"We've managed to rule out a few methods that might have been used to extract the information. That doesn't get us very far in knowing what they did use, however."
"Can you have all the footage of the past twenty-four hours before the incident, through now, sent over to me?" Paulson asked.
"The network is limited until the building is cleared and the lockdown is over," Hank said. "If you leave me a tablet or laptop, the files can be manually loaded."
"Thanks, I'll send someone over with one," Paulson said. "Agent Heidrich, would you mind coming with me?"
My stomach started twisting itself into knots. "Sure thing."
Agent Paulson and I didn't know each other well, which wasn't surprising, considering I didn't know many people well that were outside of my team. It was an issue I really needed to resolve.
"First day back?" Paulson asked.
"Yeah. You probably already know, but the systems went down before I went active," I said.
"Thanks for the heads up. No one had mentioned that yet, but things are only now starting to settle."
We went to the control room, and the moment Paulson was spotted, someone came over and started to give him a rundown of everything checked.
"The first, second, fourth and fifth floors are cleared and all except the first and the clinic are locked down."
"Thanks, Anderson. Have you met Agent Heidrich?"
Anderson bobbed his head in my direction, but he was obviously lost in his own little world. "Nice to meet you."
"And you," I said.
He carried on with his report as though there had been no interruption. "Once we finish with the third floor, we'll start on the basement and subbasement levels."
"We don't have many cleared to work below the first subbasement," Paulson said. "At least not many in the office. Come and see me before you move any farther down than that level. Keep them locked off for now."
Anderson nodded and walked off.
Paulson took some time looking around the room, making sure no one was vying for his attention. Seeing he was in the clear, he nodded me toward the hallway that led to my office. "I'm going to have you walk me through everything that happened."
"Um, sure," I said, frowning. I looked back at Anderson. "First, though, what about the roof? It wasn't mentioned."
"If anyone is trapped up there, at least they won't be trapped around people."
It took a great deal of effort not to look at Paulson as if he was an idiot, but he was certainly overlooking some things. Instead, I shrugged. "As long as it's nothing that can fly out, I guess."
"You may be on to something there."
"The last incident we had in the office was with a person who could fly. Not that he tried to run that way."
"Wait here," Paulson said.
He walked over to Anderson, though I didn't watch their short discussion. Did that make things look bad for me? Like I was deflecting?
Reminding myself I hadn't done anything wrong was getting tiring. If my partners were here, it would have been easier. I was sure of it.
"Thanks," Paulson said, returning. "Let's get going."
The next two hours were taxing, aggravating, and were mind-numbingly boring in turn. Paulson and I went over everything, walking around the hallway to show my movements. Then he matched it up to the video Hank had loaded to a tablet for him. Once we were wrapping up, Watts was released from the clinic with his arm in a sling, and we started over, Watts filling us in on what he did.
As far as I could see, Paulson had nothing. No clues, no witnesses, and without video or audio, he was going to have a tough time.
Back in the control room, Paulson began setting people up with tablets and having those that had been cleared go through video footage. He was trying to find the movements of everyone in the building throughout the morning. He asked me about Boone twice. Since he had never met the man, and he had left the building before Clancy had been found, I could tell Paulson was trying to make that stretch. However, Boone had walked out of the building around the time I had reached the hallway to my office for the first time that morning.
After all the questions, explanations, and walk-throughs, I still wasn't allowed to touch anything or help in any way. Asking if he'd like me to try to read the area Clancy died got me a few odd looks, and even a polite ‘no thanks.’
Which made me feel like crap. Did he not want me to help because I wasn't active duty, because I was a suspect, or because he was leery of me using my ability? From the looks I was getting, I was betting on one of the latter two.
Looking back on it, Watts had given me a few funny looks as well. The last thing I wanted to do was to stay available to all the stares, so I left the room and returned to the little security office where Hank and Marty were settled in for the long run.
Hank looked at me when I walked in and he frowned. "Things not go well?"
I shrugged and sat thinking over the reactions of Paulson, Watts, and the others around me.
"That bad?" Hank turned to the other guy in the room. "Hey, Marty, can you grab us a few sandwiches and a drink. I'm starving, and I think we've earned a little break."
Marty left, then Hank got up and stretched.
"How bad does it look?" Hank asked.
"They can't find anything so far," I said.
"Something happened."
"I don't think I'm a suspect or anything. At least no one is treating me like one, but... Can you bring up the footage of the hallway, right after the static went away?"
"Sure thing." Hank leaned over and clicked a few buttons, putting the footage on one of the large screens.
It played, but instead of watching myself this time, I watched Watts.
"People here know what I can do, right?" I asked.
"Most everyone knows you're a Reader," Hank said. He played the footage again. "It could be that they don't know what exactly that means."
"Maybe not. I asked Paulson if he wanted me to read the Path in the hallway. I'm not sure I could find anything from this morning, but I thought it would be worth a try."
"Makes sense," Hank said. "Is it because the paperwork isn't signed yet?"
"That didn't seem like the reason he said no. Besides our team and Clancy, are there any other humans in the building with something a little extra going on?"
Hank frowned, but didn't answer right away. "Not full time. A few people would come in if called and one part-time woman that works similar to Clancy, a clairvoyant. Right now, though, I think you and Vincent are the only full-time agents that are human, plus a little extra. At least since this morning."
Both of us were drawn to the video, which had paused on our discovery of Clancy.
Chapter 3
"Is that odd?" I asked. "That we'd be the only ones?"
"Not really," Hank said. "We have several Lost agents. Believe it or not, being human, but having an extra power, is rarer in the Midwest than the Lost are. Since we have room to spread out, there's lots of space for the Lost to work and live, yet remain undiscovered."
"That makes sense, I guess." It was a lie—I didn't get it at all. Gran and my mom were psychics, I'd met a Palm Reader, and there was Neil with his super brain. "There are a bunch of humans with extra traits in other offices?"
"I'd be hard pressed to find out that kind of information about other branches. Even around here, I don't know everyone at the substations. Do you think this is relevant to what happened to Clancy?"
"No." I sighed and slumped in the chair again. "I don't think I realized how others felt, is all."
"Don't let today be—"
Marty entered with two vending machine sandwiches and two sodas, and Hank stopped talking abruptly.
"Thanks, Marty. Sorry, Cassie, I didn't think to ask if you wanted anything," Hank said.
"Thanks. I'm not hungry," I said.
The hours passed by in a gloomy stupor. Once the agents and each floor of the building down to the first sub-basement was cleared, some of t
he restrictions were lifted. My office was still off limits and there was no way I was going into the control room and put up with the stares, so I stayed put.
On the plus side, right before the lockdown was lifted, Hank had me digitally sign some paperwork and I was officially an active agent again.
It felt like a huge let down after the day, though.
Around seven-thirty that evening we were allowed to leave. My cell phone sprang to life when I reached my car. Texts and messages started feeding into my phone, but I ignored them all.
A shower, a bed, and maybe some brain bleach would scrub out the images of Clancy falling back into a pool of his own blood. Shivering, I left the Farm as quickly as I could, not caring what it might look like. Once outside the gates, I rolled up my car windows, turned the radio up as loud as it would go, and blasted an eclectic blend of music you could loudly sing with.
It was a cathartic release, but mostly it made my mind fill with the sound, which pushed out the thoughts and images. When I entered our little subdivision outside of town, I turned the music back down on low and rolled down the windows until I reached my house.
Entering the house, I dropped my purse with a clunk next to the door. "Gran, I'm home," I called, going straight to the kitchen since the light was on.
"She's out."
"Oh." I pulled up short, surprised to see Vincent sitting at the table. "Hey."
"I hope you don't mind that I let myself in through the back," Vincent said.
"You know you're always welcome. You have a key, after all. And, you made coffee." I smiled and poured myself a cup. "If you broke down the door, it would be okay as long as there's coffee made."
"I'll remember that."
I fixed my coffee and slid into a seat across from Vincent. "So, what have you heard?"
Vincent shook his head. "Not much. We received a few texts saying there was a lockdown, but until Hank texted Logan, we didn't even know if everyone was okay."
"Sorry. On my way home, I should have called or something. It was a long day, though."
Vincent didn't say anything, but waited for me to go on.
"It's... there was a murder at the office," I said. "Someone killed Clancy."
Vincent's face drew in, looking somber. "What happened?"
"No one knows yet. The surveillance video for the entire first floor had about ten minutes scrubbed clean."
"Deleted? How?"
"No one knows anything yet. Clancy had been stabbed. There was a noise, and I went to see what it was."
Vincent frowned, but didn't say anything.
"There was nothing in the hallway. No one was around, but when I went back to my office, there was blood coming out from under a door." I held back any waterworks that wanted to come out. "The door was locked. Agent Watts showed up while I was trying to get the door open. He tried to break it down, which didn't work out too well for him."
"I'm not familiar with Agent Watts," Vincent said.
"Me either, but he'll be the one with his arm in a sling." I tried to force a grin, but it didn't work. "Um, after that, I think I might have made a mistake."
This time, Vincent tensed. Not only could I see it, but also the air around him stilled.
I cleared my throat and played with my coffee cup. "We didn't know who was on the other side of the door or if they were alive. It seemed like the best way to move forward." I knew I was trying to justify what I did. "I used the Path to open the door."
"That doesn't sound too bad," Vincent said.
"Yeah, but, it was rushed and I didn't think I had time to be creative or use any sort of finesse."
"I’m not sure what you mean."
"Apparently, I don't either. I ripped the door open."
"When you say rip..."
"It was still on its hinges."
Vincent let out a huff of air that screamed frustration and disappointment.
"That's not fair," I crossed my arms defensively. "The first time it didn't budge, so I had to try a bit harder the next time."
"And Watts saw this?" Vincent kept his voice remarkably level.
"Yes. And everyone else that has seen the video." Which at that point was probably everyone in the building.
"People know what you do, though. How bad was it?" Vincent asked.
"It was more than I should have done, but it could have been a lot worse. I thought, well, we thought that we might be able to save him. But, then Clancy was there, and I could tell right away that we were too late."
"It was a tense moment. I'm sure everyone will assume the strength came from adrenaline or something."
I nodded without enthusiasm. I'm pretty sure it wasn't common knowledge I could do anything like that.
"Are you—"
A knock on the door cut Vincent off.
"I'll be right back," I said.
Once I cleared the kitchen, I sniffed and wiped the corners of my eyes to make sure I had kept myself in check.
Opening the door, I found Ethan on my doorstep.
"Hi." I forced myself to smile. "I'm surprised to see you."
"I hadn't heard back from you, so I thought I'd stop by."
I ushered him through the living room. "Sorry, it's been a long day. I haven't had a chance to check my messages yet."
"That's okay, I—" Ethan stopped as he stepped into the kitchen.
"Good evening," Vincent sounded a bit stiff and formal, but polite.
"Sorry," Ethan said. He looked unsure about what to do, so he stayed where he was. "I should have waited for you to call. Is now a bad time?"
"No," I said.
"I should go." Vincent stood. I might have been the only one that could see it, but he looked reluctant. "Will you be here in the morning?"
"I'm not sure, but I'll need to be in the office early tomorrow," I said. "To make sure I'm in the clear."
Vincent nodded. "I'll see you tomorrow, then. Let me know if you need anything."
"Thanks," I said.
"Good evening to you as well, Ethan," Vincent said. He left through the back door, leaving silence in his wake.
"I'm glad you stopped by," I said after an awkward moment. "Do you want some coffee?"
"No, thank you," Ethan said rather stiffly.
"At least have a seat."
He stood there, looking uncomfortable, and then he glanced at the back door. "I don't think I should stay."
Sighing, I leaned back in my chair and tried not to get aggravated. "It was a difficult day at the office. Vincent was here to find out what happened."
Ethan nodded. "I understand."
"You're going to see Vincent and me together. He's my partner."
"I know." Ethan finally sat next to me. When he reached out and took my hand, I had a hopeful feeling.
Then I looked into his eyes.
"You're not going to be okay with this, are you?" I asked.
"This is something I don't think I'll be able to get past." Holding my hand, he rubbed the top with his other hand.
My eyes burned. "After everything you've seen? Frank? Meeting a bigfoot? You faced a fairy."
"It's been an amazing couple of months."
"And Vincent and I aren't... I mean, we're not..." I didn't know how to finish those thoughts.
"I know you're not, but you share a soul." Ethan looked down and cleared his throat. "You share a soul with another man. I'm not sure how to handle that. It's not... I don't know. It's not normal."
"Huh." The lonesome chuckle fell short. "Has anything about me been normal?"
"I'm sorry, Cassie. I thought it might be possible to move on, but seeing you two together—"
"Sitting in my kitchen, talking." I tried to keep the sarcasm out of my voice. Now wasn't the time.
"Even that. I'll be wondering what it is he's feeling from you. Wondering what he can sense that I can't." Ethan shifted in his seat. "When we're together, what is it that he feels?"
The question took me by surprise. "I can't answer that. It's not
something we talk about on a regular basis. This is something that I can't change. Neither can Vincent."
"That is the problem."
I felt my face turn red. Before I had an outburst, he rushed on.
"It's not your problem. It's not even Vincent's problem. It's mine. I know that, and I thought we could make it work, but I'm sorry, I don't think I can do this."
If he had gotten upset or blamed Vincent or me it would have given me something to yell about, but this? He sounded sad. Heartbroken, even.
Gently, I pulled my hand away.
Ethan sat back, looking down, not meeting my eye.
It had been moving toward this. I knew that, but it didn't make it any easier. Despite my best intentions, tears fell.
"So, this is it?" My voice cracked.
"It has to be," Ethan said. "If we went any further, it would feel like I was lying to you."
I nodded.
"I'm sure our jobs will cross paths." The trepidation in his voice was obvious.
"They will. Vincent and I both may run into you."
"Will you be okay with that?"
I forced a half grin, through the tears. "Will you?"
"I don't have anything against Vincent, and you know I have feelings for you. That hasn't changed. So, yeah, it'll be awkward, at least at first."
Sniffing, I nodded. "I'm sorry." Dammit, my voice cracked again.
Ethan stood and took my hand. When I stood, he pulled me into a hug. "I'm the one that's sorry." His voice was soft and sincere. "I really wish I could make this work."
I half laughed. "Me too."
We stood there, hugging, neither one of us wanting to be the first to let go. When you let go, it's over. We'd be done.
Ethan was the first to pull away. "I should go."
I nodded, not trusting my voice to say anything. He must not have been ready to let me go completely, because he kept my hand in his until he reached the door.
"Goodbye, Cassie. I'll see you around."
"Yeah," I said. "Take care."
"You too."
Watching him get in the car and drive away was like a special kind of torture to myself. However, karma paid me back immediately in the form of Gran coming home. Ducking my head, I wiped my eyes before waving to Dee Dee. Gran had two bags in her hands, so I went to relieve her of the packages.
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