The Sister’s Secrets: Rose. Katlyn Duncan

necessary, so she left out the important detail that she was the one who’d seen her.

      ‘Oh, dear.’

      ‘You didn’t see her?’

      ‘No. But I would have remembered a new face.’

      Rose glanced behind her, wondering if any of the volunteers had seen the girl. The children’s section was on the same side as the parking lot. Someone had to have seen something through the wide front windows.

      ‘Why do you ask?’ Mrs. Henshaw said, cutting through Rose’s thoughts.

      There was no way she could answer that question honestly without explaining her strange obsession with the girl. ‘No reason.’ She cleared her throat and the tremble in her voice. ‘Curiosity, I guess.’

      Mrs. Henshaw bobbed her head. ‘There are plenty of other places to do such a thing. I’m glad she wasn’t one of our own.’

      Rose’s breath hitched in her throat, catching for a moment before she was able to release it. Like at the precinct, she’d asked the wrong question. If she knew why the girl came to The Burrow, then Rose would be able to track that back to who she was. The wide-eyed girl flashed in her mind again, wandering around the town before taking her life. What happened that forced her into that decision?

      ‘Well, I need to start closing up,’ Mrs. Henshaw said. ‘Can I help you find something?’

      ‘No,’ Rose said. ‘I was going to return something, but I forgot and left the book at home.’

      Mrs. Henshaw pressed her lips together. She reached over and patted Rose on the arm. ‘It will get better, dear.’

      Rose slowly turned away from the woman, her eyebrows knitting together.

      It wasn’t until she reached the car that she realized what Mrs. Henshaw had implied. While every cell in her body wanted to rush back and tell the woman that she wasn’t losing her memory, she thought better of it. It was easier for her to think that Rose was losing her mind like Pearl, instead of knowing that she was on a hunt to find a dead girl and any clue to the girl’s past.

       Chapter 4