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And yet there had been Ashley

Ah, Ashley! If she’d been alone, and come upon him, he could have handled her, of course Not that she was easy--no, not Ashley She always had been a fighter

Difficult to think of her in a coffin, set in a vault and left to disintegrate into dust and bone fragments

He didn’t like to think about Ashley dead, not really

But the aspect of killing her was suddenly…so seductive

Charles was a big old ugly lug; he hadn’t feltMarty Dean was a bitch, pure and simple, fake breasts, fake hair, fake s her that he hadn’t felt with old Charles

If he had to kill Ashley…

He would definitely want her drugged He would want to see her die without a crease in her beautiful face, without a cry of pain She would be his then, if just briefly

Ashley was special She would fit the bill as no other could, and she would also fulfill so in him, some need he hadn’t known he had…

Well, not really

He broke out suddenly in a cold sweat

Tonight…

Tonight he had al better and better at what he did

And they never would catch him

10

Ashley awoke alone

She was in the Jeb Stuart rooined a wild and passionate sexual experience

In her mind, she had to ad

But, no, she had been with Jake through the night, and that , slipped into it and nearly opened the door to the hall Re that her house was now riddled with cah the wraparound porch

She showered quickly and headed downstairs It was late; it see over; there was no one in the kitchen or dining room, but Beth always had coffee on, so she quickly poured herself a cup and decided to start looking for the others

Walking into the roadside parlor, she discovered that Whitney was in front of the bank of screens, coback chairs

The coffee cup nearly fell from her hands as she realized that one of the screens showed the back of the house--and the wraparound porch

Whitney heard her there and turned around Ashley’s horror must have been clear on her face, because Whitney smiled "Hey, don’t worry! I’m the only one on now And if there’s anyone in this world who can’t look at the two of you and know that so on, that person is certainly blind"

"I--I--I just--"

"Quit stuttering!" Whitney said, laughing "Sit--join --the young woed to place the caically that the whole of the house was covered

The outside and the public rooms

There were no screens that covered the bedrooms, just as Whitney had said

"So…"

"Jackson and Jake have gone to the sugarto stop in on Hank Trebly," Whitney said "Angela is upstairs with a few folks fro to discover anything they can about who et Jenna You haven’t randfather?" Ashley asked

"Jackson and Jake are dropping theet out for a bit," Whitney explained "Don’t worry--they’ll get theested that they wait for you, but your grandfather was insistent that you get soood to sleep," Ashley ad--besidesback into my own bedroom by way of the balcony?"