Now That She's Gone Read Online Free PDF

do?”
    â€œBeside that stupid TV show, Spirit Hunters ?”
    â€œBesides that.”
    â€œHe says I have a visitor. Someone who I need to see even though it’s not really related to any case I’m doing.”
    â€œThat’s weird. Who is it?”
    â€œDeirdre Holloway.”
    â€œName doesn’t ring a bell,” Birdy said. “Who’s that?”
    Kendall stood. “Brenda Nevins’s mother.”
    â€œI want to go too,” Birdy said.
    â€œI thought you would,” Kendall said, heading out through the doorway. “She said no. Will only talk to me.”
    â€œI thought we were a team,” Birdy teased as she departed for her office.
    â€œWe are,” Kendall said. “For better or worse.”

C HAPTER F OUR
    T he woman’s eyes were familiar. They had the same coloring and shape as someone with whom Kendall had spent some time. They were older, wiser. And no doubt much, much kinder. Wearing a long, almost-black blue dress and a flowing, flowery pashmina over her left shoulder, held in place by a Tiger-eye clip, Brenda Nevins’s mother would get looks no matter where she was. She was beautiful with high cheekbones accented by a nearly imperceptible touch of makeup. PR guy Brad James had made it very clear.
    Brenda Nevins’s mom is coming to talk to you. Says she has something important to tell you. You , and only you.
    â€œI’m Deirdre Holloway,” she said.
    Kendall smiled at her. It was weak smile, meant to disarm and inspire interest in the woman.
    â€œI’m glad you’re here,” she said as she met her by the reception desk of the Kitsap County sheriff.
    â€œI can see that you are judging me,” the older woman said.
    Despite the fact that she’d arranged the meeting, Deirdre Holloway was defensive. Kendall was all but certain that when it came to her daughter as a calling card, she’d had her share of rebukes and censures.
    â€œI’m not,” Kendall said.
    Deirdre fussed with her pashmina. “I understand. Obviously I didn’t do a very good job raising her, did I? If I had, we wouldn’t be here.” Her voice trailed off before she added a quick and sad postscript to the truth of her words. “And I would still have a grandchild.”
    Kendall led her to a conference room—a nicer one than the one she usually took suspects or witnesses to. It probably wasn’t easy being the mother of a serial killer. In fact, she knew it couldn’t be. Brenda Nevins had finally achieved what she’d long sought—notoriety on a grand scale. She’s vowed she’d do so. Promised detractors. Cajoled the police and jailers over the course of her various stretches of incarceration. In running off with Janie Thomas, Brenda had unleashed a veritable media frenzy on the Kitsap Peninsula. There wasn’t a parking lot that didn’t have a satellite truck looming above the pickups and SUVs. She was out there. Somewhere.
    â€œI’m sure you did the best you could, Ms. Holloway,” Kendall said. “Some things are beyond anyone’s control. I’m sure you know that by now. At least I hope you do.”
    Brenda’s mother sat down and pulled out a crumpled tissue.
    Kendall shot her a sympathetic glance.
    â€œAllergies,” Deirdre said. “Not going to cry, if that’s what you were thinking. I’m all cried out. Have been for years.”
    Kendall had read the files about all that Brenda had put her single mother through. The drugs. The running away. The men. And, of course, the murders. Kendall had seen so many mothers and fathers left to cope with the aftermath of destruction left by their progeny. None could hold a candle to Brenda’s swath of destruction—which, of course, put Deirdre Holloway in a category of her own.
    â€œYou said you thought you could help,” Kendall said.
    Deirdre refreshed her lipstick. “Yes,” she said,