Love Can Be Murder

on her hands and knees to find the light and encountered at least another person before her hand closed around it. She was practically sobbing with fear by the time she clicked it on.
    It illuminated the hollow-eyed face of a dark-haired woman, bound in chains and gagged. Next to her, a thin woman with white blond hair cowered against the wall. She was gagged and bound by some kind of chained leash, like a dog run. In one hand she gripped the red rag Penny had seen waving.
    "Oh, my God," Penny breathed. "Are you Jodi Reynolds?"
    The woman's eyes widened, and she nodded frantically.
    "People are looking for you," Penny said. "I'm going to get you out of here." She removed the tape and gags from their mouths, and the women began to weep.
    "They've been holding us," Jodi croaked. "Torturing us..."
    "Who did this to you?"
    "We don't know—they wear masks." She broke down sobbing.
    "Shh," Penny said, trembling. "Save your strength."
    They wear masks. She couldn't take the time to think about what these women had been through, or she wouldn't be able to think at all.
    But one look at their chains and she knew she didn't have the tools to get them loose. "I have to go back and get help." Both women begged her not to go, but she had no choice. "I'll be back as soon as I can."
    She ran as if the demons who had tortured the women were behind her. She pounded her way across the attic floor, splintering the wood. She ran down the attic stairs, then down to the third floor and to the second floor, stumbling and catching herself every few steps. Just as she reached the second floor, the penlight went out, plunging her into darkness.
    She cried out in frustration.
    "Need a light?"
    Penny froze with terror because the voice was so close, and so familiar.

Chapter Thirty-one

    Let other friends have a taste….

    A FLASHLIGHT CAME ON, illuminating Chief Allyson Davis's face, painted with dark, severe makeup.
    "Penny, do you know the fine for trespassing?"
    Penny searched for her voice and found it down around her knees. "Allyson...what's going on?"
    Allyson pursed her dark lips. "Didn't you see upstairs? We keep pets." She smiled. "Actually, we only keep the good ones. The bad ones...well, the bad ones are recycled."
    "R-recycled?"
    "Killed, dissected, chopped up, ground up, sold," she said, as if she were talking about pork sausage.
    "S-sold?"
    "Sure—we sell worldwide. The Internet is amazing."
    Penny swallowed, rigid with horror when she realized Allyson was completely insane. "Wh-who is we?"
    "There are a few of us."
    "Hazel?"
    Allyson scoffed. "That deaf old granny? No way. We only keep her around because she can't hear enough to be suspicious. Deke was in our club for a while."
    Penny felt sick. "Deke?"
    Allyson sighed. "He liked the money, but he didn't have the stomach for it."
    "Is...is that why he's dead?"
    Allyson nodded. "Pretty much. And because he couldn't control you."
    Penny's jaw loosened. "Me?"
    "Yeah. We've been operating for years in isolation, and suddenly you move into the house next door, start clearing the property, breaking through the fence, sticking your nose where it doesn't belong."
    Penny's mind raced. That was why Deke had discouraged her from going into business, had been so vehemently opposed to the garden; it put her even closer to danger, and their group even closer to being discovered.
    "We had some good times, Deke and I," Allyson said with a grin, then sobered. "But not while you two were married, Penny—I'm not an adulterer."
    Penny's stomach rolled. Just a sick sadist.
    "I was waiting for the right opportunity to get you both," Allyson said. "Kill Deke, frame you. I thought the voodoo festival would be a good time." She laughed. "I went to Deke's to give him a spanking, and he told me Jimmy Scaggs had barged in, hit him on the head with the cane, and left."
    "So...Jimmy didn't kill Deke."
    "No. He just knocked him out." Then she smiled. "Just an appetizer, really. By the time I got there, Deke was in the mood for some real pain. I used that cane on every part of his naughty little body. He told me all his dirty little secrets, like how he'd cheated you in the property settlement. You'll be glad to know, Penny, I thrashed him for that."
    That explained the bruising Maynard had mentioned. Penny struggled not to faint.
    "Then I whacked him on the head and shoved one of your garden stakes through his chest. Don't you love the symbolism?"
    Bile backed up in Penny's throat, gagging her.
    "Deke