Page 37 of Make No Mistake

A look of pain crossed her face. “Yeah. I saw your article. There was another one?”

I nodded again. “Yeah, this morning.”

“It’s terrible.”

“That’s why I want to work on it. I’ve already interviewed the first victim, and I think I found a connection. I just need to interview the second one.”

She started shaking her head. “Mac, please.”

“Aubrey, it’s fine. I already have a plan to work with campus security to get a group together that will be volunteers. If people are alone they can call one of the members of the group to walk with them.”

“That sounds great, but how will you know if the volunteers are trustworthy?”

I looked down to my hands resting in my lap. “I don’t know that part yet.”

“Mac, please. Please, don’t get involved. Let the police do their jobs.”

“Oh, just like they did for you.”

I knew I shouldn’t have brought it up, but I wanted her to see my point. She’d survived two stalkers and being attacked back in high school. Half the time, the detectives assigned to her case didn’t even believe her, and the other time they weren’t doing anything to figure out who he was. She’d discovered it the night he’d attacked her.

She gave me a sad look. I knew she hated talking about that time in her life, and these attacks had to bring up bad memories. I should be more sensitive, but if anyone in the school understood, it was her.

“Mac, I didn’t ask for that to happen. I did everything I could to get out of the situation. I don’t want you walking into this one.”

I reached for her hand and locked eyes with her. “Aubrey, I swear I won’t put myself in danger. I’m just going to interview people and write about it. It’s the same as any other project I’ve had.”

“Except this one involves a real life crazy person who’s still out there, probably looking for his next victim.”

We were both silent for a minute, neither one of us willing to cave. She finally let out a breath.

“I know I can’t stop you, so will you at least promise me that you’ll be careful?”

“I promise.”

She nodded and stood. “I need to shower. Please don’t do anything stupid.”

I waved her off and pulled my laptop closer to me. I had a few things I needed to figure out before my appointment with the security office.