Stutter Creek Read Online Free PDF Page B

Water House Bar & Grill.
    Amanda had agreed to meet him at the mall. Kurt knew she was being cautious, insisting on meeting in a public place. But that was okay. She seemed to be somewhat smitten.
    There was only one thing. She would be looking for someone tall and lanky, with streaky, sun-bleached hair and glasses. She would be looking for the “businessman” he had met in prison. The one who would agree to anything if it involved free drugs, which is exactly how Kurt had convinced him to hand over the password to his dating profile.
    When the man she was expecting didn’t show up for their rendezvous, Mandy had simply headed back to the dorm. Kurt suspected she had soothed her injured self-esteem with a pint of ice cream the way Sherry used to do when she got mad or wasted.
    He wondered if she had gone straight in and deleted the dating site that had caused her to humiliate herself by sitting alone in the mall food court for almost an hour, waiting for Mr. Wonderful. He hoped that she had. It would just be that much harder for the police to trace later. But again, he didn’t care. By the time they got that far in their investigation, he planned to be hundreds of miles away.
    In the food court, Kurt had sat at a different table, watching her closely. She’d been easy to pick out of the crowd. She’d done exactly what he’d asked her to do when they had agreed to meet. Just like a little sheep, he thought. Or a lamb to the slaughter. And who would have believed her photo looked exactly like it should have? It wasn’t made up to look better the way some girls did when posting on those sites.
    He’d had no problem following her back to her car, and then to the dorm. No one noticed a short, scruffy-looking guy on a college campus. He certainly wasn’t the tall, blond businessman Mandy had been looking for.
    That evening, when she’d left for work, he’d followed her then, too. It had only taken a few days to get a handle on her routine. Then it was easy to find a deserted spot to station Danny. Just for fun, he’d even gone into The Water House Bar & Grill and requested her section. Being that close to someone he planned to kill was the most exciting thing he’d ever done. Not that it was the first time he’d taken someone’s life; it was more exciting this time because he was still in the planning stage. There was definitely something to be said for anticipation. Besides, for once, he’d been stone cold sober.
    Kurt couldn’t believe how easy it was to find the girls to put on his five-year list. Yep, finding them was the easy part. But he didn’t get them all through the dating site. That would make connecting the dots way too easy for the cops. Instead, he also checked out Facebook. Lots of girls actually had their work places listed right on their profiles. That’s where he had found his first victim, Sherylyn. Amanda was victim number two.
    Kurt felt as if he had been invited to a smorgasbord each time he logged on to his friend’s computer. A lot had changed in the few short years since he’d gone to prison. And he hadn’t even visited Craigslist yet. But he planned to, one of these days.
    So far, it had all been very simple. Once he knew where his target worked, all Kurt had to do was watch them for a few days to learn their routines. And the rest, as they say, would become history.
    Of course, while he was waiting to carry out his plan—finding the girls and watching them—he had to have cash. But there were so many ways to make money if one wasn’t afraid of getting his hands dirty.
     
    His needs were very simple: cash for food, cigarettes, and drugs. He could get all three by trading favors on the street. He’d never been averse to trading sex for drugs, in fact, that was one area where his wiry build, ice blue eyes, and high cheekbones served him well. Certain types of men would automatically assume he was for sale just because he was somewhat delicate looking. Often, they found out the hard