The line of bushes extended to the rear of the lot, and two large trees shadowed the back yard. Hank and Jen moved into the shadow of the trunk of the tree nearest the bush line. They crouched down, straining their eyes to see the figure that they knew was out there in the dark but saw nothing. Jen guessed he was out of their line of sight around the corner of the house. All they could do now was wait for Vic and his partner to move in from the front and flush him out of his cover and toward them.
On the second floor, a light flicked on. Sue Carpenter was going to bed. He might make his move now, or he might wait until she’d had enough time to fall asleep. Hank motioned that he was going to move to the corner of the house. She nodded and returned her attention to the space of ground between the house and the bushes. Any time now, she thought, any time.
It seemed an eternity before she saw movement near the bushes. She went to a crouch, gun in hand, tensed and ready. A figure moved slowly and carefully along the bush line, but she couldn’t make out details. The figure moved closer, and she recognized Vic Hensley.
She stood and moved quickly across the yard. Hank had also recognized Vic and come forward. As she neared Vic, the deputy who had been his partner rounded the other corner of the house.
“Where the hell is he?” Vic muttered angrily.
“Maybe he cut through the bushes,” Hank suggested.
Vic keyed his portable, calling Will, and they heard the muted sound through the heavy growth. In a few seconds, Will rounded the bush line at the rear of the property.
“He didn’t come through,” he advised in a low voice. “Don’s at the front, still watching.”
“We’d better check the bushes,” Jen said. “Maybe he’s hiding in there.”
Vic returned to the front corner of the house while the deputy stayed at the rear. From their positions, they had a clear view of all sides of the house. Will returned to the other side of the bush line and began to work his way along it from the rear, while Jen and Hank did the same from the side nearest the house. It took only a few minutes to work their way to the sidewalk. No one was hiding in the bushes.
Vic radioed instructions to the marked units set up in the quadrant to stop anything that moved, including all vehicles leaving the area. Then he turned to Jen and Hank.
“The last time we saw him he was moving toward the rear of the house. Are you sure he didn’t get past you guys?”
“Come on, Vic,” Jen said, exasperated. “You think we’d have been sitting with our heads up our butts if he had?”
“Sorry,” Vic said. “Stupid question…but somebody was here, hiding in those bushes, and now he’s gone.”
Will had been flashing his light under the bushes. Now he called to them and pointed to a clear area. There were several broken branches and the weeds smashed down. Someone had been standing there all right. Vic and his partner hadn’t been imagining things, but where had that someone gone? Suddenly Jen had a chilling thought.
“What about inside? Maybe he already got inside the house?”
Startled, they stared at her. Jen instructed Hank to join the deputy covering the rear and instructed Don and Vic to take positions at the front of the house. She and Will moved to the door, and Will tried the knob. The door was locked, and he rang the bell.
“A light just came on upstairs rear,” Hank reported on the portable.
A few minutes later, they heard a frightened female voice asking who it was. They identified themselves, and the porch light clicked on. The door inched open, held in place by a security chain, and Sue Carpenter peered out. Jen and Will held out their identification. She read the IDs carefully, squinted at the photos, then at them, and closed the door. They heard the chain being removed before she opened the door wide.
“What’s wrong?”
She was a pretty woman, but at this moment, she was also a frightened one. Jen didn’t blame her.
“We don’t mean to alarm you,” Jen said, “but we spotted a prowler near your house. He seems to have given us the slip. If you don’t mind, we’d like to check inside.”
“Oh, my God!” Sue Carpenter turned pale. She pulled her robe tightly around her body and looked nervously over her shoulder. “There’s somebody in my house?”
“We’re just being careful, that’s all,” Will reassured her. “Your doors and windows look okay from the outside, so I wouldn’t worry too much. Do you mind if we come in?”
“No, of course not.” She stood aside to let them enter. “If there’s somebody in here, I’d rather you found them.”
Jen and Will made a thorough search of the house, checking under beds, behind clothing in closets, and even inside large kitchen cabinets. There was no one inside the house except themselves and Sue Carpenter.
“We’re sorry we disturbed you and got you upset over nothing,” Jen said when they returned to the living room where Sue was sitting huddled on the couch.
“That’s okay.” She’d had time to think while they were searching and had come to the obvious conclusion. “There was somebody out there watching me, wasn’t there? You think it was the guy who’s been killing all those women, don’t you?”
“No, no, it was probably just a kid trying to window peep.” Jen tried to sound casual, knowing she was failing. “We get that all the time.”
“I’m sure you do,” Sue said, “but your identification says you’re a detective and he’s an FBI agent. I find it hard to believe detectives and FBI agents are
