Page 8 of Two for Joy

Holly pursed her lips. “I guess that’s true. Not even Marc knew about the dead dogs, or the movie you left on for the police, or the phone call you made from a victim’s address.”

“Exclusive to you.” Romeo mumbled.

Holly nodded. “Yeah, thank you for that, but I’m hoping my article will go beyond the crime. Look into the root cause of why you suddenly snapped one day.”

There was no suddenly or snap—he’d always liked the idea of ending a life. Watching it seep away beneath his hands, or feet. It had started with feet. Stomping on insects, then crushing them slowly, feeling the crunch, the wetness beneath his heel. He’d been born with a need to kill.

“Romeo?”

“Sorry, what?”

“I asked about the number five.”

Romeo frowned. “The number five?”

“Yeah. I’ve always wondered if there’s a significance to the number. Did something happen when you were five years old?”

“No, nothing out of the ordinary happened when I was five.”

“Then why five victims?”

“I only got four.”

“But you were trying for five. I want to know why?”

“Five’s a nice enough number. Why not?”

“You could’ve gone for higher, ten…”

“I could’ve gone for lower, say three, then we wouldn’t even be speaking right now, wouldn’t that be a shame.”

Holly snorted, and scribbled onto one of her many sheets.

Romeo squinted, and saw the word flirtatious.

He wasn’t being flirtatious, but with his handsome face, and his smooth voice, he could understand why she thought he was. She wanted him to be flirtatious with her, so in her head, she made it so.

“There was no significance to five, something didn’t happen on thefifth, or you didn’t have five previous lovers or something that triggered you, maybe your boss gave you five warnings or something.”

“What?”

Holly flicked back through her notes. “You said you woke up one day with a desire to kill, quit your job, and moved to Hatton.”

Sometimes Romeo struggled to remember his lies. Unlike Holly, he wasn’t allowed a pen and paper to write them down.

“I thought five was doable.”

“Doable?”

“Yes. I was using the same method of getting my victims, around the same area, on the same stretch of road. Any more and my chances of being caught would’ve increased.”

“You got caught before you escaped the scene of your last victim, Audrey Banes.”

“Who?”

Holly frowned, looking down at her notes. “Audrey Banes. The fourth person you killed.”

Romeo shook his head. “Sorry, I don’t know.”

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