Sense of Evil - Kay Hooper [110]
“I can't. I'm not getting anything either. Silence. Like you, I know he was furious from what I'm looking at, not from anything I hear or feel.”
“We need more, Isabel.”
“I know that.”
“We have to stop him here and now. Before he goes after anybody else. Before he comes after you.”
“I know that too.”
You have to do her. The first chance you get, you have to do her.
He tried to ignore the voice, because it wasn't telling him anything he didn't already know. All it was doing was making his head hurt even more.
She knows. Or she will soon. And he's helping her know. Look at them. You understand what's happening, don't you?
“No,” he whispered, because he didn't, he really didn't. All he knew was that his head hurt and his gut, and it had been so long since he'd slept that he'd forgotten what it felt like.
They're changing.
An icy jolt went through him. “No. I'm changing. You said. You promised. If I did it. If I killed them before they told. You promised.”
Then you'd better do her. Kill her. Before they finish changing. Or it'll be too late. Too late for you. Too late for both of you.
17
IT WAS NEARLY NOON by the time T.J. and Dustin had done their work and the ME's people had removed Emily's body from the scene. The search of the area had produced nothing, not a scrap of anything that looked even remotely like evidence. There were still officers at the highway keeping the media and the curious away from the scene, but most of the other cops had returned to regular duties.
Isabel had spent the morning prowling the area, restless, watchful, making what she knew was a futile effort to reach through the barrier Rafe had created. To protect her.
She didn't think the irony was lost on either one of them.
“Anything?” Hollis asked as they studied the now empty crime scene.
“Nada. You?”
“No. And I am trying.” Hollis shrugged. “But from what you've said about her, I doubt Emily's is the sort of spirit we could expect to gather enough energy to come back. As for Jamie . . . I didn't hear her when it mattered.”
“Don't beat yourself up about it. I'm not exactly firing on all cylinders myself.”
“Is that why the watchdogs?” Hollis asked with a slight sideways movement of her head toward an area between them and the highway.
Isabel sighed. “The taller one is Pablo. The other one is Bobby.”
“Pablo? In Hastings?”
“Struck me too. But, hey, melting pot.”
“I guess.” Hollis studied her partner. “So when Rafe went to break the news to Emily's parents, he left two of his uniforms watching you.”
“They're not to let me out of their sight. I heard Rafe tell them so. He made damned sure I heard him tell them so.”
“Well . . . you could be next, Isabel.”
“I can't work hobbled,” she said irritably.
“Then take the hobbles off,” Hollis suggested mildly. “And I don't mean the watchdogs.”
“Don't start spouting Bishop stuff at me, all right? I'm not in the mood. It's hot, it's humid, there's a storm building, and all I can smell is blood.”
Hollis grimaced. “Yeah, I was going to ask—how do we turn the spider senses off?”
“We don't. Once you learn to enhance, the increased sensitivity is pretty much always with you. There are a few team members who have to focus and concentrate, but for most of us it's just there. Like raw nerves.”
“That might have been mentioned before I was taught how to enhance.”
“Talk to the boss, not me.”
“You really are in a rotten mood, aren't you?”
Isabel pointed to the blood-soaked ground several yards away. “This should not have happened,” she said. “I should have seen it coming.”
“You did. You warned us Emily was a possible victim, and Rafe did everything he could to protect her. It's not your fault or his that a drunk caused a fatal traffic accident.”
“That's not what I mean. I should have been . . . tuned in. I should have been listening. Instead, I did just what you said I