Aidan tried to sit up all too quickly—the pain sliced through his head, forcing him to groan and lay back down.
“You’re okay, buddy,” Shaun assured him. He put a large hand on Aidan's shoulder. “Just stay down. A bus is on the way. We’ll get you fixed up.”
“What about you? He attacked you.”
Aidan looked at him through his eyelashes and saw Shaun glance toward his arm. “The offender tased me. Hurt like a mother. But I’ll be fine.”
“Did we manage—?”
“Smoke bombs. He got away through all the confusion,” Douglas told me. “Agent Hensley cornered him but froze when the offender held the gun to his head.”
“Is he—” Aidan muttered.
“Naw, he's a tough cookie. Other than the knot on the side of his head, he'll be fine.”
“Did he get a good look at him?”
“Couldn't see with all the smoke.”
Aidan tried to sit up again. Shaun attempted to prevent him from rising, but when he insisted he was fine, Shaun helped him to his feet.
Aidan realized he was going to get an earful from Cheyenne later when she found out he managed to get himself injured in the line of duty on his day off.
But he was glad he was still alive for her to yell at him.
Aidan's ears perked to the sounds of sirens blaring outside, announcing the arrival of the ambulance and backup.
His eyes scanned the cellar.
Now that the lights were on, and the smoke had subsided, he saw the large blue tarp in the middle of the floor. The majority was splattered in a dark red stain. The offender left behind several containers of duct tape and fishing wires. The bloodied tire iron rested against the dresser.
With Douglas' assistance, Aidan followed Shaun up the stairs so the EMTs wouldn’t disturb the crime scene.
Douglas lowered Aidan to the chair sitting against the wall. Shaun kept a hand over his shoulder where he was tased. Aidan guessed he was still feeling the tingle.
Douglas was cussing out Agent Hensley for failing to apprehend the offender, while Shaun was trying to calm him. Though Aidan was just as upset, it wasn't directed at the agent. He was sure Douglas felt the same way. He only needed to blow some steam.
Aidan hoped the agent realized that. He wasn't familiar with him. Hensley looked to be in his early twenties. He frowned as he released several shaky apologies. He made a mental note to commend him after the excitement died down.
Aidan watched, his mind reeling, as the crime scene unit went down below to begin processing the scene while the emergency medical technician checked him out.
They were right that Thomas Blake’s house was the offender’s home base. The question now was who was Ron?
The EMT wanted Aidan to go to the hospital for a complete check-up, but Aidan assured him he was fine. All he wanted to do was go home.
Frowning, the EMT went ahead and wrapped Aidan's knee tightly in a bandage. He was then ordered to go home, ice his knee and try to stay off it as much as he could.
So that was what he did.
42
After his near confrontation with the FBI, he went home to finish putting up the decorations for Jamie’s eighth birthday party later in the evening.
Though she had turned eight a few days ago, they had chosen today for her party as a way to stretch her special day to last just a little bit longer. Plus, it was a better time for her best friend, Alice, to attend.
“She has to be able to come,” Jamie had told her parents.
Who could refuse that?
Now, with everything party-ready, he grabbed two beers from the refrigerator and joined his wife in the living room.
She was watching the latest development of the FBI’s search for The Carnations Killer.
The search for him.
He handed her a bottle and sat on the couch, wrapping an arm around her slender shoulders.
“This is so awful,” she muttered. She set her beer on the table. “They almost caught him, too. But he got away. We’re just not safe anymore, are we?”
He squeezed her shoulders and kissed her cheek.
“I promise nothing will happen to you, babe.”
She gazed at him and offered a weak smile.
“I just feel sorry for the victims’ families. I can’t imagine what they’re going through.”
“It is terrible.” He kept his voice soft. He’d mastered compassion over the years, and his lovely wife was fooled. She believed he took these cases to heart.
She’d always remained in the dark about his secret hobby. It never even occurred to her the man she slept next to was the same man everybody was talking about.
The same man everyone, her included, feared.
It was only a matter of being sure that she stayed fooled. They’d known each other for almost eleven years. All she knew was his good side. They went to church most Sundays and even volunteered at the soup kitchen during Christmastime.
Sure, they had arguments—every couple does, don’t they?
He never wanted to have to kill her, but he’d do it if the situation called for it. Then he’d make himself be just another face on the news to lose his beautiful young blonde wife to a crazed serial killer.
He smiled at her and stroked her cheek.
“I love you,” he said. “Very much.”
“I know.” She leaned in and kissed him. He cupped his hands underneath her chin and brought her deeper in the moment.
“Eww!”
He looked to see Jamie appearing in the room holding her new purple stuffed bear. She hadn’t let go of the stupid thing since the day he bought it for her.
“Eww?” he echoed. “Don’t tell me ‘eww.’ The Daddy Monster’s going to
