Between the Spirit and the Dust

Chapter Twenty

I woke up to a dreary Sunday morning, with the rain outside perfectly reflecting my mood. Nothing had gone right with the case so far, not even the information that we got from the other victims’ families.

Now that they knew that Evie was working with the FBI, they were a lot more willing to speak to her. The three girls had been an Empath, another Dark Witch and a Prophet. Basically, Gabriel had taken two girls from each race so far. And while it was useful to understand the pattern of his past killings, it didn’t really help us to figure out who or what his future victim was going to be.

The girl could come from any one of the races and we had no way of predicting which one it was going to be.

Evie was trying to get the word out to the her contacts in the Para world, to warn them to be careful for next Wednesday, where Gabriel said he was going to strike again. But her contacts were mostly Empaths and even the victims’ families could only spread the word so far.

 A sigh escaped my lips as I stared out of my window gloomily. Everything had been a dead end so far, aside from Sophia Jones’s appearance. But even then, her offer to help was conditional on finding the mole. 

Although Collins had finally caved and agreed that it was important to find out if there was really was a mole within the department, there were procedural hoops that he had to jump through. The first step was for him to speak to Assistant Director Shepherd about it. And judging from the complete silence in the apartment, it seemed like Collins and Evie had already left to do that.

Looking back at what had happened the past few days, there was something about the way Collins was acting that seemed off to me. Something wasn’t adding up. The way his attitude towards me had suddenly changed just because I was an Empath…his quick dismissal of Sophia’s claim that there was a mole within the FBI…was there something he wasn’t telling us? 

And was he legitimately acting weirdly or was it just because I didn’t like the guy that I found his behaviour to be suspicious? 

I’d tried to read Collins last night, after Sophia’s interview, when we’d all returned back to the apartment from the HQ. I sensed from him was fatigue, the weariness of having been dragged back into a case that he’d failed to crack the first time around. And that was all. He didn’t worry or seemed concerned about Sophia’s allegations. 

As if all of that wasn’t enough to drive me crazy, Jenna still hadn’t come back. Nobody knew where she’d run off to and it was just a matter of time before Shepherd noticed her disappearance. What were we going to tell him if he asked? That Evie had told her about my family’s supernatural lineage and that she’d freaked out and left?

 Yeah right. I was sure that would go over well with the Assistant Director.

This rain was really going to drive me over the edge. There was a ticking time-bomb looming all over us and I wasn’t doing anything about it. If I stayed in this bed for another moment I was going to lose it from being cooped up with only my thoughts and the sinking feeling in my stomach that Gabriel St. Clair was playing us for fools.

Picking up my phone from the table, I contemplated it. There were no unread messages and no missed calls. 

How much space could Jenna need? We needed her back on this case with us, with her cool analytical mind balancing out Collins’ perpetual hotheadedness. I couldn’t do anything about the case by myself but I could certainly try to find her. My resolve strengthening, I dialed her number and waited.

The call went through but nobody picked up. Frowning to myself, I tried her number again. This time I was directed to voice mail instead.

All the agents were instructed to keep their phones with them all the time and it wasn’t like her to ignore a call. Well, unless she was deliberately trying to avoid us of course.