Alison appreciated her so much for the work she was doing, but she also wished for some respite for the agent.She was four months pregnant and hoping to orchestrate one of the state's latest manhunts.Almost five weeks, and they were rig back where they started.
Does this end at the beginning?
Hartley spotted them and walked over briskly.She flashed Derek a look that said, I told you not to come down here, but here you are, so oh, well!
"Alison," Hartley said.
"Did you get him?"Alison asked.
"There's a marshal and two FBI agents in there talking to the wife right now.She claims that a bobcat or a coyote must have been in her backyard, and that's what tripped the light, but she is acting strange, cagey.We think that Mills was here, but he left before we arrived.Maybe he wanted to see her one last time and turn himself in.He can't be in good shape."
"So, where is he?"Derek demanded.
"He can't have gone far," Hartley said."I know we keep saying that, but it’s true this time.I mean, it was true—anyway!His car’s still here.He didn't come back for that.He can't be in good shape.We have seven cars out there searching the streets.We’ll get him tonight."
"If he were here," Derek pointed out."The wife might be telling the truth.Why would she cover for him?"
"She still loves him," Alison answered."She hates him, but she loves him, and she’s probably trying to rationalize what’s going on.She can't believe that her husband of twenty-five years could kill five women.She won't let herself believe that, because what does that mean for her?It means she never really knew the man she loved."
"Just go back home," Hartley said."I know that’s hard, but we can handle this."
"We’ll help with the search," Derek said."I’m not taking no for an answer, so just accept the help."
"Yeah, all right," Hartley said, shaking her head."Get on the phone to Agent Henderson back at the office, and he’ll direct you.We go block to block, working our way outward.We do this properly, and we find him before dawn."
"Okay," Derek said."Come on," he added to Alison.
They ran back to the car together, and Derek pulled out his phone when it hit Alison.Maybe she was wrong, but they wouldn’t get there for a while, and maybe he would be gone before then.They could check and then circle back.
"We need to go to Granton Park," she said.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Derek turned off the headlights when they got close.He stopped the car a block from the park.He and Alison got out and ran silently toward the green space, the same space where Emma Payne had been killed twenty-two years ago.
Derek didn't question when Alison said they should go there.Everything pointed to Mills returning to the city, and his home was the obvious place for him to go.Everyone had a draw to their home or the place they called home.If Hartley was tight about the wife, then Mils had gone home, and he had left again.
To Alison, the most logical place he would go after that, if he felt he was out of options, was to go back to the start.How home wasn’t the start of it all, Emma’s crime scene was the start, the place where he had killed her as she’d run home that night.It was what had started everything.
As they jogged to the park, hugging the shadows at the edge of the sidewalk, Alison felt like she was stepping into her sister’s shoes.Perhaps it wasn’t the same route that Emma had taken from the now-demolished swim center, and it was later in the night, but it was still dark and around the same time of year.
This is what you were doing when he came for you, and it’s what I’m doing as I come for him.It’s time, Emma.It’s finally time for us to put this to rest.
They reached the edge of the park, and Derek drew his gun in case Mills was there.They walked together toward the crime scene, which they had visited multiple times over the last two years, and Alison had visited many more times before that.
Derek reached out his hand and put his arms in front of Alison, much like Moore had done at the abandoned facility.She pushed against his arm, wanting to run at Mills, but her instincts told her that it wasn’t the right way.Derek walked forward with one arm, raising Alison, and the other pointing a gun at Mills.
He was kneeling right where he’d killed her, and Alison felt the blue rise inside at the gall of the man.He had no right to be there, to return to that place.He knelt with his shoulders slumped and his head hanging forward as if he were praying.
Then he jumped up and spun around, a gun in his hand.
Derek quickly moved in front of Alison.
"Drop the gun!"Derek shouted.
"Don't come any closer!"Mills warned.
He was in rough shape.He had a thick layer of stubble, his hair was messy, his clothes were dirty, and he favored one arm while the other hung limp at his side.That same shoulder drooped more than the other.He was gaunt even though he hadn't been gone that long.
