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Nola’s number flashes, and I swipe it up to answer. “Hey, everything okay?” I ask, adjusting the sleeve of my coat.

“I … I shouldn’t be driving, and …” The shaky quality of her voice bleeds through the line, like she’s trying to talk and breathe at the same time.

“Nola, what happened?”

“Beth and Harv …. They …. Their bodies … at … Duli’s.” Anxiety punctuates every word that comes across. Not crying, but wheezing, like she’s having a panic attack.

“Come to my hotel. The Marriott. Same room as last time. Or I’ll come to you, if you’re too upset to drive.”

“No. I … I’m not far.”

“Good. I’ll wait for you in the parking garage.”

“Okay. I’ll … be there … in a few minutes.”

“I’ll watch for you.” Clicking off the call, I turn around to switch off the television, but pause at a news report. A helicopter view shows the white van parked in the lot, where police have the area sectioned off from a gathering crowd. The caption on the screen says: Two Bodies Found In A Diner Parking Lot.

“What was the point of this?” I mutter to myself, watching police scramble around the van, but they’ve apparently not yet moved the bodies out of it. “What distraction does this serve for you?”

My thoughts drift back to the night when I was only ten and Carl was seventeen. He’d brought some classmates back to grandfather’s property to show off a raccoon he managed to catch in a cage. From the window outside the shack, I peered in, as the small group of boys gathered around the cage, and he seared the helpless animal with a blowtorch.

I was horrified by the act, but more than that, the look on Carl’s face made my blood turn cold. It wasn’t just the joy of having hurt an innocent creature. It was the pride of having done it in front of the other boys.

Placing the bodies in a conspicuous place in the middle of the day is his way of taking pride in the fact that the police haven’t caught him.

I don’t think they will.

* * *

I wait for Nola to park her car, and stroll up to her as she exits the vehicle. Don’t even have to touch her to know she’s trembling, and my suspicions are confirmed when I pull her into me, and she buries her face in my chest.

“Oh, Voss. What if …” She’s trying not to cry, it’s obvious in the croak of her voice, but when she clutches my coat and sniffles, I know it’s a lost battle. “All I … could think is … what if that was Oliver?”

“What did I tell you, Nola? This shit doesn’t help you. Don’t think that way.” I push her off of me just enough to look at her, hooking her chin to guide her eyes to mine. “We’re going to find him. Alive. Hear?”

Wiping her face, she frowns and nods. “You’re right. This is useless.”

Taking her hand in mine, I lead her to the elevator and wait for the patrons to step off before we get on. Once the doors close, I stare at her across the small space. “He knew you were there. You know that, right?”

“How? It doesn’t make any sense. I never told anyone I was going there.”

“He’s closing in on you, Nola. He’s removed everyone in your life that stands in his way.”

“Except you.”

“I’m as much a part of this game as you are. There’s a finale coming soon. You need to be ready for it. Rested.”

The elevator stops at the sixth floor, and two young women step on, abruptly cutting the conversation short. Trying to be subtle, I stare at their reflection in the elevator door.

Beautiful. Young—early twenties, at a guess. Brimming with life and innocence.

The very thing this bastard serial killer has sought to destroy.

I thread my hand in Nola’s, as if she knows exactly what I’m thinking, and when the two women get off on the floor with the pool, I lift our clasped hands for a kiss. “This is going to end soon.”

Glancing over at me and back, she frowns. “I want to be a part of it, Voss. I want to be there when it goes down. I need to see him take his last breath.”

“No.”