The Monster Within (22 page)

“King, what’s up?” Mendez asks me.

“I need someone sent to be with Caleb’s mom, Cynthia,” I shout as I reach the car, fumbling to unlock the door. Why the hell did I lock my doors in this neighborhood? “I need as many units as you can spare to watch Cynthia.”

“You got it,” Mendez answers as I drop down into the seat and slam the door. “You find something, King?”

“I think Cynthia is the killer’s next victim,” I answer, firing up the engine. I feel sick to my stomach. They’ve been gone for hours. The killer could be there by now. Cynthia may very well be dead. “The killer can only select victims that came in contact with his previous victim after the moment they’ve been marked. Caleb only had contact with Cynthia today. The killer has to be targeting Cynthia now.”

“Shit,” Mendez breathes. “She’s been alone for hours.”

“Shit indeed,” I shout, peeling off down the street, praying that I can make it in time.

“I’m sending everyone we have available to the sister’s house,” Mendez tells me as I turn on my sirens and start charging down the street as fast as I can push the Shelby. I have no doubt that I’m going to get there fast, but if Lori took her sister anywhere other than her apartment, then she’s likely to end up dead just like the other victims. “Are you en route?” Mendez asks me.

“As quickly as I can get there,” I answer.

“I’ll meet you there,” Mendez says. “We’ll get her into protective custody.”

I listen as the phone hangs up and I feel like I’m going to throw up. How could I have not seen this? How could I be so ignorant? I wanted something more meaningful than a game, but that’s exactly what the killer thinks of this as. He might not directly view it as a game, but there are definitely rules to what he’s doing. There’s a system that he has to abide by to choose his targets and that means that Cynthia is target number one for him. I overtake a car and know that I’m going to be too late. I look at the notepad in the passenger seat and look at Lori’s address. She lives on the far side of town. What if the killer intercepted them on the way to the house? If Cynthia is killed, then there are a thousand different possibilities as to who the killer could target next. Everyone who entered the crime scene is suspect. I immediately dial Owens’s number.

“King, I just heard,” Owens answers.

“Owens, I need a list of everyone who entered the crime scene,” I tell him. “If the killer gets to Cynthia, then I want Lori and everyone who was at that house under surveillance. The killer is operating by a set of rules. The victim has to come in contact with whoever he targets next. Since Caleb only contacted one person, this could be the only opportunity we have to set a trap for the killer. But if we fuck this up, then anyone who Cynthia had contact with since Caleb died is a possible victim.”

“Shit,” Owens says.

“So get that list,” I order him.

“Steven, half of that list is scattered across the city by now.” Owens senses the same doubts that I’m having. I feel the familiar sinking feeling inside of my stomach. “If he’s killed Cynthia already, then he could be moving in on any one of them.”

“He hasn’t killed her yet,” I say unnaturally optimistically. I have to have hope. I have to believe that he hasn’t gotten to her yet. I weave between traffic, watching the few loyal and honest drivers on the road parting and making way for me. I’m not going to make it. I know it, but I can’t let Owens hear it. He has to have faith, just like me. We have to hold on to whatever hope we have right now. This killer isn’t going to win. He isn’t going to get the best of us again. “We’re going to catch this bastard,” I promise.

-End

Begin Book Two, The Demon Inside, Coming Soon

The Demon Inside

Clad in Shadow (Poetry for a Burdened Soul)

The Blood and Brotherhood Saga

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I live in southern Louisiana with my wife and children, and work full time as a civilian employed by the federal government. I like to spend time with my family and am excited to announce our newest addition, my only son, recently born in February of 2014.

I spend as much time as I am able writing, but also enjoy downtime with the wife and kids, and am a bit of a movie buff as well. I thrive on sarcasm and nerdism and am currently addicted to The Big Bang Theory amongst other things.

Fiction has always been my reading genre of choice, though I am picky about who and what I read, and I refuse to read a series out of order. I have been known to devour entire sagas in mere days, emerging only when necessary for survival.

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