Page 6 of Already Lost

“I don’t know,” Natefrowned. “Sounded bad, though. Maybe he’s just sore about having to work on aSunday.”

Laura snorted. “As if hedoesn’t work every Sunday.”

“Who’s driving?” Nateasked, after flashing her a grin in response that seemed more genuine thistime.

“You can,” Laura said,stifling a yawn. “I’ve had a busy weekend. What are we doing when we get there?Meeting the locals or going to the motel?”

Nate shrugged. “He didn’tsay. Is there anything in the briefing?”

Laura flipped through themeagre pages quickly, scanning them. “Nope,” she said, trying to ignore theglimpse of the crime scene photographs. They could wait their turn.

“Then I guess it’s up tous,” Nate said.

“I say we get some sleepand get over to the local precinct first thing,” Laura said decisively. “By thetime we’ve driven over there, it’ll be late evening, and it’s a long drive too.A lot of concentration. We’re no good when we’re exhausted.”

Nate gave her an odd lookas they stepped out of the elevator and into the reception, walking straightout across it towards the parking lot entrance. “You normally want to hit theground running.”

It was true. In almostall other cases, Laura was keen to get the case done as quickly as possible andget back home. She always wanted to be there for Lacey, or make sure she didn’tmiss a date with Chris, or keep up with other commitments. But this time – thistime she almost wished the case would take as long as possible. Maybe thekiller was done and he’d go to ground, one of those impossible cases where nonew clues ever came in and you just had to hope one day technology wouldadvance, after spending months trying to solve it in the first place.

So long as no one elsedied, Laura was quite happy for this case to take forever. And there wasnothing she could say to Nate that wouldn’t cause more problems than having hislistening ear would solve.

She shrugged, pretendingto be casual. “Just being pragmatic,” she said. “We’ll work better in themorning than we would tonight after a long drive.”

“Fair enough,” Nate said,pushing open the doors ahead of her and walking to his car.

They got in quickly,Laura diverting for just a moment to her own car to grab her bug-out bag, whichshe always kept ready for travel. She took a moment’s breath as she hesitatedat the back of her vehicle, pretending it was taking her longer than it reallywas. She needed that moment to gather herself. To try to put the vision out ofher head.

She couldn’t stand totell Nate. Even though he was the only one other than Zach who knew about her visions,she couldn’t open up to him about this one. What would he think? What would hewant to do? You couldn’t arrest someone based on a psychic vision of somethingthey might do in the future.

All Laura could do nowwas try to stop it from happening by keeping them apart. But if Nate knew thatshe knew, and she just went on living her life and seeing Chris and letting himsee Lacey, what would he think of her?

Laura tried not to lether mind stray to how she felt about herself right then, locking her car andwalking back towards Nate with a more casual expression wallpapered carefullyonto her face.

With the trunk packed,Nate started the engine and set out, and Laura settled into the passenger seatwith the file in her hand.

“Alright,” she said,opening it back up to the first page, glad of the distraction. “What have wegot… looks like two deaths so far, both women.”

“So far, so normal,” Natejoked. It was true. You didn’t normally call the FBI on an urgent case for justone murder. Just one murder was something you admitted you needed help withafter a week or so. It was when you had all the hallmarks of a serial killer ora spree killer that you called urgently – and two very similar killings thatweren’t apparently gang-related definitely fit that bill.

“The report says theywere both taken or abducted and then killed in a different location,” Laurasaid. “Looks like our first victim was reportedly on her way home but neverarrived, and then was found in an abandoned apartment building that wasscheduled for demolition. Then, our second victim was thought to be at home andprobably only stepped outside to run an errand, and wasn’t reported missingduring the day. They only knew she’d gone when she was found later that day inan empty store that had been cleared out and left boarded up for a few years.”

“Great,” Nate sighed. “Solet’s just put better barriers around all the abandoned buildings in this townand leave the locals to sort it out. They’ll get him eventually when he tripssome motion-activated surveillance.”

Laura cast him a glanceas they pulled out of the parking lot and onto the road. “Something got intoyou, too?”

“Sorry,” Nate sighed. “Ithink Chief Rondelle is rubbing off on me. That, and it would be nice to justget a damn Sunday night to myself without having to head off on a case.”

“You could have turned itdown,” Laura pointed out.

“And leave you to workwith a rookie?” Nate replied, using her own words back at her. He sighed andshook his head. “No, it’s fine. Part of the territory, right?”

Laura narrowed her eyesat him. “Did you have a date tonight?”

Nate paused, chuckled,and rubbed the back of his neck. “Guilty.”

Laura laughed, shakingher head. She knew what it was like to have to put your personal life on holdfor the job – after all, she’d done the same thing herself so many times.

“Anyway,” she said,moving back to the briefing notes, as Nate settled into a comfortable drivingpace along the road. “This is a little more unusual: at each of the scenes,they’ve found a gramophone set up near the body.”

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