Farewell to Goodbye

by Penny Childs

“Trevor…”

  “Don’t worry about it Bill. I just wanted to pass along what we found today. I’ll work up something in an e-mail for you tomorrow, since this obviously can’t be an official report.”

  “Trevor, I can’t help thinking of the way things went last time.”

  He couldn’t either. “There won’t be a repeat. I’m not going to let anything happen to her this time.”

  Thirteen

  They pulled into the parking lot of the village hall the next morning to find it just as Renee had warned. The press was camped out around the front door and ready to pounce.

  “I’ll answer a few of your questions right now,” Mel told them, stopping at the top of the steps to face them.

  “Can you confirm that David Wells is the latest victim of the Do-Over killer?” one of them asked.

  Mel flinched a little. She hated the nickname someone had dubbed the killer with. But it had stuck and the press loved using it every chance they got. “We do believe he is, yes.”

  “Your house was broken into night before last and you were attacked. Was it the killer?”

  She pondered on this so long that Trevor said, “We can’t be certain it was. She did not see the perpetrator.”

  “But she was threatened,” one of them said.

  “I’m not going to comment on that,” he told them. Touching Mel’s elbow, he said, “That’s enough for now or it’s going to turn into a feeding frenzy.”

  Amid furious complaints, they entered the building. Brody sat at the front desk, telephone cradled between his head and shoulder, furiously writing something down. He gave them a halfhearted smile as they passed his desk.

  Entering the conference room, they found Renee sitting toward the back, working on her computer. She looked up at them and stopped working. “Hey guys. I see you made it through the gauntlet.”

  “Barely,” Trevor growled.

  “I need to check in with the guys and check e-mail, snail mail and messages,” Mel said. “I’ll probably be holed up in my office for a while.”

  Trevor gave her a smile. “You know where I’ll be.” He watched her leave, then came back and sat in the chair across the table from Renee. “You have anything new since yesterday?”

  “I could ask you the same thing.”

  “Meaning?”

  “You two took off out of here like a bat outta hell for David Wells’ house yesterday. For the life of me I can’t figure out why. I mean, the house had been gone through by the regular cops and by one of our teams not twenty four hours before you left. I know you like the personal touch on some of this, but come on.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” he told her.

  “But I am. David Wells’ sister called me last night and wanted to know if our psychic had found anything at her brother’s house. She couldn’t reach you.” She stared at Trevor. “You wanna tell me why she thought we had a psychic at her brother’s house?”

  “No,” he answered, holding her stare.

  “Great.” Leaning back in her chair, she crossed her arms over her chest.

  “Look, Renee, it’s a little complicated.”

  “It’s only as complicated as you want to make it.” She blew out a breath. “Look, everybody knows about Bill and how he has an interest in all things paranormal. Especially people.”

  Trevor raised his brows. He hadn’t been aware everyone knew.

  “I’m just saying, word gets around, you know? There are a lot of rumors surrounding what happened to Mel seven years ago. Still. One of the rumors is Bill pulled her into that case because he believed she was telepathic and could find the killer for him.”

  “That’s quite the little rumor mill you’ve got going there,” Trevor said mildly, not liking how close she was getting to the truth.

  “Oh, that’s not all, Trevor. I’ve been around you enough to notice some of the hunches you get about people are too close to be just hunches. Nobody is that good. Unless they can see or hear something the rest of us can’t.”

  “More rumors, Agent Marshall?”

  “No, I’ve seen it. Tell me you can’t touch someone and know things about them, things they might not want you to know.”

  “You’ve been reading science fiction before bed, haven’t you?”

  “You’re not going to admit it. Fine. Don’t.” She shook her head, and dropping the subject, said, “Mel was right about the footprint being from the same kind of boot she’s missing.” She scowled. “Which means she’s probably right about a woman being at David Wells’ scene either before, during, or right after he was murdered.”

  “She’s right,” Trevor acknowledged.

  “Hunch?” Renee asked sarcastically.

  “Not anymore. You have the evidence now.” He sighed. “I also have a direction for you to look in.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah. Julius Becker. We think this woman was his accomplice.”

  “Lemme guess, another hunch.”

  “A hunch worth putting all of your time into. I want you to go back through all of it. All ten of the killings he did, plus his attempted on Mel. Dig into Becker’s past and see if you can find out who this woman was.”

  “You’re putting all my eggs in that basket?”

  “I am. No matter how I came to the conclusion, I know it’s the right one. I want you on this. Now.” Mel had not confirmed it yet, but he just knew. It was the only thing that made any sense now.

  “If there was something there, don’t you think you would have seen it then? You worked that case.”

  Trevor shrugged. “I may have missed something. I was a junior agent then. You’re good at seeing things and finding things other people miss. I want you on this.”

  She nodded. “I wasn’t arguing. I’ll do it. I’ve still got a search going on killings or attempted killings with blow torches. I’m running mine in tandem with Bill’s.” She made a face. “You’d be surprised how many there are.”

  Getting up and walking to the wall to look at some recent additions by her and Craig, he said, “No, I wouldn’t.” He realized then he had seen too much in his career. There were too many things he would never be able to unsee. He felt tainted in that moment.

  Staring at him, she said, “I am really starting to rethink the direction I am taking my career. Maybe robbery is more my speed.”

  “You’re too good for that,” he said without turning around.

  “Thanks. I think,” she added sardonically, going back to her work on the laptop.

  “Most of the stuff on Mel will be off limits to you. I’ll give Bill a call and have that changed. She’s the only one who saw this bitch and lived to tell about it.”

  “Is she going to be okay with me digging around in her past?”

  “She’s gonna have to be.” He turned around. “I’ll let her know you’ll be poking around.”

  As he left the conference room, Renee shook her head at his back.

  Knocking lightly on her office door, Trevor poked his head in to see Craig seated across the desk from her, waiting patiently for her to get off the phone.

  She waved him in and rolled her eyes as she said, “Yes, I understand.”

  “Mayor,” Craig mouthed as Trevor took the empty seat next to him.

  “Oh. He must not be happy.”

  “He’s never happy,” Craig said offhandedly. “You find anything at Wells’ house?”

  He wasn’t really sure how to answer the question, other than, “We didn’t find anything the other teams had missed, no. I see you and Renee had a few hits, though.”

  “Yeah, well, nothing that screams a name and address.” He sighed. “She’s very good at the fact finding. Renee, that is.”

  “I was just telling her that myself.” He watched Mel tilt her head back and grit her teeth. “And I thought my job sucked sometimes.”

  “Well, every job has its drawbacks.”

  Glaring at each of them in turn, Mel said, “I really need to get back to this now. I have a line fo
rming at my door.” With the call disconnected, she once again glared at both of them. “Laugh it up. What do you need Craig?”

  “I just need to know what you want me doing.”

  “I think you should keep doing what you have been. Work with Agent Marshall.”

  “That was it.” He stood up and looked at both Mel and Trevor for a moment before leaving the office. He looked like he wanted to say something to them, then changed his mind.

  “What the hell happened while we were gone?” Trevor asked, annoyed.

  “What do you mean?” Her phone began to ring again and she ignored it.

  “I just got cornered by Renee in the conference room. Apparently Wells’ sister called her and wanted to know what the psychic had to say.”

  “You were the one that had to tell the truth.”

  “Renee also let me know she thinks we went down to his house so you could use your powers to come up with some answers.”

  “You sure she’s not psychic?” Mel asked sarcastically as she sank down into her chair.

  “She’s good at putting things together is what she is. She called me out too.”

  Now Mel’s smile grew. “Did you do what you always do and deny, deny, deny?”

  Scowling at her, he said, “I did put her on finding every single thing she can about Becker, from before and after.”

  That wiped the smile off Mel’s face.

  “That includes you, I’m afraid.”

  “Trevor…”

  “I’m not going to do this any differently than I normally would, Mel. I’m good at this because I know what works and I use it. Right now I know that siccing Renee on Becker to find the woman accomplice will work. She’ll be like a dog with a bone, but I have to let her dig as far as she wants.”

  Mel didn’t like it, but she wasn’t going to argue with him either. She knew he was right.

  “I’m telling you now so if you want, you can redirect Craig so he won’t see things you might not want him to see.”

  She thought about Craig finding out about her. About everything that she had gone through. About him seeing the pictures and reading the reports. He would read her own statement. She had been twenty six at the time. And she had been broken in so many ways. “No, he works well with her and that’s a lot of digging. She’ll need help and quite frankly, he’s the only one I trust around here that much. He’ll keep what he sees to himself.” She sighed. “It will certainly answer all of the questions he’s had for the last five years.” She had known that many times he had wanted to ask her the origin of the scars he could see on her neck and arm.

  “Mel, I hate to ask, but when were you thinking of trying to connect to her? I’m sure she’s already got her sights on victim number five. If we can get a step ahead of her for a change…”

  “I was actually thinking about trying this morning sometime. Everyone is busy. I’ll shut my damn phone off and lock the door.”

  “And if someone comes to the door and finds it locked with you and I in here?” he asked with a grin.

  “They can use their imagination.”

  “Well, I hope their imagination doesn’t run down some of the same paths as mine does, love, or we could both find ourselves the targets of a very nasty little sex scandal.”

  “Just get up and lock the damn door, Giles.”

  Getting up from his chair and doing as she requested, he said, “I haven’t been able to get my mind off the bubble bath you promised me the other night. You still owe me.”

  Shaking her head, she sat down in a chair on the visitor’s side of her desk. She knew part of what he was trying to do was to get her to relax. “I always keep my word, don’t worry.”

  He sat down next to her and took one of her hands in his. “You’re sure you want to try this now? Here?”

  “I’m not sure waiting until tonight is a good idea. I think you’re right. I think she’s picked out her next victim, it’s just a question of when she moves.” She squeezed his hand. “You just hang on to me and I’ll be fine.”

  “Don’t worry, love, I won’t let you go.”

  She sighed and took in several deep breaths. He had no idea what effect his term of endearment had on her heart. Pushing that and all other thoughts aside, she concentrated on the trail she had found to the woman while at David Wells’ house.

  She was quiet and still for several minutes, then he saw her expression change, but not to the look of discovery he had expected, but to a bewildered frown. “What’s the matter, Mel?”

  “It’s like static.” She could not see clearly and could only catch thoughts in snippets.

  “What’s like static?”

  “Her. I’ve found her but it’s like I can’t tune in. It’s like a radio station that’s just out of range. I don’t know how to describe it any better than that.” She sighed. “This is not good.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean that when this happens it’s because something about the person on the other end prevents people like me from tuning into them.”

  “You’ve had this happen before?”

  “Only a couple times, but yes.” She opened her eyes and removed her hand from his. “I won’t be able to get her.”

  “Maybe the man?”

  She frowned. “The lamp might get me to him, but I don’t think so. Not if he’s with her.”

  He could see by the look on her face she had come to some kind of conclusion. “Becker was in the room with her, Trevor, and I didn’t sense him. Not until he actually spoke to me and touched me.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “She jams me somehow. I don’t think it’s a conscious thing she does. I don’t think she knows about what I can do. She just…does it.”

  “Can you get anything through the static at all?”

  She tilted her head. “I might be able to push my way through some of it, Trevor, I don’t know.” She got up, went to her door and unlocked it. “Not here though. If I push that hard I don’t know what will happen.”

  “Then it’s not worth the risk,” Trevor said firmly.

  “You say that now, but when she has her next victim you might feel a little differently.”

  “We’ll see.” He saw she was unhappy with herself. “Mel, you tried. We’ll figure something else out.”

  But they both knew they were running out of options as quickly as they were running out of time.

  Fourteen

  “It’s been a very long time since I’ve had a man wash my hair for me. It’s every bit as wonderful as I remember it.”

  Trevor set down the cup he had used to rinse her hair with and pulled her back against him in her oversized tub. “I hope that memory includes me.”

  “Mmmmm…..maybe.”

  “Woman, you’re just being cruel now.” The thought of her with another man had his blood boiling.

  “Hypocrite,” she admonished.

  “Love, peeking into my head is very rude.”

  “I don’t have to peek when you think so loud.”

  Putting his chin atop her head he smiled. “Well, I can’t help it. You are still the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.”

  “It must be the lighting in here.” She had several candles burning instead of the harsh fluorescent lights. Her usual for a bath.

  “No, you’re just beautiful.”

  “I wish there was something I could do,” she said quietly.

  He knew what she was referring to. “I know it sounds morbid, but unless we get a break from Renee right now, the only thing we can do is wait for them to make their next grab.” They had discussed what they would do. Mel wanted to try and push through then. But it all counted on knowing an abduction had occurred before they found the dead body.

  “Craig said they had the list of blowtorch victims down to a manageable level. They’re going to start making calls tonight to warn them.”

  “Mel,” he said, wrapping his arms around her, “you know at some point we’re going to have to s
tart thinking that you’re the next one.”

  “I know. I almost wish that were true now. At least I can fight back. And I have you.”

  He wondered if that meant she trusted him with the one thing he wanted the most. Her heart.

  Her phone rang at one thirty in the morning, waking them. As she answered it, his phone rang. She looked at the caller ID. Craig. “Craig? Has something happened?”

  “You could say that. They took a girl, boss. A seventeen year old girl.”

  He sounded sick. She sat up in bed. “When? From where?”

  “From two counties north. We hadn’t gotten to her on the call list yet. Her parents called because she got snatched right out on the street while her boyfriend was dropping her off after a date.” She heard Trevor talking, presumably getting the same information from Renee. “Craig, we’ll be there in a few minutes. I want you in contact with the sheriff up north. Let them know what we suspect and ask them to let the FBI handle the crime scene if they would. Bill will send someone from a branch office.” She disconnected the call at much the same time Trevor did and sat staring at him for a moment.

  “Not now,” he told her. “Right now you need to make face at the station and get your people working things. We’ll try later.”

  “Not too much later, Trevor.”

  “I know.” He was pulling on a pair of blue jeans and a tee shirt. Not his usual fare for work.

  “Are you going to want to go to the girl’s house?” She asked, pulling on jeans and a tee shirt herself, then adding a sweatshirt over the top.

  “I don’t know if that will do us any good right now. There’s probably too much activity there and you aren’t exactly subtle when you do what you do.”

  “I’ll have to remember to work on that,” she noted dryly. Instead of putting her shoulder holster on over her bulky sweatshirt, she tucked her gun into a clip on holster and hung it off the waistband of her jeans. “It sounds pretty cut and dry anyway.”

  “They did this one in front of witnesses. They’re getting bolder.” He shrugged on his own shoulder holster.

  “Like she did taking me,” Mel pointed out.