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Or he might be holding an unconscious woman up in front of him, hoping that his taunts made her pull the trigger so that the woman died, and this time it would be her fault.
Horror filled her at that thought. She would never be able to live with herself in that case.
Juliette moved forward, her heart beating wildly.
She was walking into his trap, but she had no choice. Her instincts screamed at her to run, but she couldn't do that. She had to try and save this woman. As a police officer, it was her job to make sure that no one was hurt, and she had to risk her own safety.
She had to go closer.
Of course, she could wait for backup. In another few minutes there might be other police on the scene if they could get here fast enough. Sierra would be listening through her earpiece. But the problem was that in another few minutes, he might decide to kill her, and once he got his hands around her neck, Juliette knew that she’d have only a few more seconds to live.
"Why are you telling me this?" she said, edging forward. She guessed that he could see her more clearly than she could see him from behind that dark netting. And that, in itself, gave her an idea of what she could do.
A lightbulb moment, literally. Now, with her plan in mind, she needed to keep him talking until she could get even closer.
"How do you know me?" she said.
"You're not difficult to recognize, lady cop."
She had to move closer. Her mind was telling her she shouldn't, but she had to. There was no other way.
She took another step. Casually she let her arm drop to her side. She wasn't lowering her gun hand. She was lowering her left hand.
"Why are you doing this?" she asked. "Tell me."
His voice sounded contemptuous.
"Power, of course," he said scornfully, his voice low. "My power is growing, and it will only become more potent with every kill. The meridians I choose, the power lines from the statues, are feeding me. They're giving me what I need. And I want to leave my mark on the world. I want to create statues that will be eternally beautiful, and I want my name to be remembered."
His voice resonated with arrogance, and Juliette realized that this was a man who truly believed in his own power.
She shuddered, feeling a chill run down her spine. But then she shook it off and focused on the job in hand.
"Why did you choose these particular victims?"
"They were in the right place at the right time. That's all I needed. I gave them the lure and they chose me. Some walked past. But these women, the ones who came to me, knew what I could offer them."
Juliette nodded slowly, feeling a little sick at the thought of what this man had done.
But she pushed on. She edged forward, feeling sick with the knowledge of what he was, and what he was capable of.
"And the statues? The locations? What do they mean to you?"
He smiled then, a cold, cruel, calculating smile.
"They are monuments that hold immense power," he said. "Each one stands for eternity, each one feeds my strength and will. They are giving me what I need, until I stand alone as the one true power. This is just the start.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
He replied in a hissing whisper, as if he sensed she was wearing an earpiece and didn’t want it to pick up his words, which were for her alone.
“Oh, I have so many other places to go. My next stop is the Parthenon. I’m going to create three more statues there. I have the directions already mapped out, where the power meridians go. Of course, you won’t be there for that one, sadly. Then, I might go to Italy if the call of Michelangelo’s David is strong enough. If not, I’ll head to the Great Pyramid and save David for later. And the famous statue of Christ the Redeemer is also on my list. I’m going to do all those. All of them!”
He paused, as if savoring the thought.
That diatribe had given her the chance to edge forward another step. Her heart was hammering in fear and horror. She was speaking to an unseen opponent, who was protected behind his cover, and who was taunting her because he knew he could.
She took another step. She was now close enough to do what she hoped might give her a momentary advantage.
