Tara walked over and just when she was close enough for him to notice her presence, he lifted his head up, breaking out of his coffee mug trance.

“Good morning,” she said as she took a seat across the table from him. “Have you heard anything new?”

He shook his head. “How did you sleep?” he asked.

His voice sounded raspy and after he spoke, he looked up at her, revealing his swollen, bloodshot eyes and that he didn’t sleep well either.

“Not good,” she admitted. “I’m assuming you didn’t sleep well either?”

Again, he shook his head. “I don’t know, Mills. I don’t know where to even go from here.”

He picked up a straw on the table and stirred his coffee, something he’d probably done numerous times already. Tara couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. This wasn’t the intimidating veteran agent she knew. He looked broken. The case was clearly affecting his confidence and it showed in every movement he made.

She could feel his lack of confidence begin to seep into her, as if he were diseased, spreading it in everything he touched, in everything he said. She felt it inching across the table.

“Coffee, miss?”

She looked up to see the waiter standing over her. It took both of them by surprise and they each snapped back to the present moment.

Tara nodded and the waiter bent down, pouring coffee into her mug.

Warren sat upright, realizing for the first time that his coffee had grown cold.

“Can I actually get another cup?” he asked as he pushed his current full mug to the waiter.

The waiter looked down at it, concerned that he was unhappy with it for whatever reason. “It’s cold,” Warren added before he apologized and the waiter nodded, picked up the mug, and walked away, going to retrieve another.

Now, with nothing to bury his face in, Warren looked at Tara directly.

“Well, what do you think?” he asked.

Tara remained silent for a moment, trying to determine what she should say. She didn’t quite know where to go next, and neither did he, and it caused a panic to swirl within her. But there was one detail about the case that constantly resurfaced in her mind. She took a sip of her coffee and placed it back down on the table. It was the message on the tree. They had already explored the compasses, but the message had to mean something.

“Maybe the message left at the crime scenes has a meaning,” she replied. “I feel like it has to.”

Warren nodded. “But that could take us in so many different directions,” he urged her.

Tara knew he was right. However, she didn’t know where else to start.

“Maybe we should go back to the crime scene, see if we missed something?” she suggested.

Warren nodded again, but his phone soon interrupted their conversation and he picked up instantly.

His face looked as if it got a shot of life as he listened to the voice on the other end. But as the conversion carried on, his face morphed again into disbelief and he quickly stood up out of his chair. Before he even hung up, Tara knew what he was about to tell her—there had to have been another victim—and her heart sank.