Deadly Dance (26 page)

If nothing else, she’d just talk to Reid. See for herself that everything was okay.

As they neared the front steps, a man stepped from the shadows of the portico that fronted the building. Harrison pulled his gun, moving in front of Hannah. But as the light revealed the man’s features, she recognized one of the operatives assigned to protect the building. Casey James.

After trading identification, Hannah explained that she’d come to see Tina. “Is she asleep?”

“Far as I know.” Casey nodded. “Reid’s last check-in was at ten-thirty, and he said she’d been sleeping since late afternoon. And it’s been quiet since then.”

Hannah shot a look toward Harrison, unsure again what to do, but still fighting the feeling that something was wrong.

“Well, obviously we don’t want to wake her,” Harrison said to Casey, “but it’s well past midnight now so I’m assuming you must be due to check in with Reid. Maybe we can kill two birds with one stone. You can verify everything’s okay, and we can check on Tina.”

“Suits me,” Casey shrugged, and pulled out a radio. “It’s a little early, but Reid won’t mind. And I totally understand your wanting to check on your friend.” He nodded in Hannah’s direction, obviously having seen her coming and going over the past few days. “Echo two to Echo one. Come in, please.”

C
asey waited a moment for a response and then with a frown, repeated the call. “Echo two to Echo one. Come in please.”

“Is there something wrong?” Hannah asked, her worry ratcheting up a notch.

“He’s probably just asleep,” Casey said, still frowning. “But it’s not like Reid not to answer.” He spoke again into the radio’s mic, the coordinates this time for the third man watching the building. The radio immediately crackled to life, the two operatives holding a brief conversation.

“Bill can’t raise him either,” Casey said after signing off. “So it’s not my radio. But like I said, Reid’s probably just asleep. We’ve been out here the whole time. Me on the door and Bill patrolling the perimeter. There’s no way anyone’s gotten by us.”

The pronouncement should have made her feel better, but it didn’t.

“I’m sure you’re right,” Harrison said, his eyes on the building as he drew his gun, “but with this guy, we can’t be too careful. Better check it out.”

“Sure,” Casey said, also producing a weapon. “Do you want me to call it in?”

“Not yet.” Harrison shook his head. “We don’t actually know that there’s anything to report.”

Behind them, the bushes rattled, and all three of them spun around, weapons ready. A man emerged from the bushes, hands out. “It’s just me.”

Casey lowered his gun, and Hannah released a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding as she recognized Bill—the third man.

“Jesus, Bill, we could have shot you,” Casey said, his eyes shooting back to the still-darkened building.

“Sorry.” The other man shook his head. “I should have radioed first. But I figured if there was trouble, you’d want help.”

“You figured right,” Harrison interjected. “There’s definitely strength in numbers.”

“So how do you want to proceed?” Casey asked, automatically deferring to Harrison, and Hannah wondered how much they’d been told about A-Tac.

“The three of us will head inside,” Harrison said, tilting his head toward Casey and Hannah, “and Bill, you’ll keep watch here in the front. I take it you’ve seen nothing to indicate that anyone has tried to get inside the building?”

“No. Everything’s locked down tight. Most of the windows are too high to reach easily. And the ones that someone could access, we armed with motion detectors. If someone had tried to get inside, they’d have woken half the campus.”

Harrison nodded. “All right then. We’re probably looking at nothing more than Reid falling asleep and missing the call, or maybe some kind of radio malfunction. But either way, we need to check it out.”

“Roger that,” Casey said, checking the clip in his gun as Bill moved into place in the bushes near the front of the building.

On Harrison’s signal, they headed past Bill and up onto the portico, stopping just short of the door, with Harrison flanking it on the right and Hannah and Casey on the left. Hannah’s heart pounded in her ears as a swirl of dust and leaves skittered across the concrete floor.

Harrison’s eyes met hers, and on a silent count of three, he swung out and pushed through the glass door, Casey following right behind him, with Hannah in the rear. After the tree-lit campus, the foyer was blindingly dark. The three of them moved automatically into a defensive circle, standing back to back, weapons drawn as they turned slowly, searching for any sign that something was amiss.

But the building was quiet, the only sound coming from the wind as it buffeted the windows. And as their eyes adjusted to the dark, it was clear that there was no welcoming committee. Still they remained on alert as they walked toward the stairs.

A grand mahogany affair hinting at the college’s more opulent days, the staircase ascended to the second floor, where it turned and narrowed as it continued up to the fourth floor and the apartment where Tina was staying. With Casey now taking the rear position and Harrison in the lead, they climbed, passing the second-and third-floor landings without incident.

The windows that lined the upper-floor stairwells provided a small amount of light, and Hannah glanced at her watch, surprised to find that only a few minutes had passed. Somehow it felt like eons. She tried to tell herself that they were overreacting, that both Tina and Reid were fast asleep, but her gut refused to listen, her inner voice screaming that something was wrong.

They stepped out onto the fourth floor, the hallway dark. After they had waited a beat and nothing moved, Harrison flipped on his tac-light, the beam cutting along the corridor as they slowly moved forward, guns still at the ready.

“Reid?” Casey called as they approached the apartment, but there was no response.

An overturned chair lay in front of the door, the remains of the smashed radio scattered in front of it, but there was no sign of Reid. The door was closed, but when Harrison turned the knob it opened, swinging inward on silent hinges.

The apartment, like the hallway, was dark. And it took every ounce of willpower Hannah possessed not to push past Harrison calling for Tina. But protocol existed for a reason, so she held back as Casey and Harrison moved inside, checking the living room for signs of an intruder.

“We’re clear, in here, but the power is out,” Harrison said as Hannah pushed past him, calling Tina’s name as she went—dreading what she was going to find. But the bedroom, like the rest of the apartment, was empty, and Hannah wasn’t sure if she should be grateful or terrified. Probably both. She flicked on her tac-light, swinging it across the room. The bed was unmade, and just for a moment, Hannah could see Tina sitting there, bleary eyed, only half awake.

Hannah shook her head, the image vanishing. She turned to examine the rest of the room. Tina’s phone sat on the bedside table, and her duffle was stashed in the corner, clothes spilling out of the top. Hannah fought a wave of desperation. Her friend was in trouble, and it wouldn’t help if Hannah let her emotions get in the way.

“Any signs of a struggle in here?” Harrison asked as he walked into the room, his multi-colored eyes assessing.

“No. But her phone is here, so I’m…” She struggled to find the words, the image of Tina returning front and center. She clenched her fist, fighting for control. “So I’m thinking she didn’t walk away willingly.” She forced herself to breathe, running a shaking hand through her hair, her heart constricting at the thought of her friend in the clutches of a serial killer.

Harrison closed the distance between them, his hands covering her shoulders as he started to pull her into an embrace. But she jerked away, ignoring the flash of hurt in his eyes, certain that, if she let him touch her, she’d break into a million pieces.

“Hannah, I—” he started, reaching for her again, but she held up a hand, shaking her head.

“I can’t. Not here. I shouldn’t… we shouldn’t… Look, maybe this thing between us is a mistake.” She regretted the words the minute they came out, but she also knew there was truth in there somewhere. “Let’s just let it go. Okay?” She blew out a long breath, waiting as his gaze probed hers, a little muscle in his jaw telegraphing his disappointment.

“Hey,” Casey called, cutting through the tension stretched tight between them. “I’ve got blood in here.”

Harrison searched her face for another long moment,
and then, apparently not seeing what he wanted to see, mumbled “whatever” and walked from the room, leaving Hannah feeling as if she’d lost her best friend. Then again, maybe she had. Clearly she was too messed up to ever be the kind of woman Harrison deserved.

Tears pricked the back of her eyes, but she rubbed them away, reminding herself that this wasn’t about Harrison. It wasn’t even about her. It was about Tina. And right now, that’s all that mattered.

“So what have you got?” she asked as she walked back into the foyer where Harrison and Casey were kneeling on the floor.

“Blood,” Casey said, shining his flashlight downward. “There’s a pool of it here just inside the door. We missed it coming in because we were focused on looking for people. There’s also a bloody print on the wall.” He stopped, exchanging a glance with Harrison, who shrugged, then nodded his head. “It’s too small to have been Reid’s.”

Hannah’s gut clenched as she pictured her friend trying to flee the apartment—a madman in pursuit. “So we think the blood is hers?”

“There’s no way to know for sure until Tracy has the chance to run some tests,” Harrison said, his tone coolly professional. “But clearly something went down here.”

“So where are the bodies?” Casey asked. “I’d swear on my life that no one could have gotten into or out of the building without our seeing them. Especially if they were dragging something.”

“I guess that’s what we’ve got to figure out,” Harrison said. “In the meantime, we need to call it in. Casey, you touch base with Bill to see if he can do something about the lights and then call Avery. He’ll take care of the rest.”

The man nodded and walked back into the living room.

“Is there blood in the hall?” Hannah asked, pushing past Harrison to check for herself. There was nothing on the carpet, at least just outside the door, but the wall above it, to the left of the door, was smeared with blood—what looked like bits of skin sticking to the cracked plaster.

“Looks like someone was slammed into the wall,” Harrison said, coming to stand beside her as she shown her light on the stained area. “Could be Reid.”

“Not likely.” Hannah frowned. “Reid’s over six feet tall. This mark isn’t more than sixty or so inches from the floor, and assuming the vic was shoved backward…” She trailed off, still studying the mark.

“You’re thinking it’s Tina?” he asked.

“It seems more probable. Which means that whatever happened here took place outside the apartment. That’s why there’s no sign of a struggle inside.”

“So we’ve got an overturned chair. A pool of blood in the entry hall and signs of a struggle here in the hall—most likely not Reid. Ignoring the fact that the unsub managed to get into the building completely unnoticed, how does that play out?” He crossed his arms over his chest, waiting for her thoughts.

“I don’t know.” She frowned, trying to envision the series of events. “Maybe he surprises Reid out here. Tries to incapacitate him, maybe even kill him, but Reid manages to make it inside, and conceivably warn Tina.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t explain the handprint,” Harrison said. “Seems more likely that he made it inside, but collapsed, then Tina stumbles over Reid, he’s either dead or dying so she—”

“—panics,” Hannah interrupted, “and puts her hand on the wall, and then tries to make a break for it.”

“Only she’s intercepted by Walker when she heads out into the hallway,” Harrison continued. “He grabs her there, and when she fights, he slams her into the wall.”

“So where are they now?” she asked, her frustration evident. “And why wouldn’t Walker just leave Reid? I mean I get why he’d take Tina, but Reid’s just collateral damage. He’s not part of the fantasy.”

“Maybe he did leave him,” Harrison suggested, the two of them working in tandem now. “It makes sense if he thought Reid was dead. But maybe he was just knocked out, and he came to and tried to follow Tina and/or the unsub.”

“Except that there was no sign of anyone leaving the building,” Casey insisted again, pocketing his phone as he stepped out into the hallway. “Bill’s got school maintenance working on the lights. And the rest of your team’s on the way. Avery said for you guys to stay on the scene until they arrive.”

But Hannah wasn’t really listening. “If you’re right,” she said, expanding on Harrison’s earlier thought, “then there should be more blood. Somewhere here in the hallway, or maybe on the stairs. There was a lot of blood in the apartment’s foyer. There’s no way Reid could have moved without losing more.” She waved her tac-light down the hall to emphasize her point.

And as if on cue, the hallway lights flickered on.

“Score one for Sunderland maintenance,” Harrison said as he followed Hannah down the hall. “I’m not seeing anything.”