His frown became a scowl. "Find out, dammit."
Leah didn't question or argue, she merely nodded and left his office to obey the order. She'd been one of Jake Ballard's deputies long enough to recognize the signs of a frayed temper, and though he seldom lost his entirely, when he did it wasn't pretty.
She returned to her own desk, nearly alone in the bullpen with virtually every available deputy out doing the house-to-house. She tried Riley's cell first, not really surprised when she got only the voice mail.
"I don't know why she even bothers to carry a cell," she muttered to herself as she hung up without leaving a message. "It never seems to be working."
A downside of being psychic, Riley had explained. Something about electromagnetic energy; as Leah understood it, it was sort of like Riley carried around with her a permanent static charge. Even her credit cards had to be carried in a special case, and the SCU-designed cell cases were only partially and sporadically protective because the phones had to be able to send and receive signals to be useful.
Difficult, Leah supposed, to design a way in which to shield a device from electromagnetic energy when said device required energy to function.
She was rummaging on her messy desk looking for the business card Ash had given her earlier with his cell number on it when the deputy manning the front desk approached her.
"Hey, Leah-we might have something."
She looked up at Tim Deviney, her brows lifting. "Yeah? With the door-to-door?"
He nodded. "We got a renter not answering his door, and neighbors haven't seen him at least since the weekend. Team's been back twice, and still no answer, no sign of him."
Leah frowned. "A single renter? Was he on our first list?"
"No, the realtor thought he was coming down with his family, and it's one of the big houses, so they had no idea he was alone."
"We have a name?" she asked.
"Yeah. Tate. Wesley Tate."
Chapter 14
After a long moment, Ash let out a short sigh. "Okay. Point taken. You have more right to be pissed."
"Thank you."
They stared at each other, and then he finally smiled. "So I'm the one you decided to trust, huh?"
Becoming more aware of the deputy watching them, Riley lowered her voice again. "Well, I was sleeping with you, after all. I don't know if you're aware of this, but I just don't make a habit of sleeping with men I barely know."
"So you said."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "Want to tell me why I made an exception for you?"
His smile widened. "You know, I think I'll wait awhile and see if that part of your memory comes back."
"Bastard."
"I said you had more right to be pissed; I didn't say I wasn't still pissed too. You're a hell of an actress, Riley. It might have dawned on me slowly that something was wrong, but I never guessed I was a stranger to you."
She cleared her throat. "Not a total stranger. My memory might have been AWOL, but other parts of me were…Let's just say some things came back to me quicker than others."
"Yeah, we were great in bed right from the start," he said. "I would have been seriously offended if you had forgotten that."
"I'll bet."
"It's a guy thing."
"Uh-huh. Well, while you beat on your chest, I'm going to go see if I can pick up anything from the murder scene."
Turning serious, he said, "Riley, I don't have to know much about psychic abilities to guess this isn't a good idea."
"Probably not, but it's the only one I have right now." She shook her head. "Look, Gordon couldn't tell me much because I hadn't told him much. I've never kept notes or an ongoing report during an investigation-something I've just started doing here in case my mind is more screwed-up than I think it is-so it's not like I left a trail of bread crumbs for myself to follow. I don't know what's going on. I don't know what I may or may not have learned in the last few weeks. All I know is that somebody attacked me and a man's dead."
"And your boss left you here without backup?"
Riley briefly explained just how occupied the remainder of the team was with their own cases, then added, "Bishop wanted to recall me to Quantico, but I talked him out of it. I have to report to him every day, though, and when I report in today I damn sure want a few answers to offer him. Otherwise, when he hears what happened yesterday-"
"What happened yesterday?"
Shit.
Reluctantly, she admitted, "I lost a few more hours."
"What?"
"You heard me. About twelve hours, this time. From yesterday afternoon until this morning."
"Riley, you seemed perfectly fine last night."
"So I gather. It's fairly obvious that I was…functional. Working at my laptop, starting that damn report. I just don't remember doing it."
"Jesus Christ. You want to explain to me why you aren't in a hospital?"
"They wouldn't know what to do with me. Ash, about the only thing medical science knows about the human brain is that they don't know what most of it's used for. And as far as the SCU can determine, that's probably the part psychics do use."
He was frowning. "You're telling me medical tests wouldn't show any organic cause for the blackouts?"
"I'm telling you they wouldn't provide any information I don't already have. And that it isn't something a doctor can slap a Band-Aid on and send me home with a prescription for."
"Riley-"
"Look, you're going to have to trust me on this. Whatever damage that Taser did, medical science can't fix. Maybe if I can tap into the clairvoyance, use my brain and senses the way I always have, then I can straighten myself out. Maybe."
"No guarantees."
"No."
"It could make things worse."
"That's as likely as any other outcome," she admitted.
"Is that why you finally decided to tell me the truth? Because you're afraid you could get worse, lose more time? Is that the sort of trouble you're expecting?"
"I'm hoping there won't be any trouble, of course. But if there is, if I do lose more time, I'll need someone to keep me on track." Riley drew a breath and let it out slowly. "I really don't know what could happen if I manage to tap into the clairvoyance. Maybe nothing. Maybe that sense is entirely gone; I certainly haven't been able to tap into it so far."
Ash reached out and pulled her into his arms.
Riley was a little surprised, but she found her arms going around his waist and was aware of a rather shaky sense of relief.
Maybe she wasn't as alone as she'd thought.
"We'll get through this," he told her. "And no matter what you believe, you're a hell of a lot more than just a psychic."
"Preparing me in case it really is gone for good?" she murmured.
"It's only a part of you, Riley. Not all of you."
"If you say so."
He kept an arm around her as they continued through the dog park to the break in the fence. "It's your turn to trust me on this. Besides, I'm a lot more worried about these blackouts."
"You and me both, pal."
The deputy stationed at the fence obviously knew both of them and only nodded and touched his hat with a polite murmur when they passed, but the faint smile he wore said plainly enough that he had observed the embrace with interest and without surprise.
"So I gather everybody knows about us," she said dryly.
"We weren't secretive. Why should we be? We're both unattached and past the age of consent."
"I just…tend to keep my private life private, that's all."
"Another question in your mind?"
"Let's just say it's another sign that something was different. That something changed after I got here. And it's very frustrating to not remember what that was."
His arm tightened around her, but all Ash said was, "I'm betting on you, if that's worth anything. I doubt very much you've ever lost a fight in your life. Not one that mattered, at any rate."
Riley started to tell him he'd lose that bet, but by then they had reached the clearing still roped off with yellow crime-scene tape, and she did her best to push everything else out of her mind.