Read Online Beg for Mercy by Jami Alden - Free Book Online

department wanted the public to know.
    A feeling of uneasy anticipation prickled down her spine, but she shoved it away.
Maybe this time I’ll find a link.
She smacked the thought down before it could even fully form. She’d looked as deeply as she could into the previous four victims’ cases in an effort to find similarities to Evangeline Gordon’s murder.
    Every time she’d hit a brick wall. Even Megan was aware she was something of a joke—considered the crazy chick who had chased down every scrap of information about every woman who’d been killed by a knife in the past two and a half years in a desperate attempt to get her brother off death row.
    Nothing had ever come of it. No reason to think this time would be any different.
    And yet… she couldn’t shake that weird electric buzz, like something was about to happen; she just didn’t know what.
    Cole flipped his notepad closed and rose from the coffee table. “I think you’ve answered everything for tonight, but—”
    He was cut off by a commotion outside. Screeching tires, followed by a car door slamming, a woman’s high, shrill voice yelling at the patrolmen outside. Skeeter raced to the door, dancing in circles, his sharp yaps threatening to pierce Megan’s eardrums.
    Dev’s frown deepened. “Aunt Kathy,” she said over the din.
    Megan stepped forward to intercept Kathy as she slammed into the trailer. Megan knew firsthand how volatile and unreasonable the woman could be, and she hoped to spare Dev any more trauma tonight.
    Kathy was a wiry woman of fifty. She’d changed from her waitressing uniform into worn jeans that hung off her hip bones and a thick sweater that practically swallowed up her thin form. Her hair was a uniform shade of dark red that didn’t occur in nature and was twisted in a knot at her nape.
    She dumped her purse on the counter with a thud, her gaze bouncing from Megan to Cole to Olivia, finally narrowing on Devany. Wisps of smoke swirled around her head as she lifted a lit cigarette to her mouth and took a deep drag.
    “Devany? What the hell didja do now?”
    “I didn’t—” Dev began.
    “Dev didn’t do anything, Kathy,” Megan said at the same time.
    Cole held up his hand, palm out, silencing them both. In the other hand he flashed Kathy his badge. Detective Petersen did the same. They quickly introduced themselves and explained the reason for their presence.
    Kathy’s ruddy complexion went pale. “Jesus, when Carol from three trailers down said there were cops at my house… I had no idea.” She looked at Dev, and Megan was relieved to see genuine concern on the woman’s face. “Devany, honey, are you all right?”
    Kathy crossed to Devany and gave her a comforting, if slightly awkward, hug. Dev threw her arms around Kathy’s waist and buried her head in her thin shoulder. Kathy tightened her hold and rocked Dev back and forth half a dozen times before releasing her.
    “It was so scary,” Dev said, and the tears that had been going on and off since Megan got there started up again. Not that Megan blamed her. “And they even think he was still there—the killer, I mean—when Skeeter and me were in the trailer. He could come after me.”
    Kathy’s eyes widened with alarm. “Is that true? You think he’s gonna come after her?”
    Detective Petersen shook her head. “We have no reason to believe that.”
    Megan was glad—a little shocked but glad—that Kathy seemed to have dropped her usual gruff attitude for a more maternal one toward Devany. At the same time, she suddenly felt a little lost. She wasn’t needed here anymore.
    She looked up, blinking, and found Cole staring at her. She hardened her expression, not wanting to give him any more reason to feel sorry for her. “I should go,” she said,telling herself she was happy to get as far away from Cole as possible. The man was a master at messing with her already-fragile equilibrium.
    She reached for her coat, then froze as long fingers closed