She eased forward, slow andcautious at first, but picking up speed as he did. With her lights off, if shejust stayed a good distance behind, she could keep an eye on his glow andfollow him without being spotted. She just had to play it cool—which wasn’teasy, with her heart hammering at a hundred miles an hour in her chest and herbreath going ragged. She had him in her sights—a killer who had targeted women,just like herself, and dispatched all of them with what seemed like easyphysical prowess so far.
Ford was pushing on, taking turnshere and there, sticking to quiet streets here on the outskirts of the townthat were not well-lit with streetlights. Even so, every time she passed underthe glow of one of them, Zoe held her breath, backing off as far as she daredso that he would not see her in that circle of light.
It was sheer luck that they hadbeen issued a dark green car by the rental agency. They had not requested orspecified anything particular, but now it was making all the difference. Zoeneeded stealth on her side, and for now, she had it. She put her foot on theaccelerator to catch up after one streetlight, only to have to slow down againas another approached. Ford took a corner up ahead, and Zoe fixed her eyes onit, zooming ahead through the light and then taking the turn behind him.
And slowing to a stop, because hewas no longer there.
Zoe cursed loudly. The roadcarried on ahead, but there were also further turns on both sides of it, two onthe left and three on the right. Which one had he taken? She crept forward,staring down each turn for the glow of headlights, but she reached the finaloption without seeing a thing.
Zoe let the car idle for a moment,slamming her hands on the steering wheel in frustration, narrowly avoidingblaring the horn. She’d lost him. How had she allowed herself to lose him?
Zoe gripped her head in her handsfor a moment, trying to think, trying not to let utter rage at this new lossoverwhelm her. She had to stay focused. There was hardly any time to lose—hewas pulling away from her second by second, getting more and more impossible totrace.
There was no need for caution now—onlyspeed. Zoe switched her headlights back on and swung the car around. She wouldtake each of the side roads in turn, following them as far as she dared beforeconcluding that he must have gone another way. She would race down every roadin the area if she had to. She studied the GPS. All of the roads went onsomewhere else, which was unfortunate, but two of them ended in residentialcul-de-sacs and only one led further out of town. She had to take her chance.
Forcing the car to take the turnsas quickly as it could manage, Zoe sped down the first road on the right,putting her foot on the accelerator and desperately hoping that she would beable to catch him up.
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
He parked the truck and looked upat the house, contemplating it for a moment. Nights like these seemed tooperfect to be true. The moments when everything aligned just the way that heneeded them to.
No one had caught him. He hadtaken so many of them already, but the police were no closer to catching upwith him. No rap at the door, no questioning at work. As far as he knew, hewasn’t even on their radar. If he didn’t get caught, he could go on like thisforever; it was so easy.
Just like the ever-expandinguniverse, pi went on forever. It did not come to an end—just mutated andcontinued, changing as it went, never repeating the same thing twice. He coulddo that. There were so many possibilities that there never needed to be an end.
He could go on forever, just like pi.The thought was pleasing to him. He took a moment to look up at the sky abovethe house, admiring the stars, pinpricks of light which also followed their ownpatterns. The whole of the universe, laid out according to pi. It was amazingwhat you could see when you knew where and how to look.
There were no lights on inside thehouse, not visible from here, parked outside it. That probably meant that shewas asleep. So he hoped. There were heavy curtains drawn across the upstairswindows, so he remained cautious. People had a habit of staying up late ontheir phones these days, only a small glow in the room, enough to illuminatetheir face and no more. He wasn’t taking any risks. She could still be awake,so caution was needed.
He went around the back of theproperty, enjoying the spacious drive. Out here, away from the busier, morecompact parts of town, there was more room for everyone. There was more roomfor things like driveways and back patios and yards. He walked carefully acrossthe trimmed grass, over the cement tiles placed around the back door, andstepped up close to it.
He had spent a lot of timetraining on this. There were videos all over YouTube, so it was easy enough tolearn, and the kits were available online too. You just took this piece ofmetal and that piece, inserted them into the lock at exactly the right angle,gave them a little twist, and—
There. He slowly and carefullyeased the door open, then pulled it almost closed behind him, taking time tomake sure that even the subtle click of the catch returning to its place was absent.When he was satisfied that it would not blow open on its own—the night wasstill—he let it go, just ajar enough to afford him a way out if he needed totake one quickly.
He stopped, then, and lookedaround, waiting for his eyes to adjust to see more clearly in the dim interior.There was no sense in rushing around. He was here, now, and he had her, and therewas nothing to be gained from being too hasty.
