Hungry for a murder.

9. Things start to heat up.

Paul's point of view.....

Once morning had come, Paul prepared his breakfast.

Pain killers and vodka. He had tried to work on the Millers last night, getting the pin numbers for their bank accounts.

He had difficulty using the stairs.

He was preparing to go to the bank to be sure that they had given him the right information.

He had kept them alive for now. He knew that he was a sore sight due to his limp and the bulky bandage on his leg.

He did the best he could to disguise his condition.

He prepared to jump into the Miller's Jeep and sneak off to the bank as soon as he had enough " breakfast" to move.

His head hurt and he was having a fever and chills. The fire in his gut was the only thing keeping him going.

He needed to end Hanna. He believed she was the only witness to his crime, he thought about Amanda now. .. He had heard Amanda cry out, as he attacked her, striking her in the face with his elbow.

She hadn't even heard him sneak in through the open window as she was on the phone.

He thrust his weapon upon her. Grabbing the phone from her and slamming it into the wall.

In the fog if his mind, he went back and forth, in and out of consciousness, he told himself that Hanna knew everything.

Blaming her for helping Amanda, changing Amanda. He was almost ready to get into the Jeep. Just one more pill.

Paul fell back aleep from the pain in his thigh. Not making it to the bank.

When he awoke it was way after noon, he saw a car pull up.

A tall, beautiful blond unfolded her long legs and got out of the old red Subaru.

She seemed to walk with a slight limp. Favoring her right foot.

He noticed she knocked once and entered the home.

She must be familiar to Hanna. He was growing excited just looking at her. "Hmm...he thought, maybe I could take them both.

Paul was having trouble thinking clearly so he took another swig of vodka and went to lay down.

He smelled a foul odor coming from his leg wound. He slowly unwrapped it.

The bandage had stuck to his flesh and as he pulled back on it to look at the knife wound, he saw green puss pouring out.

He put his head back, feeling woozy. Paul poured some of the vodka into the open area.

He winced in pain. It smelled putrid. He covered his mouth with his hand and held back the nausea.

He turned his head, convulsed and he threw up all over Mrs.Miller's sky blue duvet, covering the bed.

"Sh*t ! He exclaimed." I'm a frigging mess!" He layed down next to the vomit and once again passed out.

His leg, badly infected. He was out for the night.

The Millers were working together to loosen their bonds throughout the night.

Mr.Miller had served in the Korean War. He was older now, but still had some agility in working knots.

His head hurt where that SOB hit him. He was more worried about his wife, Ellen.

He knew Ellen was getting dehydrated and had missed her heart medicine.

He could feel her slipping away from him. This made him all the more determined to escape.

Jim Miller worked all night, he felt the knot loosen a bit, he was making progress.

If only that scumbag would remain upstairs. They could hear him moving in their bedroom.

Jim struggled to move the rope and began to rock the chair side to side.

He was using the motion of the chairs gravity to loosen the rope around their hands.

He was desperate now, his fingers were numb. Finally!

The sun rose. Jim got loose and began to untie Ellen. They removed their soiled gags from their mouths.

Jim rushed to stand up from the chair he was in, but his legs locked and he fell down hard.

He lay quietly listening for any sound from above them. After a few minutes Ellen quietly moved to help upright her brave husband.

He put his hand on her face, carressing her. "Hurry Jim we don't have much time!"

Ellen helped him find his legs again. They moved together to the outside basement door.

Ellen stopped to help steady Jim as he was badly limping.

Ellen put her arm around his waist. The two slowly unlocked the door.

They heard stumbling upstairs and foot steps approaching. Just as they reached to open the door, it gave out a loud squeak.

The foot steps above became the sound of running feet. Ellen screamed.

Jim placed a hand over her mouth.

Meanwhile...

Hanna and Adam had set out for their appointment today with Andrew Clay, the podcast host for the hit program, Hungry for a Murder.

The podcast was about the murder of Jennifer Gross. A 25 year old barrista from South Lake Tahoe.

She had been found murdered in her 3rd floor apartment. The police strongly suspected that 53 year old Jerry Wright-her landlord had done it.

Jennifer had reported his odd behavior to her family months before her tragic murder.

The killer left some clues. There was pizza crust, left at the crime seen. Jennifer couldn't eat pizza, she was gluton free.

The DNA evidence found on the pizza crust got flubbed up by the lab.

They had to run another sample-luckily they found a few brown hair samples that didn't match the victim, the whole world was waiting for the result.

Hanna got into Adam's Monte Carlo SS and buckling her seat belt, she reached out her hand to his and gave it a squeeze.

Adam squeezed back- giving her a smile.

She was a bit nervous meeting with Andrew Clay- as she was a huge fan of his. She couldn't stop fidgeting with her clothing and making sure that her make up looked good.

Adam thought she looked beautiful-he was just biding his time for a moment alone with her.

He inhaled her perfume as it now filled his car.

He had gotten used to that smell and liked it very much.

Hanna looked out the passenger side window and was deep in thought.

She was thinking about all of the happenings in the last few days.

It wasn't that she was scared anymore.

She felt safe with Adam and her family around. She was just sad for Amanda.

Adam had told her what detective Davis had said that Paul Sicarius was now the number one suspect in Amanda's murder.

This made Hanna more determined than ever to find out exactly who Paul was and how he had known Amanda.

She suspected that he was from Amanda's past, but she had no idea that he was the one that had attempted to kill Amanda in that hit-and-run that had left Amanda permanently damaged.

All of this was running through her mind when Adam, without warning slammed on the brakes.

She jerked forward as her seat belt tightened.

She turned her head and looked at him and he said," hold on, hold on! "

He turned the car around approaching the bushes.

He saw a motorcycle handle sticking out of the bushes.

Stopping the Monte Carlo, he took off his seat belt and jumped out.

He didn't touch the bike, but he thought that maybe it was odd that it was hiding in the bushes near Hanna's road.

He came back to the car, locking the doors he called detective Ryan to let him know that there was a suspicious motorcycle near Hanna's home.

He asked if he could send an officer to check it out and that he would be happy to wait until someone arrived.

The detective said that he was actually in the area and had been doing some patrolling himself and would swing by and run the plates on the motorcycle.

It had seemed suspicious to him as well.

Hanna, put her nail into her mouth and bit down, as she mumbled, "That don't look good."

Adam said," Oh...don't worry about it, it's probably just somebody in the neighborhoods bike that they left behind." Knowing that he was full on lying.

Adam got out of the car once again. This time he dialed Henry's number quickly and said,"Henry, it's Adam." He continued,"It's quite possible that Paul Sicarius is in the neighborhood. I just found an abandoned motorcycle in the bushes down the road here- Detective Ryan Davis is on his way to check it out.

Please keep watch. Perhaps you could meet detective Davis down here." he explained they were running late for their appointment.

Henry agreed, he was more determined than ever to track down this creep.

He was becoming suspicious of every car that came down Hanna's road.

He was paying close attention to the homes in the area, scanning them as he drove by.

Looking to see if there was anything suspicious. He planned on following up, he might even go door-to-door if he had to.

He needed to make sure that the SOB wasn't hiding out in any of the garages or sheds in the area.

It was quite possible that he had somehow found out where Hanna lived.

His detective sense told him that he shouldn't put it past Paul, since he tracked Hanna down at the morgue.

He was a crazy psycho, but he wasn't stupid.

Hanna and Adam pulled up to the mexican restaurant where they were meeting Andrew Clay the podcast host.

Meeting him at a booth, they sat down and ordered some tapas, just a few small plates of food to go with their drinks.

Andrew was unimposing. He quickly put Hanna at ease. They explained the situation with Amanda and the suspected attacker Paul Sicarius.

They were asking if he had any advice on finding out more about Paul, things that maybe the police wouldn't be able to track down.

Andrew was about 4 foot 9 and thick in the waste, in fact it would be quicker to jump over him, than to go around him, Adam thought.

They spoke with Andrew for about an hour, ending the meeting with Andrew providing them with his personal card.

He asked them to give him a call if they thought of anything else.

He gave them the number for private detective that he had used in the past.

He also informed them to keep detailed notes, because he wanted to make this the subject of his next podcast.

Hanna was elated as she was such a fan.

Afterwards, she made Adam stop and get her a new notebook and some new gel pens so that she could take notes.

Adam smiled at her, thinking that she was such a caring woman that she would make a good mother someday.

And then thought, he would like to be the father to those children.

He held this thought close to his heart as he had never felt this way about a woman before in his entire life.

Slowly, they drove back to Hanna's home.

Adam decided he needed to ask Hanna out for dinner tonight, to get her mind off of all of they had been through- and more on him.