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"If we can get Tiggs’s okay, I’d like to use the media," Jerry told his partner

"Why the hell not?" O’Donnell "

Jed stood "Ti me in," he said to the two cops and the ME

"Sure Just don’t uys in your next blockbuster, huh?" There was a note of venoht the department had accepted that the Interstate Killer had been one of their own gone bad

"Where are you off to?" Jerry asked Jed suspiciously

"Gainesville," Jed told him

"To see Larry Atkins?" O’Donnell asked sharply

"Yes"

O’Donnell shook his head "Atkins will swear on his life that he kneas doing the right thing What do you expect? That he wants to be known as a trigger-happy cop who killed his own partner?"

"Maybe these are copycat killings," Jerry said "Hell, none of us were around back when it all went down"

O’Donnell looked away He obviously wasn’t pleased to have Jed around now Too bad, Jed thought Because if he felt like it, he could say he had been hired to look into the case

Beau Kidd’s sister was looking for the truth

Jed felt a sense of uneasiness It was iuy was piling up victi, more personal, about the current situation

The killer was focusing on redheads Like Beau Kidd’s sister

And like Christina Hardy

Jed looked at his watch Plenty of time He had an hour-, hour-and-a-half ride ahead of him Larry Atkins had retired to a farm outside Gainesville, where he kept retired racehorses that hadn’t been successful enough to becoht have wound up in the glue factory He was a hoone to college out west and stayed there

Most nights Larry could be found on his porch fro his pipe in peace and quiet, and staring out over the acreage his pension had bought hi to give hi out a series of perfect murders, as if he were in law enforcened to this very case

There was no such thing as the perfect murder, Jed reminded himself

"Tell Larry hi for me," O’Donnell said

"Will do," Jed assured him, and he headed for his car

"Hey!" O’Donnell yelled

"Yeah?" Jed turned back

"No secrets, no being a bigto solve the case You--"

"Yes, I know," Jed said patiently "If I co"

Christ!

What the hell did itstopped Now Before…

He gritted his teeth and kept going to his car

It was the phone Nothing hed aloud, then sobered, glad she hadn’t hurt herself when she’d jumped off the piano bench with such force that it had tipped over She’d forgotten that the phone rang as loud as a banshee’s howl because Gran had been afraid she was losing her hearing

"Hey, you," Ana said when Christina caught her breath and picked up

"Hey, yourself"

"What are you doing?" Ana asked cheerfully

Sitting here afraid that I’ the," she said instead

"I’ out," Ana said

"Oh?"

"You need to get out of that house," Ana said

"Ana, I just et away from your own company for a while," Ana said

"Now, that’s just mean I actually like myself just fine," Christina told her

"Great, well, then, do you still like o shopping I don’t have anything to wear for Halloween And I don’t want to go out alone"

Did she really want to stay there? Christina asked herself No

"Give me ten minutes," she said into the phone

As soon as Ana arrived, Christina ran out to her car and slid into the passenger seat, then stared at her friend and asked accusingly, "Okay, who have you been talking to?"

"About what?"

"Me"

Ana shrugged "Well, I did get a call froroaned "He thinks I’m crazy"