Serve and Protect (Heroes of Evers, Texas #3) by Lori Ryan

Author:Lori Ryan [Ryan, Lori]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: SilverHart Publishing
Published: 2016-04-26T04:00:00+00:00

* * *

Ashley stood in Bill Franks’ backyard and watched, flanked by her mother and Cora. She hadn’t been able to stop shaking since she’d told Cora and Garret her story, and she had to fight not to turn and run from the place she’d never wanted to return to. When Garret had called to say they’d be executing the warrant and asked her if she wanted to be there, her gut reaction had been to say no. But her mother and Cora convinced her to go. They believed it would be cathartic. She wasn’t sure. Images from her time here flashed through her head faster than she could process them, each bringing a fresh wave of fear and shame. She felt sick to her stomach, and the need to look over her shoulder for Bill Franks wouldn’t go away, even though she knew he wasn’t there.

Garret had consulted a forensics expert who felt there would be enough of the skeleton of her baby left to test for DNA. He had also talked to the DA, who said he might be willing to bring charges of manslaughter against Franks for killing the infant when he beat Ashley. It was too late to charge him for statutory rape. She didn’t know what to feel about any of that yet.

Bill Franks and his girlfriend, Michelle Davis, had been taken into custody for questioning before Ashley had arrived—Franks as a suspect in Alice’s murder, and Davis as a material witness. Ashley was just happy not to have to see Franks. She couldn’t have handled that right now. She was barely holding it together as it was.

As she stood to the side, she watched the coroner remove the large concrete blocks that lay over the grave. A half hour later, he began to remove bones, and the empty ache she always felt when she thought of her baby came over her.

He didn’t pull out the bundle of towels she’d carefully wrapped her baby in. She supposed that made sense. After ten years, they were probably nothing more than shreds at the bottom of the grave. She hadn’t offered her child much in the way of a burial. The thought of the tattered material struck her hard, as if she’d left her baby exposed. She closed her eyes, not wanting to see the bones being lifted one by one and placed in a cardboard evidence box.

Forgive me.

Garret had said they would need the remains for evidence, but that she would eventually be able to claim the body and bury her daughter properly. That gave her some comfort as she stood there, heart aching with the knowledge that she had failed that little baby. Failed her in so many ways.

Please, please forgive me.

Alice had tried to get Ashley to leave the Franks’ home before, always suspecting there was something going on. Ashley had refused for so many reasons, all of them complex and twisted. But one of the main reasons she hadn’t was because she’d wanted to keep that baby.

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