PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 | PART 6 | PART 7

“Ma’am? Did you hear me? What is your relationship with the victim?”

Kaidence blinked. The officer had asked her to follow him to the local precinct to answer a few questions. She was usually more careful about choosing a victim, spending months watching to see if he was an ideal “candidate.” The last one wasn’t. Even as she watched the light dim in his eyes, she knew he wasn’t like the others. The moment she killed him she regretted it. But the police would never find him. They never do.

“I wouldn’t call it a relationship, Detective,” Kaidence answered.

Despite her current situation, she found herself mildly attracted to Michael Brass. Her eyes trailed his square jaw line down to his Adam’s apple that bobbed as he talked. With crystal clear blue eyes and sandy blonde hair, he was far too handsome to be intimidating. But he was smart. He would probably find out the truth about her. Or, at the very least, charm her into confessing.

“What would you call it then?”

Kaidence crossed her long brown legs and the detective glanced a second too long.

“He offered to buy me a drink; I accepted. We chatted for a bit. And when I left, he escorted me to my car before getting in his own. I haven’t seen him since.”

Detective Brass smiled. “Now we both know that’s not the truth.”

Detective Michael Brass had spent the last three weeks researching Kaidence Reece. She was beautiful, sexy, smart… She was also very cold. He had learned that every business trip she’d taken in the last three years correlated to a missing individual. There were unsolved cases in Chicago, Los Angeles, even in Mobile, Alabama. He wondered how many of the local missing persons cases she was connected to. He watch her carefully. If Ms. Reece was worried, she didn’t let it show. Her beautiful charcoal eyes remained level with his own.

He decided to up the ante. The detective removed a photo from an envelope and slid it towards Kaidence. She glanced down and saw a fuzzy image of her and Bruce taken from what looked like a sidewalk security camera. Now this was a problem. Kaidence looked back at Mike Brass and smiled.

“Like I said before, he escorted me to my car.”

Mike leaned forward. “Answer me this: why park nine miles from a bar with a parking lot and secure garage across the street? Were you hoping to burn some extra calories, Kaidence? May I call you Kaidence?”

Before she could speak, he continued, “Or would you prefer Mya?”  The detective saw the tiny twitch in her eye. He knew he had her. Checkmate