The phone call had come from Keith's new chief. Now that Mark was wanted in the entire state, all surrounding departments were also informed of any updates and were helping Metro City catch him.
So Keith really hadn't gotten away from it.
Abby grabbed her shirt and put it back on, wrapping her arms around her torso. Keith sat back down, taking a deep breath.
"He said to turn on the news," Keith told her. "If you don't want me to turn it on, I won't."
Abby shook her head. "No, it's okay. We can watch."
Keith nodded, then grabbed the remote and turned the TV on.
Once he got to the correct channel, he set the remote back on the coffee table and sat forward, watching intently.
"... A terrifying trap that left one young woman dead..."
Abby only half listened to the news, the other half of her attention going to Keith. She kept glancing at him, guilt over what she'd just done but unsure if she should actually feel that way. On one hand, she still was leaning toward not staying with Mark because he killed three people. On the other hand, his last conversation with her had shown that he still did care about her.
She knew it was crazy, but she still didn't want to hurt him. She still loved him.
Mark's face flashing across the tv screen brought her back into present time. Her stomach dropped. Every time she saw him she felt sadness.
"... if you see or hear anything about Mark Hoffman, please contact authorities immediately."
Before she knew it, Keith had turned the TV off. He sat back, putting his hands on either side of his head and groaning.
"God..."
Abby looked at him, tears stinging her eyes. She'd sobered up quickly after seeing Mark's face.
"Are you okay?" Keith asked, sitting up and meeting her eyes.
Abby shrugged, not knowing what to say. "I don't know." She managed to hold her tears back.
Keith looked down. "I'm sorry for... you know..."
"No, don't be," Abby immediately replied. "I started it."
"Still, I could have declined." Keith shook his head, glancing back up at her. "I'm sorry."
Abby sighed. "Please don't be. We both wanted it."
There was an awkward silence as they both sat there, unsure of how to proceed. Abby wiped a stray tear away and took a deep breath. They met eyes, then, as if reading each other's minds, they both laughed.
"I certainly didn't expect that to happen," Keith said, his cheeks flushed from embarrassment. Abby ran a hand through her hair and grinned.
"Me neither. I don't know what came over me."
"Well," Keith started, standing up to grab his shirt. "While it was very enjoyable, I understand if it doesn't happen again. If you want we can just forget that it ever happened."
Abby watched him button his shirt back up. She was torn, but she knew that right now, she just couldn't do it. She loved Mark. She had to get some sort of closure before she made a decision.
"I need to get past this," Abby said. "But for now, it's best that we just not go any further."
Keith nodded. "Understood."
Abby stood, looking up at Keith. "I'm really sorry."
"Don't be. Things happen."
She stood up on her tip toes and gave him a soft peck on the cheek. "Thank you for helping me. It really does mean a lot."
She heard his breath catch, could feel his body heat. It made her want more still, but she refrained.
"Thank you for helping me too."
Abby backed up, then broke the tension with a smile. "I'm going to go take a shower. Thank you for relieving some of my stress."
"Right back at you," Keith said. "You have a good night."
"You too."
They parted ways, Keith heading to his bedroom and Abby to the bathroom.
Once she closed the door, she leaned up against it and took deep breaths.
Mark was going to contact her soon.
__________________
The following Monday...
Tonight was the night.
Hoffman was setting up the trap at Pete's Auto Body. He'd waited until after dark, making sure all of the employees were gone. He'd already kidnapped the four people involved in the trap and was putting them in their places.
He poured super glue on Evan's back and leaned him back against the seat of the truck. He cut around the glue, so the skin would peel off more easily. Evan moved, but Hoffman placed a rag with chloroform on his mouth so he didn't wake up. Part of him--a big part-- wanted all four of them to die. They were pigs, racists who made people's lives miserable.
Mark was a lot of things, but he couldn't stand people like them.
Giving Evan 30 seconds to peel the entirety of his back skin off was next to impossible, so hopefully things went the way Hoffman wanted them to.
He placed the young blond woman under the lifted back tire, then put another man against the garage door. The hardest one was the man that would be chained behind the truck. He had to hook a ring into his jaw and both arms, which made him slightly queasy. He'd done it to another man a while back, one of Amanda's inescapable traps.
Part of him almost missed working with the others. Taking all of this on on his own was extremely difficult.
As he hooked up the last man, he heard distant sirens. "Shit," he hissed to himself. Mark quickly disappeared through a secret door that led to a surveillance room. The employees hadn't found the room. Mark had tapped into the cameras around the auto shop and the department to keep an eye on things.
There were a lot of aspects to his plan that could go wrong, but if everything worked it would be the end of it. He was headed over to the building where the support group was being held next to take Bobby Dagen and his wife, along with his lawyer and publicist.
Once this trap went off, he assumed someone living nearby would call 9-1-1 for a loud noise, which would draw most of the police away from the department.
Hoffman waited until the sirens went away, then hurried back to the garage. He made sure everyone was secure in their chaines, then placed the cassette tape into the truck's cassette slot. He made his way back to the room, where he could watch the game on the security cameras.
He sat there, thinking over his plan, watching as Evan woke up and began to assess his situation. He didn't do so calmly. The others had begun waking up as well.
Hoffman watched the game intently, watched Evan rip his skin off as he struggled to reach the lever that would set them all free. He could hear the screaming from the garage in real time, which made it all the more interesting. Hoffman got a bit nervous for a moment, thinking Evan was actually going to be able to do it, but in the end he failed.
The truck fell on the girl's head, the tire immediately crushing it and turning it into mush. As the truck moved forward, the man behind it got his jaw and arms torn off in an instant. Hoffman almost had to look away. The other man got hit by the truck, then it crashed into another car and Evan sailed through the windshield.
He had to hurry.
Hoffman set the bear trap Jill had so lovingly used on him in the bathroom next to the garage. Taking some blood from the man whose arms were about a hundred feet away from the rest of his body, he wrote on the mirror "GIBSON, SEE FOR YOURSELF."
They were protecting Jill, but he was sure this would ruffle their feathers a bit.
Checking the time, Hoffman quickly made his way to his car. The support group was most likely just starting.
Making sure to take a back road, he drove to the event center where the group was being held. He parked in the back of the parking lot, away from the streetlights.
His heart stopped when he saw Abby's car.
It brought him back down to earth for a moment. The past two months had felt like an eternity. He would hopefully be seeing her tonight, if she agreed to meeting up with him.
Mark didn't know she was coming to this group.
A sudden pang of guilt as he thought about it. Did she hate him? Did she blame him for everything?
Was he doing the right thing?
What if he just texted her and they ran? Did he really have to kill Jill to finish everything?
Yes. I do.
Hoffman felt sudden rage as he thought about her. She shouldn't be able to get away with it.
He waited the thirty minutes before people started leaving. He took a deep breath when he saw Lawrence Gordon. Gordon was talking to the two men that were in the love triangle trap. They were all huddled close for a moment, then parted ways, headed to their cars.
Odd.
When he saw Abby come out of the double doors, he felt an overwhelming admiration and sadness toward her.
He loved her.
It would hurt him to lose her for good. She stopped to text someone, then adjusted her purse strap on her shoulder and made her way to her car. He watched her, wanting to cry but not being able to.
John took her away from him. So did Jill.
Hoffman frowned.
In a few short hours, he could be talking to Abby for the first time in two months.
1 HOUR BEFORE BOBBY DAGEN'S TEST