Page 54 of Already Lost

She dressed and grabbed her things fast, apracticed routine that she had gotten down to a fine art, and unlocked the carexactly eight minutes after Nate had walked away from her room. He joined hernot thirty seconds later, nodding that he was ready as she reached for the doorhandle. Over his head, it looked like dawn wasn’t far off from breaking.

“Are you sure you’re alright for thedrive?” Nate asked. He paused to wait for her answer, looking her over with hisown hand poised to open the door.

“I’ll be fine,” Laura said. She gave him asmall smile. “You’re the one who needs to be alert enough not to send us into afive-car pileup, anyway.”

“Right,” Nate said, shaking his head witha chuckle as he climbed into the driver’s side.

Laura slumped beside him in the passengerseat and watched as he entered their destination into the GPS. “Just threehours to go until we’re home.”

“Until we’re back at HQ,” Nate correctedher. “A little while more than that for home.”

“Right,” Laura sighed. She closed her eyesfor a moment, nestling against the seat, then looked at him. “Want to debrieffrom last night?”

“Good idea,” Nate agreed, his voice a lowgrunt. After they had made the arrest, had Laura checked over by the medics tomake sure there were no lasting effects from the sedative, and then done thepaperwork to get Oreyo booked in formally, they’d been tired enough to just gostraight to bed. “I reached our rendezvous point and found your car, but noyou. I figured then what must have happened. I was right about the killer beingat your bridge.”

“No need to rub it in,” Laura said. “Howdid you know where he’d taken me?”

“I got Dean Marsters to track your cellphone,” Nate said. “I couldn’t get an exact hit, obviously, - once you wereinside the warehouse the signal was even worse. But Dean sent me the map of thearea and it only covered a couple of warehouses, one of which was way toobroken down to be of use to anyone. I figured out that he must have taken youto the one spot that fit the bill.”

“Smart,” Laura said.

Nate cast a sideways look in herdirection. “Actually, to be honest, that was the third or fourth property Ichecked. There are a lot of empty buildings in that part of town. I had alreadycalled Captain Kinnock to send his guys to check out a ton more, too. That’show they got to us so fast after I sent the SOS message.”

Laura chuckled. “Well, I’m glad to knowyou had the perseverance to keep going.”

“I wasn’t going to just leave you,” Natesaid. There was still a hint of the joking tone they’d had before, butsomething more serious underlined his words. Like he wanted her to know it forsure. “Anyway. I guess we don’t always need your visions to solve cases, huh?”

Laura sighed, looking out of the window.“Sorry,” she said. “I wish I’d been more helpful.”

“More helpful than finding the killer?”Nate’s voice was reproachful. “Laura, you still solved the case. It was you whowas convinced we had the wrong man – and you who figured out the bridge. Andyou did actually save my life, remember? Anyway, I’m kind of relieved.”

“Relieved?” Laura frowned, turning back tolook at him. “Why?”

“Because I’d started to think we actuallyweren’t all that good at solving cases, and we only managed it due to yourvisions,” Nate said, drumming his fingers lightly on the steering wheel. Theywere heading out onto the highway, away from the town. “Now I know I amactually a good agent, and we can figure it out without any of your voodoo.”

“It’s not voodoo,” Laura chuckled. Sheturned what he’d said over in her mind. She hadn’t realized he had felt thatway still. “But you’re a great agent, Nate. One of the best. I could have toldyou that.”

“It’s nice to have it confirmed,” he said.

They rested in silence for a while, themiles beginning to tick away under the wheels of the car. Even though she feltrestless and constrained in the vehicle, Laura knew it wasn’t so long now untilthey would get back. Not like in other cases when they’d been on the other sideof the country. There was that to be grateful for, at least.

“I still can’t believe it,” Laura sighed.“About his grandmother.”

Nate shook his head. “You really didn’tknow?” he asked. “I thought for sure it must have been something you’d seenbefore I got there, when you said you’d told him that.”

“No, I had no idea,” Laura said. “I didn’teven know therewasa grandmother until he accidentally let it slip. Andto think she died all alone in that hospital while he was trying to kill me.”

“Poor kid,” Nate muttered.

Laura shot him a sideways glance. “Hekilled three people and tried to murder me.”

“I know,” Nate said. “But he did itbecause someone he loved was dying and he didn’t know how to cope. It’s messedup. But I still feel for him, you know? If only someone could have shown himthe way to deal with it properly. It sounds like he never had much of a stablechildhood.”

“Yeah.” Laura watched the scenery flashingby on the side of the road and thought of Lacey. Lacey, split between twohomes, always sharing her time between her father and mother. She hoped she wasgoing to grow up to feel she had love and support from two families, ratherthan one that was broken. “I guess the undiagnosed schizophrenia in hisgrandmother had a big part to play. That kind of thing can run in families. Ithink he was sick – sick for a long time. Maybe his mother was, too, before shedied. He needed proper help a long time ago.”

There was a little silence while they bothconsidered it. It was a bad situation made worse by circumstances. Thedifference in Oreyo getting help at a younger age and the way he had turned outnow was enormous. Lives had been lost, and it could all have been prevented byproper mental health treatment for both him and his grandmother. And perhapsthe intervention of social services to take him away from a household that wasultimately abusive and violent.

“You can go back to sleep, if you want,”Nate offered. “I’m doing fine. I can manage to get us back in one piece.”

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