The Lost Girls of Willowbrook by Ellen Marie Wiseman

Author:Ellen Marie Wiseman [Wiseman, Ellen Marie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-06-23T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

A bitter wind whipped across the snow-covered campus, stinging Sage’s eyes and pushing tears across her cheeks as she ran. After spending so much time inside the dark walls of Willowbrook, she squinted against the sun, a high pinpoint of light in the sky that blinked and flickered behind scudding clouds. Her feet slid back and forth inside the too-big boots, grating against her heels and the balls of her feet like sandpaper. She ignored the pain and kept going, past four-story buildings and shuddering trees, across snowy roads and drifted yards. When her feet broke through a crusty snowdrift, she nearly fell but caught herself before tumbling forward, her hands scraped raw by ice. Eddie stopped and reached back to help her.

“Keep going,” she shouted. “Get to the reporters before they leave!”

He hesitated for a moment, unsure, then turned and kept running. She stood and tried to keep up, but it was no use. Between too little sleep, too little food, and the shock and grief of discovering Rosemary’s body, her strength was nearly spent. Her chest ached from the frigid air, and a stitch caught in her side. When she saw House Six in the distance, she slowed.

Eddie stood in the road next to a Chrysler New Yorker parked in front of the building, looking toward the campus entrance with one hand on the top of his head, as if he were lost. No news van sat in front of the building or trundled along the road toward the exit. No men with cameras and microphones surrounded Eddie or House Six.

The reporters were gone.

“Damn it,” she said, stopping to catch her breath. The cold air felt like a knife in her lungs. What were they supposed to do now? If Eddie told Dr. Baldwin about Rosemary and he didn’t believe him or tried to cover it up, getting out of Willowbrook and finding out who killed her sister would be impossible. Eddie looked back at her, throwing his arms up in frustration. She wiped her wet cheeks with frigid hands and started toward him. They would have to take their chances with Dr. Baldwin. They had to go to his office and tell him what they found. There was no other choice.

Then Sage stopped in her tracks. Wayne and Marla were coming out of the main doors of House Six, followed by Dr. Baldwin, who look red-faced and disheveled. She crouched in the snow. If Dr. Baldwin thought she was running away, he’d have Wayne and Marla drag her back to Ward D and pump her full of drugs before she could convince him what happened. Yes, she and Eddie were going to tell him about Rosemary, but first they had to get their story straight.

“Just pretend you’re going to work and enter the building, Eddie,” she said under her breath. “Act like nothing happened. Then you can come back out and get me and we’ll go to Dr. Baldwin’s office together.”

She pressed her nails into her palms, waiting to see what Eddie would do.

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