“Perfect. I don’t plan on doing much sleeping, anyway.” He checked the windows to make sure they were locked and then walked over to the door and double-bolted it. “All right.” He placed his gun on the table next to the couch. “You get a good night’s sleep. In the morning, we’ll get everything organized.”
Ashley nodded. She walked over to him and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you.”
Deputy Blake watched her walk into the bedroom and close the door. He walked back to the windows and checked them again. It was going to be a long night.
At FBI headquarters in Washington, Special Agent Ramirez was talking to Roland Kingsley, the chief of his section.
“We have the fingerprints and DNA reports found at the murder scenes in Bedford, Cupertino, Quebec, and San Francisco. We just got in the final DNA report. The fingerprints from the scenes all match, and the DNA traces match.”
Kingsley nodded. “So it’s definitely a serial killer.”
“No question.”
“Let’s find the bastard.”
At six o’clock in the morning, Deputy Sam Blake’s naked body was found by the wife of the building superintendent in the alley that ran behind Ashley Patterson’s apartment building.
He had been stabbed to death and castrated.
Chapter Ten
THERE were five of them: Sheriff Dowling, two plainclothes detectives and two uniformed policemen. They stood in the living room watching Ashley, sitting in a chair, weeping hysterically.
Sheriff Dowling said, “You’re the only one who can help us, Miss Patterson.”
Ashley looked up at the men and nodded. She took several deep breaths. “I’ll—I’ll try.”
“Let’s start at the beginning. Deputy Blake spent the night here?”
“Y-yes. I asked him to. I—I was desperately afraid.”
“This apartment has one bedroom.”
“That’s right.”
“Where did Deputy Blake sleep?”
Ashley pointed to the couch, which had a blanket and a pillow on it. “He—he spent the night there.”
“What time did you go to bed?”
Ashley thought for a moment. “It—it must have been around midnight. I was nervous. We had some tea and talked for a while, and I felt calmer. I brought out blankets and a pillow for him, then I went into my bedroom.” She was fighting for selfcontrol.
“Was that the last time you saw him?”
“Yes.”
“And you went to sleep?”
“Not immediately. I finally took a sleeping pill. The next thing I remember, I was awakened by a woman’s screams coming from the alley.” She began to tremble.
“Do you think someone came into this apartment and killed Deputy Blake?”
“I—I don’t know,” Ashley said desperately. “Someone has been getting in here. They even wrote a threatening message on my mirror.”
“He told me about that on the telephone.”
“He might have heard something and—and gone outside to investigate,” Ashley said.
Sheriff Dowling shook his head. “I don’t think he would have gone out naked.”
Ashley cried. “I don’t know! I don’t know! It’s a nightmare.” She covered her eyes with her hands.
Sheriff Dowling said, “I’d like to look around the apartment. Do I need a search warrant?”
“Of course not. G-go ahead.”
Sheriff Dowling nodded to the detectives. One of them went into the bedroom. The other one went into the kitchen.
“What did you and Deputy Blake talk about?”
Ashley took a deep breath. “I—I told him about—about the things that have been happening to me. He was very—” She looked up at the sheriff. “Why would anyone kill him? Why?”
“I don’t know, Miss Patterson. We’re going to find out.”
Lieutenant Elton, the detective who had gone into the kitchen, stood in the doorway. “Could I see you for a moment, Sheriff?”
“Excuse me.”
Sheriff Dowling walked into the kitchen.
“What?”
Lieutenant Elton said, “I found this in the sink.” He was holding up a bloodstained butcher knife by the edge of the blade. “It hasn’t been washed. I think we’re going to get some prints.”
Kostoff, the second detective, came in from the bedroom and hurried into the kitchen. He was holding an emerald ring, mounted with diamonds. “I found this in the jewelry box in the bedroom. It fits the description we got from Quebec of the ring that Jean Claude Parent gave to Toni Prescott.”