Page 14 of Secrets in the Dark
They headed out. Mason’s phone was ringing; it was Gene. He was ready when they were and as soon as air traffic control gave them the clearance.
“Seriously, we’re damned lucky. We can make it back to the airport in another thirty minutes, another thirty for clearance from the tower, and in five or six hours, we’ll hit the ground,” Mason said.
“Well, you know, land safely and deplane,” Della said dryly.
“With awesome speed!” Edmund said. He was looking at his phone.
The sound of his voice changed. “Ah, bloody hell!” he exclaimed.
“What?” Della asked.
“They’ve gotten another note. The newspaper received it—I guess our guy doesn’t feel that he should dare take a chance with sharing this on his own, he wants to send things to the paper just like the original. This one is...a dilly. So bad that...”
He handed his phone to Della.
She looked down at the message he had received and read aloud.
“Jack is back, this time no hack,
there are so many he adores, but seriously, bloke, they are all just whores.
He will clean the streets, no matter the coppers on the beats,
for Jack is back and he’s got the knack!”
“Hoax—or the real killer?” Della asked softly.
“This time, the real killer, I believe. He thinks he’s a great poet,” Mason murmured. He offered them a grimace. “It’s going to be up to us and our team and every law enforcement officer out there to teach him that he’ll have plenty of time behind bars to become thekillerking of poets.”
“But he does have something the originalJackdidn’t have,” Della said, frowning. “Social media. He will consider himself greater for that alone, for the terror he invokes. And he’s basically stated that all women are whores, so...”
“Social media, something he has. Phenomenal forensic teams across the world, something we have. Della, we are going to get this guy,” Mason promised. “There’s the airport—we’re already on our way. Oh, and something else he didn’t count on.”
“What’s that?” Della asked him.
“Us,” Mason said flatly, and Edmund nodded seriously in agreement.
They weredamnedlucky with the private plane Adam Harrison had provided for them. Flying across the “pond” was easy. They could sleep.
Edmund and Della did sleep.
Mason couldn’t.
He’d stopped blaming himself for letting the man they’d seen escape. He believed that Della’s instincts had kicked in and they had probably stopped him from killing that night.
But he’d found another victim. And if they didn’t get him fast, he’d find more.
“Hey!”
Della had been sleeping in the back but she came up and slid into the seat next to him.
“Hey,” he said quietly.
“You haven’t slept at all,” she admonished.
“I’ve dozed right here.” He smiled. “I never knew such luxurious accommodations before—I learned to just doze in a chair when the need arose.”
“You’re not a good liar. Mason, you must get it through your head thatyoudidn’t lose a suspect. We were worried about the young woman and... Mason! You at least thought to go after him.”
