CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
Laura paused a second in the car, looking up at the dark building. Before, even though the sun had already disappeared, there had been lights on inside the space. They had glowed over the sidewalk, leaving it feeling like the place was alive.
Now, though, it was dark. Foreboding. Menacing.
Like it was just waiting for her to step inside so it could spring its trap.
She shivered slightly and shook her head. What was she getting so worked up over? Yes, the mannequins were creepy, and they were going to be even more creepy in the darkness. But she’d been in there before. She knew what they looked like, what to expect. And the killer was already back at the precinct, where there was no chance of him hurting anyone – least of all her.
Plus, she was sure the place wouldn’t actually be deserted. There would be a security guard on staff, and that person would let her in and show her around. It would be fine.
She just had to hope that seeing the warehouse this time would give her the answers as to why she was still seeing something she’d thought she had left behind – and why it had only been the one vision over and over again this time, never with any more details or information.
Laura grabbed her cell phone off the passenger seat and dialed Nate’s number for the second time, waiting. It rang out, hitting his voicemail. He was probably still in the interview room and wouldn’t have his ringtone on. What was she going to do – wait for him to finish and call her back? That could take hours.
She resolved herself and got up, opening the car door and hearing it thud closed far too loud in the stillness of the night. Most people around here were gone, given that it was an industrial area. If there were any residents, they must have been in bed already. The only light came from the streetlights – and wasn’t it just her luck that the one right by the warehouse was out, the bulb not responding the same way as its brothers had.
Which was fine. She knew where she was going, and she wasn’t afraid.
If she kept repeating that to herself often enough, maybe it would actually be true.
Laura walked into the entrance she had used before, finding it locked and then knocking. She should have called ahead. She hadn’t thought. This was all stupid. Maybe she…
There was a sound somewhere further down the alley beside the building and she peered ahead, trying to see. There was no illumination down here at all. She turned on the light on her cell phone and looked, but there was nothing in the alley at all.
Though, it did raise a thought. The other entrance was around there, the one with the loading bay. Maybe she had a better chance of running into a security guard over there. In fact, maybe that was who she’d heard.
She rushed down around the side of the building and round the back, finding it opening out on a wider space as she’d expected. There were clearly marked bays for trucks to reverse into for unloading. There was also an open door – in her head, Laura mentally mapped it out and realized it must be the one facing the mannequins from the front.
Someone stepped out of the door and she almost jumped out of her skin, throwing the beam of light up to illuminate them. In the same split-second, a blinding beam of light was also turned her way, making her flinch and throw up her arm.
“Who’s there?” a gruff male voice demanded.
“FBI,” Laura said, figuring that being upfront would get her further. “Who are you?”
The beam of light dropped from her face to her body, as if out of consideration of her eyes, and she did the same with her phone. She could make out his uniform now, including a badge holding his name and the logo of the warehouse firm. “Security guard,” he said. “Can I see some ID?”
Laura nodded and pulled her badge out of her pocket, showing it to him as she took a few steps closer.
“Great,” he said. “Sorry. I just can’t be too careful, you know? You could be anyone without a uniform.”
Laura smiled. Now that their lights were pointed down, they provided enough illumination to allow them to see one another without making it uncomfortable. “Did anyone tell you about the arrest we made earlier today?”
“Yeah, of course,” the security guard said. “They did say there might be some cops or something coming by. Sorry. I was just expecting – you know. The red and blue flashing lights and all that.”
Laura laughed. “Sorry, just me this time,” she said. “I’m just checking something real quick, then I’ll be out of your hair. The official party comes tomorrow, I would think. We’re not expecting to find a lot of physical evidence left here, so I wouldn’t worry about being ready tonight.”
The security guard nodded. “That’s kind of a relief,” he said. “I don’t really feel qualified for all this. It’s funny. You spend a long time guarding something and stopping people getting in – being told you might have to let them all in feels weird.”
Laura laughed again at that. “I never considered it that way,” she said. “I won’t be long. I just need to look inside the storage area. You can carry on patrolling if you need to. It’s safe now, anyway – we have the killer in custody.”
“Thanks,” the security guard said, with a look of relief. “I wasn’t sure what the protocol is here. I mean, I’m supposed to patrol, but then I have a guest – you know what I mean?”
Laura was starting to think that what he meant was that working the night shift left him without a lot of opportunities to talk to other people, but she only smiled politely. “I’ll just head on in, then,” she said.
She walked past him as he swept his beam of light across the courtyard a few more times, apparently reassuring himself that there was no one else around. Laura let him go. He wasn’t a risk, and she felt like the answer to her vision lay in the warehouse itself. The person in it had already been removed, after all.
Her eyes adjusted to the gloom of the corridor; there was a faint light coming from the warehouse, after all. Another movement up ahead had her tensing up and almost reaching for her gun, but she relaxed again when she saw who it was. A janitor, carrying a couple of heavy-looking garbage bags. He nodded to her as he passed, hefting them a little higher and walking sideways to avoid them hitting her.