The Nobody Girls (Kendra Dillon Cold Case Thriller Book 3), Rebecca Rane [best book club books of all time txt] 📗

The memories Barb Hawkins has aren’t fairytales. They’re real recollections of a not-so-perfect childhood. But make no mistake, Barb provided as perfect a childhood as she could muster for her little sister.

What remains for us to know, about the way Cynthia Hawkins touched the lives of her daughters, and her husband, is only a glimpse. It’s a song, a smell of cookies, and a nightlight turned on.

But that glimpse is one-thousand times clearer than what we have for Margo Kasinski, Krissy Jackson, and Susan Hodges or the two Jane Does, still unnamed.

It is becoming undeniable that Ned Wayne Ewald was a prolific serial killer that stalked the I-75 corridor. What is not clear are his victims. That’s where we need your help. That’s where I need your help.

Margo Kasinski attended the former Woodrow Wilson High School. She was in the typing club. If you attended back then, could you reach out to us? We have no more than a blurry yearbook photo.

Krissy Jackson lived in Forsyth, Georgia, her entire life. We believe her parents are deceased. Surely, there have to be neighbors that remember her.

Susan Hodges lived in the Cincinnati area. She was the youngest of the victims and might have been a runaway. Did you know her?

Authorities have told us, grudgingly, that these victims were nicknamed, The Nobody Girls, because they weren’t attached to anyone, to anything, and were hanging on to the lowest rung of the social ladder.

But we’ve discovered that isn’t true. Their lives impacted the people around them, in small ways and in larger ways.

You might not have been best friends with any of these victims. Or you might remember something that can tell their story.

Will what we know of them, will what’s recorded of them, be only, that they fell prey to a serial killer?

We’re working hard here to make sure that doesn’t happen. Reach out to us, help us tell the stories. Don’t let Ned Wayne Ewald be the one at the center of this.

Visit the podcast website and reach out with a call or an email if you knew them. Even a small story would be appreciated. A small story from you, since they’re unable to tell their own.

I’m Kendra Dillon, and this is The Cold Trail.

“Wow,” Miles said. His voice was in her earphones.

“Good episode,” Shoop added.

Kendra hoped it was. “Did we tell it, okay? Miles, we tried to be balanced, not look like assholes. She was a person, you know?”

Shoop looked at Miles. Kendra was asking him because she and Shoop had written the script. They’d done a lot of careful work to be sure that it was as accurate and sensitive as they could craft it.

“She’s not the villain, and she was no saint, I get that. But no matter what she was, she didn’t deserve what she got,” Miles said.

“Good, I think. I hope,” Kendra replied.

“Now what?”

“Now we wait to see if any of this hits anyone. See if we can do better for Margo, Krissy, and Susan.”

Kendra had no hope for the Jane Does at this point. But at least, with the three names and the increasingly wide audience they were getting on The Cold Trail, someone might hear, might come forward.

“Okay, that’s a wrap then. I’ll get this edited and get it to Art.”

“Thanks.”

Shoop and Kendra walked back to the office.

Where they found Scott Goodrich, his hands on his hips, and his jaw was set in a firm line.

“Uh, hi,” Kendra said. She was mystified why he was even here. She had Swisshelm until tomorrow.

“That’s it, ‘hi’?”

“Hi…Scott?”

“You have nothing to say after you let me sit in at O’Shay’s for two hours, no call, no answer to my text.”

It all came rushing back to Kendra. Dinner with Scott. O’Shay’s. Oh no!

“Oh, wow, I’m—yes, sorry. It’s Friday? It slipped my mind, and the phone was off because I was taping.”

She looked at Shoop for backup. Shoop was literally backing up and out of the office, into the hallway.

“Seriously, after the night we had, I thought we made a breakthrough, and you’re exactly the same.”

“I was working. I had to work; I got this incredible interview. We had new information on the case, and it was just heartbreaking. I was immersed in it. I totally forgot. I’m so sorry.”

“Right, I remember this. I remember exactly this. What was I thinking? That you were ready to be a responsible person and hold up your end of the relationship? Well, forget it. I’ll be over to pick up Swissy tomorrow at the normal time.”

Scott stormed out, and as he did, Kendra realized that if she disappeared today and some podcaster interviewed her ex-husband, he wouldn’t have much good to say.

Chapter 25

The FBI contacted Barb Hawkins Woodside, as Kendra had predicted. The local media also clamored for any nugget of the story they could after the news that Cynthia Hawkins could be directly connected to Ewald. It was all there in the podcast, and it had ignited a fresh feeding frenzy on the story.

Kendra and Shoop watched a few of the television reports.

New evidence against a serial killer.

A deadly affair unlocks a clue to a killing spree.

Barb refused all other media inquiries. The FBI issued a statement that new evidence had come to light that strengthens the case against the currently incarcerated suspect.

No one was talking, and so every report from local to national had to mention the source, The Cold Trail interview.

Art was thrilled.

Kendra agreed to do interviews with other news outlets to make Art happy, but with the stipulation that at the end of each interview, she could put a plea out to anyone who knew Margo, Krissy, or Susan.

Kendra’s first interview was at her old stomping grounds. Connor Stinson had continued to stay in touch with her, and he’d earned an interview. Since Art insisted that the best promotion was a free promotion, an interview on Your News 19 with Connor Stinson killed two birds with one stone.

Connor had been the up-and-coming hotshot reporter when