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There was no point hanging around D.C. The fact that he’d had a vision at all meant that Laura wasn’t here, and she was no longer his first target anyway.
He started the engine and began to drive away, heading back to the room he had booked outside of town. He could hole up there, find this Zach and where he lived, and then go right over there to target him.
And before long, Laura Frost would be within his hands as well.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Laura winced when Nate put the cell phone to his ear – and she heard Rondelle shouting down the line even from where she sat.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Rondelle blustered, and Nate made a face at Laura before replying.
“Sir?” he asked, an obvious and poor attempt to seem innocent.
“I’ve just had a report cross my desk that you’re in some random town in Maryland, requisitioning police resources!” Rondelle said. “Imagine my surprise when I get an identity check to make sure you’re genuine agents, for a case I’ve never even heard of!”
Nate cleared his throat. “I apologize, sir,” he said. “We had a lead and we had to come out here to investigate it. We weren’t confident that it was a good lead until we checked it out, so we didn’t want to waste your time.”
“Your time is my time,” Rondelle snarled. Laura shifted closer to Nate, ensuring she would still be able to hear both sides of the conversation even if Nate managed to calm Rondelle down. “I pay you, you understand? So if you are wasting your time on some half-baked case, you are wasting my time to begin with!”
“Right,” Nate said, somehow managing to come across as contrite and yet stand his ground. “It’s just, it’s not a waste of time, after all. We’ve got something here. A serial case – one that hasn’t ever been connected before. There’s a killer out here that has been flying under the radar for close to a decade.”
“And who assigned you to this case?”
Laura felt her heart drop at those words. She knew what they meant. Rondelle wasn’t going to allow them to keep investigating. He was going to keep them at headquarters – maybe even send them off out of state on another case. They had challenged his authority by not telling him what they were doing, and he was going to punish them for it – a punishment that would leave the vulnerable women of this town at risk.
“Sir, I’m sorry that we didn’t run this by you first,” Nate said. “Now that we have established that there is a case, I would be really grateful if you would assign us to it.”
“So you want to ask forgiveness, rather than permission, do you?” Rondelle asked. “I’m afraid that’s not going to wash. The last thing we need in the Bureau is this kind of maverick behavior. You’re not living in a TV show, Lavoie. You have to actually follow the same rules as everyone else. I want you both to get back to Headquarters and stop sticking your noses into cases that aren’t yours.”
“I understand, sir,” Nate said, swallowing hard.
Laura couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Was Nate going to just give up, like that? Was he going to leave this town and the people in it, knowing there was only a matter of time before another woman died?
“Right,” Rondelle snapped. “Don’t let me hear anything about this again.”
Nate put the phone down, and Laura looked at him in dismay.
“Don’t even say it,” he said.
“What?” Laura asked immediately. She spread her hands to either side. “You’re just fine withabandoningthese people -”
“I said, don’t say it,” Nate said. “You know I’m not.”
“Then we have to stay and keep investigating,” Laura argued.
“You heard what he said. He wants us back over there.”
“No, he wants to not hear about us investigating this case,” Laura pointed out. “That’s what he said – not to hear about it. He didn’t tell us to go back.”
“I think his intentions were pretty clear,” Nate replied wearily.
“Well, not to me,” Laura said. “I didn’t even hear the call. I wasn’t in the room. So I’m going to carry on.”
“Laura…” Nate sighed. He rubbed his hands over his face as if he needed to splash cold water on himself. “Laura, really?”
“What? Are you just going to let a serial killer go because our boss wants us to work on paperwork?” Laura demanded. “Is that why you joined the FBI? To just go where you’re told and not actually help people who need you right now?”
“I joined the FBI to catch killers, like you did,” Nate muttered. “You know that.”
