My stomach churns with fury as I stalk through the throngs of people. I will find him.
Lana was right. He wants more attention. He’s shifted his fixation onto taunting me with his kills now.
I need to stay away from Lana until this is all over with. Until that bastard is behind bars, she’s not safe. A sexual sadist won’t come after me personally; he’ll go after the woman I care about. Not that I pointed that out to her. Then again, I never thought he’d crave this attention.
She saw this coming before I did. Until now, he’s shown no signs of needing this sort of attention.
I blasted his face and name all over the news, and instead of lying low, he kills a woman near my front door.
Donny looks as furious as I feel as he comes toward me. The weight of this is bearing down on us, and everyone is ready to point fingers in our direction, as though we created the monster.
“He’s developing a narcissistic personality that will clash with his sexual sadist—”
“We just got a lead,” Lisa says, interrupting Donny. “Gerald Plemmons was spotted downtown half an hour ago.”
I’m already loading into my SUV. Lisa and Donny join me, and we peal out toward the newest lead.
“Director called. We have the shoot-to-kill order,” I tell both of them.
It’s one time that I don’t mind that order.
“You think?” Lisa snips from the passenger seat. “This guy went and made it personal. He’s a sexual sadist displaying narcissistic tendencies, and I’m your ex. I think it’d be wise for me to stay with someone.”
“He won’t focus on you,” Donny chimes in from the backseat. “He’ll be more focused on Lana.”
My grip tightens on the steering wheel as Donny echoes my own worries from earlier.
“Who is Lana?” Lisa asks, confused.
“I’m going to send two black-and-whites to her house until this is over. Let’s not assume he’s just fixating on me though. He could be fixating on the whole team.”
“I haven’t had a relationship with anyone but my hand in over a few years,” Donny goes on.
“Who’s Lana?” Lisa asks again.
“Elise, Lisa, and Hadley are the only females on the team. We should set up patrol for them as well,” I tell him, still ignoring Lisa as she huffs out an annoyed breath of air.
I don’t even hesitate to call in the protective detail as I drive toward the lead. That probably won’t help. This guy is too smart to stay put for too long.
He knows I’m coming for him.
Chapter 3
Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.
—Confucius
LANA
Two cops are sitting outside my house, guarding me, keeping me safe from the Boogeyman. Yes, I hear how ridiculous that sounds as well.
I have an entire hidden room with tons of information and surveillance shots of all my next victims. That hidden room is where I am now, as two guys hang out in their cruiser, being all kinds of conspicuous.
Do they not know how to keep a low profile?
And their windows are down. Have they never seen a horror movie? Windows down equal throats slashed.
I’m watching through my own surveillance cameras from my murder room, since this room has no windows. The cameras are only on the outside, and I put them up today for the purpose of keeping an eye on the cops.