Page 13 of No Room to Breathe
“Taking her was random?”Cade drummed his fingers on the arm of the chair.“Dumping her there was random?Could it be a trafficking attempt gone wrong?”
Hoffman scowled.“We explored those theories when the case was new.We combed through that girl’s life.”
“Why come to me?”he asked.“You need fresh eyes on the file?”
“Sure,” Hoffman said, breezily.“The more the merrier.”She scooted to the edge of her chair, lowering her voice.“What I’m after is your take on Devyn Norris.”
His fingers stilled.Did he have a take on the woman he could share?Yes, he’d been about to call her with grudging thanks for dragging him out of his grief, but that didn’t mean he suddenly liked her or the way she did things.“Why?”
“The rabbit hole,” Hoffman said.“I caught a similar case a couple months ago.Female, eighteen this time, taken from work.It’s already iced over.If the perp is someone who knows how to erase an evidence trail, I need Devyn’s help.”
“What?Do you hear yourself right now?What happened to real police work?”
She glared at him.“The real police work stalled out.And these cases are so similar.Maybe she can walk that lot with me and pick up a vibe or whatever it is she does.”
Cade rolled his eyes.If he didn’t know better, he’d accuse Hoffman of being lazy.“You believe she’s real.”He glanced around.“A real psychic,” he whispered.
“What I think is that I’m dealing with one smart killer,” Hoffman said.“We didn’t catch him last time.We didn’t even find the body until the Archers got Devyn involved.”
His back teeth set and it took all his willpower not to blast Hoffman and storm off.He was irrationally angry about the suggestion that Norris was real.Apparently, his respite of calm control was over.No surprise there.Norris hadn’tfixedanything.She didn’t have any extra connection or power.She’d let him talk, vent his grief.She’d been kind, but hardly a miracle worker.
“Would you call her?”Hoffman seemed to be holding her breath.
“That’s a slippery slope.”And he decided quickly enough.He shook his head.“Hell no.You want her help,youcall.There’s a contact page on her website.”
“Yes.Email only.I thought...”Her voice trailed off and her gaze narrowed.
He didn’t have to be a mind-reader to hear what she didn’t say.“You thought we had some arrangement?”
Hoffman shrugged a shoulder.“The two of you seemed tight when she came into the precinct.”
Tight.Seriously?“We had a conversation.”And she’d helped him so much he’d been about to call her and thank her.He reached for his coffee to keep from yanking out his hair.“No connection,” he heard himself explain.“She was at a crime scene, that’s all.”
“She found the intended victim,” Hoffman reminded him, her tone sharp as a blade.
Cade held up his hands in surrender.“You’ll get further without my interference.”He tapped his cell phone and scrolled until he found Norris’s contact information.He copied it into a text message and sent it to Hoffman.“Try that number.”
Hoffman’s smile lit up her face.“Thank you!”She started to walk away and turned back.“And I’ll send you the files too.”
Great.He saluted her with his coffee.Maybe she’d interpret that as enthusiasm.In the meantime, he had his own caseload to deal with.Among other responsibilities.
He needed some time to cool off before he could make the call and thank Norris politely for helping him out of that pit of grief.He did owe her that much.
Knowing Hoffman’s efficiency and the urgency of closing those cases, he’d wait to call.He set a reminder to reach out to Norris this afternoon and dug into his own work.He felt the glances as his colleagues came and went.They’d been giving him space and treating him with kid gloves for months.He probably owed his entire department an apology for being such a mess.For insisting on coming in when his brain was clouded and his emotions were wrecked.
When he was a cracked shell of a functioning detective.
How much longer would they have let him muddle along?Although, as he reviewed his files, he could see no one had left him to his own devices.
He saw the notes now, from just about everyone in the building.Somehow, they’d managed to supervise him, preventing a catastrophe, without sending him into a tailspin or allowing him to undermine investigations.
It was more than a little lowering to discover he’d been so deep in the fog he hadn’t noticed everyone propping him up.
Looked like he owed a lot of people some serious gratitude for putting up with him.Maybe he should talk to HR or have a chat with the chief.He opened his email to set that up and got distracted with the latest arrival.
Hoffman’s invitation to dig into her cold cases.Fine.Anything to keep her from turning to Norris.
He opened the two attachments.The first file was the Archer case and the second was the more recent case Hoffman believed was connected.
