Chapter 19

Disappointment.

It was bitter and acidy in his mouth. He had been primed for the press conference, ready to bask in the expression of horror on the faces of the people as his crimes were recited. Ready to glow with pleasure at the seriousness of all the law enforcement agencies that were out there hunting him down. The predator, the stalker, the Knife.

He had gotten there early, in the guise of helping set things up. He had worked beside the people who were being paid to take him out of the game. He had joked and smiled, been slapped on the back by a man that he wouldn't have pissed on if he had been on fire. He sympathized, he listened intently, he did the dirty jobs; the running, fetching and toting. He did it all and gloried in the fact that none of them knew.

And then he listened to that fat ass of a Sheriff speak for all of five minutes. Some kind of blah, blah, blah about how they were doing everything in their power to make their county safe from this degenerate. How he personally was setting up a task force and had brought in a FBI profiler. Five fucking minutes. Even that profiler hadn't said much and he thought the feds always wanted to get the spot light.

Even when cornered by the press, Detective Big Man Saint hadn't said anything. He knew right then that he needed to do something that would make a big splash, that would show them all that he wasn't someone to be thought of lightly. And the girl in his lab had given him the idea. Detective Nick Saint would take him seriously after this.

He straightened from his task, pushing the sweat out of his eyes with one sleeve covered arm. He moved carefully, repositioned a little here, fixed a belt there. Finally he stood back and admired his work.

She was almost perfect, almost. He went back and pushed open her eyelids with his thumbs, holding them up until they stayed. The lids still weren't quite right, the eyes didn't quite capture the expression he wanted, but it was damn close. He added a trace of green eye shadow, and stepped back again. It was good.

He picked up his equipment, carefully cleaning it as he put it away. Then he scanned the room for anything he might have missed. He carefully swept around the area, making sure that any of his footprints were obliterated and wiped down the few surfaces in this room he had touched.

Finally, he got the envelope out of his kit. He brought it over to the body and placed it in the hands, making sure that it was upright and the name was very prominently displayed.

It was as perfect as it possibly could be without it actually being her. He stepped back and got out his Polaroid, snapping pictures from different angles, giggling a little when he thought of the look on their faces, of the horror that would be on the deputy's face when she saw his latest masterpiece.

He put everything away and turned and walked out of the room without looking back. Tomorrow. Tomorrow they would take him more seriously.

But tonight, he still had work to do. Tonight he had important work to do before he could go home.

He giggled as he got into his car.