Kitty Litter Killer Read Online Free Page B

loomed in the field, advertising a cornfield maze. We’d done the maze the last couple of years and enjoyed it.
    “Can we go?” she asked.
    “We’ll talk to Daddy tonight,” I said. “I’m sure we can.”
    Hayley’s house was near the Cunningham estate. The Cunninghams had moved to this neighborhood when Max was a teenager. . . . Well, this wasn’t a neighborhood like the typical suburban sprawl. Instead, large houses were planted tastefully on acres of carefully manicured land. It was beautiful.
    Despite my irritation with Ma for going behind my back to set up house-hunting help, it was true that we were considering a new home. Our present home still seemed crowded with the addition of a very active baby, even though my oldest stepson, Tommy, was away at college. My in-laws wanted me and Max to buy property out here, build a home, and be near them. I figured it wasn’t because my mother-in-law particularly wanted me nearer to her, but it was more likely that she wanted to make sure the children were raised correctly. More of her influence and less of mine.
    I knew Max would like being nearer to his father. He sounded a little nostalgic when he mentioned houses and land for sale in this neighborhood. I tried to act interested, but I couldn’t imagine living here. In addition to being closer to my in-laws, living here would mean being farther from my parents and everything I’d known my whole life. Besides, I wouldn’t fit in. I was a farm girl. A redneck through and through. Despite the fact that I married a man with money, my clothes still usually came from the racks in Wal-Mart. There was no way I would join the country club and meet the girls twice a week. I hated tennis and golf.
    Still. . .was I being selfish?
    I found Hayley’s place easily because the shiny brass street numbers glowed on an ornate black mailbox. I followed the curved, tree-lined driveway, calculating in my head how much the asphalt had cost. After I rounded a final bend, I saw the house, and my breath caught in my throat. Built in the style of a southern mansion with tall white pillars gracing the front, the building glowed in the setting sun. I felt like donning a Civil War–style gown and crying, Tara! Home. I’ll go home.
    I parked in the circular driveway, half expecting servants to run from the house to help us from the SUV. Then I turned to Sammie, who was eagerly undoing her seat belt. “Honey, don’t pick up anything in the house and put it in your pocket, okay?”
    “I know, Mommy.” I could hear the sigh in her answer. She jumped from the car, coat flapping around her legs, more excited than I’d seen her in a long time. As much as I hated to think it, perhaps Angelica had been partially right. Sammie needed a distraction. A new addition to a family, especially one as demanding as Chris, was hard on everyone. And sometimes the kids who are the quietest get lost in the process.
    While she ran over to the flower bed full of lovely mums and other fall plantings, I took Chris from his car seat and balanced him on my hip. He started yanking on my hair, messing up the already frizzy blond curls.
    When our motley crew was assembled on the massive veranda, I rang the bell and didn’t have to wait long. A petite girl, about my height, answered. For a moment, I thought she was a teenager, then I realized this was Hayley. I was surprised by her youth. I had expected she would be older since she was friends with my mother-in-law. Hayley wore a pair of jeans and a black sweater set with pretty gold buttons. I’m small, but I’d gained way too much weight when I was pregnant with Chris—and I still hadn’t lost it all. She made me feel frowsy.
    “Hayley?” I asked.
    “You must be Trish.” She looked me up and down and then smiled. The smile was genuine and reached her eyes with warmth that surprised me. “It’s nice to meet someone as short as I am. Come on in.”
    We stepped into the marble-floored foyer. She took our coats