Page 5 of No Room to Breathe
It didn’t matter to her if they caught the killer.Charlene Archer and her parents had a measure of peace after six long years.
That was victory enough for Devyn.
Chapter 2
Cade Laurier pacedthe hallway near the conference rooms.He’d walked by, moving along with a group of people, just to get a glimpse inside.He had to be certain he wasn’t having some ill-timed flashback.
But it was her.
He didn’t want to think about Devyn Norris in Chicago.Definitely didn’t want to believe she was here, acting as if she belonged.
She didn’t.
She absolutely didnotbelong here.
This was his place.His house.
In more ways than one since tragedy upended his life six months ago.The bullpen, his desk, the cases that called him out into the field were his safe zone.Thiswas where the world made sense.His apartment was just a sucking black hole of emotions he had officially processed, but would never get over.
He wasn’t sure which made him angrier—seeing herhereor seeing her at all.If she really had some extra special psychic talents, if she was half as caring as she’d claimed, she would’ve warned him.It would’ve been the decent thing to do.
But she was a fraud.She’d gotten lucky when she’d intruded on his Pereda case.She’d used some insight from her previous association with the wife, not some woo-woo gift.Didn’t matter that she denied his theory.Psychics weren’t real.
They crafted lies and planted shady suggestions, leaving confusion and pain in their wake.
He waited at the bottom of the stairs, carefully distancing himself when an older couple walked by.Mr.and Mrs.Archer—Cade had gotten that much out of the sergeant at the front desk—were both looking relieved and a bit teary.
What nonsense had Norris sold as truth this time?
Whatever the story, Cade knew Hoffman wouldn’t tolerate any goofball sixth-sense kind of crap.She was smarter than that.
Smarter than him, especially these last few months.But he wasn’t giving up.Work was his salvation, even if it took him longer to process a scene or conduct an interview.He was closing cases.Because being here on the job was a hundred times better than being anywhere else.
The couple was long gone and Cade still hovered near the stairs.Where was she?She had to leave the building through this door to sign out and return her visitor’s pass.She could dawdle all she liked, he would have his say.
Something pulled him around.If he believed in anything psychic, he would’ve thought she’d given him some signal.
