Two for Joy - Louise Collins Page 0,42

the scene. Destruction and death were fascinating. When he asked his mother why he shouldn’t gawp, she told him it was the wrong thing to do, and when he asked what the right thing to do was, whether he should ignore the sight out the window, she fell silent.

All the cars passing slowed for a look, despite knowing they might see something horrendous. Broken glass, blood, a flung-out body, people trapped as the car caught fire. Horrible, and despite trying to convince themselves they didn’t want to see it, it was wrong to look, they still did.

Romeo looked because he was interested, and no scene, no matter how bloody, or disturbing, would ever truly affect him.

Romeo only understood the whole “I can’t look, but I can’t not,” when he watched the endless news reports about Chad. He didn’t want to look, thought he’d be better off not watching, but he couldn’t help himself.

First the Canster Times, courtesy of Holly Stevenson, exposed that Chad had been visiting the prison regularly for almost a year. Romeo knew the DI had tried to keep it hush-hush, but once it was out in the open, he couldn’t deny it to the media.

Chad had been visiting Romeo since the first week he’d been locked up.

Chad piqued the media’s attention, the new countdown killer, the good cop turned bad. They started digging into his past, found out about his drug addict mother that had no time for him, who didn’t love him, who loved making money from her body to feed her addiction.

Blueprints for a serial killer, according to Holly at the Canster times.

But she wasn’t done assassinating Chad’s character.

She dug deeper.

Chad didn’t have friends at school. His teachers didn’t have time for him once they found out about his mother. He went into the care system, but refused to settle with any family, he even lived on the streets for a while.

There was no mention of Toby, Chad’s savior, his happiness, his companionship. The most important thing in Chad’s life wasn’t important to anyone else, wasn’t worthy of a mention, or even remembered by the people Holly unearthed from Chad’s past.

Instead of running a story where despite all his setbacks, Chad became a detective. Chad turned his life around. They ran with articles stating he had infiltrated the police force. As if he had somehow snuck his way in, a time bomb ready to blow. Chad hadn’t been found guilty, the evidence was all circumstantial, but the media and Holly Stevenson didn’t care.

The media had been Romeo’s best friend during his spree. They championed him, glorified him, gave him a paper trail of mementos, but looking at the news, knowing every newspaper in the country would have Chad shown in negative light … the hatred boiled Romeo’s blood, and he lashed out at the walls.

He was to blame.

It wasn’t Neil that had betrayed Chad this time, but him. He’d manipulated Holly for fun, grew her possessive streak, her obsession, her hatred of anything that could come between her and Romeo. Then in front of her, he’d said about there being a copycat, and Chad being the prime suspect.

“It’s gonna be hard for him to get his fourth victim with all this attention.”

Romeo slid down the bars, eyes fixed on the TV. “How many times do I have to say it?”

Will laughed. “Okay, okay … let’s say he’s not.”

“Finally, you’re listening to me.”

“The real killer’s gonna be loving this. No one suspects them, they can sit back and watch the shitstorm, get their fourth victim no problem.”

Romeo frowned. “Number two.”

“Huh?”

“That’s the next in their countdown. When I got my number two, I called the police from the address.”

“What did you say?”

“Nothing, I left it connected. The point is, if this copycat is as thorough as he seems to be mimicking me, he’ll call when he gets number two. Then they’ll know Chad was nowhere near the place.”

“Unless it is him, then you’ll feel stupid.”

“It’s not him, and once everyone knows that, they’ll back off, leave him alone.”

“Seems to me like Holly Stevenson has it in for Chad. Do you really think she’d just drop all this?”

“I hope so.”

Will laughed. “The evilest emotion of them all. Hope.”

The killer was eager, leaving less time between victims, a month, not two like him. Romeo prayed his craving got the better of him. The quicker he got number two, the quicker the media would stop tearing Chad to shreds. There was no way a wanted man could sneak around killing