‘Shit!’ he whispered as they got to the junction.
They were looking at Stonewood Center mall – a massive shopping complex of over a hundred and seventy stores. But that wasn’t all. Moving west from the junction, up Firestone Boulevard, was a carnival of smaller malls and stores – a shopper’s paradise.
There was a long line of cars at the entrance to Stonewood Center’s parking lot. Garcia slowed down, as if he was about to join the back of it. The streets were heaving with people carrying bags, packets and different-size boxes. Two days of shopping left until Christmas Day – every shop was open late, and the malls looked like an ant house at mealtime. They didn’t know what Mollie was wearing and they had no picture of her. Even if they did, who’d they ask? With the number of people Christmas shopping at this hour, they were looking at the proverbial needle in a haystack situation.
Hunter massaged the rough, ugly scar on his nape. Their best shot of finding Mollie at the moment was if she switched her phone back on. He’d asked Trevor to keep trying to pick up a track signal on it. If it came back into the grid, they’d know. But why had it been switched off?
Impulse was telling Hunter to search the crowds, but reason told him it would be a waste of time. There was nothing they could do from there. Hunter told Garcia not to join the line of cars.
‘We’ve gotta go back to the RHD and coordinate from there.’
As Garcia swerved his car away from the parking lot line and rejoined traffic, Hunter closed his eyes. Mollie’s last words still echoed in his ears.
‘He’s coming after me tonight.’
Hundred and Nineteen
Captain Blake was standing in front of the new picture board, studying the four suspects’ photographs left on it, when Hunter and Garcia arrived back at the RHD. Hopkins had already brought her up to speed with the latest developments.
‘There’s one thing I forgot to tell you about me when we first met,’ Captain Blake said calmly, closing the door once Hunter and Garcia reached their desks. ‘I’m not the kind of person who swears easily.’ She lifted both hands in an ‘I admit’ gesture. ‘Don’t get me wrong. I’m no Miss Goody Two Shoes. Sometimes you need to swear to properly express yourself. In my case that happens only when I’m really pissed off.’
‘Are we in any danger of you getting to the point anytime soon, captain?’
‘Shut the fuck up and listen, Robert. Does this look like a fucking two-way conversation to you?’ Her calm tone had vanished. ‘Do you two have shit for brains, or are you both just plain imbeciles? I’m getting goddamn tired of repeating myself to you. What did I fucking tell you two? I told you I wanted to be informed the second you located the psychic girl. Do you wanna know what I just found out?’ Her heels clicked as she paced the room. ‘I just found out that you not only knew where the girl was, but you transferred her into a hotel, and now you fucking lost her. Shit, Robert.’ The captain slammed her closed fist on his desk with an emphatic thump. ‘Why the fuck didn’t you tell me?’
Hunter kept his voice even. ‘Because I know what would’ve happened, captain. You would’ve brought her here, stuck her in an interrogation room and bombarded her with questions she wouldn’t have been able to answer. Not because she wanted to hide anything, but because she simply doesn’t know the answers. I’ve asked her everything that could be asked. She doesn’t know why she sees the things she sees, and she can’t control it.’ Hunter breathed in sharply. ‘If she made it into your report, I’m sure Chief Collins or Mayor Edwards would’ve requested she’d be interviewed by a psychologist, who’d certainly be looking to discredit her rather than understand.’
‘You’re a goddamn psychologist,’ the captain shot back angrily. ‘You could’ve done the interview yourself.’
‘Do you think the mayor would’ve allowed me to conduct the interview?’
‘I told you I’d deal with the mayor. He’s my problem, not yours. I always stand behind my detectives, but you don’t seem to wanna trust me. I would’ve listened to you first, Robert.’
Hunter ran his hand through his hair.
‘Now, the chief and the mayor will inevitably hear about this, via my report or not. And all of a sudden the pressure that I’m already under will start to reach boiling point. The two of you have undermined my authority twice. If I don’t take action, I’m gonna look weak in my position as captain, not only to them, but to everyone in this department and the LAPD.’
‘What do you mean by “take action”?’ Garcia asked.
‘I mean suspend your asses.’
Hundred and Twenty
‘Wait a second, captain.’ Hunter shot to his feet. ‘You can’t suspend us. Not now.’
Captain Blake chuckled. ‘I can do what the fuck I like, Robert. You’re the only two people who don’t seem to have noticed that I run this division.’
‘Captain, you can’t do that.’ Hunter tried to calm his voice. ‘There’s no time for any other detective to hit the ground running with this case.’ He paused. ‘The killer will strike again tonight.’
The captain’s gaze held Hunter motionless. ‘You better start talking to me, detective. And you better come as clean as morning rain.’
This time Hunter told Captain Blake everything.
‘And this phone you gave her – is it still switched off?’
‘Trevor told me he’d call the second it came back on the grid.’
The captain paced the room as she considered what to do. ‘We can’t even mobilize units, Robert. This girl could be anywhere. And I don’t even know if I should believe any of this shit you just told me. All I have to go on are crazy visions from a seventeen-year-old girl who I never really met.’
‘You have our opinion to go on, captain.’ Hunter shook his head gently. ‘She’s not a fake.’
‘Why should I believe you, Robert? You’ve been everything but straight with me.’
‘OK captain, I admit, I screwed up, but not because I wanted to piss you off or undermine your authority or show disrespect. I did what I did because I wanted to protect a seventeen-year-old girl from the destructive circus she was about to be thrown into. Interrogations, people doubting her, the press, the mockery… Most people would crack under much less pressure. Mollie doesn’t deserve that. She just wanted to help, and in her heart she believed she could.’ Hunter paused for air. ‘You can do whatever you like, captain. You can bust me down to traffic duty when this case is over if it pleases you, but you can’t pull us off this investigation now. This killer’s on a revenge mission. He won’t keep on killing. After he gets his revenge, he’ll disappear, I’m certain of that. We’ve only got seven days, captain. And he’s only got two more names on his list.’
‘Three if he’s really going after Mollie tonight,’ Garcia noted.
‘Exactly, but Mollie wasn’t part of his original plan.’
The captain narrowed her eyes as a hint of confusion crossed her face.
‘By going after Mollie, the killer’s breaking away from his own schedule, his own rules,’ Hunter clarified.
‘And when they deviate from their original plan, that’s when they make mistakes,’ Garcia complemented.
The captain looked unsure. ‘We’ve got protocols to follow, Robert.’
‘With all due respect, captain, fuck protocol. I’m not putting a set of bullshit, bureaucratic rules over anyone’s life,’ Hunter said firmly, to Barbara Blake’s surprise. ‘Captain Bolter told me you were a great cop. You had great instincts. You always followed your gut feelings. You must’ve withheld information from your superior officers for one reason or another at least once in your career. We all do it – including the chief of police. It doesn’t make us bad cops, captain. It actually makes us real cops.’ He studied her. ‘What’s your gut feeling telling you now?’