“Alright?” Nate asked, getting into the driver’s seat beside her. Glancing up, Laura saw the figure of Spike Greendale for just a moment as he closed his door behind him.
“I don’t know,” Laura said.
“If this is all getting a bit too much for you,” Nate said, leaning across to try to look into her face properly.
"I’m fine,” Laura said. The last thing she wanted was him getting suspicious that she was about to fall off the wagon. She wasn’t. She didn’t want that. “How far are we from the precinct?”
“About a ten-minute drive,” Nate said, checking the GPS. “We have to pass through a bit of work on the road, otherwise it would be quicker.”
“So, not far as the crow flies?” Laura asked.
“No, not far at all.”
She nodded and reached for the passenger-side door. “I’m going to walk back,” she said. “Get some air, clear my head. If I stick to the left side of the road, I should be protected from the worst of the sun by the shade of the buildings. I’ll see you back there.”
“In fifteen or so minutes?” Nate said, his tone clearly concerned, though he tried to hide it in a casual manner.
“Yes,” Laura said. She turned to give him a direct look. “I’m not going to a bar on the way, Nate. I’ll be fine.”
She got out and started to walk before he could argue back, and a moment later she heard the engine start up. He drove past her, at first slowly, before speeding away and out of sight around a corner.
Laura breathed deeply, setting her sights on the turn she also needed to make. She just needed to spend some time on her own, to get past all of this. To get out of the funk that her brain seemed to be in. If she could figure all of this out, find out what she had missed somewhere along the line, they could get this finished and go home. Saving a life would be the cherry on top because she had no doubt that the killer was going to strike again tonight.
She just wished she had some way to magically find all of the answers, so that she could get this done. Somehow, her usual method just didn't seem to be working.
Passing into the shade of a large apartment block, Laura adjusted the front of her suit jacket, unbuttoning it to allow some air to flow around her body and prevent her from getting too hot. She reached, instinctively, to check that her gun was still in position in the hip holster she wore. As she did so, she felt a throb of pain in the temple on her right side, much sharper than before. The cold of the metal of the gun had not left her fingers before she felt the darkness starting to take her and knew that she was finally managing to trigger some sort of vision.
She barely had enough time to be afraid that the vision she would see would be of Nate's death, somehow at her own hands with this gun, before it was on her.
She was in some kind of wide, open room. It was full of light, and the surfaces everywhere she could see seemed to be polished wood or marble. The floor stretched out far ahead, and there were seats around her, all pointing towards a large open area of the floor.
Some kind of stage, she realized. An auditorium, maybe. There was a sign on the wall that said ‘Carnegie’. She wasn't an expert on the Seattle entertainment scene, and she did not recognize it immediately, but she knew what the purpose of the space must be. There was a woman in front of her, a woman with long dark hair who stood with her back to Laura, looking at something in her own hands.
She was quite far away, and Laura could not make out the woman's identity in any way. She was trying to figure out some way to control the vision, to take her own sight somewhere else so that she could look around the woman and see what she needed to, but nothing seemed to budge. The edges of
the vision faded to gray and then black, telling her nothing beyond what she could see right in front of her.
Right in front of someone, she realized. Because she was not floating above the scene this time. It felt as though she was actually seeing it from someone else’s eyes.
The eyes of the killer, or her own eyes? Was this a vision of what would happen to herself in the future? Would she be standing in an auditorium somewhere, seeing this woman?
But then the woman moved, walking across the stage, heels clicking impressively as the sound was picked up and carried. She walked straight backstage, without looking behind her, as if she was familiar with this place and knew exactly where she needed to go. Laura's vision began to move as well, drawing her closer over the stage, following exactly where the woman had walked.
Exactly the same place - this felt significant. It felt like she was following the woman, like she was maybe stalking her. Exactly the kind of behavior that she might expect from a serial killer who was following his next victim, waiting to get her on her own. But then, why had he not struck yet? Why had he not taken her life while she was standing in the middle of the auditorium, all alone?
Laura's eyes looked down, and she saw a male body below herself. Hands that were larger than her own, a wristwatch in a masculine style, light-colored hair on her arms. Yes. She was him. She was the killer. She was seeing what he could see.
The vision turned up again, the killer hurrying towards the spot where the woman had vanished. He slipped inside, and Laura knew. He was looking for her. He was going to kill her.
Laura came back to herself on the street, her hand coming away from her gun and her stride only hitching for a moment as she carried on walking. Her mind was running overtime, trying to analyze what she had just seen. It had to be the killer. It had to be. Why else would she see that vision?
Why else would it trigger when she touched the handle of her gun?
She was getting closer to him, even if it didn't feel like it. She and Nate both were. Wherever he had gone, someone was in danger, and if Laura could find out where it was and get there at the same time, then she would be able to stop him. She would be able to pull that very gun and point it at him.
But finding out where it was would be half the battle. The pain in her head was strong, meaning that the vision must relate to something that was going to happen soon. The strength of the vision was very clear, showing her a lot of detail. In turn, she understood that this meant the killer's intent was strong and focused, allowing her to see things so much more clearly. He had a plan, and he was not going to be deterred from it by any little thing. He was going to kill tonight, that much was clear.
But how could she figure out where it was? She needed to get back to the precinct as quickly as possible, start looking through the computer for auditoriums, for any kind of venue that could be used as a stage. Then she would have to somehow convince Nate to come and look at it with her, though she wasn't sure how. Could she fake an anonymous tip? Could she risk doing that kind of thing, in case it would jeopardize a future court case?