The Night Stalker

Sixty-Two

It was one of those Los Angeles spring mornings that made people happy to be alive. Crisp blue skies, gentle winds, and temperatures not higher than twenty-two degrees Celsius. People just couldn’t help but smile. It was on days like these that every detective in the force wished the LAPD issued unmarked convertibles. In the absence of those, Garcia’s Honda Civic would do. At least it had air conditioning, something that Hunter’s ancient Buick didn’t.

On their way to Century City and the A & E TV network studios, Garcia came level with a scarlet red convertible BMW with its top down. A short-haired brunette with her eyebrows plucked to the thinnest of lines had her head resting on the driver’s shoulder. He was a brawny man with a bullet head polished to shine, wearing a gym vest that looked two sizes too small for his frame. Hunter observed them for a minute. The woman seemed completely loved up. She brushed her fingers through her hair casually, and for an instant she reminded him of Anna, Garcia’s wife.

‘Would you ever hurt Anna?’ Hunter asked, suddenly turning to face Garcia.

The question was so surprising and out of character that Garcia had to do a double take and almost swerved. ‘What?’

‘Would you ever physically hurt Anna?’

‘That’s what I thought I heard you say. What the hell, Robert? Is that question for real?’

A few seconds went by. If Hunter was joking, he wasn’t giving anything away.

‘I guess that means no, then,’ Hunter said.

‘It means hell no. Why would I ever hurt Anna? Physically or any other way?’

Garcia had met Anna Preston in high school. She was a sweet girl with an unusual beauty. Garcia fell in love almost immediately. It took him ten months to gather the courage to ask her out though. They started dating during their sophomore year and Garcia proposed straight after their graduation. Hunter didn’t know of a couple whose love for and dedication to each other matched theirs.

‘No matter what happened, no matter what she did,’ Hunter pressed, ‘you wouldn’t hurt her, in any way?’

The confusion stamped across Garcia’s face intensified. ‘Have you lost your mind? Listen to me. No matter what she does, no matter what she says, no matter what anything — I would never hurt Anna. She’s everything to me. Without her, I don’t exist. Now what in the world are you trying to say, Robert?’

‘Why?’ Hunter’s voice sounded even. ‘Why wouldn’t you ever hurt her? No matter what she did. . or said. . or anything. .’

Garcia had been Hunter’s partner for almost four years, since he had joined the RHD. He knew Hunter wasn’t a conventional detective. He could figure things out faster than anyone Garcia had ever met. Most of the time, no one even understood how he did it until he explained, and then it all seemed so simple. Hunter listened a lot more than he spoke. When he did speak, not everything he said made sense at first, but in the end, everything always slotted into place like a jigsaw puzzle. But sometimes Garcia had to admit Hunter seemed to inhabit a different dimension to everyone on this planet. This was one of those times.

‘Because I love her.’ Unconsciously, Garcia’s words came out coated in tenderness. ‘More than anyone or anything in this world.’

‘Exactly.’ A smile stretched across Hunter’s lips. ‘And, I think, so does our killer.’