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Still, what he’d told her earlier was true. There was no one else he would trust to find this vicious serial killer than Chloe.
“All right, Taylor, this is where you found Fin,” Tom announced when he pulled the car to a stop. “Which direction were you coming from?”
Taylor looked up and down the street helplessly.
From the way she’d been staggering about, Fin knew this was never going to work. She hadn’t seen any of her surroundings. Maybe if he helped her get started, something might come back to her. She had been out of it by the time she’d gotten to his street, but maybe she had been more cognizant earlier.
“She came up the street that way,” he pointed.
Taylor shot him a grateful smile, and Tom drove down to the end of his block. “Which way now?” Tom asked.
Carefully considering, Taylor slowly pointed to the right. “I think I came this way.”
Tom turned the car in that direction and continued slowly along the street. “Just tell me when I should turn and which way.”
They trundled along for several blocks before Taylor called out, “Stop.” Tom did, and Taylor pointed to the left. “I think I came up that way.”
With her confidence growing, Taylor leaned forward in her seat, anxiously watching out the front window and sporadically instructing Tom to turn left or right. With each direction she gave, Fin’s hope began to grow. Maybe Taylor really could do this. Maybe she really could lead them right to the place where she had been hurt and held prisoner.
“Where next?” Chloe asked after Taylor had remained quiet for a couple of blocks.
“I don’t know,” Taylor said, her head was whipping from side to side. “That way, I think.” She pointed to the left. Then sheshook her head. “No. It was that way,” she changed her mind. “No. Left. It was definitely left.”
Tom turned the car to the left, but they hadn’t gone more than half a block when Taylor stopped them.
“Maybe it was right after all,” she said. “I don’t know. I don’t remember.”
Her anxiety levels were growing, and she flung open her door and jumped out of the car.
“I don’t know,” she cried helplessly. “I don’t know where I came from. I was just running as fast as I could. All I wanted was to get away from him. I'm sorry. I wasn't paying attention. I should have been, but I wasn't.”
“It’s alright, Taylor,” Fin assured her, having followed her from the car.
“Don’t worry about it; it was worth a try,” Tom consoled her.
“No. I should be able to help you. Ihaveto help you. I have to. I'm sorry. I haven't given you anything yet. How will you stop him? He’ll take someone else. He’ll tie them to that table and use his machines and tools to break their bones, and there’ll be nothing you can do to stop him.” Taylor was crying in earnest now. “I can figure it out. I can. I’m sure I can. It was this way. Yes, this way.” She began to run through the snow as fast as she could with a moon boot on her healing leg.
Fin ran after her, wrapping his arms around her and yanking her up against his chest. He held her tighter when she struggled. “It’s okay, Taylor. It’s okay,” he soothed. This was a bad idea. She was putting too much pressure on herself. This wasn't helping her to heal.
“I'm sorry. I'm sorry,” she sobbed over and over again as she wiggled around so she could wrap her arms around his waist and bury her face in his chest as she wept.
Just as she had the last time she had watched him comfort the crying woman in his arms, Chloe watched him with an oddexpression on her face.
*****
12:29 P.M.
“You’ve been uncharacteristically quiet.”
Chloe ignored her partner, mainly because he was right.
She had been uncharacteristically quiet since they’d dropped Fin and Taylor Sallow back off at the hospital.
It wasn't that she was usually a chatterbox. Well, not ahugeone, anyway, but she usually liked to talk through what was going on in the cases they were working. It wasn't often that she sat in the car in silence or kept her mouth shut as they walked back to their office or didn't say a word as they sat at their desks.
But today she was lost in thought.
Overanalyzing her every interaction with Fin to try to make sense out of it.
