Page 37 of Reclaiming Chaos
Chapter 19
That night was etched in blood in my memory. I’d gone out without backup or anyone knowing where my lead was taking me. That case had made my career.
The Hillside serial killer would have killed me that night. I would have been his sixth victim if it hadn’t been for a good Samaritan who vanished before the police showed up on site.
“You stopped him.” My voice was barely a whisper.
She nodded. “Someone had to. I called the police, but they didn’t make it in time. He was standing over you. I couldn’t wait.”
“You hit him from behind, and while he was unconscious, you used my handcuffs to cuff him to the fire escape. You were just a blurry image before I passed out.”
“I stayed with you until I heard the police sirens getting closer. I was afraid the killer would wake up again.”
There hadn’t been any cameras in the alley. There hadn’t been any fingerprints on my cuffs. Nothing. No DNA evidence to tell me who my savior was, and I’d looked. I’d pressed.
“All this time, I thought it was my sister who just wouldn’t tell me the truth.”
“I thought that after just that one incident I could stop. Until I remembered that my predictions could actually help people. That’s all I wanted. That’s all I ever wanted.”
I knew the truth now. I’d been at my most vulnerable, and she’d saved my life—more than once. Why was trusting her so hard? Maybe it was something wrong with me.
We ate in easy banter after her admission. I learned a bit about how she’d grown up after her parents’ death, and she learned a bit about me. She fell asleep on the couch during a movie, and I carried her to bed. My heart tightened as I stared down at her. Had she given up her premonitions all those years ago, I would most certainly be dead.
I pulled the bedroom door closed and walked back into the living room. The house was quiet. The street was dark. I made sure the locks were firmly in place before I’d lain down. I fell asleep trying to make sense of how all of this would play out.
* * *
I rested my arm over my eyes to block the sun streaming in through the crack in the window. Sleep hadn’t come easy, and I’d woken several times during the middle of the night. I rolled out of bed and showered then followed the scent of coffee to the kitchen. Carlee had two cups in her hands and handed one to me.
“Good morning. How did you sleep?”
“Not very good,” I answered, taking a sip and moving to the window to peer at the street outside. “How about you?”
“Like a baby until I woke up with another premonition.”
I turned to her and raised a brow. “Really? What was this one about?”
“You’re going to arrest the shooter who tried to kill you.”
I paused in my tracks. “Are you serious?”
She nodded.
To my knowledge, she wasn’t ever wrong. I ran my hand through my hair, debating how that would play out. If I took her out of the house, there was a possibility she’d be compromised, but if I didn’t follow through on her premonition, then the killer might slip through my fingers and I might not get the chance again.
“Yes. And don’t worry. I’ll stay here. That way you don’t have to worry about what to do with me when you take him in for processing and interviews.”
It was as though she could read my mind. I didn’t like that.
I rubbed at the stubble on my chin. “You’ll stay here?”
“Of course,” she said and then tore out a piece of paper from her book. It was a crude drawing of a restaurant with the shooter sitting inside in a booth. “The gun and the fake book he stole are in his car. You’re going to need both to prosecute. The bullets will be a match to the ones that killed Reyes and wounded Melony.”
“How do you know when he’s going to be there?” I asked.
She pointed at the background where a clock was hanging on the wall. I glanced down at my watch and back to the drawing. Crap. I had only thirty minutes to get there.
“Go get your gun, and I’ll make your coffee to go,” she said, taking the coffee cup out of my hands. I turned and jogged down the hall into my room. I shoved my feet into my shoes, checked my gun clip, and grabbed my handcuffs.
She was waiting by the garage door with the car keys in her hand and a coffee cup complete with a lid ready to hand off as I passed.
“Good luck,” she called out.
I lifted the coffee in answer, and within minutes, I was pulling out of the subdivision.
