She stood near the leathercouch looking over everything, trying to figure out what it wasabout the place that seemed serene despite the drab surroundingswhen it struck her that everything was as white and pure as thefreshly driven snow. Perhaps that’s what his home was to him - aplace where all the ugliness of the world melted away into thebackground; a place of pure calmness. She could sympathize withwanting a place to hide away from everyone and everything. Sheoften wished she had that kind of place to call her own.

Moving around the livingroom and kitchen, she found nothing out of the ordinary and nothingnoteworthy or revealing of the real man behind the mask of Mr.Black.

When she entered hisbedroom, she touched the bed and brought a pillow to her nose.Inhaling deeply, her knees weakened. Victor. She laid the pillow backdown and felt a rush of blood heat her cheeks. She had reprimandedVictor for his creepy stalking habits and she was no better bybreaking into his house and smelling his belongings like some kindof fatal attraction.

Feeling ashamed of herself,she turned to walk out when she noticed a photo of herself on hisnightstand next to a radio. She picked up the Polaroid picture,unfamiliar with it. When had it been taken? She probably should’vebeen freaked out by finding this, but she wasn’t. He was keepingher near to him while he slept and though she hated to admit it,she found it oddly romantic.

She turned on the radio butonly silence could be heard. She pushed several buttons and thesame dead air came crackling through the speakers. It was a curiousthing, but not one she could figure out.

She laid the photo backdown exactly as she had found it and walked out of the bedroom anddown the hall to his office. She flicked on the light and knewimmediately this was the place his secrets would be found. Unlikethe rest of the house, it looked lived in. There were papersscattered on the desk with hand-written notes, half-open files, andthe fragrance … it was there just like everywhere else, but moreprevalent. This is where Victor Laurenzo, aka Mr. Black, spent histime.

She seated herself at hisdesk and leaned back into the large, leather chair, wondering whatit felt like to be Master of His Domain and Ruler of His Universe.What she wouldn’t give to live in his skin for just one day… toknow what went on in that dark mind of his… to feel theintoxication of dominating another human beingcompletely…

She spun the chair aroundand around until her stomach did a flip-flop and her vision becameblurry. She planted her feet and steadied herself, ready to delveinto Mr. Black’s world. She opened the first drawer to her left andwas taken aback when a handgun came into view. Hesitantly, shetouched the smooth, cold, black metal but didn’t dare pick it up.She swiftly closed the drawer and moved on to the next. Fourdrawers later, she was faced with a large, typed manuscript tiedoff with twill.

The cover page read:A Case Study in Behavior Modification andCharacter Development by Laurenzo Black.

Elsa’s nerves prickled.This was it. His journal typed out. A loud ringing in her earsdrowned everything out as she reached for the pages. This was thekey to all Victor’s secrets. Did she really want to know the manshe was falling for? Could she handle everything she was about tocome face-to-face with? Probably not, but she couldn’t leavewithout knowing everything even though she knew the rules of thegame would change forever once she did.

Whether they would changefor better or worse, she wouldn’t know until everything had playedout.

14: Details

Victor threw himself ontothe hotel bed, mentally worn out. He had helped follow up onseveral dead-end leads that day and his nerves were raw. There werestill several to dig into and he hated that he wouldn’t be able tospend time with Eight over the weekend. If he was lucky, he mightbe able to steal away for a visit on Sunday… maybe. He closed hiseyes and drifted in and out of sleep with the sound of trafficdrifting in through the open balcony door.

He could really use acigarette. He sat upright and reached for his briefcase andretrieved a piece of nicotine gum. It was a lame replacement, buthis smoking was strictly a weekend/stalking kind ofthing.

He kicked his shoes off anddecided to call Virginia State Penitentiary. He needed to speakwith Anthony and he was tired of waiting. After several minutes ofbeing put on hold, Ant’s raspy voice rang out on the other end ofthe line.

“Get your guy, yet?” heasked.

“We’re getting close,”Victor lied but got right to the point. “Do you have anything toadd or any insight?”

“Sure do, but first I wantto talk about Chapter Eight. How’s that piece ass panning out foryou?”

Victor sighedirritably. Fucking AnthonyBruce. “It’s going fine. Answer myquestion.”

“You first. And I want thetruth this time.”

He gritted his teeth. Ittook a liar to know one. “She’s a handful.”

“Nice. Does she like itrough?”

“Don’t they all?” Victorblurted, already tired of Ant’s games.

Anthony chuckled and Victorcould hear the condescension in his tone. “Seven didn’t. Neitherdid Three and Four. Or have you forgotten, already? Hell, come tothink of it, I think only two of them Chapters of yours liked toplay hard.”

‘Come to think of it,’ his ass.Victor knew damned well that Ant had committed to memory everysingle fucking detail of each and every one of hisChapters.

“I want details, AgentLaurenzo and since I know you’re out of town and can’t drop offyour notes, tell ‘em to me. Since I already know how Eight smells,tell me how she tastes,” he laughed a little tooheartily.

Why the hell had hecontacted Anthony? His disgusting laugh turned Victor’s stomach.Pissed at himself for having called the manipulative fuck, heblared into the phone. “Listen here, you self-righteous, asshole,people are dying over here. I’m sick of your bullshit games so getthis through that sociopathic head of yours: I’m not telling youanything more about any of my Chapters until you give me what Iwant. End. Of. Story.”

Victor was seething and thesilence on the other end only made matters worse.Fuck this shit.He reached for the hotel’s phone receiver to end the call when heheard Ant grumble.

“Fine. You win.This round,” hespat out contemptuously.

It was always somethingwith this guy, but Victor didn’t care. He was happy to have won around period. “Talk,” he ordered.

“I’ve been watching newsand this guy is playing with you. It wouldn’t surprise me if someof those leads were planted by the killer himself. In hindsight, Ishould’ve done the same damned thing. Maybe I could’ve stayed outthere a longer if I had. Anyway… his mistake was that he knew thosegirls. At least I had the common fuckin’ sense to pick my victimsrandomly. Go with your gut and not with what everyone is leadingyou to believe.”

Victor’s interest waspiqued. As usual, Anthony knew more than he was letting on and thesick fucker had an uncanny way of reading him. He shook his head.God, he hated Anthony Bruce and everything about him, but he wasright. Victor had sensed all along that the murders were somehowconnected. The detectives involved had nixed the idea from thebeginning, but Victor’s gut instinct was telling himotherwise.

“How do you know all that?”he asked Ant.

“Killer’s intuition,” helaughed perversely. “As for Eight… now it’s your turn totalk.”

Victor shuffled the phonebetween his hands before finally responding. “She doesn’t know whento shut her mouth and…” he paused, but he could hear Ant’sbreathing quicken. “She’s too curious for my taste.”

“You gotta watch out forthose interferin’ bitches, they’ll get you into trouble everyfuckin’ time. You gotta put her in her place before things get outof hand.”

Victor rolled his eyes. Heseriously wasn’t going to take relationship advice from a knownserial killer. “Well I can’t kill her, Ant, if that’s what you’resuggesting. My game has rules, unlike yours,” he sniped.