Page 17 of Riding Danger

Not that I relied completely on television. I knew a thing or two about evidence and I did a lot of research before I started my quest. What was my quest you may ask? To rid the world of the worst kind of man. Men who made the planet worse with their casual attitudes and nonchalant treatment of what should be important. Those men had one job and they failed to do it. Which meant all they were doing was taking up space and needed to be eradicated.

Climbing out of my car, I walked down the street toward the diner where I dumped the last body. I wondered if anyone understood the significance behind the sites I chose. Except for the first two victims, of course.

At that point I hadn’t realized what pattern I wanted to create. It was a good thing, too. It meant my plan was harder to decipher. While they were trying to understand why I chose the sites I did, I was already a few steps ahead of them.

The problem of course, was I no longer had the limited resources of whatever small town police department I dumped the body in, after me. No. Connections were made and the different counties did the one thing I never expected them to. They communicated with one another.

It was a bit of a setback, but it came with an upside. If the California Bureau of Investigation was involved anyway, I might have hit all my targets.

Initially, I tried to keep my victims to only one per town before moving on. That way I could stay off the radar. But I dumped one body in a town having particularly slow news days and the next thing I knew, my crimes were the talk of the state.

As I stepped into the diner, a belltingedover my head. The place was busy, considering that a dead body had been placed just outside, less than eight hours ago. Did people have no regard for the dead? Or, at the very least, for the gruesomeness of my work. Even if they didn’t understand the good I had done. They had to acknowledge that it was extraordinary.

Taking a life was not easy. But I did more than just take a life. I executed a plan so precise that even the average human with their lower intellect would recognize its greatness. I was ridding the world of the worst kind of evil. And yet, here they all were sitting around and laughing and chatting with one another.

I would forgive all of them since I was pretty sure they were not aware they were in the presence of superior intelligence. The average person never recognized that.

As I stepped further into the diner, an older man in his sixties stepped up to me. The name on his shirt said ‘Harry’. “Hey there. Is it just you?”

“Yeah. I heard the omelets in this place are the best.” I didn’t know how. I mean an omelet is just ironed out scrambled eggs.

“That’s what my daughters say.” He shoved his thumb over his shoulder. “Do you want to sit at the counter or in a booth?”

“Either. Whichever is easier.” It helped to be polite in small towns. It made the locals like you. “Though I would like a little company.”

The old man smiled at me. “Let’s get you set up at the counter.” I followed him up the aisle and watched as he pulled a menu out on his way to the front. “We’re a little busier than usual. We had some issues this morning, and morbid curiosity has brought everyone out for breakfast. Great for business, but it doesn’t say an awful lot about us as human beings.”

“I’m sure it doesn’t.”

He handed the menu to me. “Pick a seat. I’ll get you a cup of coffee. It's not the best, but my daughter swears it's better than what they have at the police station. Not that that’s a ringing endorsement. If police coffee is anything like Marine coffee, it's absolutely terrible.”

“You’re a Marine?” That was information I already knew, but it sometimes paid to pretend to be interested in people. “Or former Marine, at least.”

“Yeah. Retired nearly twenty years ago and married my wife when I moved back here.” He moved around the counter and picked up the coffee pot and a small mug with Bowser branding on the front. “When we realized biological children were not inour future we opted to foster. And it turned out, we got four awesome daughters out of that. Best decision we ever made.”

He looked so happy as he pushed the mug in front of me. Something about him made me happy, too. He was a good man. One of the few we could rely on to do the right thing.

“I’m so glad that worked out for you.”

“Why don’t I let you look through the menu and you can let me know what omelet filling sounds best to you.”

With that he walked away and I nodded. Yes, Harry Bauman was safe. I would leave him unharmed.

I pretended to look through the menu even though I already knew what I wanted. Part of the blending in process was to make sure no one knew how much research was done on them. While I thought it was just common sense, most people considered it creepy and an invasion of their privacy.

That wasn’t even true. Not really. All the information I got was either told to me or freely available with a simple search. For instance, I knew the names of all four of Harry’s daughters. I knew that Maggie was married to an evil man, but he was in jail and untouchable and therefore safe from me. Then again, he was up for parole next year. And considering he had been a model prisoner he would probably be out soon. Then he would be fair game. But I needed to be patient if I wanted to get my hands on Frederick Ripper.

A few minutes later, Bowzer pushed through the swing door. “Have you decided?”

“Cheese, mushroom, ham.”

“Good choice.”

He didn’t take long to bring my food and I ate while he kept me company. It wasn’t until Shiloh and that pop star showed up, that I made a move. I dropped money on the counter and excused myself to use the bathroom before sneaking out a few minutes later.

8

SHILOH

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