Free Lone Star Justice by Tori Scott

one.
    "Hey, whatever happened to Susie Campbell?" Maddie asked Ellie. They'd all run together in high school, the three musketeers of Greendale High. "I haven't seen or heard from her since graduation."
    Ellie's face paled. "You didn't hear?"
    "Hear what? I haven't heard a thing about anyone in this town since I left."
    "The story made the national news, Maddie. How did you miss it? Susie was murdered, right after you left."
    Maddie breath caught in her throat. Murdered? "Here in Greendale?" What had the town been through? First Rand's parents, then Susie? No wonder no one seemed glad to see her. Her boyfriend's parents, then her best friend.
    And what they both had in common was Maddie.
    Ellie didn't seem to notice Maddie's preoccupation. "No, not here. Up around Lindale somewhere. At first the cops thought she'd killed herself. They found her hanging from a tree. But since she'd had her tongue cut out, they abandoned that theory pretty quick."
    Maddie's stomach rolled. It was exactly like Anne's murder. But this one had happened years ago, several hundred miles from Montgomery county.
    Ellie went on. "Yep, we had ourselves a serial killer. Killed a girl every year at the end of May or first part of June, like clockwork. Then suddenly, five years ago, the murders stopped. Papers never said he was caught, so I figure he got tired of it, or he moved on somewhere else since they'd 'a killed him on the spot if they'd a caught him. Wouldn't 'a bothered with a trial."
    Maddie grabbed a notebook from her purse and started writing.
    "What 'cha doing?" Ellie tried to read upside down, but gave up.
    "Taking notes. Listen. If anything happens to me, make sure Rand gets this." She ripped the sheet from the notebook and handed it to Ellie. "The reason I'm here is because someone killed my best friend back in Oklahoma, in exactly the same way. Then he started threatening Brandy. I came home to be safe, but I may have stumbled back into his comfort zone."
    Maddie pushed her chair back and dropped a few bills on the table for a tip. "I have to go pick up my daughter. Walk out with me?"
    Ellie grabbed her purse and followed Maddie out the door. "What's going on? You think someone's going to kill you?"
    Maddie nodded. "And you need to be careful. He's already killed two of my best friends. You're the only one I have left."
    Except for Rand .
    "Well," Ellie said with a toss of her head, "thank God I'm a blonde."
    ***
    By the time Maddie collected Brandy and returned to the motel, she was close to the boiling point. If she ever got her hands on this wacko, she wouldn't let go until he was sentenced to life in prison without parole. She had no sympathy for men who hurt women, no matter what the reason. Whether they beat them up or killed them in cold blood. It was one of the things that made her so popular with the D.A.'s office. They knew if they could present the evidence, she would hand down a tough sentence.
    The press loved to hate her. She'd been given many colorful nicknames over the last few years, most of them less than complimentary. Castrating Cooper was the one most often used when the story broke about the math teacher. Mad Maddie was the press favorite during the trial for the con man who targeted senior citizens.
    The names never bothered her, but Brandy had suffered taunts from kids at school who parroted what their parents said at home. And now her daughter had been uprooted from her home, driven away from her friends, and learned things Maddie had hoped to keep from her until she was older. All because of one man on a power kick.
    She almost wished she'd get the chance to meet this guy alone, just the two of them. She'd teach him not to mess with Maddie Cooper.
    "What was the sigh for, Mom?" Brandy asked as they pulled into the motel parking lot.
    "Nothing, honey. Just thinking foolish thoughts." Maddie wrapped an arm around her daughter's shoulders as they walked to the door. "Would you like to go to the movie tomorrow