Chapter 29

Grace really hoped that this was going to all work out according to her plan. She had hoped that what she had figured out was really what was going to happen. Jason was not going to be happy with her, putting herself in the way of danger like she was. It was against the policy of the department to put one of their own in harm’s way, but she was having to not listen to reason and do what she knew that she needed to do.
If she did not put herself in this position, Grace knew that there would be another victim of "El Diablo" on the morning news. She could not do that to another innocent person. By putting herself in harms way, she knew that it would help them catch this monster. She could not believe that she had figured out who this monster was.

As she sat in Milly Tillerman’s house, she started to see all the connections. When they were all reveled, she knew that those working on this case were going to kick themselves. Once she had see all of the wires that held together this case, it became obvious. All the links were there, they were just being hidden but all of them trying to find the connections. It probably did not help that the things that needed to be reveled were being kept hidden by one of their own.

When the doorbell rang, it jolted her back to reality. Grace had not expected "El Diablo" to show up until a few hours later. Maybe she had been wrong about who it was. She looked into the mirror to make sure that she looked as close to Milly as possible. She had planned to just have him open the door and walk in.

"Come in, the door is open," Grace yells in her best imitation of Milly’s voice.

The door opened up and Grace was surprised to see Jesse Tillerman in the doorway. "What are you doing back here, Jesse."

"I could not accept that these things were going to happen to my mom and so I came back to stay here with you and see if what you were saying was true."

"Jesse, it is not safe for you to be here. You see when this monster arrives and realizes that your mom is not here, he is going to be angry. I can not put you in that danger."

"Thank you for that, Grace, but I am a grown man and I can do what I want to do. I need to be here to let this monster know that he is not going to get away with what he is doing and to make sure that he is never going to do this to anyone else."

"I understand where you are coming from Jesse but you also need to realize that I need to do my job. And the first thing that I need to do in order to get my job taken care of is to make sure that there is no one else here who can get hurt. Putting myself in this situation is my own business and I don’t want to be responsible for anyone else getting hurt."

"Grace, this is my mom’s home and I will stay if I want to."

At that moment there was a brief knock on the door. Grace was not sure if it was truly a knock or if she was just hearing things. "Jesse, could you at least do me the favor of going upstairs and at least making it appear that I am the only person here."

"I will do that for you Grace, but you have to promise me that if you need anything that you will call for me. I will be down in an instant."

"I can do that for you Jesse. But please go quickly as I believe that our expected visitor might be here."

Grace watched as Jesse went up the stairs and she waited until she heard the bedroom door close. She started to realize that her heart was beating very quickly and that she could almost hear her own breathing. She hoped that it would not be obvious to "El Diablo" as she did not want to notice that there was anything wrong until he was fully in the house. If he had any suspicions that it was a trap, she was afraid that he would bolt and that they would have nothing that would connect him with the case.

The knocking became louder and more insistent; she realized that it was now or never. She looked once more in the mirror to make sure that she at least looked somewhat like Milly and that he would not be able to realize that it was all a set up. She could not risk that happening. There was way too much planning that had gone into this. If anything went wrong, she knew that she would blame herself for not catching this monster.

When there was another loud knock, she took a deep breath and then said, "Come on in, the door is unlocked." The front door opened and then closed behind "El Diablo."

"I am in the kitchen, finishing up making some cookies. Just come on in."

"Don’t worry Mom, will do that," said William, coldly.