This time I’d do my best to let both know something was wrong, that someone was preying on teens.
I glanced at my watch-almost two A.M. I had three hours before my grandmother arose and addressed the sun. I could make it to Milwaukee -or close to it-and be back before anyone noticed my absence. But I wouldn’t have time to complete the second task-not tonight. The Amazons would have to wait. I’d need a full night to make it to the northern Illinois woods where the closest safe camp was located and be back home before dawn.
After taking one last moment to mourn her death, I flipped the girl’s body over my shoulder and trudged to my truck.
At some point I was going to have to try and interpret what message the killer was sending me by depositing the girls on my front steps, but for now I had an even more solemn job to complete.
Chapter Two
“They found another girl’s body today.” Mother spoke from over my shoulder. She was concentrating on the small TV perched on our kitchen counter.
The camera focused on a body bag being lifted onto a portable gurney and wheeled to the back of a hearse-type vehicle. I picked up the remote and flipped off the morning news.
“Unfortunately.” I shifted my gaze to my bowl of Cheerios and waited for Mother to step away.
She didn’t.
“Aren’t you worried?”
My mind lurched. Had she seen me? I glanced up at her, searching for some sign that she’d witnessed my early morning mission, but she just blinked down at me, her gray eyes void of any accusation.
Worried-by the deaths, she meant. I inhaled and willed myself to relax.
“Neither of the girls were found here…in Madison,” I replied, my eyes focusing on my cereal to cover my lie. A Cheerio slipped off my spoon and escaped back into the pool of milk.
“Yet,” Mother countered.