Free Blood Red Sundown: Evil Begins by Allen Gates Page A

if they
have pumpkin! Do you understand?” Her mind was saying yes, but her taste buds were
saying, “You love pumpkin pie.”
    “I’ll have the house salad and the dressing on the side.
Hold the roll. I’m going to have a piece of pumpkin pie.”
    There goes the new bikini for another two weeks, she
thought as she asked for whipped cream on top. Taking the tray, she walked to a
table near the windows. It’s such a beautiful day; I wonder if William, will be
there tonight. Listen to me! I called him William, like I know him.
    She looked around for a friendly face and caught the
eyes of the orderly. He smiled and continued to look at her as he ate. It’s all
coincidence, she told herself. You’re going to run into men like him when you work
in the same setting like a hospital. He really has done nothing wrong; still, it
gives me the creeps when I keep running into him.
    Across the room, as he stared at her he knew he liked
what he saw. He could feel her uneasiness even from that distance. I can change
that, he thought. She just needs to get to know me.

25
    THE QUESTIONING OF the
senator seemed strange to Lon. Somehow the senator appeared overly accommodating
in laying out his reasons for any situation they threw at him. He became very emotional,
and at one point Lon drew an angry response out of him when they informed him of
Marie’s erotic emails they had pulled up on her computer.
    Later in the car, Lon questioned his outburst as merely
acting out a response he thought we would expect. Anne, of course, still giving
him the benefit of doubt felt he appeared sincere.
    “You have a hang up on this guy, Lon. We have nothing
that ties him to this killing or anything else illegal. I’m aware that most of the
time if there is a spouse involved, they immediately become the main suspect, but
I don’t see it in this instance.”
    Lon only grunted to show his disagreement but then agreed
to her request to back off a little in his attitude toward the senator. As he made
the agreement he crossed his fingers and turned away so that Anne would not see
his smile.
    “What’s our next move, Lon?”
    “We have no choice but to review the victim’s files,
once again, to check every name connected in any way to each of them, where and
when they were selected, and then we’ll recheck them again. There has to be a clue
about this guy in one of them that we’re missing. I hate to say it, Anne, but I
feel our killer has waited long enough and could be in the process of selecting
a new victim. By the way single lady keep that in mind when you’re out running around
at night.”
    “I do not run around as you put it, I’ll have you know.
That’s what most married people like you call it. I’m a single woman free to be
who I am; and you’re jealous.”
    Lon laughed at her and said, “Okay, I give let’s get
started. Grab the Radford file and we'll work back from Marie to the first victim.”

26
    AFTER CHECKING HER log
and adding the necessary comments on her final patient, Stephanie was ready to call
it a day. The night nurse, just coming on, called to her and said there was a note
for her on the desk. It was a folded sheet of hospital paper.
    “Have a nice night, Doc.” Len
    She felt a chill and knew immediately who Len was. Throwing
it in the waste basket, she walked quickly to the side exit of the hospital. She
was excited at the prospect of heading home and meeting her new fantasy guy on the
beach at sunset. Getting dressed in her bathing suit and arriving there ahead of
him, was her plan.
    Leaning on the front door of his car, Len watched her
walk out, enter her car, and drive away. He sat in the driver’s seat and pulled
out of the parking lot staying well behind her.

27
    THE FILE OF every victim
had been reviewed and documented with every pertinent bit of information ascertained
placed on the clue board. It had been a long and stressful day for Lon who had internalized
much sadness as he viewed each photo of the