Already Lured, page 4
“Agents,” he greeted them, barely looking up from his desk. “I’ve got your briefing notes here.”
“Great, sir,” Laura said, stepping forward with her hand out. “What time is our flight?”
Rondelle looked up. Instead of handing her any documents, he looked right through her with the kind of piercing stare that always made you think he could see right into your soul and everything you had ever done wrong. Selfishly, Nate was glad it was Laura getting that stare and not him. He didn’t want to face it.
“You don’t even know where you’re going,” he said.
Laura’s hand snapped closed on nothing and she pulled it back – almost as if to say she wasn’t going to get fooled by an empty promise twice. “Wherever you want us to go, of course.”
Rondelle shook his head at the clever answer. “What’s going on, Agent Frost? Normally you argue with me about each case. And you definitely don’t normally take them when it’s your weekend with your daughter. I was expecting to have to strong-arm you into this one, maybe promise some extra pay or bonus annual leave days.”
Nate opened his mouth to say he’d take both or either option, if they were still on the table, but Laura spoke first and cut him off.
“I knew you would win eventually, anyway,” Laura said, much the same as she had to Nate. “Besides, sir, you’re our boss. You tell us where to go, and we go there. That’s how it works. I like my job.”
Rondelle actually threw his head back and laughed. “The number of times you two have pulled whatever stunt you liked, demanded anything under the sun, and done things your way and no one else’s… we both know that’s just crap. Tell me the truth, agent. I don’t want to send you into the field if it turns out you’re not mentally fit for it.”
Laura squared her shoulders. For a moment, Nate thought he was going to have to dive between them to break up a fight. He wasn’t even sure who to put his money on to win. Rondelle had the build and the type for it, but Laura… when she was backed into a corner, he’d never once seen her fail to come out on top.
Admittedly, most of the time, it was because he was able to come to her aid before anything really bad happened. But it wasn’t like he wouldn’t have her back even here.
“I had a fight with my boyfriend,” Laura said through gritted teeth, and the startling honesty of it made Nate’s jaw drop open. “I’m mentally fine, I just don’t really have the Christmas magic floating around in my head anymore and I wouldn’t mind getting out of town and getting some space. And like I said, this is my job and I actually like it. If someone’s murdering people and the locals can’t solve it, then we should.”
Rondelle cocked his head at her for a long moment, like he was deciding whether or not to believe her. Finally, without looking away, he reached for a folder lying on the left-hand side of his desk and picked it up, holding it out to her.
Laura took it as he started talking.
“We’ve got two dead women in Nevada,” he said. “To answer your question about the flight, you’ve got two hours to get yourself to the airport. It’s a six-hour flight, roughly, so once you arrive in the early morning and drive to the town you’ll have to hit the ground running. The city of Annabel is a few hours’ drive from the airport.”
Nate groaned. “There’s nothing close? Not even a private airstrip?”
“Afraid not,” Rondelle said, although Nate could easily have interpreted that more as not on our budget than not on the map. “The two victims came just two days apart. One was found this morning, but killed last night. As I’m sure you can work out, that means by the time you land and get to Annabel, we’ll be expecting another victim before the end of that night. Time is of the essence, to put it mildly.”
“Any connection between the two victims?” Nate asked, though of course he had very little hope it would be that easy.
Rondelle looked at him with just the hint of a twinkle in his eye that said the same thing. “Nothing that the locals could find,” he said. “They were both strangled from behind with a very specific weapon – though we haven’t identified what it is, it’s sharp and strong. Whoever this killer is, they’ve used it to almost garotte the victims. There’s no chance for the women to get their fingers underneath it – and if they do, it’s strong enough to simply crush or even cut their fingers.”
“How do we know that?” Laura, who had the benefit of flicking through the crime scene photographs, asked.
“Forensics,” Rondelle said shortly. “Everything else you need to know is in the briefing package. Names, ages, last seen, and so on.”
“We know what to do,” Laura said, flipping the folder closed and putting it under her arm as if to indicate that she was done with the conversation. Damn, Nate thought – she was feisty today.
“Then you’d better go and get ready for that plane,” Rondelle said, which was as good a dismissal as any.
Nate once again had to scramble to keep up and follow Laura out of the door. If she kept going like this, he thought, it was going to be a very interesting case.
And by interesting, he meant difficult.
CHAPTER FIVE
“So,” Nate said, settling into the passenger seat and slumping down, extending his legs until his knees hit the underside of the dashboard. He was still a little out of it from the sleep he’d managed to get on the plane, and glad that Laura had volunteered to drive this time. “Tell me about Chris.”
Laura’s eyes only flickered over to him for a second before she refocused on the road. “There’s nothing to tell.”
Nate scoffed. “Come on, Lau. You know I’m not going to give up asking. We’re stuck together for as long as it takes to solve this case, and you can’t get away from me. You might as well just tell me now.”
Laura gave a short, sharp sigh of frustration, and for a moment Nate thought he’d pushed her too far. “Fine,” she said, then, and he relaxed a little. “I told him. Like you said I should.”
Nate squinted, on the alert already. That wasn’t a good start. Now it was his fault, whatever had happened. “Well, I mean, you said you wanted to. I was just taking back my advice to not tell him. I didn’t force you to do anything. It was your own choice, you know.”
“Relax,” Laura sighed. “It was my choice. I know that. I just kind of wish I hadn’t made it.”
“What happened?” Nate asked.
“I told him, and he didn’t believe me. And then he started to believe that I believed it, which was somehow worse.”
Nate sat up a bit, not at all liking what he was hearing. “He thinks you’re delusional?”
“Yup. He said I should get help.”
Nate really didn’t want to say I told you so, but he had. This was exactly what he had been afraid would happen. That Chris would think she needed to be on medication. Or that he would tell other people about what she’d said – which could lead to her being committed, losing her job, or even losing Lacey.
There was no point in saying it all again. He’d said it before. Laura knew what his fears were. If she wasn’t prepared to listen to them before, then she probably wasn’t now. What she needed, Nate could tell, was someone to lean on – not someone to judge her.
“What about since then?” Nate asked, trying to drop himself into more of an agony aunt frame of mind than Laura’s constant protector.
“Nothing,” Laura sighed. “I made him promise not to tell anyone else, by the way, so don’t worry.”
“Well, if he does, then like I said, I’ll back you up,” Nate replied. “We just pretend he was making it all up, and it’ll be fine. I’ll even pretend I saw him stalking or harassing you, if you want.”
Laura chuckled humorlessly. “I think I might be the one who gets in trouble for stalking. I’ve sent him enough messages this last two weeks.”
Nate witnessed. “That many?”
“The only time he replied was to wish me a Merry Christmas, and I get the feeling that was just because he’s too nice of a guy to let the holiday pass without saying anything,” Laura sighed, rubbing her forehead. The road was reasonably open, stretching on through desert on either side of them with not a town in sight, and only a couple of other vehicles. She could afford to take a hand off the wheel.
“He’ll get back to you when he’s ready,” Nate said, shifting back down into his seat again.
“Will he?” Laura asked. She glanced at him sideways. “I mean, really – will he? I don’t even know what men think. He just went silent on me. Would you do that if you were planning to get back in touch with a woman later on and carry on seeing her? Just ghost her completely for two weeks?”
“He didn’t ghost you completely,” Nate pointed out. “He wished you a Merry Christmas. He wouldn’t have done that if he never wanted to hear from you again.”
“You think so?” Laura asked. She was biting her lip, drumming her fingers on the steering wheel. Nate thought she probably didn’t even know she was doing it. “What if he just did that thing where you select all of your contacts at once and just hit send to all?”
Nate chuckled. “People still do that? I thought that went out in the 2010s. Maybe even the 2000s.”
Laura shot him a look. “Our generation used to do it. And Chris is older than me. Maybe he still does it.”
“I don’t know,” Nate said, shaking his head. “Just… give it a little more time. It took me long enough to come around, and I’ve known you for longer than he has.”
“Hmm.” Laura clearly wasn’t satisfied with his explanation, but she had nothing else to say. Nate huddled down further in his seat, wishing he was still asleep.
“I don’t wish I hadn’t told him,” Laura said softly.
Nate glanced at her. She was staring straight ahead at the road. “Yeah?”
“I needed to tell him. Just like I needed to tell you.” She sighed deeply. “I just wish it didn’t always go so badly.”
“I’m sorry.”
“What for?” Laura asked, her gaze straying to him for just a moment in surprise.
“Not… believing you. And when I did believe you, not wanting to be around you.” It was Nate’s turn to sigh heavily. “I should have had your back from the first time you told me.”
“We’ve gone through all of this,” Laura said. “It’s done. I forgave you. And you forgave me for lying for all those years. It’s done.”
“I know, I know, I just…” Nate shrugged. “The more time goes on, the more I wish I’d reacted differently back then.”
“It’s water under the bridge,” Laura said softly.
Nate let it go. He wasn’t going to stop feeling guilty just because she told him to, and going on about his guilt wouldn’t make her feel any better. But it was clear to him now that he had messed up way beyond how much he thought he had. If she thought that everyone in her life was going to react this way – and the results would justify that so far – then she was going to end up closing herself off to everyone around her even more than she already had.
“Hey, Lau?” Nate asked, settling further into his seat, and wishing he could just pull a blanket over his head and ignore the world today.
“Yeah?”
“Wake me up when we get to Annabel.”
***
Laura nudged Nate on the shoulder, shaking him gently from side to side. He made a noise of complaint somewhere deep in his throat but then opened his eyes, squinting into the morning sun.
“We’re here,” she said.
Nate groaned in response, but then sat up in his seat, blinking his eyes rapidly and giving himself a shake. “Crime scene?” he asked.
Laura nodded ahead. “I parked a little way away so no one would see you waking up, Sleeping Beauty,” she teased.
Nate chuckled. “Thanks. I’ve got you on the way back to the airport, by the way.”
“You better hope we fly at night, then,” Laura said breezily. “Or you’re going to end up owing me one. You ready to go take a look?”
Nate reached up to his neck, probably to try and work out whatever kink he’d managed to put into it by sleeping in the car. Admittedly, Laura had slept on the flight just like he had, but by now she was used to the contortion required to put yourself to sleep in a plane seat. A car was something different. She figured Nate was going to have muscle kinks on muscle kinks for the rest of the day.
Much better to have been the driver than to put yourself through that.
“Yeah, I’m ready,” Nate said. He reached into the back to grab the jacket for his black suit, opening the car door and standing up to put it on. Laura got out of her own side, standing, and shading her eyes against the sun to look at the crime scene in the near distance. It was the middle of winter; the sun wasn’t supposed to be this bright. But there it was.
They were in a large parking lot which adjoined a number of local businesses: on one side, a superstore with sliding glass doors that were swishing open to admit new customers even as Laura glanced around. On the other two sides, smaller businesses lined up in neat rows. Across the third side was the road, and over it, another small block of office buildings. There were a few police officers standing around outside one of them, in uniform, but most of them were clustered around something at the far side of the parking lot they were in, closer to the road. Laura focused her gaze on that cluster and, after a glance at Nate to make sure he was ready, began to stride towards it.
The closer they got, the more she could see. There was police tape around an area that encompassed quite a large portion of the parking lot, which she approved of – though it was possible it needed to be even wider. A single car was left inside the tape, a car which had to be hiding the scene from them.
“Who’s in charge here?” she called out, getting close enough for them to not only hear her but also see the badge she was holding up.
“Oh – hi!” someone replied, quickly appearing in front of them. Nate strolled to a stop beside her as Laura did, looking the person who had greeted them up and down. She was Hispanic, maybe in her late thirties, and way too cheerful and smiley for both this time of morning and a crime scene. “I’m Sergeant Cortez. I’m in charge of the case – although, now you’re here, I guess you’re in charge of the case!”
“We are,” Laura said, somewhat reluctantly. There were two types of local law enforcement that she didn’t get on well with. The first was the ones who were antagonistic to her presence or ambivalent about their jobs – the kind of people who got in her way by being negative. The second was those who were so enthusiastic about their jobs they ended up getting in the way, too. And Laura had a feeling about Sergeant Cortez.
“We’ve been making sure the crime scene is prepared for you,” Cortez said, somewhat breathlessly. “Please, come and meet the team. These are the detectives assigned to the case – you can ask them for whatever you like.”
Laura looked at the group of six men and women with a sigh. This was going to be a lot of trouble. “Names?” she asked, already feeling weary.
“Ronnie Grey, Greg Lyon, Connor Judd, Rebeccah Andrewson, Jasmina Tanzi, and Zak Stanford,” Cortez rattled off. Laura immediately forgot all their names, assigning them a sobriquet in her head: old detective, frat bro detective, cool detective, curly-haired detective, princess detective, overweight detective. She decided to remember Tanzi and Judd if she needed to call on someone for help. She wasn’t going to remember which ones they were, but at least she would have a name to shout. She’d met far too many people in this job already.
“This is the crime scene?” Nate asked, thankfully moving the topic onwards.
“Yes!” Cortez exclaimed. “So, this is where the victim was found. Obviously, her body has now been removed to the morgue. We believe that she was about to get into her car when she was attacked. It was unlocked, and the car keys were found not far from her body.”
“Theft is not a motive, then,” Laura pointed out.
“Definitely not, ma’am,” Cortez nodded. “The victim’s purse and phone were still on her body, as well as items of jewelry.”
Laura nodded. She turned to Nate, who was a comfortingly normal and everyday presence when there were so many new people to contend with. “Opportunity, or target?” she mused aloud. It was less of a question than a statement. Those appeared to be the two possibilities here. Either someone knew what time their victim would leave work and waited to harm her near her car, or it was a case of a killer walking by and seeing someone who would make a good victim.
“Surveillance footage?” he asked, glancing around at all the nearby businesses.
“Um, we have taken a look,” one of the detectives spoke up, almost shyly. The curly-haired one. “It was dark last night, and the attacker was wearing a dark hoodie over dark clothing, the hood pulled over their face. It’s hard to pick out on the footage where they came from – they just disappear into a part of the lot where there isn’t enough light and then they’re gone, and we don’t know where they came from or if they had a car parked nearby.”
“Alright,” Nate nodded. It was bad news, but then again it was good that they’d been looking into this kind of thing themselves. If the locals were halfway competent, it would make the case that much easier. “We’ll at least be able to get an idea of their build from the footage. Do you have the images?”
Someone reached into a pocket and pulled out a cell phone. The frat bro detective. “Yes, sir. Right here.” He handed over the phone – a flashy, newer model – and Nate flipped through a couple of stills before showing it to Laura.
The man on the footage was hard to make out, but he was a man. That, Laura could tell. He was taller than the victim and had much broader shoulders. There was also something in the way he stood, the way his hips moved when he walked, that spoke to masculinity. As always in these kinds of cases, though there was still a very slim chance that the murderer might be a woman, it was hugely improbable according to statistics. For her to have the build and walk of a man, and to kill like a man, would make her incredibly unique.
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