A Dallas Suite

Chapter Thirty One

I hung up and looked at the pictures. It was him, clear as day. He was wearing the same outfit he had on at the station, literally minutes before the kill. Then McGreary emailed the video. I watched it four times and couldn't believe it.

Jeff was there, in the parking lot with Richards. He didn't try to hide his actions at all; he walked directly up to him from across the parking lot. Knife in hand. Stephens just stood there and stared at him. More than likely shocked from the sheer absurdity of what he was looking at.

In one fluid motion, Jeff grabbed the stunned man by the back of his head and ran his knife across his throat. He tilted the head down to not get blood on him, then stabbed Stephens six times in his stomach while he gently guided him to the ground.

I couldn't believe it. One of the most gruesome murders imaginable committed right there in public view. If anyone saw that they would have been scarred for life. But no one did, somehow. It was a sporadic kill. There's no way Jeff planned to kill him there in the parking lot in view of the entire world. He was more than likely going to follow him from the parking lot to somewhere more secluded. But he snapped. He couldn't help himself and that was the scary part.

I worked with Green Berets for years. They were intelligent, hard working and some of the most lethal killers around. If they wanted you dead, you could almost guarantee that you'd end up dead. Jeff, in a moment of giving in to temptation, solidified that. Less than ten seconds passed between the time he grabbed Stephens to the time he was walking away from a corpse lying in a puddle of blood. His form and aggression was sophisticated beyond anything you could learn from a class. You had to train and dedicate yourself for years to be able to kill like he just did.

The worst part, he looked directly at the camera and smiled before stepping out of view. He loved it. And he loved knowing I'd see that. It takes a lot to creep me out, but seeing that overly confident smile sent chills up my spine.

The only good thing about this video; I could stop trying to figure out a suspect. I had my offender and more evidence than I would ever need to put him behind bars. I feared the hard part was just about to begin, though. I knew my killer, now I just had to catch him.