Lust and Lies 04 - Pretty Maids in a Row

it. However, she did recall his attending his mother's funeral some years back. After she was buried, he had become so despondent, he had tried psychiatric help for a while, at Evelyn's insistence. And when he cheered up again, Holly had accepted his assurance that he had just been sad.
    When Agent Quick spoke to Evelyn, she was able to supply the doctor's name and number. Quick bent a few rules by passing on to Holly what he learned from the doctor. Philip had only visited the psychiatrist a handful of times, but what he had revealed about his birth parents in those sessions was sufficient to explain the gnawing resentment that motivated him to commit murder.
    The doctor had detected his silent rage and had tried to convince Philip to continue seeing him or another therapist in order to work out his feelings. He had warned his patient that one day he could lose control of all that pent-up anger if he allowed it to continue seething without neutralizing it.
    His warning had gone unheeded and had been proven correct, with fatal results.
    At least Cheryl seemed to be doing better. Seeing Philip framed in the window had recreated the image she had seen of him through the bedroom doorway, and it had all come back to her in a flash.
    Right after she arrived in Ziegler's suite, he had gotten a call and said he had someone coming with an emergency. Rather than leave and miss her opportunity to say her piece, she had gone into the bedroom to wait her turn. She didn't want anyone to know she was there, so she stayed hidden in spite of how long it took. She couldn't make out what was being said, but when she heard a sound like a motor, curiosity made her peek out of the room.
    The grotesque performance she witnessed literally terrified her into silence. After Philip had left, she had slipped in the blood on her way to the door of the suite, and that was how April had found her.
    April had called last night, sounding more like her old self. She said Bobbi had been given a one-year sabbatical leave, based on her willingness to spend that time in a mental health clinic. Erica wasn't returning her calls but April never worried much over Erica. She was like a cat, always landing on her feet.
    Holly's parents also seemed to be on the mend. Their weekend honeymoon had been what they needed to begin putting all the misfortunes of the past permanently behind them and look to the future once again. Having lost a close friend in such a tragic way seemed to have helped Bernie accept the futility of revenge.
    Evelyn handled closing up the office for two weeks until the curiosity over Philip's death quieted down.
    There was nothing Holly needed to do, no loose ends left to tie up, and yet she felt... incomplete. She was vacillating between making dinner and going out when the phone rang, offering a temporary reprieve from having to make a decision.
    "Hello?"
    "Hi."
    "David?" The sense of being incomplete faded, until she realized this was only the second time he had ever spoken to her over the telephone. "What's wrong? Why are you calling?"
    "Nothing's wrong." He hesitated a moment, then reluctantly admitted, "I just wanted to hear your voice."

    The End

    Page forward for exciting excerpts
    from Marilyn Campbell's critically-acclaimed titles
    For Every Evil
    See How They Run
    Come Into My Parlor
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Excerpt from

    For Every Evil
    An Erotic Romantic Suspense Novel

    by

    Marilyn Campbell
    USA Today Bestselling Author

For every evil under the sun
    There is a remedy or there is none.
    If there be one, seek till you find it;
    If there be none, never mind it.

Twenty-one Years Ago,
    East Los Angeles, California

    "Damn, Terrell, you look like you're gonna puke." Luke Madigan kept his voice hushed in hopes that the guys in the front seat of the old car wouldn't hear.
    "I got a bad feelin' about this, man."
    "What the fuck you two girls whisperin' 'bout back there?" Manny asked into the rearview mirror. "Little cuz said you were both cool, but if you gonna shit your pants, tell me now."
    When Luke's classmate, Pablo, told him what he and his older cousin, Manny, were planning to do that night, Luke had jumped at the opportunity to be involved in something so wild. His best friend, Terrell Harris, wasn't as anxious, but he hadn't wanted to be left behind either.
    They were planning to get drunk, which in itself wasn't unusual, but the booze was going to be stolen . Talk about the ultimate high! Pablo had assured him