Page 63 of Chasing Dreams
“You awake?” she asked, knowing he’d heard the phone ring.
“Mmm-hmm.”
“What proof will we have on these people?” she asked. “How will your friend prove they had anything to do with Maggie’s death?”
“Usually, by the time I’m called on a case, he doesn’t have much to work with. Anything I come up with is a gold mine to the department.” Austin turned to face her, and his voice grew stronger. “One thing leads to another. We have the plates to go on. The description of the car and the kidnappers. I might get something else.”
“How?”
“The channel’s open, Shaine. I’m not going to close it now.”
“You mean you could just see something? Or dream something?”
“I could.”
“You’ve done that before?”
“Yes.”
She thought a minute. “Did you hear yourself?”
“What?”
“You’re hoping.”
He was silent so long, she thought he’d fallen asleep. When he spoke, his voice held a note she’d never heard before. “The only thing I’m hoping right now is that you’re not too hurt when all is said and done. I’ve learned to expect the worst. You haven’t even begun to comprehend it yet.”
* *
“Ken’s lined up a meeting with the composite expert at OPD,” Austin told her late the next morning.
“Who’s that?”
“The person who puts together likenesses of criminals and missing persons.”
“An artist?”
“Not really, but sort of. It’s all done by an app, and I guess she’s one of the best.”
Shaine drove and parked on the street near the police station downtown. They checked in and waited. Within five minutes an attractive young black woman greeted them and led them through several doors and to an elevator.
As Ken had promised, Treasy Browne was good, and Austin had obviously done this before. He helped with features and expressions, and before long they had computer composites of the man and the woman he’d seen. Treasy faxed the pictures to Ken’s office and made copies for Austin and Shaine.
“How could you describe him so well, when you were seeing through his viewpoint?” she asked on the way back to the inn.
“I don’t know. It must be because I got there through Maggie. And Maggie knew what he looked like. There are never any rules to follow. One time to the next can be different. You just take what you get and work with it.”
The delay wore on their nerves. Neither of them slept well. Austin found things to do, even painting the back fence, cleaning the garage and waxing Shaine’s car and Craig’s pickup.
Finally, two days after Austin had had the vision, Ken called with news. “The kidnapper’s car was licensed to a woman named Lorenz in New Mexico,” he informed Austin. “It was reported stolen three days before Maggie’s death, and it turned up forty miles away from the Lorenz woman’s home one day after.”
“What do you figure from that?”
“He was probably driving from Arizona or New Mexico and stole the car, leaving his somewhere nearby. They got to Nebraska, watched Maggie for the opportune time, nabbed the kid, then returned to their own car.”
“Where did the stolen car turn up?”
“A convenience store in Silver City.”
