Oh, wow... This one is really short too. I guess my Angela chapters are mostly longer than my Dwight ones... I guess you can probably tell who my favorite character is...

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Chapter 7

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"You absolutely cannot share this information with anyone," Ken spoke as he sat in Dwight's passenger seat. "Not anyone at all, under any circumstance. Just me giving it to you could get me fired and probably sent to prison. If this stuff gets made public, I'm going to be in so much trouble, so please, please at least keep it to yourself."

"I will," Dwight assured him as he looked over the files. He was presently going over Angela's statement. The cops seemed to have asked better questions than he did, because apparently they really did get her to tell them a lot of things Dwight hadn't even asked about. "What's this about a white van?" He frowned and glanced up at Ken. "That was yesterday. They were just lingering in the lot at work? She didn't tell me anything about that..."

"It could be nothing. We asked if she had noticed anything suspicious lately - like anyone out in public seeming out of place, anyone watching or following her - and she brought that up. She only noticed it the one time, so it's not like they were following her around everywhere. It's very possible it had nothing to do with any of this. We're just covering all our bases," Ken told him.

Dwight nodded. People did get turned around sometimes and come into their lot by mistake. Tinted windows sounded pretty suspicious though. "There's a note here that links the van to another of the victims..." he noted with a frown.

"Well, not necessarily the van, but an instance of what appeared to be stalking before the attack. Another of the victims - Cheryl White... Her mother mentioned that Cheryl had said something about a brown car always being parked across from her house in the weeks leading up to her murder, even though the neighbors didn't own such a car. The car was never there anymore once Cheryl was killed. So it's possible the killer was watching her, and possible he uses different cars - so he could have been doing the same thing only with a van this time," Ken explained. "Or, again, the car may have been a coincidence. But we did question the neighbors, and no one owned such a car or had visitors who did... So it's probably connected to the case, but not definitely."

Dwight exhaled. This was a lot of information to take in. He was kind of surprised Ken had given it all up so easily. The guy owed him some favors, but this really was pretty much the worst thing he could do as far as his job was concerned. Dwight would have easily settled for a lot less information and still not spilled any of Ken's secrets. The man hadn't even tried to negotiate a less risky compromise.

Looking through the files some more, Dwight wondered where he should even start. He wished he had been on the case since the beginning. He didn't trust the police's investigation skills. Who knew how accurate all of this stuff even was? Even so, however, at least Dwight had something to work with. Maybe the information wasn't perfect, but it was something. It was a start.

He continued reading carefully over the information pertaining to Angela. It was very disturbing to him, reading over all of these details. Dwight was glad he had the files, but going through them was painful. He really didn't like the thought that this creep may have been watching Angela for days or even weeks prior to attacking her. He didn't like thinking about all the times over the past weeks when she could have easily been killed. Most days, Dwight didn't come over to her house. On all of those days, the strangler could have broken in and actually killed her. No one would have stopped him. It was beyond fortunate that the killer happened to choose to strike on the day and exact time that Dwight came over.

He read over the file some more, noticing that Angela told the cops that someone had rang her doorbell a few minutes before the strangler attacked her - she'd unlocked the door and didn't re-lock it, inadvertently giving the killer easy access. It seemed in other cases the strangler had simply forced his way into people's homes, so unlocking the door didn't really matter. It was interesting that he seemed to try to mess with her before attacking though. Maybe it was his way of checking that she was there or checking that no one else was.

He checked some of the other files, trying to see if any of those victims mentioned being toyed with before their deaths - there would probably be no record, as they were all killed and couldn't report anything that didn't happen further out.

"Wait - this lady was attacked twice?" Dwight nearly gasped as he noticed the very first victim's file. She was a twenty-eight year old woman who lived alone with her dog. She'd been attacked, had gotten away, and had then been killed a month later. The cops figured it was the same person due to the manner of her death. "He came back for her... And you guys just let him." Dwight shook his head as he glared across the seat.

"We didn't let him. That was his first victim." Ken frowned. "Someone tried to strangle her and she fought back and escaped. At that point, there was no notorious Scranton Strangler. We didn't know it was going to become what it has. It seemed like an isolated incident."

Dwight looked back down at the files. The strangler seemed to have a somewhat particular method, but he changed it slightly here and there. He never sexually assaulted or tortured his victims. He just quickly killed them and left without a shred of evidence to indicate his identity. His routine had definitely improved over time though - as evidenced by the changes he'd clearly made. When he attacked his first victim - the one who lived, he didn't bother tying her hands. Ever since that one, all the victims had been found with their wrists tightly bound behind them - including the first victim, the second time she was attacked.

The third victim had been killed in an alley behind a bar. People had heard him screaming and had come to his aid, but had gotten there too late. A few witnesses claim to have seen a tall man dressed all in black fleeing from the scene. No one saw his face and they couldn't ID him. The third victim was also significantly beaten prior to death, which Dwight figured either meant that this one was more personal or that he'd fought back more effectively and had required more force to subdue him. The killer hadn't gone after any men besides one very old, very frail man after that one either. Probably nearly being fought off again made him want to go after weaker people. Everyone else was killed at their homes after the third victim too. Going after this guy in a public place had almost led to failure, so the killer learned from it and didn't do it that way again.

The first woman fighting back taught the killer how to kill better. People hearing the third victim screaming taught him to kill people in more secluded locations. Nearly being fought off by a stronger victim taught him to go after smaller, weaker targets rather than to more indiscriminately choose whoever was around. He was learning and improving his technique after each kill. Even so, he'd failed his most recent endeavor.

Dwight wondered what he'd change in his method now that Angela had escaped. Maybe he'd stalk his victims better and get a better sense of their schedules and relationships. Surely the strangler wouldn't have attacked when he did if he knew Dwight could potentially show up and stop him. Or maybe he'd learn to carry a weapon - to quickly take care of potential boyfriends or girlfriends or other witnesses so that he could have the time he needed with his chosen victim without interruption.

Dwight shook his head as he brought his attention back to the fact that another person besides Angela had escaped from the killer and that another victim had felt like she was being watched prior to her death. The Scranton Strangler was following his victims and watching them before striking - at least some of them anyway... And the first one who escaped didn't escape forever.

"If this guy is stalking victims, and he came back to finish this one off..." He trailed off, thinking more to himself than really trying to talk to Ken. The strangler seemed to choose his victims fairly loosely - he didn't have a particular type, but once he did choose one, he zeroed in on them and didn't stop until they were dead. Letting that first woman live wasn't an option, even though going back for her was riskier than choosing someone new. "He'll come back for her..." Dwight guessed as he looked up from the file with wide eyes. "He's not going to let Angela get away..."

"We offered Miss Martin a protective detail, but she refused," Ken told him with a shrug. "We're keeping a close watch on her house and yours, as our own investigation, but she didn't want us around her constantly. That's her choice, but we are keeping an eye out as best as we can without being right next to her at all times."

"She's safer with me anyway. Obviously." Dwight raised his eyebrow and stared back at Ken. "Seven people have died on your watch. No one's ever died on mine."

Ken sighed and rolled his eyes. "We didn't know it was a serial killer the last time someone was attacked and lived. We know now. We're taking more precautions."

"Like what?" Dwight scoffed. "Watching our houses? She's at work right now. No one there knows what happened. No one's watching out for her. Lot of good watching her house is gonna do while she's not even there. As far as you know, she decided to go to lunch all by herself-" He stopped in mid-sentence. Surely she wouldn't go off alone... It just occurred to him that he really did just leave without telling her. She was most likely safe inside the office with everyone, but what if she did leave for some reason? No one at work knew what had happened. No one knew that they needed to watch her back... "I've got to go," Dwight said. "Get out." He reached across the seat and pulled the door handle, pushing the door open for Ken. "Go. Now."

Ken frowned, but climbed out of the car. "We can send someone over to watch the building. We've got officers checking now and then, looking for the van she mentioned."

Dwight shook his head. They were useless. They'd screwed up so much already, and had cost so many people their lives. At this point, asking for their help seemed like a waste of time. He'd have to keep Angela safe himself, because the cops sure as hell weren't capable.

"I doubt he'd attack her in broad daylight at the office, Dwight." Ken exhaled.

Dwight stared past his passenger seat and out toward Ken, who stood awkwardly next to the car with the door still open. Dwight didn't have time for this. "Close the door," he ordered. "I've got go."

With a shrug, Ken did as instructed. Dwight threw the case files into the passenger seat and started back toward the office. Angela was probably fine. She didn't have any reason to leave by herself, and probably wouldn't want to... But just knowing that he didn't know for sure what she was up to made him nervous. Until Dwight caught this guy, he was going to always make sure Angela was someplace safe. He couldn't afford not to.

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