Since Milla couldn’t be drawn into a disagreement of any kind, not even a lighthearted one, he just continued to pace and checked his watch for possibly the hundredth time.
There were still four minutes to go.
Stalking up to the glass door, he looked inside, seeing if anyone was in there. He’d been checking every minute or so since he knew that there had to be people in there. The library opened in just a few minutes so the staff was probably having their morning meeting or something.
“There,” he announced when he caught sight of a man. “Someone is there.”
Milla joined him and they both hammered on the door. The man turned to look at them and shook his head, pointing to the large clock on the wall.
Dante held up his badge, and when the man saw it his eyes grew wide and he hurried over, pushing a button that had the doors swinging open.
“You’re the cops? Did something else happen? Is someone else dead?” the man asked in a rush.
“I’m Detective Delamarre, and this is Detective Lindsay. As far as we know, there haven’t been any more murders,” he told the man. While they hadn’t heard anything about another mauled body being found, that didn’t mean there wasn’t one out there in the woods somewhere waiting to be discovered.
“Oh, thank goodness.” The man looked enormously relieved.
“We were viewing security footage from the libraries where the killer has struck and comparing it with footage from other libraries to see if we could find someone who had attended all of them, and we found someone. Can we show you a photo and see if you recognize this man?” Dante asked.
“Of course, come in.” The man let them in then called out to a couple of people walking toward the door, “We’ll be open shortly … there’s just something important that’s come up … sorry for any inconveniences.”
They crossed over to the counter where another two staff members were gathered. “What’s going on?” an older woman asked.
“These are the cops. They think they might know who the killer is. They need us to see if we recognize someone,” the man who had let them in explained.
“The photo isn’t the best of quality,” Dante warned as he pulled out his phone. “This man has been at all three of the libraries where the killer has struck, and we saw him on footage here as well as at another two libraries. Do you know this man?”
He opened the image and turned the phone around so the three other people could see it and immediately all three of them started nodding.
While he wasn’t really a person who got excited about things, that feeling of anticipation started to form inside him. If they knew this man, the next stop after here would be his house, and this case could be wrapped up by the end of the day. He might not get excited when he closed a case, but he did feel immense satisfaction. By taking a killer off the streets, he was preventing another family from experiencing what he had, and that was what kept him going when the temptation to end things got too strong.
“His name is Ed,” the older woman said.
“Ed what?” he asked. They needed a surname if they were going to get an address.
“I think it’s Ed O’Rourk,” the younger woman said.
“Do you have an address?” he asked. It had been a long time since he had been to a library, but he thought there was a chance they kept details on the people who took out library cards.
“We might have … let me check.” The younger woman walked over to the computer.
“Why is it that you recognized him so quickly?” Milla asked. He’d been so obsessed with getting a name that he hadn’t even thought to ask that.
“He’s a little creepy,” the man who had let them in said immediately.
“Creepy, how?” Milla asked.
“He’s obsessed with one of the librarians here,” the older lady said. “He sits here for hours and watches her … he even tried asking her out the other day.”
“Can we talk to this woman?” he asked, wondering if she might know some more about this man.
“She’s in the middle of a tutoring session with some kids with disabilities,” the woman said, pointing to a room off to the side.
Inside sat four teenagers and a gorgeous woman with blonde hair and blue eyes. She was talking away—all animated—and even from here, he could feel her enthusiasm.
She looked up suddenly and their eyes met.
When they did, he felt something he hadn’t felt since he met his fiancée.
Startled, his momentary panic was cut short when the woman smiled at him.
Then he felt at peace.
The same peace he’d been lacking for six years.
Dante was going to ask for her name—purely so he could interview her and find out what she knew about Ed, he lied to himself—when the woman at the computer called out, “I got an address.”
11:03 A.M.
* * *
“That was CSU. They said that none of the sets of teeth that they collected at Trake Powell’s house match the wounds on the victims.”
Dante heard the words, but they didn’t register.
All he could think about was the woman at the library.
Why had her smile made him feel like he was no longer dead inside?
Why did she make him feel like he was making a mistake refusing to let anyone else get close to him?
Why did she make him want to date again?
Why did she make him feel alive?
How was one smile able to accomplish so much?
“Dante?”
“What?” It came out as a growl, which wasn’t really how he intended it to sound. It was just that he didn’t want to stop thinking about the woman at the library.
“I said, that was CSU on the phone, and they said that none of the sets of teeth that they collected at Trake Powell’s house matched the bite marks on any of the victims,” Milla said with exaggerated patience. “That means that it probably isn’t him.”
“We didn’t think that it was,” he reminded her. “Not after he threw up when we showed him the crime scene photos. If he got sick at that, there’s no way he could have ripped those bodies apart.”
“I know, but I was kinda hoping he was faking. I just want to wrap up this case before anyone else dies,” Milla said.
“Hopefully, that’s what we’re about to do,” he said as he turned a corner. They were about five minutes away from the house where Ed O’Rourk lived. “Have you found out anything about him?” They had left the library as soon as they’d gotten the address, so while he’d been driving—and thinking about the librarian—Milla had been researching Ed.
“He had a twin sister who died of a drug overdose when they were fifteen. That same year, he almost died of one, but they were able to revive him at the hospital. Looks like he changed a lot after that. Got expelled from two schools, never graduated, no college, has worked at construction and factory jobs for the last fifteen years. Doesn’t appear to be close to the parents, they haven’t bailed him out any of the three dozen times he’s been picked up on possession or public intoxication charges. He doesn’t appear to be working at the moment, and we know—according to the library staff and from what we saw on the security footage—that he spends most of his time at one library or another,” Milla rattled off.