No Sleep (A Valerie Law FBI Suspense Thriller—Book 4) by Blake Pierce

Author:Blake Pierce [Pierce, Blake]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2022-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Charlie was frustrated with Valerie.

They were moving as quickly and as quietly as they could across the darkness of the abandoned trailer park. Unable to use their flashlights, they were having to use the sound of Pete’s footsteps to track him.

But Valerie suggested they were going off in the wrong direction.

“I’m telling you,” she said, speaking low and whispered. “I saw him go off at a 40 degree angle towards that line of bushes over there.”

“How could you see?” Charlie asked. “There are no street lights over there.”

“I saw his outline.”

“There are other people in the park,” Will offered. “Could it have been someone else?”

“No, I’m… I’m sure,” Valerie said, unconvincingly.

“But I can hear him up ahead,” Charlie said.

He was used to Valerie listening to him when it came to his hearing. He’d always been able to track sounds from far away ever since he was a kid. It had come in handy during Afghanistan, and it had saved his life on more than one occasion while chasing fugitives for the FBI.

But Valerie was preoccupied. Charlie could sense that. She kept staring off to the side, looking at something. To Charlie, it felt as though she had seen something in the shadows, but she was hesitant.

He had noticed a strange part of Valerie’s behavior recently. On more than one occasion, he had seen her turn suddenly as if responding to something that wasn’t there.

He put it down to her being jumpy and stressed about her mom and sister being in psychiatric wards, but in this instance, it was leading her to a mistake. And in their line of work, a mistake could prove fatal. For everybody.

For the first time since the Criminal Psychopathy Unit had been up and running, Charlie felt like all three of them were off their A-game. And that could be disastrous.

“Val, please,” he said in a hushed voice. “Pete is moving further away, we’re going to lose him if we go over there.”

“He’s over there,” she said, frustration in her voice and pointing in the other direction.

Charlie felt his own frustrations bubbling over. “Right, you two go that way, I’m going up ahead.”

“Is that wise?” Will asked. “I thought we agreed not to split up?”

“Will’s right,” Valerie said. “We should stick together. I don’t want to pull seniority, Charlie.”

“Then don’t.” Charlie was surprised at his own words. While they were both agents, if it came down to a veto, Valerie was the lead agent on the team. This had never caused issues before. But on that piece of darkened waste ground, as their target moved further away, Charlie just knew Valerie was wrong. And it would cost them their only lead.

Valerie looked at Charlie. They glared at each other. For a moment, Charlie thought she was going to pull rank. But she tried to be more diplomatic than that. “Fine, go. Come on, Will.”

Will reluctantly left with Valerie. Charlie watched them heading off to an old burned out car overgrown with weeds. His one solace in the confrontation with Valerie was that he at least knew they were safe.

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