Page 18 of Little Twisted Things

“Good luck. It was good to see you again.” She smiled.

I turned, and there he was, leaning against his desk, one hand wrapped around a Styrofoam cup of coffee, the other shoved into the pocket of his khakis. My heart beat out of my chest.

“Paige.” Luke nodded.

“Luke.” I stood a few feet in front of him.

It was funny how three years had a way of making strangers out of people who once shared a home.

“You look good,” he said.

“I’ve had better weeks.” I softly smiled.

“Yeah, me too.” He breathed out a laugh.

He picked up a manila folder from his desk and handed it to me. I opened it and studied the crime scene photos of Kevin Hadley’s murder. My eyes moved slowly across each image. I pulled the medical examiner’s report out and studied it. Twenty-two stab wounds.

“When I heard the number, I immediately thought of your case,” Luke said. “Twenty-two is pretty hard to forget.”

“Can I see the file on the girl you found under the same tree?” I asked.

“Sure. Let me go grab it. Whoever murdered this girl was meticulous. We have nothing, Paige. No suspects, no fingerprints, no murder weapon. Exactly like Kevin Hadley’s murder. The medical examiner said that the young woman was killed somewhere else and then brought to the park. But for Kevin Hadley, he was murdered in the park.”

“Someone wants us to think the murders are connected, but they’re not. You know as well as I do that a serial killer uses the same method. They never stray. My killer disappeared. No body. No arrests. No evidence she ever left New York.”

“And yet?” Luke stood, his arms folded across his chest.

“Someone in Key West just stabbed a cheating man twenty-two times.”

“Do you still believe it’s that Katherine woman?” he asked.

I sighed. “Katherine Tate was a terrified woman every time I interviewed her. She was a victim, and victims don’t suddenly become organized serial killers overnight. But all the evidence always led back to her.”

“And you said she vanished into thin air?”

“She did.” I nodded. “Kevin Hadley wasn’t randomly killed. He was selected.”

“You think the killer hunted him?”

“No. I think someone handed the killer Kevin’s name,” I said. “A man having an affair dies of twenty-two stab wounds, exactly like the cheating men back in New York.”

“Could be a copycat,” Luke said.

“Possibly. But I doubt it. There’s something I need to do. I’ll talk to you later.” I gripped my purse strap.

“Have dinner with me tonight,” Luke blurted out. “We can talk more about that case. Maybe do a little catching up.”

“I’ll let you know.” I turned and walked away.

9

Dahlia

I got an alert that someone was at my door. Pulling up the footage, I saw Detective Walker standing on my porch. Kris must have told her that Alex worked with Kevin, and now she most likely wanted to ask him some questions.

I slowly drove down my street, looking for any sign of Detective Walker’s car. I didn’t see it, so I pulled into the garage and quickly shut the door. She would most likely come back later to talk to Alex. I couldn’t let her see me, so I needed to come up with a plan.

I heard the front door open.