I feel the camera in the corner of the living room close in on me as the reporter gives details of their deaths. Then it turns to Dad, who doesn’t react when he sees his dead wife’s photograph.

Every night since they found Lorna Banks’s body, I put the news on at six o’clock. Today, I rushed Danny out of the house so I wouldn’t miss it.

Dad doesn’t complain. He waits until I’m done, then changes the channel.

Computer parts sit untouched on the dining table—one broken thing refusing to fix another.

He has shrunk further into himself since the latest murder. He only talks when he has to, and his words come out small and cracked.

We avoid saying the obvious. Dad may have named him, but he won’t say that name anymore.

I’m desperate for a clue. But he left nothing behind. No DNA, no security camera footage, no witnesses.

No hope.

Chapter 85

At exactly 10:00 p.m., I unlock the front door and leave, cameras fastened to my head and waist. Dad has left for work, so there’s no one to talk me out of it.

I think back to the night I almost chased Michael into the alley, how it felt to stand on the edge of something terrible.

What I’m about to do should get me more front pages and more coverage. But it’s more than that, because I know he’s watching. He commented on the perfume, and he killed two months early, so what if I am getting to him after all? And what if I can use myself as bait?

Lorna Banks didn’t deserve to die. If he comes for anyone else, it should be me.

When I walk past Jamie’s house, he runs out and shouts, “Jess! What are you doing?” Like always, he is watching. I wish tonight he had other things to do.

“Don’t worry,” I say. “Go back inside and watch.”

“Why?”

“Just go home. I’m fine. I need to do this.” When he keeps walking, I say, “Stop trying to save me. I don’t need saving.”

Jamie looks genuinely upset and says, “I’m only trying to help.”

“Then go and watch me like everyone else. Let me entertain you.”

I don’t mean to sound like a bitch, or maybe I do. Either way, I want him gone, because I’m running out of ways to make a difference.

He shakes his head, opens his mouth to say something, then walks away.

I feel sick, the adrenaline that got me out of the house replaced with a dread I can’t shake.

But I need to do this.

Chapter 86

It is just an alley. It is only a shortcut home. But not for me. Not anymore.