Halloween fan fic challenge

He followed her into the dark alley, remaining three paces behind.  He watched the way she moved, the familiar sway of her hips, and the way her dark hair swung against her shoulders.  He permitted himself a faint smile.  Tonight was the night.  The night he had waited four years for.  They were now half way along the alley, invisible from either end, hidden by the shadows.  Without warning he grabbed her, spinning her around and pinning her against the wall.  She gasped in surprise, but offered no resistance.  Why would she?  They were friends.

 For a moment they stood still, staring into each other’s eyes.  His smile widened in anticipation.  Slowly he reached into his pocket and withdrew the hunting knife secreted there, placing against his partner’s pretty throat.  His grin grew feral as her eyes widened in sudden fear.  She struggled, but he held her easily in place.

 “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”  It was meant to sound defiant, but looking into her partner’s eyes and seeing not an old friend but a madman had robbed her voice of its authority.  Instead she sounded like a frightened child.

 “I’ll tell you what I’m doing.  Four years we’ve been partners now, right?”  He didn’t wait for a response, talking almost to himself.  “Four years of being tortured everyday by what I couldn’t have.  So tonight I’m gonna return the favour.”

 She struggled more violently now.  The knife was pressed closer, its point pricking her skin, drawing a single drop of blood.  She stilled, as if aware that it was only the first of many.

 “When they find your body, they’ll think you’re the latest victim of the serial killer we’ve been tracking for three months.  They’ll think that we got too close to him, and that he bought himself some breathing room before disappearing.  But of course there never was a serial killer on the loose.  The others were just practice …”

“Is there something you’re trying to tell me, Hunter?”  McCall looked at her partner through the gloom.  He gave her a sly grin, but said nothing.

 “OK, then.  Explain to me why I’m spending Halloween watching crap movies with you instead of going to the departmental Halloween ball.”

 Hunter paused the video.  “Why would you want to do that, McCall?  Get dressed up in some stupid costume and spend the night making polite conversation with the brass?”

 “Or dancing with the cute new assistant DA?  Gee, why would I want to do that?”

 “Hey, if I’m cramping your style here …”

The petulant tone and little-boy pout that always sent a shiver down her spine made her relent, shaking her head at him in amusement.  “Well the least you could have done was rent some decent scary movies.  Not this garbage,” she gestured at the TV screen.  “Or am I going to have to pat you down every time we go into an alley now?”

 “You can pat me down any time you like, Sergeant.  But, OK.  If you don’t like this, then why don’t you go and get your hooker outfit on for old time’s sake, and we can play trick or treat?”

 “Oh I think it would be much more fun if you wore the hooker outfit.”

 They locked gazes for what could have been a moment, but felt like an aeon.  When she finally looked away Dee Dee wondered when the room had become so hot.  Or is it just me?  But no, she sneaked another look at Rick and found he looked just as disconcerted.   For a moment, anyway.

 He shifted closer, a dangerous gleam in his eye.  “Besides, I thought you might prefer somewhere a little more private than a roomful of cops to give me my birthday present.”

 She edged back.  “What makes you think I bought you a birthday present?”

 He slid closer again, backing her up against the edge of the sofa.  “I never said ‘bought’.”

 As he closed the final distance she murmured, “Did anyone ever tell you how entirely appropriate it is that you were born on Halloween?”