Free The Collie Murders: A Serial Killer Crime Thriller by Jared Paul Page B

Cory. I tried to be like you. I even went after that dog Travis, thought maybe I could marry a Harper like you did. After all, everyone in school wanted to marry a Harper.” Fran paused, her eyes finding Cory’s. A gleam had settled into her expression, and Cory recognized it as madness. There was nothing she was going to be able to say that was going to dissuade Fran from her agenda, whatever that happened to be.
                 
    “I must say, I’m far more clever that you ever dreamed of being. I came up with the idea to kill those women, put them in places you’d been. At first I thought it would be enough to frame Travis, to land him in jail for the rest of his miserable life, but then I knew that the real person I was after was you. You’re the killer, congratulations, Cory.”
                 
                 
     
     

CHAPTER 9
………………………………..
     
    “You went around town, grief stricken because you couldn’t save your little boy, killing the women that came across your path. I knew you saw that chain-smoking irritating bimbo Amber every time you went to the grocery store, that you were friendly with her, and I thought she’d be the best person to get everyone’s attention with. I’d already murdered Heather and that fat weirdo sister of hers, knowing that since you’d already lived there, that someone would eventually think that you’d gone back to your roots and lost it with a pistol. How easy it was to shoot them in the chest! Like they wanted it!
                 
    “I left those messages for you to keep you busy and to keep you away from Willis long enough for me to lure him off by himself. He’d been trying to sleep with me since I started working there, and I’m sure that’s why he was kinder to you than he was to me. You slept with him, right? Sure you did. Killing him was like drinking a cup of coffee, good till the last drop.”
                 
    Cory tried to block out the things Fran was saying to her, but it found its way inside of her senses as her words had a roadmap. The kind of sick mind it took to conjure up something this elaborate must have been dreamt up from years of abuse by other people, that or some kind of psychotic break. Why Fran was so fixated on her, was anyone’s guess.
                 
    Cory looked to her right, thought she saw the baseball bat she’d leaned against the wall cattycorner to couch in a blind corner, but it was at least a few feet away from her and she probably wouldn’t have enough time to get to the bat and swing it before Fran could fire her gun. The psycho had proven that she was perfectly capable of shooting someone.
                 
    Fran walked over to where Willis was positioned, where the last drops of his blood were still making wet smacks against David’s tombstone. Cory felt tears blurring her vision, but she couldn’t force herself to take her eyes off of Fran.
                 
    “Do you know why I’m doing this? I bet you haven’t the slightest clue. People like you never think to understand the people beneath you.” Fran smacked the back of Willis’ head so that it rocked back and forth, the gaping maw of his wound opening and closing as if it was trying to get one last acerbic word out.
                 
    “Killing Willis is obvious, I think. The other three were meant to get rid of you, pin you for murder and get you out of my way. With you gone, I can take your place and then become Chief Medical Examiner. I’ll finally have everything you have and more. Maybe even Sheriff Harper will want to be with me. You certainly never deserved him.”
                 
    Cory swallowed. She was trying to think of a plan, some kind of way to distract Fran long enough so that she could jump up off of the chair and make a dash for the bat, or better yet charge head on straight at Fran herself. She was slight,