Alison looked out of the window again.Somewhere out there, dead or alive, was Mills.She didn't think he had come back to the city to kill her.It was waiting that would kill her.
"They might have something," Derek said as he rushed back through to the living room."The surest light at the back of Mills’s house was just triggered, and the light in the kitchen is on.They have a team going down there right now."
Alison looked at the clock on the living room wall.It was a little after three in the morning.
Was it Mills?Trying to sneak into his home?Would he go back there?
"I want to go down there," Alison said."If it’s him, I want to be there when they pick him up."
"We were told to stay here," Derek said.
"No, you were told to stay with me," she corrected."We go together.Dad can stay here and watch the house.He has Rex and his firearm.Go wake him and tell him, and I’ll reset the alarm once we leave.I need to be down there."
"Okay," Derek said.
***
Alison liked to think that she always remained calm in the face of danger.It was only three days previously that she had talked Sarah Hartman down from killing a man.She hadn’t felt nervous at all as she stood before her, knowing that one wrong move, saying the wrong thing, could end a man’s life.Yet, as they drove to Howard Mills’s home, she was nervous.
The team would be there before she and Derek arrived, so there would be no danger, and if Mills was picked up, he would already be cuffed and subdued.She'd been face-to-face with Mills before, only a few weeks previously, but that was before they knew for sure that Mills was the killer.Now they knew exactly who he was, and Alison was nervous about facing him.
It didn't make sense, not even to her, and she had devoted her entire life to understanding how the human mind worked.
"She was brilliant," Alison said as they drove through the night."I know I’m a little biased, and I’m never going to say anything negative about my sister after what happened to her, but she really was brilliant.She was kind, and strong-willed, and driven, and athletic, and artistic, and she knew who she was and who she wanted to be.She was a good sister to me."
Derek didn't reply as they drove; he just smiled as Alison spoke about her sister.
"Sarah asked me in the abandoned facility if I hated my sister, and I told her that I did at times, but only to gain her confidence.The truth is that I never hated her.I mean, we were sisters, so we had disagreements, but I never hated her.I loved her more than anything or anyone.I still love her.There was never any hate."
"I got to know her some more when I was out with your dad," Derek admitted."We spent a lot of time just watching people, and he talked about him."
"Really?"Alison asked with a smile."That’s really nice.He doesn’t often talk about her, but these past few months have really changed him.I like how he’s becoming.He wanted to leave the past in the past, but we can't ever do that, I don't think.Maybe some things, but not something like this."
"I understand him a little more," Derek admitted.
The streets were quiet.The late-night crowds that had frequented bars and clubs had returned home, and they didn't pass any twenty-four-hour stores or diners.There was not a soul to be seen.
"I mean, I don't understand him fully, but I get it to an extent.I’ve only been around the case for the last eighteen months, and it’s been hard to face the disappointment of it.If it weren’t for you, I would have given up by now.Even if it were a family member, I’m not sure that I could have kept going for as long as you have."
"I don't know how I kept going either," Alison admitted."I just had to.It’s always felt as if she’s been guiding me, like there’s been this invisible force guiding my way.Even when we faced dead end after dead end, I…No, maybe not completely.There were times when I thought we were done.Times when I expected we would never catch up to him."
"If he hadn’t killed Katrina Sands two months ago, we never would have," Derek noted."Her crime scene led us to the van, and that eventually led us to Mills.Seven years.He went seven years without killing anyone, two more years than usual, because his wife got cancer.If he had killed two years ago, we might never have gotten him.If he had one longer without killing, we might not have gotten him.That does feel like an invisible hand guiding us.Katrina Sands death won't be in vain.She’s the one who finally led us to Mills.We catch him for her, and for Emma, and the others.I bet we’ll get to the house, and he’ll be led out in handcuffs.It ends tonight."
Alison didn't reply to that.Most of it was overwhelming, but she still couldn’t get her hopes up.She knew that if Mills had come back to the city, they would be more likely to get him.It had gone from decades to years to months to days to hours.That’s all it should take: hours.
That’s all itshouldtake.
"She dreamed of being an Olympic swimmer," Alison said."I don't know if she ever would have become one, but he took that opportunity from her.And for what?We don't even know why.I know it doesn't matter, but I still want to know.Five women over twenty-two years with no connection between them.He didn't kill them because of who they were, but because he wanted to kill.Is that all it boils down to?She was in the wrong place at the wrong time?"
"I don't know," Derek admitted."Looking at it objectively, I would say yes.That’s what it comes down to.I don't know if that’s better or worse, but I would guess that she was killed because he knew he could get to her.Perhaps there was something of a power thing there.He had a regular life with a wife and kids, a regular job, perhaps he saw it as stable but boring.He took the life of someone younger, someone he could overpower, an attractive young woman, because he couldn’t have that in his life anymore.We don't need to think about this."
"No, it’s good," Alison said."I need to think about something.It won't help me if I know why he killed her.There’s no reason that will make this okay, but my mind needs to make sense of it, to make it all fit like the other cases.I want him behind bars, and I want to know.I need that for myself."
"Then we’ll get it," Derek said.
Alison swallowed when they pulled onto Mills’s street.Blue and red lights flashed outside his house, and there was a flurry of activity outside.
Derek stopped the car, and he and Alison got out.Alison turned her head and saw a car fly by the end of the street, light splashing, but the siren was quiet.A couple of marshals were talking animatedly on the street, and behind them was Special Agent Hartley.
