Logan called the pizza place and confirmed that the order had come from them. Then they all devoured pizza while sitting at the table in the double room. It had only two chairs, though, so Logan had opened the connecting door and grabbed one from his room. Although Alex felt uncomfortable sitting in a chair she hadn’t sanitized, she tried to ignore it. At least they had clean paper plates, and the utensils and napkins the restaurant sent had been sealed in plastic wrap.
Before they’d started eating, Kaely had asked if she could say a prayer over the food. She’d heard Kaely was a Christian, but Alex noticed Logan looked surprised. He must not have known. Maybe that would help him feel better about Kaely.
No one brought up the case as they ate, probably because their brains needed a rest. Instead, they exchanged light banter, which helped Alex relax. After eating too much, they put the remaining pizza into one box, and Logan carried it out to the SUV. Since the temperature outside was below freezing, it would stay safe.
After they’d decided to head back to the station at eight in the morning, Logan left for his room. Alex told Kaely she was welcome to take the first shower. While Kaely was in the bathroom, Alex sprayed the telephone, the TV remote, the light switches on the walls and lamps, the door handles, and the bedspread on the bed she’d claimed as hers. She pulled the covers down and checked under the sheets. No bugs. With the water still running in the bathroom, she opened the window, hoping the smell of her disinfectant would dissipate.
She heard the shower turn off and quickly closed the window. By now the room was cold, so she cranked up the heat and sat down at the table.
Alex had turned on the TV and was flipping through channels when the bathroom door opened and Kaely came out wearing an FBI T-shirt and sweats. Her red hair was wrapped up in a white towel as she walked to her bed and sat down on the edge.
“What is that smell?” she asked. “It’s a little overpowering.”
Alex felt her face flush. “I . . . I’m sorry. I always disinfect hotel rooms. Especially since COVID-19. It’s just safer, I think.”
Kaely frowned. “Wow. It’s just really strong. Can we crack the window for a bit?”
Alex got up and opened the window again. She was embarrassed by Kaely’s reaction, although she couldn’t blame her.
“I’m sorry if I offended you,” Kaely said. “That wasn’t my intention. What you’re doing is really smart. You can never be too careful.”
“I’m not offended,” Alex said. She just wanted to move on. Did Kaely see her as some kind of nut now? No matter what she’d just said?
“You have a problem with germs, don’t you?” Kaely asked gently. “As I’m sure you know, that’s usually a side effect of trauma. An effort to control your surroundings.”
“Yes, I know, thanks.” Alex realized she sounded a little snippy, but Kaely wasn’t the only behavioral analyst in the room. She knew exactly why she had a fear of germs. Since becoming a Christian, she’d been getting better, but she still dealt with some of the side effects of her troubled upbringing.
“I’m sure you do,” Kaely said, her tone still gentle. “I seem to be putting my foot in my mouth this evening. Sorry.” She sighed. “This case is baffling. I think it’s because we’ve wandered off course, trying to solve the crime rather than simply deliver a profile.” She took the towel off her head and rubbed her hair until it was almost dry.
“I agree. It’s just so . . . interesting.”
Kaely grinned. “I thought you were going to say confusing. But you’re right.”
Alex saw an opening and took it. Although they’d see each other at work, it might be a while before she’d have another chance like this. She took a deep breath. “Kaely, can I ask you something?”
“Sure. Anything.”
“I . . . I wonder if you’d tell me about the way you profile.”
Kaely frowned at her. “I write profiles the same way you do.”
“I . . . I know. I don’t mean to put you on the spot, but most of us have heard about your technique. I would love to see it in operation.”
Kaely looked away for a moment, then cleared her throat. “There are a lot of things in this world we can’t see, Alex. But they’re real. Even more real than what we can see.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I still use my . . . method, but I’m very careful with it. Evil is out there. We both know it. We’ve seen it. Our minds, our imaginations, can sometimes create an opening for something dark. It happened to me, and I don’t want it to happen to you.”
Alex frowned at her. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
Kaely stared at her for a moment before saying, “I’m sorry. I’m sure you don’t. There’s really nothing wrong with my technique. Just because I had a bad experience doesn’t mean you will.” She shook her head. “I’m transferring my own experience to you, and that’s not fair.”
Alex didn’t know what to say. She still wanted to learn Kaely’s unique way of profiling. Her goal was to be the best analyst she could be, and she needed every weapon in her arsenal. “I . . . I’ve seen evil,” she said. “We see it all the time. Not something you ever get used to.”
“I don’t think we should get used to it. If we do, we’ve lost a piece of our humanity.”
Alex just stared at her. She’d seen the worst of the worst as the field coordinator for the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime in Kansas City before joining the BAU. Things you couldn’t get out of your mind no matter how hard you tried. They still haunted her dreams, along with the nightmares she’d carried with her for years. Logan told her God would deliver her, but that it didn’t always happen right away. She wasn’t sure what God was waiting for, but at least now she wasn’t afraid to go to sleep at night. The awful dreams occurred less and less often, and the fear associated with them was lessening too. The past few times, she’d found herself sitting up in bed after a really bad nightmare, whispering, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.
“Look,” Kaely said, “I’m talking about the evil behind our nightmares. The darkness we can’t see.”
Alex choked back a gasp. How had Kaely known she was thinking about her dreams? She swallowed before saying, “You mean . . . the devil?”
“Yeah. The devil. A spiritual war is waging behind the evil we see on earth. Satan is real, and we need to know how to stand against him.”
“I don’t know much about him,” Alex said. “But his existence would explain a lot of the awful things we deal with. Even before I became a Christian, I was aware that there was . . . something. Something beyond what I could explain.”
“The important thing is to learn that we have authority over him. Jesus put him under our feet.”
Alex had heard this before. At church and from Logan. She knew it was true, but she didn’t really understand how it worked. She was still learning how to keep her mouth shut when she needed to and how to forgive people who upset her. She was a work in progress.
“Look, like I said, there’s nothing wrong with my technique,” Kaely told her. “Of course I’ll teach it to you. Sorry if I frightened you. I’m just a little sensitive about it because of what happened to me. But you’re not me.”
“It’s okay. I’m an adult. Not so easily upset.” Even as she said the words, Alex wondered why Kaely Quinn made her feel like a child. She wasn’t used to feeling like that, and she didn’t like it.
Kaely stared at her for a moment. “Okay.” She walked over to the table, and Alex followed her. When she sat down across from Kaely, it reminded her of a séance. She knew it wasn’t, but it still sent a shiver through her.
“Okay, let’s do this,” Kaely said. “You say you’ve heard about my process?”
Alex nodded. “Sorry. It’s not a secret.”
“I know. But just to make sure I’m clear, I use the information we’ve collected about the UNSUB and then try to picture him—or her—as if the person is real and sitting across from me. If we’ve decided the UNSUB is white and in his forties, I start with that. Then I take any other evidence and build on it.” She smiled. “It helps me see them. I can weed through all the extraneous material and narrow it down in my mind.” She shrugged. “It doesn’t work for everyone. It might not work for you.”
Alex didn’t say anything. She just nodded.
Kaely picked up the folder the police had given her, then said, “Would you move over to your bed?”
“Sure.” Alex got up and sat on the edge of the bed, leaving the chair across from Kaely empty. Logan had taken the third chair back to his room.
“Okay,” Kaely said, “I need you to be quiet. Just let me talk, okay?”
Alex nodded. She was excited to see this work—but also just a little bit nervous. She chastised herself for being so ridiculous.
Kaely opened the file and began to read through the notes and peruse the photos. Then she looked at the chair Alex had vacated. “You’re a white male. You consider yourself highly intelligent. Smarter than everyone around you. You don’t like to kill close up . . .” Kaely frowned at the chair. “No, that’s not right.” She was quiet for a moment. “It isn’t that you’re unwilling to get your hands dirty. You killed John Davis in a way that proves you’re superior to him. You chose this method to make it clear that with all his knowledge and experience, you’re smarter.” She stopped again, then looked away for a moment before staring at the chair once more. “You knew John Davis. Not just from what you read about him. That makes you at least in your fifties? Sixties? And you were willing to take a chance that he loved his wife enough to kill himself. How could you be sure?”
Alex was a little disappointed. All this had already been discussed with Logan and Monty. Hardly anything new.
“You have no compassion for people like Davis. Or even his family members.” Kaely shook her head slowly. “Wait a minute. No. It isn’t his family members you hate. You hated him. But why?”
She still stared at the chair, and Alex found herself looking at it too, as if someone were actually sitting there. The hair on the back of her neck stood up.
Kaely sat back, a look of surprise on her face. “You don’t despise John Davis. You despise what he did. You hate him because he could do something you can’t.”
Alex turned her head to stare at Kaely. At almost that same moment, out of the corner of her eye, Alex thought she saw someone sitting in what had been an empty chair.