Page 12 of Absent Reason

"So we're saying... what? That either this killer is targeting women he spots at the university, or he's hanging out around the local bridges at night, waiting to ambush women at random?" Amber asked. Both possibilities seemed very general but also plausible. A killer who merely wanted to target young women might lurk in a particular location, looking for suitable victims and then following them to kill them.

Simon nodded. "I'm not sure which of those possibilities worries me more."

Amber could only agree. Neither one promised anything good. They both meant that a lot of women could be in danger.

"A killer at the university might have some connection to the victims even if they don't appear to have one to one another," Amber said. "This could still all be about some grudge or a personal conflict that's gotten out of hand."

"That might be the spark for it," Simon said, "but it feels like it's escalating into something more than something limited to a personal grudge."

Amber couldn't argue with that. The killer had obviously learned between his first and second kills. Even if this had started out as something personal, there was a chance that it could spiral into a killing spree that wouldn't stop until they caught whoever was behind this.

They had two potential leads on the case, two potential directions in which to look. They could go to the university and ask the young women's friends if there was anyone they both knew, or they could look into the bridges on the assumption that these were random attacks linked to the locations, that this was a killer who would have killed any woman who walked across the wrong bridge alone at the wrong time.

Either option might help to get them closer to the killer, but they couldn't investigate both at once. They needed to choose.

"Let's look into the bridges first," Amber said. “If this were just about the university, why is he killing women there? The bridges are obviously important to the killer, and it might be easier to find someone obsessed with the local bridges than it is to hunt through an entire college campus for a killer."

Simon nodded his agreement to that. "You start looking into them to see if there’s anything about the bridges that someone might latch onto and obsess about. I'll ask the local PD if there's anyone they know of with an unhealthy obsession with the bridges. Maybe someone has come to their attention in the past, but they haven’t thought about them because they’ve been looking for people with connections to the victims.”

Finally, it felt as though they had something to go on. Amber just hoped that it would be enough. If it wasn’t, then there was a good chance that someone else would pay with her life.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Victoria sighed with relief as she got home from work, tossing her bag down near the door to her apartment and settling down on the couch while she read through her mail. It was the usual collection of junk mail and bills, with nothing important there. She closed her eyes, feeling almost exhausted after a long day. She had to remind herself that, soon enough, the work was going to be worth it. She was starting to make a name for herself.

She had preparation for tomorrow in her bag, but right then, Victoria wanted to ignore it for an hour. She got out her phone, wondering if any of her friends would want to go out for an hour or two in town, but then thought better of it. Now that they were all in their thirties, they had jobs and families, reasons to not go out drinking in the middle of the week.

Besides, there was all of that business with the killer, who was supposedly out there in town somewhere, targeting women. It was all over the local news and Victoria's social media groups. The whole town seemed abuzz with it. She'd spent at least ten minutes earlier trying to find a way to explain to her friend Zoe that the first two women had been more than a decade younger than either of them, so they probably didn't fit the killer's preferred victim type, all without making it sound like she was calling Zoe old. Being too old for a serial killer seemed like a strange thing to be offended by, but Zoe could be touchy about that kind of thing.

Victoria ran a hand through her short, dark hair, contemplating everything that was happening in the town. In spite of her assurances to Zoe earlier, Victoria really didn't feel like going out into town when there was a killer out there somewhere. It felt too much like tempting fate. It was better to stay here, inside, where it was safe.

Victoria tried to push the thought away, but it was hard to ignore, given everything that was going on in the town and in Victoria's life. She lived alone, and while she was confident in her self-defense skills, she couldn't help but feel vulnerable. After all, the killer had already struck twice. What was to stop him from striking again and again until someone stopped him? It seemed better to stay inside and definitely to stay as far away from the town's bridges as possible for the moment.

She shook her head, trying to clear her mind. She needed to focus on something else, something less unsettling than thoughts of a killer. Maybe she could watch a movie or read a book. But even as she considered her options, the thoughts intruded again. Victoria couldn't shake the feeling that Verdice wasn't a safe place to be right then. A part of her wondered if she should leave town for a few days, but no, that would be overreacting. This didn’t have anything to do with her.

Her phone beeped, and Victoria nearly jumped out of her skin as the sound came. She took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down before she checked the notification. She hadn’t realized that she was so jumpy. It was just a text from her friend Emily asking if she wanted to come over for dinner tomorrow night.

Victoria smiled at that, finally relaxing a little. Emily was one of the few friends she had who wasn't married or in a serious relationship, and they often commiserated over the difficulties of being single in their thirties. It would be nice to spend some time with her, and so long as the two of them were together, it should be safe enough.

Victoria was still thinking about that when she heard a knock on her door.

"Who is it?" she called out, not wanting to get up if she didn’t have to.

There was no answer, so it seemed that she was going to have to go and check. Victoria went over to the door, using the peephole to check the hallway beyond. She half-expected to find some delivery guy, or maybe one of her neighbors, out there. Had she been too loud sometime in the last couple of days, and one of them was coming over to complain?

Instead, there was no sign of anyone out there in the hallway. Was that down to some kid running through the building, knocking on doors as they went? The Levins, up on three, had a young son who might do that kind of thing, didn't they?

Victoria opened the door to check, but whoever it was had already gone. Victoria thought that she could hear the sound of footsteps retreating down the stairs, but she didn't want to start following after them. If it was anything that mattered, the person would have stayed. She would rather get back to picking out a book to read.

That was when Victoria saw the envelope lying there on the ground, right in front of her door, sitting there almost like a toad squatting on a rock. She picked it up. Had whoever it was who had knocked left this for her? If so, why not wait and put it in her hand? Or better yet, talk to her?

Victoria took the envelope, heading inside with it and wondering what it might be. Was this someone’s messed up way of serving her with legal papers, or was it just going to be a note from one of her neighbors? Victoria tore open the envelope and read through the sheet of paper that was inside. The contents made her pause, staring at them in a mixture of surprise and worry.

There was a crudely drawn map of the town in there. Well, not even the town, really. Just the river, the islands, and the connecting bridges. It had been simplified to the point where it was little more than a mathematical diagram, setting out the essential elements of a problem. Handwritten instructions lay beneath.

Walk across all seven bridges by midnight. Walk each one only once. Do it by midnight. Fail, or tell anyone, and meet your punishment.

Victoria stared at the note for several seconds longer, taking in the words there and their potential implications. She tried to work out what she should do about it. Should she call someone? Maybe the cops or something? She could feel fear welling up in her.

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