She just had to convince him she’d had a change of heart for that reason, and not for any other.
“No, I’m not buying this,” Nate said, narrowing his eyes at her. Laura wanted to scream. Why did he have to know her so well? “You don’t just give up like that. Not in these situations. Something just changed. What is it?”
“Okay, fine,” Laura said, throwing her arms up in the air. “Let’s go back to being on opposite sides, then. You carry on doing your investigation, and I’ll carry on doing mine. I’ll stay around here and look for more evidence of his intent, or of who he really is. Maybe he dropped something incriminating.”
It wasn’t much, but it was, at least, an excuse to stay here. A search like that wouldn’t take her hours, but it was a starting point. She could invent something better later.
“Laura, your behavior is starting to worry me,” Nate said. His arms were still crossed, and he was shaking his head, looking at her closely. “Are you drinking again?”
“Am I - ?!” Laura began incredulously, almost wanting to hit him for even suggesting that. But she tried to rein herself in. Of course, to Nate, it would look as though she was behaving in a completely irrational way. Of course, to him, it would seem like she was blowing hot and cold, running through mood swings by the second. And what would cause that but falling off the wagon?
He hadn’t known her when she was sober. It had been before they were assigned as partners. But he’d seen her try time and time again to get right, to get off the drink. And he’d seen her fall back on it. Sometimes disastrously.
Could she really blame him for thinking it was happening again – even if the accusation felt like a hot knife sliding into her heart?
“Are you?” Nate pressed.
“No,” Laura said heavily, blinking back tears that threatened to spill down her face. “No, I’m not. I’m going to talk to the witnesses we asked to wait outside first, and then look around. It might take me a while. You do what you have to do.”
Nate looked at her for a long second, opening his mouth as though he wanted to say something. Then he closed it and shook his head and stalked away.
He was angry with her. Laura could see that much without the help of a vision. He wanted her to come clean, to tell him what was really going on. It was the one thing she couldn’t do, and it was breaking them apart. It wouldn’t be long before he refused to work with her anymore, asked Rondelle to assign him to someone else. It wouldn’t be long before there was one less person in Laura’s life that she could count on, and then how was she going to drag herself out of the pit the next time the bottle came calling?
She buried her head in her hands for a moment, trying to compose herself. Maybe this was for the best. Maybe if she pushed him away, she could somehow stop that death that awaited him from coming to pass. She still had no idea what form it would take. Maybe if he wasn’t around her, he would be in less danger. Maybe she could save his life.
Laura gathered herself and headed outside, trying to steel herself only to what m
attered now. She had to stop the killer. If she didn’t, then alienating Nate would have been for nothing. She had to see this through and make sure that no other women died as a result of this stalker, whoever he was.
Caleb was still out there with the others, who were milling around loosely in an area outside the theater. There were a few uniformed officers, no doubt left by Thornton to keep the peace and stop anyone from leaving, who were watching everything with bored expressions.
“You got him,” Caleb said, grinning at her. “I knew you would solve this.”
“Is it true?” a young woman nearby asked, stepping closer. Laura thought she must have been one of the actors on the stage when it happened. “Did you catch the guy who’s been killing actresses?”
She was very young, Laura realized. Maybe twenty at most. She looked scared.
Laura gave her a polite smile. “We can’t comment just yet. All I would say is, don’t let down your guard. Even if we do have the killer in custody, the truth is that there’s more than one creep out there. Stay alert and don’t take any risks.”
The girl nodded and moved back away, allowing Laura to focus on Caleb again. “I need you to come inside and give a witness statement,” she said. “Can you wait by the door?”
At his agreement, Laura moved on to a spot where she could be easily seen and heard.
“Alright,” she called out, getting the attention of the crowd and the police officers holding them here. “I need the following people to come inside and wait in the lobby. The director, any actors who were in the backstage area prior to the incident or saw anything, the assistants who were on the main stage door and the backstage door, and the receptionist. Everyone else, please give your contact details to the officers here and then go home.”
Laura turned back towards the theater, letting the police officers deal with the swell of conversation and movement that followed her words. She needed to get this done.
Caleb was first, because he was a familiar face and she felt she could deal with that easier. He had a kind of calming influence with his laidback and charming manner, and Laura thought that after talking to him, she could keep her professional mask in place with the others.
“Can you tell me what you saw?” Laura said, getting right to the point. She had her notebook in hand, ready to take down everything he said so that she could record it in her paperwork later.
“Yes, we went backstage, and I saw there were just a few people inside. Two of them went on stage, and the two that came off stage went out into the hall, which just left you, me, and the one woman,” Caleb said. “Then the man came in, and I saw a knife in his hand. Next thing I knew, you were tackling and arresting him, and the knife was on the floor.”
“That’s good,” Laura said, nodding. “I’m glad you caught it all. If we need you to testify, would you be willing to swear to all of that in a court of law?”
“Yes, of course,” Caleb said, and grinned. “It was awesome, by the way. How you just threw yourself in the line of danger to protect someone you didn’t even know. He didn’t stand a chance.”
“It’s my job,” Laura said, an automatic response. She didn’t often think of herself as particularly brave or that she had done anything special. She had chosen the career of law enforcement, and this kind of thing went with the territory.