She stared at what looked like a hastily prepared peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a bag of plain potato chips, some carrot sticks and an apple. A carton of milk, like what a child might receive in a school lunch, took up one of the small sections of the tray.

Tears welled up, but knowing they’d do her no good, she battled them back. After carefully setting the tray beside her, she opened her milk. “Amarok, please come for me,” she whispered. “Please.”

She imagined him arriving home to find her shoe in the driveway, along with her purse, and knew he had to be frantic. He’d do anything to save her. She trusted that.

But this had come as such a surprise. How would he even know where to start?

3

Hilltop, AK—Tuesday, 4:15 p.m. AKDT

“What do “you want with me?” Jasper asked, obviously surprised when Amarok walked into the room. Protocol for a prisoner as dangerous as Jasper dictated that prison staff follow certain safety precautions to the letter, and one of those precautions was speaking to him from the other side of the room, behind plexiglass. That was where Evelyn normally sat whenever she met with inmates of his classification. But Amarok wasn’t prison staff, and this was a unique case—a very personal one. He wasn’t about to let Jasper believe he had any fear of him.

He didn’t have any fear. He was hoping Jasper would attempt to harm him. Then he’d have an excuse to unleash the pent-up rage he’d long felt toward the monster who’d hurt Evelyn so terribly, not to mention the thirty or so other women he’d tortured and murdered over the years (no one besides Jasper himself could give an exact number and he wouldn’t admit to anything).

Instead of confronting him or threatening him in any way, however, Jasper took a step back. No doubt he could tell that Amarok wasn’t messing around today, that he was more than willing to take his chances in a physical altercation. To prove it, Amarok asked the CO standing outside the door to come in and remove Jasper’s shackles and belly chain.

“Are you sure?” Officer Hatch was already unhappy that Amarok had insisted on meeting Jasper on this side of the plexiglass. He wasn’t eager to forgo yet another layer of security.

“Positive.”

Reluctantly, Hatch did as he was told. “Anything else, Sergeant?”

“That’s it.”

The CO hesitated. “Maybe I should stay in the room, in case you need backup.”

“That won’t be necessary.”

“But this one’s wily, sir. Always trying to cause trouble in subtle ways.”

Jasper snapped his teeth, causing the guard to jump, at which point Jasper laughed and Hatch gave him a baleful glare.

“It’s not a good idea for you to be in here alone with him, and there’s no need,” Hatch said. “We have a place where you can talk to him safely.”

Amarok’s cheeks ached as he forced a smile. “No one knows this bastard better than I do, Officer Hatch. I’ll be fine.”