Stitts gawked at her before answering.
“I want to help you, Chase. Why can’t you see that? Why do you always treat me like I’m the bad guy? I’m the only one who actually treats you with respect, the only one looking out for you. And the nicer I am, the more you turn around and treat me like garbage.”
Chase gritted her teeth, recalling what Dr. Matteo had read from her file.
“And why is that, Stitts? Hmm? Do you think that if you’re nice to me, I’ll sleep with you? Let me tell you something, Agent Martinez was a psychotic asshole, and I fucked him. Maybe your approach is just a little off. Did you ever think about that? Because if you want to get into my pants, then—”
Chase stopped herself. She had gone too far. Sure, she was mad at Stitts, but this wasn’t about him. It was about the asshole who had taken her sister.
The same asshole who’d kidnapped Stacy Peterson, Becky Thompson, Tracy Weinberg, and Stephanie McMahon.
“I can’t believe you would think that, Chase, let alone say it,” Stitts said, his tone no longer angry. “After all we’ve been through… you really think that’s what this is about? That I just want to sleep with you?”
Chase bit her lip.
That was what all men wanted, wasn’t it?
“Fuck… then why?” she demanded. “Why do you treat me this way? Everyone else treats me like a pile of shit, but you’re just… nice. And you’re not like that with everyone else. I mean, sure, you’re a nice guy in general, but ever since the day we met in New York you’ve treated me differently. What is it about me, Stitts? Hmm?”
Stitts’s eyes dropped to the floor and for the first time, Chase thought that there really was something behind the way he treated her. Not just lust, or love, or some archaic paternal instinct, but something else.
“Why?” she demanded.
Stitts finally looked up.
“You know when you first called in the FBI? When you were a sergeant in the NYPD?”
Chase nodded.
“Yeah…”
“Well, at first I didn’t even want the case… I mean, the FBI doesn’t usually get involved in police matters, even if they have a budding serial killer in their midst. But when I saw your name—”
A knock on the door drew both Chase’s and Stitts’s attention. A man in his mid-fifties sporting a black T-shirt with the letters TBI on the chest leaned into the room.
“Terrence told me to come get you guys. Someone just came in — a witness, and he wants you present during the interview.”
Chase’s eyes went wide.
“Is it one of the girls? Did they find one of the girls?”
The man shook his head.
“Not… not exactly. But Terrence insisted that you join us.”
Chapter 22
“I wouldn’t have normally reported it, but with the news about the missing girls… and the look in her eyes. I mean, it was pure fear.”
Chase observed the broad-shouldered woman from the back of the room. Her eyes were downcast, locked on her fidgeting hands as she spoke, and her posture was slumped. She spoke about the fear in the little girl’s eyes, but it was the fear that she displayed that held Chase’s interest.
“How did you hear about the missing girls, Mrs. Arnold? I mean, you said that you were in Pasquo when the girl came up to you, correct? So far as I know, there haven’t been any missing girls from Pasquo,” Terrence said, leaning forward. Of the four of them—Terrence, Chase, Stitts, and the man who had come to retrieve them and had subsequently introduced himself as Jordan James—only Terrence was seated. Chase and Stitts stood at the back of the room, while Jordan paced behind the seated woman.
Rita raised her eyes.
“I have a cousin in Triune and he has an eight-year-old girl. He was telling me how scared he was when Becky went missing, that he was basically having panic attacks about the whole ordeal. That’s how I knew. In fact, I was just getting off the phone with him when the little girl came up to me in the grocery store.”
Jordan strode forward.
“And this girl… did she tell you her name?”
Rita shook her head.
“No. She just said that the woman she was with—this woman in a long white dress—wasn’t her mother. It was clear that she came with her, but she was scared…”
Jordan nodded and moved away from the table again and returned to pacing. Terrence opened a folder and laid four photographs out on the table in front of Rita.
Chase continued to focus on the woman’s face as she turned her attention to the images of the missing girls.
“And you say that this girl then found her mother? And it was someone else in a long white dress?”
Rita nodded.
“Yeah. She turned and then there was this other lady… a little younger than the first and she was wearing almost the exact same dress. The little girl squealed and ran to her…”
Terrence nodded and then indicated the photographs.
“And you’re sure that the girl wasn’t any of these girls? With a different haircut, maybe, or…” he let his sentence trail off as Rita concentrated on the photos.
Eventually, Rita looked up and shook her head.
“No. She wasn’t one of them. I’m sorry, but I’m sure that it wasn’t one of them.”
Terrence stood and invited Rita to do the same.
“Well, Rita, I just wanted to thank you for coming in here today. I’m sure that the girl that came up to you was just confused, and I doubt that this has anything to do with the missing girls. That being said, we are going to need the help of civilians like yourself to find them.”
Rita nodded.
“If I remember anything—”
Chase pushed off the wall and stepped forward. For a brief moment, her eyes met Rita’s.
“You know what?” the woman said suddenly.
Terrence raised an eyebrow and Chase froze.
“Yeah? What is it?”
“The girl never told me her name, but when she saw her mom… her real mom… the woman called out to her.”
“And?”
“And she called her ‘Georgina’.”
Chase, who hadn’t taken a breath ever since her eyes met Rita’s, suddenly felt a shiver ride up her spine.
“Okay, thanks, again,” Terrence said. “We’ll look through the CCTV footage just to make sure that everything is as it should be.”
Rita nodded once more and then started toward the door.
She was halfway out of the room when a lightning bolt shot through Chase’s brain.
Georgina!
Chase mobilized and strode forward.
“What did you say?” she barked.
Rita turned back, her eyes wide.
Moving briskly across the room and toward the door, Chase opened the folder she’d been clutching against her chest. Several pieces of paper fell to the floor, but there was only one that she was interested in.
“Chase?” Stitts asked from somewhere behind her.
Chase ignored her partner.
“Is this her?” Chase said quietly, holding the photograph of her sister out for Rita to see. Rita was so frightened now that she cowered away from Chase. “Was this the girl in the grocery store?”
When Rita just opened her mouth, but no words came out, Chase grabbed her roughly by the arm and yanked her back into the room.
“Was this the girl?” Chase demanded, a little louder this time.
Rita simply blubbered, and Stitts once again called her name.
Chase let go of the woman’s arm and cupped the back of her neck instead. She pulled Rita in close, the photograph of Georgina now but a few inches from her face.
“Was this the girl?” Chase shouted. “Was this the girl you saw?”
“I don’t… I don’t…”
“Look!”
Finally, just as Stitts started to pull Chase away, Rita answered.
“No… I’m sorry… it wasn’t her.”
Stitts haul
ed Chase backward, and Rita, more frightened now than ever, fled the room.
“You’re lying!” Chase yelled, struggling against Stitts’s embrace. “You’re lying! You’re a fucking liar!”
Chapter 23
"Let go of me," Chase demanded. "Stitts, let me go!"
But Stitts didn't let her go, not right away, at least. He held fast, making sure that Rita had made her way down the hall before he released her.
Chase immediately turned around and glared at him, her eyes burning. She clutched the photo of her sister so tightly in one hand that her fingers were on the verge of tearing the paper.
"What do you think you're doing?" Chase demanded. "Don’t you fucking touch me.”
Stitts stepped backward and held up his hands. He hadn't meant to grab her as roughly as he had, but if he hadn’t acted when he did, Terrence or Jordan would have stepped in. And if that happened, it wouldn’t be long before someone from the TBI made a call to Director Hampton and pulled them both off the case.
"I was only trying to—"
"—help?" Chase finished for him. "That’s your fucking problem, Stitts. Always trying to help others, your sanctimonious asshole. You know what, why don’t you help yourself for once and leave me the fuck alone?”
"Maybe mommy and daddy want to take this fight outside?" Jordan asked.
Stitts whipped around to glare at the man. Terrence also shot Jordan a look; while the Director of the TBI was clearly confused, it was obvious that he didn’t approve of Jordan’s comment.
Stitts then looked at Chase, who appeared poised to pounce.
Chase had always been a hothead, but this… taking her anger out on him? This was new territory. And even he had his limits.
"Why don’t you fuck right off," Chase told Jordan. Stitts moved forward again, putting himself between Chase and the man, but she shoved him out of the way.
What the hell is happening to you, Chase?
"Why don’t you guys take a little break," Terrence, the only voice of reason in the room, said. "It’s a long drive from Virginia. I'm going to give a press conference in a few hours — but despite what I said in the debriefing, you really don’t have to join. It’s just going to be superficial, placating the press, mostly. After that, I was hoping maybe we could do another round of interviews with the parents of the missing children. Get your take on them.”
Terrence’s tone of voice was so even and tempered that it effectively calmed the emotions in the room. Stitts could see that Chase was breathing heavily and that she was still furious, but he was no longer concerned that she was in jeopardy of murdering a federal agent.
"That sounds like a good idea," Stitts replied. “Just a little break to clear our heads.”
***
"If you ever do that again, Stitts, I swear to God, I’ll…" But the wind had been taken out of Chase’s sail, and her threat carried little weight now.
But Stitts was the one who couldn’t let it go.
"Have you lost your mind? You think that attacking some poor, frightened woman will help you find your sister? What happens when the TBI calls Director Hampton and tells him, Hey, you know those FBI Agents you sent to help? Well, they’ve just assaulted the only witness we have. What are we gonna do then?”
Chase looked as if she were about to say something, but then bit her tongue. Instead, she held the photograph of her sister out to Stitts. The edges were curled from where she’d gripped it, but her face was still clear. Georgina Adams had been a cute four-year-old, and, surprisingly given the age difference, she looked a little like Chase even now.
"It's just that when Rita said Georgina…"
Stitts nodded.
"But you’re not thinking straight, Chase. The girl Rita saw in the grocery store was what? Seven? Eight years old? Your sister… she’d be almost 35.”
"No — 33 going on 34," Chase corrected.
Stitts watched Chase mull this over.
"But what are the odds? A coincidence like that? I mean, Georgina isn’t that common a name, is it?”
Stitts didn’t like coincidences, but he also didn’t want to fuel Chase’s considerable fire. He shrugged and gave her room to continue.
"There's something… something I didn't tell you, Stitts. When I went to go see Louisa in the hospital, something happened."
Interest piqued, Stitts raised an eyebrow.
"I had one of the visions again, but it wasn't like before. It wasn't like I was seeing through a victim's eyes, but it was as if I was seeing through my own. I don't know how to describe the difference, but it was more like a memory than a vision."
Stitts tried to understand what Chase was saying. He was well aware of her visions — her voodoo, as he called it — but there was nothing supernatural about it. Chase was one of the rare people who could listen to their subconscious, really listen, and when she did, it showed her the things that she couldn’t see.
"Was it… like with the girls in Alaska? In Boston? Using your gut and all that?"
Chase shrugged.
"Sort of, but like I said, it was more of a memory. I’m not sure… I’m not sure everything’s right up in the ol’ noggin, Stitts.”
Well, there’s an understatement, he thought.
And yet, this acknowledgment was a positive step, irrespective of the circumstances that led to it.
She can get better… just a few months with Dr. Matteo, and I’m sure she can get better.
"You think maybe we should sit this one out, Chase? Watch from the sidelines? I mean, we can stay in Nashville until it gets resolved, but maybe it's better if—"
Chase shook her head.
"Stitts, we've known each other for what now… two years? Do you really think that I would give this up now, considering how close we are?”
Stitts wasn’t sure he was understanding his partner.
Close? How are we close? We’ve got no leads, no suspects.
“No, I won’t give it up. The only way you’ll get me to stop looking for Georgina is if you put a bullet in my head. And even then, I’d come back from the grave and keep on looking.”
Chapter 24
Terrence’s news conference went exactly the way he’d said it would: perfunctory and uneventful. Just something to satiate the media’s lust, but unlike others, Terrence fell short of glorifying whoever was responsible.
Instead of resting after their long journey, Chase and Stitts attended the conference. Only, instead of flanking the man, they stood in the background near the entrance to the makeshift TBI headquarters.
The only person on the podium with Terrence was Jordan, who Chase had quickly come to realize was something of a right-hand man to him. In fact, Terrence and Jordan’s relationship wasn’t that much different than hers and Stitts’s. Stitts and Terrence seemed level-headed, while Jordan was apt to open his mouth and blurt the first thing that came to mind. A chip on his shoulder, one might say. Chase, of course, was cut from the same cloth.
"If you have any information, the number that you can reach us at is on your screen. Time is of the essence, and we need your help to find these girls. Even if you saw something and don’t think it’s important, I implore you to come forward. If you aren’t comfortable visiting in person, just call the TBI or your local County Police Department. As always, your identity will be kept confidential. God bless and be safe."
Terrence quickly added that he wasn’t going to be taking any questions at this time and then left the podium.
As he approached, Chase turned and started to walk side-by-side with the man.
"I hate that shit," Terrence muttered under his breath.
Chase nodded. She felt the same way.
Once within the privacy of the TBI headquarters, Terrence turned to both of them.
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