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Back The Mother Next Door Save as PDF
Chapters (84)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise
  3. Dedication
  4. About the Author
  5. HALLOWEEN
  6. Seven Weeks Before Halloween
  7. ONE
  8. TWO
  9. THREE
  10. HALLOWEEN
  11. Six Weeks Before Halloween
  12. FOUR
  13. FIVE
  14. SIX
  15. HALLOWEEN
  16. Five Weeks Before Halloween
  17. SEVEN
  18. EIGHT
  19. HALLOWEEN
  20. NINE
  21. TEN
  22. HALLOWEEN
  23. ELEVEN
  24. TWELVE
  25. Twenty-Five Days Until Halloween
  26. THIRTEEN
  27. FOURTEEN
  28. HALLOWEEN
  29. FIFTEEN
  30. SIXTEEN
  31. SEVENTEEN
  32. EIGHTEEN
  33. NINETEEN
  34. TWENTY
  35. HALLOWEEN
  36. Eighteen Days Until Halloween
  37. TWENTY-ONE
  38. TWENTY-TWO
  39. HALLOWEEN
  40. TWENTY-THREE
  41. TWENTY-FOUR
  42. Eleven Days Until Halloween
  43. TWENTY-FIVE
  44. TWENTY-SIX
  45. Eight Days Until Halloween
  46. TWENTY-SEVEN
  47. TWENTY-EIGHT
  48. TWENTY-NINE
  49. HALLOWEEN
  50. THIRTY
  51. Four Days Until Halloween
  52. THIRTY-ONE
  53. HALLOWEEN
  54. THIRTY-TWO
  55. Two Days Until Halloween
  56. THIRTY-THREE
  57. The Night Before Halloween
  58. THIRTY-FOUR
  59. HALLOWEEN
  60. THIRTY-FIVE
  61. Halloween, Present Day
  62. THIRTY-SIX
  63. THIRTY-SEVEN
  64. HALLOWEEN
  65. THIRTY-EIGHT
  66. HALLOWEEN
  67. THIRTY-NINE
  68. HALLOWEEN
  69. FORTY
  70. HALLOWEEN
  71. FORTY-ONE
  72. FORTY-TWO
  73. FORTY-THREE
  74. FORTY-FOUR
  75. HALLOWEEN... NOW
  76. FORTY-FIVE
  77. Seven Months Later
  78. FORTY-SIX
  79. FORTY-SEVEN
  80. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  81. ALICE SWANSON’S
  82. Reader's Guide
  83. Questions for Discussion
  84. Booklist

These messages weren’t just Halloween pranks. Someone was targeting us. Knew what we’d done.

And was nearby.

Had Alice and Bettina been right after all?

I called Pia on my way to work the next morning. She answered groggily—I’d woken the princess up.

“Does Jimmy-O still owe you a favor?” I asked as soon as she registered who was calling. Jimmy-O was an old friend of Pia’s, a retired detective from the police force and a part-time PI.

“Kind of. I’d probably have to go on a date with his cousin, though. He’s been talking about it forever.”

“You may have to take one for the team, then.” I told her about the photo.

“Um, I don’t like that.” Pia was awake now, her voice clear. She often went through life underwater, but when you needed her, she surfaced, armed and ready for battle. “So this creep is getting creepier. And has a lot of fucking time on his hands.”

Or her hands.

“Send it to me,” Pia said.

I copied the photo and texted it to her. A ding on her end, and then she sucked in her breath. “No message with this?”

Just 28 days...soon you will be nothing.

“More of that vague threatening crap about bees again,” I said, hoping she wouldn’t ask for another screenshot.

“So what...you want Jimmy-O to patrol our street more often? Look out?”

We look out for each other. That’s what friends do. Isn’t that what I’d told Jackie all those years ago? We can’t ever tell anyone what happened. If we did, we’d all be ruined.

“No. I want him to find Jackie.”

“Jackie?” Pia asked. “What would she have to do with...”

Everything. Jackie’s joke... Dearest Queen Bee. Her nickname for me all those years ago. It was too much of a coincidence. And she still had ties here to the area. Family.

“I don’t know,” I said to Pia. “Probably nothing, but we’ve lost track of her. If someone’s threatening us like this, I want to know where Jackie is. I want to know if she’s involved.”

I wanted to remind her that we had things we could hold over her if it came down to it. And who did she think everyone would believe?

“Last I heard she was in New York,” Pia offered. “So unless she decided to hop an Amtrak just to come down here and take our picture, I doubt she’s got anything to do with it.”

“Can you just ask him anyway?” I said impatiently. “Get him to do a search? Current address, job, that sort of thing? Maybe find a phone number for her or some way to get in touch? We may need to have a chat with her. Remind her what she agreed to.”