Devorah tilts the cookie sheet and the rolls tumble into a waiting basket lined with a blue and white gingham cloth napkin. She sets it in the center of the table, where loaded platters wait to fill the circle of empty plates around the table.

Mich.e.l.le, you say grace today, she instructs the younger of Quincys two nieces, who, at fifteen, is taller than he is, and wants to be a model.

Lord, we thank you for Mich.e.l.le breaks off as Quincys cell phone rings.

Turn that thing off, his mother instructs him. Mich.e.l.le, go ahead.

As his niece resumes, he pulls his phone from his pocket, silences the ringer, and holds it on his lap to examine the caller ID window.

Mike Connelly.

Good thing Mich.e.l.les prayer is short and sweet, as always.

Amen, Quincy says hurriedly and excuses himself to answer the call, striding with his phone to the next room as he says, Hiles here, whats up?

Either Allerson gets around, or weve got ourselves a genuine serial killer on our hands.

What?

One of Matilda Harringtons sorority sisters just turned up dead in Cedar Crest exactly the same MO.

How exactly the same?

Exactlyexactly the same. Somebody threw Fiona Fitzgerald a nice little party for her thirtieth birthdaywhich is today.

With a muttered curse that would inflame Devorah Hiles if she could hear it from the next room, Quincy is already grabbing his keys and jacket, his mothers fried chicken and apple pie forgotten.

Here, honey, drink this.

Ashley looks up to see a female police officer holding out a plastic cup of water. She shakes her head, feeling her fathers protective arm tighten around her.

Daddy is sitting in the chair beside hers; theyre in a small room at police headquarters, where they were taken in a squad car.

Brynn, Caleb, and Jeremy were driven in a second car. Garth came to get the boys so he could take them over to a neighbors house, and then hes supposed to come here.

Drink the water, Ash, Daddy says gently, taking the cup from the police officer and closing Ashleys fingers around it.

She takes a sip.

Its warm and it tastes yucky,she thinks idly.

Then, just as idly,Moms dead.

But neither thought sinks in. Its as though her brain has been injected with Novocain. Shes aware of potentially excruciating thoughts jabbing at her, but she feels nothing, just like in the dentists chair when she had her tooth drilled.

Ashley sips more water, and she nods when her father asks her worriedly if shes okay, and she wonders when her mother is going to come get her, and then she remembers that she isnt.

Ever.

You should be crying,Ashley keeps telling herself. Her eyes are strangely dry.

But Brynn, who just disappeared behind a closed door with two detectives, has been cryingsometimes hystericallyever since she let out that blood-curdling scream back at home.

Then she immediately shoved Ashley outside again through the open front door before she could glimpse whatever was in the house.

At that point, Brynn was so incoherent that Daddy didnt even understand what she was trying to say. He kept shouting,What? What is it? as he ran past Brynn and Ashley, and then he screamed, too.

That was the most horrible sound Ashley has ever heard in her life. A mans scream. The unnatural, violent sound sent chills through her. Shes dead! Brynn was shrieking, over and over.

Shes talking about Mom,Ashley realized. Mom must be dead.

Inside the house.

Did she have a heart attack? she had asked Daddy and Brynn at one point. She was thinking of Megs father, who works hard at a stressful job, but not as hard as Mom does.

n.o.body works as hard as Mom does.

Worked,she thought dully. And,did .

Neither her father nor Brynn answered her question about the heart attack, but Ashley overheard two of the cops talking. At first she thought they had said prince, but then she realized it was prints. As in fingerprints.

Even Ashley knows that you dont look for fingerprints when someone dies unless you think somebody killed them.

Who would want to kill her mother?

Was it a robber? she asks her father now, then notices that her thigh is wet, a dark stain spreading across her jeans. Oh. Her hand is shaking so badly that shes spilling water all over herself.

What, Ash?

Did a robber break in and kill Mom?

Daddy blinks. What?

She repeats the question.

It takes him a second to answer, I dont know.

Hes upset about Mom. Maybe hes thinking that they never should have gotten divorced. Maybe he thinks that if they were still married, this wouldnt have happened, because he could have protected her.

What is Brynn telling the police in there? She gestures at the closed door.

I have no idea.

Do they think she knows who killed Mom?

Daddy just shakes his head without looking at her, and his mouth is a straight, tight line.

I walked into the house. I turned my head And I saw her.

Lets go over this again, Mrs. Saddler.

Dazed, seated in the interrogation room, Brynn nods. She watches through tear-blurred eyes as one of the two Cedar Crest detectives glances over the pages of notes he just took.

I saw her; I saw Fee Oh, Fee Oh, my G.o.d You say your friend told you she was going away for a few days, says the more vocal detective, a balding, middle-aged man, but that she never said where, or why Yes, she did say why, but I didnt tell you.

I have to tell you. You need to know the whole truth.

Coherent thoughts are breaking through the haze of grief and shock more frequently now, trailing a fresh stream of guilt.

Yes, they need to know. But not yet. Not without Garth. She has to tell her husband first, so that he can hear it from her privately.

The brief contact with him, when he showed up here, was so comforting. She doesnt even know who called him; she was too hysterical to do it herself.

But suddenly, he was there, holding her tight, telling her he loved her, saying hed get the boys.

The boys. Poor boys.

Why did I have to insist on bringing them over there with me?

Because Fee had asked her to, so that Ashley would jump at the chance to go home with her.

If only she hadnt listened to Fee.

If only shed left them at home with Garth, as he had wanted her to do The boys started crying when they heard her panicked screams, and she was in no condition to comfort them. She vaguely remembers one of the cops in the back of the car with them, talking to them until Garth arrived.

He promised hed drop Caleb and Jeremy at Maggies and come right down here.

So where is he?

Maybe hes already back, waiting out there with Pat and Ashley, unaware that Brynn needs him desperately. Now. Right this second.

Do you know if She breaks off, realizing she just spoke right over the detective, still recapping his notes. Im sorry. I didnt No, its all right. What did you want to know?

Is my husband here?

The balding, middle-aged detective looks at the other balding, middle-aged detective, who promptly says, Ill go check, and steps out of the room.

The first detective resumes. Ms. Fitzgerald asked you to pick up her daughter today when her ex-husband returned her after a weekend visit, but she didnt tell him in advance that she was leaving town.

Brynn shakes her head, fishing in her pocket for another tissue. The clump in her hand is sodden.

Oh, Fiona An audible sob escapes her.

The detective waits for it to subside, then goes on. So you believe she didnt tell him because they didnt get along and she thought he would be upset with her.

She sniffles. I didnt say that exactly but, yes. I guess thats why.

As the detective continues recapping their conversation, Brynn wipes her streaming eyes and manages to comment appropriately, only half-listening.

Her thoughts are on Fiona.

On what happened to her.

Brynn cant stop reliving it.

I walked into the house. I turned my head And I saw her.

And I screamed.

As she screamed, she turned to flee, and there was Ashley.

Brynn shoved her, hard, instinctively trying to protect her.

Oh, G.o.d. Poor Ashley.

Poor Fee So you were at the victims home to pick up her child Yes.

I walked into the house. I turned my head And I saw her.

What was Fiona doing there, at home? She wasnt supposed to be there.

Did she lie to Brynn about going away? But why would she?

Did she stay at home and throw herself a birthday party that was interrupted by the killer?

How else to explain the cake, the hat, the wrapped gift in her hands, as though someone had just handed it to her in the instant before she was murdered.

Unless the killer put it there afterward.

And maybeshe grips the arms of the chair to stay steady as a tide of terror washes over herthe killer also set up the party.

Are you all right, Mrs. Saddler?

She shakes her head. Im just I feel a little bit Faint? The detective is standing over her chair, concerned. Kind.

He wont be,she tells herself,when he finds out that I know more than Im telling .

Let me get you some water.

She nods. Closes her eyes.

I walked into the house. I turned my head And I saw her.

Brynn?

Garth is here. In the room. He kneels by her chair and takes her into his arms. She can feel his stubbly beard against her temple, can smell the leather of his jacket.

Garth Shes clinging to him, crying again. Huge, heaving, shuddering sobs. I need to talk to you alone.