The line was silent.

  Parnell was looking at the picture on his phone. “I knew you recognized him.”

  “She saved his life,” Harrison answered. “I have to alert the agency. Cree, he’s dangerous. We trained him. Whatever leads you uncover, you call them into me to hunt down. West, Parnell, you two watch her six. Samuel Hunter knows where Cree lives, and I wouldn’t put it past him to try and get to her.”

  “Understood,” Parnell answered.

  “That explains how he knew to bug the house. He sounds like a ticking time bomb. What is he going to do if Cree doesn’t produce the results he wants?” West asked.

  “He’s a chemist. I’m sure he’ll blow up our house,” Cree answered.

  Chapter 10

  “Harrison, I’m going to find him.”

  “Cree, he needs to see that you’re working toward finding the serial killer. If he suspects that you know who he is, then we lose the element of surprise.”

  “I can do both,” I said, meeting West’s gaze. “Even though we aren’t related by blood, I consider you and Glynis my family, and family comes first, always.”

  “Cree, I’m ordering you not to engage—”

  “You’re breaking up, Director.” Cree hissed and made a crackling sound before punching the button to end the call.

  “You didn’t expect that to be convincing, did you?” Parnell asked.

  “That was her being polite,” West answered. “Normally she wouldn’t have even pretended.”

  I rose from my seat and patted Parnell’s suit lapel. “Welcome to the loony bin. I hope you enjoy your stay.” I slowly bit my lip as I studied Parnell from his designer suit to the guns bulging from beneath. He was going to stick out like a sore thumb if he stuck around. I glanced at West. “He needs to sign a non-disclosure agreement before the show.”

  Parnell gasped, seeming a bit agitated that I’d asked such a question.

  “I have a direct line to your president and my queen. I have the highest clearance of all MI-6.”

  Secret spies were a funny bunch. They didn’t play by the rules, they had the best toys, and most had a hidden agenda. I knew first-hand.

  “Yeah but you’re in Blue territory where things are a little different,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “What’s your secret agenda-spy guy?”

  Parnell raised his brow.

  “Don’t play stupid. Each of you has one.”

  Parnell remained steadfast, not showing me any sign of weakness. No sweat on his brow as he continued to meet my gaze. “I can assure you that I’m only here to help.”

  Hmm-hmm. “If I find out different, not only will I conjure every ghost I know to haunt your ass, I’ll join in when I die and go all poltergeist on you.”

  He huffed and glanced at West. “Is she for real?”

  I slipped my fingers into my mouth and whistled. “You can come out, now.”

  Faraday rounded the house from the east with a shotgun and waved it in the air. Freddie rounded from the west shoving his Beretta back into his jeans, and Roni peeked out from behind Parnell’s snazzy sports car waving her knife. Not a one of them had ever seen when Roni waved and smiled at me.

  “Nice wheels. Although judging by the mud in your tires, I’d venture a guess that you’re staying near the Crampton farm. They have loud roosters nearby, not an ideal place for sleeping.”

  “She’s for real,” West answered, tossing his arm over my shoulders. “And she’s all mine. Bless her ever-lovin’ crazy heart.” He said with an exaggerated southern twang he hadn’t yet mastered before kissing my temple.

  I ignored the praise and flicked two fingers from my eyes to Parnell’s. I didn’t care where he was from. He was an outsider in my little corner of the world, and I was about to give him a glimpse of the wizard behind the curtain.

  I shoved my elbow into West’s side. “Next time warn me when you expect company. Although, his timing is perfect. He can help carry the hospital bed.”

  “Come again?”

  ****

  Two hours later, skepticism still registered in Parnell’s eyes as he stood across the room when the activities started. I paced like any good cousin would as Doc Stone slid the cap over Roni’s head.

  “Is this necessary?” she asked.

  I rolled my eyes. “It’s going to get worse,” I answered and crossed the room. “Next comes the cold gel, the probes, and then monsters that can’t be unseen. You don’t have to do this.”

  “Yes, I do,” she said, clasping the locket around her throat. Her Grams and mine, well, they were sisters, and in a way, Roni was a younger version of me. She had the ability in one of her fingers that had taken me a lifetime to figure out.

  West stood by me as I ignored the thick apprehension in the room making it difficult to breathe. If this didn’t work would I be able to survive back to back sessions?

  “She’ll do fine,” he whispered, wrapping his arms around my waist.

  “We’re ready whenever you are,” Charlotte called out, making the large plasma display monitor come to life.

  “We’ve never done this,” I whispered, squeezing West’s arm.

  “It’s going to work,” he whispered, pressing a tender kiss to my temple. “I can feel it.”

  At least he’s optimistic. “Any signs of distress and you pull her out, Doc.”

  “Of course.” He nodded, and after squirting each hole in her cap with the gel, he began to attach the probes.

  I wanted to hold Roni’s hand. To make her feel safe, but I knew better than to try. Roni was fearless like that. “You just have to relax and whatever you see in your head from holding the vial will populate the screen. In your mind, you’ll be where he is, but you’ll really be here with us where it’s safe.”

  “Relax, mom. I can do this.” Roni breathed a slow, comforting breath.

  “Hit the lights, Freddie,” I called out. The room became shrouded in darkness. The only illumination came from the white glow of the heart monitor and the blinding plasma hanging from the wall. I nodded to Doc Stone.

  “Let’s hunt,” I yelled out, glancing toward Charlotte to verify once more that the red blinking lights on the video recorder were running.

  Chapter 11

  I held my breath while handing Roni the vial. I couldn’t shake this foreign mom-like protective instinct no matter how hard I batted it away. I couldn’t help it. Her fingers tightened around the glass.

  “Just breathe,” I whispered. That was good advice. I exhaled like a pregnant woman fighting through a contraction.

  “Just go away,” she whispered back.

  A face appeared on the screen. It wasn’t the one we were looking for, but it was one that I recognized. The woman from Roni’s locket. My grandmother’s sister I never knew existed.

  “Grams,” Roni said as a tear slipped from her eyes and her lips trembled.

  “It’s okay. You’ll get used to it,” I whispered. “You don’t have much time, Roni. I need you to focus on the vial.”

  I glanced at my watch. I was never on this end of things. I had no idea how long she’d be able to stay under, but judging from experience, it was never long enough.

  The picture faded, and with it, one last fat tear slid down Roni’s cheek. The monitor turned to darkness with a single light shining from a distance before the rest of the area tuned in.

  Tweedledum was wearing a doctor’s coat sitting inside a lab. It wasn’t like a hospital lab, more of the homemade variety. Ex-Special Agent Hunter looked different than I remembered. The wrinkles on his face were deeper, the bags beneath his eyes were dark and puffy, and a five o’clock shadow covered his chin.

  Roni turned her attention to the desk. A newspaper clipping of Munz was sitting near the keyboard. Next to that was a bag with the insignia of the Center for Disease Control was stamped across it. Hunter’s face came into view as if he were looking right through Roni.

  Roni’s heart rate accelerated. I remembered the first time I thought a killer could see me. I’d been the same way. The mind has a hard time remembering that it’s safe in the face of monsters.

  “You’re safe. He can’t see you. You’re doing good,” I whispered, looking up at the monitor. Roni watched Hunter now as he held a vial up to the light. There was no sound from just spectator seats, something I hadn’t realized that others couldn’t experience when I worked a session. If he was talking, only Roni could tell.

  Hunter shoved out of the chair, placing the vial in the box, I could imagine the squeaky tape noise as he pulled it from the reel to seal it shut. His gloved hands wouldn’t leave a trace. I scanned the screen for anything that might tell me where this butthead was hiding. Anything that might give us a clue.

  I left the bedside, moving closer to the screen, as if getting this new viewpoint would help me find him. The lab was made up of tables and beakers and scientific stuff. Takeout food sat on the counter next to a laundry basket of clothes. What in the world was this guy doing?

  He shrugged out of his lab coat. The guns in both arm holsters were hard to miss. Perfect, the mentally disturbed psychopath was still carrying.

  “Anyone recognize the building?” I asked out loud.

  I was answered with a chorus of no’s.

  “It looks like any one of the abandoned warehouses in the downtown district,” Freddie answered.

  We all continued watching as Hunter left the building.

  “You can follow him,” I said out loud so Roni could hear, and as she moved to step, the screen changed to a picture of Damien down on one knee with a engagement ring in his hand.

  Well, it appeared my little cousin was just as good at keeping secrets.

  I motioned to Doc Stone to pull her out of Insight. A few more steps. If she’d just followed him outside, we would know exactly where he was hiding. Roni opened her eyes. “I’m so sorry. I…”

  “It’s okay,” Her eyes drooped closed as I layered on the blankets to fight her shivers. “You did great. You’re going to sleep now. Don’t fight it. You’re safe.”

  She nodded just as her head lolled to the side. She was going to sleep for hours to recuperate, and even then she’d feel like she’d been on an all-night bender. Using Insight was draining in more ways than one. Not only on the user’s energy but it also frayed the edges on their faith in humanity. She might not have witnessed a killer in the act, but she’d find out soon enough just how much evil thrived in our world.

  A dim glow illuminated the ballroom. West, Parnell, and Freddie stood huddled, talking in hushed tones, forming plans that I doubted they’d share with me.

  Charlotte was waiting as if she could read my mind. A smile split her lips as I crossed the room and rested my hand on the back of her chair. “Five bucks I find him first.”

  She grinned. “I’d never bet against you.”

  “Can you play it back for me?”

  “I have it queued to go.”

  I’d analyze the crap out of each frame looking for a clue. There was never a flashing sign saying, killer is hiding here.

  A few keystrokes later and the computer monitor started with a flash of Roni’s grandmother’s face, and I watched it again. Twice, before asking Charlotte to move frame by frame.

  Faraday and Frankie had left the room to grab a town map to make a grid to chart their warehouse search. I was running out of time to prove I was smarter.

  I pulled up a seat next to Charlotte and watched the video again, asking Charlotte to pause it when Roni had been looking at the desk.

  A smile split my lips as I tapped the screen. “There.”

  Charlotte frowned. “What?”

  “The Styrofoam container is from Markum’s Diner. They’re the only people that still use those things. Everyone else in town uses plastic. All we need is the postmark on the date the original vial was sent, and we can pull street cams.”

  I shot off a text to Harrison to ask, and he replied instantly. Thursday one week prior.

  “Can you hack the street cams near Markum’s Diner from Thursday?”

  “Sure.”

  The keys clacked as Charlotte finessed her way into the CCTV system and after picking the right date, she had a video feed of the diner. Not knowing if it was night or day when he sent it, I pulled my seat closer as Charlotte, and I watched until I spotted the ex-special agent. I pointed to the screen. “That’s him.”

  He picked up his food and walked out of frame.

  Charlotte was good, better than anyone gave her credit for. She hacked the street light cams, and we watched as Hunter made his way down Main Street and turned into the old warehouse district. He came to one of the doors and glanced both ways before disappearing down a side alleyway.

  “We’ve got him,” I said to the others. My words went ignored until I whistled to get their attention. They turned to look at me. “We got him.”

  I crossed the room and pointed to the map. “He went down this alleyway after he picked up his takeout. He’s in one of these two buildings.”

  “How do you know where he ordered from?”

  “Because she’s good.” West kissed my lips. “Did I mention that she’s mine?”

  West

  Chapter 12

  West shot off a text to Harrison to tell them what they’d discovered before kissing Cree and heading out the door. They had a plan now. They had backup. West, Parnell, and Faraday were going to meet Malcolm Nunnery and his team three blocks away from the warehouse in one of the parking garages.

  They were joking about who was going to shoot first when West reminded them that the vials of antidote and any traces of the formula were more of a priority than catching Hunter. Hunter, they could find again, but if they screwed this up, the antidote might be lost forever.

  Nunnery rested a handheld military computer on the hood of the SUV. A live satellite feed was on the display. There was only one human-sized heat signature inside the old building.

  “That’s him. Our target is on the third floor. Alpha team 1, you take the front. Alpha team 2, you’ll go up the fire escape and descend from the roof. West, you and your guys can cover the fire escapes and stay out of our way.”

  Out of their way? They wouldn’t know which way to go if it hadn’t been for Roni and Cree. Parnell gave West a sideways glance as if he’d read his mind. They were more than trained to take point and enter the building without being detected, and he’d be lying if he denied the thought hadn’t crossed his mind on the drive over.

  They dispersed through the alleyways three blocks up as the others left to round the blocks and approach from the back. This wasn’t some crazy lunatic that wouldn’t see a military hit team coming. They must have forgotten that Hunter had the same training as the rest of them, but West didn’t forget.

  Hunter had tracked down Cree from only a single letter a year ago.

  “They’re out for blood, mate,” Parnell said as they followed out the doors.

  “He’s going to smell them coming,” West said. “This guy is good considering Harrison originally hand-picked him to find my wife.”

  Unease slid down West’s spine. It wasn’t like finding him had come easy, but it still felt as though they were all walking into some elaborate game without being given the rules.

  West and the others took up position in the alley across the street to keep an eye on the fire escapes as the other team slid against the building, giving them cover from any prying eyes.

  “We should be the ones going in,” Freddie grumbled.

  “They’re the ones carrying the badges,” Faraday said.

  West let them argue the merits of staying out versus being the ones to go in while he scanned the windows of the third floor. A single light illuminated one of the windows on that floor, yet there was no movement inside.

  West’s phone vibrated. A text from Cree. Well???

  They’re entering the building now. I’ll text you when it’s over.

  No need. Look to your left.

  He peeked out of the alley and turned his gaze down the street to find Cree in another alley, waving her phone at him.

  Go home.

  Not a chance. She answered with a skull and crossbones emoji.

  West returned his gaze to the window just as a team was rappelling down the building and getting into position above the windows.

  Faraday and Freddie’s conversation cut off as they joined him in watching.

  “This is stuff you only see on TV,” Freddie whispered.

  “You couldn’t pay me a million bucks,” Faraday answered.

  “It’s not that bad,” Parnell offered. “I’ve done it from a high-rise.”

  Screamed shouts started as those rappelling kicked off the building and used their feet on the glass to break windows. Smoke from smoke grenades billowed out of the openings, rising into the night sky.

  “Well, they sure know how to make an entrance,” West said.

  Nunnery appeared in the window and motioned they could come up. He wasn’t there. No matter how much West hoped it ended here, he knew it wouldn’t down in his core. No way would the ex-FBI agent not have a contingency plan.

  They’d jogged across the street to enter the building when West glanced over his shoulder to find Cree still standing in the alley with the phone to her ear.

  At a safe distance was exactly where she needed to be. Even if it was a bit unusual that her curiosity wasn’t leading the way after the all clear.

  West entered the abandoned building. It was similar in setup to the one that he and Cree had been in when they’d been searching for Faraday’s brother. Trash and broken furniture littered the ground. It smelled old and musty. Dust covered every square inch of the furniture that wasn’t broken. One of Nunnery’s guys was holding open the stairway doors. “Third floor.”

  West took the stairs two at a time to the third floor where another agent was standing guard at the door as West and the others entered.

  The remaining fog from the smoke was thick and burned his eyes. A single man was kneeling with his hands on top of his head in surrender.

 

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