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“Let’s bring in his kids, all of them,” Heidi announced. “Hopefully one of them will have something useful to add to this because Sebastian knows that we’re on to him, which means that Emily Hadden probably doesn’t have much time left.”
* * * * *
9:51 A.M.
He had hoped to have a little longer with her, but obviously it wasn't to be.
While he was disappointed, it certainly wasn't the end of the world. There could always be more. He had some choices left.
Perhaps it was time to start thinking outside the box.
It was irritating that the cops had finally caught on. He wasn't worried though, there was nothing but coincidence to connect the cases. No one would ever be able to pin those deaths on him. He was always careful, he made sure he left nothing of himself behind, he planned things out, he always had a scapegoat, he always had a secluded location. This strategy had worked well for him so far, twelve years since his first kill and no one had even looked in his direction until now. Obviously, he was a whole lot smarter than the cops. Smart enough to kill and get away with it, and smart enough to keep killing and getting away with it.
Which brought him to his current dilemma.
He wasn't finished with Emily Hadden yet. He had intended to play with her for at least a few more days, maybe weeks, or even months if he could keep her alive long enough. He enjoyed spending time with her. Enjoyed having fun with her. Enjoyed knowing that she had no choice but to sit there and wait for him to do with her as he wished. He could give her food and water or he could not. It was entirely up to him. The power rush was quite exhilarating.
Now that the cops were closing in on him, he would have to rethink that. Perhaps it was better to kill her now, get rid of her body and any traces that she had ever been here. Perhaps he could move, start over someplace else. He certainly had the financial means to do so, to start fresh any place he chose.
Maybe that would be for the best.
Standing at the edge of the diving pool, he looked down at Emily. She was no longer the beautiful woman he had snatched from her bed in the middle of the night. When she had said to him that he had gotten what he wanted, that he had destroyed her, she was correct. He liked knowing he had the ability to destroy someone. Again, it was quite elating.
Up until now, he had played everything safe, that had worked, he should stick with it even if he was conflicted. He squirted Emily with the hose, but she didn’t flinch. Was she already dead? That was completely unacceptable. Like he had told her yesterday,hewas in charge here.Hewould decide when she died.
Scrambling down the rope ladder, he kicked Emily. “Hey, get up.”
Her eyelids fluttered but didn’t open.
Kicking her again, harder this time. “Up. Now.”
Emily moaned, tried to curl her bruised and battered body up into the fetal position, but seemed to have trouble moving.
It seemed killing her today might have been what he ended up doing anyway even if the cops hadn’t been circling around. He would have to figure out how to keep his victims alive for longer periods of time now that he intended to play with them for a while. Obviously, the way he’d gone about things with Emily hadn’t worked out. He had only had her for less than a week, he should have been able to get at the very least several weeks out of her. Or maybe it wasn't that he had done something wrong, maybe it was just that Emily was weak. Next time around he would look for someone stronger.
“On your feet.” He reached down, grabbed an arm, and roughly dragged her up. As soon as he released her she staggered, swayed, and fell down again. He was getting annoyed now. The rotten little gold-digger was almost more trouble than she was worth. He had better things to be doing with his time than dealing with this nonsense. Now that he had decided to pack up and move on, he was ready to get planning. There were loose ends to tie up here, work, family, friends, to attend to before he could safely leave.
“Just kill me. Get it over with,” Emily’s weak voice floated up from her barely conscious form.
“Oh, I intend to, but I want you on your feet and looking me in the eye when I kill you.” He kicked at her again.
Groaning, Emily managed to push herself up onto all fours, then with what appeared to be tremendous effort, she struggled to her feet. The eyes that looked back at him were dead. Completely lifeless. It appeared that Emily really and truly did wish for death. That was an interesting development. He hadn’t expected to ever see someone who wanted to die. Selene and Jim, Claudia and Ian, they had all wanted to live, right up until the last second. Perhaps next time he would pay closer attention to his victim, note the exact moment at which they lost the will to live.
He pulled out his knife. Admired the shiny metal blade, the way the sunlight bounced off it. Pictured in his mind how much better it would look once it was coated in a nice thick layer of blood.
Emily didn’t blink at the sight of it, didn’t flinch, didn’t cringe, didn’t display any emotion at all. He prepared to plunge it into her belly, hoping that the emotion would come once he stabbed her. He liked to give his victims a slow death. It was why he tried to make sure he didn’t hit any major organs when he inflicted the wound. If he did it right, she should last for a couple of hours before she lost enough blood to die. For some reason he enjoyed watching the life drain slowly out of his victims. He didn’t really care what a shrink would say that meant about him, he wasn’t at all interested in learning anything deep about himself.
Raising his hand above his head, he was ready to bring it slicing down when his phone rang.
* * * * *
12:37 P.M.
“Why did you …” Aggie broke off as she stomped into the conference room and saw who was there. Nick had called, insisted that she come down to the station, promised that it was nothing to do with the two of them, but that it was extremely important. She hadn’t wanted to, yet she had found herself here anyway. He had sounded all business on the phone, and she assumed that it had something to do with this ridiculous theory of his that her father had killed Selene and Claudia. No matter how angry and hurt she was with Nick, she would do whatever it took to clear her father’s name, even if it meant having to spend time in the same room as him.
What she hadn’t expected was this.
Nick was obviously even more serious about proving her father was a serial killer than she’d thought. And she had already thought he was pretty serious given the lengths he had already gone to. Her older brother was here, as were her two half-sisters. To look at the three of them they were identical, although they all had different colored eyes, no one would ever guess that they shared only half of their DNA.
