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Wind shuffled the loose boards, creaked through the open windows that hadn’t seen glass in a long time, moved the stems of the weeds that had grown up close around the hut’s exterior. It was quiet here, deathly quiet. But still, somehow, there was a sense that the place was waiting. That someone would be back. That it wasn’t over.
A sense that –
Laura’s eyes snapped open as she sat up straight, blinking in the dim light of the room. She hadn’t even noticed when she had slipped into the vision, when the line between memory and imagination and then the vision itself had been drawn. It was like she had gone there again, back to the place they had already visited in search of the killer, the place where he had killed Joy Kingsley.
Laura wiped a hand over her face, feeling surprisingly drained. It had been like watching a video link directly to the spot. Being there without being there. It was the weirdest vision she had ever had, by far. Was it even a vision? Or was she… what? Telepathically spying on specific places now? Was that a thing?
Laura lay back down on the pillows with a groan. How did that even help her? She was supposed to be trying to have a vision of one of the killings so that she could study the man who was doing all of this, and maybe even get a proper glimpse of his face that she could memorize. Not just randomly jumping around to different places to unlock new facets of her power that she didn’t know she had – least of all how to use them.
This whole thing was a waste of time, as usual when she tried to make her psychic abilities actually work with her.
If they were a person, they would be the most stubborn person she had ever met. Someone who only wanted to work when they weren’t being told to.
She closed her eyes and flung an arm across her forehead to try to keep them shut, thinking now that the only possible way she could ever manage to get anywhere on this case before dawn would be a real vision – and that the only way that would come would be if she was really asleep.
***
Laura felt like hell when her alarm went off, blaring into the still-dark room at the break of dawn. She cracked the motel room blinds just enough to spot the first glimmer of light on the horizon and then begrudgingly dressed and prepared herself, getting ready for the day ahead.
Or the morning ahead, really. Because now they only had around six hours to try to get this case solved and closed before Rondelle would be screaming for their heads on spikes. Six hours left to save their careers as FBI agents.
What a stark contrast, Laura could only think, from the way he treated them when they came back from a case with the right results. She knew Rondelle had a lot of pressure on him to make sure all his agents – and he controlled hundreds of them directly – were operating at the highest possible level. But a little bit of trust for the two agents he himself claimed were his best… was that really too much to ask?
There was a light knock on Laura’s door, three taps with a kind of rolling motion that was designed to get her attention without waking up anyone else who might be sleeping in the complex. Laura grabbed her cell phone, the last thing she needed, and headed over to open the door, seeing Nate ready to go right outside.
“Hey,” he whispered. “You ready?”
“I’m ready,” she said, shrugging her FBI-branded windbreaker on over her shoulders. There was no point in being subtle today. After the encounter with Ellis Long in a very public place last night, there was little hope that anyone would be unaware of who they were – especially anyone who spent time in the town’s nightlife and would hear the conversations going around the bars. Today she was wearing the black suit, the windbreaker, and her badge on her belt. Today, they were going out in force.
It was the only card they had left to play.
They moved to the car in silence, and it was only when they were seated and Nate had his hands on the wheel that he looked over at her and asked. “Where do you want to start today? Did you get anything last night?”
“I just had a vision of the place where we went first,” Laura said. “The hut in the woods. I don’t know that it even means anything.”
“Alright,” Nate said thoughtfully. “Well, I figure if we can’t get help from your visions, then we go back to old-fashioned police work.”
“My thoughts exactly,” Laura agreed. “Let’s set up at the precinct again and start from there.”
“Rondelle will hear about it if we use their resources,” Nate pointed out.
“He already knows we’re here,” Laura shrugged. “I don’t know how much worse it could get.”
“Good point,” Nate said, though he sounded uncomfortable with it. “I think we need to dig into the data we have from these five victims. Like you said, it gives us a pattern to work with. We need to find out everything we can about that pattern. If we can’t identify who he is, maybe we can at least identify when and where he’s likely to strike again.”
“I like that idea,” Laura nodded. The precinct loomed up ahead, and Nate slowed the car to turn into the parking lot. “I want to look at it from all angles. Geography, calendar, victimology, everything.”
“We’ll go through it all bit by bit,” Nate said. He parked up and looked at her. “But we have to do it fast. Only a few hours and then we’re going to hit Rondelle’s deadline.”
“And if we don’t meet it?” Laura asked, voicing a fear that she was already harboring.
Nate went silent for a moment, looking out of the windshield at the parked cars around them. Laura had the impression that he wasn’t seeing any of them at all. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” he said at last, taking off his seatbelt.
They got out of the car and walked into the precinct, earning more than a few open stares. Laura figured that Rondelle had called and spoken to their chief, who of course had let it leak that their boss was none too happy with them. They had all probably expected that, since they’d let their last suspect go, they wouldn’t be around today. Whether their determination to continue despite the odds made them good agents or just stupid remained to be seen.
“Hi,” Laura said, addressing the very first detective they walked past. “I need a map of the town. Something that includes the outskirts. And physical, not something online. I need to pin it up and mark things on it.”
“Right,” he nodded. He looked just nonplussed enough to go and do what she asked without questions, which was perfect.
