As she’d feared, her tires had been slashed. On the windshield, an envelope was tucked beneath the wiper.
Later, she’d be amazed at how calmly she’d handled the discoveries, at the clarity of her thoughts. When she reached for the envelope, she thought about fingerprints and how best to read the letter without damaging any evidence and held the envelope at the creases. In that moment, she felt no panic; rather, she was overcome with a slow, sinking sensation, a recognition of inevitability. Somehow, some way, she’d known this was coming.
The letter, computer generated, was printed on a single sheet of unlined printer paper, the kind that could be purchased at any office supply store. The final line, however, had been handwritten in boxy, almost childlike lettering.
You don’t think I know what you did? You DON’T THINK I KNOW WHO WAS BEHIND ALL OF IT? You don’t THINK I can SEE INTO YOUR MIND and know what YOU DID! You have taken THE BLOOD OF THE INNOCENT
Your HEART IS FILLED WITH POISON and you are THE DESTROYER! You POISON and you WILL NOT GET AWAY WITH IT You will know how it feels, because I am IN CONTROL NOW
I am the living INNOCENT ONE
SEE ME just as I see you!
When she finished the letter, Maria read it a second time, feeling physically ill. The disintegrating rose was still on the windshield and she reached for it, grouping it with the others in a gruesome bouquet.
Turning away from her car, she started back toward her condo, her limbs heavy with dread. The signs, she realized, had been obvious, and she’d willfully ignored them. All at once, memories sparked like blinding visions before her: Gerald Laws being interviewed by the police, with his neatly parted hair and white teeth; Cassie Manning, her young face distorted with fear; Cassie’s father, Avery, frighteningly certain of Laws’s intentions and possessed of a burning intensity himself; Cassie’s mother, Eleanor, mousy and silent and above all, frightened. And finally Lester, the nail-chewing, nervous brother who’d sent her so many terrible notes after Cassie’s death.
Those awful notes, reflecting his gradually escalating anger. Like Laws’s letters to Cassie while he was in prison.
The first step in a pattern…
On the way up the stairs to her door, Maria’s cell phone rang. Serena. She ignored the call, needing to talk to Colin. She needed him to make her feel safe; here and now, she felt exposed. With shaking hands, she dialed him, wondering how soon he’d be able to make it to her place.
A pattern…
Margolis had told her to come to him with the report, and she wanted Colin there for that as well. She had to tell Margolis about Gerald Laws and Cassie Manning, the woman whom Laws had killed. She wanted to tell him about the Manning family and everything that had happened to her recently. But mostly she wanted to tell him that she knew exactly who was stalking her, and what his endgame was going to be.
CHAPTER 19
Colin
S
ince he’d started college, Colin had never missed a single class, let alone a whole day’s worth. Only once had he come close – a day when his car hadn’t started, and he’d hiked to school carrying a backpack loaded with textbooks, arriving just minutes before class had begun.