Yeah, and that same person could probably help you with that, too.

She tried to keep the thought away, as well as the face that came with it. But she saw it, peering at her from across a blood-soaked bedroom. A butchered body on the bed and a leering face on the other side, staring at her through thick bifocals. Shed sensed it then, that darkness, and it had never fully left her. It had sat and festered, waiting to come out and to remind her of what the world was capable of.

Thinking of it as she sat at the desk with Jack, she wondered if that darkness had hibernated within her and evolved into something elsemaybe a tumor.

Youre losing your damned mind, she thought.

Rachel started to stand up from the desk before she was even aware that shed made the decision. Jack, do you think youre good here for a few hours?

I suppose. Why?

I have a hunch…something Id really rather not take you along on. And something, quite honestly, youd probably try to talk me out of.

Sounds promising. Where are you going?

Id rather not say. Just…give me three hours, would you?

He eyed her suspiciously and said, Given the erratic behavior youve shown the last few days, please understand that I have to ask this: is it concerning this case?

Yes, she said. I want to check on something…

Well then, I trust your instincts. Ill look into this Facebook group, try to find some more locals. I might grab a car and head out to the crime scenes again.

Three hours, she said, already hurrying away from the desk.

And youre okay?

No, not at all, she thought.

Yes, she said. Im good.

She turned her back to him and could not stand to look back. She was not only keeping secrets from him, but now she was being deceptive about what she was doing in terms of the case. She supposed shed have to come clean with him about where she was headed and who she was about to visit before the case came to a close. But she would handle that when the time came. For now, she had to keep convincing herself it was a good idea…and that she would not be intimidated when she got there.

***

Rachel had been a special agent for three years when shed been tasked with bringing in a man that had killed seven people between New Jersey and Virginia. All seven had been killed over a short period of just two weeks and there had been no apparent links to the victims. They knew the murderers name after the fifth victim due to three fingerprints left behind on the scene; the prints had been etched out in the victims blood: one on the bedroom door, another on the edge of a kitchen counter, and another on the front doorknob.