Deadly Vision (35 page)

“No. He never showed. At least we never saw him. There’s a chance he’s watching. Waiting to see if we came alone. But I think it’s a waste of time. How’s your head?”

“Feels like someone’s playing the bongos inside. I don’t think he was ever planning on meeting you there. That’s where he told me to send you, but it’s not where he summoned me from. He wasn’t at the chapel in my vision.”

“Do you know where he was?”

She moaned as another wave of pain rolled through her head. If it kept up, she’d pass out again. She tried to talk into the phone, but only managed a whimper.

“Fallon? Darling are you okay? Talk to me.”

“My head. Damn. It’s hard to think.” She forced in a deep breath and tried to concentrate on the image of the room she’d been inside. “I went to a large room. I felt like I’d been there before, but not
really
been there. More like in a dream. Everything was the same, only in the wrong place. There was a long row of boarded up windows and…”

Her voice cut into a keening cry as the kitchen shifted and dissolved into a dark room. She could see the faint gleam of light under a door at the far end, and there was the scent of oranges in the air.

“Fallon! Fallon! Damn it, what’s going on? Fallon!”

Gil yelled into the phone, his voice echoing in her ear as she sank to the floor, the phone still clutched in her hand. “Gil.” More images filled her head, but she tried to stay connected long enough to tell Gil what she was seeing. “Room. It’s dark. He’s opening a door.” Pain flared through her head and it was all she could do not to scream.
The Priest
was moving down a hall, his attention focused on a man sitting on a couch. “He’s coming up behind a man. There’s a couch and…”

Her mouth opened into a soundless scream as she watched
The Priest
knock the other man over the head with a bat, tossing it aside as he turned towards another doorway. She recognised the colour of the walls and the feel of the floor. She closed her eyes, her consciousness slipping away as she spoke one last time into the phone.

“He’s here.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Gil heard the phone clatter to the floor. He screamed her name, knowing she couldn’t hear him, but needing to try. A cold sweat erupted across his skin, stinging his eyes as it dripped down his forehead.

“Damn it, Gil. What’s happening?”

“Punch it. Now!”

Wade didn’t stop to question, but hit the accelerator, making the tires squeal as he jumped a kerb and screeched down the road. Horns blared in the background, drowned out by the wail of the siren.

Gil grabbed the mike and keyed up the radio. “Dispatch, I need you to connect me with the police unit stationed outside Fallon Kinkade’s house.” He thumbed the button, cursing with every breath. The truck shuddered as Wade threw the vehicle around a corner, nearly tipping it over.

“Delta three, go ahead.”

“This is Special Agent Grant. I just received a distress call from inside the house. What the hell’s going on?”

Static whined over the air before the officer’s voice spoke again. “Everything looks good from here, Agent Grant. And the other two officers are still inside as you requested. But if you’d like, we’ll head on in and check things out.”

“Yes, I’d like,” he sneered, checking his watch. “It’s been three minutes. Stay together and check every door and window in the place. And whatever you do, don’t kill anyone before you’re sure they’re on the other side.”

The officer rumbled a big ten-four and Gil listened to the line go dead. “Fuck!”

“We’re almost there, Gil. He couldn’t have gotten far, not with Fallon either fighting him or unconscious. We’ll get her back.”

“I’ll kill him.” Gil felt his partner nod in his direction, neither needing to say what was on both their minds.

* * * *

Ten more minutes had dragged by before Wade screeched to a halt in front of Fallon’s house. Gil didn’t even wait for the truck to stop rolling before jumping out and racing up to the door. An officer was standing on the porch, his hands stuffed in his pockets as Gil skidded to a halt. “Well?”

The man shook his head, pushing the door open. “We’ve checked the entire premise, sir. The two officers are still unconscious.” He pointed over towards the couch. “One in the living room, the other in the bathroom at the end of the hallway. Paramedics are on the way.”

“Where’s Fallon.”

The man’s face paled. “I’m sorry, Agent Grant. She’s gone.”

Gil felt the room sway as he ran into the kitchen and stared at the phone lying discarded on the floor. “Did you touch or move anything?”

“Nothing, sir. We only ensured both men were still alive before calling it in.”

He nodded, but the words barely registered. She’d been here, standing in the kitchen, when the bastard had taken her. And he’d done nothing to stop him.

“Gil?”

He looked up. Wade was standing in front of him, his cell cradled in his hand. “I’ve got an ABP out on Fallon, and Trevor’s sending more units this way. We’ll canvass the neighbourhood. Someone must have seen something. If we can get a licence plate or a better description of the vehicle, we might be able to track him. Trevor said he’ll send out the helicopter if it’ll help.”

“What fucking good will the chopper do when we don’t even know which way the bastard went!”

Wade cringed at the tone of his voice, but he didn’t care. Fallon was gone. And he didn’t have a clue where to start looking. He cursed and headed back outside, needing some air to clear his thoughts.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…” Wade’s voice trailed off into a sigh.

Gil turned to his friend, giving the man a pat on the back. “I know you’re just trying to help. I just hate feeling so damn helpless. I should’ve known the chapel was a set-up. He just wanted us out of the way so he could come after Fallon. She was his target all along.”

“Did Fallon say anything on the phone before it went dead that might suggest she knew where he was taking her.”

Gil ran a shaky hand through his hair, trying to remember Fallon’s last words. “She was confused. Something about the chapel. How she didn’t think he was planning on meeting us there. That she’d been somewhere else in her vision.”

Wade stepped closer. “Did she know where? A street? A building? Anything?”

Gil sifted through the words tumbling around in his head. But all he could think about was how they really might be her
last words.

“Gil?”

He looked up at his partner, wondering why the man was still bothering him. “What?” he snapped.

“We’ll get her back. But right now you need to tell me what she said on the phone before
The Priest
arrived.”

Gil turned to look at his truck parked in her driveway. He remembered carrying her into the bedroom, holding her like he never wanted to let go. She’d felt so fragile in his arms, but she’d never stopped trying to help the women she saw. And now she was one of them.

“Gil.”

“She didn’t know,” he bit out, spinning to face Wade. “She just said it wasn’t the chapel and that she felt like she’d been there before, but not really. I didn’t understand what she meant. She was trying to describe it to me when she got drawn into another vision.” He lowered his face so Wade wouldn’t see the shame in his eyes. “She saw him stalking her, but couldn’t do anything to stop him.”

Anger punched through his chest and kicked at the railing on the side of Fallon’s porch. The wood cracked and heaved and it was all he could do not to rip the damn thing apart and toss it across the lawn.

“Easy, buddy. It’s only been fifteen minutes. She’s still okay.”

“But for how long?” he sighed, the anger quickly replaced by fear. “How long before that bastard carves a cross into her chest. Before he rapes her?”

Wade took a deep breath, his lips pulled tight. “We’re not going to let that happen.” He stepped forward and placed a hand on Gil’s shoulder. “I’ve been thinking about this whole vision thing with Fallon. You told me she only has them with people she’s connected with.”

Gil nodded, not sure what else to say.

“So, that means
The Priest
must be someone she knows, or has had contact with. What we need to do is figure out that connection.”

Gil cursed and was just about to tell Wade he’d been doing that for the past fucking day, when the answer slammed into his head. “Charlie!”

Wade dropped his hand and took a step back. “What?”

Gil ran to Wade’s truck. “Come on,” he yelled, jumping in the passenger seat.

Wade slid in beside him, revving the engine as he looked over at Gil. “Where to?”

“The office. I think I know where to start looking.”

* * * *

“Care to tell me what we’re looking for? Or is it only on a need to know basis.”

Gil glanced over at Wade. The man was pacing the floor, trying to look over Gil’s shoulder at the computer screen. They’d made the drive back to the office in a little over ten minutes, and it’d taken Gil another ten to pull up the information on the screen. Now he was stuck going line by line through the information in the hopes of finding what he needed.

“Sorry. The truth is, I’m not really sure what I’m looking for. I just remembered what Fallon’s kept saying these past few days. How this creep reminds her of Charlie. And then just before I left this morning, she said his name again before she passed out. I think Charlie’s the connection. I just don’t know how.”

“Maybe it’s someone you guys pissed off?”

“Maybe,” said Gil, scrolling down the page. “But I think it’s closer to home than that. It got me thinking about Charlie’s family. He never mentioned having a brother, but then Fallon never told me she had a sister either. Maybe…” His voice keened into a growl as a new page flicked onto the screen. “Damn it!”

He pushed the chair back, cursing as Wade read the screen. “I don’t get it. All it says is that Charlie’s only surviving relative is a father.”

“Keep reading. It gets better,” he snarled pacing the floor. He had to figure out where
The Priest
—James—had taken Fallon.

“Holly, Shit. The guy’s a Colonel! Looks like he spent time in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Gil heard Wade click down a few screens. “It doesn’t say what his current status is?”

Gil growled and pounded a fist on the desk. “He was still active as of seven months ago. He missed Charlie’s funeral because he was overseas.” He looked Wade in the eyes. “The guy’s a field medic.”

“Damn. He’s more than got the expertise to pull off these murders. But why the hell would he do it? It doesn’t make sense. From what it says here, he’s a fucking war hero.”

“Yeah, in a war that’s divided the country. Besides, I think his time in the military only planted his psychological unbalance. I have a feeling it was Charlie’s death that pushed him over.”

Wade raised an eyebrow at him. “I’ve read the report on the incident. There’s nothing in there regarding Charlie’s death that seems suspect.”

“That’s because there were a few details left out.” He looked down at the floor, wondering why he hadn’t seen it before. “What the report doesn’t say is that everything was going smoothly until our informant ratted us out. Ratted Charlie out actually. He’d been sleeping with her as part of their cover. Charlie only saw it as necessary, but I guess she’d taken it as a long-term relationship. Seems she followed us home the night before the meeting, hoping to spend more time with Charlie. When things didn’t go the way she planned, she lost it.”

“By why would she kill him just because he went to your house? Surely he’d gone there before.”

Gil shook his head. Why did it always come back to that night? He looked up at Wade, meeting the man’s stare. “Because Charlie stayed the night.”

“So?”

“No. I mean, he spent the night.” He waved his hand in the air. “With Fallon and me.”

Wade’s eyes bulged for a moment before he settled his expression. “Ooohhh.” A boyish grin crept into the lines of his mouth. “So you think she saw the…” It was his turn to wave his hand in the air. “The three of you. Together.”

“Oh, she more than saw it. She yelled it back at him during the meeting. Then she added in the part about him being a Fed, and all hell broke loose.”

“So why didn’t that go into the report?” Wade cleared his throat when Gil glared at him. “I mean the part about her telling everyone he was a Fed?”

Gil sighed. “Because she was a daughter of a Senator. And the powers-that-be felt that dragging their family name through the ringer wasn’t going to change anything. She died in the fire fight too.”

Wade nodded and looked back at the picture of James Cutter on the screen. “But you told Charlie’s dad.”

“He called one night about a month later. He wanted to know the truth. Said his boy would never blow his cover. I wasn’t exactly thinking straight, so I told him everything with the assurance he’d keep it off the record. I never heard from him again, so I figured he’d gotten the closure he needed.”

“Or just the right amount of stress to finish pushing him over the edge. I assume this lady was young, similar to our victims?”