The Perfect Prey by James Andrus Page B

making the tiny hairs on her arm stand on end. She’d searched for a long time for someone just like him. It’d taken a while for her to learn exactly what she was supposed to look for, but he had it. The most obvious thing was his looks and athletic ability, but there was something deeper–or nothing deeper, depending on how you look at. He had a cocky, self-confident manner that was difficult to fake. He really did feel as if he was the king of Jacksonville and she was just one of his subjects. She knew that was the perfect attitude.
    She had to do something to make up for her last effort to find a man. Billy was his name, and he was a little young at the time, fifteen, but he had a tight, muscular body and a sweet face. She’d taken him to the same empty house and done things the young man had never imagined possible. But in the end he hadn’t handled it well and his immaturity came through. It turned out to be embarrassing, with a lot of crying and begging.
    She hadn’t liked the role of older, more experienced lover. She liked this role of bookworm much better. It was almost as if she was an actress in a role, wearing her reading glasses even if she didn’t need them, putting her hair up in a ponytail. She just liked the idea of being someone she really wasn’t. She liked hiding her muscular arms and covering her washboard abs under heavy clothing only to surprise someone later. Shedoubted she’d surprise him much because the first time he saw her she was at the beach, but it was still a fun façade. Sweet, smart, and safe.
    She was pretty confident she’d lulled him into a false sense of security and his expectations were low. He’d be in for the surprise of his life once he knew the real her.
    Suddenly she was so excited her lungs couldn’t keep up with the oxygen her body needed.
    This was gonna be one wild, fun night.
    Since her marriage had broken up and the life she loved had completely ceased to exist, Yvonne Zuni had viewed the detectives who worked for her as her family. Sometimes family members clicked and laughed and all was well. Sometimes family members fought. She knew enough about the history of crimes/persons to know that Tony Mazzetti was the star homicide investigator and viewed John Stallings as a threat. This was something that could be a problem or something she might be able to use for motivation.
    At times like this, all alone in her three-bedroom house, in the evening, she sometimes felt a panic at facing the long night alone and being so many hours from going back to the office. She remembered when her evenings were busy with feedings and cleaning, sharing a TV show or quiet conversation with her husband. Back then she had considered giving up her career to spend more time with her family. She really had it all.
    She looked down at the roasted chicken she picked at while she read over a few reports, making corrections and suggestions in the margins. Her TV had not been on for anything other than the local news in at least three months, and the house seemed unnaturally quietwith the thick carpet and insulated walls. A sliding glass door allowed the cool night air into the house, but there was no sound from outside.
    It was in this silence that the sound of her phone beeping made her jump. She grabbed it off the table in front of her.
    “Sergeant Zuni.”
    “Sarge, we got a shooting near the stadium.”
    It was a JSO dispatcher.
    The sergeant said, “Who’s rolling?”
    “Mazzetti and Hogrebe.”
    “Good. Tell them I’m on my way.”
    She closed the phone and smiled. At least she could avoid spending this night alone.
    “This is an old sorority house?”
    She nodded from the front seat of his Jeep.
    “Isn’t it kinda far from the UNF campus?”
    She hesitated, then said, “The sorority had to draw from other local schools too, like the University of Jacksonville.”
    “I thought sororities and fraternities all came from the same school.”
    She just shrugged those cute