Kate waved to Maggie and watched her leave. She waited a few moments before running up the stairs and heading to the ladies’ room. She looked at her reflection in the mirror but all she saw was their faces. Glassy blues eyes. Silky black hair. She touched the mirror – she was them. They were her.
She grabbed the sink to keep her balance. Her head was spinning. In hindsight she shouldn’t have asked to see the pictures, to hear what had happened. Every little detail spun in her mind like a web and she was the fly. Stuck. Struggling to break free. But who was the spider?
She was shaken out of her thoughts when someone walked into the bathroom and greeted her. A few token words and Kate left, going upstairs to her office.
She walked straight past those in the DAHU, giving a brief wave to whoever had shouted out hello before hiding behind her computer screen.
Deep breaths.
Kate knew she needed to place her mind elsewhere. The images flashing in her head would stop then. She slammed her hands down on her desk. Stop! Get the fuck out of my head.
‘Kate. Are you OK?’ She hadn’t heard Mark knock or come into the room.
‘Yeah. Sorry. Just frustrated with a project I’m working on.’ Please don’t push it, Mark. Go. Just leave.
‘You’ve gone really pale. Are you sure you haven’t picked up that bug that’s been going around?’
‘Maybe. I don’t know. Come to think of it, I’m not feeling very well. I might just go and work from home.’
‘If you can wait half an hour, I’ll take you. I need to swing by Police HQ so I can drop you on my way?’
‘No. That’s OK. It’s only fifteen minutes or so on the train.’ She looked at her watch. ‘If I leave now, I can catch the next one.’ She grabbed her belongings and pushed past him. ‘I’ll ring DI Calleja and let him know. If anyone needs me, they can ring me on my mobile.’
She didn’t wait for his reply, just ran down the stairs, and out into the fresh air. The train station was quiet at this time of the day – the train itself was empty and Kate sat back in the seat, gazing out of the window.
***
When she arrived at her destination, she paused and called DI Calleja to inform him she would be at Maggie’s and available if anyone needed her. She felt like someone was watching her, but when she looked over her shoulder and around her, there was no one there.
Inside the house, Kate went to her room and got changed. She lay across her bed and closed her eyes. She nearly fell off the bed when she felt something brush across her leg.
It was Scrappy.
‘Jaysus, Scraps. You frightened the life out of me.’ She lay back for a moment as her anger mixed with fear. The killer was winning, but she wasn’t through fighting. She stood and went to the closet. She pulled out the white paper and her markers. Taping the paper to the wall, she began writing.
1. Obsessive behaviour: watches his ‘targets’, learns their habits, makes plans for when it’s best to strike.
2. Unpredictable and dangerous: educated and professional which gives him power. No one would suspect him. May have a career or work in various professional capacities but probably doesn’t socialize much.
3. Few or no real friends: keeps people at arm’s length; may have difficulties forming friendships.
4. Organised in his planning: precise execution of finding, stalking, and then abducting his victims.
5. Stalking is often triggered by a life event that’s difficult to cope with, e.g. breakup, firing, arrest, significant anniversary, illness or rejection. What has happened in his life to trigger his behaviour?
Kate stood back and looked at what she’d written. She was determined to find him before he found her.