Gabe got the call as he was getting ready to leave his office for the evening. He'd been sitting and staring at his murder board. The eyes of those girls, now including the photos of Devon Basset, seemed to be staring at him, accusing him of missing something, some integral part of the puzzle that he should know. Some tiny part of the killer's identification that should be right there in front of him if he'd only just reach out and pluck it.
And along with those eyes, he could see Kaylee's eyes. She'd been so afraid today, clinging to him as her savior and protector. But that was something he couldn't be. All he could do was work the case. For that was what she was, he kept trying to tell himself. She was just a new part of the case.
But her eyes still were there, like melted chocolate, they pulled at him, making him remember more than just her eyes. Like how she'd looked in the skirt she was wearing the first time he'd seen her. Or how she felt, her skin so soft despite the hard manual labor that she did on a daily basis as he had held her hand in comfort. He wasn't thinking of her like a cop would. That was his whole problem.
He'd turned off the lights in his office, closing the door when the phone began to ring. It had been a close thing, him going back in to answer it. He'd almost turned around and left. But a niggling uncertainty had him opening the door and racing across the dark room to grab the phone.
"Hampton," he growled.
"We got an officer down at the safe house where we stashed your waitress, Hampton. I think you need to get over there."
He didn't even bother to answer the chief, dropping the phone back into the cradle where it bounced and landed slightly off skew, leaving the sound of the dial tone to buzz dully in the dark. His coat billowed out behind him as he ran for the door, his hand in his pant's pocket, grabbing out his keys.
And then he realized he didn't know which safe house they'd taken her to.
"Billings," he snapped at the sergeant on duty at the desk. "I need to know where the officer down is at. Now man!" he almost shouted.
"Richmond Avenue," Billings yelled back, watching as the Detective turned on his heel and raced out the door. "Prick," he muttered under his breath. "Damn detectives have no courtesy for the working stiffs."
Gabe hopped into his car, jamming the key in the ignition and turning it over before he even had the car door closed. He slammed the blue bubble light on the dash and with one hand on his horn, the other on the steering wheel, he left black marks on the pavement from his tires as he left the lot.
Traffic wasn't heavy but it seemed to take him forever to get to the house, a forever that had him wondering what he would find when he got there and how he would handle it if he found Kaylee dead. Then her eyes would definitely haunt him.
The yard was lit up with blue and red lights that revolved and shone off the houses close by to the old house they were in front of. Gabe ran to the front door, his heart in his throat as he saw the pool of blood in the front hall. Behind him, an ambulance pulled up, sirens screaming into the night sky.
He flashed his badge at the uniform stationed at the front door.
"It's bad, Detective. Two of ours down, though they think Montero might make it."
Gabe nodded, hurrying past the body of the dead detective and taking the stairs two at a time. Jack was in a back bedroom, a uniform holding his hand, another one pressing down on his chest where a long thin wound was bleeding copiously. He was awake though, but his head rolled back and forth against the floor with pain.
Gabe fell to his knees on the floor by his head. "Jack, where's Kaylee?"
"Oh God, oh God, he killed Chuck, just reached through the door and sliced his throat. And the pizza guy. We thought he was bringing us dinner, that you'd sent him. Fingers, there were fingers on the pizza..." Jack's voice broke off, his eyes slipping closed.
"Jack! Goddammit, you've got to fight this!" Gabe yelled grabbing Jack's jaw and watching his eyes pop back open. "Where's Kaylee?"
"She ran. I told her to run. Had a knife to my throat, Gabe, was going to kill me if she didn't go with him. I told her to run. I told her..."
"Did she run, Jack? Did she get away from him?" Gabe looked up as the Emergency techs came in the room, pushing aside the cops. "Jack! Did she get away?!" he shouted.
"Yeah," he mumbled. "Through the bushes," was the last Gabe heard as he was pushed out of the way so the techs could do their work.
"The bushes?" he asked the cop on the scene as the man stared down at the blood coating his hand. "Do you know what he meant?"
"There's a huge hedge in the back of this place, I don't know how anyone would get through it, but that could be what he meant."
"Okay, you keep the scene secured, let crime scene in and call the chief."
The uniform looked up from his hands as his partner walked in with a towel from the car. "Where are you going?"
"Our suspect came after his intended victim and she got away. I've got to find her."
* * * *
Gabe ignored the flashing lights of the camera crews who were starting to gather just outside the bright yellow sawhorses that someone had set up. Crime scene tape was already fluttering in the soft wind that was blowing. A crime scene van was pulling up as he reached his car to rifle through the glove box and find his flashlight. He nodded at the man who jumped out, waiting until they were headed inside and under the news camera's scrutiny before heading around the side of the house.
It was dark back there, CS not yet having put up their blindingly bright lights. He clicked on the heavy flashlight as he half ran, half walked toward the huge bank of shrubs, wondering how the hell anyone had gotten through there.
