Page 20 of Whisper

I glance at Stealth before I dig a card out of my wallet and hand it to the older kid. He seems to be a leader of sorts. “If he shows up again, can you call me?”

“With what, man? A bat phone?”

All the kids snicker and I feel like an ass forgetting they don’t have access to something I take for granted.

“Sorry.”

“Why do you want to find him? Are you gonna hurt him? ’Cause we don’t want that.”

“No, not at all. That’s not our goal. We just want to find out if there’s something we can help with. We’re on your side too.”

The kid studies me with suspicious eyes, but then he must find whatever he was looking for, as he nods. “There was this other guy. I don’t know his name, but he was looking for someone a few minutes before all this went down.”

I tilt my head slightly, detecting the lie somewhere in his sentence. The kid shuffles his weight between his feet as he speaks, avoiding my eyes and fidgeting with the hem of his t-shirt.

“Can you describe him?”

The kid shrugs. “Just a regular guy. Nothing stands out.”

“Young, old, brown hair, blond?” Stealth asks. “Got anything?”

“Um…” He shakes his head. “It was dark.”

“Was he driving?” Stealth asks.

“Yeah.” The kid pretends to be thinking, but I’m already onto him. He’s giving us just enough but not everything. “It was just a regular car. Black or maybe dark blue. Maybe it was green. Like I said, it was dark and there aren’t any streetlights around here.”

“Come on, Stealth,” I say before nodding to the kids. “Thanks for the info.”

As we walk off, I’m even more convinced than I was. “It’s a serial killer, right?”

Stealth nods. “Yep and he’s going after a very specific demographic.”

“I mean, I’m not mad about it. It’s about time the hunters became the hunted.”

“Agreed.”

“I’m so fucking curious though. What kind of guy wakes up one day and is like, ‘Fuck it, I’m going out and killing predators.’ He’s messy too. He leaves the bodies out where everyone can see them. He leaves witnesses.”

“He’s not that messy. Those kids couldn’t describe him.”

“Nah, that older kid knows who it is, or at least could give us more details. He’s protecting him.”

“Yeah? I didn’t pick up on that.”

“It was subtle, but that’s my jam. I notice the little things.”

“You sure do. I’ll update the chat.”

“Cool.”

I head back to my van, my mind twisting with possibilities. Maybe it’s someone with a vendetta against specific people. Or I guess it could be what Stealth said; a former victim intent on revenge. It does seem personal.

So now the question is how would I begin to find them? I’m always a few steps behind whoever it is, arriving when there’s already a body.

I don’t even know why I care. It’s not like there aren’t plenty of murders every day in a city like this. This guy probably isn’t even the only serial killer. He’s just the only one on my radar.

As soon as I’m on the road again, I forget about the vigilante as my thoughts shift to Blush. I wonder what he’s doing right now. I know he’s not at Segreto—I drove by earlier and his car wasn’t there. How does he spend his time off? What’s his life like, and why do I even care? This is nothing but a hookup. A damn good one, but still.