"No, honey, I created a Gmail account that any teenage hacker could trace back to me. Jesus. I know how to keep my messages private."

"I'm sure you do."

Ken glared at her. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Are you going to try to have sex with her after your little date?"

"Is that supposed to be a joke?"

"Did it make you laugh?"

"No, I'm not going to try to have sex with her. Nor did I try to have sex with any of the others. I can't believe you'd even say that to me. Is that why you're so upset? Because you think I'm cheating on you?"

"I'm upset because you're taking a suicidal risk. You're going to get caught. You swore to me that they'd all be random victims. You're still getting your little 'long dark hair' fetish in there—"

"That's coincidence."

"—but they'd all be strangers. No friends. No co-workers. No casual acquaintances."

"She's not any of those things."

"She becomes a casual acquaintance when you have dinner together at her favorite restaurant and then make plans to meet again in the future. It's too dangerous. Do you think I want to be known as the wife of a serial killer? What do you think that will do to my life? Jared's life? Can you imagine the hell we'll go through if you get caught? Are you giving any consideration to your family?"

"I wouldn't tell anybody that you knew."

"Well, no, you probably wouldn't have the chance, because you'd go down in a hail of police gunfire. I'd like to think that while you lay on the sidewalk choking on your own blood your final words wouldn't be to rat me out."

"Okay, you know what, I feel like this has stopped being a reasonable conversation."

"I'm not worried about going to prison as your accomplice. I'm worried about having the man I married be exposed as a psychopath who strangles women."

"You think I'm a psychopath?"

"Are you under the impression that people won't call you a psychopath?"

"I'm asking what you think."

"Ken, we've been through this. Don't go getting your fragile feelings hurt. You know what point I'm trying to make. I know what it takes to bring you peace inside, and I support you, but this is outside of the bounds of our agreement."

Ken was silent for a moment. "I understand what you're saying. I do. It makes perfect sense. But it really, truly upset me to see those girls on the news. I can't get it out of my mind. It keeps me up at night. I can't focus at work. I have to do something about it."