jawline with the pad of his thumb. “I want your mind on me, babe.”
He walked over and pulled the curtain back to see if the cops were gone. The police were, but CSI was still there. It would be safe to start questioning neighbors. “It’s time to start questioning neighbors. I’m not sure how much we’ll find out, but one clue could break this case open.”
“You sound like a cop,” she laughed. It felt good to laugh—anything to get her mind off the intensity of a man being out to get her. Let’s do this. Don’t freak my neighbors out. They’re senior citizens, so they’ll be more than willing to talk. I don’t want them upset. It could affect their health. ‘Fuckin’ stress will kill ya.’” she said under her breath.”
“I don’t plan to pull a gun on them and interrogate them. I know how to be normal.”
“Good. I don’t want you scaring the shit out of them.”
When he smiled at her, there was something very wicked behind it. Normal was a relevant word.
Chapter Twenty Seven
El Loco sat out of sight, watching the neighborhood through a pair of binoculars. The smart thing to do would have been to get the hell out of Dodge. El Loco was beginning to show the attributes of a serial killer. Serial killers loved to return to the scene of a crime. All the chaos and the response of the authorities was enough to give any criminal a high. He was smarter than they were. Now, he wasn’t just a hired killer, he was a man that was eluding the brightest of minds. Men and women who had been trained to catch killers couldn’t unravel a simple disorganized killing—he was destined for greatness. Imagine if he took his time and organized each detail of a murder. When he finished with Page, he would have to get right on that. Playing with the police was more fun than playing with one woman. She was a snack. They were a fucking smorgasbord.
His heart started hammering against his ribs when he saw her come out the front door. He fingered the panties in his pocket. When that wasn’t enough, he pulled them out and smelled them. She added scent to her laundry detergent. It was just another thing that added to her perfection of cleanliness. He’d never met a woman that compared with her—so clean—so innocent.
He could see the worry on her face. He almost felt bad knowing he was the one who had caused it. Maybe he’d been too hard on her. Perhaps she was just a do-gooder who wanted to tell the story of those less fortunate. He was getting soft. That had never happened to him before, but there had never been a woman like her. He knew there would never be another one, either. She was one of a kind. As the days went by, he was more focused on her abduction than her destruction. He wondered if that was how Mano started out. If she had fallen in love with him and he wanted to destroy her, maybe she could fall in love with him too.
He knew if you held a woman captive, there would come a time when she needed you. Isolation caused a woman to need whoever was meeting their needs. Like an animal who counted on its master to feed and water them. He liked the sound of that: master.
He watched as they walked across the street. They stood on the porch talking and then rang the doorbell. An old lady answered the door. Maybe he should kill her next. He hated old people. It never entered his mind that he would be old one day. Maybe karma would bite him in the ass when he least expected it—he deserved no less.
Chapter Twenty Eight
Page stood on the porch of her neighbor Mrs. Miller. “Do not scare this woman. I have to live here, Mano. I know you think that shit is funny, but these people scare easily.”
His lopsided grin caused her to soften, “I live here too—with you.”
“And so do Judy and I. Be good!”
“I’m always good, and when I’m bad I’m so much better.”
“Ha, ha,” Page reached out and rang the bell.
“That was a sarcastic laugh.”
“For a sarcastic man.”
They heard the sound of feet shuffling, and a small dog with a bark that sounded more like a yip. “Well hello, honey, and you brought a friend with you today, a very handsome one, I see.”
“Hello Mrs. Miller.”
“And who are