Gabriel nods and grabs some gloves before hurrying over to the car as I get the equipment needed to open the car and call it in.
They’re surprised to hear that we’re out at this time of night, but I’ll deal with explaining it later.
I head over to the car where Gabriel is walking around it.
“No response from the trunk. Are you going in through the window?”
“Yeah. It’s an older car, should be easy enough to get into,” I say as I slide the wedges between the window and the frame, popping it open just enough that I can snake a flat piece of metal fitted with a thin string down between the gap created by the wedges. I loop the string around the knob that unlocks the door once it’s pulled up. Then I tighten the string, causing it to snare the latch before I pull string and metal up, unlocking the door with ease.
Drawing the wedges out, I pull the car door open before leaning down to pop the trunk. Gabriel beats me back there, and the look on his face already tells me what I’m going to find.
“She’s dead?” I ask.
“I don’t know yet,” he says as he reaches in while I call for an ambulance just in case. There’s blood pooled beneath her head and even as Gabriel touches her, she doesn’t flinch or move. If she’s dead, she died recently, telling me that if I’d thought of this hours sooner, she’d still be alive.
“If you’re not finding a pulse—” I start, but Gabriel shakes his head and slides his fingers over. Has he realized the same thing? That if we’d kept on this and hadn’t gone home, we could have saved Nadine’s life? Is he blaming himself? How could he? It wasn’t like we swept this under the rug. We worked until we were told to go home and then we passed what we’d done to others who would continue to work on it.
Her arms and legs are bound and tape is placed over her mouth, telling me that he planned on taking her alive somewhere. I wonder if she struggled or almost got away and her head was hit at that point, causing the excessive bleeding.
“Fuck, Liam… FUCK. We should have kept looking. We should have…”
She’s cold to the touch, but rigor mortis hasn’t set in yet. Gabriel is determined to find a pulse and I find myself feeling upset that Gabriel is distressed. It’s rare that I feel anything when I come across a body like this. I know I should feel upset about the woman. I know that the death of a young woman like this who is almost certainly innocent and is the victim of a monster should make me feel things, but generally, the only thing I end up feeling is a desire to kill those who killed them.
But seeing Gabriel upset makes me feel things.
He’s desperate to find that the woman is alive.
I gently pull him back and tip her head up. I press one hand hard against her neck, my other under her nose. I feel nothing, but I’m determined, though how can determination bring a woman back from the dead?
That’s when I feel the lightest pulse. At first, I assume I’m mistaken and don’t say anything while I wait to see what I’ll find. When I feel it again, I look over at Gabriel.
“She has a pulse. We need to get her warm,” I say, not wanting to move her from where she is since we don’t know the extent of her injuries. I pull my coat off and drape it over her, and Gabriel begins shedding his outerwear too.
While Gabriel attends to her, I check the tire wells for a hidden key as I debate force-starting the car so we can get some warmth back to her. Just when I’m about to bust the car apart to get it started, I see a spare key on a magnet hidden in the tire well. I didn’t even have to break into the car, but at least now I won’t have to explain how I got into it. Honestly, most wouldn’teven bat an eye at me carrying equipment to get into a locked vehicle with my job, but I don’t need anyone to be nosy when they see how easily I can hotwire a car.
I pull the key out and quickly start the car. We close the trunk lid and drop the back seats before I direct all of the hot air back toward the trunk. I stay outside of the vehicle, not wanting to fuck with it more than we already have. I know that Gabriel would trample all of the evidence if it meant saving her life, so he’s in the back with her. It’s cold out here without my coat or hoodie. With how cold it’s been, and with her having been in the trunk for a day and a half with a head wound that severe, it’s a wonder she’s lived this long.
I can see Gabriel sitting inside, rubbing Nadine’s arms and trying to get warmth back into her as he talks to her. He’s such a sweet man.
When the sound of sirens creeps into the hidden parking lot, I rush out to the street to help them find us. They have to go around the block to get in since they don’t fit down the narrow alley we took. When they reach the location, I hurry them over to the car and pop the trunk open that I’d closed to keep out the cold air.
“Her body temperature is extremely low. Looks like blunt force trauma to the head. She hasn’t been coherent at any point that we’ve been here,” I explain. “She has no reactions and slow heartbeat and breathing.”
They get the stretcher out and rush it over to the trunk as Gabriel moves out and gives them space to work. He comes over next to me while more sirens sound in the distance.
“I’m worried she’s not going to make it,” he says. “I wish we’d found her sooner.”
“Last I checked, you can’t change the past.”
“I know. In this line of work, we don’t usually come across people who are alive… so it’s nice finding one every now andthen… gives me hope we can find more before it’s too late. But… what exactly do we have now? Our victim is now the killer? Did the killer take both Nadine and him? What is this?”
“That’s a very good question,” I say. “And it’s not one I currently have the answer to, but I will.”
SIX
Liam
My alarm going off sounds like hell. I’m pretty sure I could just ignore it and sleep for another day, but Gabriel rolls over and hugs me, and it gives me the life I need to rejoin the world.
