The Killing Vision - By Will Overby Page 0,47

the flames. He would have been fired had anyone seen him, but nobody did. Frankly, he didn’t care. If he got fired it might be the best thing to happen to him. But he had to admit, watching The Prick walk away with his tainted sandwich gave him a real feeling of satisfaction.

He jumped into the oven of his car and started it. Godsmack came blaring out of the speakers. Derek put the air conditioner on maximum and sat there with his eyes closed. The hot air blew in his face, and the bass of the music pounded through him, almost like a massage.

When the air finally cooled, Derek popped on his sunglasses and headed down the street toward home. Tonight he was looking forward to watching some TV and just vegging. He was off tomorrow, thank God, and he hoped to catch up on his sleep.

He glanced at the dash and noticed his gas gauge was on empty. Fuck. So much for his last twenty dollars. He wheeled into the Gas-N-Pack on the corner and pumped in what he could. If gas got much higher he’d have to get a horse. He pulled his wallet from his back pocket and headed toward the store.

That’s when he saw her. He didn’t know who she was, but four words floated through his mind: “fine piece of ass.” Her angelic face was framed by dark curls that bounced with her step, and as she stepped through the door in front of him, his gaze fell on the mound in the back of her jeans. At the same time, he caught her scent, feminine and clean, and he wondered if he smelled like a sweaty deep fryer.

He moved down one of the aisles of the store and pretended to look at chips and candy bars. She was at the drink fountain filling a cup with ice and Mountain Dew. Another girl—a sista, not nearly as perfect as the angel he was following—came up behind her. “Hi, girl!”

The angel turned and gave her a smile that melted Derek to his core. “Hey!” she said. “I haven’t seen you since last semester. How’d you make out with econ?”

The sista shook her head and waved her hand. “Tell you what, if you hadn’t helped me I’d’ve flunked that class for sure.” She pulled out a cup and began filling it. “So what’re you doing this summer?”

“Taking some classes,” the angel said. “I already took two and now I’m taking two more, and then I can graduate in December and not have to wait ’til the spring.”

The sista shook her head. “You better than I am. Summer classes suck. You still living on campus?”

The angel snapped a lid onto her cup and stabbed it with a straw. “Nope. Shelley and I got an apartment over on Woodside. Nice old place. Big rooms and cheap rent.”

The angel and the sista headed toward the register to pay. They were still chatting, not paying him the least attention. He moved up behind them and watched as they paid and walked out. He flung two tens at the Indian behind the counter and followed the girls into the heat of the lot. He heard them saying goodbye as he reached his car, and when the angel pulled out into the traffic in her Volkswagen Beetle, he was right behind her.

He followed her through several traffic lights and a couple of turns, and when they made a right onto Woodside, he felt his heart start hammering in his chest. He eased off the accelerator and put some distance between them, then slowed to a crawl when the Beetle pulled to the side of the street in front of an old Victorian house. That had to be her apartment building.

He sped up and drove past her just as she was getting out of her car with her drink and a stack of books. She never even looked up at him.

He sat at the stop sign on the corner and watched her in the rearview mirror as she headed toward the building and disappeared. His heart was still pounding, and he wondered how he would ever manage to see her again.

* * *

5:45 PM

Mayor Larry Carver sat down behind his massive desk and motioned for Halloran and Chapman to take the two overstuffed leather chairs opposite him. “So what can I do for you gentlemen? How’s the investigation going?”

“We’re getting a few leads,” Halloran said.

Carver nodded. “Excellent, excellent.”

Halloran took a deep breath. He knew