“I know what you did, Allison Winn!” He shouted between gasps for air. “You killed two people in cold blood and left them to be gnawed on by alley rats!” He kept trying to do something, but Allison couldn’t quite figure out what. She just made sure she kept her eye on the syringe. She didn’t know what it held but knew not to let him get too close. Without even breathing heavily, she countered, “And I know that you killed Vanessa Peterson. You murdered a beautiful, young woman. I can only imagine it was because she wouldn’t have you. She was too good for anyone like you!” Allison shot her fist into his solar plexus, and the blow sent him to his knees. Allison looked on him with contempt as he struggled for breath. “How could you ever think she’d love someone like you? You are nothing. You are beneath me, and you were certainly beneath her.” Allison flung her hair back from her face, stretched slightly, then bent to retrieve her backpack all while keeping him in sight. He suddenly began to laugh. A chuckle at first, then a full belly laugh. Using the counter, he pulled himself to his feet, then steadied himself against it. His baritone guffaw made the dark room suddenly feel crowded, thought Allison.

“You think Vanessa loves you!” He managed between bursts of laughter. “Vanessa doesn’t have a lesbian bone in her body!”

Allison shook her head. “You don’t know her. You never knew her, you fool! Didn’t it ever occur to you that that was why she rejected you? Men, you’re all alike. You think every woman wants you. Especially if she’s beautiful.” Allison was incensed. Here was the man who ended Vanessa’s life and tried to end hers. Her mind told her to just leave. But she felt compelled to shame Phillips, this pathetic man dressed in black like some middle-aged, washed out, pretend ninja with nothing more than a syringe of poison. “One day, you’ll pay for murdering her. You—”

“Me! I murdered her because I was driven by passion. You, you wouldn’t know passion if it screwed you up the face!” He noticed the slight droop in the corner of Allison’s mouth and decided to go in for the kill.