“You obviously think you know the answer.”
“Yeah, I think I do. I also think it’s something both of you will have to figure out for yourselves.”
“Jesus. You really are beginning to sound like Bishop.”
Hollis considered a moment, then said, “Thank you.”
Shaking her head, Isabel checked her watch, then got herself off the conference table. “I’m taking Rafe for his… psychic litmus test.”
“Say hello for me.”
“I will. In the meantime, the focus of the investigation needs to be on locating that box of photographs and the missing women, and trying to figure this bastard out before he kills another one. In other words, same old, same old.”
Hollis nodded, then said, “This morning, you asked Ginny McBrayer if she was feeling okay.”
“Yeah.”
“You saw the shiner, didn’t you? It got more obvious as the day wore on, despite her attempts to cover it up.”
Isabel sighed. “She did a good job with the makeup, which makes me think it’s not the first black eye she’s had to hide. What do you know about her home life?”
“I asked Mallory, casually. Ginny still lives at home, with her parents. She’s trying to pay off college loans and save for a place of her own.”
“Boyfriend?”
“Mallory didn’t know. But I can ask Ginny outright. I’m not especially shy.”
“I noticed that.” Isabel thought about it, then nodded. “If you get the chance, do. She may think we’re butting in to something that’s none of our business, but there’s a lot of tension in this town, and borderline situations can get pushed over the edge really fast.”
“An abusive boyfriend or parent could get worse.”
“Much worse. Besides, she’s got a lot on her plate as a young officer, especially right now, and stress can cause different reactions in people. Like the rest of us, she takes her gun home with her.”
“Oh, hell. I hadn’t even thought of that.”
“Let’s hope she hasn’t either.”
“So, are you still mad at me?” Isabel asked Rafe as they got into her and Hollis’s rental car.
“I wasn’t mad at you.”
“No? Then I guess an arctic cold front swept through the conference room despite all those walls. I nearly got frostbite. Amazing.”
“You know,” he said as she started the engine, “you don’t talk like any other person I’ve ever met.”
“One of a kind, accept no substitutes.”
He looked at her, one brow rising. “Where are we going?”
“West. That little motel on the edge of town.”
“Great. The only motel in Hastings that charges hourly rates.”
“Oh, I doubt anybody will pay attention to us going in, if that’s what you’re worried about. I took Stealthy 101 at the Bureau.”
Rafe’s mouth twitched. “You don’t play fair either.”
“Well, at least we both have our little tricks. You can kiss me until my knees get dizzy, and I can make you laugh even when you’re pissed.”
He laughed, but said, “I was not pissed. Just… annoyed. You are a very difficult woman, in case no one has ever told you that.”
“I have been told, as a matter of fact. It doesn’t seem to help, knowing about it. Sorry.”
He turned slightly in his seat to watch her as she drove, but let a few minutes pass before saying, “Dizzy knees, huh?”
“Oh, don’t say you didn’t know.”
“I knew there was some effect. That was the only reason I didn’t get pissed in the conference room when you were so busy backpedaling.”
“You weren’t supposed to see me backpedaling. Hollis says I don’t do subtle real well.”
“You don’t do subtle at all.”
“Then I’ll stop trying, shall I?”
He grinned. “So you do have a few buttons.”
Isabel got hold of herself. Or tried to. “Apparently. Look, it’s not all that much fun to keep hearing how blatant you are. I’m an almost-six-foot blonde, which makes me real visible; I’m a clairvoyant without a shield-usually-which makes me a high-wattage receiver for an amazing range of trivia that tends to come at me like painful bullets, and now I find out I might as well be wearing my heart on my sleeve. Just look for my picture beside the word obvious in the dictionary.”
“You do defensive very well.”
“Oh, shut up.”
Rafe chuckled. “You’ll feel much better when you just admit it, you know you will.”
“I don’t know how I’ll feel. And neither do you.”
“You’re wasting a lot of energy, I know that. Want to talk about our primitive instincts? You’re a fighter, Isabel; backing away from this isn’t doing anything except keeping you rattled and off balance.”
“All of a sudden everybody has a degree in psychology,” she muttered.
“Just tell me this much. Is it going to make a difference, finding out whether I’m psychic?”
Isabel knew that was a serious question and answered it seriously. “You mean will I love you more if you can provide a shield for me? No. Being shielded for nearly twenty-four hours has taught me I’d rather be without one. I mean, nice place to visit now and then, but I really do feel like I’ve suddenly gone deaf, and I don’t like it.”
“So if I am psychic and have somehow put a shield around your abilities, you’re going to run to the ends of the earth to escape it?”
“I didn’t say that. And no. We’ll just figure out a way for one or both of us to control the damned thing, that’s all. Having psychic abilities never makes life easier, but the whole point is learning to live with them.”
“So you’ll love me either way?”
Isabel opened her mouth, then closed it. She allowed the silence to lengthen for a moment before saying, “You’re very tricky.”
“Not tricky enough. Apparently.”
“Here’s the place.”
Rafe smiled slightly but didn’t say anything else as she pulled the car into the motel’s secondary drive and around to the back of the building.
It was a somewhat seedy motel, an L-shaped single floor, and the neon VACANCY sign was flickering on the point of going dark. Only two cars were parked at the front; around the back there were half a dozen more scattered vehicles.
Isabel parked the unobtrusive rental beside a small Ford with a dented rear bumper, and they both got out. She went immediately to the room in front of the Ford and knocked quietly.
The door opened. “What, no pizza?”
“I forgot,” Isabel said apologetically, stepping into the room.
“You owe me one. Hey, Chief,” Paige Gilbert said. “Come on in.”
“We’re just concerned,” Hollis told Ginny quietly.
The younger woman shifted a bit in her chair at the conference table, then said, “I appreciate that. I really do. But I’m fine. In a few more months, I’ll have enough saved to move out on my own.”
“And until then?”
“Until then I’ll just stay out of his way.”
“Like you did last night?” Hollis shook her head. “You’ve had enough training to know better, Ginny. He’s mad at the world and you’re his punching bag. He won’t stop until somebody makes him.”
“When I move out-”
“He’ll go back to beating your mother.”
“I didn’t tell you that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
Ginny slumped in her chair. “No. It’s textbook, isn’t it? He’s a bully who beat her up until I got old enough to intervene, and now he hits me. When I’m not fast enough to stay out of his reach, that is. Usually, he’s so drunk he passes out or knocks himself out trashing the house, at least now that he’s older.”
“Your mother?”
“I haven’t been able to talk her into leaving him. But once I’m out, I think she’ll go live with her sister in Columbia.”
“And what will he do?”
“Go down the drain, probably. He hasn’t had a regular job in years because of his temper. He’s stupid and sullen and-like you said-mad at the world. Because, of course, it’s not his fault that his life sucks. It’s never his fault.”