“Look, Mrs. Denning, if I can help, I’d like to,” Rand said, looking over his shoulder as if he expected someone to be listening in. “She’s right. There’s a madman on the loose. I saw him from a distance, and he was huntin’ down your daughter, here, trying like hell, er heck, to shoot her. Had a dog runnin’ her down. Now, I know this isn’t really my business, and I don’t understand what the heck’s goin’ on, but I’m a witness and I’d like to see that SOB nailed. That bastard meant business. You’ve called the police?”

Shaking her head, Selma said, “I . . . I was on the phone with Zoe.”

Rand spied his phone and plucked it from the ground. “Yeah, right, okay. But now, why don’t you get her cleaned up and we’ll all go to the station?”

“He’s right,” Zoe said, sniffing. “But we have to go now. I . . . I’ll take a shower later.” It sounded like heaven, but there was no time. If the freak had Chloe, if she hadn’t escaped—

Don’t even think it!

Zoe was still clinging to her mother. “We have to tell them about Chloe ASAP.” Tears clogged her throat again and she blinked hard, tried to think. “If he still has her, she’s not safe. I mean, he kept saying he had to kill me first. It was all part of his twisted ritual and . . . he kept repeating it, when he wasn’t singing the birthday song. First me, then her. I thought she would be safe if he couldn’t kill me first.”

“That’s crazy,” her mother whispered, horrified.

“I know, but he was really a nut job. But now I’m really scared for her. The way he was shooting at the truck. Aiming right at us. Now I’m not sure. It could be that all bets are off. Maybe he’d break his stupid ritual and . . .” She couldn’t say it aloud, didn’t want to admit that the monster might kill Chloe. Didn’t want to think that maybe he already had.

Swallowing back her fear, she tugged her mother toward the apartment. “Let’s make it fast. I’ve got some old jeans here and . . . a sweater or something. I’ll grab them while you grab your bag and the car keys.”

“I told you Detective Bentz was busy,” Nellie Vaccarro’s sharp voice heralded another visitor.

Bentz, who was on the phone with Hayes in LA, glanced up to find Jase Bridges standing in the doorway of his office. “Thanks,” he said into the phone. “Keep me posted.”