They were all located within fairly close proximity to each other, should any of us need each other in a pinch. It was nice knowing we were all nearby and had easy access to one another.
After we’d all gotten settled in our respective rooms, we invited Hannah and the others over for another meeting, taking advantage of the privacy of our own room. Blade and Slade sat around a small table near the window and Hannah sat on the bed. Lacey and I sat on the floor with Sadie while she played with the little stuffed bunny Slade had given her. Ryder was on edge, pacing the room like a pissed-off lion. Riot took notes as Hannah began going over everything with us again.
“So, tell us more about the girl Cherry met at the salon,” Ryder prompted Hannah.
“Her name’s Trudy. She’s young. Probably about nineteen or so. She said she got out of Savannah as fast as she could after graduating high school and was on her own now. Her family had disowned her for refusing to work at the family business and adhere to their expectations and giving them grandchildren, she’d said. She’d been in New Orleans for just a few months when she got a job washing hair at the salon where Cherry got her hair cut. I guess they got to talking and when Cherry mentioned we were private investigators, the girl opened up. Cherry was intrigued, enough so that she hopped on a plane after a few weeks of digging through news articles.”
“Where’s the girl now?”
“Still in New Orleans. Said she was never coming back here again.”
“I’d like to talk to her,” Riot said. “Can you get her number?”
“Sure, of course,” Hannah replied.
“Did Cherry give you any more info?”
“Not much. I was deep in the middle of another case myself, and I hate to admit it, but I was distracted. All I know is that some very prominent families were suspected to be involved in the murders and she was excited because she was uncovering some information she thought was valuable. I just didn’t get to hear what that was. Cherry always keeps very detailed notes, though. She has a notebook she keeps in her purse that she writes everything down in, but when I got here and looked through her things, the notebook was missing.”
Ryder sighed, shaking his head.
“Could it be in her hotel room? Where was she staying?”
“I went there when I arrived and cleaned it out and checked her out. I have her suitcase and clothes and things. You’re welcome to go through them, but I didn’t see anything that would give us any more information than we already have. Like I said, the police won’t let me look through her car.”
“That’s not a lot to go on,” Ryder said.
“Right,” Hannah nodded. “I keep thinking she’s going to wake up any minute and tell us this really was a big accident, but my gut says otherwise.”
“Mine, too,” Ryder said. “I think we need to start at the beginning. Riot, get on the phone with the girl from the salon and we’ll go from there.”
“I’ll send the number to you,” Hannah said, pulling out her phone. “I should get back to the hospital in case Cherry wakes up. I’d hate for her to wake up alone.”
“Thank you, Hannah,” Ryder said, walking her to the door. “Please call us if anything changes. We’re going to start from scratch here and we’ll keep you posted.”
“I’ll do the same.”
Ryder hugged her and closed the door, turning back to us with concern in his eyes. I wanted to throw my arms around him and tell him everything was going to be okay, but that’s not what he wanted to hear.
He wanted revenge.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” he growled.
Chapter 7
BLADE
“Blade, what do you have to add to Hannah’s information? Do you know anything about these murders?” Ryder asked.
“I’ve been out of touch for twenty years,” I said, shaking my head. “Savannah’s population has grown in the last few decades, but I suspect the families that ran shit back then haven’t given up their grip. If anything, the sheer amount of people here now makes it easier for them to cover up the corruption. It’s old money — inherited money, inherited power, and most likely it's now being controlled by their kids who grew up as entitled teenaged pricks, and I would be surprised if they didn’t grow into entitled adult pricks.”
“You sound so nostalgic,” Slade joked.
“I left for a reason,” I replied, wryly.
“I can relate, man, I didn’t stick around the place I grew up either. Although, I gotta say, it was a lot shittier than this place. It’s beautiful here,” he replied.
“Maybe on the outside, but it’s always been rotting from the inside,” I said.
“So, there are two recent unsolved murders,” Riot said. “All young women, just out of high school. Each a year apart. Rumor has it the town is all on edge, since graduation is right around the corner again. Since they are both open cases, the cops are keeping quiet about the details. Lots of leaks, though, but who knows what is true and what is just fabricated or exaggerated. There have been reports of ritualistic evidence found near the bodies — like candles and animal skulls and feathers and stuff like that, someone even mentioned the body was in an entire tub of blood, but that seems excessive, if you ask me. The causes of the two deaths haven’t been released either, but rumors run the gambit — everything from hanging to gunshots to meticulous organ removal. Honestly, at this point, I don’t know what to believe because the information is all over the place.”
“There have been rumors like that around since I was in high school myself,” I replied. “But kids like to make shit up. One year, one of my buddies dressed all in black, put on a wolf mask he had left over from
