“Weren’t you afraid your mother would have caught you going back to the church that night?” Val wondered how Bridget even made it out of the house.

“No.” She shook her head several times. “That night I knew Mother would have taken something strong, to make her sleep. She didn’t wake up when she did that. It was on these nights I got to do what I wanted. Father wasn’t home that night either. Neither was Claudia. My door wasn’t locked. Mother forgot to lock it when we came home.”

“You loved Gabrielle? Is that why you gave her the yew branches and seeds. You wanted her to come back from the dead?” Val asked.

Bridget nodded. “She was my sister. I loved her. She wanted to get custody of me. She wanted to get me out of here. I wanted her to come back so she could do that.”

“Why didn’t you give Adam the yew tree branches too?” Val asked.

Bridget looked down at her blanket and played with the ends for a few seconds. “He was going to a better place. He was going to be with God.”

“Can you tell us what you mean by that? Was Gabrielle a bad mother?” asked Gavin.

“Our mother was trying to get custody of Adam. If he came back, he’d be in danger here. No, he was safer with God.” Bridget nodded her head, emphasizing what she believed.

Val took a deep breath, there was one more topic she wanted to cover with Bridget and hoped Bridget could handle it. “Bridget, what happened the day the twins drowned?” Val asked.

Bridget’s eyes flew open wide. “I’m not allowed to talk about that.”

“I’m giving you permission, so it’s okay,” Val said softly.

Bridget looked down and then up, at Val and then away from her, skeptical. She shook her head, no.

“Please, Bridget. I won’t let anyone hurt you if you tell us.”

Bridget inched closer to Val and whispered cautiously, “Gabi, Bethany and Melinda wanted to play one of Mother’s games.”

“What was the game?”

“The pool game.”

“Can you tell me how it was played?”