Captain Mills walked up beside them, holding a piece of paper in his hand. It appeared to be a torn page out of a notebook, and when he held it out, Laura instinctively took it. “I thought you might like to see this,” he said. “We’ve got detectives inside checking the house. We found her unlocked phone in her pocket, and a lot of messages from months ago that look to be romantic in nature, from a contact called Joe. Now, we’re not entirely certain, but there was an address book in the house which did have a listing for a Joe. One of the detectives noted this down, thinking you might want to get over there to talk to him as soon as possible.”
“Thank you, Captain,” Laura said, checking the address. It was in the city, and not too far away. “We’ll head there right away.”
“It’s midnight, Laura,” Nate said, checking his watch. “We don’t know if this guy is going to be awake.”
“Then we’ll get him out of bed,” Laura told him. “Nothing is more important than this. I don’t want to be standing in another part of the city this time tomorrow, standing over another stabbed woman. Come on. Let’s go.”
They lingered by the body for a few minutes, looking it over carefully. There didn’t seem to be any clue that would give them the killer, at least not at first sight. The forensics experts might give them something more, but Laura and Nate couldn’t help with that. Laura turned to the car, leaving the rest of the examination of the body to the forensics team. She knew she wouldn’t get anything from touching the poor woman now, anyway. There was nothing in her future.
If she was going to have a vision that led her to the killer, she needed the knife – and so far, he’d been careful enough to avoid leaving any kind of physical evidence that she could even try with, let alone something as crucial as that.
But as she started up the engine and Nate input the address into the GPS, Laura was at least heartened by one thing: a new body meant new leads. And if they could find the one person or thing that linked all three of the women, they would be closer than ever to getting this case solved.
She just had to hope this ex-boyfriend had the answers – and they weren’t just running around Seattle on a wild goose chase that allowed the killer to get further and further ahead.
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
Laura took advantage of stopping at a red light to rub her eyes. She was tired. It was getting too late for her to focus properly; after the lack of sleep and the flight this morning, she only had so much energy in the tank. The headache still throbbing behind her temples wasn’t helping.
“So, what did he have to say?” Nate asked.
“What?” Laura asked, so confused for a moment that she didn’t even move right away when the lights changed. Thankfully, there was no one behind her to get annoyed; the roads were much clearer than they had been during the day.
“Caleb Rowntree,” Nate said. “You were meeting with him when we got the call about the new body.”
“Oh,” Laura said, shaking her head briefly. “Nothing, really. At least, I don’t think so. He had some information about a suspicious client in the acting class, but it was over a year ago.”
“Really? He didn’t say anything else?” Nate asked.
“Nope.”
“Not even asking you out on a date?”
Laura glanced at Nate, then refocused on the road. They weren’t far from the house where Joe Barnes was listed in the address book. “He said he’d like to see me when I wasn’t investigating a murder.”
“Ha!” Nate crowed. “I knew it! So, what did you say?”
“I said maybe,” Laura replied, focusing even harder on the road in the hopes it could somehow get her out of this conversation. “I just don’t know right now, Nate.”
“Going on dates could be good for you,” Nate said. “Even if you don’t think it will go anywhere. Get out, socialize, talk to someone who isn’t in law enforcement.”
“Oh, and how many dates have you been on since splitting up with Katya?” Laura asked. She immediately regretted it. It was catty, a
nd she was better than that. Now that she was sober, anyway.
“None,” Nate said, scratching the back of his head as if uncomfortable. “But it’s only been six months.”
“Seven,” Laura corrected him. Then she was surprised at herself. How had she been counting? She hadn’t realized she’d been keeping such a close eye on Nate’s personal life. But then, they did spend almost every hour of every working day together – and in the FBI, working days could be very long hours indeed.
“Well, anyway,” Nate said. “Me being a loner is no excuse for you not getting back into the saddle. You should move on from Marcus, find someone who makes you feel good.”
Except, Laura thought to herself, that wasn’t really an option. She couldn’t get close to anyone again. Because whenever she did, she always had one big secret that she had to keep from them. On top of all the FBI stuff, all the confidential cases she couldn't talk about that haunted her late at night, she could never come clean about her ability. Without trust, a relationship would rupture. She had experienced that already with Marcus and had no intention of experiencing it again.
“Maybe,” she said noncommittally. She didn't want to get into an argument with Nate. Not about this. He wasn't going to win, no matter what he thought.
“You deserve it,” Nate said. “You deserve to be happy at home. I know this job takes its toll, and I know it can be hard for our significant others to deal with, but that's no reason not to try and find someone who can accept it.” He reached out, before Laura could stop him, and patted her arm.
The wave of death rolled over her immediately, making her feel sick to her stomach. The shadow was still hanging over Nate thick and fierce, like a physical presence shrouding his entire body. It filled the air, made it hard for her to breathe. Even when he withdrew his hand after a moment, she could still feel the lingering presence of it, clouding everything. She was only lucky it hadn't been a vision, because it might have caused her to lose control of the car with how strong it was.