Page 33 of Psycho
“At first, the same thing I saw when I touched Malia. A boxy room, a flickering fluorescent light, that strange red glow. But then I saw other things. Kohn sliding on the mask in his bedroom, dropping a curved knife into a duffle bag.”
“What did you do?”
“I froze. At first, he thought I just wasn’t into him. Made a joke of it, apologized. I thought I’d escaped without him figuring it out. Even once I got home, I didn’t really think he was a murderer. We worked on the same case, and had the same knowledge. Maybe Kohn liked to put himself in the killer’s shoes. But that didn’t explain how his knowledge of that room looked exactly like mine. No matter how I explained it, he would never have been able to recreate it with that level of detail. You know?”
August nodded. “When did he figure it out?”
Lucas closed his eyes, his mouth a hard line. “I went to my Supervisory Special Agent. He heard me out, even showed some level of concern, right up until I had to tell him why I believed Kohn needed to be investigated. I tried to explain I’d seen him in a mask with a knife—I left out the part where I’d seen it psychically—but, eventually, I came clean and explained that I truly was clairvoyant, it wasn’t just a joke or some process I had. I was immediately placed on desk duty pending a psych eval.”
“What did they do about Kohn?”
“Nothing. While he was in Virginia, another body dropped in New Mexico and I looked like a lunatic.”
“But you didn’t let it go?”
“No. Though, sometimes, I wish I had.”
“You don’t mean that,” August said.
Lucas huffed out a sigh. “Of course, I don’t. Not that I’ve done any good. Those girls are still dead and more have gone missing and I have no way of knowing whether Kohn and his partner are still killing. Have they taken more girls? Are they still being hurt?”
“What happened after your psych eval?”
“They cleared me to return to work, but I was obsessed with proving Kohn was a killer. I took personal time, returned to New Mexico, followed him, looked for any indication on who his partner might be. He called my supervisor, accused me of stalking, and threatened to call the police. The more I tried to prove what I knew to be true, the crazier I looked. Hell, the crazier I became. Then he was waiting for me in my car one night. I thought he was going to kill me but, it turns out, he liked playing with me instead.”
“He was taunting you.”
“He told me he was going to keep raping and torturing girls, that I couldn’t do anything about it. Touched me and forced me to see…all of it. The things he did, the way he hurt them, everything. But worse than that…I felt it. I felt their pain and agony, heard when they begged, cried out, called for their family members. By the time I made it back inside to my office, I was gone. They put me on a seventy-two hour psych hold claiming I was clearly a danger to myself and others. I didn’t do myself any favors. I refused to stop rambling about what I’d seen.”
“I imagine that would have been horrific for you. But you did get out.”
“Kohn tried to kill me in there.”
“What?”
“He got another inmate to stab me with a piece of glass. Not that anybody believed me then either. Another inch and he would have gotten my heart. Instead, he severed a nerve in my shoulder, causing a permanent numbness in the tips of my fingers that put me on medical leave. Then they offered me a full-time teaching position in Quantico, saying I was good at what I did but they thought the stress of profiling had finally gotten to me.”
“But you left instead.”
“Yeah. I don’t want to work with people who think I’m insane or unstable. Even if I am.”
“Why do you think Kohn is still after you?”
Lucas met his gaze. “Because he moved here a couple of months after I did and women are already missing.”
“You’re certain it’s him?”
Lucas nodded, rubbing his eye with his free hand. “Not that I can prove it. I can’t even prove he’s responsible for the disappearances, but I know it’s him. He’s going to keep tormenting me until he gets bored and then he’s going to kill me. That’s what he said in the car. He said he thought this was almost as fun as torturing women.” Lucas sat up abruptly. “We should probably get some sleep. We both have classes in the morning.”
August studied his pinched features. “Okay, that’s enough for tonight, but this isn’t over. Kohn needs to be dealt with.”
Lucas dropped down beside him and curled against his side, tugging the blankets over them both.
“No pillow barrier tonight?”
Lucas kissed August’s furry chest. “No, not tonight.”
Like the day before, August was gone before Lucas woke, but there was a note on his pillow that said, ‘Check your phone.’ Lucas stretched until his joints popped, a smile forming as he rolled to grab said phone from the charger.
