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He sounded so resigned about it, she reached out and laced their fingers together.
“I just hate when they get names,” he continued, the words spilling out like he couldn’t physically contain them any longer. “It means people will talk about them forever.”
From her tally, this serial killer had taken at least six victims. Nickname or not, he was going to be infamous. She didn’t bother to point that out. Callum knew.
“He’s killing so fast,” Shay said.
Callum shook his head. “No, we’re just finding bodies that were already dumped.”
That made more sense. He must have felt her relax, because he rolled up onto one elbow so he could stare down into her face.
“You should start carrying Mace,” he said, after a long moment. “Or a gun, if you feel comfortable with one.”
“Mace,” she said, as if it were a promise, though she wasn’t sure she’d fulfill it. “Should we all be terrified right now?”
“No, you should just be smart,” Callum said, like the professional he was. “Listen to your instincts, don’t walk alone at night to your car. Things like that. Things you’ve been trained all your life to do as a woman in this world.”
When he said that kind of stuff, Shay wanted to get up and walk away from him. Because if she didn’t now, how would she do it after she’d already fallen hard?
And she had to walk away from him, because the only way this ended for her otherwise was heartache.
What was he going to do? Move his entire life down to Texas for a bartender who shared custody of a twelve-year-old girl who may or may not be a psychopath?
Normally, now was the time she’d get up and get dressed, flee the emotions that nipped at her heels. But there was a serial killer out there, and the bed was warm.
So she stayed.
Shay didn’t expect to see Callum the next day, and she didn’t. The bar was so busy she would have only barely noticed him anyway.
“Where’s my help, Lonnie?” Shay yelled the one time the man deigned to make an appearance.
“Hey, get off my dick. I didn’t fire her—she just didn’t show up,” he said, trying and failing to hide a smug smile. “No one can handle tough work these days.”
Shay thought about Melissa’s tear-streaked face, and how overwhelmed she’d been from a normal Friday-night crowd.
She rolled her eyes. She would never say it out loud, but just this one time she agreed with Lonnie.
TRANSCRIPT FROM “COLD CASE CUCKOOS” DISCORD CHAT
Five months before the Alphabet Man’s execution
ICEICEBABY:Late night musings: Does anyone else think they missed some Alphabet Man vics?
COOLERTHANBEINGCOOL:Oh, a hundo percent. Give us ur thots tho vanilla ice
ICEICEBABY:OK, Melissa Sturgeon, 21, went missing right in that first six months they were finding all the bodies ... she was getting a degree in fashion ... friends describe her as fun, sweet, and outgoing.
OFICEANDMEN:AKA she liked to PARTAY
ICEICEBABY:Word ... so anyway, like I said, she went missing in the right time frame the right county and get this ...
COOLERTHANBEINGCOOL:are you waiting for a drumroll?
ICEICEBABY:so I have a friend of a friend of a friend
OFICEANDMEN: Of a cousin of a step sister of a neighbor of a friend ...
ICEICEBABY:who says Melissa got an off-the-books job at a bar that CALLUM KILKENNY was known to frequent