Chapter Thirty Seven
Bill felt vaguely sickened as he watched the girls at the shelter for teenagers. Brenda, the resident social worker, had led him to the rec room. The girls inside were talking, watching TV, playing games on cell phones, like any teenagers would. But these kids weren’t ordinary.
This damned case, he thought.
Over the years, he’d come to think that he was immune to horror. But this place disturbed him deeply. It was, after all, a halfway house for kids who’d escaped from hell—and might yet go back there someday soon.
He looked at his watch. He still had plenty of time before Riley got back. He’d make the necessary arrangements for their meeting later. He hoped that his hunch was right. He wanted to close this case as quickly as possible.
Meanwhile, there was a girl
