Now that she had staff and a place, she just needed the equipment to be delivered, and she was good to go.She wanted to call Sean with the good news but didn’t want to disturb him at work.Maybe she’d stop by the beach house later to see him.In the meantime, she needed to go purchase the television and stop at the sign company to see the Pro-Care sign, which would be mounted outside her business above the door and picture window.They wanted her approval before delivering and installing it.
She was just grabbing her coat and purse when there was a strange scratching noise coming from the front door.Laughter burst from her when she saw Dan Malone’s dog, Jinx, sitting on the other side of the glass, “knocking” at her door with his paw.He had an adorable face and a piece of paper in his mouth.
She unlocked the door and opened it.Jinx’s tail wagged in earnest when she squatted down to his level and gave his ears a good scratching before taking the paper from him.Unfolding it, she read aloud, “Come join us for lunch at Dan’s.Love, Aunt Bonnie.”
She grinned at Jinx.“I guess this is a formal invitation, huh, boy?”
The dog woofed his response, causing Grace to start laughing again.“You won’t take no for an answer, will you?”
Jinx shook himself from nose to tail, turned, and after looking both ways as his human counterparts would, trotted back across the street to the hardware store.
Grace hadn’t realized how hungry she was until now, so she decided to join the older couple for a bite to eat.She knew Bonnie occasionally closed her shop for a half hour during lunch while leaving a sign in her boutique window saying she could be reached at the hardware store in an emergency.
She often wondered why Dan and her aunt never became romantically involved.As far as Grace knew, Bonnie hadn’t dated in years, and Dan had never remarried after losing his wife to cancer while they were both still in their twenties.Thirty-five years was a long time to live without someone special to love.
Anyway, lunch first, errands second.
George Wallace sat at the lunch counter of a local greasy spoon he frequented, waiting on his sandwich and watching the end of the twelve o’clock newscast with interest.
I’ve made the news again, he thought with pride and decided to record the evening news later to save as a memento.He hadn’t stayed in Pennsylvania long enough to garner any press up there, but apparently, he was big news here in North Carolina.He was now convinced moving to the house he’d inherited from his deceased aunt had been a great idea.The warmer weather would also bring tourists and beach bunnies who loved to show off their slutty, little bodies in two-piece bathing suits.Just thinking of potential victims made his mouth water.
“Here ya go.”He was snapped out of his fantasies by the waitress putting his lunch before him.“Can I get you anything else, George?”
“No thanks, Anita—this looks perfect.”
Anita smiled.“Well, enjoy.Let me know if you need anything.”
“I will.”He picked up half of the huge BLT and took a big bite.
He liked Anita.An older, plump brunette with hints of gray, she was never anything but happy and kind.He often wished she was his mother.
At a very young age, George learned to fend for himself.He’d loved school and went every day, holding an A minus/B plus average throughout his sixteen years of public education.It gave him a reprieve from his shitty home life that had included his mother’s drinking binges, scream fests, and beatings, which usually occurred in that order.
His mother had been a lazy-assed, bleached-blonde bimbo who sent him off to the movies every weekend so she could entertain her johns to subsidize what she received from the state in welfare and food stamps—the government wouldn’t pay for all the alcohol she liked to drink.He’d only been a little kid, and she’d told him to walk three blocks to the theater, by himself, with a handful of loose change.He had to buy a movie ticket with a bunch of quarters, nickels, dimes, and pennies, while she was charging men a lot more than that to do disgusting things with them.
What kind of mother did that?A lousy, worthless one.
He’d needed to save the change the whore gave him for a few days, sometimes over a week, to have enough money for a movie to get away from his miserable life.In the meantime, he’d go to the zoo on free Wednesdays or the park.Even though it hadn’t cost anything to get into the zoo, he still had to sneak in since the attendants usually questioned his age and wanted to know where his parent or guardian was.
He could still remember the look on one woman’s face when he’d responded, “Fucking some guy for money.”Guess she hadn’t expected a seven-year-old to say something like that.
But little did Wanda Wallace know, as her son got older, he’d kept the paltry bit of change she gave him but didn’t leave the house when instructed.Instead, he watched her and her clients from a small hole he’d drilled into the back of the closet in his room, which was next to his mother’s bedroom.The more he watched the fucking slut in action, the more he hated her, which worked out well because she hated him.His mother had constantly reminded him of how she got stuck with him after his good-for-nothing father took off as soon as she’d told him she was pregnant.
He never did get into the zoo that day since he’d run after the attendant had wanted to call the police to help him.They wouldn’t help him—they never did.Usually, they just stuck him in horrible foster homes whenever his mother was in jail, then returned him to her after she promised it would be the last time.
Right.
And those assholes believed her, so his childhood had been nothing but a pitiful merry-go-round from hell.
At least, it was until he turned fifteen.
Chapter9
Sean hung up his phone and turned to Lynch.“That was my profiler.She’ll be here in about ten minutes.”
The detective nodded.“Great.Maybe she can make some sense out of this fucking mess.”He swept his hand toward the whiteboards containing all the information they had on the case with a frustrated sigh.
Just after Brian and Rafe walked into the conference room a few minutes later, one of the landline phones on the table rang.It was the front desk deputy reporting that Dr.Suki Ralston had arrived.Sean headed out to greet her and escort her back to the task force room.He found her in the lobby, looking as gorgeous as ever, and he almost rolled his eyes as he thought of what his brother’s response to this woman was going to be.Brian could be a dog when it came to women—love ’em and leave ’em—quickly.While Sean wouldn’t mind having a long-term relationship with the right woman, Brian ran from commitment faster than anyone could say, “Ready, set, go.”
