Page 52 of Long Road Home

“I’ve been looking into your background.” Kenna softened her tone some. “I found the callouts. The times the neighbors had the police come. So they could check you were all right.”

Marion huffed.

“Make sure he hadn’t killed you.” But she’d chosen to stay. And then he’d been gone, and Marion had kidnapped girls to use as housekeepers. “He tried…didn’t he?”

“He sure was determined. I’ll give him credit for that.” Her expression remained impassive.

“Sorry.” Kenna paused. “It must be painful for you to think about him. Since he caused you so much harm.”

Again, Marion huffed.

“But you got out of that situation.” Whatever had twisted her inside hadn’t come from only domestic abuse. Marion had been predisposed, probably through many different experiences and perhaps mental health issues. A number of factors, not just one. Otherwise, psychopathy would be easier to spot.

Someone might have saved those girls’ lives.

Marion’s lips twitched. Who knows what she was thinking.

“We found his head,” Kenna stated.

Marion smirked. “Served him right.”

“Did you cut it off?”

She chuckled.

This woman was sick. The ways she must have traumatized those girls was unthinkable, even only considering the mental or emotional turmoil.

“Did you kill him?”

Marion let out a sigh of regret. “I should’ve. I wasn’t strong enough to swing it.”

“Who cut his head off?”

Marion said nothing.

“What do you lose if you tell me the truth? If you didn’t do it, then you can’t be charged for his murder.” Just as an accessory. “This conversation isn’t being recorded, and I could forget we ever had it.”

“So it’s just because you’re nosy?”

“Who killed him, Marion?”

“I did.” The woman glanced over, sneering, then got up and came over.

Kenna made sure not to back up even when Marion got close to the bars. It would look too much like a retreat.

“I’m the one who put the pills in his drink to knock him out.”

And someone else had cut off his head? “Must’ve been nerve-wracking, wondering if he’d realize something was going on.”

“He thought he was clever. But in the end, who was the clever one?” Evil shined through Marion’s expression.

“Had to have been satisfying, stuffing him underyour bed. Keeping him close.” Kenna let her lips curl slightly, as if she were smiling.

Marion chuckled a little.

Kenna needed to know if there was someone else in town—an accomplice, or a relative of Marion’s—that she needed to be worried about. “Who cut his head off?”

Marion paused a split second. “J.Pierce.” She tipped her head back and cackled with laughter, the only sound of humor she could make. A terrible, horrible noise.

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