Page 5 of All He Sees
Back at HQ in Jacksonville, Florida, Nicky stepped off the elevator and into the busy FBI office. The fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, the agents in their cubicles typing away on keyboards or sitting in front of huge computer screens. They were all busy, but she could hear their conversations, the hiss of their coffee, and the sounds of their chewing.
Nicky breezed through the office and made her way to the briefing room, trying not to think about what Felix had said. It was ridiculous; what could he know about her father? The man was a drunk. After Rosie had disappeared, he'd even ended up in jail for a bit because of a drunken assault on someone at a bar. He wasn't a particularly good man, nor was he a great father. He had been better before Rosie was gone. In many ways, Nicky understood. Her mother died, Rosie was gone, and her father just... lost all good in him.
Nicky hadn't spoken to him in years, nor did she care to. The last few times they'd seen each other had been hostile at best. They'd been at her mother's funeral, and her father had been drunk. He'd yelled at her, blaming her for Rosie's disappearance; even though they'd never had the best relationship, it was still difficult. Then, she saw him again at a bar in their hometown of Nelly, West Virginia, and her father had been drunk and angry. He had started to yell at her again, and he'd even gotten so mad that he'd thrown a punch at her. Nicky had ducked, and security had escorted him out.
Nicky had tried going to him after that, to reconcile and make peace--but he'd just slammed the door in her face.
She realized afterwards that she never cared to reconcile their relationship. He was supposed to be the adult, but he acted like a drunk child, and it wasn't worth the stress on Nicky's life.
She shook her head. Why was she even thinking about this? Clearly, Felix had just been making something up to get into her head. That had to be it.
Nicky sighed and pushed through the door to the briefing room.
The room was designed for meetings between agents, for debriefs, and conferences. There was a main table with chairs, and a whiteboard on the wall behind it. She could glance at the board and see lines of writing and facts. The room was bland, but efficient.
Nicky took a seat at the table and waited. She didn't have to wait long before Chief Eric Franco entered and took his seat at the head of the board, followed by Nicky's partner, Agent Ken Walker. The third member of their team, Agent Grace Taylor, walked in behind them.
Nicky was in charge of a task force that focused on missing girls--particularly a list of ten specific, high-profile cases. They'd already saved three women--but there were seven left on the list. If Franco was bringing them all together, Nicky knew it was because something had come up in relation to the list.
"Agent Lyons, I'm glad you could make it," the chief said as Ken and Grace sat around Nicky.
"What's going on?" Nicky asked.
"I'll get to that in a second," Franco said. "First, I just want to say that your work on the task force has been exemplary, Agent Lyons. We all know how hard you've worked."
Nicky smiled and nodded. She appreciated the sort-of compliment, though she didn't really want it. She didn't want to be anyone's star agent--she just wanted to do her job.
"And I know you've been working tirelessly," Franco went on, "but there's been a new development in the case, and it's... difficult."
"What's the new development?" Nicky asked.
"We've found another girl," Franco said.
Nicky's heart sank. "Is it one of the girls on our list?"
"It's not," Franco said. "But we think it could be related." Franco went over and flicked off the lights, then dragged the overhead projector in place to show an image on the whiteboard. The light filled the room, as did a picture of a young girl with freckles, brown eyes, brown hair, and a toothy smile with a nice tan.
"This is Clara Jones," Franco said. "She's one of the girls on our list. As you know, she went missing about three months ago."
Nicky nodded. Of course, she knew the name of every girl on the list. She had plans to save all of them.
Eric put another picture up on the projector. It was of a different girl--but one who bore a striking resemblance to Clara. The freckles, the sun-tanned skin, the wavy brown hair, a slim and athletic build.
"This is Erica Michaels," Franco said. "She went missing eight months ago."
He put up another photo. Same thing--a different girl, but one who looked a lot like Clara.
"And this is Mira Phillips. She went missing three days ago."
Franco paced across the room, and Nicky listened intently, wondering where this was going. Clearly, there was a physical resemblance between these girls. But were the cases related?
"See, Clara Jones is the only one on our list," Franco said, "but we have two other girls missing from the same area, who look a hell of a lot like Ms. Jones. We're starting to think these cases are related."
"I can see why," Nicky mumbled. She shared a look with Ken, whose blue eyes locked on hers, rimmed with inky black lashes. Grace gave Nicky a concerned look, her strawberry blonde hair in a tight ponytail.
"I'm sure you know where I'm going with this," Franco said. "I need you all on this. Agent Lyons, under your leadership, this task force has saved three missing girls from our list--not to mention the others involved who weren't on our list. I need you to put your best foot forward on this one and find out what the hell is going on before we lose another one."
"I'm on it, Chief," Nicky said. "Where are we heading?"
