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“The girl!” Laura shouted, the effort cracking her throat. “Where is she?”
The kidnapper looked at her sideways, his head twisted to one side and forced against the dirt. She could see the whites of his eyes, rolling with the effort of trying to get free. A sneer came over his face, an imitation of a grin. “It doesn’t matter,” he said. “She won’t be alive much longer.”
Laura felt her heart plummet like a stone.
Her vision had shown her the wrong thing. The girl wasn’t here.
And Laura had no idea how to save her.
“Laura!”
She looked up to see Nate jogging toward her, breaking into a faster sprint as he took in the scene.
“Radio it in,” she called out to him; it was unnecessary. He was already pulling the radio off his belt as he approached, his gun still drawn and pointed steadily at the kidnapper’s head as he pressed the call button.
“Sir, we have the suspect,” he reported, rattling off a quick description of their location. He turned briefly to wave until the figures down near the farmhouse waved in response, and Laura saw them bursting into motion. They were on their way to help.
“How did you know he was here?” Nate asked, putting both gun and radio away as he knelt beside her. He grabbed hold of the kidnapper’s cuffed wrists, allowing her to get up and move away as she caught her breath.
“I saw the trail of dust,” she lied breathlessly, gesturing off to the side. Now that she had stopped moving, she felt it: the blow of her body against the windshield, the jolts through her arms as she forced the club out of his hands, every point of contact she’d made against the ground each time she fell. Above it all, the headache, throbbing so violently she felt sick.
Nate looked at her sharply. “You okay?”
“Had a few
knocks,” Laura said, gulping in the fresh air as fast as her body would take it. Water. She needed water to hydrate herself, stop the headache getting worse. “I’m fine. Focus on him.”
“Lavoie?” That was another agent, coming up the hill toward them and then jogging up the road.
“I’ve got him here,” Lavoie said, nodding at Laura. “Agent Frost took him down. We should take him for questioning.”
“Urgently,” Laura cut in, seeing the special agent in charge coming into hearing range—along with the others who had been gathered around the farmhouse. “He said something about the girl—that she won’t be alive much longer.”
“Where is she, you scumbag? Huh?” Nate demanded, giving the man a shake, but he seemed to have gone off somewhere inside his own mind. He only wheezed slightly in response, his mouth hanging open and his eyes hooded. Nothing changed when Nate hauled him to his feet, handing him over to a pair of cops who quickly began the interrogation.
It all washed over Laura like the light breeze that was still making the wheat whisper below. She was finding it hard to think through the throb of her headache, the burn of the pain points all over her body. She felt tiredness come, tried to battle it. Something wasn’t right. The girl.
“Hey.” It was Nate again, standing in front of her, one arm hovering just beside her elbow as if ready to catch her. “You doing okay? Really?”
“I just—this isn’t right,” Laura said, looking up at him. He was something she could focus on against the too-bright sky, the loudness of the voices around her. “She’s in danger.”
Nate glanced behind him; as he twisted, Laura saw past him to the police car that had pulled up. The suspect was being pushed into the back seat, ready to be taken off. Questioned, probably for hours. The girl didn’t have that kind of time. From what he’d said, the way he’d said it, Laura knew. He’d been serious. She was dying, right now, and Laura had no idea what that meant.
“Good work, Frost,” their boss said, nodding at her as he got into the front seat. The car started. Laura didn’t even have time to formulate a reply. They were gone. Around her and Nate, the other agents and police officers were heading back to the house or checking the car over. Wrapping things up.
“I need to see,” she said, half to herself. Another vision. That was what she needed now. If she could somehow force it to come—but there was no way. She had never been able to trigger them exactly—she could only create the right circumstances and hope. They came unbidden and unasked for, like a bolt out of the blue. Laura saw the girl’s face behind her eyes, but it was only a fake, the memory of the picture she’d seen in the briefing. If only she could have another vision, now, right now—
“See what?” Nate asked, ducking his head down to her level, shadowing over her with concern. “Laura?”
Laura made an effort to center herself, to think through the mud and jagged rocks at her temples. She was acting suspiciously. She needed to try to be normal.
“The farmhouse,” Laura said, managing to make a connection at last. Yes. The farmhouse. Maybe if she went down there and walked around, it would trigger something. Right now, she was removed from the scene—done with it, maybe. She could easily get in a car with Nate and drive out of the area, and the scene would be dealt with by someone else. She wasn’t involved enough.
She had to put herself right down there, in the middle of it. The kidnapper’s lair. Maybe then it would come. She had to try.
“It’s already been checked over,” Nate said, reaching for her arm. “Boss wants us back at the precinct with everyone else. Come on. We’ve got to head out.”
“No,” Laura said, loud enough that Nate quickly turned, blocking her from the line of view of the other agents who were still around them.
