Shaman - the Awakening (4 page)

That ended the conversation and the inquiry into my special ability.
I think Dianna; no, I
know
Dianna intentionally distracted Agent Mullins with her response to get off the subject.
She was rescuing me from attempting to explain myself, and it worked. My team was extremely intelligent and good at what they did. Dianna was excellent T getting into people's heads, just like the other team members.

There were limited staff at the diner when we arrived, due to it being Christmas Day. We were lucky they were open at all. I did pretty much the same thing I did at the apartment. I inquired about the last section Melissa worked and sat at one of the tables. I ordered some coffee while I was at the table, and inquired if Dianna or Gracie wanted anything. They both declined to order anything. Gracie was completely engaged with what we were doing. While Dianna was questioning the staff one by one, I just sat in a booth enjoying a cup of coffee, or so it would seem.

Gracie remained with Dianna during the questioning, but continuously kept looking my way to see what I was doing. I was examining the surroundings and the staff. I wanted to see what a customer would be doing while Melissa was waiting on them. I looked outside to see what a customer would see from Melissa's section, and then walked outside to see what I could see looking into her section. I also walked the parking lot area. Gracie watched me the whole time; when I got up and walked outside, as well as when I returned. She was completely baffled and looked about to burst with questions about me. Dianna ignored my odd-seeming behavior; she'd seen me do this countless times.

When I returned inside, I spoke to the chef and the rest of the staff, wanting to get a feel for who liked and disliked Melissa. Understanding the emotions of others was critical information I could utilize this during dreamscape. Melissa seemed to be loved by all the staff and they were worried about her. At this point I had officially become Agent Mullins' freak show main attraction. Although I didn't do anything weird or out of place, it just wasn't the normal questioning and interviewing techniques that she was accustomed to seeing.

“Did you find out anything outside?” Agent Mullins inquired?

“No, not really,” I responded. I wasn't going to discuss any findings with her until we were back with the team. If Steven wanted to invite her to the brief, she was welcome to participate in whatever I had to say.

On the way back to the office, I sat in the back of the vehicle while Gracie and Dianna claimed the front. The whole time we were driving back, Gracie kept staring at me through the rear view mirror. It was really starting to freak me out and make me feel uncomfortable. I closed my eyes in hopes of viewing something in my sleep, but I couldn't relax knowing that her eyes were glued to me. I smiled and made polite conversation about the past time in Bernalillo. She also found that to be interesting, since this case was on a countdown. I guess I appeared to be inappropriately nonchalant.

We compared our findings as a team back at the office. Steven had already constructed an abductees' board and added what the team presented to him. The board contained pictures and short bios under them, and the locations of abductions. We examined all our findings with a fine toothed comb. We went over scenarios in comparison with the ViCAP Database. We worked until 0400 in the morning, which was actually 0600 hours Eastern Standard Time.

“Let's get some sleep, people, and be back here at 1100,” Steve stated and adjourned the meeting. I remained behind with Steve and examined the board further.

“Did you get much to go on?” he inquired.

“Yeah, let's be honest here. If she's still alive, it's been a long time,” I replied. “I wouldn't look for a happy ending.”

“You know we don't think in the negative. I need you, even more than the other team members, to go home and get some sleep,” he stated.

I dipped my chin in acknowledgment and turned to leave just as Dianna walked towards the conference room entrance.

“Need a ride?” she inquired.

“Yes, thank you,” I replied.

“What about you, Steve? You riding with us?” she asked.

“No, I'm fine. I'm using one of their vehicles. See you at 1100.”

We departed, leaving Steven in the conference gathering his sport coat and briefcase.

“You know he knows,” I stated to Dianna, playing with her as we departed down the hallway. In return she bumped me with her hip and smiled.

We drove back to the Hilton Gardens Inn, kissed each other goodnight and retired to our separate suites. There was no time for romance. It was strictly business while in the field. Besides, while Dianna and the others slept, I'll be traveling in the dream realm. I did my usual routine. I took a sleeping pill to assist me in dozing off and staying there. Then I put on my earphones. I was listening to the sound of the ocean waves. I couldn't listen to music because I always found myself counting along with the beat or playing the chords. It was one of the habits of being a musician.

I hadn't experience anything last night. While I received enough external stimuli from Melissa, but I couldn't make a connection. Usually when I couldn't make a connection, 99 percent of the victims are discovered dead. I always woke up depressed after such nights. The sleeping pills exacerbated this condition. They always left me down, even if I didn't have any dream activity. Although we knew the outcome, we still had to catch the killer. I always wondered if I was too late receiving the stimuli.

Dianna was the first to knock on my door in the morning.

“Good morning, Chris. How are you?” She could already tell by my demeanor that I wasn't in the best of moods. “Bad news?” she further inquired.

“I couldn't make a connection with her,” I simply stated without going any further.

I used to attempt to make up excuses for why I couldn't make a connection, but it was no use at this point. The team already knew what that meant. My track record was flawless.

Dianna attempted to deflect my mind from thinking about Melissa and being depressed. “Did you eat breakfast yet,” she asked?

“No.”

“Then let's grab some here at the hotel before we leave. I'm famished,” she stated, then kissed me on the cheek and said, “We'll catch him and find her.”

She didn't mean
find her alive
. We were tasked with catching the perps (perpetrators) and finding the victims, dead or alive. It made me think of the days of the Old West when the Sheriffs were ordered to bring in the suspect dead or alive.

Dianna always knew the right things to say and do when it came to cheering me up. Her empathy also made her an expert at getting inside someone's head. She was our lead interrogator. She just had a knack for it. I still wasn't sure if she was assigned to be my handler or my partner. It was clear we had crossed the lines when it came to partnership. We were more than just professional partners, but was that also her assignment? I was paranoid when it came to the government and law enforcement, even though I worked for them.

I quickly dismissed this conspiracy notion as a side effect of the sleeping pills. I was depressed and feeling sorry for myself. By the time we completed breakfast, Dianna had lifted my spirits with discussions about us and our Christmas evening spent together. We also discussed future plans outside of work.

Agent Gracie Mullins was the first to meet us at the door of the FBI Office. She was dressed in a blue pantsuit, white blouse and blue high heels. She had dressed up more than at our previous meeting when she had on dark blue BDU's and boots. The dress code was casual at most of the satellite offices. She had dressed up because she saw us with suits on yesterday, but today we wore casual clothes. We always wore suits while traveling, but on the ground we preferred comfort to formality

Gracie was young, ambitious and attractive. She didn't seem to be thrown by our attire, but it was obvious that she was attempting to impress us. Steven invited her and Agent Trace Burkhart to join us for the briefings, since they would be working with us. Steven had dressed down as well. We didn't have to be advised on what to wear. We just adapted to the environment we were currently investigating.

The team was assembled in the conference room area. The rest of the ViCAP team was anxious to see me and get an update on the missing person. As I entered the room, they could see it on my face. They knew me well and were some of the best profilers in the FBI. I didn't have to say it, but I expressed to everyone my unfortunate news on Melissa Sykes. It was like delivering a death sentence. The team took it in stride and moved on, but I still felt upset that I couldn't give them something more to go on. Steve immediately went to the front of the room and began his brief, without another word spoken on the subject of my dreams.

“OK, people, here's what we have thus far. We have four females, all in their twenties. They are of different races and different backgrounds. We don't have any bodies or traces of them. There was no evidence of a struggle. They were allegedly abducted a night. So tell me, what's the signature?” Steven inquired.

Then the rest of the team joined in, adding to the profile.

“The subject is a visionary male, a predator who abducts at night; pretty young females in their twenties. He knows the area very well, therefore he has lived in this area for an extended period of time. He knows how to avoid cameras and densely populated areas. He has to store the victims, so he's a loner who lives in a secluded place with room to house the women, or he has an unknown disposal site. If he is a collector, then he has abandonment issues or issues with being alone,” the team called out in sequence.

“So let's enlarge our parameters today to include the rest of the women, and attempt to discover some sort of link between them. Max and I will continue with victimology. Paul and Amber will look into the local criminals that may fit the profile, and Dianna and Chris will work on the current abductee in line. The clock is ticking, folks,” Steve stated as we paired off again.

Gracie Mullins bounced our way, eager to get started. “Here are the magazines and correspondence from Melissa Sykes' apartment, Christian. Do you still need them?” she inquired.

“Sure, I'll look over them later. Let's head to Felicia Holmes' residence and then to her place of work, but first stop off at the diner where Melissa worked, so I can get a cup of coffee,” I instructed Gracie.

“It's in the opposite direction and there are better places to get coffee,” she replied.

“I know, but I like theirs,” I responded. Now she understood that I wasn't going for the coffee. Dianna had known immediately, and didn't question it. She knew I was trying to avoid the inevitable, the realization that Melissa was dead.

I sat in the diner and drank my cup of coffee while opening Melissa's People Magazine. Gracie and Dianna joined me in a cup of java this morning. Afterwards we went to Ms. Holmes' residence. She lived with her boyfriend, who was currently at work, but the landlord allowed us access to the residence while he was away.

They lived on the second floor of a three story apartment building. They didn't have any pets. The place appeared to be unkempt. He was probably still emotionally drained and disorganized due to Felicia's disappearance. Dianna left her card near the door to inform him that we had been there, and we allowed the landlord to remain as well. I did my usual of touching everything in the place as I made my rounds. The landlord watched me but seemed unsurprised by my unusual actions. Clearly he was not an overly curious man.

We visited the outpatient clinic, where Felicia worked as a LVN. It was a small clinic and all the staff were very close. They were very upset and emotional about her disappearance. Some of the women even cried as they were questioned. Felicia had been missing since November 3, which was 53 days ago. I didn't spend a lot of time at the clinic, because we needed to visit the other missing women's residences and places of employment.

We were finished around 1900 hours and rendezvoused with the other team members at 1935. There were several suspects in the area who had come close to matching the profile. We continued our profiling a composite of the subject until 0100 hours the next morning, and called it quits for the day. We retired earlier than yesterday, and everyone felt good about the progress we were making. I also had a big night in front of me, as I had several women to reach out and attempt to make a connection with.

Another night had passed and I hadn't received anything on my radar. I felt like I was letting the team down. I was usually the main contributor on these killer hunts, but now I wasn't registering anything. Once again, Dianna knocked at my door, expecting something. I opened for her, with only my lounge pants on.

“Another rough night, huh?” she inquired.

“I didn't get anything Di,” I replied, and in my frustration, just blurted out, “These women are dead!”

She remained silent, pausing for about a minute, and then retorted, “We still have a killer to catch out there, remember?”

“Yeah, let me shower real quick and I'll be right with you.”

While I was in the shower, she took off her clothes and joined me. I was frustrated, but always in the mood for her. The warmth of her naked body pressed intimately to mine chased some of the icy grief from my heart.

Several days went by and we still weren't any closer to finding the assailant. We had questioned numerous felons who fit the profile, but with no results. We even questioned citizens with no priors, but to no avail. The entire Albuquerque office was on board now, assisting in the investigation with us. Catching this subject was the number one priority of the Residence Office. Our teams remained the same size, but we covered a lot more ground with the others on board.

At midnight on New Year's Eve there had been no breaks in the case. Dianna and I snuck away for a midnight countdown and a kiss. There was no champagne or celebrating around here. We were on the bubble and the time was counting down until another young woman would be abducted. There were lives we had been in situations like this before, and were tasked to come in when others failed. We solved the unsolvable, or at least we did up to this point.