stocking material dig into her flesh, cutting off her circulation, and felt a thrill of almost orgasmic excitement at the realization that her life was literally in his hands.
And then it was over. She lay limp on the floor. The buzz started to fade almost immediately. He tried to keep his head about him, aware that the woman’s husband didn’t usually get home for at least another hour.
He hurried around the house, wiping down every surface he could remember touching. He’d worn gloves virtually the entire time he’d been there. But one could never be too careful. Within fifteen minutes he was ready to go. He borrowed one of Bloom’s sweatshirts, pulled the hoodie over his head, and left. No one gave him a second look.
Now, as he rested on the bed in his latest unsanctioned Airbnb, he recalled the feeling he’d gotten as he stole the last bit of life from that woman. It wasn’t something he’d ever have thought himself capable of. Yet he had to admit, it was a rush unlike anything he’d ever experienced. And if he was honest with himself, it was something he’d been longing for ever since. He knew it would happen again. The only question was when.
CHAPTER TEN
Ryan made coffee while Jessie showered.
Neither of them even considered going back to sleep once they returned to the apartment just after five. Hannah would be up in an hour anyway. The realization crushed Jessie anew.
How am I going to tell her?
Her sister wasn’t known for expressing her emotions or even necessarily having them. The concern that Hannah was a narcissistic sociopath incapable of feeling empathy was something Jessie had discussed with Garland on many occasions.
Now that worry would be put to the test. Hannah and Garland had become friendly, maybe even close, to the extent that was possible for her. Would she feel gutted by his loss? Or would it just be one more body in the endless parade of death she’d faced in the last year?
First her adoptive parents had been killed in front of her. Then the same thing happened to her foster parents. She’d seen Jessie tortured. She’d watched a serial killer murder a man in an attempt to co-opt her into becoming one herself.
And now this, the murder of a man she viewed as a paternal figure, who listened to her and took her seriously. At what point would she just shut down, too numb to the horrors she’d seen and suffered to engage with the world? Had it already happened? Was she just faking normal emotions?
When Jessie emerged from the bedroom, she found she would be able to test that question right away. Hannah was up, wearing a bathrobe and sipping coffee on the couch. When Jessie glanced over at Ryan, he shook his head imperceptibly to let her know he hadn’t said anything about what happened.
“Morning,” Hannah mumbled when she saw her.
“Morning,” Jessie replied as casually as she could.
Hannah cocked her head to the right, a probing look on her face.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Huh?” Jessie replied, feigning confusion. She needed more time to prepare for this.
“Something’s up,” she said with certitude. “You’re being fake cheerful and Ryan’s doing everything he can to avoid making eye contact with me. What’s going on?”
Jessie walked over, trying to think of how best to broach the subject. She sat down next to the half-sister she hadn’t known existed less than a year ago. Hannah stared at her with an odd mix of expectant trepidation. She’d learned to almost smell bad news coming.
I owe it to her to be honest. She’s earned that.
“I’ve got bad news,” she said slowly. “I had hoped we were done with saying that for a while. But I guess we’re not.”
“What do you mean?”
“Garland Moses was murdered last night while working on a case,” Jessie answered without hesitation.
Hannah’s face went from apprehensive to blank almost immediately. It was as if she was intentionally doing a forced shutdown of all her essential systems right there on the couch. She said nothing.
“I don’t know a lot about what happened yet,” Jessie continued, uncomfortable after the long silence. “But we’re going to get to the bottom of it. In the meantime, I thought you should know. He liked you and I think you were fond of him too.”
Hannah seemed to reboot. Her eyes, vacant a moment ago, fixed on Jessie. She didn’t seem angry or upset or scared. She was present but not much more.
“He was nice,” she said quietly,