“They were definitely in that group. There could have been more. It depended on who returned every year and who didn’t.”
“Was there a leader?” Brit asked.
“I couldn’t tell you. I was into sports and focused on my studies.”
“Let’s circle back to the items you had stolen,” Brit said. “What was taken?”
“Clothes, a necklace.”
“Did you report it?”
“I filled out an online form,” Briana replied. “The clothing wasn’t returned, but the necklace mysteriously ended up in my bed.”
“Did a faculty member ever talk with you about it?”
“No.”
“Who else was bullied?”
“Gosh, it was kind of everyone. I mean, some of us were there for years.”
“Have you been back in the states in the last few months?” Brit asked.
“No. I was planning to go home for the holidays, but my family surprised me here.”
“Were you ever locked in a closet while at Acorn?”
“Not me, but some of the girls were.”
“Who?”
“Sorry, I don’t remember. I graduated and moved on.”
Brit thanked her and hung up.
If there were more bullies than the five murdered women, did that mean the killer was closing in on their next victim?
Keep pushing.
She added Briana’s name to the white board, made a few notes online, then moved on to the third name.
Clarice Sanders had lived on Sanders Ranch in First Valley, Virginia, a small town nestled in the Shenandoah Valley between the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains. Following that, she moved to North Carolina. Her current address was Merrifield, Virginia. Like the others, it listed her as a student of Acorn, then a graduate of a public high school in North Carolina. Two years after that, she graduated with an associate’s degree from a community college in North Carolina.
There was no phone number, so Brit jotted down the Northern Virginia address. Merrifield was a thirty-minute jaunt around the beltway. She’d swing by and talk to Clarice in person.
Since Clarice Sanders wasn’t an Acorn graduate, Brit wanted to ask Shawna about her.
On the third ring, Shawna answered. “Hello.”
“Hi, Shawna, it’s Agent Jules Marshall. Do you have a minute?”
“Ms. Marshall, it’s Belva Pruitt, Acorn headmistress.”
Brit’s guts churned.
“Shawna resigned,” Belva said. “We weresosorry to see her go, but she left to pursue other opportunities.”
Anger streaked down Brit’s spine.Ohmygod, they fired her.
