text: air and stubble, was right around thirty years old, tall and skinny like he didn't eat a lot of good meals. Not like me. He was wearing a blue jacket, blue jeans and had a white and blue checked shirt on under his jacket. He looked real unfriendly, everything about that fellah was unfriendly. That's why I drove on by - sure wish I hadn't now."
  
  "You have been extremely helpful Mr Vinson," you tell him firmly.
  
  > end this part of your investigation
  Your eyewitness testimony has provided some of your strongest descriptions yet of the man the papers have dubbed the Alphabet Murderer. The newspapers have not been slow to note that Michelle Maenza's remains were deposited near the town of Macedon after Carmen Colon was found near Churchville and Wanda Walkowicz near Webster. The papers are full of macabre sensationalism – the most shocking theory about the murders you read, one that chills you to your core, comes from one of the smaller publications:
  
  "Readers following this case will have already noticed the pattern of Carmen Colon being left near Churchville, Wanda Walkowicz at Webster and Michelle Maenza at Macedon, three girls and three towns with the respective initials of C, W and M. What the reader may not have noticed however is that these three initials, in that order, also stand for three other words commonly stated in that order - words that the Alphabet Killer has definitely said to all three of his young victims:
  
  Come With Me.
  
  Is this killer playing with us all?"
  
  That last article leaves you feeling sick and you think desperately about your suspects. The only one that you can possibly think of is Miguel Colon, uncle of the first victim, and you already have the address of his apartment on record. Is it worth a visit? The people of Rochester are now living in a state of terror and you have even heard that parents of children with matching initials have resorted to sending their children to out-of-state relatives. Something has to be done and the public are looking to you to do it.
  
  > Interrogate Miguel Colon
  You and Richards drive out to the small apartment where Miguel Colon lives but knocking on his apartment door produces no reply.
  
  "He gone," a neighbour tells you as he arrives home with shopping while you are still banging on the door and calling out for Colon. "Said he was going back to Puerto Rico to spend some time with his family, won't be back till spring." "When did he leave?" Richards asks, the man shrugs. "Couldn't rightly tell you. Don't see him much, keeps to himself he does. A lot of the residents on this floor do. Only reason he said anything about it at all to me is we got stuck in a broken lift a while back and had to talk about something."
  
  You thank the neighbour for his information and chat over things briefly with Richards. "I don't want to go all the way down to Puerto Rico," Richards tells you wearily. "He isn't doing any harm here if that's where he is. I say we wait and talk to him when he gets back." You nod.
  
  > consider alternative suspects
  You are still working on identifying possible suspects two months after Michelle's murder when Richards rushes into the office. "Quickly, we need to go! We've just had an emergency call. Harriet Holcomb, sixteen, reports a man tried to force her into his car at gunpoint on Beck Street, drove off when she started screaming. She was smart enough to get the number plate on the car! It belongs to a twenty-five-year-old firefighter called Dennis Termini who lives nearby. We've issued an alert to all units."
  You spring to your feet and race down to your car.
  
  Barely have you got pulled out onto the road when the radio blares into life. "All units, all units. Suspect has been sighted driving down Sanderson Street westbound with a young female passenger, possibly a hostage, in his car. Be advised, suspect is armed, repeat suspect is armed." Rubber tyres squealing and sirens blazing you speed towards the scene. You catch up with the pursuit within minutes, by this stage three squad cars are pursuing Termini's beige car down the street.
  
  As the suspect's car turns a corner suddenly the passenger door bursts open and a teenage girl rolls out onto the asphalt. Termini immediately screeches his cat to a halt and springs out of the driver's side as police cars skid to a stop all around him. You brake sharply and jump out of your car, gun in hand, just as Termini, a young man with short, black hair, plain features and a muscular build runs towards an open garage near where he stopped. "Mr Termini! Halt!" you shout.
  
  The firefighter turns in the garage's open doorway and fired three shots at you, the bullets bursting out of his big revolver like firecrackers. Car windows behind you shatter as you drop down and return fire twice with your automatic from a crouched position. Termini staggers as one of your bullets hits him in the left side of his stomach. He retreats into the garage and ducks down behind the bonnet of a black car parked inside. Armed officers run forward all around you, taking up position either side of the open garage doors.
  
  "Are you hit?" Richards asks urgently dropping to a crouch next to you. "I'm fine, I'm fine," you mutter quickly. "Close up." You both run forward and take up position with two other officers on the left side of the garage doors. "It's over Termini," another officer calls out. There is a pause, a cry of "Fuck You!" and a single gunshot followed by the sound of a body hitting the floor. Peering around the side of the door you can see Termini's head and shoulders on the ground sticking out from behind the car, lying in a spreading pool of blood on the grey concrete floor.
  
  "Suspect is down," an officer calls and you all cautiously move into the garage, guns held ready. "Who shot him?" Richards asks. "No, he shot himself," someone else replies. Termini's vitals are quickly checked and it is confirmed he is dead and that the bullet in his temple, fired at such close range there are powder burns on the right side of his head, is self-inflicted. A short way from the garage his shaken passenger, a young white girl with blond hair, is being comforted by two female officers.
  
  > talk to the girl
  You motion Richards to follow you and with your ears still ringing from the loudness of the gunshots you walk across the street to where the girl is sitting on a lawn. "Do you mind if we ask you a few questions?" you ask the girl gently. "Is he dead?" she asks indicating the garage. You glance at Richards who nods. The girl, who is not crying but looks to be in serious shock, buries her face in her hands. She is bleeding lightly from cuts to her hands, arms and legs from where she jumped out of the car.
  
  "What's your name?" Richards asks gently. "Teagan, Teagan Harmon." "How old are you Teagan?" "Sixteen." "Can you tell us what happened?" Teagan takes a deep breath. "I was walking to my friend's house when this brown car pulled up next to me. I looked over and this man was sitting in the driver's seat pointing a huge gun at my face. "Get in," he said. "Get the fuck in." I thought if I tried to run away, he'd shoot me so I, I, I got in."
  
  She takes a deep, shuddering breath. "You're doing great Teagan," you reassure her. "Can you tell us what happened next?" "Well, I thought I was going to die." She tells you candidly. "He wouldn't even look at me but kept staring straight down the road and driving quickly. I thought he was going to take me somewhere, rape me and... and kill me. Then a passing police car saw us, did a sharp u-turn, turned on its sirens and started following us. I felt so relieved!
  
  I guess you know the rest. This man, er, Termini? He drove faster, even though the policemen were shouting at him to stop. He had that big gun in his lap, I thought about making a grab for it but he must have sensed something because he glared at me, told me to "shut up and keep down" and pushed the pistol further down between his legs, barrel pointing at the seat and the er, the handle sticking straight up. More cars started chasing us. Finally, when he hadn't looked at me for a while, I threw the car door open and jumped out. I scratched my arms and legs a bit on the asphalt but I'm – I'm alright." "You're a very brave and very lucky girl Teagan," you tell her and turn to see Termini's body being carried on a stretcher into an ambulance.
  
  > accompany Termini's body to the hospital
  You follow Termini's body to the hospital where he is pronounced dead and you watch as he is wheeled into an autopsy, a simple process that confirms he received a non-lethal wound in the lower left side of the chest from your 9mm Automatic Pistol and a fatal injury in his right temple from his own .357 Magnum Revolver. Richards comes out and joins you and you both watch as a blanket is thrown over Termini's remains.
  
  "Dennis Termini, twenty-five, local firefighter" Richards tells you. "He's known to us, called The Garage Rapist. He's currently under investigation for the rape of at least fourteen teenage girls and young women in the last two years. He always approaches them in his vehicle, abducts them at gunpoint, drives them to various garages he rents around town and sexually assaults them. Hasn't killed anyone, that we know of, and always releases his victims unharmed... well... kind of; you know what I mean. He was identified recently by one of his victims who recognized him in the street and was currently out on bail while we were building a case against him."
  
  "What about the car?" you ask. "It's a brown Dodge Dart," Richards tells you. "One of our officers is driving it over here now."
  
  > investigate Termini's car
  You and Richards walk outside and investigate Termini's brown Dodge Dart when it arrives at the police station. Inside you find nothing of interest until searching the floor you find small white cat hairs on the passengers' side. "Did Termini own a cat?" you ask Richards. He looks into it for you – Termini doesn't own such an animal but Teagan Harmon, the last girl he tried to kidnap, does as do at least two of his other victims. The dates of their kidnappings, pre-date Walkowicz and Maenza's murders (but not Colon's). You consider this clue thoughtfully.
  
  > continue your investigations
  Months pass and turn into years. As time passes it slowly becomes apparent that the Alphabet Killer's reign of terror is over: he does not strike again in Rochester. You and Richards discuss the case and conclude that he has probably stopped for fear of identification: in his last killing (Maenza's) his car got a flat tyre and he probably knew he had been clearly identified by passing motorist Igor Vinson. He has probably stopped in a bid to avoid capture.
  
  You are implacably determined to identify the killer no matter how long it takes. On your desk you keep photographs of Carmen Colon, Wanda Walkowicz and Michelle Maenza so as to have a daily reminder that somewhere out there their killer remains free. Amidst all of the physical clues and eyewitness testimony the DNA sample recovered from Wanda's body remains your strongest lead: if you can identify a strong suspect you can test their DNA against the Alphabet Killer's DNA.
  
  Such a suspect emerges several years after Michelle's death. "We've had an interesting call from the Washington State Police" Richards tells you one day. "They've arrested two men, Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Bruno, for the murder of twelve women in California and Washington over the last four years or so. They kidnapped them, raped them, tortured them, killed them and dumped their bodies in the hills around LA. The press calls them the Hillside Stranglers and according to the Washington officers they've already confessed.
  
  Here's the kicker though: during the time the Alphabet Murders took place Ken Bianchi was living here in Rochester, working as an ice cream man. He drove a brown car and left the city a few years after the murders. The LAPD have already questioned Bianchi about the crimes, according to him he remembers reading about the murders at the time but denies he was involved. It might be worth looking into?"
  
  > go to Washington to interview Bianchi
  You and Richards decide to fly from New York to Los Angeles and from there drive up to Washington State Penitentiary; on the flight Richards briefs you on Bianchi's crimes. "He and Bruno, his cousin, drove around California in Bruno's car posing as police officers – they'd lure their victims inside their vehicle, drive them back to Bruno's house and force them to enter it at gunpoint. Once inside they'd tie them up, rape and strangle them. Often, they tortured them: burns, injections, electric shocks, gas poisoning, anything they could think of. These were sadistic men."
  
  Richards flicks through pages faxed to him by the LAPD. "All of their victims were older than Carmen, Wanda and Michelle. They were Yolanda Washington, nineteen, Judith Lynn Miller, fifteen, Lisa Kastin, twenty-one, Jane King, twenty-eight, Dolly Cepeda, twelve and her friend Sonja Johnson, fourteen - a double murder that one - Kristina Weckler, twenty, Lauren Wagner, eighteen, Kimberley Martin, seventeen, Cindy Lee Hudspeth, twenty and another double murder, Karen Mandic, twenty-two and Diane Wilder, twenty-seven.
  
  This went on for about four years. They were finally arrested after witnesses spotted Bianchi leaving the scene of his final murder and identified his car. He was arrested the next day and evidence at his home led them to Bruno. They've both confessed to twelve murders so far." "How old is Bianchi?" you ask Richards. "Twenty-seven. He would have been twenty to twenty-two years old at the time of the Alphabet Murders."
  
  You continue your uneasy journey to Washington State Penitentiary to interview Bianchi. You find him waiting in an interrogation room, a tall and strong-looking man with black hair and a moustache. He grins when you and Richards sit down opposite him.
  
  "So, you must be the New Yorkers?" he asks. "You boys had a nice trip? Well, you can ask me anything you want; I've got all the time in the world. It's not like I'm going anywhere." He smirks at you.
  
  > Did you commit the Alphabet Murders?
  Bianchi grins at you for a moment while he considers your question. "No, I'm not," he tells you finally and reluctantly. "Listen, it might seem to you that all we serial killers are the same but we're not. In prison, in this prison, there is nothing the other inmates hate more than a paedophile, child molester or kid killer. Do you know what they do to people who've raped and killed children in here? They do to them exactly what they did to their victims. For starters."
  
  Bianchi's smile has slipped slightly and he looks worried. "So, I strangled all those women in LA right? Ok, that's fine. Maybe not a nice thing to do but I owned up to it. Fair's fair, they were all teenagers or adults. But kid-killing? That was never something me and Angelo went in for – never had the interest in girls that way until they start getting tits on their chest and blood in their pants, right? I confessed to all that other stuff I done, I pled guilty right off – answered all the questions these yokel cops had before they even knew what they needed to ask. But I never killed any kids and you boys better believe that. I want it to be known. I want it to be clear."
  
  "Because if we said you did kill those children in Rochester your time in prison might become somewhat uncomfortable, is that right Mr Bianchi?" Richards asks. "That's about it," Bianchi says with a shrug. "To tell you the truth, I don't care much what you do. Just thought I'd help out the law is all. You surely need it – not very close to finding the Alphabet Killer are you? What are you waiting for? The right time to strike?" You stare at the smug man with disdain and loathing.
  
  > Why did you kill all those women?
  Bianchi looks astounded by your question.
  
  "Why did I kill them? For fun. For sex. For pleasure. Why do people do anything?" "You never felt pity as those girls begged for help, guilty about their deaths or remorse for the pain it inflicted on their families?" Richards asks. Bianchi considers for a moment before a slow smile creeps across his face. "You know, I enjoyed all those things you mentioned there. So did Angelo. Men like us, we're a special breed. I think they'd be more like us if they weren't so scared of the consequences of being caught. The lethal injection and imprisonment and whatnot."
  
  "You are wrong Mr Bianchi," you tell him. "You are not special or different. Your mind, and the mind of your cousin, are failing minds, defective models that cannot function normally so you get by pretending you're superior to others when really, you're just plain inferior. You couldn't be normal if you tried Ken. You don't have the basic abilities to exist in normal society which is why you never will. You're a mental defect and because of that you'll be looking at these stone walls every minute of every day for the rest of your life. I hope it is a long one."
  
  Bianchi just sits and smirks at you but for once he has nothing to say.
  
  > Can you prove you are not the Alphabet Killer?
  To your surprise Bianchi nods slowly.
  
  "I can prove I didn't kill those girls in Rochester." He tells you. "Listen, those girls were raped right? That means likely as not you got DNA of whoever did it out of them. Well, you could fill buckets with all the spunk these hillbillies have been picking out of the girls me and Angelo enjoyed. Never known anybody as interested in my bodily produce as those queers they've got working as cops down in LA. My point is, you match my DNA with the DNA of whoever killed those Rochester girls and you'll prove my innocence. Which will make a nice change."
  
  "Thankyou Mr Bianchi, that'll be all," you tell him, glad to get away from the smirking creep. You and Richards leave the room and check with Washington officers – they do indeed have Bianchi's DNA on record. With mounting excitement, you have them send a sample to Rochester to compare with the DNA recovered from Wanda Walkowicz's body. After a few weeks the news come back as a negative: Bianchi's DNA definitely is not a match with that recovered from the crime scene. It would seem you can remove the Hillside Strangler from consideration as a suspect for these particular crimes.
  
  > The search continues
  In Washington Kenneth Bianchi and his cousin Bruno are sentenced to life imprisonment for their crimes. In Rochester you and Richards continue to pursue leads in the Alphabet Murders case, determined not to let it go cold. Your diligence pays off one winter's night when a colleague phones you at your desk.
  
  "Detective, we've had a report of shots fired at the Colon household where Guillermina and Justiniano, the parents of Carmen Colon, live. Units are on their way now."
  
  You and Richards go quickly to your car and speed to the scene. A cordon has already been established by the time you arrive and officers have secured the scene. As you arrive at the apartment you can already smell the gun smoke from inside and hear the low buzz of chatter. Arriving at the door you have to step over a dead body lying on its face just inside the entrance to even get into the room. Looking down your heart jumps as you recognize the dead face of Miguel Colon lying with his eyes wide open and a bloodied mess the size of your palm in the back of his head.
  
  Miguel's former partner Guillermina is sitting on the sofa, paramedics applying bandages to a gunshot wound in her right forearm. Slumped down on the floor with his back against the sofa and in a much worse condition is Justiniano. He has been shot in the right upper thigh: his pale face is soaked in sweat and he is hissing with pain as paramedics inject painkillers into his leg. More gunshot holes are visible in the wall above the sofa.
  
  One of the attending officers comes over to you. "The Colons report they were sitting at the sofa watching TV when Miguel let himself into the apartment with his old key. They say he burst into the room drunk, shouting that Guillermina was a whore, that his brother was worthless and waving his gun around. When they tried to calm him down he just opened fire, shot Justiniano in the leg and Guillermina in her arm when she raised it to defend herself. Fired four or five shots total. After that he put the gun in his own mouth and blew his brains out."
  
  The officer closes the apartment door behind you and on the inside of the door you see a bright and dripping circular spray of blood and gore at head height. You look down at the body lying at your feet. "Can either of the witnesses be interviewed?" you ask the officer. "Mr Colon needs to be taken to hospital right away – paramedics say the bullet in his leg has likely nicked his popliteal artery and there is a chance he could bleed out if we don't move him right away. Mrs Colon is more stable but her radius has been shattered by the bullet and she is in considerable pain."
  
  > Interview Mrs Colon
  Guillermina Colon recognizes you as you squat down on the floor next to her. "Mrs Colon, can you tell me what happened?" Guillermina gives you an account closely matching that just provided by the attending officer. "Miguel was angry that Justiniano and I had got back together," she tells you. "He thought I should be with him. He was drunk and worked himself into such a rage he just started shooting. He shot himself straight after he shot me."
  
  "Mrs Colon, do you think that Miguel might have been responsible for the death of your daughter and those other two girls?" you ask her intently. "I don't know," Mrs Colon pleads. "Look Detective, the only thing I want to know in my life is who killed my Carmencita. I would give everything I have, every single thing, to know this. I want the person who did those terrible things to my little baby to be punished. Did Miguel kill her? I don't know. He always denied it – always, always. He never liked Carmen though and she didn't like him. I don't think he hated her enough to kill her but I just don't know. Please detective, I... I...."
  
  Guillermina suddenly digs the nails of both her hands deep into her forehead and gives an animalistic scream of agony and emotion. You back up startled as paramedics restrain her but Guillermina keeps sobbing, body-shaking soul-wrenching desperate howls of pain. Justiniano has already been stretchered out of the building and you and Richards follow him, casting a last glance at Miguel's dead body on the ground, his gun still clutched tightly in his hand.
  
  > follow the Colons to hospital
  You follow the Colons to the hospital where both are treated for their injuries – both recover with time. Miguel is quietly buried without ceremony, as far as you know not a single person except for a priest and a grave-digger attended his funeral. With Miguel in the ground your investigation into the Alphabet Murders continues to lose steam. Many years pass and you and Richards solve many other cases together but the pictures on your desk of the smiling Carmen, Wanda and Michelle continue to haunt your thoughts.
  
  Dr Church has long since retired but one of his successors, Dr Amiya Penn, develops a keen interest in the case. She undertakes some research of her own and comes to the conclusion that Dennis Termini, the Garage Rapist, is the most likely suspect. "He killed himself just months after the last murder and then they stopped," the young lady, who has taken to hanging around your office, tells you one day. "If he wore his firefighter's uniform, he would have looked like a sufficient authority figure to persuade the children to enter his car." "All of Termini's rape victims were aged sixteen to eighteen though Amiya," Richards tells her. "The Alphabet Murder victims don't fit his MO."
  
  Dr Penn won't be dissuaded however and one day she talks to you in private about the matter. "We still have the killer's DNA recovered from Wanda right? Well Termini was buried, not cremated. If you apply for it, we may receive permission to exhume his body in order to extract a DNA sample from his remains for comparison to the Alphabet Killer's DNA. I would need your support though for the application to have a good chance of being approved."
  
  > apply to have Termini's body tested
  You support Dr Penn in applying to have Termini's body tested. A judge approves your application and on a drizzly autumn day the man you once traded shots with is dug up. You prefer not to be present for the messier parts of this procedure but Penn extracts some DNA and runs the test. To her disappointment Termini's DNA and the DNA of the Alphabet Murderer prove not to be a match – though at least that means you can cross Termini off your list of suspects. Dr Penn goes back to re-examining the case and your own investigations continue.
  
  > Proceed
  More years pass and by now you and Richards are approaching retirement age. Dr Penn takes over most of what remains of the active part of the Alphabet Murders Investigation and one spring day rushes into your office with exciting news. "I've just heard from a colleague with the Nevada State police that they have arrested a man called Joseph Naso after finding evidence linking him to the murders of at least six women in California over a period of seventeen years. They are certain he is The Alphabet Killer."
  
  You are sceptical. "Why?"
  
  "Listen to this," Penn tells you. "His victims' names were Roxenne Roggasch, Carmen Colon (!), Shareia Patton, Sarah Shapiro, Pamela Parsons and Tracy Tafoya. RR, CC, SP, SS, PP and TT! All OF THEM were sex workers who were raped, strangled and their bodies dumped. Finally, I have checked the records: Naso was born here in Rochester and regularly visited relatives here at the time of the Alphabet Murders. He was in his late thirties then. He hasn't confessed, in fact he refuses to communicate with authorities, but his DNA has linked him to the victims as does a diary he wrote which was found at his home."
  Richards glances at you with raised eyebrows.
  
  > go to Nevada to investigate further
  You, Richards and Penn fly out to Reno where Naso is being held – on the way Penn provides further details of his crimes. "The locals call him 'Crazy Joe'. His first victim Roxanne Roggasch was eighteen, Carmen Colon, who has precisely the same name as the first victim of the Alphabet Killer, was twenty-two, Shareia Patton was fifty-six, Sarah Shapiro was thirty-three, Pamela Parsons was thirty-eight and Tracy Tafoya was thirty-one. His first victim was killed four years after Michelle Maenza's death and his last one was killed seventeen years ago. He probably stopped because of his age, Naso is nearly eighty now, though in good health."
  
  You take on board all this information and at the prison in Reno arrange an interview with Naso. It turns out to be a waste of time: the tough old man sitting facing you, bald except for wisps of white hair, completely refuses to talk to you even when you explain it would be in his best interests to do so; he just stares at you with unfriendly eyes. Eventually, getting nowhere, you end the interview and Reno officers allow you to examine Naso's diary detailing his crimes.
  
  "We were able to identify his victims through his diary entries, he also describes killing four other women whose identities we haven't been able to confirm yet," one officer tells you. "DNA evidence recovered from Roggasch, Colon, Parsons and Tafoya have matched Naso's DNA – in the cases of Patton and Shapiro Naso's diary describing where he buried their bodies is the only thing that we have that identifies him as their killer. He's refusing to communicate with us at all."
  
  Penn nudges you. "We could request a copy of Naso's DNA to compare with the Alphabet Killer's DNA recovered from Wanda's body," she whispers to you.
  
  > ask for a DNA comparison
  You ask for a copy of Naso's DNA to compare to the Alphabet Killer's DNA. The Reno police are happy to help and Penn runs the tests. You are all disappointed when it is confirmed that Naso is definitely not the Alphabet Killer you are looking for, though apparently he is a seperate Alphabet Killer in Nevada. Disappointed you return to Rochester and resume your investigation with dwindling hopes.
  
  > Finale
  The years fade. Naso is found guilty of his alphabet murders in Nevada: he receives the death penalty and winds up on death row. Richards retires, Penn moves onto other things. As your own retirement date approaches you begin to take things slower.
  Then, one night shortly before your retirement, you have the most vivid nightmare of your entire life.
  
  Three young girls, Carmen, Wanda and Michelle, stand in a line facing you. Carmen's long black hair rustles as she drops to her knees and begins praying. Wanda shakes her short red hair as she sits at a table and begins filling in a colouring book. Michelle plays with her brown ponytails and just looks at you. "It's my birthday tomorrow," she tells you brightly. "I got a good report card today in school. My mummy left her purse in the shops this morning, I'm going to get it and bring it back to her. She'll be so happy."
  
  All three children look up and smile at you, Carmen with a brilliant white grin, Wanda with a happy laugh and Michelle with an awkward, shy half-grin.
  
  Suddenly the grins vanish from their faces
  
  There is a flash of lightning, rain pours down and the whole scene changes. Carmen is lying sprawled on the ground, her muddied hair covering her face. Wanda is curled up on her side, eyes closed as though sleeping. Michelle is face down, tears on her face and mud clutched in her clenched hands. You hear men laughing behind you. Drawing your gaze away from the sight of the children's bodies you turn to see five men walking towards you in a long line.
  
  On the left is James Barber, tall and stocky he is walking with his eyes shut, clutching his chest tight with both hands. Next to him is the tall, dark-haired and muscular Dennis Termini. You can see the bullet wound in the left side of his lower chest where you shot him and the hole in the side of his head where he shot himself. He is holding his big Magnum pistol in his right hand. Miguel Colon is next to him, tall, slim and dark. He also holds a pistol in his right hand and when he turns his head you see the shattered mass of blood and brains in the back of it.
  
  Standing slightly off from the other three and looking fresher are Kenneth Bianchi and Joe Naso. Bianchi, tall, strong and dark-haired grins at you and laughs. "It was so fun," he calls out to you. Shuffling along next to him is Joe Naso, silent but tough despite his age. All five of them, the dead and the living close in on you, grinning and laughing. You step back again and again but stop suddenly, sensing the children are standing just behind you.
  
  "I got to go," Carmen whispers in your ear. "I got to go."
  
  > wake in a cold sweat
  Chief of Rochester City Police Tracey Beil looks up as you step into her office on the day of your retirement.
  
  "I can tell you the name of the Alphabet Killer," you announce.
  
  The Chief raises an eyebrow and waits as you nervously clear your throat.
  
  Whose name do you say?
  
  > James Barber
  "James Barber," you declare.
  
  "James Barber was dead at the time the last two murders occurred," Beil tells you gently. "Detective, you have served this community for many years. I think it is time that you enjoy your well-earned retirement."
  
  After all this time and effort, you feel you have let Carmen, Wanda and Michelle down.
  
  You know that even after you retire the victims of the Alphabet Killer will haunt you to your grave.