The room was stuffy, the weather warm for May, the humidity heavy, the smell of rain hanging in the still air as the Messenger (as the killer thought of himself) found the spot on the videotape and cued up the ending of Crime Seen! yet again. He had not prayed in years, but he did now. Maybe, finally, someone was getting the goddamned message!

“Recently, a member of the Crime Seen! staff found what she thought might be a clue tying another crime to the deaths of my wife and son.”

Watching in his living room, the Messenger smiled.

“Next season,” Harrow was saying, “we will be following this clue, and working hard to uncover other evidence, in a concerted, focused effort to track down the killer or killers of my family….”

About damn time, the Messenger thought.

“And we’ll be doing it right on this show. You will be with us every step of the way—helping us track down the murderer of my wife and my son.”

He took in Harrow’s words like clues that each needed close examination, and he wondered if it was possible that after all this time, the dumb shit-kicker he’d transformed from a retired county sheriff into a national celebrity was finally, finally getting a clue himself.

If so, maybe there was even more work to be done than he had planned on.

That was all right. He had been waiting years for someone to raise the stakes, and, thus far, no one had. He had sent message after message over the last ten years, and, until now, no one had discerned their meaning.

It wasn’t as if Harrow had been the first. Far from it. By August of 2002, the Messenger had already delivered two other communications without anyone understanding what he was up to; and since Harrow’s family, there had been more.

Many more.

He wound the tape back slightly.

Harrow said, “You will be with us every step of the way—helping us track down the murderer of my wife and my son.”

If you’re smart enough, he thought, going back to his plans for his next message. If you can read the writing on the wall….