Laura paused, switching her attention to her own reflection in the glass. He had asked if she was in law enforcement, but he had not been any more specific than that. He hadn't said FBI. Looking at herself, Laura tried to see what a stranger would see. Her straight posture, the fact that she was used to being formal around other people. He probably would have noticed that she glanced around at everyone in the bar, assessing them. She had even tried to assess him. Could he have worked it
out from her behavior, rather than getting some kind of psychic hint?
Almost unwillingly, Laura glanced down at her right hand. It had been a few years since she and Marcus had broken up, but the damage had all been on his side. He had been the one to walk out, taking Lacey with him. He had been the one to file for divorce. She had only agreed because she wanted to try and work out a way that they could both parent Lacey without it being acrimonious.
She had worn her wedding ring for longer than he had. Looking at her finger now, it was still possible to see a faint distortion in the outline of her finger. When you wore a ring every day for years, that was what happened. They hadn't exactly had a long and healthy marriage, but it had been long enough to leave an imprint. It was rapidly fading now, and soon enough her finger would look as though a ring had never sat on it, but today it was still visible.
Nolan was not psychic at all. He had simply done a cold read on her, like every fraud before him in the history of all psychics.
Laura sighed to herself and headed inside, her heart sinking even lower than it had already. Another bust. Another hope raised for nothing. Still, she at least owed him the courtesy of telling him that she was leaving, instead of just walking out.
“Hi,” she said, sitting down. She'd interrupted the conversation, and the waitress shot daggers at her before scurrying off to serve someone else. “Sorry about that. It was work.”
“Big case?” Nolan asked, sipping on his drink casually. Now she knew what he was doing, Laura could see that it wasn't exactly a huge assumption. She had had a call in the middle of the evening from work, and it had been more than a brief conversation. From that, it was easy to guess that something big was happening.
“Yes,” Laura said. “Actually, I'm going to have to go. It was nice to meet you, but I'm afraid my job takes precedence. They need me.”
“Oh,” Nolan said looking as though she had slapped him in the face. His eyes widened, his mouth dropped open, and for a moment he looked much younger than he had previously. It was like she was seeing him stripped down, all of the vanity and arrogance taken down a notch. “You have to go right now? We were just getting started.”
“Sorry,” Laura said again, though she didn't exactly feel it. She was fairly sure, too, but it wouldn't take a psychic to know that she actually didn't care so much at all whether she continued this conversation or not. She just didn’t have the time to be nice to this fraud. “Hazard of the job, I suppose.”
“Wait a second,” Nolan said, his tone more desperate now. He set down his drink, obviously getting more serious – but it was too little, too late. Laura had already seen enough. “Just – please? I wanted to prove what I can do. Will you just let me demonstrate for you?”
Laura shook her head, standing up and gathering herself to leave. “I’m sorry, Nolan,” she said. He was desperate, she could see that, but she had a job to do. A job that was more important than the feelings of a stranger. She’d had the feeling he was just another poser like the rest of them, and if he was, he didn’t deserve her sympathy. Still, she didn’t want to shut him down completely – the small voice in the back of her mind still wondered whether there was a chance that he was telling the truth. “Have a nice evening. You looked like you were making a new friend – don’t let me stop you.”
She turned and left, not giving him a backwards glance. She had a flight to prepare for, and a few hours’ sleep to snatch – before she had to face Nate again and all of the questions she had been avoiding since they got back from their last case.
CHAPTER TEN
Laura looked up as Nate’s familiar figure approached. She didn’t need to have a vision of his presence to sense him. They had worked together for enough years now that she had a feeling for when he was in the room, a familiarity that felt comfortable and warm. He cut across the crowd of anonymous travelers easily, standing out head and shoulders above most of them.
Quite literally so, because at six-two and with a well-built frame, Nathaniel Lavoie was not someone you could miss. His dark skin also made him stand out in the lounge, which was mostly full of white businessmen in their fifties getting ready for a commute. Washington, D.C., to Seattle, Washington, was apparently quite a popular route.
“You awake yet?” he said, by way of greeting.
Laura looked sideways, out of the wide windows that gave a view of the runway. The sky was a very pale, thin blue, almost white. The sun had only just risen, and everything seemed far too bright and far too bleary inside the airport.
“Not completely,” she said. “You?”
Nate grinned. “Not at all,” he said, sitting down beside her. He had a small travel case which he laid down between his legs, shifting his ankles to keep a grip on it. Laura’s own bag was already positioned similarly, a deliberately cautious placement to prevent their things from being tampered with. “I’ve got the briefing documents.”
“Thank you,” Laura said, infusing it with true gratefulness. She hadn’t relished the idea of heading over to the J. Edgar Hoover Building early this morning to pick them up before going to the airport, so when Nate had volunteered over text last night, she’d been only too happy to accept.
“I hear you had a busy day yesterday, anyway,” Nate said. His tone was casual, but Laura could tell he wanted to know everything. She couldn’t blame him. It was probably big news around the whole building, not just with her partner.
But it was still far too early to talk about that, and still far too raw. Even the comfort of Nate’s familiar presence was not enough, could not be enough, to ease her worries about Amy and the anger she still felt towards Governor Fallow.
“I’ve had a busy week,” Laura replied. “We both have. Did you even manage to rest, since the last case?”
Nate shook his head. “Not really,” he said. “But that’s the job, I guess. Murderers don’t stop murdering just because we’re tired.”
Another wave of gratitude swept through Laura. Nate must have known, or at least suspected, that their deployment so soon was as a direct result of her actions. A way to get them out of the state – way across the other side of the country – and out of trouble. But still, he didn’t complain or blame her.
“No, they don’t,” Laura sighed. “Speaking of…”
“Right,” Nate said. He glanced around the small lounge; everyone around them was busy with their own things, and most of them were typing on laptops. Even so, he made sure that no one was in a position to see the files. With their backs against a wall and no one sitting to either side of them, it seemed safe enough, and he nodded at Laura before pulling out the familiar brown folder and opening it to the first page. “Do the honors?”
Laura smiled and nodded in agreement. She did what he had done, glancing around to check that no one would be listening in, either, before starting to read the files’ information in a low voice. “We’re dealing with two murders, so far.”