Chapter Ninety-Seven
< T amilla, are you awake?'! said in a low, tense voice. I felt a shudder | run through me. It couldn't get any worse than this. I still had my eye on Kyle. He was definitely watching Jamilla's building. Goddamn him to hell. 'I am now. No, I was awake. Where are you, Alex? Don't tell me you're still outside? Please don't tell me that. Alex, what the hell is going on?' 'Listen to me. The Mastermind is outside your place. I can see him. I think he'll try to get inside soon. I want to come up there and I don't want him to see me. Is there a back way?' Then I told her who the killer was. She exploded with anger, most of it directed at Kyle.'I knew there was something seriously wrong with him - but not this wrong. We have to stop that sonofabitch. I don't care how smart he's supposed to be.' She told me where to look for a service entrance and then a fire escape that would take me to her floor. I hurried around in the shadows. I didn't think that Kyle had seen me. I hoped not. But then - he was the Mastermind. He was smart, as clever as anyone I'd ever worked against. He knew about surveillance, probably a lot more than I did. He didn't make mistakes, at least not until now. I found the back entrance of her building easily, and I hurried up the stairs. I tried not to make a sound. I had no way of knowing where Kyle was right now.
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VIOLETS ARE BLUE
When I got to her apartment the door was open. My stomach dropped, and I felt sick. 'Jamilla?' She immediately peeked out through the doorway. 'Come inside. I'm fine, Alex. We've got him now, not the other way around.' I hurried inside the apartment, and we kept all the lights off. I could still see most of the living room and kitchen, the doorway to a small terrace. A bay window with bench seating. Her home. The place where he wanted to violate her. I snuck a look outside -1 didn't see Kyle on the street. He was on the move. Jamilla didn't look frightened, just perplexed, and angry. She had her service revolver out. She was ready for whatever might happen. I don't think that I had fully taken in what had just happened. Everything felt unreal; my vision was tunneled. My nerves were shredded and raw. Kyle Craig had been my friend. We had worked a half-dozen cases together. 'Why is he outside, Alex?'Jamilla finally asked.'Why is he coming after me? I don't understand that a*shole. What did I do to him?' I stared into her eyes, hesitated a second or two, then finally spoke. 'He's not really here to get you, at least I don't think so. It's about me - it's about Kyle and me. I've become part of his fantasy, the story he tells himself every day. He's proving how much better than me he is. He has to prove that he really is the Mastermind.'
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