Mils pursed his lips and shook his head, but he didn't look as sure of himself anymore."I haven’t seen anything suspicious," he said.
Alison could sense a change in the mood."We’ll start looking at the last two to three years and find out if anyone had something happen, some major life event that would explain why they couldn’t kill someone two years ago."
"I assume that’s a good place to start," Mills said."I wouldn’t really know where to go from here.I wish I had seen something so I could help in some way.I hate to think of someone like that on the streets, killing—I don't even know who is being killed."
"Young women," Derek said."Female joggers out for late-night or early-morning runs.The killer has a type."
"I can’t imagine," Mills said, shaking his head, then rubbing his forehead."I have a daughter in her early twenties."
"I had a sister who was eighteen when she was killed," Alison said.
Mills looked between Derek and James, not acknowledging what Alison had said.
"She was my daughter," James said."Emma Payne was killed when she was eighteen.She was out running home from swim practice when someone ended her life."
Alison stuck out her hand so that Mills couldn’t miss it."I’m Alison Payne.Emma was my sister.The first person he killed.If you know anything,anything, it would really help the investigation."
Mills didn’t look at anyone now, and he stood up from the table, almost knocking his chair over in the process.
"Where are you going?"Derek demanded as he stood.
"No, no, nowhere," Mills said."I just…does anyone want some coffee?"
"We’re fine," Derek said."You can sit down, Mr.Mills.We’re not done here."
"I’m not stopping until I find my daughter’s killer," James said, staring at Mills.
Mills bent down and picked up his chair."I’m sorry," he said."I can't imagine what that must be like for you.I have a daughter.Did I mention that?"
"Please just sit down," Derek said.
Derek was the only person Mills would look at.Derek looked away from Mills for a second as he sat, holding Alison’s gaze.Alison tilted her head in response: Mills was starting to act weird, but it could be a sign he was affected by what they were telling him rather than guilt.
The four of them sat at the table again, and silence descended on the table.Mills breathed deeply, obviously agitated.Then he burst upward from the chair again, knocked it over, and ran from the kitchen.
Derek was the first to react and was on his feet in an instant, going after Mills.James followed, then Alison.
She heard the door open, then steps thudding on concrete as Mills ascended.She was halfway down the hallway when Derek let out a cry and came tumbling head over heels down the stairs.James caught him near the bottom, cushioning his fall somewhat.
"Go!"Derek grunted to no one in particular.
Alison ran past Derek and her father and up the stairs, hesitant that Mills would be waiting there to push her down.She reached the top and ran out onto the street, looked both ways, but saw no sign of him.She grabbed her phone to call it in.
Alison chose a direction at random and ran down the street towards the closest intersection, sprinting in the hope that she’d gone in the same direction and would see him when she rounded the corner.When she got there, she saw no one on the street.Still, she ran down that street, knowing it was futile, but needing to try.
Alison had hoped for a sign that Mills was the killer, and there was no bigger one than running from them.She was sure now that Mills was the killer.
She had no idea where he had gone.
EPILOGUE
Alison sat by the hospital bed, holding Derek’s hand.He was drugged up and slept, but he was alive, and that was all that mattered for now.Alison looked toward the window, the night having descended a long time ago.They had gone to the right house, and now, she was sitting by a broken Derek in a hospital bed, and her father had retired to his home to have his metaphorical wounds licked by Rex.
A groan came from Derek as he stirred.
"No, don't try to move," she warned.
Derek groaned again, bringing his free hand to those sides that were bandaged.He winced with his eyes closed.
