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“Terminal Security is helping us keep the crowds at bay,” Rameses said. “Looks like they changed their tune.”
“Wonderful,” Faith said. “Thank God for small blessings. We’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
She hung up and met Michael’s eyes.
“Well,” Michael said glumly, “I guess we’re looking at a serial killer after all.”
“Not yet,” Faith said. “A killer needs three victims to be a serial killer. We’ve only got two. Let’s stop him before he gets to three.”
Michael nodded. He heaved a sigh and stood. “Best job in the universe, am I right?”
“Oh yeah,” Faith said, “it’s killer.”
CHAPTER TEN
This wasn’t the plan. Not at all.
He couldn’t understand it. He was so careful this time. He was worried, of course, that with the terminal opened twenty-four hours, he might be caught staging the body, but it had proven very straightforward to stage the body in a little-trafficked corner near the bench where he had placed the first body. Like last time, this one was dressed in an outfit that was mildly attention-seeking but not so strange that it would draw the eye instinctively. He was staged differently, too, leaning against the wall with his hands in his pockets and his head slumped forward. He was supposed to look asleep.
Evidently, he looked a little worse than asleep because it was less than an hour later when a passenger did a double take after passing him and screamed. It took nearly all of his willpower to keep from reacting in anger when he heard the scream.
He hoped to see the crowd pass them by. Hoped to watch them ignore this victim as they ignored the last one.
What had happened differently? Why were the indifferent masses suddenly so concerned?
He pondered this and realized his mistake as soon as the police arrived.
The crowd, which up until then had avoided the body like the plague, suddenly crowded around the scene, pushing against the officers and fighting for a glimpse at the body. His lip curled up in contempt as he watched them. They were like vultures, greedily circling a body as though attempting to feed on the corpse.
Well, of course, they were curious now. They were safe. They no longer feared death. With the agents of the law around, the killer lurking nearby could no longer harm them.
Not that they knew the killer really was lurking nearby. It must be a sixth sense left over from the time when humans were nothing more than apes cowering in corners from predators. They recoiled in fear, but once the danger had passed, another instinct took over, and they stared in fascination at the specter of the end that would one day take them all.
They were worse than indifferent. They were entertained by death.
He shook his head in disgust. His victims deserved to be ignored, to be treated as indifferently as they treated others in life, not to be examined and admired, even for so selfish and horrible a reason as this.
He would have to think of something else next time. He would have to figure out a way to show people exactly how oblivious everyone was to the world around them.
This … this was just a fluke. He had struck too soon and in the same spot. This was an aberration, nothing more. He was still right about people, and he would still show them.
He would show them all that he was right.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Jesus,” Michael said, “Talk about the opposite of the last case.”
“Well, we weren’t here last time,” Faith said. “For all we know, there was a crowd around the body the last time too. Kylie Bonaparte did say that people were taking selfies with McIlhenny.”
“Yeah, but this is more like … hell, I don’t know what it’s like.”
A crowd of hundreds mobbed a corridor leading to an employees only area of the terminal. A group of security and police officers stood in a semicircle, fending off the more adventurous civilians who tried to rush past the blockade for a peek at the body. At the head of the cordon stood Rameses, his face screwed up in anger and disgust, and Wales, his face white with fear.
Faith led Turk to the cordon, Michael following close behind. When she reached the officers, she spun around and called loudly. “This is an official crime scene! Everyone back off, or I’ll set my K9 unit on you!”
As if he understood Faith’s command, Turk growled menacingly. The crowd retreated several dozen yards and while they didn’t dissipate, they didn’t approach any more closely.
“Thank you for that,” Rameses said. “I thought they were going to get past us for sure.”
