‘Emmy, I just heard about a party tonight at the Kappa Sigma house. Wanna go? I think Mason is going to be there.’

The conversation coming from the large monitor mounted on the wall alongside the framed manifesto drew his attention back to the screen. Allie, the blonde who had spoken, pulled her sweatshirt over her head. He glimpsed the bottom curve of her bra for a split second, the shirt came up so high. His breath quickened. But she pulled it down before he saw much of anything. He could watch these women for hours, the anticipation of what he might see next surging his desire.

The day Frank told him about the abductions had been the second-best day of his life. It hadn’t just been him indulging in deviant behavior, Frank had been too. As an adult, Jack had only been caught peeping into women’s bedrooms once. But even then, he’d escaped arrest by darting into an alleyway and sprinting home before the police arrived. He’d since found other ways to watch. He was too smart to be caught. Frank had thought so too. But he’d been wrong. The FBI figured out that it was Frank because he’d used too many things that could be traced back to him. The pebbles in the bins, for instance. Frank had told him and Cris about Dorina making him kneel on pebbles as punishment. And he’d shown both of them how to tie the bowline knot. Who knew how many other people he told about those things? Frank had always been a popular guy.

He’d warned Frank not to use that knot and to stop using the pebbles. But Frank had been adamant that they’d never find him, that he couldn’t change his technique. It gave him too much satisfaction. And then, Frank had been stupid enough to detail everything in his journals, giving it all away. He was lucky Frank had not continued the journals after they started filming the girls. It saved him from being outed in the process. The rush of getting away with this for so long had blinded Frank to his mistakes. Which was why Frank had ignored Jack’s warning and taken the last two girls anyway. Frank had wanted to carry out their mission one final time before he died. Jack had been right to be concerned about Frank making a blunder in his diminished state. He’d dropped that damn needle, ruining the protection that going outside their normal hunting ground had granted them. Of course, they’d been able to pin it on Frank. He’d been too arrogant. But they still didn’t know about him. Because he’d left no traces, he’d made no mistakes. He was a ghost; he didn’t exist in their minds.