The Alpha Predator

By Steven Sterup, Jr

When Adam Lance witnesses the attempted murder of a man he becomes the only known witness to a serial killer who has gone unchecked for nearly five years. Special Detective Cheryl Torren soon realizes that Adam might be the one person who can help her catch the killer. With Adam's help Cheryl finds out that the person they are hunting isn't a serial killer after all. The killer is a vigilante who only targets predators and soon gains the nickname 'The Alpha Predator'. Despite Adam's reluctance to catch this killer, it's still their job and with his help Cheryl might finally put an end to the killing spree, that is, if the killer doesn't find them first.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Steven Sterup, Jr
• Release date: Sep 16, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463099926

Steven Sterup, Jr

I enjoy reading and writing fantasy themed books, including romance novels. Most of my work is about fantastical worlds with magic and monsters.Since I was young I've had a strange desire to create 'something' and as soon as I started writing my first book I knew I had finally found what I was looking for.I hope you enjoy the worlds I have created and I appreciate your feedback. Feel free to contact me on my website at www.StevenSterupJr.com or email me at [e-mail].

Book preview

Introduction

Just to be clear. Many people assume that this is a mystery. It’s not. It’s a thriller. You are supposed to figure out who the killer is. I believe some sites had categorized this incorrectly, and I hope I’ve fixed that.

I’ve gotten several reviews stating how obvious it is. It is supposed to be. That is why I gave away so many clues along the way. Adam has nearly as much information as the reader and still doesn’t see it for reasons I hope you’ll appreciate.

Chapter 1

Adam Lance propped his feet up on his desk at Denton Chemical and leaned back. His blue uniform shirt and black pants looked a little large for him, but he didn’t mind. The desk was strewn with fast food wrappers and various coffee mugs from some of the other watchmen. It was nearly three in the morning, and Adam was glad his shift only had three hours to go. Tonight was turning out to be particularly boring. But then again, Saturday shifts usually were. Adam hated the weekend shifts. At least on the weekdays, the plant workers gave him something to watch. Not that they were exciting. They were, however, a nice distraction from the eight-hour shift of watching the twenty monitors on the wall in front of him.

Adam pulled his feet down and stood up. He stretched his arms out wide and yawned.

Coffee, definitely need coffee on Saturdays, he said to the empty office.

Adam grabbed his mug and made his way across the office. His desk and the monitors were on one side of the twenty-foot by twenty-foot office, and the collapsible table with the coffee maker was on the other.

Adam ruffled his short brown hair with one hand while the other hand squeezed the mug handle over and over. Adam was lean, not thin but not muscular either. He didn’t work out often, but he did try to stay in shape. The stubble on his face was two days old, but it didn’t really matter. No one saw the night watchmen, especially on the weekends.

Gotta stay awake…gotta stay awake, he chanted as he made his way to his best friend on the weekends.

Adam was nearly six-foot tall, five foot eleven and a half, to be more accurate, so he had to duck under the dangling sign in the middle of the room. The one that read ‘A clean work area is a happy work area’. As he read the sign for the millionth time, he chuckled. Did anyone actually take this to heart?

Most of the other watchmen didn’t have to duck, well, except for Harold. But then again, Harold probably could have been a basketball player. He was six foot seven and had he not gotten his school sweetheart pregnant, he might have been. But life doesn’t always work out the way you plan, and Adam knew this very well. He’d had a plan when he graduated from high school, but his parents had a different one.

At a young age, Adam was labeled a genius. He had taken what was described as a placement test when he was in middle school, and thankfully, he had goofed around a little with the answers, or his life could have been worse. The test came back with an IQ of one hundred and forty-two. Not quite a genius, but above average, to say the least. His parents took this as a sign and immediately began scouting colleges for him.

Adam’s plan of lounging around trying to figure out what he wanted to do with his life didn’t fly with his parents. The week after graduation he was shipped off to the first of his many colleges. Adam was now twenty-eight and had ‘flunked’ out of six colleges so far. Not that Adam couldn’t have passed, he didn’t want to. The courses were boring, and despite the challenging coursework for some of them, he didn’t see the point of getting good grades. At each college, he did his best for the first week or two, but after realizing that the end result wasn’t what he wanted to do with his life, he would let his grade slip.

Adam’s parents were disappointed the first few times, but they weren’t stupid either. After the third, his father gave up, and after this last one, his mother finally accepted the fact that Adam didn’t want to go to college. It had been a year since then, and although being a night watchman was boring, it did appease his father. It wasn’t glorious or awe-inspiring but, as his father once told him, ‘There’s nothing wrong with breaking your back for a living. People do it every day’. Sitting at a desk watching monitors wasn’t exactly back-breaking, but it did bring in a paycheck, which is what Adam assumed his father was getting at.

After filling his mug with lukewarm coffee, Adam returned to his seat and stared blankly at the monitors. He checked his watch again…five minutes had gone by. This was going to be a long night.

Adam’s eyes caught movement in one of the upper right-hand monitors, so he focused his attention on it. He wasn’t armed, even though the signs around the plant stated ‘Armed Guards on Patrol’. He did have a Taser and mace, for emergencies. In the monitor, he saw a larger-looking man in a business suit stumbling into one of the dumpsters. The dumpsters weren’t inside the fence, but they were on Denton property, so they were part of the surveillance. The man looked drunk. He bobbed and weaved then fell against the dumpster.

Adam sighed and stood up slowly. He made sure his Taser was on his belt then begrudgingly headed to the door. Another thing he hated about weekends was keeping the drunks out of the dumpsters. On weekdays, the workers usually shooed them away. He mumbled under his breath as he left the guard station and walked the fifty feet to the front gate.

Why do the dumpsters have to be all the way out here? Why not just put them inside the fence? I’m here at four in the morning. I’ll open the damn gate for the garbage guys, he complained.

When he reached the gate, he put in his code, and the gate slid open slowly. He grumbled under his breath some more as he walked the thirty more feet to the dumpsters. When he was in earshot, he started speaking to the man.

Buddy. Hey, buddy! You can’t sleep here! The garbage guys might run you over, he said loudly, then mumbled to himself again. Oh hey, mom…I got a promotion. I’m not just a night watchman anymore. I’m a freeking babysitter for drunks. Pays the same, the work still sucks but hey…it’s a promotion. He laughed at his own joke as he got closer to the man.

You need me to call someone? I can’t let you use the phone inside but if you have a cell I can dial it for ya, he said and leaned down. When he flipped the man over his expression caught Adam off guard. He didn’t look like he was in a drunken stupor, he looked terrified.

Save me, the man whispered.

Save you? Adam asked, confused. Then Adam saw the man’s eyes grow wider in fear. When Adam turned around, he was hit in the face with something hard. The world spun and, before he knew it, he was on the ground.

Adam blinked his eyes a few times and saw someone dragging the man off. The person was short, maybe five-six, and dressed in all black. The person wore a black hoodie with the hood up and black tennis shoes.

Leave him alone, Adam tried to yell, but it came out quieter than he wanted it to.

The hooded person turned and looked right at him, stared for a second, then picked up a syringe from the ground and took off down the street. Adam noticed the way she ran, and the shape of her eyes, the only thing he could see through the ski mask she wore. It was definitely a woman in that outfit. Why was she trying to hurt this guy?

Adam forced himself to his feet and leaned over the man in the suit one more time. He was out cold now. Quickly, he reached into the man’s suit jacket and grabbed his cell phone. He hit 911 and waited to be connected.

What is your emergency? the bland voice of a woman asked. She had clearly said those words a million times.

I want to report a…a mugging…I think, he said.

I have your location, Mr. Samson. Units are on the way, she said blandly.

I’m not Mr. Samson. I’m using his phone. He’s lying on the pavement beside me. We probably need an ambulance, Adam replied.

I’ll send an ambulance right away. Are you ok, sir? the woman asked, clearly more involved now.

I’m fine. The attacker hit me once but took off, he replied.

Then Adam noticed a woman in a grey pants suit walking up to him swiftly. Her short heels clacked on the pavement, and her shoulder-length, brunette hair was a mess. When she was closer, she held out her badge and yelled to him.

Special Detective Cheryl Torren. Are you alright, sir? she asked then noticed the man on the ground. Is he ok?

Adam hung up the phone and put it beside the man on the ground then turned to Detective Torren.

That was fast, Adam blurted out.

I was chasing someone, and I think they headed this way. Did you see anyone? Is he alright? she asked again.

Detective Cheryl Torren stood about five foot eight in her heels. Being shorter than Adam, she had to look up to see him as she asked again.

Are you alright? she asked quieter, now that she was standing right in front of him.

You were chasing someone? Adam asked, then added. Dressed in all black, with a hood?

Detective Torren knelt down to check on the man in the suit then looked up at Adam.

I think he’ll live. And yes, that sounds like the person I was chasing. That means… she looked at the man on the ground again. This man might be the first victim to survive. Then she looked up at Adam. And you’re a witness.

Wait, what? Adam asked. He could hear the sirens coming down the street. They were maybe a few blocks away.

Detective Torren stood and looked at Adam seriously.

I’m chasing a serial killer, and you would be the first person to actually see him. Well, except for me, but I wasn’t even sure it was him, Cheryl said.

You mean her, Adam corrected.

No, I mean him, Cheryl argued.

I’m pretty sure it was a woman. The eyes and the gate. It was a woman, Adam said sternly.

Cheryl looked nervously down the alley at the police vehicle that was quickly approaching then turned to Adam.

Don’t say a word about the attacker being a woman. Tell them you didn’t get a good look, she said.

What? Why? Adam asked.

This could be the break I was looking for. I don’t want this blasted all over the news. If the reporters find out we have a female serial killer on the loose, it’ll be national news, and she will vanish again. I’m so close. I almost had her this time. Please, Cheryl begged.

Adam looked down at her and felt something unfamiliar to him, but it wasn’t about Cheryl. Yes, she was pretty, in fact, she was downright gorgeous, but that wasn’t what he was feeling. It was the situation he found himself in. He was actually excited. A mysterious female killer and a cop chasing her. This might be just what he was looking for. The rush of adrenalin, the surge of excitement. He’d never felt like this before. This killer was a mystery, even to the seasoned detective standing in front of him. Adam wondered what it took to become a detective. Then he pushed that notion aside. This killer was active now, becoming a detective would take years. He needed to be part of THIS investigation, right now.

Don’t worry. I won’t say a word, he said with a grin.

What’s the stupid grin for? Detective Torren asked.

I can help you, he said.

That’s not a good idea, she stated.

I don’t want a gun or badge or anything, but I’m smart. I can help you figure out who she is, he said, the excitement in his voice nearly made it an octave higher.

Cool your jets there…what was your name? she asked.

Adam Lance, he said and stuck out his hand.

"Ok, Adam. Let’s take this one step at a time. We can meet, and I’ll take your statement…away from all