Page 40 of Already Lost

“It doesn’t matter,” Nate said, shakinghis head, though he sounded frustrated too. “We have him. We know we do. He haseverything in place – he’s a descendent of the songwriter and has a closepersonal connection to the song, he doesn’t appear to have any kind of alibibecause he doesn’t work, he’s definitely psychotic…”

“I don’t know,” Laura said, biting herlip. “We should talk to Captain Kinnock, find out if there’s been any progresswith the search of the apartment.”

“Fine,” Nate shrugged, nodding thanks tothe doctor, and then jerking his chin up towards Kinnock’s office. “Looks likehe’s in there. Let’s go ask.”

Laura led the way, driven by a kind of urgeto get to the bottom of this sooner rather than later. Something was nagging ather. Gnawing. It was a feeling she got sometimes that she almost never liked.Usually because it meant she’d gone wrong somewhere, and she was going to haveto start again.

She knocked only briefly before pushingthe captain’s door open, not waiting for him to give her permission. She didn’tcare. As far as she was concerned, if this case really was about to be over, itdidn’t matter if he liked her or not. In fact, it didn’t matter in the firstplace. They were FBI. He had to do what he was asked, or face federal chargeshimself.

“Ah, agents,” he said, seemingly notphased by the intrusion. “I’ve just had a report back from the senior detectiveat the suspect’s home. You’re going to like it.”

“Oh?” Nate prompted.

“There’s a copy of the record in his home,as well as a gramophone,” Kinnock grinned. “Well done. It was a masterclass,honestly. I’m pleased to say that our town won’t be haunted by this danger anylonger. I’ll be holding a press conference in a couple of hours to reassure ourcitizens, and you’re welcome to join me.”

That felt premature – and besides, Laurawould do a lot of things to get out of appearing on television. Not quiteanything, but a lot of things. “Just one gramophone?” she asked. Somethingabout that jarred her. For a second she thought it was because threegramophones had been purchased and three already used, but then her mind sortedthe facts into their respective sources and she remembered that the purchasehad been nothing more than mistaken identity.

The captain shrugged. “Just one. I guesswe stopped him before he committed his final murder. Or maybe he was planningto go out and get more once he’d used up his supply; I can’t be sure.”

“That’s good news,” Nate said, nudgingLaura’s shoulder with a grin. “We were right on time.”

“Yeah,” Laura said, though inwardly shejust wasn’t sure.

What was this feeling? Why was she stillgetting it?

As they walked back to their desks, Natechatting casually about how he would love to go back and get some rest and thentackle the suspect tomorrow, Laura’s mind was busy elsewhere. She was trying tothink this feeling through. She was starting to liken it to the aura of deathshe got when around someone whose demise was imminent. It wasn’t an aura or avision or anything like that, not exactly – just a tightening in her gut.

Maybe it wasn’t related to her visions atall. Maybe it was just that – gut instinct. But still. She couldn’t helpwondering if it was something stronger.

It had never let her down before.

“I’m just going to go over my notesagain,” Laura said, realizing only when she finished that she must have cutNate off mid-sentence.

He looked at her hard for a moment, thenglanced around. “Are you seeing something?” he asked in a low voice.

“No,” Laura said. She shook her head.“Maybe it’s nothing. But I just…”

“Let’s go back over the notes,” Natesuggested. “I should check we have everything we need for tomorrow, anyway, sowe’re not blindsided if he gets some fancy lawyer all of a sudden who knows howto twist things.”

“Right,” Laura said. They reached theirdesk and she saw, pulling her notebook out right away and flipping to the pagesthat were calling to her. The pages with the lyrics of the song she had writtendown.

She went over it all one more time.

She came along, with a rose in her hair

Pretty and young, with a smile likesunshine

How could I know that he'd put it there?

Or that she'd taken the man that was mine?

That had to be Dakota Henson, didn’t it?There was no other way to make the lyrics fit the other girls. Dakota was theone with the flower in her hair, and she was certainly pretty and young. Lauracould picture her smiling on the way to the store. That was her.

He was so fine, I thought I was lucky

A husband, a child, the future I saw

She was this maid from down in Kentucky

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