Page 78 of Seeking Evil

He started toward her when Inez drew the weapon closer to Dawn’s neck. “Stop right there, Zeke. I’ll kill her.”

Zeke stopped dead. “You don’t want to do that, Inez.”

“I do. I want to kill her and Sierra and anyone that tries to stop me.” She edged the scalpel closer to Dawn’s throat, nicking it. A thin trail of blood appeared where the knife had been.

The woman he’d met was almost completely gone. “Is Henry your brother?” Zeke wanted to keep her talking as Patrick edged closer.

“Brother? Henry’s not my brother. He’s my cousin.”

“But you lived with him at one time?”

Patrick took a step closer without Inez realizing it.

“Yes, before. I was a teenager. My family wanted to move us away from Pinedale. But I couldn’t. I’d gone to school here all my life. I couldn’t let them take me away from Henry.”

It was sick the way she talked about Henry as if he were her boyfriend instead of a cousin.

“So you stayed with Henry. He was older.”

“Henry took care of me. Until he started seeing my friend Colleen. She wanted all his attention. I had to kill her.” She spoke of killing her friend as if it were nothing.

“What did you do with her body?” Zeke glanced around the basement and noticed something in the corner of the room. Two barrels. Not clear the way Lindsey had described the others. But Zeke had no doubt Colleen’s body was inside one. And the other? He believed they’d find Terrance inside it.

He caught movement from Henry. The old guy was still alive. From the amount of blood loss, Henry was in grave danger. He needed immediate medical attention.

“Inez, you can’t get away. It’s over,” Patrick told her. “I don’t want to have to shoot you.”

Inez’s mouth thinned. “Henry and I moved away after Colleen died.”

The way she spoke about Colleen it was as if she’d merely passed away instead of being murdered.

“Where did you go?” Zeke continued his questions to keep her talking.

“I went with Henry to Boston, where he got his education. I worked while he studied. We were happy.”

But something must have happened.

“And then he put me in that awful place.”

Zeke guessed Henry committed her. “Why would he do that?”

“Because of what I’d done to that girl in Boston.” Inez spat the words out. “She was interested in Henry. I couldn’t have that. I killed her.”

A picture was becoming clear. Inez wanted Henry all to herself. Any woman who threatened to get in the way had to go.

Zeke remembered Henry had been married. “What about Henry’s wife?”

Inez’s anger appeared to grow. “I told him not to marry her, but he did it anyway. He threatened me. He’d put me away again if I did anything to Maggie.”

So, she’d tolerated the relationship. Married Terrance and had taken a hiatus from murder for a while. Something must have happened to start it up again. Maybe Terrance found out about her past and she killed him?

“I’m tired of talking.” She raised the scalpel again, ready to plunge the knife into Dawn’s chest.

Patrick didn’t hesitate. He fired once.

Inez’s face registered surprise as the bullet struck her back. The scalpel dropped from her hand. Her eyes slammed shut, and she fell to the floor beside her precious Henry.

Chapter Thirty-Two

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