Chapter 2

 

THE STALE SMELL of coffee mixed with moldy sandwiches made my stomach grumble as I sat in the hot sticky confines of a Nevada police station.

All the blinds were drawn to block out the heat, air-conditioning groaned, every door was open but it still felt like I was being baked in one of Nan’s pies.

I hated police stations. I mean, really hated them.

Although nobody took much notice of me, I still eyed the nearest door, ready to make a break for it. The two detectives in conversation with Renee didn’t know me but I was certain that they’d arrest me and haul my butt back to Serenity Hills.

I guessed I would always feel that way.

Dumb, that it had been a year since I’d been released. Even without being cleared, I would have served out my sentence and then some. It didn’t matter, I was still an ex-con. If they knew who I was, what I was, then I doubted they’d be interested in my opinion. In fact, they’d have stuck me on their huge suspects list.

“Aeron, you want to come over here?” Renee beckoned to me across the cramped office space and I sighed.

What could I say? No, not really. No, I didn’t want to touch pieces of jewelry that victims had left behind. I didn’t want visions of what they’d been through. I didn’t want to go through all that pain.

What I wanted didn’t seem to matter no more and I couldn’t just stand there staring up at the notice board.

“Comin’.”

Trying to navigate the tiny space in the heat made me feel crankier than usual. I couldn’t quite fit in between the desks so I had to do a kind of sideways shuffle. Not the coolest impression to make on two pretty harassed-looking officers.

They welcomed me with tired smiles. I felt for them. They wore that same exhausted, beaten expression my father once had. He was the police chief back in Oppidum, my home town, and he’d had to investigate the killings that everybody thought was me. These guys looked much the same, like they’d aged years in the months they’d been on the case.

“They found this one last.” Renee held up an evidence bag with a wedding ring in it. Back in Oppidum, she’d have looked concerned. She would have been thinking that some poor lady had once worn it. Now, she just acted like it was another number, another case.

I swallowed the bile gurgling up from below. I didn’t need to touch it. “Blonde hair, black roots, Caucasian. Mid-twenties. Her name was Lou-Ann.” I fought back the tingling sensation in my hands. “Strangled. The guy had a scar on his right wrist. Some kind of mark from getting burned.”

The detectives exchanged a glance.

“Yeah, him. Take a look under his garage.” I turned away, my hands starting to sting. It had been a month or so since we’d left St. Jude’s and Renee had been working me at every opportunity.

I understood that she needed to block out all that had happened to her there and before it. Only, if she didn’t let up, I was pretty sure I might buckle. I’d had a headache for days. In fact, that morning I’d passed out in the shower and nearly removed my brain cells on the taps.

My heart pounded, my hands poured with sweat and I knew I needed to get out. I needed to be anywhere but in a police station living some poor woman’s pain.

The detectives were mumbling questions my way but I didn’t hear them. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I felt like I was drowning. I clattered my way outside to the waiting CIG vehicle. Frei was in the driver’s seat, as always, looking happy as a bear woken from a good sleep.

“You’re getting faster.”

“Need a cold drink,” I mumbled, clambering into the back and slumping down into the seat.

Frei handed me a can of ice cold pop. We’d figured I needed sugar after seeing stuff. “You look like crap.”

“I feel it.”

Her eyes met mine in the rearview mirror. “Then we’re done with this.”

Not sure I’d heard her right, I cocked my head.

“You’ll be no good when you do have a job if you keep going like this.” Her icy blue eyes met mine before she slid on her aviators.

“She won’t like it,” I managed between shuddering breaths. My heart was doing weird fluttering things.

Renee stepped out of the station on cue and Frei shrugged. “She’s not in charge.”

No, she wasn’t but Renee was still in charge of me. She was a proper agent while I was just a nobody who bundled around reading people.

It felt like she was mad at me for it too.

“They’re bringing him in. They’re going to see if they can get a warrant for the guy’s arrest.” Renee climbed into the front with Frei without so much as a glance at me.

I’d noticed she’d begun to separate me from every part of her day and it hurt. Maybe in logic, she was trying to find a way to do her job. I closed the door to the back, telling myself that again and hoping it would help.

Frei pulled us out onto the dusty highway. I could feel her watching me behind her lenses somehow. She saw more than any of us did. She saw an over-arching picture that none of us had a clue about. I couldn’t explain why I felt that way but I was glad she had that burden, not me.

“Hopefully, they can stop him now,” Renee said, slipping on her own sunglasses.

“They will if they listen to Lorelei. It’s up to them now.” Frei glanced to the left before switching lanes.

I sipped my can, trying to hide my surprise at her praise.

“What do you mean?” Renee frowned. I felt her anger rumble off her.

Here we go.

“Lilia wants us back at the base. Lorelei needs to rest.” If Frei had noticed the frown dipping below the line of Renee’s glasses, she wasn’t showing it.

I was glad somebody was taking notice though ’cause I was ready to curl up and sleep where I was.

“But—”

“We’re heading back. Deal with it.” Frei’s tone was cutting and Renee flinched.

“Lilia have a vision?” Renee asked, her shoulders sagging.

Nice to know that she cared for my welfare.

“No.” Frei sped up as we hit the open road. My stomach rolled with it. “She doesn’t want Lorelei run into the ground.”

“She’s fine,” Renee muttered without so much as a glance at me.

“You guys realize I’m back here, right?” Great way to make me feel inconsequential.

Renee stared out at the scenery as if I hadn’t even spoken.

“Good to feel part of the team,” I snapped. My hands pulsed as I did so. A wave of pain ripped up and down my arms. I gripped my chest. Tears filled my eyes with the agony.

“What is it?” Frei asked. “You seeing something?”

“No,” I wheezed. I didn’t know what it was but it weren’t nothing I’d experienced before. “In pain. Fine.”

“You don’t look fine.” Frei pulled the van over to the side of the road. I dropped the can on the floor.

“Aeron, what’s wrong?” Renee turned to look at me.

The van spun before my eyes. I clung onto my head. I clattered to the floor, thinking I was in trouble.

Big trouble.