Page 12 of Devil Inside: Green

“Who doesn’t love Chinese food?”

“Nobody I want to be around,” I reply, getting out of the car, but I have to reach in the back seat to get my bag with the atlas and other papers we’ll need to track him again. Green drops his hand to the small of my back as we walk up to the glass door. It’s so automatic that I don’t think he realizes he’s done it. Unfortunately, as I’m finding out with all things Green, my body is all too aware of his closeness and that hand.

That just makes me want to punch him. I won’t, but man, do I want to.

Green leads us to a booth in the back. I spread out the papers while he looks at a menu. “Sweet and sour chicken, and lo mein,” I tell him and I hear his low chuckle.

“Anything else?”

“Hot tea, please.”

As the waiter shows up to take our order, I go over what we know. “Okay… for his return trip, he started in Texas, then drove to Louisiana, up into Arkansas, over to Oklahoma, then crossed into Missouri. Now we know he killed in Kentucky.”

The waiter side-eyes me. “Are you talking about that psychopath?” he asks. Not much taller than me, he has great hair with bangs that fall in a natural feather that emo kids would’ve paid big bucks to achieve. He’s wearing a uniform of a black T-shirt with the restaurant’s logo on the front and black pants.

“I am.”

“You some of those internet sleuths who try to solve crimes when the police can’t?”

“Something like that,” Green answers.

He looks like he wants to get in on the conversation, but I can’t tell whether or not he’s going to. So I give it to him—the real reason Green and I are on this mission. “My mother and his girlfriend were both killed by that psychopath. It needs to stop. The police haven’t been able to find him, so we’re hunting him, too.”

That seems to be what he needed to hear. “My brother works at the casino. A woman, a guest staying at the hotel was reported missing two days ago by her friends. They were meeting for a girls’ weekend. He told me the woman was last seen talking with a man at the bar while she ate her food. She finished, then got up to go play the slots. Boom!” He claps his hands together. “Gone.”

“Did your brother give a description of the man?” I ask, cautiously hopeful that we might have just caught a break.

“No,” he says and my hope bubble pops. “But—” But? Please let it be good… “He’s friends with the bartender working that night. I’ll call him to see if he can get you in to talk with her.”

“What’s your name?” I ask.

“Ken, why?”

“Because Ken…” I could almost cry, I’m so excited. “I’m naming my firstborn child after you.”

Green laughs at me while shaking his head.

“You still eating?” Ken asks.

“Yeah. We’re still eating. Sweet and sour chicken, beef and broccoli, two orders of lo mein, and that jasmine tea.”

Ken nods, turning to head for the kitchen.

“That was a risk, telling him our reason for being here.”

I flip my hand in the air. “He looked like he wanted to say something but needed the right impetus to tell us what he knew. Internet sleuths are a good reason, but two people who lost loved ones are better.”

“You read people well.”

“I worked a call center. Reading people was basically part of my job.”

“Right. So where were we before story hour?”

“He’s either heading down into Tennessee or cutting across Kentucky, driving into West Virginia to hit North Carolina. Because if he hits Tennessee, it’ll be over east.”

“Because he doesn’t want to be too close to his last kill sight.”

“Right. But look.” I point to the last kill spot in North Carolina. I have the date written underneath each circle. “It’s been a while since he hit North Carolina. Again, I could be wrong, but if it were me, I’d go where they wouldn’t expect me to go. Given Kentucky borders Tennessee, I feel like they’ll expect him to hit there next.”

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