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This town has a sinister hold over all of us.
After Hernandez parks, I slip the journal into my bag and climb out of the SUV. As I situate the tote strap over my shoulder, my gaze hardens on the faded brick building ahead, and a kernel of anxiety digs beneath my defenses.
Hernandez takes up my side, his large presence a comfort. “It’s just a creepy old building,” he says, reading my hesitancy.
I nod once, my action uprooting my feet as I take a step forward with conviction. “I was just thinking that.”
Memories can be as temporary as our existence.
Whatever lingering fear resides from Alister’s assault is quickly obliterated as I summon the mental image of his severed head. From now on, that’s how I’ll remember him. The skin flayed from his skull. A symbol carved into the bone.
Selfishly, Kallum’s act makes me feel not alone in mine.
As he’s protected my secret, I have to protect his.
I’m the catalyst for Kallum’s crime against Alister. Two mirrored moments in time, one woven over the seams of the other, like the harsh red outline of the lowering sun.
The night Kallum found me, I became his muse, his inspiration for the darkest acts of violence.
I’m the one who told him to sever the head.
I taught him how to stage the Harbinger crime scenes.
If we had never crossed paths, Kallum Locke would still be the bad-boy professor of academia, and not committed to a psychiatric institution.
He wouldn’t be a killer.
We all have a dark counterpart. Even a muse of light and inspiration beckons the darkness when challenged. Where these forces are capable of gifting divine, creative genius, when pushed beyond the brink, they are just as capable of becoming a curse.
Throughout my career, throughout all the darkness I’ve encountered, each and every horrific, gruesome case, I never let it touch me. I was safely sheltered in a life of light and love. Then the moment my parents were taken from me in a hit-and-run, the darkness found a crack.
Violence leaves a stain, like soot after a fire. The tarry ash transfers to every surface, impossible to remove once it’s touched you.
There’s a terrible truth Kallum couldn’t have known about that night, a truth that was impossible for me to admit even to myself, the actual reason I chased after a notorious serial killer.
No, I didn’t set out that night with the intent to kill the Harbinger.
I had hoped he’d kill me.
3
PRIMORDIAL PAIN
HALEN
The atmosphere of the department is as sterile as the lingering scent of antiseptic drifting through the chilly air. As if the locals are trying to purge the rancid trace of betrayal from the system.
I follow Hernandez through the warren of cubicles, catching sight of many sullen expressions. One of their own has deceived them, and for members of law enforcement, this is a double slight. Devyn was a friend as well as a trusted member of their department.
A few curious looks are directed my way as we head into the interrogation section of the building. A local uniform guards the middle room, presumably where Tabitha is being held. As we enter into the monitoring room, Agent Rana and Detective Emmons are conversing in hushed tones with other task force agents.
A flush gathers beneath my skin at the sight of the brightly lit interrogation room through the two-way mirror. Tabitha is seated at the table—the same table where Kallum and I shared a heated encounter. The memory evokes the possessive feel of Kallum’s touch—his hands on my body, the demanding dig of his fingers in my flesh—and I’m entirely too aware of the achy need low in my belly.
The recorded footage of that intimate moment was deleted, along with my presence in the building when I broke into the evidence room and stole the carving knife. I was able to stealthily relocate the evidence from Hernandez’s SUV to the safe in my hotel room.
Which I’ll soon need to find a more secure location. As I’ve learned from my time in this town, nothing is safely hidden for long.
“Dr. St. James,” Agent Rana addresses me, turning her full, probing attention my way. She nods briefly to Agent Hernandez in acknowledgment before meeting my gaze with scrutiny. “I appreciate you being here for the questioning.”
