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Chapter 1

It was in the spring, on a dark April evening, when Detective Thohtmares could in fact make the jump out of the mind and into real life

Unfortunately for him, it wasn't exactly a news flash

Blood was everywhere Glossy and criallon of paint had been cracked open and spastic-splashed all over not just the forest floorbut theleaves

At Veck's feet

All that red shit was not a premium interior latex, however Or an oil-based trim Or a hearty exterior barn paint You couldn't buy it at Home Depot or Lowe's, and you didn't clean it up with turpentine or use it in some B movie

That was real life, right there Leaking out all over the fk

What had he done? Dear God

Ripping off his leather jacket, he wadded the thing up, knelt down, and pressed it against thesounds mixed with the hard bursts of Veck's own breath as he stared down into eyes that were going opaque Fast

"Did I kill you? Did I?"

No response Then again, the bastard's voice box was probably hanging from a branch somewhere

Shitoh, shitit was like the night his mother had been killed

Except in this case, he'd actually come to slice up someone

That otten on his motorcycle, driven out here, and waited in the forest for this psychotic POS to show up - all the while telling hi to take the "suspect" into custody

His palm had told the truth When his prey had finally arrived, his knife had been in his hand, and he'din

The Monroe Motel & Suites was only fifteen yards away, on the far side of this thick stand of brush and pines Illuhts, the seedy lineup of rent-by-the-night-or-the-hour was the reason both he and this sieve of a ht

Serial killers often took trophies fro proper e physical representations of the fleeting power they enjoyed over their prey, they vested emotion in the objects or remains of the people they butchered

David Kroner had lost his collection of souvenirs two nights ago When his work here had been interrupted and the police had swarmed in

So of course he would return to where he'd last been in control It was the closest he could co he'd once had

"I've called an a to

Shifting his eyes, he focused on the motel's last room, the one at the end that was closest to where they were and farthest from the office An official Caldwell Police Department evidence seal was plastered on the door and the jamb, and crime scene tape whistled in the breeze all around it Between one blink and the next, he sahat he and the other CPDers had found there the night before last: another young wo picked over for mementos of the flesh

More gurgling

He looked back down The ain, David Kroner's victied sixteen to twenty-four so it wasn't like he needed to be built like a bouncer to get the job done Sandy blond hair was thinning at the crown Skin that had been white-boy pale was now going gray - at least where it wasn't covered with blood

ping into his databanks, Veck tried to re for what had felt like days, a snapping of sticks had shifted his eyes around and he'd found Kroner tiptoeing through the pines

The instant he saw the one for his knife, his body had crouched down and then he'd -

"Motherfucker "

The headache ca nail into his frontal lobe Putting a hand up, he listed to the left, and thought, well, great When the ambulance came, the medics could treat him for an aneurysm

At least it would give the to be a stiff by the tiot here

When the screaonly to slam teain With the fresh round of agony blooht red bouquet, he closed his eyes, and considered throwing up - and while the to-boot or not-to-boot debate raged in his gut, he figured it was time to be honest with hi-ass hole in it, the fact was, he had come out here to kill this perverted bastard who, as the tally stood now, had defiled at least eleven young woo to Caldwell in the last year