“I don’t give a damn about your theories, Erin. He’s killed eight people. Eight. I don’t think he’ll wait until twenty-six,” Gabriel argued, his fingers tightening on her hand. “He’s after you. You probably saw him yesterday, and you didn’t know it. What if he doesn’t fit your profile? What if he gets tired of waiting, of playing games? He’ll come after you. Other than locking you in a cell, I’m not certain the police can protect you. And what about the people around you? Will you continue to put their lives in danger while you play Nancy Drew?”

The words sliced her heart neatly in two. “I’m trying to help,” she whispered. “I think I’ve found the killer, Gabriel.” She inhaled sharply. “I think the killer may be Kenneth Bernard.”

Chapter 18

“Kenneth Bernard?” repeated Gabriel. “The pompous ass who heads up the psychology department?”

“Possibly.” Quickly she described his behavior. “The pressure is building in him. He’s given himself a mission, but it requires too much. He can’t maintain a place in both worlds for much longer.”

“He doesn’t fit the typical serial killer profile. I thought they were generally white men. Loners.”

“They are, but there are deviations. Other than skin color, Kenneth shares many of the characteristics.” Erin ticked them off. “He’s smarter than average. Because of his position, and his naturally fussy tendencies, he’s isolated himself from the rest of the faculty.”

“You said before, because the victims were both male and female, the crimes could be asexual. Gen’s told me about him, about how he interacts with the women at the university.”

“He thinks of himself as a sophisticate, and he wants to be seen as someone who is attractive and appealing to women he sees as his equals.”

“Is he?”

“Not really. The limited social contact I’ve had with him has been uncomfortable. I dismissed it because academics often are ill at ease in those settings.” Erin toyed with the silver ring on her hand. “The socially awkward will try to show an interest in a woman but fumble it. As though he’s following a playbook, he’ll try to compliment a woman to get closer. However, she will sense the insecurity and respond to it instead. She reacts by being nice to him because she doesn’t want to hurt his feelings.”

“And he thinks it’s more,” Gabriel summed up. He cursed, then asked, “Has he flirted with you?”