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Judy leaned closer.

“You weren’t hunting women.”

Evan smiled through the pain.

“I was hunting memories.”

The confession was cold.

Proud.

Everything Judy needed.

Spokane officers flooded the yard.

They pulled Evan to his feet.

Max released him only when I gave the command.

Judy looked toward Rylie.

The rain had plastered her hair to her face.

Trigger still held her.

But she stood on her own.

The final victim on Evan’s list was alive.

The serial killer was in handcuffs.

And for the first time in eighteen years, Rylie remembered everything.

43

JUDY

Robert Mills sat handcuffed to a hospital bed.

Evan occupied another guarded room two floors above him.

Elizabeth was receiving stitches down the hall.

Rylie had a bruised rib and a shallow cut where Evan’s knife had pressed against her side.

No one had died.

I kept repeating those words.

No one had died.

Not tonight.

Mace stood beside the hospital window while I spoke with Lieutenant Avery.

“We recorded Evan’s statement in the yard,” she said. “Body cameras caught most of it.”

“And Robert?”