Thomas looked at his watch for what must have been the tenth time, Nancy supposed. It was now seven-thirty, and there was still no sign of her. They had been trying to call her for the last half hour, but there was no answer at her house or on her cell. But none of them wanted to voice what they were all fearing: Something had happened to Ann.

"Look, why don't we just head back to your house," Nancy said. "It would make all of us feel better if we knew for sure she wasn't in trouble."

"I guess there's nothing else we can do right now," Thomas said. "Do you mind if I ride with you. I took a cab here."

"We don't mind at all," Ned said. He held the door open so Nancy and Thomas could exit the restaurant. "My car's around back," he told Thomas.

They walked to Ned's car and piled in. Ned took off down the street and soon they were pulling up in front of Ann and Thomas's small, modest home.

"Well, a couple of lights are on," Nancy observed.

"Yeah, but that still doesn't ease away any fears," Thomas said.

They walked up the sidewalk to the door and Thomas unlocked it.

"Ann!" he called as they walked into the house. "Ann, where are you?"

They walked into the kitchen and saw Ann sitting in a chair at the kitchen table.

"Ann, baby, why didn't you answer?" Thomas asked, walking up to her. He reached out to touch her and recoiled.

"Thomas, what is it?" Nancy asked. She walked up beside Thomas and gasped. "Oh, my God."

Ann was slumped in the chair, with a stab wound through the heart. Even though the dress she was wearing was black, Nancy could still see that it was covered with her blood.

"Ned, call the police," Nancy whispered.

Ned didn't say anything but Nancy felt him move away and soon heard him on the phone with 911.

"Oh, my God–Ann," Thomas whispered. "What happened to you, baby?"

Nancy saw that tears were moving down his cheeks. She grabbed him in a comforting hug, but couldn't stop her own tears from falling down. This is someone I know, she thought. Ann is–was–my friend. Who could have done this?

"Come on, Thomas," Nancy said, quietly. She stood back to look at him. "Let's go into the living room."

Thomas shook his head. "I can't–I can't leave her...alone."

Nancy decided not to argue with Thomas. He was hurting right now; she could understand that.

"The police are on their way," Ned said, coming back into the kitchen.

Nancy nodded and turned her attention to the table. She saw that there was a lone pink rose lying on the table in front of Ann.

"Thomas, did you give Ann some pink roses?" she asked.

Thomas slowly shook his head.

"That's odd," Nancy said. She then turned and saw a bouquet of flowers sitting on a small table. "It must have come out of that, then."

"That wasn't here when I left," Thomas said.

"Do you think the killer..." Ned trailed off, looking at Thomas's horrified expression.

Nancy walked over to the bouquet and saw a card lying on the table.

"Ned, hand me a paper towel," she said.

Ned walked into the kitchen and came back out with a paper towel. He handed it to Nancy and she carefully picked up the card. Her face paled when she read what it said.

"'Stop me if you can; Stop me if you will; You better do it fast; For I've got more to kill,'" Nancy read.

"So, we're dealing with a psychopath," Ned said, disgusted.

"Looks like," Nancy said. She placed the card back on the table and straightened up when she heard sirens. "There's the police."

Nancy could see that Tomas wasn't going to move away from Ann, so she went to the door and opened it for the police. She saw that one of her old friends from the River Heights Police Department, B.D. Hawkins, was the first one out of the car. She knew that he had recently gotten promoted to lieutenant.

B.D. smiled at Nancy. "I should know by now that wherever there is trouble, Nancy Drew is in the middle of it."

Nancy gave him a weak smile. "Believe me, I wish I wasn't here."

"What happened?" B.D. asked.

"It's bad, B.D.," Nancy said, leading him into the house.

B.D. followed her into the kitchen and stopped short when he saw Ann. "Oh, man."

"Yeah," Nancy said.

"When did you discover her?" B.D. asked, taking out a notepad and pen.

"About ten minutes ago," Nancy said. "Ann was supposed to be meeting us for dinner tonight and when she didn't show up, we started to get worried. So we came here, and this is how we found her."

"All right," B.D. sighed. "Did you touch anything?"

Nancy shook her head. "Not after we found her." She pointed at the table that held the flowers. "Thomas said those flowers weren't here when he left, so I checked them out. There was a note left with them–it' not good."

B.D. went over to the table and looked at the card. He turned back to Nancy and the others with a grim expression on his face. "Okay, I'm going to need you three to step out of the room. I'll get my guys in here to start collecting evidence."

Nancy wanted to protest, but then thought better of it. B.D. knew what he was doing and she trusted him completely. Besides, she didn't want to be around Ann's...body.

"I can't leave her," Thomas said.

"Sir, I know it's hard, but you're going to have to leave so we can work," B.D. said. He nodded to a female officer and she escorted Thomas out of the room.

"I need fresh air," Nancy said.

Ned nodded and grabbed her hand. They walked outside into the cool air.

"How are you?" Ned asked quietly.

"I don't think it's really hit me, yet," she said.

Ned held her in a close embrace and kissed her forehead. "I'm really sorry, Nan."

"I know," Nancy said. "I just don't understand it, Ned. How could someone do this? Ann didn't deserve this."

"No one deserves to be murdered, Nancy," Ned said.

"I know," Nancy said. "It's just hard. After all these years, I've never lost a friend to a...murderer."

There was a squeal of tires and Nancy and Ned looked up to see a bright red sports convertible coming to a halt in front of Ann's house.

"You have got to be kidding me," Nancy muttered.

A tall, leggy brunette emerged from the flashy car with a tape recorder in hand. She spotted Nancy immediately and charged towards her.

"Why doesn't it surprise me that you're here, Nancy?" Brenda Carlton asked.

"What are you doing here, Brenda?" Nancy asked, annoyed.

"I was listening to the police radio and heard about a possible murder. It just screamed front page news, so I got over here as fast as I could," Brenda explained. "I answered your question, now you answer mine: What are you doing here?"

Nancy's grief was quickly being replaced by anger. "I came here when my friend didn't show up for dinner tonight! I came here and found that my friend had been murdered by some maniac in her own home! And now, I am out here, waiting for the police to finish up in there and take my friend to the morgue!"

Nancy didn't stop as Ned put a restraining hand on her shoulder. "Does that answer any question that you might have, Brenda? Or would you like me to go into detail about how she was butchered?" she asked, her voice loud.

Brenda flinched as if Nancy had slapped her in the face. "Nancy...I didn't know," she said, quietly.

"That's right–you didn't know," Nancy spat out. "So, why don't you go bother someone else for a story?"

Nancy pulled out of Ned's grasp and stormed away. Brenda stared after Nancy, mouth agape and then walked away to talk to an officer.

"Hey–you okay?" Ned asked, catching up to Nancy.

"Yes!...No!...I don't know," Nancy said. She looked at Ned and burst into tears. "I'm so sorry, Ned. I shouldn't have acted like that."

"It's okay," Ned said, soothingly. "You're hurting, Nancy."

Nancy said nothing, but sobbed into Ned's shoulder. He held her close, running his hand over her hair, making calming sounds.

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Excitement coursed through Dom's body as he heard the steady sound of the sirens approaching. He was across the street, hiding in the woods, watching with a pair of binoculars. Soon, the neighborhood would be buzzing with excitement on the news of a murder–a murder that was committed by him.

And he thought he would be nervous, considering it was his first murder. But he wasn't; in fact, it gave him an adrenaline rush, a euphoric high that couldn't be explained with words.

He smiled to himself as he remembered Ann's final moments. Sure she had been afraid, knowing that she was about to die. But she had been more afraid for her–for Nancy. He was absolutely sure now that Nancy had to be involved in this. He had fallen in love with Katie as he read the book and Nancy was his Katie.

He perked up when he saw her emerge from the house with her boyfriend–Yes, he would have to do something about that. Didn't Katie know she belonged to him? He watched with disgust as the boy held her close.

His dear, sweet Katie.

He tore his gaze away from Katie as he saw a bright red, sports car pull to a stop in front of the

house. A little brunette emerged from the car and marched right up to Katie. He couldn't hear exactly what was being said, but he could see on Katie's expression that she was upset.

And he couldn't have that–it wasn't acceptable!

Maybe he could help out Katie and eliminate the problem for her. Yes...he would have to do just that.

Dom stood up from where he was crouched and smiled to himself.

Looks like I have work to do.

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Author's Note: First off, let me clear up something that may be confusing. In this story, Dom will refer to Nancy as "Katie", the heroine from Ann's story. As some of you have said, he is very intelligent, but he is also delusional at the same time. He gets his power from the book and he feeds on that power.

I see that the last chapter really got you going! I know it was mean for me to kill the Ann, but I'm thinking about the killer's feeling and not my own. And I see that a lot of you want Nancy and Ned together. I am going to try my best to make that happen, but we'll see how the story goes. But I love all of the wonderful suggestions and ideas that you are giving me. Feedback always helps me as I write, no matter what kind it is!