Already Trapped (Laura Frost FBI)

e she was a real human. Something in Laura’s voice must have spoken to her, explained how important this was.

“Then, can you give him my details?” Laura asked. “Tell him—or her—I want to speak with them?”

“I can try,” Maria said. “I can’t promise anything. It will be up to the guardian to decide whether they want to speak with you, given there’s no current legal concern.”

“Thank you,” Laura said, because it was better than nothing. “You can give them this number. Please tell them I’m concerned about Amy and I just want to help.”

“I will ask for that message to be passed along,” Maria said, her tone turning more businesslike again. “You have a good day now, ma’am.”

She hung up, and Laura bit her lip for a long moment. It was better than nothing, but not by much. All it would take would be for this new guardian to decide they didn’t want anything to do with law enforcement—which an abuser normally wouldn’t—and Amy was essentially on her own again.

The only comfort Laura had was that the girl was smart enough, for her age. She’d been through enough. Maybe, just maybe, if she was in trouble, she would have enough knowledge now to try and find a cop or look for some way to get to the FBI headquarters. To look for Laura.

“She’s being taken into care?” Nate asked.

Laura looked at him. He was still watching his computer screen, still doing his own research task. As if she wasn’t there. But he was asking, which meant he cared on some level.

At least he still had that.

“No,” Laura said. “They’ve been able to find her a new guardian. Apparently, her new next-of-kin was willing to take her on.”

“Great,” Nate said, nodding. “I guess that case is all wrapped up for now, then.”

Laura’s mouth dried around her tongue. She wanted to tell him that it wasn’t wrapped up at all. It might as well only just be beginning. There was a whole world of bad things that might happen to Amy with a new guardian. She needed someone looking out for her.

She needed Laura.

Or Laura needed her—needed to know that she was safe.

“Did you find anything?” Nate asked, nodding his head sideways towards her desk, and Laura realized he’d moved on already. Back to the case at hand.

And as much as she hated to admit it, he was right. There was nothing else she could do right now—not from here. She could wait until the new guardian contacted her, if they ever would. Or she could try to talk to someone on the ground, go to the agency, see if someone would slip up and give away any clues she could follow. But neither of those things were things she could make happen right now, so focusing on the case would be better.

Focusing on getting it solved, and getting back home.

“No,” she admitted. “I was thinking about looking for other potential victim profiles.”

Nate stopped typing and looked at her with a frown. “What do you mean, other victims?”

“Well, I don’t want to be pessimistic, but I’m not seeing a lot of reasons for someone to want to kill both girls,” Laura said. “I could understand a home invasion or a theft gone wrong, or even something personal that spilled over and ended up in violence. But twice, on the same night, targeting both twins one after another? It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me as a random crime.”

“That doesn’t necessarily follow that it’s some kind of serial killer targeting twins,” Nate replied. “We only have two deaths. That’s all. Why assume there would be more? I thought we agreed that the frenzied nature of the attack made this more likely to be personal.”

“Personal is relative,” Laura said. She might almost have enjoyed this conversation, in another context. Talking over the theory of crime, of criminal behavior. What made people tick. If it wasn’t that the stakes were high, because she already know another set of twins were at risk. If it wasn’t for the argument she and Nate were having. As it was, she just needed to convince him—and fast. “Jack the Ripper was probably not intimately acquainted with and angry at each of the sex workers he killed. He just had anger towards sex workers in general. And those attacks were the very definition of brutal.”

Nate twisted his face in a doubtful expression. “It’s a little hard to prove anything using the example of a case that was never solved,” he said. “We can’t speak to his motive at all.”

“All right, but you know what I’m talking about,” Laura said impatiently. “Some of the most vicious killers in history have targeted seemingly random people, who reminded them of the person or people they were truly angry at.”

“You don’t have to put me back through basic training,” Nate grunted. Laura almost flinched at his tone. “We should be paying more attention to the links to the twins we know are victims, before we start looking for more that might never happen.”

“I’ve done everything I can here.” Laura shrugged. “The detectives are already out there, interviewing all of the contacts Ruby recently made on that dating app. What more can we do? I might as well take a look.”

Nate sighed. He rubbed the bridge of his nose, as though he was developing a headache. “If you feel that’s the best use of your time, Agent Frost.”

It was like a dagger in her chest—an image that made Laura shudder all the more given what they were working on right now. His formal use of her name was a clear message. That they were partners only, colleagues, no longer friends. Even if she’d felt the chill from him all this time and knew where they stood, it was still awful to hear it.

She turned back to her computer. It was all she could do. Bury herself in work and stop thinking about it.