Read Online Killing Spree by Kevin O'Brien - Free Book Online Page B

had disappeared. She’d been teaching that class, and Jennifer Gilderhoff had been one of her students. It had been such an awful time to find herself suddenly alone. A series of homicides had plagued the campus where she’d taught her night class. The victims had been students at the college, and their age didn’t matter to the killer—as long as they were women. The predator had made the campus his hunting grounds—as well as his dumping site. He’d left their bodies in various locations in and around the college. It baffled police, and spread terror throughout the area. He’d dressed his victims—grown women, all of them—in Catholic schoolgirl uniforms: a white blouse, madras kilt, knee socks, and saddle shoes. By the second murder, people were already calling him The Schoolgirl Killer. For several weeks, every woman at that community college had feared for her life.
    “You look like your mind is about a million miles away,” she heard Ruth remark.
    Suddenly, Gillian was aware of her friend standing beside her—in front of the café. She felt the light, misty rain on her face. “I was thinking back to two years ago—and everything that happened, including the Schoolgirl Murders. I remember before Barry left, I thought I was getting an ulcer. I had this constant feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach. And it wouldn’t go away, not for a few months. It was like—evil all around me.” She shrugged. “I know it sounds crazy.”
    “You were going through a lot back then, hon,” Ruth replied, patting her shoulder. “But you’ve survived. And they caught the Schoolgirl Killer. That case is closed. Maybe it’s time to make a decision about your AWOL husband and close the book on that too. Screw the past and all the stuff that happened two years ago. Get on with your life, Gill.” Ruth nudged her. “Y’know, we’re standing here in the rain. Do you want a lift home?”
    “No, thanks, I’m fine,” Gillian said. “I can walk home. It’s only a few blocks. Thanks, Ruth.”
    The two women hugged good-bye on the street corner. Gillian watched Ruth start toward her car. She hadn’t told her friend about something else that had happened last night. She hadn’t told her that the knots in the pit of her stomach had come back.
     
     
    The automatic light over the cellar door went on as he crept around the back of Gillian’s duplex. At one o’clock in the afternoon, it shouldn’t have been noticeable, but the skies had turned dark within the last few minutes. A silent, gentle rain came down. The ravine behind the gray cedar-shaked house remained oddly still.
    Gillian wasn’t home. He’d watched her step out an hour ago.
    He skulked past the kitchen window toward the garbage cans and the recycling bin. He wanted to know what her kid had thrown away last night—and why he’d been so secretive about it.
    The two large aluminum garbage cans stood between the kitchen window and Gillian’s rosebushes. He opened the lid to the first, and dug out a couple of lawn bags full of yard waste. This wasn’t it. He tried the next can—and found a big, garbage-filled Hefty bag. It stank. But beneath it lay a small, black plastic bag—resting on top of some loose debris. The kid had taped shut the bag’s opening.
    He pulled at the plastic until the bag ripped. It felt like some loose papers. He reached inside, but then quickly pulled out his hand. His fingertips were smudged with black soot. The kid had burned something—and obviously gone to a lot of trouble hiding what was left of it.
    Reaching inside the bag again, he pulled out a half-burnt scrap of paper. It looked like part of a magazine article.
    Suddenly, he heard footsteps—someone climbing the steps to the front porch. “Shit,” he murmured. Tucking the plastic bag under his arm, he crept around toward the front of the duplex. He hovered near the side of the house, and peeked around the corner. He couldn’t see Gillian, but he recognized the back