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“No, no dreams,” I tell her miserably.
“Oh. I had thought maybe your visions were making you feel unwell yesterday…?” Her voice trails off, waiting for me to say something.
She is probably as frustrated as I am. She doesn’t know what is wrong with me. Given my personal connection to India, maybe she thinks I am hiding something.
I sigh. How can I tell her that while wearing this amulet, there is no chance of me dreaming of anything? I wonder if I should tell Theo and seek his help, but my mind shies away from this idea. I can’t tell him, because he’ll ask questions and then all of my sordid secrets will come out. He’ll either believe me and think I am evil or he won’t believe me and think I am mad. I don’t know which would be worse.
In three short weeks I’ve come to depend on Theo’s stabilizing presence in my life. I need my job. I like that he trusts me. I like that I might even be able to call him a friend. The idea of jeopardizing all of that, of seeing the look of disappointment in his face, gives me a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. I can’t do it.
I realize my teeth are worrying my bottom lip hard enough to have broken the skin. I have to force myself to stop. How am I going to live with myself if something has happened to India because I chose to keep wearing Theo’s amulet? Because I chose to block off my psychic gift?
And yet I can’t take it off. It is my fear that Nemesis always counted on. What if she is waiting in my mind for this exact moment? What if she has grown strong? What if the second I take it off I lose control of my body and mind forever? That’s worse isn’t it? That’s worse because Nemesis is a killer.
“Are you feeling okay?” Remi asks. “Monroe thought you might be coming down with something?”
“I’m fine. Just tired. I’ll head to the hospital now.”
“Could you?” Remi says, sounding glad. “It would be great if you could pick up India’s trail. It’s exactly the break we need.”
I squeeze my eyes shut in mortification. Remi thinks I am going to perform a mini miracle. But all I can do is question the nurses and other patients there. Things that Storm’s team will have already done. If I find anything new it really will be a miracle.
I should never have come home yesterday. I should have gone straight back to India. I should have been with her.
“But you guys are searching for her too, right?” I ask anxiously.
“Yes, we’re searching,” says Remi. But I sense something in her voice that she isn’t saying. The possibility that India is already dead. They’re searching for India’s killer as much as they’re searching for her.
Chapter 23
STORM
Come Thursday morning Storm knows that the clock on finding India Lawrenson still alive is running out. If it was the killer who took her, this time he will have wanted to dispose of India quickly. With her went the possibility of her memory returning. Their chances of catching the killer have diminished hugely.
Kurt Gibbon is still currently their strongest lead, and yet Gibbon had been in police custody when India Lawrenson disappeared from the hospital yesterday evening. If he had been involved in India’s disappearance, then that would mean he had an accomplice.
Diana had not come in. Having no grounds for holding Gibbon, Storm had had to cut him loose last night. A smirking Gibbon had strolled out, already making threats about suing the Agency for unlawful detainment.
Storm had managed to find a couple of officers eager for some overtime and had them tail Gibbon. The officers had reported that Gibbon had gone drinking alone immediately after being released, and had continued drinking until the early hours of the morning. Then he had gone home and had not emerged ever since. He had not gone to visit a captive India. He had not gone to see any potential accomplice.
Monroe has started background checks on all of Gibbon’s known associates but so far nothing has jumped out to point the finger towards any of them.
Questioning the hospital staff and patients about India’s movements and the events surrounding her disappearance yesterday had provided no new leads. They had been unable to trace the dark-haired delivery girl that a nurse said had delivered the pizza. And the hospital’s CCTV system was no use. It was in the middle of being upgraded and the recording system had been switched off.
Storm had assigned Leo and Remi to take over the surveillance on Gibbon in the morning. At their last update they had still been parked outside of his house. They had seen no sign of him, and it appeared that he was still sleeping off the alcohol he’d consumed. This is worrying. Storm has nothing concrete to confirm Gibbon is their guy.
Storm has been busy digging into Gibbon’s history all morning, and so far he has found plenty that is of interest but nothing that points to an accomplice. Phone calls to Gibbon’s previous tenants and employees of his bankrupt businesses had revealed Gibbon’s disturbing pattern of behavior around vulnerable young women.
Storm had spoken with nine young women this morning and six of them had admitted that Kurt Gibbon had enticed and cajoled them into levels of intimacy that they never quite felt that they had consented to.
But when Storm asked whether they had ever considered pressing charges they had become reluctant to speak about it, saying that they didn’t feel that the
y could prove a lack of consent. That they had accepted gifts from Kurt Gibbon and therefore worried that they might have encouraged him more than they had wanted. They feared they would be blamed for allowing themselves to be caught alone with him.
When Storm asked whether he had ever harmed them, they said he had never physically assaulted them. His abuse had been psychological. He’d enjoyed damaging their self-esteem to exert control over them. He’d made them feel guilty for having accepted his gifts. He’d made them feel like they owed him something.
The conversations had left Storm with a bad taste in his mouth. And yet all six of the girls had refused to consider pressing charges. They’d all said Gibbon had acted alone. Gibbon had been clever. It seemed he had always stopped short of outright violence. So why would he have changed his MO with Rachel Garrett? Could he have been so obsessed with her that he broke his own boundaries? Or could it really have been that he’d met an accomplice who encouraged him to do things that he would not have considered doing on his own?
Storm grabs his phone to call Leo and Remi for an update. Leo answers on the first ring. “Hey boss.”
