Before I wake

3.

That got a little burst of laughter from him, followed by a reluctant smile. He reached inside his jacket and pulled out a small folder with an airline logo.

"Ticket.' He slapped the packet on the table. " Your flight leaves in two days."

Be there, or be square.

Ten-four, Eleanor.

" Don't worry, we are not on the same flight. I'm taking off tomarrow morning."

"You bought a ticket without consaulting me?" She wasn't somebody they could push around. she wasn't the kind of person to come running at the snap of someone's fingers. That was one thing she knew about herself. " You're assuming a lot."

"Look at it this way. You cab come back, or you can keep hitting on Strange men and eventuelly end up a statistic. The choice seems obviouse."

"Don't you get it? Were all statistics."

"Some just sooner than others."

"Do you work in Behavioral Science?"

"Its called NCAVC now, remember? National Center for Analysis of Violent Crime."

She could smell him again.

The odor of secret things locked up in storage. Boxes of paperback novels that had grown moldy from the dampness. A leather ball glove. Incense and half-burned candles. Faded jeans and flannel shirts.

Someone else's past.

His past, not hers.

She wanted to go back to fifteen minutes ago.

Erase and rewind.

She wanted to forget this conversation had ever taken place. They would go to bed together. He would kiss her. Hold her. Pull her away from the edge.

"French was executed," The man suddenly announced.

"I know." Was he trying to shake her? "The whole country knows."

"Did you watch it?"

She wanted to lie in order to stop the direction of the conversation, but she had the idea he already knew the truth. "Yes." Some people said that seeing the killer die never brought closure, but shed felt felt relief when french had taken his last breath. the man who killed her parents no longer existed. Maybe now he would get out her head.

He nodded."Thought you would."

She didn't want to. but she could not not watch it.

"Something interesting happend a week later," he said casually.

"Oh?"

"A murder." He paused."Of a rural family in northeast Oaklahoma. Killed with French MO."

She looked up sharply."Copycat? Someone carrying on his

work."