No One to Hear You Scream

by K. J. Dahlen

  Rob nodded. "This is what I found a few minutes ago when I opened the door. I called in our crime scene investigators. They should be able to tell us something in a few hours."

  "Sable may not have a few hours," Sam pointed out. She was weak from blood loss, and if the killer had gotten to her she could be dead. "Have you talked to any of the night nurses yet?"

  Rob shook his head. "I called you first" He was about to make another comment when all three of them heard a gasp from behind them. Turning, they saw a young woman peek into the room.

  "My God, what happened here? Where is Sable?" she asked them. She looked pale and her hands were shaking. She glanced around the room.

  "I don't mean to be rude, but who are you and what are you doing here?" Sam asked her.

  "My name is Callie St. Marie. Sable and I are friends. I heard she was found yesterday, so I came to see her." Callie paused and looked around the room again. "What happened?"

  Rob nodded toward the room. "We don't know yet"

  They all turned at the sound of footsteps hurrying down the hall. It was a nurse, her face expressing concern as she joined the group. "I'm sorry, but I've been busy. I was on my way out the door when the director told me you wanted to speak to me"

  Sam read her name badge. "Kelly, did you see anyone entering or leaving this room last night?"

  Kelly looked uncomfortable and wouldn't meet Cole's eyes. Instead she focused on Sam and Rob. "I did see someone leaving the area, but I couldn't say if he was actually in the room or not"

  Sam frowned. "And what did this person look like?"

  Kelly took a deep breath. "He was about six feet tall, with dark hair, a slim build, and a black cowboy hat."

  Everyone's eyes turned toward Cole. "Does he look like the man you saw last night?" Sam asked suspiciously, pointing at Cole. Alarms were again ringing inside his head. It wouldn't be the first time a murderer posed as a law enforcer. The nurse's discomfort only reinforced the gnawing doubt Sam harbored about Cole Davidson.

  "Yes," Kelly said quietly. "He does look a lot like the man I saw last night-except for the hat, of course"

  Cole was shocked. He hadn't been near the hospital last night. "I was in my motel room all night. I watched part of a ball game, ordered a pizza, and went to sleep around midnight. Whoever it was she saw, it wasn't me"

  Sam looked over at Rob, and they both looked at Cole. Sam was feeling uneasy about the coincidences regarding Cole that were piling up. All he had right now were questions without any answers.

  "I think we need to get ahold of the original footage the news ran when Sable was missing. There has to be something on the video that we're missing," Sam told Rob.

  "I have the video. In fact, it was my file that they aired," Callie told them.

  Sam jerked his head to where Callie was standing. He'd forgotten she was there. "What did you say?"

  "When Sable turned up missing, the local news sta- tion ran an alert asking for any information about when she was last seen. I provided them a copy of the footage I'd shot the night before," Callie explained. "I'm trying to break into journalism and I never go anywhere without my camera. I was trying to get a piece on Baton Rouge's night life."

  "Do you have the original?" Sam asked.

  Callie nodded. "I gave the news station a copy. They didn't run the whole thing, only the part with Sable dancing."

  Rob handed her a business card. "Bring the file to this address as soon as you can. Also, we'll need a phone number where we can reach you, as well as a list of Sable's friends and family in the area-anything you can think of that will help us find her."

  Callie took the card and hurried off. The nurse turned to leave as well. She had given Rob her name and home phone number and promised to be available if they needed additional information from her.

  "We're going back to the station to see what we can get from a background search. That way we'll be there when Callie brings in the video," Sam told Rob.

  "I'll wait here for the forensic team. I'll head back to the station when they finish up," Rob told them.

  Sam and Cole walked down the hall toward the front doors. Cole was bothered by the nurse identifying him as having been in the hospital last night. Both men were quiet as they walked down the hall, but tension was building between them.

  Neither man was paying attention to the other people in the hall, so when one called out to Cole, he didn't stop. The man reached out and touched Cole's arm. "Nick? Is that really you?"

  Cole jumped. "Excuse me?"

  The man smiled. "I thought it was you. I called out twice. You must have been really deep in thought"

  Cole looked confused. "Do I know you?"

  The welcome on the other man's face faded a bit. "I'm Jerry Springs. Come on, man, it's only been three weeks since you worked for me"

  "Excuse me, sir, but who do you think this is?" Sam asked.

  "Nick Granger-his name is Nick Granger. He did some computer troubleshooting for my investment firm about a month ago," Jerry told them.

  "Are you positive?" Sam asked.

  "He spent three weeks in my office teaching the staff how to use the new software. I think I would recognize the man" Jerry was getting irritated. "What is going on here?"

  Sam looked from Jerry to Cole and back again. He introduced himself to Jerry and asked for a business card. "We are investigating the disappearance of a young woman and we may need to get in touch with you"

  Jerry took out his wallet. "I don't know anything about a missing woman, but here's a card that has my work and home phone numbers on it. I'm here to visit my wife. We just had a baby, so if you need me I'll probably be here or at home"

  "Thank you," Sam said as he pocketed the card. He watched as Jerry Springs made his way to the elevator, and when he disappeared Sam turned to Cole.

  "That was strange. I swear I didn't know him, and I have never done computer troubleshooting," Cole assured him.

  Sam was quiet as they passed through the front doors of the hospital. He didn't like where his thoughts were taking him. He had to find some answers.

  Sam and Cole didn't say a word to each other all the way back to the station house. When they got there, Sam went straight to Captain Nevell's office. The captain wasn't there, so he sat down at his computer and began a background check on Sable Willows, a man named Nick Granger, and Cole Davidson. He had to find out if the FBI agent was hiding anything.

  Nick Granger's home address was in a little town near New Orleans called Myrtle Grove. He would have to call Alec and get him to run Nick Granger down.

  When Ian Nevell entered his office, he wasn't surprised to find Sam there. He sat down on the corner of his desk. "Cole told me what happened this morning."

  "All of it?" Sam asked, shooting him one of those looks. It was the kind of look one person gave another when they were after the truth.

  "What do you mean by that?" Ian wanted to know. He knew the two men didn't like each other, but didn't know why.

  "What exactly did he tell you?" Sam repeated his question without giving Ian any information of his own.

  Ian looked at Sam for a moment. "He told me that while you two were at the cafe this morning, the waitress gave him a breakfast he didn't order and that she told you it was his normal breakfast. And while you were at the hospital, the night nurse claimed he was there during the night, and that on the way out some guy he'd never seen before stopped the two of you and claimed that Cole was actually a man named Nick Granger. Is that all of it, or did he leave something out?"

  Sam nodded. "That's about all of it. At this point there seem to be more questions than answers, and now with our only witness on the missing list, we're back to square one"

  "Well, maybe the boat patrol will turn something up," Ian told him.

  "What boat patrol?"

  "Last night before he went home, Rob ordered the police boat out on the river to check for the houseboat Sable told you guys about. They took off first thing this morning. They
should be calling in any time now," Ian said. The phone in his office rang, and Sam got up to leave but Ian motioned him to stay. Grabbing a pen from the desk, he began writing down information. When he finished, he hung up the phone.

  "They found the boat. In almost the same spot Sable told you about. The patrol didn't see anyone aboard, but they didn't get too close to it. They did catch the registration numbers on the side of the boat. It belongs to a man named Paul Moran," Ian told him.

  "I'll run a trace on Paul Moran and see what I can come up with," Sam told him.

  "You might want to give Cole the benefit of the doubt. I spoke to his boss this morning, and Clayton Conway assures me that Cole is one of his best agents. He also said that if you could work together, you both might solve this case, but that if I thought there were going to be problems between you guys, neither one of you would end up on the case. Clay told me that the FBI has jurisdiction because of the multistate ruling and that Cole doesn't have to let you tag along," Ian told Sam. He held up his hand at the look on Sam's face. "I told him that if you didn't work this case, Cole was going to have you working against him all the way to its conclusion anyway"

  Sam nodded. "That's for damn sure"

  Ian nodded. "Then you have to play nice with him. Find a way and make it happen, or you'll be pulled off and Cole will do it alone."

  Sam glared at him for a moment. Then he sighed and said, "I think Cole is hiding something. Maybe he knows something and doesn't realize it, or maybe he just doesn't want us to know everything. I don't know. Sometimes he seems to be two different people."

  "See what turns up on Moran. Rob should be back soon, and when he gets here fill me in." Ian nodded and closed the door to his office.

  Using a computer at an unoccupied desk in the squad room, Sam began another background check on Paul Moran. The report came back almost immediately. Paul Moran was a boat salesman out of New Orleans.

  Sam grabbed the phone and called Alec. Alec would be able to bring Paul in for questioning. Sam finally felt as if they were making progress on this case, or at least he hoped they were.

  "Hunter," Alec answered his phone.

  "Alec, this is Sam. I need you to run down something."

  "Did you guys turn something up?"

  "Maybe-I don't know yet. Listen, I need you to find a boat salesman by the name of Paul Moran. The New Orleans woman actually escaped and led us to a houseboat where the killer had kept her. The boat belongs to Paul Moran. I need you to find Moran and talk to him. I'm going to run a DMV photo of him. Oh, and can you run down to Myrtle Grove and see a man named Nick Granger? Both names have come up in this case, and I need to know more about these men"

  "Anything else?" Alec asked. "How's your witness doing?"

  "She's gone missing, and we don't know if she left by herself or if she was persuaded by someone that looks a great deal like FBI agent Cole Davidson," Sam told him.

  "What are you talking about?" Alec sounded shocked.

  "I'll fill you in later. Just get on tracking down those two names for me and call me back. I have another report coming in." Sam hung up the phone as the background check on Sable Willows was coming across the fax machine.

  A few minutes later, Rob Gillette came through the station house door looking grim. He nodded for Cole and Sam to join him in Ian's office. Opening the door, they found Ian on the phone. He motioned for them to come in, and after he hung up he sat back in his chair. "Well, what did you find out?"

  Rob sat down on the corner of the desk. "The forensics team found two different types of DNA on the bedsheets. One was male, taken from a pair of sweaty palm prints they found on the sheets, and the other was Sable's. The blood was hers, and the fingerprints on the IV tubing was hers as well."

  Ian turned to Sam. Sam handed him the background report on Sable. "That only tells us that she doesn't have a criminal record. My partner in New Orleans is running down Paul Moran and Nick Granger. By the way, Paul Moran was a victim of identify theft. His name was red flagged three weeks ago."

  Cole stepped forward. "I ran DMV photos of Nick Granger and Paul Moran. As you can see, neither of them looks anything like me. I think we need to speak to Jerry Springs again."

  Ian looked at the photos and nodded. "Take this with you" He handed the photos back to Cole.

  They were interrupted by a deputy. "Excuse me sir, but there is a Callie St. Marie here, and she wants to speak to Rob or Sam"

  Ian nodded and turned to Rob. "Who is Callie St. Marie?"

  "She's a friend of Sable's who may have the piece of evidence we need to finally see what our killer looks like. I'll be right back." Rob left the room to retrieve the tape.

  "Callie stopped by the hospital this morning to see Sable when we were there. She had a CD of a video she took the night Sable went missing," Sam told Ian. "She is also supposed to bring in a list of Sable's friends and family."

  Rob returned a few minutes later with a copy of the video. He popped the CD in the computer in the office, and they all watched the footage of Sable dancing in the streets. The scene showed a host of people celebrating. They were singing and dancing and having a great time as they made their way from one street to another. When it didn't reveal what they expected to see, everyone in the room was disappointed.

  "If our killer was there, I sure didn't see him," Rob said.

  "I sure didn't see anything out of the ordinary. All I saw was a bunch of people having a good time," Ian commented. "What about that list of friends and family? Is there anything on there we can use?"

  Sam was quiet for a moment. He felt they had missed something, but he couldn't put his finger on it. "I'm going to check the fax for my reports" As he left the room, he frowned at Cole. Cole's expression confused him-he looked almost relieved. His expression only reaffirmed Sam's suspicions that the agent was hiding something about this killer from the rest of the group.

  Just then, Sam heard the phone in Ian's office ring. When he heard Ian swear, he returned to the office. Ian, Rob, and Cole looked furious. "What's happened?" Sam asked.

  Ian scowled. "The boat patrol went back to the last sighting of the houseboat to bring in whoever was on board for questioning, and the blasted boat was gone"

  Now what do we do?" asked Cole. "We were so close to nabbing him."

  "I'll tell you what we can't do. We can't give up," Sam told them. "If we got that close once, next time he won't get away. He can't have gone very far-there hasn't been enough time."

  "What happens if there is no next time?" Rob asked. "What happens if this was the only chance we had?"

  "Well, I, for one, am not giving up so easily. That creep turned my life upside down when he murdered my wife, and I want him to pay for that. He left my son without the most important person in his life," grumbled Sam. "Besides, he's already made one mistake. His latest victim got away, and through her, we at least know what he looks like and how he gets around. I can't see this killer letting her live too much longer. We have to find her before he does"

  "That's true, but that same victim is now missing, and we don't know for sure if he's got her or if she left on her own," Ian pointed out. He tried to overlook Sam's last statement, but in all conscience couldn't. It sounded very much like Sam wanted this killer for personal reasons. He had to know what his intentions really were. "I've been told you would do your best to bring this killer in to stand trial, but it doesn't sound like you can do that. It sounds more like you are going after him for revenge."

  Sam nodded. "It might sound like it, and I don't blame you for thinking that, but I know I can't get my old life back. My wife is gone, and nothing I do is going to bring her back, so all I have left is making sure the man responsible spends the rest of his miserable life in jail."

  Ian stared at him for a long moment and nodded. Before he could comment, the phone rang again. Ian answered it. He listened for a moment, and then hung up, his face grim. "That was the hospital. Someone found Sable Willows a little while ago"


  "Where was she?" Cole asked.

  "A park patrolman found her hiding in a playhouse not too far from the hospital. She had passed out again from loss of blood. She'd ripped open the stitches on her side."

  "Did she say anything about why she left the hospital?" Sam asked.

  Ian shook his head. "The doctor told me that she was babbling incoherently about not getting away from him, and that he told her he would always be able to find her. He didn't know what that meant, but I think we do."

  Everyone turned and looked at Cole. Whether they liked it or not, the evidence was pointing right to him. Cole just stared back at them with a cold look on his face.

  Sam headed for the door, but Ian called him back. "The doctor in charge lists her condition as critical. They've put her on life support and have her sedated. No one can talk to her right now."

  Everyone was quiet for a moment, and then Rob told his boss, "I'm going over to the hospital. We made a critical error before by not giving her protection, and the killer got to her. That won't happen again, not on my watch."

  Ian nodded. "Take a uniformed officer with you. I don't want anyone getting to her." Ian reached for the phone. "I'll call the boat patrol and tell them to search every avenue and backwater branch they can find. I'm not giving up. The boat has to be somewhere."

  Sam returned to the desk he'd been using and reached for the phone to call Alec. Maybe if the killer had left this area, he'd gone back to New Orleans. Alec could be looking down there.

  "Hunter," Alec answered.

  "Alec, we have a problem," Sam told him.

  "I was just going to call you. You have a problem on this end too. But first tell me what's happening up there"

  "I told you earlier that the killer has been getting around by boat actually, it's a houseboat. Anyway, the boat patrol up here found it, then temporarily lost sight of it, so we think the killer is tipped off that we know his mode of transportation. Captain Nevell has them looking up and down the river and in all the backwater areas right now, but I wanted you to be looking for the boat down there as well."