The First Victim by JB Lynn

to come to Pennsylvania? I need your help.”
    If Black was alarmed or surprised by the request he didn’t indicate it. “Kind of a strange request, don’t you think, Sheriff? Or is it Deputy?”
    Bailey ignored the dig. He knew why he’d given up his career with the FBI. He didn’t give a crap about what Sebastian thought of him. “I think The Baby Doll Strangler’s in my town.”
     
     
    The panic was spreading like wildfire, and the arsonist was pleased. It always started like this when the first girl’s body was discovered. Law Enforcement running around, wringing their hands ineffectually. Parents in a panic. A town in trouble. Rumors and the winds of fate conspired to fuel the fire until everyone was consumed by it.
    Waiting until the worry crested and began to abate a bit, and then taking another girl, was the trick to getting the fear to come roaring back to life. It was just another part of the game.
    Pleasure was taken in controlling the girl, hearing her cries, feeling her trembling, delighting in her pain, but inflicting mass hysteria on a sleepy town had its own rewards. When the terror became palpable, when the paranoia was rampant, it was like there was another victim trapped in the lair.
    News of Jackie Willet’s death had traveled fast. As usual, much of the buzz was false. Reports were already circling that it was the work of Satan Worshippers, that her body had been chopped into thirteen pieces and that Emily Wright had only found her head, and that a bunch of teenage girls in town had formed a suicide pact and that Jackie was just the first to die.
    Most of the school buses at Lakeside Acres High began their afternoon rounds less than half-full even though all after-school activities had been cancelled. He watched as parents shepherded their children from the building to their cars. He had to restrain himself from laughing. The fools were suffering from the delusion that they could protect their precious brats.
    Their eyes darted furtively, left and right, as they scurried through the puddles left by the earlier storm. He could tell that some of them were already viewing their neighbors differently than they had that morning, wondering if this one or that one was a threat.
    A lot of them glanced the way of Emily Wright, who leaned against her father’s SUV, sunglasses hiding her eyes, even though the day was still overcast. Some regarded her with curiosity, others with pity, and some with outright hostility as though they sensed she was to blame for this mess.
    And she was, even if she didn’t yet know it.
    He’d waited to play with her for so long. All these years of waiting. So much time spent wanting to make her into his perfect doll. But the time had never been right. So he’d had to satisfy himself with inferior models. Still, he enjoyed his time with them.
    He reached into his pocket to fondle the lock of Jackie Willet’s hair he had hidden there. He closed his eyes for a moment, recalling how soft she’d been. He remembered her breathlessly begging for mercy, but none had been granted. He imagined it was Emily crying out in agony, and he smiled.
    He opened his eyes just in time to see Laurie Wright fall into her sister’s arms, sobbing. Anna, her weird friend with the funny hair and all the piercings, stood close by. He could see that Emily was talking to her while she patted Laurie’s back. The three of them climbed into the SUV and drove away.
    He watched them go.
    He let them go.
    This time.

Chapter 11
     
    “I heard you found her.”
    Emily sat in the hospital coffee shop, listlessly stirring a faux cappuccino while her sister visited Dear Old Dad. Facing the hospital’s main entrance she’d spotted Evan Swann the moment he walked in. She slouched down in her seat, hoping he wouldn’t see her. It had been a draining day. She really wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone.
    No such luck.
    He slid into the seat opposite her. “I heard you found Jackie Willet.”
    “Bad news