The Night People (The Nocturnum Files Book 2) by Strauss Caitlin L

Author:Strauss, Caitlin L.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-04-29T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

“Here, here, here, and here.” With each word, Sam circled another point on the map of the city he’d spread out across his coffee table.

Lucia looked down at it skeptically, one eyebrow raised. “You think she caused all this? These domestics?”

Sam circled two more points, then stood back to regard his map. The map he’d grabbed first thing in the evening when he’d woken up and remembered.

“Yes, I do. The same night. All of these incidents occurred within minutes of Essie bashing Charles Hebert’s head in. It’s not a coincidence. It can’t be.”

Lucia took a contemplative sip of her coffee. “She’d have to be pretty fucking strong to do all this, right?”

“Yes.” That worried him too. “This kind of talent. The strength, the range.” He shook his head. “If she really was responsible for all of these, she has the strongest ability I’ve ever seen.” He paused for a moment to think about that. He couldn’t even remember hearing about someone stronger, someone capable of influencing so many people at once—not since the war. “She could even be a Great Talent,” he added quietly.

Lucia’s eyes widened. “Shit. That might explain—”

“Why National Defense is so interested in the case. Yes. Assuming Agent West already knows about her.”

“Motherfucker,” Lucia muttered, staring down at the map.

Sam couldn’t help smiling. “Wouldn’t surprise me. Anyway, I think the pattern of disturbances might help us locate her. Or, at the very least, figure out where the original murder took place. If all of this is her work, then she must have been somewhere near the center.”

Lucia tilted her head at the map. “They’re kind of…all over the place, aren’t they?”

“Yes and no. Look. They’re all concentrated in the south and west parts of the NorthSide. See?”

Lucia frowned. “These are just the calls that came into the North Precinct, right? What if we added some from the south? We know she had influence there, too. That might give us a better idea of where our mystery woman was when she hit everyone with the psychic whammy.”

Sam grinned at her. “Exactly, Detective! If I’m correct, she should be right at the epicenter of all this mayhem. Somewhere”—he swirled his hand over the mouth of the bay—“right about here.”

Lucia nodded, still staring at the map. He offered the pen to her before she could demand that he hand it over. She took it without comment and leaned forward to circle 8th and Bayview, nodded to herself again. “Yeah. I see it. Let me talk to Mac and we’ll fill in the rest of the dots.”

***

Their map of crimes led them to the very edge of the coast along the NorthSide, driving down a winding, pitted road along the headlands and bluffs and down toward the mouth of the bay.

Lucia became increasingly skeptical the farther they got from the urban center of the city. “You sure there are still people out here?”

“I’m positive.”

Sam couldn’t really blame her. Most of the coast here had been abandoned since the end of the war—too rugged and steep to build on, so it had been left to become wild once again.

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