As the bus rolled down Camp Bowie toward the coffee shop, the Slasher grew increasingly excited and anxious at the same time. His skin felt warm and tingly. He couldn’t wait to see Shelby again. The two weeks since he’d last seen her had been pure torture.
The brakes squeaked and a rotating mass of people got on and off the bus, mere movements and colors in his periphery as he stared out the window, every cell in his body prickly with anticipation. A voice came over the loudspeaker, announcing that the next stop would be the one at Camp Bowie and Bryant Irvin Road. He looked over at the coffee shop as they rolled slowly past. There she is! Shelby stood in line at the counter, her strawberry blonde hair like a beacon in the night.
As the bus rolled to a stop, he began to stand, turning to the woman next to him and saying “Excuse me” so that he could ease past the grocery bags littering the floor at her feet. As he stood, he cast a glance across the street and instantly went cold.
Holy shit!
Parked at the edge of the lot across the wide boulevard sat a plain four-door sedan, the type driven by little old ladies and cops working undercover. It sat under a tree, the bare limbs obscuring his view inside the vehicle. He’d barely gotten a glance at it when the lights came on inside the bus, reflecting off the windows and obliterating any view he might have outside. He dropped back into his seat, panic rendering him paralyzed.
The woman next to him cast him a confused glance, the handles of her grocery bags gathered in her hands. “Ain’t this your stop?”
“No,” he said. “I was mistaken.”
She shrugged and released the handles of her bags, returning her attention to the paperback she’d been reading.
He looked down at his feet until the lights went off in the bus and it began moving again. He scrubbed a hand over the short stubble on his head and cast a glance back at the car. Is anyone inside? Between the dark of the night and the large SUV parked beside it, casting it in further shadow, it was impossible to tell. There was some clutter on the dash, which could mean it was a personal car, not a government vehicle. But he couldn’t take a chance, not for himself or for Shelby. He rode the bus farther into the city, leaving Shelby to wonder why she’d been stood up.