Ellie stepped into the hall with Shondra and explained what happened. “Gayle got away. I need to talk to her husband and see if he has any idea where she’d go. Will you stand watch here in case she shows up to retaliate against Priscilla?”
“Of course.” Shondra’s eyes glittered with emotions.
Ellie breathed out in relief. “I’m supposed to go to Vera’s for Christmas dinner tomorrow. Do you want to come?”
Shondra fluttered one hand to her chest. “Thanks for the invite, but I have plans. I… started seeing someone. Her name is Jules.”
“Good for you,” Ellie said. “You deserve to be happy, Shondra.”
Shondra’s phone buzzed, and she checked it. “It’s her now. Merry Christmas.”
“You, too.” Shondra disappeared down the hall, and Ellie went to the nurse’s station and asked where Gooding’s room was.
“Room three-oh-six,” the desk nurse said.
Ellie thanked her then rode the elevator to the third floor. There was a sheriff’s deputy posted outside room 306. As she entered the room, Dr. Gooding was staring out the window looking desolate, resigned to him and his wife both being in serious trouble.
“Did you find the girls?” he asked as he pivoted to talk to her.
She nodded. “We did. She was at the Lundy house, but we stopped her from taking Sarah.”
Tears filled his eyes. “And Gayle?”
“She got away,” Ellie said. “We’re looking for her and staking out your home. Do you have any idea where she might go?”
“It’s all my fault,” he said in a tortured voice. “I never should have taken Piper to Cattail Cove.”
“It’s not your fault,” Ellie said softly. “It was a terrible, awful accident. And I’m so sorry for you and Gayle. But right now, she’s panicked, and we need to find her before she hurts someone else.” Or herself.
He pinched the bridge of his nose, then ran his hand over his bandaged head. “All she kept saying was that she wanted to be with Piper for Christmas. That she couldn’t live without her.”
A sense of foreboding rippled through Ellie. “Piper’s buried at White Lilies, isn’t she?”
His eyes sharpened, as he must have read her mind. “Oh, dear God. Yes, beneath the angel statue. That’s where she’s going.”
Of course. Ellie dragged her keys from her pocket.
Ellie spun around, told the deputy where she was going and texted Derrick.
He responded: Just getting to the hospital.
She sent a return text: Pick me up outside the ER entrance. I know where Gayle is going.
Heart in her throat, Ellie jogged to the elevator, rode it down to the ER floor, then ran outside. The snow had stopped falling, but at least three inches covered the ground and the wind was howling as if crying out Gayle’s pain.
Derrick rolled up in the Jeep and she jumped inside. “White Lilies Cemetery, across from Haints.”
A grim look darkened Derrick’s eyes, but he pressed the accelerator and sped from the parking lot. The cemetery was only a few miles away, but it felt like a hundred as he maneuvered the icy roads and fought to keep the Jeep on the road. The church bells were ringing as they reached the chapel by the graveyard, a few twinkling stars breaking through the pockets of snow clouds as if to offer light to the dreary day.
Derrick veered onto the narrow drive that wound through the graveyard and followed it until she spotted Gayle’s van.
Parking behind her, they both drew their guns. Senses honed, Ellie scanned the graveyard for the angel statue. The small snow-covered tombstone markers, cherub and dove statues and the trickling waterfall looked almost surreal, but sadness and grief hovered in the air as if the innocent children lingered, running and playing chase in the gardens.
“Silas said Piper is buried near the angel statue.” Ellie pointed it out and she and Derrick rushed toward it, weaving through the rows of graves. As she neared the statue, cold sweat beaded on her skin. She halted, her boots digging into the damp earth. Derrick made a strangled sound behind her as he stopped on her heels.
A profound sense of loss overwhelmed Ellie. They were too late.
Gayle Gooding lay face down, her hand outstretched on the nameplate carved into the small grave marker, bright red blood streaking the snow all around her body.
Gayle had finally found peace and gotten what she wanted—she would be with her daughter for Christmas.