CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Two days later
"You should move out of here," Derek said. "I know this has been your home for a long time, and it’s a beautiful place, but we deserve a fresh start, you deserve a fresh start."
"They still haven’t found Howard Mills," Alison said.
She got up from the sofa and walked over to the window, looking out into the darkness.
She had the uncanny feeling that Howard Mills had someone who had made it back to Oakland and was hiding under the cover of night, under the cover of the greenery, and looking back up at her, framed in the window, surrounded by light.
"I know," Derek said, joining her at the window. He placed an arm around her middle. "I don't want to put any pressure on you, and I’m waiting for news also, but you can't pause your life anymore."
"Why would I move out of this place?" Alison asked. "This is what I know. Do I really want the hassle of moving everything, all for a fresh start? Do I need a fresh start? Do I want a fresh start?"
"You know, for someone who has the greatest ability at seeing into the minds of others, you are doing a great job at missing what I’m saying." He kissed Alison on the side of the head.
She tore her gaze from the window and looked at Derek.
"So," Derek said, "that was me suggesting we get a pace together, and the fresh start is for both of us, you know, together."
"Oh," Alison said. She let out a couple of chuckles. "Maybe I’m a little off right now. I still don't know which way is up and which is down."
"No, I’m sorry," Derek said. "I know you’re waiting on hearing about Mills, and they’ll have him soon, I know they will. I know I should wait, but I’m sick of waiting, and I know it’s unfair of me to ask you to unpause your life when—"
"No," Alison said. "I’m the one who should be apologizing to you. I like the idea. I can't fully get my head around it right now, but I want to talk about it. A fresh start with you sounds really good now. And you’re right, I’ve had my life on pause for too long. Emma wouldn’t want that.
I don't think she would. People always talk about the dead in terms of her life, but she would have changed so much in the last twenty years. What would she be like now, and—"
The bell from the panel at the front door halted her ramblings.
"Saved by the bell," Alison said. "I talk too much when I’m nervous."
"Yeah?" Derek asked with a smile. "I hadn’t noticed."
Alison kissed Derek. "That’ll be Dad."
"Go and sit, and I’ll let him in," Derek said.
Alison couldn’t sit when Derek went to the door.
She looked out past the darkness to the city of Oakland beyond, lit up brightly, ain’t the cloudy, dark sky.
Howard Mills was out there somewhere. Perhaps not hiding in the bushes by her home, and he had long left the city of Oakland, but he was out there somewhere.
Are you hiding? Running? Planning one last hurrah like Sarah Hartman?
There was no rhyme or reason to it anymore.
They had built the profile of a killer, and it had led them to Howard Mills.
Sarah Hartman had killed quickly for revenge, for punishment.
Alison understood that. Mills’s kills were five years apart.
That was harder to understand. What drove him to act decisively but so slowly?
Did that same instant drive him now? What would he do?
"Two visitors," Derek said when she returned from the front door to open the security gate.
Alison turned and saw her father first, then went to him and hugged him.
"Any news?" he asked. He showed no emotion in his voice, but Alison knew he had pushed that emotion down a long time ago.
"Not yet," Alison said. "Soon."
Derek had been telling her that they would find Mills soon, and it had done nothing to dampen her frustration, but she still did the same thing to her father.
Not so long ago, he’d wanted to leave the past in the past and hadn’t helped Alison with any investigating.
More recently, he’d been the one who’d gone out with Derek and found Howard Mills.
The second visitor, the one who’d followed her father into the room, was Detective Moore. After Alison had hugged her father, she went to Moore and hugged her, too.
"How are you—" Moore started. "Do you know what, I’m not even going to ask. Still, if there’s anything I can do, you only have to ask."
"Thank you."
James Payne went to the kitchen, and Detective Moore entered the living room, looking around and then whistling when she looked out the large front window.
"That’s a great view," Moore said. "Quite the place you have up here."
"For now," Alison said. "I’m thinking of moving."
"Oy, yeah? Where to?" Moore asked.
"I’m not sure yet. We’ll figure it out. Did you come to give an update on thecae?"
"Yeah, I thought I should drop by and let you know what’s happening," Moore said. She was at the large window and turned to face Alison and Derek. "Dr. Connor is taking a leave of absence from his psychiatric firm, citing extreme trauma after almost being killed, which I can understand, but at the same time…well, I don’t know. Trauma hits all of us differently. He’s been through a lot. "
"Yeah, he has," Alison agreed. "How about Sarah?"
"She’s being assessed, but that’ll take some time.
They’ll need to decide whether she’s fit tested trial.
Or if she’ll even face a trial. She’s offered a full confession, and she wants to go to prison, but they’re not accepting that just yet.
I don't know where she’ll end up, or where she should end up. "
The doorbell rang again, and Derek quickly got up to see who was there.
"I’m popular tonight," Alison said.
"You’re popular every night from what I hear," Moore said. "Wait, that sounds wrong."
Alison laughed.
"I mean that you’re always popular," Moore corrected. "She would have killed a lot more, you know?"
"Sarah," Alison said.
"Yeah," Moore confirmed. "She had at least two dozen targets, and she had the names of two jury members. I don't know where she got them. Perhaps someone connected to the case before she killed them. They’re all safe thanks to you."
"To us," Alison said. "If it wasn’t—" She stopped dead when Special Agent Hartley entered the room. Then she leaped to her feet. Just a few simple words would make her the happiest person in the world.
Hartley shook her head. "Not yet," she told the room. "He was spotted outside of Stockton, waking on the side of the highway. At least, they think it was him."
"Stockton?" Derek asked. "How long ago?"
"A few hours," Hartley said. "We’re sending a team out three now and setting up roadblocks."
"Between there and here," Alison commented.
Hartley paused before nodding. "Yeah."
"He’s coming back," Alison said. "Back to the place he knows, the only familiarity he has ever had."
"He’s injured, tired, with nowhere to go. You have nothing to worry about," Hartley said.
"He’s armed," Derek pointed out. "I want to go out there. I want to be the one to bring him in."
"No, you need to stay here," Hartley ordered. "If he is coming back, we have no reason to believe he’ll come back here. We still have eyes on his home, and it’s far more likely he’ll go back there. Still, you need to be here just in case."
"I’ll stay," Derek said.
"I’ll be here, too," James said from the kitchen.
"I'm sorry to interrupt," Hartley said, raising a hand. "I just thought you should know."
Alison wanted to ask her to stay, to share in some camaraderie with them, but she also wanted Hartley back out there, coordinating the search for Mills.
"Thanks for coming," Alison said.
"I’ll show myself out," Hartley said.
"I’ll come with you," Detective Moore told her. "I won't be able to sleep with this going on, so however you can use me, please do."
Alison smiled as she watched Hartley and Moore head for the door.
"You don't need to worry, I’m here with you, and James is here, too. You have a security system, and I have a gun."
Alison nodded. "He’s coming back to the city," she said.