Page 59 of So Bleak

Gina sobbed and shook her head. That was the most she could do with the duct tape over her mouth.

“No? Well, it doesn’t matter. I know. That’s what counts.”

He set the net on the counter and carefully positioned his knife. With a quick thrust, he killed the fish he had chosen. Behind him, Gina released a muffled scream.

“Oh, don’t worry,” he assured her. “The knife isn’t for you.” He grinned. “You get a far more painful death than that.”

She sobbed again, and Tyler’s grin widened until his cheeks hurt.

God, this felt good! Maybe he’d kidnap all his victims from now on. He thought he enjoyed it when they didn’t know what was going to happen to them, but there was something delicious in their fear.

“West had it right all along,” he chuckled.

He turned his attention back to his work. It wouldn’t take long for him to extract the poison and alter it according to his needs.

Then he would make damned sure Gina received a full dose, vegan bullshit diet or not.

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

“PD’s on their way,” Faith said. “They’ll be five minutes behind us.”

“Sounds good,” Michael replied. He spun the wheel and the massive SUV’s tires screeched as it drifted around the corner.

“Next time we’re taking my car,” Faith said.

“Bold of you to assume that dinosaur can turn any better than my car can.”

“I don’t think Jeep designed this for city streets—God!”

The SUV swayed drunkenly as Michael took another corner. “I’ve done this before, Faith. You know it’ll get us there.”

“It better. He could be planning to kill someone else as we speak.”

“Almost certainly he is. But we’ll get there.”

Tyler Grant lived in Camden in a low-income neighborhood that was nearly abandoned. According to the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, his house was one of only four still occupied in the subdivision. The nearest occupied house was four lots away. That was good. It would allow them to surround his house and give them the freedom to fire their weapons if they needed to.

“Are we waiting for PD when we get there?” Michael asked, careening around another corner.

“What do you think?”

“What I think is that we should wait. What I feel is that we should go in and fold this guy into a pretzel before PD shows up to stop us.”

“Well, I say follow your heart.”

Turk barked affirmatively.

Faith looked out the window at the stars just starting to shine through the lights. Tyler’s murders all occurred in evening but not at night. He should be home. If he wasn’t, it wouldn’t matter. They had the APB out on his vehicle and his description was in the hands of every law enforcement agency in the area, along with the FBI. Unless he turned out to be another Franklin West, it was next to impossible that he would escape them. Even if he was, his reign of terror had most likely ended.

The problem was that it was next to impossible, not impossible. His spree had most likely ended, not ended. She couldn’t accept that uncertainty.

“How long until we get there?” she asked.

“Five minutes,” Michael replied. “Maybe less if people in Camden respect lights and sirens.”

Faith leaned back in her seat and tried to relax. That was impossible, so she sat straight again and thought about their plan. The homes in the neighborhood were old and not in the best shape from what Faith could tell online, but a lot of people in poor neighborhoods had deadbolts and padlocks installed to secure their homes. She’d even seen some homes with bars across the windows and doors to prevent burglary.

She shook her head and forced her worries away. She didn’t need to think about everything that could go wrong but about how to make things go right. If they couldn’t get into his house, they’d just wait for PD. If PD was stalled, they could call in SWAT. Within an hour, they could have fifty officers here with enough weaponry to conquer Fort Bragg.

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