Shaman - the Awakening
can get a cup of coffee,” I instructed Gracie.
    “It's in the opposite direction and there are better places to get coffee,” she replied.
    “I know, but I like theirs,” I responded. Now she understood that I wasn't going for the coffee. Dianna had known immediately, and didn't question it. She knew I was trying to avoid the inevitable, the realization that Melissa was dead.
    I sat in the diner and drank my cup of coffee while opening Melissa's People Magazine. Gracie and Dianna joined me in a cup of java this morning. Afterwards we went to Ms. Holmes' residence. She lived with her boyfriend, who was currently at work, but the landlord allowed us access to the residence while he was away.
    They lived on the second floor of a three story apartment building. They didn't have any pets. The place appeared to be unkempt. He was probably still emotionally drained and disorganized due to Felicia's disappearance. Dianna left her card near the door to inform him that we had been there, and we allowed the landlord to remain as well. I did my usual of touching everything in the place as I made my rounds. The landlord watched me but seemed unsurprised by my unusual actions. Clearly he was not an overly curious man.
    We visited the outpatient clinic, where Felicia worked as a LVN. It was a small clinic and all the staff were very close. They were very upset and emotional about her disappearance. Some of the women even cried as they were questioned. Felicia had been missing since November 3, which was 53 days ago. I didn't spend a lot of time at the clinic, because we needed to visit the other missing women's residences and places of employment.
    We were finished around 1900 hours and rendezvoused with the other team members at 1935. There were several suspects in the area who had come close to matching the profile. We continued our profiling a composite of the subject until 0100 hours the next morning, and called it quits for the day. We retired earlier than yesterday, and everyone felt good about the progress we were making. I also had a big night in front of me, as I had several women to reach out and attempt to make a connection with.
    Another night had passed and I hadn't received anything on my radar. I felt like I was letting the team down. I was usually the main contributor on these killer hunts, but now I wasn't registering anything. Once again, Dianna knocked at my door, expecting something. I opened for her, with only my lounge pants on.
    “Another rough night, huh?” she inquired.
    “I didn't get anything Di,” I replied, and in my frustration, just blurted out, “These women are dead!”
    She remained silent, pausing for about a minute, and then retorted, “We still have a killer to catch out there, remember?”
    “Yeah, let me shower real quick and I'll be right with you.”
    While I was in the shower, she took off her clothes and joined me. I was frustrated, but always in the mood for her. The warmth of her naked body pressed intimately to mine chased some of the icy grief from my heart.
    Several days went by and we still weren't any closer to finding the assailant. We had questioned numerous felons who fit the profile, but with no results. We even questioned citizens with no priors, but to no avail. The entire Albuquerque office was on board now, assisting in the investigation with us. Catching this subject was the number one priority of the Residence Office. Our teams remained the same size, but we covered a lot more ground with the others on board.
    At midnight on New Year's Eve there had been no breaks in the case. Dianna and I snuck away for a midnight countdown and a kiss. There was no champagne or celebrating around here. We were on the bubble and the time was counting down until another young woman would be abducted. There were lives we had been in situations like this before, and were tasked to come in when others failed. We solved the unsolvable, or at least we did up to this point.
    Around 0200 in

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