He goes back to his crossword. She thinks about Adrian Loaner, and how it felt putting that safety pin into his eye. A month ago if asked, she’d have said that sort of thing would never have been possible for her, not under any circumstances. She also never would have thought about following a customer into the parking lot and strangling him either.
People change. Some for the better, some for the worse. After helping kill two men, she doesn’t know which of those sums her up.
She thinks about Cooper Riley, flat on the floor with his throat blocked from the Taser. She wanted him to die. She was desperate for him to die, and even though that’s what happened, she’s glad he didn’t die from her hand. There is some relief there. He killed himself, and that took any guilt away from her-even though she isn’t sure she ever would have felt any. If he had lived, he could have hurt other people. Not today, not next week, but definitely in fifteen years when he was freed from jail.
Theodore Tate made sure that wouldn’t happen.
At least she thinks that’s what happened.
Theodore Tate. She still hates him for what he did to her last year. But that’s changing. She’s heard he’s wanting to be a cop again. She hopes she gets to work with him one day. She knows there are things about the world he can teach her that the police force can’t, things that can make her a better cop. Things she can do to help more people.
Like pulling plastic tubes out of evil men’s throats.
Okay-she isn’t sure if she could do that, just as she isn’t sure what really happened in that bedroom after she walked out.
The following day nine bodies were found at the farmhouse. All of them men who had gone missing over the previous few years, all of them killed by a pair of brothers who were themselves killed by the man she stabbed with the safety pin.
Yes, she absolutely wants to become a cop. She wants to rid this world of men like that.
The old man finishes off his crossword and waves at her on his way out the door. She goes over to his table and picks up the newspaper he left behind. She folds it over to the front page. There’s a sketch of Melissa X, the same one they’ve been running since last year, only now she has a name and a photograph of when she was a student. Natalie Flowers.
Natalie Flowers was Cooper Riley’s first victim.
It’s an awful thought, but she wishes Cooper had killed Natalie Flowers.
Last night another body was found. An ambulance driver. He was found naked in a park with his hands tied around a tree. His uniform wasn’t at the scene. She wonders if she’ll make it onto the force before Natalie Flowers is caught, then wonders if Flowers will ever be caught. She carries the coffee cup and plate out to the kitchen, folds the newspaper in half, and tosses it into the bin.