Okay, heres all I know. Seth Dillinger called for an ambulance at 8:45 this morning. He complained of feeling faint and a sharp pain coming from his liver. From what I was just told, he was on the mend from toxic hepatitis but apparently took a turn for the worse. He was in stable condition when he arrived at the hospital but thats the only update I have. Apparently, the doctors are still looking him over as we speak. And I was right; hell be at Roanoke General.

Got it. Thanks, Deputy.

She ended the call and pulled up directions to the hospital. She didnt quite understand the sense of urgency she was feeling, but trusted her gut on it. She thought that Dillinger being rushed to the hospital might rule him out as the killer, but she also couldnt help but bring up one of her original theoriesthat the killer may be linked to a hospital or medical facility in some way. And if that was the case, shed imagine that one of the easiest times to strike would be during check-in or immediately after being given a bed.

Running out of time…running out of time…

It had been a constant thread to this case, and she felt it heavier than ever as she sped toward the hospital. It reminded her of the case shed taken immediately after discovering she had a tumor in her brain; she recalled how shed felt something very much like a physical presence with her in the car, how it felt like the tumor itself was a person, always on her heels. She felt something similar to that now, like a pressure at her back as she felt her own mortality breathing down her neck just as heavily as the eventual outcome of this case.

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

Sometimes, it seemed that things just worked out for him. Even with her voice in his head, telling him how worthless he was, how much of a disappointment hed turned out be, luck seemed to be smiling on him.

Less than twenty minutes after leaving the residence where the cops were parked out front, hed parked discreetly in a fast-food parking lot, trying to figure out a new approach. He needed to act quickly because he feared if he didnt strike again soon, hed lose his nerve. And if this entire ordeal came to an end, what the hell had all the planning and action been about? He would have killed three people for nothing. And she would never leave him alone. Her voice would haunt him and squash him until he lost his mind.