seemed to have a heavier and more oppressive feel to it. His instincts told him this was where he needed to start. He slowly removed the gloves covering his large, yet sensitive hands.
Unlike the other rooms in the house, this one held little evidence of a burglary with small exception. As he walked into the large walk-in closet, he immediately noticed several articles of clothing obviously belonging to a man, had been ripped from the hangers.
However, among none of the strewn clothing did he see any feminine garments. He
closed his eyes and picked up a shirt and held it lightly between his sensitive fingers.
Immediately a bolt of lightening shot across his shut eyes, almost blinding in its intensity, and Nicolai was slammed into the auditory vision.
“I CANNOT believe this! His clothes are in her closet-why would she have his clothes in
her closet? Is she letting him screw her? I thought she was different. She helps us. She hears our stories, and understands. She knows the truth about men. They only want one thing-they only want to use you, and keep you their dirty secret and come to you when no one else is around and shove their dirty dicks anywhere they can shove them. Doesn’t she know?” The voice grew in intensity with every heated word.
“ He’s the same way. He’s no different than the rest of them. I thought she knew better.
Why doesn’t she know better?” The angry high-pitched voice ranted in a voice that dropped, the words barely above a whisper.
“Oh what is this? Isn’t it lovely? Hello there! How would you like to join your ‘sister’
little locket? So pretty and sweet. Yes I definitely will take you so you may be with her again.
Family reunions are so nice, so special.”
Once angry and strident, the voice was upbeat and happy, as though the anger and
hostility of moments ago hadn’t happened. Humming, the voice slowly began to fade away as though it had never been.
Coming out of his trance, Nicolai found himself standing in front of Maya’s bureau
looking down at her scattered jewelry. Although he’d come prepared and had taken the high
potent pills, his head throbbed relentlessly, blinding him.
With blurred eyes, he reached inside his pocket automatically, and withdrew the pills
tucked inside. He sat down in a loose heap with his knees drawn up and his arms hanging loosely over them while he massaged his throbbing temples and thought over what he’d ‘heard.’ He
thought past the debilitating pain, which had become an unwelcome accompaniment to his
ability.
The familiar singsong quality as well as the pitch confirmed to Nicolai the slayer and this burglar were one in the same. But there was something else mystifying him about this voice, the cadence and pitch reverberating in his head as he puzzled though what it could be.
CHAPTER 42
“There are several things, besides the obvious, I don’t like about this burglary, and one is the timing,” Mark said as he paced the circumference of the room. He and Jordan had spent the greater part of the morning piecing together evidence, looking for a pattern after Mark filled Jordan in on the burglary at Maya’s.
He stopped his pacing to see Jordan was studying the pieces of evidence from the slayer
investigation laid out in front of him. In front of Jordan were the two cards Maya had received from her anonymous admirer.
“According to Wanda, the notes are from the same person. She also came up with some
interesting speculation on this admirer.” Mark walked around the table and picked up the
handwritten notes.
“Like what?” Jordan asked.
“Like the fact that although the language isn’t threatening to Maya, it was still written by someone who may have been angry when they wrote the notes, particularly the second one. In
my handwriting 101 crash course with Wanda she explained some interesting things. Like how
the curves and placement of letters indicate a variety of emotional states.” Mark pointed to one of the notes as he explained what he’d learned from the technician.
“I didn’t know you could tell so much from the way someone writes. I wonder what she
could tell from my writing?” Jordan halfway joked.
“Probably a lot. Wanda said she was free for lunch, why don’t you go and ask her
yourself?” Mark knew how uncomfortable the older woman made Jordan, and he tried not to
laugh as he asked the question.
Wanda flirted with nearly every male she came into contact with, but she flirted
especially hard with Jordan. She once told him what she would do with him if she ever had him alone for at least ten minutes, and was ten years younger. That’s all she needed, she’d say with a wink, just ten minutes and ten years.
“That’s alright. I think I’ll pass. I’m not that damn curious.” Jordan shivered in disgust, and looked over at Mark. “Funny,” he said when he caught Mark laughing, and reached over to punch him as hard as he could on the shoulder.
“Ouch,” Mark grimaced as he grabbed his shoulder and laughed at the same time. Jordan
reluctantly laughed along with him when there was a knock on the conference door.
“Come in,” their deep voices chorused. At the sight of the FBI agent, both men sobered
as Nicolai walked soundlessly into the room.
“Good afternoon, Detectives.” He nodded to both men before turning his gaze toward the
table that held pieces of their investigation. “May I?” He asked after he’d walked to the table.
“Sure go ahead. We’re going over the evidence. Instead of getting closer to discovering
the perpetrator, the evidence we have seems to contradict each other,” Jordan ran frustrated hands over the stubble on his cheeks, the levity of moments ago gone.
Nicolai picked up the two cards Mark placed on the table. His eyes blinked quickly for
several seconds as though he were
