There. Just ahead. Confidence and certainty flushed through me with the intensity of relief. It was a young man. A college student, holding a sign that read “Princeton,” and he was clean-shaven with white teeth. I could not believe my good fortune. I loved him instantly.

He threw his sign, one suitcase, and a shoulder bag into the back seat of Sarah’s car, then climbed in the front. He smelled of soap, he smelled warm, he smelled of life. I surrounded him with friendliness and welcome. He responded with enthusiasm.

“Hi! I’m Jack. Gee, I’m glad you stopped. It’s colder’n hell out there.”

“Yes,” I said. “It is, isn’t it?”

“Jeez, it’s cold in here, too. Can you turn up the heat a little?” He rubbed his hands together and blew on them.

I immediately turned up the music, warming him from the inside, rather than the outside.

“That’s better. Thanks. Say, where are you headed? I’m going back to school. Christmas break is over, time for the new semester to start. I’m studying anthropology. Hey, nice car. You from Texas?”

His vibrancy caught me quite off guard. It had been a long time since I’d been so close to someone so vibrant. His young, virile, animal scent brought all my senses to their highest attunement. I had to be careful here. I could mesmerize him into blind obedience, like the ladies at the supermarket, but that would be a waste of his youth and vitality, and therefore a shame. Better to find the balance between desire and fear on one side, enthusiasm and greed on the other side. It would be a delicate task, requiring precise concentration. I hoped my skills were up to it

“No,” I said. “I’m from Pennsylvania.” He smiled at me, and nodded, anticipating a long ride in a pleasant atmosphere, and I trilled inwardly, for the pleasure of us both.

“I got really sick when I saw what she’d done to that lady in the closet. I’d never actually been on the scene with one of Angelina’s victims before.

“She slipped us up again, so I had a lot of time to dwell on it, too. A lot of time to think about her.

“How could she do it? Why didn’t she stop? I sensed that she didn’t think she could, but we always have a choice, don’t we? I mean we always have a choice, don’t we? Don’t we?

“Unless maybe there comes a time when our choices are taken away from us. When we no longer have a choice.

“My choice disappeared when I sensed Angelina as a wounded animal, one which must be caught before . . . before . . . I don’t know what. I had a moral obligation to restrain her, because those are the rules of the game I play.