Then they turn around and simply leave.
“He fucking… watched me sleep. He was in my house while I wassleeping.” Jesse is nearly hysterical at this point. He’s panicking. He’s become vulnerable and has realized how weak he is in the face of a ruthless psychopath.
But I’mfascinated.
Whitaker doesn’t want to kill Jesse.
No, he had the perfect opportunity to when this video was created and he chose not to. Or was the video made by someone else?
Still, he wants Jesse alive… but why? Why do all of this, then? What is his plan?
I head for the bedroom, following the same path Whitaker or his pawn had followed.
“Did he leave anything for you?” I ask.
“Like what?”
“Anything.”
“You think he was playing Santa Claus and left me a present? I don’t want a fucking present from him.”
“What about a way to contact him?” I ask.
“What do you mean a way to contact him? There’s no fucking way he could possibly think that I would go back to him.”
I envision myself as the person standing in the doorway watching Jesse sleep. The video was made to unsettle him… but that can’t be all. How lackluster would that be? Whitaker wants to pull Jesse back into his life. This man gets his kicks not from killing people, but from manipulating them. I wonder if he only kills them once he’s bored of them. And he’s proven that he’s not bored of Jesse.
I hurry down the stairs and look around before my eyes settle on the small Christmas tree with a few presents underneath it.
“Who are these for?”
“Lacey and her brother. We’re planning to meet tonight for dinner. I know what you’re thinking, but I wrapped those. That’s my handwriting.”
I kneel down to examine the presents. “Yes, and someone unwrapped one of them,” I say as I use a book to slowly pull the present to me. It looks quite well done, but I can see where the tape has been lifted and reapplied. Is this a present just for Lacey? Or is it for Jesse?
“I don’t want to open it,” Jesse says. “Fuck.”
“Liam, careful, what if it’s a bomb?” Gabriel asks.
I shake my head, positive it isn’t. “I don’t believe it is. Even after all these years, he’s interested in Jesse.” I watch the man, wondering what Jesse’s done that he hasn’t told us. Whitaker sees potential in him… he must have in order to open up to him back when Jesse was a teenager. Whitaker shared his darkest secrets with Jesse, but what did Jesse do to earn that trust? Of course Jesse’s not going to tell us it all.
He catches me watching him, his eyes locking onto mine, and I see so much turmoil raging in them before he quickly looks away.
What stories are you not telling us, Jesse?
It’s something big enough that he’s willing to risk it all to hide from his past. He doesn’t report any of this to the police; no, he calls us. He wantsmeto find this man for him in secret.
But then what’s he going to do when I do?
Kill Whitaker himself?
“Did you kill for him, Jesse?” I ask.
Jesse’s body turns completely still. “No! Of course not. Like I said, he had me collect the people. I fucked up. I was… I thought they were bad people. I can’t lose my job. My whole life will be ruined if anyone finds out what I did.”
Does Jesse know what it feels like to kill? Does he desire the hunt like I do?
Can he be like me?
