She rubbed her eyes and suddenly realized how exhausted she was. The sun was starting to creep behind the horizon. Katherine stood and braced herself on the back of the bench. “I need to go home.”
“Professor Bassi—”
“No.” She held up a hand. “I need to go. If you want another round of questions, you can follow me…”
She didn’t make it to the end of her thought before a vision hit her like a brick between the eyes.
The interior of the ambulance was grey, like a black-and-white movie. One EMT sat on a bench beside the patient, shouting at the other, who was driving.
“You planning on going to that movie with Kim?”
“Not sure.”
“I’m telling you man, she’s into you. She picks a romantic kind of movie, she’s into you.”
Katherine didn’t know who or what she was seeing in the vision, but she resisted the urge to pull away.
“It’s not a romance, man.”
“It’s got a romance in it, right?”
“I mean, there’s a hot girl, but I don’t think it’s a romance.”
She felt the pull of consciousness, like the tug of a wave pulling sand from beneath her feet. She nearly fell off-balance, but she remained in the vision, knowing that there was more.
“Just because there’s, like, a love interest in an action movie, that doesn’t make it a romance. By your definition, Die Hard is a romance then.”
A subtle whisper of sound started in the background, like a radio left on in another room.
“Die Hard was superromantic! He was fighting for his wife, man.”
The sound grew and grew until the whisper was one long murmur of nonsense filling the truck.
“You are such an idiot.”
A hand shot up and grabbed the EMT by the throat, choking him.
“Hey, Ernie?”
The EMT flailed. He banged the flat of his hand on the wall of the van, and the ambulance lurched to the side.
“Holy shit, Ernie!”
Katherine snapped back into reality with a gasp. Her ears gave the telltale pop of awareness and she grabbed for Detective Bisset’s hand. “Send an officer after that ambulance.”
“What?”
“Send an officer after that ambulance, he’s going to get away!”
* * *
Katherine stood next to the crashed ambulance. Both doors were hanging open, and two EMTs were rubbing their heads and pacing by the side of the road.
“Katherine?” Megan touched her shoulder. “I followed Detective Bisset’s car. I hope you don’t mind.”
“No, that’s fine.” She’d practically forced Drew Bisset into his car and didn’t even ask if she could join him as she gave directions to where she knew the ambulance carrying Greg Hammond probably was.
By the time they got to the junction of Valley Road and Highway 1, the man was already gone and a highway patrol cruiser was at the scene.
“How did you know this was going to happen?” Drew Bisset marched over and he was glaring. “How did you—”
“I often see connections other people don’t,” Katherine said calmly. “That’s what makes me so effective in my research. That’s what happened this time.”
Where would he go? What was this about? Was it… an alibi? An accident? I can’t be the bad guy because see? It happened to me too. What was his next move?
“Has anyone called Alice Kraft?” Katherine tried to change the subject. She didn’t need Drew Bisset asking a bunch of questions about her visions.
“Why would we call her?” Megan asked.
“If Greg wasn’t the one who sent the strange notifications, then it was Alice Kraft. So either she’s behind all this, or Greg could see her as a threat and a loose end to tie up. He’s already tried to kill us today.”
Drew pulled out his phone and punched in a number. “Jackie, get me the number for Professor Alice Kraft.”
* * *
No one was lingering at Alice Craft’s neat bungalow near the edge of the village. Drew Bisset parked on the quiet street, and he didn’t object when Megan and Katherine pulled in behind him. In fact, he looked at Katherine first.
“When I talked to her on the phone, she seemed calm. No signs of anyone influencing her; no sign of Greg Hammond in the neighborhood. She didn’t want to come to the station, but I’m not sure it’s safe for her to stay here.”
Katherine looked at Megan, then at Detective Bisset. “You may be overestimating my influence with Professor Kraft. We both work at the university, but I don’t really know her.”
“But you speak professor.” Drew unconsciously patted the gun strapped to his abdomen as he walked toward the house. “Maybe you can convince her to hang out at the precinct, at least until we bring Hammond in.”
“I can try.”
Megan was looking up and down the road. “I love this neighborhood.”
“It’s cute, right?” Katherine nodded. “Walking distance to the village from here and an easy bike ride to the beach. You can take the Ferraro Ranch path.”
“Nice.”
“If you’re done talking about real estate…?” Drew motioned to the gate.
“Oh right.”
Megan and Katherine walked through the white picket fence and across the flagstone-paved garden. The house was simple and well kept, but there was an element of soullessness that Katherine sensed, as if it was empty even though she could see movement though the front windows.
Before they could ring the bell, Alice Kraft opened the door.
Out of her professional wardrobe, there was something forcefully sensual about Alice Kraft. Her hair fell around her shoulders in soft waves, and her eyes were wide but hardly innocent. She wore lounge clothes, as Katherine often did when she finished work for the day, but Alice Kraft’s clothes clung to her body.
Detective Bisset paused, blinking. Katherine didn’t blame him.
“You must be Detective Bisset.” Professor Kraft frowned at Katherine. “Professor Bassi, why are you here? Are you limping again?”
“Yes. Greg Hammond just tried to run me over. I tripped trying to get away.”
Megan snorted.
“I…” Alice Kraft was briefly at a loss for words. “The police said there’d been some kind of threat against me. Did you say Greg tried
