He drove twenty-five minutes, to the outskirts of the city. It was a rundown neighborhood with what hed always thought of a saltbox-housesone-story deals with one or two windows along the front and thin, shingled roofs. He supposed the non-PC crowd would refer to it as the poor part of town. Truth be told, hed only ever come through here in order to locate the woman on the list. Hed come by a few times just to familiarize himself with the lay of the land. He knew it was a dangerous neighborhood and that hed need to be careful. So what better time to strike than now, this early in the morning. He figured any responsible people in the neighborhood would already be out and about on their way to work and the troublemakers would likely still be asleep.

She lived on a little back street, bordered by the back yards of houses positioned in front of the street, and a heavily weeded lot and a chain link fence along the back. Further behind it all, a paper mill churned like a gray smudge against the morning, giving the neighborhood a smell that was part mildew and part exhaust. He could smell it even through his closed windows.

He took a left onto her street, drove a few houses down, and nearly slammed on the brakes.

The last thing hed been expecting to see was a police car parked in front of the house. He briefly wondered if the old woman had kicked the bucketif shed saved him the work and gone out on her own. But he also knew that if that were the case, thered likely be an ambulance on the scene as well.

Of course, maybe the cops had just been the first on the scene. There were just too many questions to ignore. So, rather than coming to a stop in the middle of the road, he drove further down the street. He pulled into an empty driveway, backed out, and parked on the same side of the street the police car was on. There were only seven spaces between themthree of which were emptygiving him a clear view of the house.

Coward.

It was the voice, poking and prodding. While he would much prefer the woman had died of her own accord, the voice found any idle sitting and patience a sign of weakness. The voice wanted immediate action, he understood it, but he also knew he had to think logically if he wanted to appease itto appease her.