now. She was two years ahead of me, I think. When Mama died, she made fun of the dress I wore to the funeral. She always thought she was better than everyone else. Always winning beauty pageants. She thought she owned the world.”

“I remember her, and she was mean as a snake,” Eve agreed, then she grinned. “Her nickname was Boggie.”

Vera almost snorted. That was the thing about small towns. Everyone knew everyone else. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

“What did Bent tell you? Is there anything new?” Luna asked, drawing her back to the more pressing conversation.

Vera studied her sister for a moment. She could lie and say there was no news. It would be a little bit before an update was issued in the media. But what was the point? It was coming. She’d already told Eve. Luna might as well brace herself as well.

“There are a total of four sets of remains.”

“Oh my God,” Luna wailed. “How is that even possible? You said the cave was really small. How could they not have seen the other sets of remains right at the beginning? Oh my God. I have to call Jerome.”

Before Vera could explain, Luna rushed from the room in a fit of tears. Maybe ripping off the bandage so quickly hadn’t been the best idea.

“Jerome’s parents are Baptist,” Eve explained. “This is not going to go over well with them. They already think Luna is not the perfect girl for their son because she might have inherited some of her mama’s tendencies.”

“Well they’re idiots,” Vera grumbled. Then she listened for a few seconds to ensure their younger sister had gone upstairs. Once she heard Luna’s bedroom door slam, she turned to Eve. “I want you to think long and hard before you answer my next questions, Eve. I need the whole truth.”

Eve’s eyebrows reared up. “What does that even mean? Why would I lie to you? Haven’t we had this same conversation like three times already?”

Vera struggled to tamp down the frustration and half a dozen other emotions welling inside her. She glanced in the direction Luna had disappeared and lowered her voice to a stage whisper. “Bent thinks there are two killers. Sheree’s and whoever killed the other three. The TBI is still tossing around the serial killer theory, but Bent isn’t buying it.”

Eve nodded slowly. “I told you he’s a good sheriff. Even though right now I sort of wish he wasn’t.”

Vera hesitated but then decided there could be no secrets between her and Eve. “I’m pretty sure he thinks it was Daddy who killed Sheree.”

“Maybe that’s a good thing,” Eve suggested. “It’s not like they would put him in jail.”

Vera couldn’t deny having had similar thoughts, but it was just wrong. Before she could say as much, Eve started talking again.

“Has he figured out how someone who isn’t part of our family would know about the cave? West isn’t the only teenager who has lived close by during the time frame we’re looking at. He has a thirty-year-old brother. You remember Wyman? He was a real shithead. Those two may have taken plenty of friends into that cave.”

Vera struggled to draw to mind what would have been an eight- or nine-year-old kid when she left for college. “Eve, that makes no sense. Wyman would have been a little kid when the first two victims were put there.”

“Oh.” Eve frowned. “Right. Then what about his daddy? He could have told someone,” she insisted, her chin lifted defiantly. “We should face the fact that no matter what we did, someone was doing it before us.”

There was one question related to this new development Vera had to ask. “Did you”—her throat felt bone dry—“decide to pose Sheree the way you did because you had seen the other bodies?”

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