“There’s nothing in the world like the feeling of putting a bitch out of her misery.” Hunter said as soon as he walked into the interview room. The inmate who was sitting shackled to the metal table didn’t even flinch. He was a big guy, with a hard body and a blond buzz cut. His skin looked like he had waged a long, hard battle against acne and lost. His nostrils were too wide and his eyes were too close together. In the looks department this poor guy had come in last, which was probably why he worked so hard on his body. If he was a woman, he’d be what men referred to as a “double-bagger.” He’d need a paper sack over his head and the person doing him would need one too, just in case his broke. Hunter wasn’t normally so judgmental about looks, but he hadn’t liked this guy as soon as he heard he killed his sister, and he was already sure the ugliness wasn’t only skin deep. Hunter did know one thing about the man, however, that he hoped would penetrate the invisible armor the man seemed to be surrounded by. He didn’t flinch at Hunter’s abrupt entry, or harsh words. Like a good soldier, he sat with his dull-brown eyes focused on the wall in front of him and his back ramrod straight. “Is that your quote, Jon, or did you borrow it from a friend?” The man still didn’t say a word. “My name is Hunter Donovan. I’m a bounty hunter and I’m not here about your case. I know you’re waiting on an appeal. I’m not here to get in the way of that. I’m looking for the man that killed my brother. That quote was that man’s signature, but that was never released to the press. So, Jon, tell me where I can find the guy you heard it from and I’ll walk out of here and let you get on with trying to straighten out your own life.”

Jon finally looked at Hunter. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, so you can walk out now and stop wasting both of our time.”

Hunter sighed. “Okay, I’ll enlighten you. Your former cellmate heard you talking in your sleep about killing women, Jon. He asked you about it and that’s what you said to him. He was paroling when he told the P.O. about this, he’s got nothing to gain by lying about it. I’ve got no desire to complicate your appeal, either, Jon. I really don’t give a damn what you dream about.” That part wasn’t true. It made Hunter sick to his stomach. He had a hard time believing an innocent man would dream about things like that and then try and laugh it off with a disgusting quote when confronted about it. But it wouldn’t behoove him to let this guy know how sick he made Hunter. “This is not about your case at all. It’s not about trying to bring new charges against you. There’s a man out there killing women, a man that killed my brother too, and all I want is for you to tell me where to look for him.”

“Again, you’re wasting my time. Why should I care about something that is only about you and has nothing to do with me?”

Narcissist. “I was hoping you might want to clear your conscience.” Hunter tried with a half-smile. He wondered if this man had any conscience, or even a soul for that matter. His eyes were empty, completely devoid of emotion. Hunter wondered if he lost both, the day he killed his sister…or if the army had taken some of it out of him. Jon didn’t respond so Hunter asked, “What do you want, Jon? What will it take for you to help me?”

“A new trial.”

Hunter almost laughed again even though the man said it with a totally straight face. “I can’t do that. I told you, I’m a bounty hunter. I don’t work for the cops or the courts. The best I could do is put a word in for you…”

“But yet you were so sure if I knew this guy, there wouldn’t be any new charges filed against me. We’re finished here,” Jon said, looking at the wall again.

“Jon, I read your case file. I believe you killed your sister by accident and then you panicked. I don’t believe you were working with a serial killer. But you have to know him. That saying…that’s his signature…”

“You said that already. Maybe it was my cellie that said it and he’s just trying to put it off on me, you ever think about that? You’re just gonna take the word of a fucking rat?”

“No, Jon. If you tell me honestly that you don’t know this guy…”

“You haven’t even given me his name.”

“That’s because I was hoping you’d tell me who you heard that saying from.”

“Fuck that. I could have heard it anywhere.”

“His name is Robert Potter.”

“Don’t know him. You can go now.”

“Jon…”

“We’re finished here.”

“I’m not.” Hunter opened the file that he’d brought with him. It was information about Jon that he’d compiled over the past two weeks since Chris told him what the cellie reported. Jon didn’t look down at it and he didn’t look at Hunter. He kept his eyes on the wall in front of him as Hunter said, “You joined the army two weeks after your sister went missing. You became a Green Beret. Did you do that to punish yourself for what you did to her?” Hunter believed the man/boy had strangled his sister, hid the body, and then joined the army in an attempt to not get caught. But the bounty hunter was willing to say just about anything that would help him find his brother’s killer and get a serial killer off the streets. Jon didn’t answer him, so he went on. “You served your country, you grew up and became a good man…and now they want to punish you for a mistake you made seventeen years ago. Believe me, I feel for you, man. If I could get you out of here, I would. You have no idea how much respect I have for what you’ve done with your life. Look, maybe if you help me out and we get this killer off the streets, they’d be willing to help you out in return.”

“Maybe isn’t good enough. If I knew anything, I’d want a guarantee before I said anything.”

“I wish I could give you a guarantee, Jon, but you have to know that I can’t. I feel for you, brother. I feel for you because my brother, Brett…he was a Ranger too…Special Ops. You may have even crossed paths—Brett Donovan. He might have been one of your brothers too…”

“I’m telling you, this is a waste of time,” Jon said. “I don’t give a fuck who you are, or who your brother is or was. I didn’t know him. If I met him, he made no impression on me. That part of my life was a long time ago. I’ve done my best to forget it. All I care about now…and I mean all I care about…is my freedom. I’m not stupid enough to sit here and let you manipulate me. You may as well go, now.”

“Yeah, my brother didn’t like to talk about it either. I can’t imagine what it must have been like. Brett joined up when he was nineteen and went off to Fort Sill, Oklahoma. You were there too, weren’t you, Jon, at Fort Sill? You weren’t there the same years as Brett, but you went through the same training and the same selection for Special Forces. You became a Green Beret.” Jon still showed no other emotion than annoyance, but Hunter kept pushing. “You guys, the Army Special Forces soldiers, you’re some pretty special dudes. While the Navy SEALs are getting so much attention for being ‘elite,’ you guys are flying under the radar and going places where the SEALs never dreamed of going. I’ve heard you guys referred to as the Army’s ‘quiet professionals,’ and that description sure did fit my brother. But man, was he smart. I’m guessing you have to be a pretty damned smart guy to be a Green Beret too. Brett, he learned two new languages in a year. And then he was sent somewhere where they spoke those languages and spent almost three years completely incommunicado. We had no idea where he was, and sometimes even if he was alive or dead during those years. It was so hard on my mother…Did yours have a hard time with it too?” Hunter knew that Jon’s mother had testified against him at his trial…but not willingly. She’d been a hostile witness for the prosecution. She either didn’t want to believe that one of her children had killed the other, or she was in denial, simply because he was all she had left.

The sound of the man’s voice almost startled Hunter as Jon snapped out, “Why are you still here? All I hear is the sound of your voice saying, ‘Blah, blah, blah.’ You haven’t said a word that interests me. Guard!” he yelled out. “Guard! We’re done here!” He claimed Hunter’s words didn’t interest him, but something had suddenly provoked him.

“Your poor mother. She’s been through a lot, hasn’t she? Mine too. First, my brother being gone for so long without a word…and then, he came home safe and ended up dead anyways. Your mom lost a kid too…and now it’s like she lost two of them…”

“Guard! I’m fucking done here!”

Hunter pretended to be reading the file in front of him and then he said, “Wow, your mom testified against you, didn’t she? I’m not sure how you get past that. She’s the one that ruined your alibi for the day your sister went missing…isn’t she? That would be hard…”

“Fuck you,” Jon whispered in a hostile tone. That only egged Hunter on. He was definitely hitting a nerve.

“Come to think of it, your track record with women isn’t good all the way around, is it? Mom testified against you, and I think I read somewhere that while you were in the army, you were disciplined twice for sexual harassment.”

“That was bullshit.”

“Had to piss you off, especially if those women were lying…”

“Bitches. Lying bitches.” Jon was getting worked up. His face was turning red and the veins on his neck were distended. Hunter might think this guy was the killer if he hadn’t seen the other one for himself. Jon definitely had a problem with women.

“You know what else I read? You were in jail when they got around to testing that DNA they found on your sister against yours, weren’t you? What was it you were in jail for then?”

“Guard! We’re done! Get me fucking out of here!”

Hunter acted like he didn’t hear him. He stood up and started pacing along the wall as he went on, “Oh, I remember. You were engaged when you went into the army, to your high school sweetheart. She stood by you when your sister went missing, didn’t she? I bet she was so sad when you left for Oklahoma for your training. I guess it’s lucky that she didn’t break up with you then…but when you signed up for the Special Forces and got sent to North Carolina, to Fort Bragg for thirteen weeks, that did push her over the edge, didn’t it, Jon? Was that before or after you told her your training was fifty-two weeks total and then you’d be going overseas somewhere and disappearing for weeks, months, or even years at a time?”

“Fucking bitch didn’t need to be pushed anywhere. She was already unstable,” Jon growled.

“I still bet it had to hurt when you heard that she married another guy you’d both gone to high school with. I mean, it had to hurt bad, since you were still seething over it enough years later to look her up when you got out…”

“I just went to talk to her.”

“I’m sure you did, Jon. But she made it hard for you, didn’t she? She filed a restraining order on you and then had you arrested twice for violating it. Of course the fight you had with her husband was what you were doing time for when they charged you with your sister’s murder, wasn’t it?”

“What the fuck do you expect to get out of this history lesson?” Jon asked Hunter, looking him in the eye again. His brown eyes had emotion in them now, mostly anger, but it was something Hunter could work with.