Perhaps he had snapped, and finally succumbed to the internal monsters that he had barely managed to keep in check.
"We'll find out more as soon as we get to his place," she said, staring out at the streetlights, illuminating the neat houses and well-kept streets of this ordinary-looking residential area.
But it could be that an extraordinary monster lived here.
Would Nurse Keyes be at home? May hoped so. Perhaps they would find signs of the most recent crime in his house or car. But May knew it might not be as easy as she wanted it to be.
They were dealing with a clever and cunning criminal. Someone who seemed to be taking a perverse pride in outsmarting and outmaneuvering the police while doing his brutal work. She felt a thrill of fear at this thought.
"Right, here we are. Woodside Drive. This is where he lives," May said.
She slowed the car down and turned into the street.A minute later, they pulled up outside the neat and nondescript brick house.
They climbed out of the car, both of them aware that they had a very dangerous criminal in their sights.
The lights were on, and so were the porch lights. She saw the front curtains were closed, with a suffused glow from beyond. May's hands felt damp. The house was very quiet. Was he inside? Or out, hunting victims? Or somewhere nearby, lurking and waiting?
They hurried up to the front door. May rang the doorbell. It shrilled in the house, and they waited, her heart thumping harder with every moment that passed.
She rang the bell again.
"Perhaps he's not home?" she asked.
"Would a criminal come to the door when the police ring the bell? When anyone rings the bell, just after he's committed a murder?" Owen asked.
"I think we need to check the house," May decided. "Let's go around, look in the windows, see if we can see him anywhere. Or see anything. You go left, I'll go right."
Owen nodded.
May drew her gun. Going alone, around this house, she had no illusions that she might be at risk. A picture of those brutal, accurate strikes flitted into her mind, and she shivered.
She paced around the house, passing what she guessed was a bedroom, but the curtains were closed. She waited but could hear nothing from inside.
She crept on, wondering what was behind this closed blind, which was dark. A bathroom, perhaps.
She heard a rustle behind her and spun around, heart accelerating, but it was only the wind, breezing through a bushy tree in the garden.
May let out the breath she'd taken, trying to force herself to be calm. Then she gasped it straight in again, because at thatmoment, there was a startled shout from the other side of the house.
Gripping the gun harder, she realized it was Owen's voice. And he sounded panicked.
Turning in the direction she'd come from, May sprinted as fast as she could, back toward the sound.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
May rushed around Nurse Keyes' house, stumbling in the dark, panic surging inside her. Had Owen been attacked? Had the murderous nurse been waiting, hiding out behind a tree, ready to claim another victim?
As she hurtled around the corner of the house, she heard Owen call again. "May! May, come here, quick!"
"I'm here! I'm here!" she shouted, making sure her gun was at the ready.
But, skidding around the corner, she saw her deputy was alone. He was not in direct danger. But he was staring, in horror, through a window where May realized the curtains were partially open.
Light filtered out, illuminating his stressed expression as he turned to her.
What was happening in there? What had he seen?
"What's going on?" May asked, breathless from running, her voice tight with tension. She stuck her gun back in the holster because Owen didn’t have his out. Whatever was going on, it was something different than she’d imagined, but she had no idea what.