Page 26 of The Perfect Revenge
“Understood.Glad I can be the tip of the spear when it comes to giving you a break from real life.”
Some part of him—the 20-year-old who still longed for a girl’s attention and affection—was a bit hurt.He would have preferred if Hannah’s primary reason for agreeing to the camping trip was because she was besotted with him.But that was a little much to ask.
After all, they weren’t officially dating yet.In fact, other than one little peck on the lips, initiated by her last week, there had been no physical intimacy at all.That was a baby step.He should be happy that, for whatever reason, she was making this giant leap.
“I just have to make a quick call,” she said.“What’s the name of the trailhead where we’re starting the hike again?”
“Mishe Mokwa.”
“In Malibu, right?”
He nodded as she made her call.
“Of course, now I’m the one who gets voicemail,” she said, irritated.He could hear the beep through the phone, indicating that she could leave her message.
"Hey Kat.Jessie and I are on the outs right now—her fault.So I'm making you my emergency contact for the next 24 hours.Me and my friend Dallas and I are going on an overnight hiking trip.We're leaving from the Mishe Mokwa trailhead and will be camping out on the Backbone Trail.Cell service will probably be spotty.We're not going to push too hard with the heat and everything, but if you don’t hear back from me by around this time tomorrow, maybe check up on us.Okay, thanks.Sorry to put you in the middle of this.”
As he listened to her talk, Dallas couldn't believe his good fortune.This was like a gift falling into his lap.In a few hours, they'd be deep on an isolated stretch of the Backbone Trail that ran along the spine of the Santa Monica Mountains.Once there, he could finally put into effect the plan he'd been brewing up for over a year.It had been a long time coming, but in less than twelve hours, Hannah Dorsey would be a broken, battered shell of a body, lifeless after the torture he intended to put her through.He couldn't wait.
Back when he'd first learned about Mark Haddonfield's manifesto, the idea that he might eventually pick up the baton from the incarcerated serial killer and complete the guy's dream of destroying those closest to Jessie Hunt had felt more like a fairy tale than something he could actually accomplish.But now, if he could follow through, it would become a reality.
And it needed to happen now.He couldn’t risk waiting any longer.What if Finn Anderton somehow regained consciousness and revealed that it was Dallas who had stabbed him repeatedly in that campus parking lot?Then all of this hard work would be for naught.
Dallas had to admit that he was lucky no one had seen him that night.And if he hadn’t been in such a panicked rush, he might have finished the job, rather than letting Finn bleed out.But he had been thrown at first when Finn accosted him and told him he knew the truth about his background.
Of course, Finn didn’t know thewholetruth.All he knew was that when Dallas was fourteen, he flirted with the burgeoning men’s rights movement and that some folks back in Bakersfield doubted he’d ever really left it, despite all his efforts to hide his personal history.
What Finn didn’t know was why.He had no idea that Dallas’s skank mother had started an affair with the manager at the bank where she was a teller.Finn wasn’t aware that after that, Dallas’s father, divorced and devastated, had died in a drunken car accident.Finn couldn’t possibly know what Dallas knew: that his father’s death was actually a suicide.
Dallas’s whole life had been ruined by selfish whores like his mother, and by the younger versions of her that surrounded him, succeeding despite their hateful, derisive arrogance.They all needed to be brought down a few pegs.And who better to make an example of than the younger sister of one of their worst bitches out there: Jessie Hunt.
Once Dallas had that epiphany, he worked toward it methodically.He transferred to UC Irvine, where she was a student and declared the same major as one of hers, Psychology.He played ‘hard to get’ in class, waiting until well into the quarter before even engaging her in conversation.He never pushed.While friendly, he never acted overtly interested in her.
And it worked.She came to him like a mongrel puppy begging for love.She reminded him of the dogs at the Bakersfield animal shelter where he worked.His favorite part of the job was watching them be put down, seeing the life leave their hope-filled eyes.
The same would happen with Hannah.Once he was done breaking her, the hope would leave her eyes, too.And then, just like those shelter dogs, he'd put her down
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Jessie chose discretion over valor, at least for a little while.
Rather than challenge Dr.Andrew Brennan about his gambling debts and potentially mortgaging away his medical practice because of them, she and Susannah chose to hold off for now.
They could always come back at him with that juicy tidbit later if they needed to.In the meantime, they agreed that it would be better to let the man think he was off the hook and see what he did.So they released him and instructed a plainclothes unit to follow him to see what he did next.
Jessie wasn't optimistic that he was their guy.Yes, he knew both victims and had access to the drug that killed both of them, but so might multiple other people in his office.Jamil and Beth were looking into their backgrounds, too.And if either woman went to a different doctor for help, that opened the door to a whole other slew of suspects.
They would wait for the warrants for Brennan’s geolocation data and his files.In the interim, they had eyes on him.Now they could pursue other leads, assuming they had any.
That’s why they had returned to HSS headquarters at downtown’s Central Station.They wanted to review what they knew so far in person with Jamil and Beth.Jessie hoped that maybe being in the same room might shake loose some piece of data she could otherwise overlook.
When they walked into the research department, Jamil looked up at her.Even behind his glasses, she could tell something was up.She recalled how, in their last phone conversation, he’d mentioned there was something else he wanted to discuss with her.It was clear that they weren’t going to get anything accomplished on the case until he got it off his chest.
“What’s eating at you, Jamil?”she asked.
Even though he clearly wanted to talk, he seemed suddenly hesitant to answer.
“It’s okay,” Beth assured him.“She’ll be happy to know.”
