Page 87 of Cold Vengeance

River grabbed the notebook.Prescott is the Strangler. Not Baker.

Tony nodded. “We know. He’s pretty proud of himself. About how he fooled us—until he didn’t. Thing is, now he’ll have a long time to think about how we beat him. How he lost. With his ego, that will cause him more suffering than anything else.” He frowned at her. “We’ll have to testify. I know you probably don’t want to do that.”

River grinned and took back the notepad.Are you kidding? I can hardly wait. I want tosee his smug face when he realizes he’s going to spend the rest of his days thinking about us.

After reading what she wrote, Tony said, “I keep telling myself that God loves him too. We need to remember that. Maybe we should...”

“Not yet,” River said, her voice cracking under the pain andthe emotion. “I know we have to forgive him, but I’m gonna have to work on that a bit.”

“That’s only fair,” Tony said. “Now stop talking.”

River grinned and took the notepad back.When we get back to the office, I want to see if we can discover the identity of theman who was found dead next to the railroad tracks, okay?

When Tony read what she’d written, he laughed. “Why don’t we see if April wants that one. If not, I’m all in.”

She took the pad from him.Maybe we could work on it together. IfApril’s interested, I think we should hire her. Whatdo you think?

When he took the notepad, he nodded. “I think that’s a great idea, but I’m not sure we can get another desk in that office. We may have to move to a bigger space. Arnie says that after it gets out that we caught the Salt River Strangler, we’ll be turning business away. I think we can afford a building of our own. Is that okay with you?”

River nodded. Then she put her hands out for the notebook one last time. She wrote,When I woke up, I wanted nothing more than to tellyou how much I love you. I may not beable to talk right now, but there is something else I can do.

Tony read her words and smiled. “I think I know what that might be.” He leaned down and kissed her gently. “We have a lot of years to talk, I guess.”

“And a lot of years for this too,” River whispered. Then she pulled him close and kissed him again.