Page 47 of The Girl He Wanted

As she scanned through the notes, she began to see patterns in the way Alvin thought and the way he approached his obsession. He was meticulous and detail-oriented, with a deep fascination for the Tower of the Winds and its history. But there was something darker beneath the surface, a sense of madness that lurked behind his careful planning.

Paige shuddered as she read through a list of potential victims, each with their own detailed descriptions and notes on their personalities. It was clear that Alvin was not just a researcher or a scholar, but a true believer in the power of sacrifice and the ancient gods.

Christopher came back into the room as Paige finished looking through the papers. "I have a location," he said. "Alvin Richards's car was spotted at an old shopping mall in the west of the city. Local PD are going to send people over, but I want to get there first. We have the best chance of ending this, not them."

Paige nodded, quickly packing up the notes and following Christopher out of the house. They climbed into their car and sped away towards the shopping mall, their lights flashing as they cut through the rain.

If the local police got there before them, there was a chance that the killer would spot them and kill his victim early. With Paige and Christopher there, there was at least a chance to try and save her.

Paige could see the old shopping mall ahead now. It stood as a main block with two towers jutting up from it, an old sign hanging between them from a series of wires.

It was long abandoned, its formerly bright sheen dull, some of its windows broken and boarded up. The old sign that hung between the towers was missing a letter, and the whole thing was unlit, only occasional flashes of lightning illuminating it.

There was scaffolding around it,as if someone had been working on it recently. Paige's mind raced as they pulled up to the deserted parking lot, trying to work out where Alvin would be with his latest victim.

The parking lot was empty, except for one car parked in the far corner. Christopher pulled up next to it, and the two of them got out of the car, their guns drawn. The only sounds were the rustling of the wind through the empty parking lot and the steady drumming of the falling rain.

Paige was grateful that she and Christopher had gotten there before the Winterly PD. It meant that there was no chance that Alvin had already been scared off from the location. Not that hegotscared by the presence of the police. They’d already established that he liked to watch them as they arrived, liked to watch the chaos that he caused.

She approached the car, checking for any sign of movement. The car was old and rusty, with a dent on the driver's side door. Paige saw that the passenger window was slightly open, while the trunk was open and empty. Had Alvin kept his victim in it before moving her into the mall somewhere?

She saw that the car was empty, but something inside of her told her that Alvin was close. She found herself looking up at the roof of the mall. She couldn't see Alvin, but she had no doubt that that would be where he was heading.

"There's no time to wait for backup," Paige said, but she suspected that Christopher wasn't going to suggest it.

"With just the two of us, there are going to be more places that he can hide and run," Christopher pointed out.

"But if we wait, then there's a chance that he kills his victim before we can get to them."

Christopher followed her gaze and nodded in agreement. "Let's go," he said, leading the way towards the mall entrance.

The entrance was locked. The door was cool to the touch, but Paige could feel the coldness under the layer of dust that caked the door. Paige watched Christopher try to open it, but it obviously wasn't the way that Alvin had gotten in, dragging his victim with him.

Paige looked around for another way in. She moved around the side of the building, checking each of the doors, trying to find one that would let her and Christopher inside.

Finally, she spotted a broken window at ground level, formerly boarded up, but now, those boards had been ripped away. They hung open, the broken window gaping like an open mouth.

"It looks like he went in this way," Paige said, gesturing to the broken window. Shattered glass covered the ground below the window and the boards that had been used to cover the window were broken and ripped away.

Christopher looked up towards the roof. "And we know where he'll be going."

Paige motioned for Christopher to follow her. They made their way carefully through the broken glass, being careful not to cut themselves, and stepped into the mall.

There was little light coming in through the windows, so that the darkness was palpable, pressing in on them from all sides. Paige could hear Christopher's breathing, the sound of his footsteps as he moved closer. Her own heart was pounding in her chest, the adrenaline pumping through her veins.

Paige felt a shiver across her skin, making the hairs there stand on end. The air was colder inside, but that wasn't the only reason for it. She could feel the worry building in her that they might be too late. Even if they weren't, they were approaching a murderer who had already killed three people. If they blundered in blindly and he saw them coming, they might find themselves walking into a trap.

They didn't have a choice, though. Alvin was here with his victim. There was no time to waste. They had to get up there before Alvin was able to complete his grim ritual, sacrificing the last of his four victims in his version of the Tower of the Winds.

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

They moved quickly through the mall, searching for any sign of Alvin or Zelda. Paige could hear a faint sound in the distance, something like a soft whimpering. Her heart sank as she realized that it was probably the woman he’d taken, still alive but afraid.

The only bright point in that was that it suggested that the woman Alvin had kidnapped was still alive. There might still be a chance to save her life. They followed the sound, their guns still drawn.

They couldn't just rush to the roof. There were plenty of high spots on the upper floors of the mall, and any one of them might serve as a place for Alvin to kill Zelda Mackie. Paige knew that they would have to clear the mall space by space, and the time it took to do that might give the killer they were hunting enough time to finish what he had started.

Paige couldn't allow that. She was determined to get there in time.

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