Page 67 of Stalked

Rosalyn sat ramrod straight and Steve sucked a breath through his teeth. Twenty-nine women had transmitters in their teeth. So far, including Rosalyn, they knew of five. And four of them were dead.

They watched as Brandon showed the pictures of the dead women. Gunson remembered each. Brandon didn’t tell him the women were dead, a good call since the dentist seemed to be holding on by a thin thread anyway.

Brandon confirmed that Gunson had been in town the last forty-eight hours. The man gave a detailed report of what he’d done and with whom. Brandon would follow up, of course, but there was no doubt in Steve’s mind.

Christopher Gunson wasn’t the Watcher. He was pathetic and would be going to jail, but he wasn’t the Watcher.

He could tell Rosalyn knew it too. When she looked back at him, devastation was clearly written across her face.

The worst news hit them at the very end. Brandon asked for information about the other patients. These women, even if they had never been contacted by the Watcher, even if their transmitters weren’t live, needed to know what had happened to them.

Gunson looked ashamed as he explained that once the procedure had been done, he had given the patient records over to the man in order to receive payments. Although Gunson recognized the pictures of the women Brandon had shown him, he could not provide the names or any information about the other women he’d performed the procedure on.

They still had no idea who the Watcher was. All they knew was that he had two dozen other victims to whom he could turn his attention at any time.

If he hadn’t already.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Rosalyn dreamed of the Watcher again that night.

He was still waiting outside the fence of Omega, tossing something small up in the air and then catching it as it came back down. Rosalyn didn’t have to be able to see it to know it was a transmitter.

All the Omega agents lay dead around him again. Rosalyn tried not to look at them, knowing she’d never make it if she did.

Make it where? Away from the Watcher? She could go now. He wouldn’t be able to follow her.

But now not only did the Watcher have all the Omega agents, he had twenty-eight women tied up in chairs. Blindfolded. Helpless.

Four were obviously dead.

He walked up and down the line of the other women as if he was trying to decide who to choose next.

Rosalyn woke up sobbing again.

“Hey, it’s okay.”

Steve. He was here, holding her again like he had last night.

“He’s going to kill those women. There are twenty-four other women and he’s going to kill them. Or get them to kill themselves.”

Steve pulled her closer. “We’ll stop him.”

“How? Dr. Gunson doesn’t have any idea who he is.”

“We know his pattern now. His MO. We’ll catch him, Rosalyn. This is what we do.”

“But more women will die first.”

Steve was silent for a moment. “Not necessarily. We’ll do whatever it takes to keep that from happening.”

Rosalyn twisted around, forcing Steve onto his back so she could see his face in the dim light of the moon through the small window. “I’m your best shot at keeping that from happening.”

“Why do you say that?”

“If we leave the transmitter in my mouth, we can use it to catch him.”

“No. I know how much that thing bothers you. It bothers me too. I don’t want him having the means of finding you.” He pulled her closer to his side and put his lips against her forehead. “The dentist is coming in the morning. The transmitter comes out. We’ll see if it can be salvaged and still used, but your part ends there.”

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