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Amber was standing in the middle of a bridge, looking out over the water, seeing the moonlight shimmer from its surface as it rippled and shifted far beneath her. She wasn't sure how she'd gotten there, only that there had been reports of a man lurking there and that she had to investigate.
Simon was with her, his gun out, ready for any danger. He was moving ahead of Amber, checking every shadow and corner for any sign of trouble. Amber was grateful for his presence there, knowing that there was no one she would rather have backing her up. Even so, Amber could feel her nerves building as the two of them started to make their way over the bridge.
They searched the struts of the bridge one at a time, wanting to make sure that there was no one hiding behind their steel girders, checking each riveted hiding spot for any sign of the man who had been seen there. Amber couldn't remember the call that had brought the two of them there, but there must have been one, or why were they there?
Amber felt a slowly growing sense of worry, a small certainty that something terrible was going to happen here that lodged in her chest and refused to leave. There was a killer there somewhere, but Amber no longer felt certain that she and Simon would be able to take him down.
"We should go," Amber said to Simon, but the problem was that they couldn't go. It was their job to be there. They had to keep searching, even though every instinct Amber had screamed at her to leave, now, before anything happened.
"It will be fine, Amber," Simon said, turning to look at her.
That moment, when he was distracted because of Amber, was when a figure leaped from behind one of the girders, almost appearing out of nowhere, dressed in dark clothes, almost wrapped in shadow. Amber couldn't see his face beneath a hood that obscured his whole head. She only knew that he was larger than either of them, strongly built, and clearly dangerous.
Amber went to shout a warning, but she couldn't move then, couldn't speak. It felt as though she was paralyzed with fear, unable to do anything as the figure leaped at Simon, slamming into him and sending his gun spinning from his hand. The two of them went down, struggling with one another.
Still, Amber couldn't move. It was as if she were stuck in molasses, rooted to the spot. She should have been going for her weapon, but her limbs didn’t seem to want to move. She couldn’t even shout out to try to distract the killer. All she could do was stand there and hope that Simon would come out on top in this fight.
For a moment, it looked like he would, then Amber saw the man he was fighting pull back one booted foot and kick Simon hard in the side of the head, the sound of it awful against the night.
Simon tumbled off his opponent, obviously stunned. The man in the hooded top jumped atop him, throwing punches. Amber heard the impact of them, one after another, raining down on Simon while he was helpless to resist.
Amber could only stand there and watch, struggling to move, struggling to help. But nothing happened. She could only watch in helpless terror as the figure lashed out at Simon again and again and...
Amber woke with a gasp that seemed to fill the motel room, cold sweat covering her skin. Light was pouring in through the window to her room.
Amber checked her phone for the time. It was early, but Amber didn't care. She was awake now; there was no way that she was going to be able to get back to sleep now, not with that dream waiting for her the moment that she closed her eyes.
Since she had her phone in her hand, Amber checked to make sure that there weren't any messages or missed calls waiting for her that might mean there had been another murder overnight.
There was nothing, and that eased Amber's worries a little, taking away some of the tension that had lingered from the dream. She guessed that the presence of the guarding police officers had deterred the killer from striking on the bridges for now. Or maybe he hadn't been planning to kill anyone last night, and the efforts of the Verdice PD had been wasted. Maybe he would be out there tonight, targeting another woman.
At least for now, it meant that Amber and Simon had time in which to continue their hunt for the killer.
First, though, Amber called the hospital. “Hello, I’m calling to check on one of your patients. Joseph Connolly? I was there yesterday. I’m his girlfriend, Amber Young.”
“I’ll put you through to his doctor,” the receptionist said. Amber had to hold, but it wasn’t long before a man’s voice came onto the line.
“Hello, this is Dr. Schmid. You’re the woman who was here yesterday, yes?”
“That’s right. Amber. I’m Joseph’s girlfriend. Is there any news?”
“Not so far. He hasn’t woken up yet, but that’s normal with this kind of injury. We’ve been keeping him sedated to allow any brain swelling to reduce, and anticipate that he’ll be ready to wake up later today.”
It was difficult to hear that Joseph was still unconscious. Amber wanted to be sure that he was all right. She wanted to hear his voice.
"Ok," Amber said because it was all that she could do. "I'll check again later."
She hung up. Amber wanted to get back to DC, back to Joseph, which meant that she needed to get started again on the case as soon as possible. Amber showered and dressed, hurrying over to Simon's room and knocking on the door.
"I'm coming!" Simon called out from the other side of the door.
He answered after a few seconds, still buttoning his shirt. Amber resisted the urge to stare, but only barely.
"Amber, is everything all right?"
"Yes, yes, everything's fine," Amber said, surprised by the sudden relief flooding through her. It seemed that a part of her had needed to see that Simon was okay. "I just thought we should grab breakfast and then get an early start."
"Sounds like a good idea. Hopefully, we'll make some progress today. Where do you want to start?"
