Page 60 of Killer Knows Best

She lifts her chin as if she had just been struck.

I don’t let up. “You suspected he was having an affair with his secretary at the time—Madeline Hazelwood.”

“What?” Phillis shrieks. “Maddie was an angel.” Her voice hits a panicked pitch. “She would never stoop so low!”

“She was no angel,” Brenda seethes at the woman and her voice drips with venom. “She stooped so low. Hell, she bent over. She got down on her knees.”

Phillis offers Brenda an open-handed slap and the sound echoes through the night like a gunshot. Brenda barely flinches, and instead rubs her cheek in its wake.

“Liar,” Phillis rages at the woman. “Get off of my property! You’re a bald-faced liar! All of you off! I want you all to leave right now!”

Brenda’s eyes flash with a cold fury as she leans in close to the redhead. “You’re the only liar here, Phillis. And you’re the worst kind because you believe your own lies. You raised a common street whore.” Her voice drops to a growl. “I have video footage of your precious little angel doing all sorts of demonic things with my husband! It’s women like you who are the realproblem. You’re the one who made me do it.” Jack and I exchange a glance as she presses a finger to the woman’s chest. “If you had known how to raise your daughter right, and keep her from turning into a tramp, I wouldn’t have had to confront her that day. We argued and she tried to push me away, so I pushed back. That’s when she fell. Don’t you see? You made me do that. You, in fact, killed your own child because it wasyouwho refused to train her in the way she should go.”

“Oh, for goodness’ sake.” Phillis doles out another hearty slap and Brenda grabs ahold of the woman’s wrist.

“You made me do it. I had to kill Maddie just like I had to kill the rest of the whores Thomas was cavorting with.” She tosses Phillis’ hand back at her as if it were poison. “I still have his phone. I have the intel of who he was seeing and how he found those filthy beings. I met up with his madame. I should have done away with her first. But she’s only a small blip on the screen when it comes to the problem. I’ve been tracking the whores that people like her parade through the streets and have been picking them off one by one.”

Jack steps forward. “I’m guessing you used the stainless cookie cutters to mark your victims? If it’s the right alloy, stainless can be sharpened to a blade if needed.”

Brenda lifts her chin again and presses her lips tight.

She’s been caught again.

“You did this to frame Phillis,” I say without hesitation. “I bet you borrowed her car recently.”

“She did,” Phillis says as her eyes widen with a whole new fright.

I nod at Brenda. “Phillis was your target just as much as those other women were.”

“She deserved it,” Brenda cries. “She should spend the rest of her life behind bars for what she did to my marriage.” She shoots a scathing look at the woman. “I had to do it. You forcedmy hand. It’s my duty. I’m saving families. I was chosen for this and it’s a good thing.” She looks over at Jack and me. “I was chosen for this honor. So you see, there’s nothing more for you to do here. All is right with the world.”

“That’sher,” Marsha’s voice cuts through the night as she stumbles forward and Buddy gives a soft bark. “That’s the voice I heard! I’d remember it anywhere!”

I quickly wrangle Brenda’s arms behind her back and cuff her.

“Brenda Billings, you’re under arrest.” No sooner do I get the words out than the backup we called for arrives in droves.

The darkness ignites with a seizure of blue and red lights as Nikki hustles Brenda to a waiting vehicle.

“I need to sit down,” Phillis says as she stumbles over to a bench near the carriage house, and Buddy takes off after her and curls up beside her.

A swarm of deputies head this way and Jack takes a few steps out.

“I want every last inch of the grounds searched for any more potential victims,” he shouts to them. “Search that house from top to bottom.”

“We did it,” I say, holding out a hand and Jack clasps onto it before pulling me into a tight embrace.

“We always do.” His phone chirps and he pulls it out and glances at the screen. A heavy sigh escapes him. “It’s Jet. There’s something wrong with my mother.”

40

SPECIAL AGENT JACK STONE

The engine roars as I floor the gas, hurtling us through the winding roads back to Pine Ridge Falls.

Buddy is panting in the back seat with his paws braced on the console while Fallon grips the door handle and her eyes flicker between the road and me.

Neither of us speaks. There’s nothing left to say—not until we know what’s happening with my mother. And I think deep down we both think the worst.

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