Kill Me Once (25 page)

Five minutes of poking around the shelves finally produced what he was after. Brand-new hardback copy of Truman Capote’s
In Cold Blood
firmly in hand, he staked out an empty table near the Medical Sciences section and opened the book, sighing contentedly.

Twenty minutes into his tale about the unfortunate Clutter family, who’d so foolishly decided to call their remote Kansas farmhouse home, the young woman from the Lonely Hearts Club settled into a chair two tables away, looking even
more
beautiful than she did in her profile pictures, if that were possible.

She looked up and smiled shyly at Nathan when she noticed him staring. Anticipation slammed in his chest as he smiled back.

She was absolutely fucking
perfect
.

Lowering his eyes, he flipped a page in his book and began getting into character mentally, infinitely happy that the time had finally come to recreate Richard Speck’s deliciously unforgettable crime once and for all.

2010-style
.

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

Ahn ‘Annie’ Howser felt ridiculous as she smiled at the tall man two tables away. He was handsome enough, sure, but he must have been at least twice her age. Maybe even three times, considering how young she was.

At nineteen, the Vietnamese girl was three years younger than even her best friends at Loyola. But having skipped the tenth and eleventh grades in high school when standardised testing revealed her IQ to be in excess of 170, she now found herself in the same graduating class as Lindsey McCormick and Liza Alloway. And thank God for that.

Outwardly, the three girls seemed to have little in common. A casual observer passing them on the street might have even remarked to a companion that they were among the
unlikeliest
trios he’d ever encountered. Actually venturing such a comment, however, would have been roughly akin to mentioning that the summer skies of Montana often seemed quite blue.

Lindsey was the cheerleader of the group – bright, pretty, peppy and cheerful. A straight-A student and everybody’s best friend. Liza was the tomboy of the bunch – rough-and-tumble, loud and boisterous from her days of growing up on a cattle ranch out in Deer Trail, Wyoming. The kind of girl who was never afraid to speak her mind about
anything
.

A shy, quiet girl by nature herself, Ahn had forged a slow friendship with the American girls after they’d bumped into her – quite literally as it had turned out – in between the towering reference stacks at the campus library.

They’d all been in search of the same single copy of a nursing techniques guide that day, a book that the school – for whatever arcane reason – would only allow to be utilised under the disapproving glare of the reference librarian, a woman infamous on campus for always strangling her brittle silver hair in a mercilessly tight bun with never the slightest concession to season or occasion.

Four hours of intense studying followed. The trio of budding nurses carefully examined heart rates and blood pressure; thoughtfully discussed ocular inspections and platelet counts; and delicately attempted to unravel the intricate mysteries of blood-cell variations – all while trying to ignore the pointedly disgusted looks coming from Loyola’s very own answer to Nurse Ratched.

When they’d finally had enough of both the books and the looks, the girls decided to unwind by grabbing a quick beer at Sparky’s Place, a local watering hole popular on campus for its notoriously lax policy on checking IDs.

At the bar a single beer magically turned into three and three into five before their little group finally managed to drag themselves down off their stools and drunkenly hail a cab back to campus.

They’d had an absolute
blast
that night, and their relationships had subsequently developed to the point where Ahn now considered the American girls to be the sisters she’d never had. Lindsey and Liza felt the same way about the Vietnamese girl, anglicising her name to ‘Annie’ when she’d timidly asked them for a nickname that would help her feel more American.

Ahn smiled to herself. No, she guessed skipping those grades in high school hadn’t turned out so badly, after all. But that was the past and this was the present – and right now she had to go meet up with her sisters. They were expecting her.

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

Twenty minutes passed before Nathan peeked up at the girl over the cover of his book again.

There she was, just as lovely as ever.

His skin prickled. He’d waited a long time for this night to arrive –
too
long, really – and now that it was finally here he was itching to take the next step.

His thoughts briefly went to Kelly and Jennifer, missing them so badly that he thought he would break down and start crying right there in the middle of the library.

I love you, girls. Daddy will be home soon
.

Nathan smiled with the knowledge that Dana Whitestone would be the one to send him on his way to their joyful reunion. And – as was befitting their special relationship – he’d take her along for the ride, of course. It was only fair, after all. She’d stolen his life and now he’d steal her life in return.

Over the years he’d lived in his mind the night that now lay ahead a million times over, the terror of the dead nurses springing to life each time he closed his eyes. Now all that remained was the careful execution of the script.

Another ten minutes passed before the young woman rose from her seat and collected her things. She smiled a polite goodbye at him, and Nathan returned the favour before waiting a full sixty seconds by the smooth sweep of the hand of his Rolex watch and following her outside at a discreet distance. Looking up into the night sky, he saw that it was very dark.

Already in character, it was time to change into his uniform now. After all, it was of vital importance to recognise those who had come before him, now wasn’t it? To remember those who had paved the way.

To thumb his nose at them.

As he followed the girl back to her dorm, Nathan drifted back in time to one of his earliest study sessions as a young boy, remembering the story of the man he would soon become.

Born 6 December 1941 in Kirkwood, Illinois, Richard Franklin Speck at the age of nineteen visited a tattoo parlor and had BORN TO RAISE HELL inked into his arm. At twenty-four, he broke into a townhouse at 2319 East 100th Street in the Jeffrey Manor neighbourhood of Chicago and systematically butchered eight student nurses from South Chicago Community Hospital. On 5 December 1991 – exactly one day shy of his fiftieth birthday – he died of a massive heart attack at Silver Cross Hospital in Joliet after complaining of chest pains.

Nathan sighed. No matter. In this case, death was only a temporary thing. Thanks to him, tonight Richard Speck would finally be reborn in all his glory to finish off what he’d started more than forty years ago.

After following the girl back to her dorm at a safe distance, Nathan hustled back to the Acura on foot to get dressed in his work clothes. Once he was properly attired, he shoved the ski mask deep into the side pocket of his heavy black coat and slid behind the Acura’s leather-wrapped steering wheel before cranking the engine to life.

As he drove back across campus, the narrator’s deep voice once more filled the car.

Finally reaching the parking lot of the girl’s dorm three minutes later, Nathan parked the car in an open space and swung his booted feet out onto the snow-covered pavement. He removed his coat and affixed the temporary tattoo to his left biceps. Again, it was the
details
that mattered most here. In addition to everything else they had in common, he and Richard Speck now shared the same ink.

He almost laughed out loud at the thought.
Brothers-inarms
.

A moment later the girl simply walked right out the back door. Head down, she began cutting quickly across the campus quad.

Nathan’s mouth dropped wide open. She’d passed within twenty yards of him and hadn’t noticed he was there, hadn’t even bothered to look up.

Silly fucking rabbit
.

To be sporting, he gave her a five-minute head start before he got out of the car. On his way through the parking lot he swiped a parking citation from beneath the windshield wiper of a beat-up Chrysler Sebring and shoved it into the side pocket of his black jeans. Just another breadcrumb for Dana Whitestone to follow.

As he silently tracked the Asian girl along the deserted pathway, Nathan gave thanks to the dark gods for his exceptionally sharp eyesight. She was just fifty yards ahead of him now, and he was closing fast.

A moment later he’d halved the distance, then halved it again.

At ten yards he was jolted by the sudden noise of a vehicle on the cart path behind him. Heart slamming in his throat, he leaped quickly behind a stand of landscaped bushes and watched in complete astonishment as the security guards came driving around the bend in their ridiculously modified golf cart.

With every ounce of energy left in his body, Nathan fought the overpowering urge to leap from the bushes with a blood-curdling scream and strangle the life out of them with his bare hands. He took several deep breaths and forced himself to calm down. His emotions were running far too hot, and that was always a dangerous sign. Angry men made stupid mistakes, and he had much bigger fish to fry at the moment – even if the nasty little gook
had
just wriggled off his hook. So he simply gritted his teeth and watched helplessly while the dark night slowly swallowed the Asian girl alive.

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

The bitter winter wind sliced hard through Ahn’s coat as she walked across campus to join her friends for their planned study group, swirling up around her thin legs a maelstrom of dead leaves and debris that looked and acted just like a miniature tornado. Each gust, more powerful and painful than the last, only reminded her that Loyola was largely deserted now, most of the students and staff having long since headed home to the spend the Thanksgiving holiday with their loved ones. Though it made her feel silly and self-conscious to do so, she nonetheless made the sign of the cross against the faceless evil she felt hovering all around her in the chill night air. Ahn wasn’t quite sure
what
she believed on the spiritual side of things, but she did know that she didn’t want to think she was all alone in this world with no one to watch over her.
That
thought was too horrible even to comprehend.

She heaved a grateful sigh of relief when she finally came to the outside of Lindsey’s dormitory building ten minutes later. Quickly ascending the metal stairs on the outside of the building two at a time, her heart nearly exploded in her chest when a heavy footstep sounded on the landing directly behind her.

She spun around frantically, her eyes desperately searching the night for the source of the noise, but found only the darkness and howling wind in pursuit. She wrestled nervously with another powerful gust of wind in her effort to open the heavy steel door on the second floor.

Finally winning the battle, she stepped inside and paused to shake off the cold before taking several deep breaths and quickly making her way down the hall to Lindsey’s door.

Despite her overwhelming anxiety, a slow smile spread across Ahn’s pretty face as she came to the outside of Lindsey’s room. From inside, she clearly heard the familiar sound of Liza Alloway swearing up a blue streak about something or other. More likely than not the swearing was connected to the complicated list of trauma procedures they were expected to memorise for their finals. Although Ahn never swore herself, she couldn’t blame her friend for doing so in this instance. It was tough stuff to get a handle on – ‘a real bitch,’ as Liza might say.

She lifted a delicate hand and knocked lightly on the door. It opened almost at once.

‘Annie, baby!’ Liza boomed, blocking out most of the narrow doorway with her huge body. ‘Where ya been, girl? Get your tight little ass in here, bitch! We’ve got us some studying to do!’

The buxom redhead draped a heavy arm around Ahn’s slender shoulders and drew her into the warmth of the room and the tight circle of their friendship. Once inside, Ahn immediately felt the unease that had dogged her on the walk over drift away like smoke from the end of a burning cigarette.

She was safe now. She was with her sisters.

They cracked their books and studied in earnest for a solid hour before Lindsey snapped hers shut abruptly and tossed it aside. ‘I’m starving,’ she announced. ‘Let’s go raid the vending machines on the fourth floor for some quick brain food.’

‘I hear that,’ Liza said, her bright green eyes lighting up like emeralds at the prospect of some hard-earned sustenance. ‘I’m so fuckin’ hungry I could eat a goddamn horse.’

She stopped, horrified. ‘Well, not Tinkerbell, my Appaloosa, of course, but you know what I mean. Let’s go, bitches.’

Ahn and Lindsey exchanged a quick private smile, knowing full well that Liza would wind up consuming the lion’s share of the bounty, which was perfectly OK with them.

Giggling happily, the girls dug through their purses and came up with several dollars in change between them before heading out the door and bounding up the stairwell toward the vending machines on the fourth floor.

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

From his concealed post in the bushes, Nathan finally regained visual contact with the Asian girl just as she was ascending the metal staircase of an old red-brick dormitory building about a hundred yards away.

He watched as she opened a door on the second floor and stepped inside.

Five minutes later he was opening the very same door. He paused outside each of the rooms, but heard nothing but silence coming from any of them.

Except for one. Room 232.

Excellent
. The Asian girl did indeed have friends – she hadn’t been making it all up.

A full hour passed but Nathan didn’t mind. He was an exceptionally patient man, had learned patience very well as a child. He’d already waited
years
for this night to arrive finally, and waiting a little bit longer now certainly wasn’t going to kill him.