FORBIDDEN
TEMPTATION
Deleted
Scene
In
the case of this deleted scene from my second book, my editor thought I
needed to cut any villain POV scene I thought I could do without. So this
one bit the dust. But I still think it offers some interesting insights
about the villain, who is a pretty scary guy.
He'd been
killing for years now, over several cities in several states. Changing his
own patterns subtly, in different ways in different places. Escaping
detection. Random murders in random places.
Until now. In Birmingham, he'd killed three women in the same
neighborhood, something he almost never did. Maybe it was a risk; after
all, it had brought Daniel Hartman to town, with his theories and his
dogged determination.
But he wasn't worried. He got a kick out of watching all the the big name
profilers--Douglas, Hazelwood, Ressler and their bombastic
brethren--pretend to know what the hell they were talking about. They were
guessers, pure and simple. Some were better at it than others, but in the
end, they were just smart guys who now and then got lucky.
Daniel Hartman, with his PhD and his New York Times bestsellers, was just
like them. Just another guy overreaching, thinking he could stop the
killings.
Wasn't going to happen.
He shrugged on his jacket and grabbed his car keys from the dresser. It
was too early to take his next victim. Less than a week. The headshrinkers
would say he was "escalating."
Let them. He knew what he was doing was right.
Rose had shown him the way.
Copyright
© 2006 by Paula Graves
