Say Goodbye (Romantic Suspense #25) by Karen Rose

            “I’m sorry,” Liza said honestly. “I’m going to be a nurse. I can’t help but think of how unusual your pregnancy must have been.”

            Margo lifted a slender shoulder. “Hugh loves my daughter and Tracy’s babies were his grandchildren from day one. He did want babies of his own, though. So we tried.” She shuddered. “Lots of fertility drugs. But it was worth it. It made him so happy.”

            Tom set the photo on the end table. “You said you were expecting us. Why?”

            “Not you, per se. But I saw a news special a month ago, the one about the serial killer in Sacramento?”

            “You saw the locket,” Tom murmured. “The Eden locket.”

            Liza knew the news special Margo was talking about. She’d seen it as well. It was an account of the serial killer who’d murdered so many women. The reporter had briefly interviewed Daisy, who’d found the locket when she’d fought and escaped the killer.

            Margo nodded. “The locket was only featured for a few seconds, but my heart nearly stopped. I’ve . . .” She blew out a breath. “I’ve been trying to figure out how to tell my husband. I wanted to go to law enforcement and tell them what I knew, but I couldn’t blindside Hugh that way. Especially if I was held accountable for my part in Ben’s scheme.”

            Ben. “Benton Travis,” Liza said. The name Pastor had been given at birth.

            “Yes. He stole a lot of money from our church, the one in L.A. I didn’t know about it at first, but I didn’t tell anyone when I did. I know that was wrong. Now I’m going to have to tell Hugh. He’s going to be very disappointed in me, but he’ll support me. I hope.” She folded her hands in her lap. “What do you want to know?”

            Liza thought Tom would begin with the banker but was stunned when he asked, “Did Pastor know that Waylon fathered your children?”

            Margo’s mouth fell open, her laugh brittle. “You certainly go straight to the hard questions, Agent Hunter. No. He never knew. I think . . . I don’t know what he would have done.”

            “So you continued your relationship with Waylon after your divorce.”

            Margo nodded. “Waylon was my first love.”

            “Why did you divorce?” Tom asked.

            She sighed. “It was this thing that Ben and Waylon cooked up between them. Ben figured they could start a church and get donations. Then he realized that if he became the minister of an established church—a wealthy one—he could have a steady income for not a lot of work.”

            “You were at the L.A. church for ten years,” Tom said. “That’s a long time.”

            “Ben found that he liked it. He always believed himself superior to everyone else. Being a pastor let him act out that role. Waylon had all the tattoos and looked big and bad, but he was sweet. Ben was the brains, but he was . . . what’s the word the kids are using? A douchebag.”

            Liza had to swallow a startled laugh at hearing the word fall from this stylish woman’s lips.

            “He was a born swindler,” Margo went on. “He and Waylon met in prison and . . . I guess Waylon was as snowed by Ben as everyone else. Me included, for a while. By the time we realized what a monster Ben was, it was too late.”

            “Waylon brought you to his parents when he helped you escape Eden,” Tom said. “You lived in their house on Elvis Lane.”

            Margo nodded. “I was terrified that Ben would come looking for us. I didn’t step foot from that house for years.”

            “Did Waylon’s parents know that they were the children’s grandparents?” Liza asked.

            “They did. My William and Waylon’s other son, DJ, resembled each other.”

            “Did you know that Waylon produced bodies that he found in a ravine and claimed they were yours?” Tom asked abruptly.

            Margo gasped, all the color draining from her face. “What? No. That’s impossible.”

            “That’s why Pastor didn’t come for you. He believed you were dead,” Tom said. “No one is sure who those people were, but Waylon brought back the remains of a woman and two children.”