Six Killer Bodies by Stephanie Bond

“You’re my brother. I’m not going to stand by and
    let you do something that could kil you, or at the very
    least, send you back to jail.”
    He pursed his mouth. “I only took a few pil s for the pain.”
    “I understand why you started taking them, Wes, but you
    need to stop.”
    “Where did you have this test done? This could be bogus
    for al I know.”
    “Coop did the analysis himself.”
    “Coop?” Emotions played over his face—anger,
    frustration, shame. He turned his back to her and jammed
    his hands on his hips.
    She waited, wanting to reach out to touch him, but sensing
    he wouldn’t welcome it.
    “Wes, I need for you to get straight,” she said quietly.
    “With Coop in jail, I’m barely hanging on here. I need your
    help to deal with this.”
    Finally his shoulders fel . “Okay, I’l quit.” He turned
    around, his expression bleak.
    “Can you do it on your own?”
    He scoffed. “Hel , yeah, I can do it on my own. I can quit
    any time I want to. This stuff isn’t cocaine. I’m not some
    hard-core addict shooting up in an alley.”
    “Good,” she said, relieved. “So you’l just…quit.”
    “I said I would,” he snapped.
    “Okay,” she soothed, grateful he at least acknowledged he
    had a problem. That was enough for now. “I’m here if you
    need me.”
    She noticed that his gaze had slid back to the window over
    the sink.
    “Wes, is something wrong? You keep looking—”
    He cut her off by clamping a hand over her mouth.
    Her eyes widened. He lifted a finger to his mouth, then
    pointed to the top of the window.
    Carlotta squinted at what looked like a dark hole the size
    of a golf bal , then realized it wasn’t a hole, it
    was…something. “What—”
    Wesley covered her mouth again and shepherded her into
    the living room. “Keep your voice down.”
    When he released her, she whispered, “What’s going on?”
    “That thing over the window is a bug.”
    “A what?”
    “A listening device. We—I mean, I found it when I installed
    the security system.”
    “What’s it doing there?”
    “I don’t know. But from a date stamped on the base, it
    looks like it was installed about ten years ago.”
    Her eyebrows shot up. “Do you think Dad did it?”
    “That’s what I thought, so he could listen in to make sure
    we were okay.”
    Wonder flowered through her chest at the prospect.
    “When he spoke to me at the rest area, he did say he was
    keeping tabs on us. Maybe this is how.”
    “I figure he has a handheld receiver and parks near the
    house to listen in. The transmission range couldn’t be
    more than a mile or so.”
    So Randolph had planned to be nearby, at least on
    occasion. Her mind scrol ed back over all the conversations
    between her and Wesley that had taken place over the
    past ten years. The times her little brother had cried into
    his dinner plate. Knowing that Randolph and Valerie might
    have overheard how much their children were suffering,
    yet stil hadn’t come back, was almost worse than being
    ignored. Then another thought occurred to her.
    “What if someone put it there to listen in on Dad?”
    Wesley pul ed his hand down his face and nodded. “That’s
    a possibility.”
    “Wes, there’s something else I should tell you. The
    Charmed Kil er’s second victim, Alicia Sil s, worked in Dad’s
    office building.”
    “Yeah. So?”
    “So…Peter remembers that Dad and the woman
    were…friendly. Very friendly. And since Randolph’s name
    has already come up as a possible suspect, it doesn’t look
    good.”
    “Did Peter tel the police?”
    “No. He left it up to me to decide, and I haven’t said
    anything.”
    “Do you stil have Dad’s client file? The one I took from
    Liz?”
    “It’s at Peter’s, but I haven’t gone through it yet. I guess
    part of me doesn’t want to dredge it up again, and another
    part of me wants to get past this situation with Coop
    before dealing with it.”
    Wes nodded, looking as concerned and confused as