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her to change her life. The realization that she needed to change had happened on the morning of her thirtieth birthday when shed woken up with a cheesecake hangover and a guy named Derrick. The cheesecake had been mediocre and Derrick a real disappointment.
    These days she was still a hedonist at heart, but she was a nonpracticing hedonist. She still overindulged on lotions and bath products, but she needed those to relax and destress and to stave off dry, flaky skin.
    She sank farther beneath the water and attempted to find a little peace for herself. Her body succumbed to the bubbles and warm water, but her mind wasnt so easily quieted and continued to roam over the past few weeks. She was making real progress on her timeline and notes. She had a list of people mentioned in her mothers last diary, the few friends shed made in Truly and people with whom shed worked. The county coroner from 1978 had died, but the sheriff still lived in Truly. He was retired, but Maddie was sure he could provide valuable information. She had newspaper accounts, police reports, the coroners find ings, and as much information on the Hennessy family as she could possibly dig up. Now all she had to do was talk to anyone connected to her mothers life and death.
    Shed discovered that two women her mother had worked with still lived in town and she planned to start with them tomorrow morning. It was past time she talked to people in town and unearthed information.
    The warm water and scented bubbles slid over her stomach and the bottom swell of her breasts. Reading those diaries, she could almost hear her mothers voice for the first time in twenty-nine years. Alice wrote about her fear at finding herself alone and pregnant and her excitement over Maddies birth. Reading about her hopes and dreams for herself and her baby had been heartbreaking and so bittersweet. But with the heartbreaking and bittersweet discoveries, shed learned that her mother wasnt the blond-haired, blue-eyed angel shed created in her childs head and heart. Alice had been the sort of woman who had to have a man in her life or shed felt worthless. Shed been needy and naive and eternally optimistic. Maddie had never been needy, nor could she recall a time when shed been naive or overly optimistic about anything. Not even as a child. Discovering that she had absolutely nothing in common with the woman whod given her birth, nothing that tied her to her mother, left her empty inside.
    Early in life, Maddie had developed a hard shell around her soul. Her tough exterior had always been an asset while doing her job, but she didnt feel so tough today. She felt raw and vulnerable. Vulnerable to what, she didnt know, but she hated the feeling. It would be so much easier if she tossed the diaries and wrote about a psychopath by the name of Roddy Durban. Shed been writing about the nasty little bastard whod killed more than twenty-three prostitutes right before shed found the diaries. Writing about Roddy would be a hell of a lot easier than writing about her mother, but the night that Maddie had taken the diaries home and read them, she knew there was no turning back. Her career, while not always carefully calculated, had not been random. She was a true crime writer for a reason, and as shed pored over her mothers overly feminine handwriting, she knew the time had come to sit down and write about the crime that had left her mother dead.
    She turned off the water with her foot and reached for the body scrub on the side of the tub. She squirted the thick sugar scrub into her palm and the scent of chocolate cake filled her nose. With it came the unbidden memory of standing on a chair next to her mother and stirring chocolate pudding on the stove. She didnt know how old shed been or where theyd lived. The memory was as tangible as a wisp of smoke, but it managed to deliver a punch to the lonely place next to her heart.
    Bubbles clung to her breasts as she sat up and lifted her feet over the side