‹ Prequel: Beyond
Status: Last story in the Avidity trilogy.

Sinister

Confession

"It doesn't make sense," Scott said as we stared at the file. "We've read this paper from start to finish." He sighed and rubbed his face. "Do you think any of it really matters? He must have been a shrink all over until he met Eden."

I shrugged, sitting crossed-legged on the floor, folders and notebooks spread out before me. "It doesn't matter now, it's not like we can talk to him, Eden or Jenna. It's all about John, this is what he wants. He's luring us out."

"I wonder if he knew that about Jenna, that she was seeing Devon."

"Don't say it like that. She was his patient."

"So was Eden, and look what happened."

"Scott," I said softly. "We should have done more." I turned my head to look at him, just as he reached out to run his fingers through my hair. "I should have seen what he was going to do. He'd changed his mind at the end."

"What do you mean?"

I shook my head. "When I first had the vision about John, somehow I'd tapped into his thoughts. That's never happened before, and I didn't understand, but he wasn't thinking about killing her at first. He cared about her. He wanted her. But he was angry at her ex boyfriend, Daniel, for the way he treated Eden. Scott," I whispered, my voice hitching, "I could have stopped all of this before it even started."

His hand fell against my shoulder, squeezing. "You couldn't have saved everyone he'd decided to kill, Char. That would have been too much for you. I think I understand why you feel so strongly about this case now. But why didn't you tell me?"

"I was afraid," I said, leaning my head back against the mattress. "This isn't really something you believe in, and I knew that I couldn't stop him, at least not with Daniel. It's my fault he died."

"No, it's not." Scott's tone was edged. "It was John's. That fucker made the conscious decision to take a life."

"That wasn't the first time," I told him. "The very first woman he killed, was his fiancée. She was going to leave him, and he couldn't have that."

"I don't even want to know how you know that."

"His thoughts," I muttered. "He thought about her during each kill. The slicing of the neck is symbolic to the very first victim of John Hayes' rage."

"Christ," I heard him breath. "You're scary sometimes, you know that?"

I closed my eyes briefly. When I opened them, Scott was sitting next to me, staring at all the work I'd been doing. He smiled slightly. "We'll catch him."

Glancing at him, I narrowed my eyes. "I don't just want him caught. I want to put a bullet in his head."