Page 24 of So Silent

He didn’t finish. He didn’t need to. Last time, they had stumbled upon a connection between all five victims that had led them to the motive that finally gave them their killer. The difference was that last time, the killer had been staging his victims. He had wanted attention. This one was luring them to a position where he could stab them once and escape unseen. Maybe it was significant that the killer was severing their windpipes, but Faith thought he was just making sure that they couldn’t make any noise.

A killer like that could keep killing for a long time before they caught him. Unless he got bold enough to kill someone in broad daylight or someone happened to actually look out their damned window in the next neighborhood, he could rack up a body count to rival Franklin West’s before the agents determined who he was.

As they drove back to the hotel, Faith could almost see West’s crazed grin. He had promised to break Faith, but did he really need to? There were so many people like him in the world. The exhaustion of chasing all of them while watching innocents die might break her whether or not West did.

She could fight her entire life, but nothing she did would stop people like this killer from stabbing someone through their throat just because their ears worked better than the killer’s did.

And that was what frustrated her more than anything. It felt like the world suffered from a constant storm of evil, and Faith had little more than an umbrella to stop the downpour.

It wasn’t enough. It was never enough.

Chapter Twelve

“All right,” Faith said softly. “Let’s go over this one more time.”

“It’s like we’re in the middle of a damned interrogation,” Michael said. “I don’t care what they taught us in training. I’m only really discovering the power of that damned phrase now.”

“Okay then,” Faith replied, “let’s go over this one more time.”

She said it drily but felt oddly playful. That was probably just the exhaustion. The sky was lightening outside, which meant they had been brainstorming and researching and hashing out ideas for two hours and come up with nothing. She was working off of four and a half hours of sleep, which was usually enough for her, but for some reason, her mind still felt sluggish.

Maybe she was finally getting old. She was turning thirty-four later that year, and while she still saw a young woman’s face in the mirror, there was no denying that it was getting harder and harder for her to bounce back from the physical stress of the job. It didn’t help that after yet another near-death experience at Franklin West’s hands less than a week ago, the emotional stress of the job was once more at an all-time high.

And now she had the mental stress of a difficult and urgent case to deal with. Bad things come in threes, right? Three victims in three days, three agents dealing with three layers of exhaustion—yeah, that tracked. Occam might not have had a damned clue what he was talking about, but whoever made that little statement about threes was right on the money.

“And that’s pretty much the only connection we have.” Michael said.

Faith realized he’d been talking while she was thinking all of this, and she hadn’t paid attention to him at all.

She sighed. “I need a second. I’m going to take a walk.”

She walked from the hotel room out the door and along the breezeway until she could find a spot with a lot of sun. Whatever the hell was going on in her head, she needed to focus. Rest would come eventually, but not until she found some kind of answer.

“You, okay?” Michael asked from behind her.

Normally, it would infuriate her to have him follow her, but she was too exhausted to feel that way. Besides, she had just ignored him for the past… hell, she didn’t even know how long.

“They’re not just superheroes,” she said. “Hearers. Super hearers.”

“I think we’ve established that.”

“They all have jobs involving sound, right?”

“All right. I think it might be a stretch to include Emily in that, but I’ll bite. What’s your point?”

She nodded and turned to look at him. She could see concern etched on his face. She most definitely didn’t want to deal with any of that concern now.

“The killer is someone who deals with a lot of sound and hearing professionals,” she said. “Maybe that’s the answer. Not someone who has super hearing himself or herself, but someone who’s around people like that a lot.”

“So, a sound engineer, like Rebecca? A sound? Are those two different jobs or the same one?”

“I don’t know. Just someone who works with sound.”

He let out a whistle and shook his head. “Faith, there are countless people who work with sound. That’s everyone from the announcer at the state fair to Beyonce.”

“But we’re looking for someone who works with people who work with sound. Maybe a professional who crosses paths with them.”

“So like Rebecca Wells.”

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