Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
I stood at the back of the chapel with two coworkers, three people in a sea of mourners. I wasn’t surprised by the number of gay men who’d turned up to bid Cory Peterson farewell.
He probably fucked at least half of them.
When the suggestion was made at work to attend the funeral, I’d agreed immediately. After all, I’d missed the first five. It was time I saw the results of my handiwork. As I walked into the chapel, I’d received nods from so many familiar faces. No one was surprised to see me there.
Why would they be? They knew me.
Some of them were already on my Potentials list.
But then another familiar face appeared, and suddenly I was cold.
What’s Dan Porter doing here?
I watched as he and another man walked toward the altar, my blood like ice.
Less than forty-eight hours after my last victim met his maker, and he just happened to turn up at Peterson’s funeral?
I took a closer look at the guy with him.
There was something familiar about him too.
Then it came to me where I’d seen his face before.
In the newspapers, alongside Mr. Psychic.
He’s one of the detectives looking for me.
I couldn’t breathe.
Couldn’t think straight.
Do they know I’m here?
Can Porter sense me somehow?
I might have laughed off Boston PD’s decision to involve him, but having him there, mere feet away from me, was unnerving.
Don’t lose your cool now. Remember, smart people don’t get caught—only stupid people do.
And I was smarter than most of the men in that chapel.
I debated getting closer to him, if only to prove to myself that I was invisible, but brushed aside that idea.
Keep him at a distance. This is a marathon, not a sprint, and there are still fifteen more to go.
I tried to ignore him, to stop waiting for him to turn around and point a trembling finger at me, declaring in a loud voice that I was the killer.
He doesn’t know I’m here. I’m safe.
I relaxed a little when one of Peterson’s family greeted the detective warmly. Maybe he knows them. Maybe he’s built up a rapport with them.
I still wasn’t going anywhere near either of them.
Instead I contented myself with staying where I was, studying the men surrounding me. Who would be next?
Eenie….
Meenie….
Minie….
Moe.