Nadia felt bad that she was chasing her sister out of the house, but she had to speak with Mr. A. All night she had tossed and turned thinking of questions to ask him, wondering what he was doing and what he was like in person. She knew she acquired obsessions easily, and she was trying to not develop one now, but it was hard to maintain composure. Everything about this situation drew her in and made her want to keep on with the investigation.
Turning on the laptop, she watched the screen load while drinking her morning coffee. Anabella had left promptly at seven this morning, so she had the whole day to speak to Mr. A. She pulled up the website, logged into the forum, and went to their thread. There was a morning picture waiting on her. He had contacted her first! She quickly downloaded the photo and uploaded it into her software. She pressed the button and waited for her new message to arrive.
Ms. Maverick,
I thought I would hear from you again today, did I scare you off? Pity if it did.
I have a question for you Ms. Maverick, as I’ve now done some research on you and the things that you have done in your past. Tell me, do you feel it is safe to speak with me given your recent run in with the court system and the trouble you have gotten in on other stories?
Mr. A
Nadia felt confusion while she read this latest message. Was the idea of him losing a ‘fan’ sad for him, or was he perhaps toying with her and trying to bait her? It was probably the latter. She wasn’t stupid. He didn’t do anything for the fans; he did it because it was what made him happy. She found a picture of a white cat from Google and uploaded it into the encryption software. She started typing and her keystrokes seemed to flow easier than ever.
Mr. A,
I’m sorry to have disappointed you last night, but I had family over, and we insisted on some girl time, so I put my laptop away. You have not scared me away, yet. So far I am intrigued at your thought process. I wish there was a way we could meet in person, then I could ask you all of the questions I possess much more easily.
To answer your question, I do feel safe speaking with you. When you sent your initial email correspondence it was to a public email address at my work, and you enclosed the instructions, so anyone else could be reading this forum, so it’s not likely you are going to share anything with me that people don’t already know or you don’t want them to know. It also gives me a sense of relief, knowing what’s been said between us can be monitored by others.
But I don’t think you are a danger to me. I’m not perfect, and I have made mistakes, but I have not done anything to warrant an execution. That is who you go after, people who do wrong. Which begs the question, what did Ramon do to warrant a visit from you?
Your Curious Cat,
Nadia
She uploaded the encrypted picture onto the forum and pressed send. She felt bold and accomplished. The time stamp on his upload was five forty-five a.m. She found that odd. Did he know what time she woke up every morning? Was he watching her?
Chills ran over her body as if it enjoyed the idea of someone watching her.
Snap out of it Nadia, he’s still a murderer. Don’t make this more than it is.
She saw the notification light turn red. He’d responded. To respond so quickly he must have been waiting for her to post. She clicked on the notification link and their thread pulled up. She saw a picture of Triple T again. This time it was of him lying on her pillow overnight.
He had been here.
Was he showing her this to ensure she was scared of him? Because if that was the case it was working. She didn’t like knowing a stranger was able to get that close to her house, her bedroom, undetected. Nadia downloaded the picture and uploaded it into her encryption software. She opened his message, and to her dislike, she smiled.
My Curious Cat,
Do remember that curiosity killed the cat. I would hate to see you leave, especially when I am just getting to know you. Face to face correspondence would not be acceptable; I don’t allow any women to get that close to me. I know you know where this photo came from. I wanted to make sure you know how vulnerable you are still, even with that new security system.
Ramon’s death was not by my hand. You will note, as the police should have discovered, that it was not my MO. I did witness who killed him, though, and he did deserve to perish. He set some man up to take the fall for a crime he committed. The man just died in prison from a gang fight during lunch a few weeks back. Ramon had promised to turn himself in or we would do it for him. But the man died before he could be free, so someone set balance back in order.
Speaking of order, while I am not sorry for what happened to your friend, as I previously stated, none of us are truly innocent. I am sorry that it happened in your home and now you’re in danger and fear. I am working to fix that situation.
I have errands to run today, Ms. Maverick, so I will speak with you later. Try to stay out of trouble.
Mr. A
P.S. Your back door is unlocked.
Nadia’s eyes instantly turned to her back door when she read the last line, and it was, in fact, unlocked. He was watching her. He was watching her right now. She rushed to the back door and locked it. She knew it would do no good if Mr. A had wanted to enter the house. She thought the picture of Triple T had been taken with a telescoping lens; could he have a lens pointed at her back door, or could he be inside the alarm system of the house somehow? That was probably it; he was in her system. He had to have good computer skills to break into the places that he had in order to kill all his victims. This didn’t provide her with any comfort. In fact, this terrified her. She closed the computer, moved away from the desk, and went to sit on her couch. Suddenly she felt very naked. Naked and exposed.