What an idiot, I thought. Did he think he was impressing me? Or intimidating me? The fact that it bothered him made me want to be put on the case even more. I’d use his taunts as motivation.
I printed off three separate copies of the files so I could give one to each of the FBI agents. Now that I had everything assembled before me, it actually looked pretty impressive. I doubted anyone else had put together anything this systematic or cohesive.
After all, the people who were actually assigned to the case had mainly spent their time chasing dead ends. They were over three weeks in and still didn’t have a clue what was going on. And now the kidnappings were happening on an almost daily basis. At the very least, I would be able to give the FBI agents some information that could eventually lead to an arrest. That was, after all, the bottom line.
An hour later I received an e-mail telling me that my interview was scheduled for 7:30 PM. Pretty late. It was only 4:00 PM, so I decided I’d go out and grab a latte to keep me going for the rest of the afternoon.
Predictably, I came back to another stack of manila folders on my desk. Dammit. I’d hoped to run through the files over and over again right up until the interview—kind of like studying for a big exam. Maybe it would be better to spend some time away from my desk to clear my head for a bit.
But I couldn’t get the files out of my head. I had them almost entirely memorized at this point and I simply couldn’t help it. Images of the different girls flashed before my mind. It made me reel back in shock a bit, remembering the human component to all this. These girls had friends and families, people hoping desperately that they would return safely. This wasn’t just an exercise in running data and compiling reports, it was about bringing these girls home and making sure that whoever was behind these heinous acts was put behind bars.
Thinking about this made me question myself and my work. Did these files have any real leads or were they just the biographies of a bunch of girls who’d met a tragic fate? I didn’t know for sure, but I hoped at the very least someone with more experience would be able to put my research to good use. After all, the team sent from the FBI seem top-notch. Even if I didn’t get on the team, I wanted to make an impact somehow. That being said, at the end of the day, I wanted to be out on the streets doing detective work, not inside scanning more old traffic citations.
At 7:20 PM I dropped the unscanned papers on my desk. Gathering up the three sets of files, I marched purposefully toward the elevator. I pushed the round, shiny metal button with the indented ‘18’. It was startlingly cold to the touch, but maybe it was just my imagination. As I waited for the doors to open, I thought about what I would say, how I would phrase things to be more convincing, to make a strong argument to the agents for putting me on this special task force. But maybe Eric was right. Agent Chamberlain was supposed to be tough. Maybe I really didn’t have a chance, but there was no turning back now.
—Elias—
Elias Chamberlain shuffled the papers on the table in front of him. He was happy to be back in New York City. Well, ‘happy’ wasn’t really the best word. But it felt right to be back; he’d missed it. The bright lights and dark alleys, the high arts and the dirty slums, the mélange of peoples and cultures and cuisines. To him, there was no better place on earth; and also no place more sinister.
He’d left several years ago to work in the DC bureau, but he hadn’t stayed in the district for too long. As an expert in his field, Elias’s job took him everywhere from DC, to LA, to Houston, to Chicago… even to smaller cities like Des Moines and Omaha. He followed whatever wave of crime was in motion; in a world full of danger, this meant he was constantly on the move.
Looking down at the sheet of paper he held in his hands, he noted the long list of names crossed off in red ink. It was a wonder this department had gotten anything done with all the incompetent people that filled its ranks. Every detective he’d spoken to seemed self-involved and self-promoting; they couldn’t give a damn about solving the actual abductions case. All they cared about was furthering their careers and getting a bigger paycheck. Most of them could care less whether these lost girls were ever found.
Elias laughed to himself cynically. The worst part about these people wasn’t that they were self-serving, it was that they were stupid, too. He thought back through the interviews he’d conducted earlier in the day. Some young kid had walked in and slumped down in the chair on the opposite side of the table. His name was Eric something. Elias couldn’t remember his last name because he’d passed on the kid the second he got a whiff of his bad attitude.
Once Elias had found out Eric had been assigned to the case for three weeks and had turned up nothing, he knew there wouldn’t be a spot open for him on the team. Eric had seemed so self-entitled, so fatuous. He’d accomplished nothing, yet expected everything to just be handed to him. But that wasn’t an option, not when Elias was involved, and certainly not in a case of this magnitude.
His eyes made their way down the list, down to the last interviewee of the day: Tess Wilshere. Elias had never heard of her, but he sure hoped she would be a solid prospect; he really didn’t want to have to bring in any external personnel on this assignment. Bringing in outside people would alienate the department and strain his relationship with Commissioner Davis. These were important considerations.
There was a knock on the door. He calmly put the paper back down on the table in front of him. It must be her, he thought.
CHAPTER 5
———
—Tess—
As the elevator reached the eighteenth floor, I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself down. I looked behind me into the mirrored glass to make sure nothing about my clothes was awry. I forced a smile on my face, trying to look friendly and enthusiastic. Or maybe I shouldn’t look friendly. Should I look tough? Ruthless? I had no idea what exactly the FBI agents would be looking for, but I guess was about find out.
The door to the elevator opened and I walked down the hall to the conference room where I knew they would be set up. Taking deep breaths, I told myself to be confident and self-assured, to stand behind my research conviction. Hell, in all likelihood I’d done more work than most people in the department and I knew that I was smarter. Maybe this was my chance to make a really big splash. I tried not to get too worked up, but I could feel my adrenaline kicking in. That was a good thing; maybe it would overpower my severe sense of nervousness.
Rapping my knuckles conservatively on the door, I was greeted by a gruff voice that told me to come in. After one last deep breath, I turned the door knob and walked inside to find the tall, dark-haired Agent Chamberlain standing on the other side of the room ready to greet me. I walked over to the table where he was standing and introduced myself.
“Detective Wilshere. Tess Wilshere.”
“Hello, Tess. I’m Agent Chamberlain. Have a seat,” he said, motioning to a chair at the table directly across from him.
“It’s nice to meet you,” I said, trying to maintain a congenial demeanor. I placed the files on the table in front of me.
“Yes, yes, the pleasure is all mine. If we’re done with formalities, we should get started. What’s in those folders?”
I looked down at the folders in front of me, almost as if confused by the question. It was then that I realized that the other agents wouldn’t be joining us for the interview process.
“Um… that’s some research related to the abductions case. I thought Dr. Geiss and Agent Henderson would be joining us, too,” I said, motioning to the three separate copies.
“No, they’re already working on the case, checking all the data your department has compiled so far, chasing down all existing leads to see if they have any merit. Besides, I like to interview candidates alone; it gives me a better sense of their character,” he said calmly, his eyes staring into mine in a sort of placid emotionlessness; he was all-business, perfectly controlled in his every gesture.
“Oh, OK.”
“Now tell me, wh
at is your official capacity on this case?”
“Well, um, officially, I guess, I’m not actually on the case.”
“So what are you doing here?” he said, straight-faced as before.
I couldn’t tell whether he was serious or just testing me. Was this a stress interview? Was he deliberately trying to make me uncomfortable? Something about him made me shiver. He was fearsome without effort, but somehow equally enthralling. It was all I could do to pull myself away from these thoughts and maintain my composure. I did my best to choose my next words wisely and speak them with the utmost confidence.
“I’ve been doing research independently and I think I can be a real asset to the team,” I said, staring right back into his eyes as I handed him one of the files with cool deliberateness.
“Well, hand it over. Let’s see what you’ve got,” he said, taking a file from me.
I watched quietly as he paged through the folder. It was rather thick, given that there were multiple pages for each missing woman, sometimes as many as ten or more depending on how much info I’d found out about them online. I waited expectantly for him to say something.
“So, what am I looking at here?” he said shortly. “There’s no agenda or table of contents. I can’t tell what all this is.”
“Well, it’s, umm… It’s more like raw data. It looks at each of the missing women and attempts to find out common characteristics and I’ve developed a timeline for each woman that details their last few weeks leading up to their separate disappearances.”
“OK. I see one of the timelines right now. It’s pretty extensive. Where did you get this information?”
“It’s derived entirely from public social media profiles. A lot of the girls were very active online. As far as I can tell, some of them didn’t go anywhere without checking in on Yelp or Facebook.”
“And you think these are accurate?”
“I don’t have any reason to believe they aren’t. They might not be entirely comprehensive, but it’s essentially the only information we have right now.”
“Any initial insights? Commonalities? Trends?”
“Most of the girls checked in at a bar in Midtown named 41X within two weeks of their individual disappearances.”
“Most, but not all. How do you know that’s a substantial lead? What if it’s just a popular bar?”
“That could be the case, but I think it’s relevant,” I said confidently, ready to defend my case.
Deep down, however, I knew this angle was flimsy. 41X was a popular bar, especially for the age group that most of the women belonged to.
“It may very well be relevant, but this doesn’t seem that interesting to me. What else do you have?”
“Well, if you look though their pictures you’ll notice another… commonality.”
I watched as Agent Chamberlain flipped through the file pensively, looking at each picture and trying to discern for himself just what I had in mind. Suddenly, I saw his eyes light up. It was almost as if he flinched, albeit to a very small degree. He looked back up at me, his previously calm face now filled with a noticeably urgent seriousness.
“All these women look very similar from a certain perspective. If there is indeed one person behind these crimes, he certainly has a type. Does this file contain every single woman who’s gone missing?”
“Yes, so far,” I said.
“This could be useful. In one sense, it arguably provides evidence for the hypothesis that this is being perpetuated by a single individual or, perhaps less likely, a collective that’s operating together. There’s definitely a methodical nature to this crime—a trend, an obsession.”
“I agree. When I first noticed it, I didn’t know what exactly to do with the information, but it seemed relevant.”
“Listen. I have a dinner engagement at eight o’clock that I have to get to uptown. Do you mind if I give these files to Dr. Geiss? Do you have electronic versions? I want to see what she comes up with after putting it through more intensive, systematic data analysis.”
“Sure. I have them saved on my computer. I can send them over right after this interview.”
“Good. Go do that now. On behalf of the FBI, I want to thank you for your contribution to this case.”
“Thanks for the opportunity, sir. I’m glad I could help.”
“Of course,” said Agent Chamberlain, opening the door for me and leading me back to the elevator.
I gave him a polite, nervous nod before stepping inside. I hoped I hadn’t been too awkward in the interview.
As I rode the elevator downstairs, I mulled over our conversation in my head. I was happy that my insight about the body type of the kidnapped women seemed to be relevant, but the one thing I found disconcerting was that Agent Chamberlain hadn’t said anything to me about actually putting me on his team. I figured that was just how these things were. He probably needed to think about it; that was understandable. All the same, I hated going forward with such uncertainty. Hopefully, I’d have an answer soon.
I sat back down at my computer and e-mailed my files to Dr. Geiss. I wanted to stay later to work on the case, but the next shift was coming in and I was forced to give up my desk. Besides, I was deathly tired from a long day of work. Both the anticipation of the interview and the interview itself took a lot out me. I took the elevator downstairs and stepped outside into the chill of the night air.
I walked over to the curb and held my hand in the air, waiting for a cab to drive by and pull over. Tonight a long ride on the subway back to my apartment was just more than I could bear.
—Elias—
He walked away from the elevator with purpose, the same sense of purpose that imbued everything he did. He was slightly surprised, however, to find his mind wandering from the abductions case to the woman he’d just interviewed.
Elias had to admit it: there was something about her that had caught his attention, and not just in a professional sense. Yes, the files she’d prepared were extensive and hopefully there was something inside them that would yield a serious lead for his team to follow up on. Dr. Geiss should be able to let him know by tomorrow whether or not that was the case.
All the same, it wasn’t just this young woman’s work ethic that had caught his attention. There was something in her demeanor that had struck a chord with Elias. First, there was her quirky combination of confidence and nervousness, a charming combination to say the least. He could tell she was intelligent and clever, with good instincts. He wondered to himself why the department had kept her off the case. Was there something he was missing?
No, he thought to himself. His ability to read people was spot on. There was no doubt in his mind that she’d be an important part of his taskforce. As it stood, she’d already brought more to the case with her independently researched files than ninety-nine percent of the department.
The research was important, but his mind kept going back to the woman who’d compiled it. Something about her kept putting thoughts and images before Elias’s mind. It took a while before Elias could admit to himself that he was attracted to her, undeniably so in fact. It’s not that Tess wasn’t attractive, it’d just been a long time since Elias had even entertained such thoughts, so concentrated as he was on his professional career. His job was important and demanded full attention. He did his best to get Tess out of his head.
Right now, he was late for a dinner engagement with Commissioner Davis. He packed up his things in the conference room and turned out the light before heading back to the elevator. He casually pressed the button that would draw the elevator upwards to meet him and then gracefully whisk him down to the lobby of the building.
Once there, he would walk outside and embrace the cold, stimulating air of a fall night in New York. As soon as the air touched his face, he thought of Tess. He didn’t know why.
CHAPTER 6
———
—Tess—
I trembled as Agent Chamberlain came toward me, staring directly into my eyes, h
is face serious and intense as usual. He reached a hand to my face and gently ran his fingers across the smooth skin of my jawline. In that moment, I had to look away from him. For some reason I felt shy, shy yet intrigued by his advances. There was nothing that had indicated that he wanted me in this way, nothing in his usual demeanor that gave me a hint at his plans for seducing me.
When I looked back toward him his expression hadn’t changed. His face was closer, only inches from mine. It was almost as if he wanted me to make the first full move, the final advance that would find our lips locked. The room seemed hazy around me. Was it my bedroom or his? It was dark, but did that matter?
I put my arms around his neck, grabbing just slightly at his dark hair as I pulled his face even closer to mine. Closing my eyes, I parted my lips and searched for his. Then suddenly the wet loveliness of his tongue was in my mouth, our long, high-stakes dance resolving in a deep kiss.
He pushed me backward onto the bed, his muscular body falling on top of me. I could feel myself getting wet, anticipation building inside me. I wanted him, I wanted him more than ever. And now finally I would have him. I spread my legs beneath him as he grinded against me, giving a small taste of the ravenous pleasure to come. My desire built until I couldn’t take it anymore. I wanted to tear his clothes off, to get him inside me as soon as possible. Didn’t he know how long I had waited for this?
Then suddenly I heard sirens, distant, but rapidly approaching, getting louder than sonically possible. Agent Chamberlain’s head turned. Then he vanished.
I opened my eyes, the beginnings of the morning sun just starting to stream through the cracks in the blinds of my bedroom window. I reached over and smacked the off button on my alarm clock.
Just a dream…
Grabbing my purse, I ran down the stairs of my walkup apartment building. After that strange dream about Agent Chamberlain, I’d spent a bit too much time applying my makeup. I guess subconsciously he was still on my mind. Unfortunately, this meant I was about ten minutes late for work.
The Shifter's Conspiracy (Paranormal BBW Werewolf Romance Novella) Page 3
