“I don’t know…” She hedged. Her mind was screaming at her to say no. Her heart, on the contrary, had different inclinations.
“Look,” Diana said and reached across the table to take one of her hands. “I know this is outside your normal chain of command, and I can appreciate your reluctance to buy in. Here’s the deal. I think it’s incredibly important or I wouldn’t ask. I could do this through official channels, but I just don’t want to wait that long. Too many calls, too many layers of command.”
The plea in Diana’s eyes spoke to her soul. Something in them almost felt like Diana was a kindred spirit, as if she too had a secret she held close. It was enough to make her listen and, she suspected, more than enough to make her say yes.
“Tell me.”
Chapter Five
“Diana?”
She recognized the barely controlled shock in his voice from their years of working together, though she doubted the rest of them would pick up on it. She didn’t blame Paul for questioning her, and in front of Circe and Lisa no less. In normal situations they talked through any plan of action, and on the way over she’d sort of left out a couple of the pertinent details about the reason for this visit. Like the fact she planned to ask Circe to take her dog out on an unauthorized search. If she’d said something earlier, he’d have tried to shut her down, and he was really good at making his case. So, she’d opted for avoidance rather than risk falling prey to Paul’s logic.
This favor boiled down to gut instinct. The bodies of the three women had been a trigger event for her, and the little voices in the back of her head whispered, and not softly, “She’s one of them.” They weren’t really voices, but that’s pretty much how she thought of the niggling and persistent thoughts that hadn’t given her even a moment’s peace since her discovery of the three lost souls.
It would be easy to say they’d started yesterday, except the thoughts weren’t quite so recent. The missing-person reports of the young women passing through the department always caught her attention. The fact that her childhood friend Joanna was on that list made it worse. Since the first time she’d come across Joanna’s name she’d known something was off. She’d felt it then and could still feel it. Until yesterday, putting a name to it eluded her. Now she felt as though a road had opened up and she was compelled to go down it.
Her great-aunt Lily would say she was following in the footsteps of the special women of her family—those blessed with what they referred to as second sight. She wasn’t so sure she could buy into the explanation. She preferred to think of it as her cop-trained intuition, of the skills she’d learned from her dad.
Whatever it was, she wanted to explore it further, and given Circe and her dog’s amazing record for finding the lost, she was ready to gamble. It wasn’t really outside the chain of command. Honestly, she was willing to talk to Brian to get his permission to use one of his search teams if Circe insisted on going that route. At the same time, it seemed important to get Circe’s buy-in before she even approached Brian.
“I know.” She turned and looked at Paul. “It’s irregular.”
“Ya think?” His words were cool, his eyes were hot. Getting blindsided did not please Paul.
She turned her gaze away from his angry eyes and back to Circe. “Look, I could talk a good story and make this all sound nice, logical, and like regular police work. I’m not going to do that because it’d be a crock. I don’t want to start off on the wrong foot and I don’t want to lie to you.”
Circe leaned forward, her elbows on the table, her chin resting on her hands. Her eyes were dark and serious as they held Diana’s. “Good to know. Now you have me interested. Tell me more.”
This was going to be a little touchy. Too big an audience, to be frank, and she was about to share with them something she should have told Paul a long time ago. They were partners, and good ones at that. Beyond partners, they were friends, and it wasn’t fair to spring this on him in front of other people. Until now, it had been easy not to say a thing, not to explain. Even as much as she trusted Paul, she just didn’t like to talk about this kind of thing. Ever.
Diana knew she was a good cop and that the brass respected her. She wanted to keep it that way. No one ever questioned her work or her clearance rate because she was good at what she did. There was, however, a little more to it, even if she never put voice to it. Today, she felt compelled to throw it out there. In Circe’s eyes she saw something that screamed trust. It drew her in, and if she tried to say she didn’t like it, she’d be lying.
Paul was firmly in her circle of trust too, and she didn’t fear telling him. He would have her back no matter what and deserved her confidence. But she should have made time to share this with him before they came out here, and the fact she didn’t might undermine their relationship to a certain degree. He would be hurt, and she had no one to blame except herself. It was too late though, and she was just going to have to see it through. Damage control would be high on her list after today.
Turning her gaze to Paul, she put a hand on his arm. “I should have shared this with you before, but I didn’t want you to think less of me.”
His brow creased. “Not gonna happen.”
“Hold the sentiment until after you hear my confession.” She returned her gaze to Circe. “I don’t exactly know how to explain this.”
This time Circe put a hand on her arm. “Just say it.”
For some strange reason, Diana felt as though Circe already knew what she was going to admit. She blew out a long breath and said, “I sense things.”
“Like?” Paul said from beside her.
“Like when bad things are going to happen or when bad things have happened at a certain place.”
“You’re psychic?” Surprise was threaded through Paul’s question. Circe’s hand tightened on her arm.
She shook her head. “No, nothing like that. It’s more a feeling of dread, like a sick ball in the pit of my stomach. When it hits, I can’t shake it until I figure out the what, where, when, and why.”
“You felt it out there beside the bodies of the women, didn’t you?” Circe asked.
Diana nodded slowly. “The second I stepped out of the car it hit me like a hammer to the mid-section. Because of your discoveries, it only lasted a moment and then I was calm again.”
Paul was looking at her like he’d never seen her before. At least it was more an expression of surprise than horror. As much as she trusted him, she’d still worried he would view her as something akin to crazy. He was already dealing with one crazy woman and didn’t need to have one as a partner too. “This happen every time we go to a crime scene?”
Slowly, she nodded. “Yeah, afraid so.”
“And you never told me.” He drew the words out.
“What could I say that wouldn’t make me sound like a nutcase?”
He seemed to consider that question for a moment, and then his expression cleared and a hint of a smile turned up the corners of his mouth. “You got a point. So why tell us now?”
“Joanna.” The name would mean nothing to anyone except Paul.
The faint smile disappeared and for a moment he looked confused. Then his face cleared. “You think she was a victim of this same killer.”
She nodded and was grateful he got it. “There’s more to it than the feeling this killer got to her too. For months now, every time I go out for a run in Seven Mile, I get so uneasy I can’t shake it for hours. I’ve run every trail in the area and I don’t see a damn thing. Yesterday it hit me after we left the crime scene. Perhaps Circe and Zelda can do what I’ve been unable to. Maybe they can uncover whatever it is that sends my senses into hyper-drive.”
Just thinking about those runs sent chills rippling along her skin. Something was out there, and though she had no way of pinpointing where, she was compelled to try to find the source of the feelings. Maybe it wasn’t Joanna, but she was absolutely certain it was somebody, and she was determined to find them one way or the other. Wi
th or without Circe and Zelda’s help.
Despite the ominous sensations brought on by reliving those difficult runs in Seven Mile, she experienced a feeling of peace also flow over her. This was the first time she’d ever shared this thing she’d never put a name to with anyone outside her immediate family. No one disbelieved or discounted of her feelings, like she’d expected. Surprises came in the most interesting moments.
Circe stood up and looked her square in the eyes. “I’m in.”
Lisa jumped up from the table and grabbed a jacket from a hook by the back door. “Count me in too, sister.”
*
Paul knew it was dumb to feel excited that Lisa was coming along. She was a civilian, and even though this search mission of Diana’s was leaning toward unofficial, it wasn’t exactly proper to have her in the field with them. Too many opportunities for something to get screwed up if, by some long shot, they actually found something. On the flip side, he wasn’t about to discourage her. An extra set of eyes was never a bad thing when it came to searches, and he’d have no problem making that argument if it ever became an issue. If push came to shove on this deal, he had her back. In fact, the way it worked out, Diana rode with Circe and Zelda, while Lisa came with him. As his younger sister loved to say, “Cool beans.”
“So, you’re a grad student.” Jesus, exactly how lame could he be? Apparently pretty damn lame.
She smiled, and even out of the corner of his eye he could see how her expression lit up her face. Maybe his attempt at small talk wasn’t as bad as he thought. “That I am.”
“What’s your field?” Now that, he decided, sounded a tad more intelligent. Asking about her field sounded way savvier than simply asking her what she was studying. Yeah, he was getting his cool back.
Excitement came into her voice as she answered. It was an affirmative; he definitely had his cool back. “In less than six months, the gods willing, I’ll hold a doctorate in neuropsychology.”
“No shit?” So much for his coolness factor—easy come, easy go.
Her laughter was light and pleasant. “No shit.”
“Sorry.” Time to give it up because he was bungling the whole thing. Might as well just be himself. If she liked him, great. If she thought he was a total dud, oh well.
She laid a hand on his arm, and he felt the tingle all the way to the fingers he had wrapped around the steering wheel in a death-grip. “No worries. I’ve heard all the cuss words. I even know what most of them mean.”
Now he laughed too. Pretty and with a sense of humor. “I suppose you have and I bet you do. Why neuropsychology, if you don’t mind me asking?” He had a vague sense of the field, as more than once he’d been in a courtroom during testimony given by a psychologist. To say he understood exactly what they did would be a stretch.
“I can thank Circe for the push, or actually her best friend, Vickie, who’s a neuropsychologist. Circe introduced us, and I was so fascinated by what she does for a living, I started asking her a million questions, and well, here I am.”
“I’m impressed.”
“Don’t get too impressed yet. I still have a lot of work to do finishing up and passing my boards.”
“You’ll do fine.”
She squeezed his arm. “Thanks for the vote of confidence. I’m going to need all the positive energy I can get. So, that’s my story. What’s yours?”
Lisa had freely shared with him and now it was his turn. Fair was fair, although he didn’t intend to share everything. He just needed to keep it simple, and really, how much trouble could he get into? Unfortunately, he remembered thinking the same thing when he met Brenda and look how that turned out.
He went for it anyway. “Not too exciting in my case. Classic underachiever. Mom’s an attorney, Dad’s a third-generation newspaper man. I’m the family’s black sheep. Didn’t go to law school and didn’t dig journalism. Being a cop isn’t what my family had in mind for me, ever.”
“You like it though.”
“Yeah, I do.” And he liked the way she didn’t make a question out of it as if she understood where he was coming from.
“You good at it?”
He laughed a little and actually appreciated the question. His family, while ultimately supportive, still didn’t really get what it was he did, and nobody ever asked if he was any good as a homicide cop. “Yeah, I am.”
She gave his arm a little squeeze. “Then you did the right thing.”
“That shrink talk?”
Her laugh was light and golden. He could listen to that sound forever, he thought rather irrationally. “Absolutely.”
“Good to know. Next time the family gives me shit, I’ll tell them I’m not crazy for being a cop ’cause I’ve been tested by a very good shrink.”
*
Diana directed Circe to an area off Seven Mile Road in north Spokane County. Definitely outside SPD jurisdiction. She didn’t mention the fact, considering Diana undoubtedly knew exactly where they were. In the asphalted circular area that marked one of Riverside Park’s trailheads she parked the car. This wasn’t far from where she lived, and she and Zelda trained here now and again. They didn’t come here often because it was a favorite area for people to walk their dogs. She preferred low-usage areas where she and Zelda had the place to themselves. As much as she craved the runs, she craved solitude and peace as well.
As she looked around, Circe found it an odd place for Diana to pick as a search area, given its high use. And since she and Zelda trained here a few times a year, they certainly would have come across something, or someone, in their training exercises. Of course, the park consisted of thousands of acres, and no way had they covered even a fraction of it while training.
“Where’s Paul?”
Circe whirled around. A man with white hair and a white beard stood at the back of her car, hands in the pockets of his jeans. Medium height and at least fifty, he appeared to have been expecting them.
Diana came around the back of the car. “Hey, Will. He’s on his way.”
“He know I’m here?”
Diana shook her head. “No. Figured the surprise would be better. Circe, this is Duane Willschem.”
He put out a hand. “Call me Will.”
She took his hand and shook it. “Will it is. I’m Circe and this is Zelda.” She popped open the back hatch and Zelda stood up. Circe took a step back and waited. It was always interesting to observe Zelda’s reaction to people. It told her a lot about the person in about five seconds.
Zelda immediately wagged her tail and licked his face. Will had just passed the Zelda trust test, which was good enough for Circe.
“Will’s a retired homicide detective,” Diana told her.
That explained why he might be here with them, though why did his presence need to be a surprise for Paul? And why would Diana call in a retired officer when both she and Paul were active on the SPD? Then again, according to Diana this wasn’t an official search, so why not bring in someone no longer official?
As if reading her mind, Diana said, “And he’s Paul’s ex-partner.”
“Trained the guy,” Will said with a smile. “Taught him everything I know, which of course explains why he’s so good at his job. Uh-oh, it’s showtime.”
At the sound of an approaching vehicle, Circe turned to look. It was Paul and Lisa. It was interesting how quickly Lisa had jumped at the chance to ride out here with the attractive detective. It was great she was finally showing some interest in something besides school, but for Lisa to be so interested after only an hour made her a little nervous. Reminding herself Lisa was a smart woman and that just an hour ago she was thinking how great they seemed together, Circe decided there was no harm in innocent attraction. She couldn’t say too much anyway, given the immediate draw she felt toward Diana, unless she was willing to live with the old adage “do as I say, not as I do.” She’d rather not and would keep her mouth shut.
Paul was scowling as he got out of the car, and it obviously had nothing to d
o with his passenger and the drive over here. “What the hell, Diana. It’s bad enough you arrange this off-the-books search, but we can’t even do it without your uncle’s supervision? You’re just full of little surprises today, aren’t you? Fucked-up surprises.”
“Your uncle?” Now, that was interesting. Diana had failed to mention that small fact during introductions.
Diana nodded. “My uncle, Paul’s training partner, and one hell of an investigator.” She turned and looked at Paul. “If I’m right about this, I thought he could give us some additional insight.”
“She’s right,” Will said. “She always is, and you know I’m always happy to put in my two cents.”
The dynamic going on among the three was interesting, and Circe wished she had some of Lisa’s psychology background. She was dying to understand what it all stemmed from. Though Paul might resent what he obviously considered an intrusion, she was accustomed to having observers along during searches, so she and Zelda wouldn’t even notice if Will joined them. Besides, if Zelda was okay with him, so was she, and extra eyes were never a bad thing.
As Paul, Diana, and Will talked quietly to each other, she slipped on her chest harness and then her waist pack. Both water bottles went into her pack, and she attached Zelda’s electronic tracking collar. By the time she was ready, the conversation didn’t appear to be going any better than when it started. Paul was still scowling while Will just shook his head. If she waited on them, they might never get started.
“If you guys are so disposed, I’d like to get going.” That stopped the talking and they all turned to look at her. She raised an eyebrow. “We’re set to go if you are.” Though she couldn’t hear their conversation, she had the distinct sense it wasn’t about the search they were about to embark on.
“You’re right,” Diana said. “Let’s not stand around here making snarky remarks about things that don’t matter in the big picture. Let’s give this a try and see where it takes us.”
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