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“I was out this way on another matter and figured I’d stop in to check on things,” he said.

“Nothing has happened since I saw the face peeking in my window,” Suzanna said.

“I guess in this case no news is good news. I wanted to let you know that Boone had an alibi for the Peeping Tom incident. He was at Murphy’s until about midnight, and he was seen by dozens of people there. Ray had no real alibi for the Peeping Tom event. With all the attacks, his alibi has been the same. He was home by himself and didn’t see or talk to anyone.”

“Do you believe he’s the person responsible for the attacks?” Seth asked.

Dallas frowned. “To be honest, I don’t know. It would be nice if he had some sort of real alibi so he could be taken off the suspect list, a suspect list that I might add is very short.”

“If he does get cleared, then you have no direction in which to lead the investigation,” Suzanna said, obviously disheartened. “That will be the end of the suspects.”

“You thought there was enough to mention Ray’s name to me in the first place,” Dallas said. “Right now, he stays high on my suspect list unless you’ve thought of somebody else we need to investigate.”

“No.” Suzanna shoved a strand of her hair behind her ear. “There is nobody else.”

Dallas stood. “Then the only thing I can tell you right now is to continue being wary of everyone.”

“And that means remaining here,” Seth said to her.

Dallas looked at Suzanna. “So far, no harm has come to you here. I would think twice about going back to your house, where you’ll be alone and far more vulnerable.”

“In other words, if it works, don’t fix it,” Seth said.

“That’s about the sum of it. And now I’ll let you two enjoy the rest of your evening,” Dallas said.

“Thank you, Dallas,” Suzanna said.

“Don’t thank me until we have your bad guy behind bars,” he replied.

“I’ll be right back in,” Seth said to Suzanna and then stepped outside the front door with Dallas. “I kind of feel like we’re in a pressure cooker and something bad is going to happen very soon that will blow the lid off all this.”

Dallas nodded. “I wish to hell we would have caught the perp the night he attacked her with a knife.”

“How are things going with the scarecrow murders? Are you any closer to catching that creep?”

Dallas frowned again. “Unfortunately, no. He’s like a damned ghost. He kills women, dresses them up and abuses their bodies by sewing their mouth closed and stealing the eyeballs and manages not to leave anything of himself behind.”

“That’s tough,” Seth said.

“Yeah, so right now I have two frustrating cases on my desk…the scarecrow killings and Suzanna’s attacker. I’d be happy to get a win on either case.” He released a deep sigh. “In the meantime, you continue to be on guard here until we get a break in the case.”

“She’s getting anxious to get back to her own house and her normal life,” Seth said.

“Hopefully that will happen very soon,” Dallas replied. With that, the two men said goodbye, and Dallas headed to his car in the driveway.

Seth went back inside and relocked the front door. He then sank down in his recliner and gazed at Suzanna. “Are you okay?” he asked.

She released a deep sigh. “Yeah, I’m all right. Things had been going better between me and Ray, so it’s hard to believe he would have a part in any of this. But lately I’ve noticed an inner anger in him that makes me a bit uncomfortable. I guess I need to watch out for him.”

“It’s got to be tough to go to work every day and think that your coworker might have tried to kill you,” he said.

“It is tough. I don’t want to believe that about Ray, and yet there’s a part of me that doesn’t quite trust him.”

“At this point I don’t think you should trust him at all. Don’t get caught in a supply closet with him and don’t trust him if he says he needs your help carrying things out to his car.”

She looked at him in surprise. “You’ve really thought about this.”

He nodded. “I have. I worry about you when you’re at school and out of my sight.”