Page 24 of Already Lost

The sound of an old song from the thirties.

It was playing from the building in frontof them, some kind of old, abandoned warehouse. It was fenced off, but therewas a very obvious man-shaped hole cut through the fencing, and Laura chargedthrough it without a second thought. She drew her gun as she ran, letting herears guide her. She burst through a door into the warehouse – and there –

Oh, my man and the rose

Oh, how the story goes

Oh, my man and the rose

that took him from me

that took him from me

The last line of the song faded out asLaura rushed to the woman’s side, diving to her knees so fast it hurt, almostfalling beside her rather than getting down properly. She could see the huge,gaping stab wound in the woman’s chest, blood spurting from it – just like ithad from Zach in Laura’s dream – blood pooling around her on the floor, so muchblood…

The woman’s eyes were glassy, staring upat the ceiling. Laura touched her neck. She was still warm. She touched a fewdifferent spots, hoping she had just missed it, hoping it was faint…

But there was no pulse.

“Laura?” Nate shouted urgently. He wasbacking into the room, his gun drawn and pointed outwards, breathing heavily.

“We’re too late,” Laura said, her voicechoking in her throat. “She’s gone.”

Nate moved to her side, though he didn’tcrouch to her level. Laura looked up at him, tears threatening to spill fromher eyes. She’d already touched the girl and there was nothing, no headache. Noclues here, either.

“I just ran a quick circuit around thewarehouse, looking for him out there,” Nate said. “He’s long gone. Backup isjust pulling up outside. I’m going to organize a search. I’ll send someone inhere to watch over the scene until forensics can get here.”

“He’s long gone,” Laura said distantly.She felt strangely detached from everything. Like maybe this was still justanother dream, even though she knew it was real life. The blood had stoppedgushing from the woman’s chest. Her heart was done. “Three minutes is a longhead start.”

“I’m going to try, anyway,” Nate said.There was fierce determination in his voice, but when Laura looked up to saysomething about it, he was gone, too.

She looked down at the dead woman, hereyes looking up and seeing nothing. She had short-cropped black hair, fannedout around her head at the level of her ears. She was pretty. She’d beenwearing five sets of earrings in each ear, tiny studs clearly carefully chosento complement her look. There was black eyeshadow smudged over her eyes. Laurasaw every tiny detail, preserved it forever inside her head.

They hadn’t been quick enough. Laura hadgone to sleep instead of carrying on the search, and because of that, theyhadn’t been quick enough to stop him from killing her.

She wasn’t going to be slow again.

***

Laura watched the sun breaking the rim ofthe horizon and shielded her eyes, squinting as the first rays shot towards herand glinted off the windows of the police cars. Dawn. About the time she hadbeen thinking she was going to get up.

Well, that had gone out of the window.

“Here,” Nate said, coming up beside herwith two steaming hot paper cups of coffee in his hands. He passed one over toher. “I found an all-night place not far down the road. One of the detectivestook me.”

Laura nodded without comment and took asip, grimacing. It was hot and black, and she figured Nate must have asked forsome extra shots judging by the strength. That was fine. It was needed. She’dbarely had three hours of sleep, and she knew he must have been somewherearound the same.

“I don’t think we’re going to get anythingat all here,” Laura said. “Techs have finished and they said it’s the same aslast time. They might get some prints, but they’ll be useless. We already knowhis prints aren’t in the database.”

“I did find the identity of the victim,”Nate said. He pulled out his notebook and read from it. “Her name was TessaPatinson. We have her family address. You want to go visit?”

“Not really,” Laura said. She took anotherhit of the coffee. “But by the time I’ve finished this, maybe. Let’s get overthere.”

Nate nodded with a smile, a tiny bit ofhumor in the face of the horror they’d seen. He led the way back to the car andgot behind the wheel without asking her if she wanted to drive. Laura was glad.Between the nightmare and now this living nightmare, she wasn’t sure she hadthe concentration left in her to get them there in one piece.

“It’s a lot more visceral than I thought,”she said, once he was done programming the GPS and they were starting to moveout.

“The murder?” Nate asked, throwing araised eyebrow her way.

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