“Yes, you were. You’re just making it sound like he cares. Andso what?It’s abigso what. To think that he cares like this is massive. I get that you’d find him protecting you amusing because you’re the one with the martial arts training, but you also know that you can die just as easily as anybody else can by a bullet or a shove off a building.”
“Which is also why I didn’t want him hanging around,” she argued. “I didn’t want him to get in the line of fire in case we weren’t alone.”
He snorted at that. “I’m sure he’d appreciate that thought process.”
“Probably not,” she agreed, “but what would you do when you get into a situation like this? He’s a civilian, and it’s not his job to be here. I came with him because we were looking for his vision, for whatever scenario in his head that he thought he needed to look for, as these symbols were representative of where she was.”
“And it worked.”
“Not really,” she admitted. “Not for the woman he’s still connected with.”
“Well, even if this wasn’t the outcome you and Simon were expecting,” Rodney noted, “it’s still a good one. Obviously not the best,” he corrected. “Since we would prefer to find her alive.”
“Absolutely, and that didn’t happen.”
“No, it didn’t, but you’re here. You found a crime scene, which hasn’t happened since the kid’s sister. He may not have cleaned up with this one yet. We could have massive forensic evidence here. And that’s all something to keep in mind.”
She nodded. “I get it. It’s just frustrating to lose another victim.”
“No, I hear you. At the same time let’s hope that we’ll find enough in this case to make this woman’s death a viable way to find the killer.”
Too tired to discuss it anymore, she fell silent. He drove her home, and she finally spoke. “We need to track dates.”
Rodney nodded. “But we’ve been working on that and should have the board full tomorrow.’
“Yet he’s always a step ahead of us.”
“Not now,” he corrected. “We’re catching up fast.”
She sighed. “I get it. I really do. It just feels like it’s not fast enough, especially when I know another woman’s life is hanging in the balance. And, after what he’s done to this poor woman, I don’t even know that our other victim can survive the torture, even if we do find her.”
“We have to believe it,” Rodney murmured seriously.
When he pulled up to her apartment building, she nodded and opened the car door. “Did you ever consider—” She stopped.
“Consider what?” he asked.
“That maybe there are two killers?”
He looked at her in surprise. “It’s hardly a group activity,” he noted quietly.
“I know, but…” Then she shook her head. “I need to think on it and figure out why this would come up right now.”
“Because we’re grasping at straws, looking anywhere for answers. We need DNA results, and we need answers from Dr. Smidge, and, with any luck, we’ll get both tomorrow.”
She laughed at that. “I don’t know that we’ll be quite so lucky to get all that so fast.”
“Maybe not but we have to hold out hope,” Rodney replied. “Go on now and get some sleep.”
She smiled, nodded, and headed up to her apartment. She was too tired to do anything but crash. Fully dressed, she fell face down on the mattress and was out instantly. Unfortunately it led her through wild myriad dreams and nightmares. She woke up several times in a cold sweat, fear running through her veins instead of blood, as she sorted through the panic of her nightmares.
*
Sunday
Finally, when Katewoke up again, a check of her clock confirmed it was already time to get up. She groaned and rolled over. “Why is it morning already?” she whispered to the empty room. She let herself lie here for another few seconds and then got up, stripped out of her old clothes—shaking her head when she realized she was still wearing them—and headed for a shower.
After the initial hot shower, she turned the water temperature to cool before she was done, to really wake up because she was so late already. With that done and now shivering slightly, she stepped out, dressed quickly, grabbed her keys and her wallet, and headed straight to work.