He wasn’t just confused about her reaction to his touch. He was confused about how she’d bolted.
I sensed the killer. Then I didn’t.
“I thought I heard something,” she said, which was at least true, if lame.
He was feeding. The thought came to her again—but what had it meant?
The fear, when it hit, hit hard. Absinthe! Moonsong!
Evan!
She spun for the hotel again—but luckily, before she could put the icing on her embarrassment cake, Butch Jefferson came through the revolving door. “Now what are you two doing out here in the wet?” he demanded, the seriousness in his gaze contradicting his friendly tone. “Son, I got something upstairs you should see.”
Chopin gave her an after-you gesture, so they headed inside in detective-Faith-detective order.
It was a handwritten note. Someone had found it at the empty table where Krystal would have “read.” Their shout of alarm had drawn the attention of others.
Now too many bystanders clustered and whispered, while Butch and Roy studied the piece of Biltmore stationary without touching it.
“‘She was delicious,’” read Roy, frowning. “‘The next one will be even tastier.’”
The whispering of the psychics and guests and hotel staff became something closer to a group moan—a noise with too many words to retain any individuality, merely distress. But they were communicating the same fear, something Faith had already half guessed herself.
Hadn’t she suggested the killer might come here to scope out more victims?
“He’s a serial killer,” she whispered, giving voice to what the others were murmuring amongst themselves…kind of like she did with her informative calls as Cassandra.
“No,” said Roy firmly, standing. “There’s no proof of that. He’s just trying to get as much mileage as he can off of the one killing we do know about.”
“But—”
“This is a note, not a body,” he insisted, while Butch used tweezers to lift the page into a Ziploc bag from his pocket. These detectives came prepared. “Don’t buy into his game, Corbett. It’s what he wants folks to do.”
He was feeding, thought Faith again—and now it made sense. The killer had been high on the fear he’d created. That’s why he’d left the note—to create fear. That’s what she’d heard in his pulse, in his heartbeat.
She shivered.
Roy made a disgusted sound. “You’re wet. You want my jacket?”
“No.” She managed to stop him before he could shrug it off. “I should probably get my roommates home. It looks like things are closing up early, after this.”
“They were in the main ballroom the whole time, right? As long as they didn’t see anything suspicious, head ’em out.”
“Thank you for the coffee.”
Roy was frowning at the now-bagged note, holding it up to the light. He wasn’t even looking at her. But he said, “Seven okay?”
That took Faith by surprise. “What?”
He slid his gaze from the missive to her, mouth threatening again. “Tomorrow night. Date. Seven?”
Despite her attack of the heebie-jeebies out front? The only thing more embarrassing than the idea that this was now a pity date was the idea of him knowing she knew it was a pity date. “Okay,” she said, as they both turned to their own particular duties.
Butch looked immensely pleased with himself.
Faith had never been to a funeral before. She had no family besides her mother—no grandparents, no great-aunts or uncles, nobody whose passing would have required she attend their services. Since she and her mother tended to move every few years, she rarely made friends long enough to see one of them die. So she wasn’t sure how Krystal’s memorial service compared to other funerals.
But she knew she hated it.
The grief was palpable—grief from Krystal’s parents, who’d come to collect the body; grief from all her friends; grief from some members of the community who’d shown up without even knowing Krystal, just as a way of expressing their anguish and outrage over this murder in their city.
That last group made Faith wonder if perhaps moving every few years hadn’t been a good enough excuse for not attending funerals in the past, after all.
Butch Jefferson and Roy Chopin were there, too, though they stayed in back. Faith supposed they were taking note of who attended. She remembered from a criminal psychology class that some killers liked to see the results of what they’d done.
In any case, the detectives’ solemn distance seemed respectful, and Faith knew she could count on them to notice anything suspicious. She kept her focus on the people who needed her more. Her roommates. The family.
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