Two for Joy - Louise Collins Page 0,18
I’m just tired.”
Chad wiped his hand down his face, not suspicious to anyone watching, but Romeo looked at all the digits on his hand, all spread out, indicating five. The Copycat Killer had got his number five.
It was too much information to take in, and Romeo couldn’t dissect how he was feeling.
There was someone else out there, murdering, marking his victims. There must’ve been a lot of similarities if Chad was calling him a copycat. Someone else with the same urges as him, maybe they used their hands, too, marked their victim with a burned number, used their victim’s possessions.
His countdown had triggered someone else’s, maybe they were counting down to their freedom, too. An allowance to get rid of their desires—their monster, once and for all.
Maybe the copycat was just like him.
Chad gasped, and Romeo glanced up. His expression was horror struck, eyes wide, lips slightly parted and trembling. All Romeo’s thoughts had shown on his face, his heart was pounding, he was breathing fast, and his lips were up in a big smile.
“You’re—you’re happy?”
He wasn’t going to lie to Chad, he didn’t think he had to.
Romeo laughed. “I guess I am.”
Chad’s eyes didn’t leave his, and the fear and shock in them didn’t dull, it deepened. Romeo winced when the legs of Chad’s chair scraped against the floor. His red-rimmed eyes shimmered, and he turned away from Romeo.
“Wait!”
Chad didn’t stop. He left the visiting room, slamming the door behind him.
Romeo face planted the table, cursing under his breath.
“What the hell just happened?” Paul mumbled.
“Not a clue.”
“Maybe he’s finally come to his senses.”
Fred stepped forward and grabbed onto Romeo’s forearm. “Come on, let’s get you back.”
Romeo was hauled to his feet, then marched back down the corridors. He ignored the threats, and propositions, and went to his cell with no fuss.
He’d fucked up.
****
Romeo’s obsessive pacing got Will’s attention. He knocked on the bars of his cell, and Romeo went over to his and hung his arms through.
“What’s got you rattled?”
“Too many things going on in my head.”
“Like what?”
“Like … I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel.”
Will laughed. “Supposed to feel? You feel how you feel, there’s no supposed to about it.”
“But it’s … messy.”
“Lay it down for me.”
“Happy, excited, flattered… Proud?”
That’s what he felt when he thought of the copycat. They were the same. They were family, but then when he thought of Chad.
“Worried, stupid … guilty?”
“That’s quite a list. I can see why you’re confused.”
“How do I arrange it, sort it?”
Will hummed. “I think first of all you’ve got to work out what happened to make you feel that? So what did Chad say?”
Romeo shook his head. “Like I’d tell you.”
“You and he are odd.”
“Why? Because we don’t conform to normal rules.”
“I just don’t get it. You tried to kill him, and now you’re … what, exactly?”
“Too complicated for simple minds to understand.”
“Fuck you. If you have such a complex mind, then why didn’t you kill him in the farmhouse. You had him for weeks.”
“It wouldn’t have fit my pattern.”
“Why bother with a pattern?”
“To keep my desires in check, to have a rest period for anticipation and excitement to grow, to insure I was less likely to get caught.”
“But you did get caught, same as me. I stabbed two men to death, you killed four people over an eight-month period. Both of us ended up here.”
“You ended up here because you were reckless, the attack was unplanned, frenzied, in daylight, in front of witnesses. I’m here because I underestimated someone, got lured into a false sense of security, and got caught.”
“Same result—”
“But the execution was different. You were an idiot, but I got outsmarted.”
“And now him and you are buddies?”
“Something like that.”
“It’s just … not normal.”
“That’s why I like it. Fuck normal. There’s too many normal people, normal desires, normal jobs, normal relationships. I liked being the abnormality.”
“You like being messed up in the head.”
Romeo lowered his gaze. “At first I didn’t, but I’ve come to accept it. Come to like it. I am what I am. What about you? Do you like being messed up in the head.”
“I’m not messed up. I’m the only sane person here.”
“And Holly thinks I’m in denial.”
****
Romeo had been sixteen when he went to his first funeral. He’d go to more, but it was the first he remembered most vividly. It had been his nanny’s funeral on his mother’s side. The atmosphere was sad, dull. People were crying, hanging their heads, walking slowly, whispering. Romeo hadn’t experienced anything quite like it.
She’d