The Mother

The Mother
BEVERLY BARTON

Prepare to lose sleep with this shocking and utterly engrossing thriller, for fans of Karen Rose and Karin Slaughter.The crime scenes are horrifying: the victims arranged with deliberate care, posed to appear alive despite their agonized last moments and the shocking nature of their deaths.For grief counsellor Audrey Sherrod it’s clear the murders are the work of a deranged serial killer. At first, the only link is the victims’ physical appearance. But then another connection emerges, tying them to a past series of horrifying crimes – crimes that hit all too close to home.As the truth is unravelled, its more twisted and terrifying than anyone could ever imagine.

Don’t Cry

Beverly Barton

Copyright

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

AVON

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London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in the U.S.A by Kensington Publishing Corp as Don’t Cry New York, NY, 2010

DON’T CRY. Copyright © Beverly Barton 2010. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

Beverly Barton asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Source ISBN: 9781847562487

Ebook Edition © DECEMBER 2011 ISBN: 9780007452460

Version: 2018-07-23

Dedication

To Billy, for a million and one reasons, but most of all

because he loves me

&

In memory of Pelham, Alabama,

Police Officer Philip Davis,

who lost his life in the line of duty, December 4, 2009

Contents

Cover (#ua7aa0ee6-b92d-5445-bbb8-62476870c8f7)

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Prologue

The Humpty-Dumpty night-light cast a soft, honey-white glow over the…

Chapter 1

J.D. Cass listened to his breakfast date’s end of the…

Chapter 2

Charlie Scott kept his arm clutched tightly around his wife’s…

Chapter 3

For most of her life—certainly after the car wreck that…

Chapter 4

Audrey had spent a restless night, tossing and turning, waking…

Chapter 5

After Audrey’s arrival at his home that morning, Mayor Don…

Chapter 6

Audrey disagreed with Garth. And not for the first time.

Chapter 7

Wayne Sherrod couldn’t get away from headquarters fast enough. He…

Chapter 8

After they had made love, while he held her close,…

Chapter 9