When Alex woke up, she realized she’d slept straight through the night. She turned over to look at the clock on the nightstand. It was after eight. She rarely slept this late. Even though this was only a twin bed, it was pretty comfortable. She suddenly had the strangest feeling, though—as if someone were trying to tell her something. She flipped over on her back and tried to still her mind. What was it? She couldn’t shake the impression that something was wrong.
Logan had told them to take the morning off while he met with Gorman about the profile. After lunch, Gorman would let them all know what his team was doing and what kind of progress they were making. That wasn’t the usual procedure. In most cases, once the profile was delivered, the analysts moved on to the next case. She wondered if they would be called in on something else while they were here. It was certainly possible. The plan was to keep them here until the UNSUB was captured, but how long would that take? They couldn’t stay here forever.
She turned back over and looked out the window. It was still snowing. Beautiful. She tried to enjoy it, but once again, that odd feeling came. She couldn’t ignore it. She turned over again and sat up. Kaely wasn’t in her bed. She must have already gone down for breakfast. Alex looked around. She would have felt better if Kaely had at least left a note to tell her where she was.
Alex got out of bed and took a shower. Then she dressed in jeans and a light-blue shirt, which she tucked in. Yesterday she’d dressed more formally, but when she saw almost everyone else was wearing casual clothes, she’d decided to join them today. She reached into a pocket of her bag and pulled out a pair of earrings she loved to wear. Jordan Stewart, Shirley’s eight-year-old son, had given the silver pistols to her at Christmas. He’d purchased them with his own money saved from his allowance. Shirley told her she certainly didn’t have to wear them if they were in bad taste, but Jordan thought they were “cool,” and Alex did too. She wore them whenever she could.
Monty and Logan had teased her about them more than once, but she didn’t care. She treasured them because Jordan had given them with love. She quickly put them on, then pulled on her boots and brushed her hair. She started to put it into a ponytail, but at the last minute she changed her mind and left it down. She wasn’t working this morning, so why not? She hurried out of her room. Maybe she could catch Kaely before she finished breakfast.
She closed the door behind her and was on her way to the elevator when she noticed the door to one of the unused rooms was open. She started to close it, but then she noticed a man lying on the floor inside. She ran over and recognized him. It was one of the FBI police officers. What was his name? Dennis. Dennis something. She couldn’t remember. He was on his side with his eyes closed. She felt for a pulse, but she knew he was dead as soon as she touched him. He was cold.
A quick look around didn’t turn up any signs of violence. He was just . . . dead. What in the world had happened? She reached for her phone and called Logan. When he answered, she told him what she’d found. He sounded as stunned as she felt. She tried to keep her attitude professional, but this man had died while trying to protect her and the other BAU agents.
She went back out into the hallway and waited. A minute or two later, the elevator began its ascent to their floor. When the doors opened, Logan and an officer stepped out.
“Show me,” Logan said.
Alex led them to the room. “The door was partially open. That’s the only reason I looked inside.”
“Dennis?” the officer said.
“I’m sorry,” she said to him. “He’s dead.” The officer, whose badge read Shawn Driscoll, started to approach, but then he stopped. Even though the death looked like natural causes, at this point they couldn’t assume anything. They had to keep the area as clean as possible for the crime-scene investigators.
“Do you have any idea what happened?” Logan asked her.
“No. I checked to see if he was alive, but I quickly realized he was gone. No visible signs of trauma. It looks like he simply died.”
“When did Dennis come on?” Logan asked the obviously distraught officer standing next to him.
“Two a.m.,” Driscoll said, his voice breaking.
“Why would he enter this room?” Alex asked. “It’s being updated. No one was staying here.”
“Maybe he heard something and was checking it out.”
“Or he was just curious,” Logan said.
“The way he’s positioned, he could have simply fallen against the door after suffering a heart attack,” Alex said. “Maybe it was slightly ajar.”
Driscoll was fighting to maintain his composure, and Alex felt bad for him.
“Let’s call the ME,” Logan said. “Until he gets here, we need to leave Dennis where he is.” He looked at Alex. “Was he lying on his side when you found him?”
“Yes. I just checked for a pulse and then called you.”
“Okay, let’s go downstairs. Will you stay here with him?” he asked Driscoll.
The officer nodded.
Logan turned to look at Alex. “Where’s Kaely?”
“She’s not here. She left before I got up.”
“Okay.” He addressed the officer again. “Shawn, no one is allowed on this floor without my permission. And no one leaves. I believe all my people are already downstairs, so none of them should be up here. It looks like Dennis’s death was natural, but I want to make certain. Do you understand?”
He nodded. “Yes, sir.”
Logan started to take his secure phone out of his pocket. “I want my own phone back,” he grumbled. “I had numbers stored on mine. I need the number for the ME’s office.”
“I can give it to you,” Shawn said. He looked at his phone, and in a few seconds, he read the number to Logan.
Logan had just finished talking to the ME when the elevator doors opened, and several FBI police officers stepped out.
“We heard something happened to Dennis,” one of the men said.
“I’m sorry,” Logan said. “Yes.”
“Do you know how he died?”
“No, it might have been a heart attack, but we’ll have to wait for the ME’s report to be certain. I’m sorry for your loss.”
“I don’t understand,” one of the officers said. “Dennis was in great shape. Took care of himself, you know?”
“Sometimes a death doesn’t make sense,” Alex said. “I’m so sorry.”
The officer who’d spoken just nodded his head. He was blinking back tears. Dennis was more than a colleague to these officers. He was family.
“I’d like you to check all the other rooms on this floor,” Logan said. “Just to be sure no one is up here who shouldn’t be. I honestly don’t see anything that makes me think this was foul play, but don’t touch anything just in case.”
“Yes, sir. We know how it works,” another officer said.
“I know you do. When you’re done, please come downstairs and report to me. I only want Shawn with Dennis for now. We need to do our best to keep the scene clean.”
“Yes, sir, we understand,” the same officer said.
Alex got on the elevator with Logan. As they began their descent to the first floor, she said, “We need to make sure the ME gets us a tox screen ASAP.”
“Why?” Logan asked. “Do you suspect something?”
“I don’t know. His young age. His physical condition. Just a precaution.”
Logan nodded. “I’ll ask, but you know how long those tests take.”
“Yeah, I know.”
Something suddenly occurred to Alex. It almost took her breath away.
“Are you okay?” Logan asked.
“He was cold.”
“Dennis?”
“Yes. He was cold. If Kaely had gone down for breakfast, she would have seen him. I noticed the open door. And if I did, she would have. He couldn’t have died after she came through here. He would have still been warm.” She swallowed hard. “Have you seen Kaely this morning?”
“No.”
“Did you have breakfast?”
He nodded. “Sure, in the food court . . .” He looked into Alex’s eyes. “Don’t jump to conclusions. One thing doesn’t necessarily have to do with the other. Maybe she went the other way down the hall. She could have been meeting another one of our group for breakfast, and I just didn’t see her.”
“Yeah, maybe.” Logan could be right, but she still felt apprehensive.
When the elevator doors opened, Donald Reinhardt stood there. He glared at Logan as they stepped out.
“I’m sorry,” Logan said. “But you can’t go up to your room.”
“Fine. But I’m done,” Reinhardt said. “This whole thing is outrageous. I know how to keep myself safer than you do, it seems.”
“Are you talking about the officer who died?” Logan asked. “It looks like natural causes.”
“Sure it is. Kind of a big coincidence, though, isn’t it? I’ve gone along with this long enough. You have no right to keep me here.” He took the FBI-issued phone out of his pocket and handed it to Logan. “I’m getting out of here before I die of so-called natural causes.”
“Look, it’s not safe—”
“I’ve given the FBI everything,” Reinhardt said, his voice getting louder. “They threw me aside like yesterday’s newspaper. You can’t tell me what to do anymore.”
“We’ve been over this, Don.”
Reinhardt stuck his finger in Logan’s face. “You don’t get to call me Don. I’m Supervisory Special Agent Reinhardt.”
Logan, who’d obviously had enough, said, “Actually, you’re not. You’re Mr. Reinhardt. You need to stay here. You have to be interviewed.”
“Either have me arrested or stay out of my way.” He stood toe-to-toe with Logan, and they stared at each other for several seconds. “I thought not,” Reinhardt said. “You have no way to keep me here against my will. I’m leaving.” He turned on his heel and stormed away.
“Should we try to make him stay?” Alex asked. “Isn’t he still a suspect?”
“I’ll call Chief Gorman and ask him to assign an officer to watch him,” Logan said. “But he’s right. We have no authority to keep him here. The police don’t have any evidence to arrest him, and he doesn’t work for us anymore. Besides, I have more important things to think about. I need to call Washington and let them know what’s happened.”
The Washington field office had jurisdiction over Quantico. But since the death appeared to be natural, calling them was just a formality.
Logan walked over to talk to the officer standing near the elevators, and Alex hurried to the food court. It was pretty empty. Just their unit and a few officers.
“Where is everyone?” she asked as she approached the table where Monty sat.
“The rest of the trainees are checking out,” he said. “Most of them left last night. Other than that, nothing’s going on down here.”
“Have you guys seen Kaely?” she asked.
“No,” Robin said, “but we just got here.” She looked at Todd. “You came down early. Have you seen her?”
“No,” he said. “Sorry.”
“You all took the elevator near your rooms to come downstairs, right?”
“Sure,” Robin said. “Why?”
“What about you, Monty?”
“Todd and I planned to go down to breakfast together. I met him outside his room.” Monty frowned at her. “Why are you asking these questions?”
As Logan joined them, Alex quickly told them about Dennis.
“Seriously?” Monty said. “Maybe if I’d used the other elevator I could have found him soon enough to save him.”
“No, he’d been dead for a while,” Alex said. “It must have happened sometime early this morning. Are you sure you haven’t seen Kaely anywhere? Did anyone make breakfast plans with her? Could she have used the elevator on your end?”
“Not as far as we know,” Robin said. “What’s going on, Alex?”
“We don’t know where she is.” Alex took the phone from her pocket, found Kaely’s name in her contacts list, and called her. The phone rang and rang, but no one answered. These phones didn’t have voice mail, so there was no way to leave a message.
“I wouldn’t jump to conclusions,” Bethany said. “Kaely knows how to take care of herself. She could be anywhere. Maybe she went over to the training field.”
“No one’s supposed to leave the building without permission,” Logan said. “And why wouldn’t she answer her phone?”
“Maybe it’s not working,” Todd said. “I’ve had some trouble with mine.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Alex said.
They had no proof anything was wrong, but the odd uneasiness Alex felt when she’d opened her eyes this morning was turning into cold, paralyzing dread. Somehow she knew Kaely was in trouble.
“Maybe she left,” Nathan said. “I realize no unauthorized person is allowed on campus, but I doubt the guards would question someone going out. We’re under protection, but we’re not prisoners.”
“She wouldn’t do that,” Logan said. “She knows better. And even if for some odd reason she wanted to leave the grounds, she would have told me.”
He tried to call her on his phone, but after a minute, he put the phone back in his pocket. Alex could tell he was worried too.
“Before we call in the cavalry,” Monty said, “let’s see if we can find her.”
“Okay,” Logan said. “But first let me find out who left early this morning. Stay here.”
As Logan walked away, Alex prayed they would find Kaely quickly, yet her gut told her it wouldn’t be that easy. Even though she knew there’d be no answer, she called Kaely again. Every ring made it clear to her that Kaely was in real danger, and they had no idea how to help her.