She nodded. “Don’t release it until I get some forensics gathered, will you?”
He nodded.
“Are you sure you want to do that?” Rodney said. “If we’re wrong, that’s money down the tubes.”
“I know, but it’s the only one that even fits.”
“But it doesn’t fit,” he said.
She groaned. “You want me to just let it sit?”
“Considering the money and time?” He just shrugged.
“How will we know if we don’t do any tests?”
“Considering that we don’t have any evidence that this is even involved in any crime, yeah.”
“Well, it depends if Forensics can get those license plates back to me.” And, on that note, she phoned and, when she connected with Stoop she said, “What about those images with the license plate?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I was just writing up the report for you. I got three letters.”
He read them off, and, as she stood at the back of the truck, she turned with a grin and said, “Okay, now we have a good reason. Three of these plate numbers match.”
Rodney looked at her in shock. “You’re kidding.”
She nodded. “They’re sending me the report right now.”
“Well, in that case,” he said, rubbing his hands together, “let’s turn this sucker over to Forensics.”
*
Simon walked downone of the alleys, taking a shortcut in the downtown core and heading up around one of the warehouses, when pain slammed into his brain, and he almost fell. Gasping, he reached out his hands to support himself against the brick wall. He tried to slow and to even out his breathing, and soon he could almost straighten up again. As he leaned a shoulder against the wall, trying to control the pain that rushed through him, he heard a voice.
Just do it. Just do it.
He was so damn tired of that voice, that mocking, that he just couldn’t handle whatever the hell this was. In his mind he responded,Back the fuck off!
But the voice just continued in a chanting jeer. Simon figured the pain was in somebody’s head, somebody holding their own head and yelling and screaming at the voice,Just shut up. Stop, stop, stop, and then both voices disappeared.
He stared, not sure exactly what was going on, but it was almost enough to make him grab his own head. As he did place his hands on either side of his head, trying to still the pounding inside, he could suddenly see a river below him and somebody’s feet standing at the edge of a railing. He screamed at the top of his lungs, “No!”
Then he blacked out.
Chapter 11
When the phonerang, Kate wasn’t surprised to see it was Simon. “Hey,” she said. “How are you doing?”
“I’m fine,” he said, but his voice suggested he was anything but.
“Where are you?”
“At the hospital.”
She gasped. “What’s the matter?”
“Let’s just say I had a vision,” he said in low tones. “It didn’t work out so well for me.”
“Ah, crap, I hope it’s got nothing to do with me or my cases.”