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The writer from Kew Gardens suspected of posing as a firefighter to carry out a sadistic, 12-hour torture/sex attack on a Manhattan woman Oct. 31 is “playing a cat-and-mouse game” with city cops, “and he’s loving every minute of if,” police sources said.

Cops said the suspect, Peter Braunstein, “loves to be in control” of every situation – and he is fully capable of striking out against another woman before law enforcement officials can bring him in.

Police began hunting for Braunstein, 41, after informants said he matched a sketch of a suspect who dressed as a firefighter and set a small blaze to gain access to his victim’s West 24th Street apartment at about 6 p.m. on Halloween night.

Cops said Braunstein, while posing as a firefighter investigating the blaze, forced his way into the apartment, where he blindfolded the woman, tied her with duct tape, gassed her, and videotaped his sexual assault and torture of the woman.

Police sources said Braunstein made the woman wear several pairs of shoes during the attack, because it reminded him of “past humiliations,” and verbally abused and tortured her. “He taunted her with personal details of her life during the attack – and stole a pair of her shoes as a sick trophy,” police said.

Police said the victim once worked at the same magazine with Braunstein, where she sat about 10 feet from the writer/playwright. Employees at the magazine said Braunstein stalked the magazine editor, his former lover, and engaged in an18-month campaign of intimidation against the woman.

Braunstein is currently on probation after pleading guilty last July to menacing. There is currently a warrant out on Braunstein for failing to pay a $140 fee in connection with the probation, the sources said.

Cops last week executed a search warrant at Braunstein’s mother’s sixth-floor apartment in Kew Gardens, which is listed as his last known address. Cops had to remove the lock to gain entry to the apartment, where they learned Braunstein had packed up his belongings a day earlier and fled without telling his mother where he was going.

Braunstein checked into a Manhattan motel Nov. 1, where he holed up for two days, police said. “He was probably tracking all the media coverage of the attack,” sources said. “He thrives on his own publicity.”

Cops describe Braunstein as “extremely intelligent,” and talented, with an IQ of 185 – and the ability to “really pour on the charm.”

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Braunstein is asked to call the Crimestoppers Hotline at (800) 577-TIPS. The hotline is offering a $2,000 reward to anyone with information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect.