Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 84002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
That’s when her old go-to came back into play. It had been some time since she’d killed someone, more than twenty years in fact, and this time the anger she felt at the betrayal was too much for her to bear. This one didn’t go easily; there was no slow poison in the works this time. This time she needed to teach her stepson a lesson to send him a clear message. That no matter what, he wasn’t allowed to leave her, ever.
CHAPTER 33
I wonder what it is that she’s thinking about so deeply? Celia thought as she watched the older woman closely while she seemed lost in thought. In the last five minutes, a myriad of emotions had crossed that rather expressive face that she was sure had once held immense beauty but was now weathered by life and time.
She did her best to hide her true feelings about the conclusions she’d drawn in the last few minutes, but she may have thrown up a little in her mouth a time or two. Had the woman always acted like this with her stepson in the presence of others?
Had no one else ever noticed the ick factor here? Nowhere in her research had anything even remotely close to what was glaring her in the face been mentioned or even hinted at. But it was obvious from the ease with which the older woman did it and the nonchalant way in which her stepson accepted the action that it was not a new thing between them.
There were too many questions running through her mind now that had nothing to do with the case, but in hindsight, just might in a roundabout way. Had she known what she now thought she did before coming here, she would’ve been better prepared. But since she’d already jumped in with both feet, there was no way for her to turn back now.
She could tell from the way Pete was twitching nervously next to her that he, too, had picked up on the situation at hand. Going on a hunch, she pulled out her last card to gauge their reactions. “By the way, Detective Branson at Brownsville PD would like to have a word with you. According to him, you skipped out before he could finish questioning you.” Jackpot!
They both did a good job of trying to hide their reactions but there was no surprise that Stella was better at it than her stepson. “Um, I’m not sure I know what you’re getting at Detective, Detective Branson? Who’s that?” Sure you don’t know him, Don, that’s why you’re sweating even more profusely than a few seconds ago.
Stella gave him a stern look, which he missed, and her countenance became even darker as she pursed her lips and dug her nails into his shoulder where she was still touching him. Don clasped and unclasped his hands on the desk a few times to hide the fact that they were now trembling uncontrollably, no doubt, but Detective Sparks saw it all.
As a cop, you’re trained to know when you’re on the right track, and when to push forward with a line of questioning that might get you what you want from a suspect. It was obvious that these two were guilty as hell about something or the other. Celia wasn’t sure if she’d expected to find her killer among these two though she’d been sure that they at least knew something about what was going on with her case.
Now from the way Stella was reacting and trying hard not to show it, she was beginning to think that the woman may know a hell of a lot more and was way more involved than her stepson who at this point didn’t seem capable of pulling off the elaborate scene that had been left at the crime. Not without leaving some evidence behind.
The way Stella had almost jumped out of her skin at the mention of Detective Branson cinched it for Celia, so she kept pushing. But instead of going after the older woman directly she kept hitting at their soft spot. It was obvious that that was Don Simpson that he was the weakest link, the reason the other woman had been listening in. Because she knew that her stepson was a fuck up and that she needed to be the one to stay on top of things.
It’s the reason she’d been lurking in the shadows the day before, why she hadn’t made her presence known then. It was all starting to make sense to the detective now, and she went for the jugular, going in for the kill without preamble. If she didn’t get one of them to break, she was sure that they’d be headed out of town before the sun set. And since she didn’t have anything to hold them on so far, there would be nothing she could do, no matter how many people she had watching them.