PAINT IT RED (MikhAiah)

30: Clock's Cruel Ticking

"Better three hours too soon than a minute too late." —William Shakespeare

***

MIKHA

"I don't understand why she let her go. It clashes severely with her profile," I tell Jhoanna as we pull up to the police station. "A sexual sadist who has been on a killing spree doesn't just release a victim."

"I don't know either. The girl is so traumatized that she wouldn't let them bring her to us. She said we had to come here, and she'd only talk to you. Her father hasn't even been allowed in yet. She said she couldn't speak to him until she spoke to you."

Confused, I walk quickly into the police station, leaving the introductions to Jhoanna. Why leave her in this town? Why let her go at all?

A thousand questions are flitting through my mind as I walk into the room they're holding her in. She's shaking, her eyes wide and panicked, and a blanket is draped around her.

Three men and one woman are in there, all of them giving her a wide berth. She's terrified, understandably so, and has most likely already had several panic attacks if someone got too close.

"I'm Supervisory Special Agent Mikha," I say softly, trying to keep my tone warm and non-imposing.

Her eyes dart to mine, and immediately she starts sobbing. Everyone looks as confused as me.

"He...told...me...to contact you...just you," she says through her sobs. "He said I couldn't show anyone until...you...No one but you."

I'm at a loss, carefully taking a step forward.

"Show me what, Yuna?" I ask her, gingerly crouching in front of her, making myself appear smaller, less threatening.

"This," she says, moving the blanket and tugging up her skirt to reveal her inner thigh that is bandaged. Blood has seeped through the bandage, and I look at the female officer closest to me.

"She wouldn't let us check her. She refused until you arrived," she says, answering my silent question.

Yuna tears at the bandage, pulling it off, and I see the words he's carved into her skin.

HER SAFE.

There's even a period.

It makes no sense at all.

"Did he tell you where he was going?" I ask her.

She's a sobbing mess, shaking her head. "He said he'd kill me if I didn't follow his orders. Said he'd come back for me. He took me once; he could take me again. Told me to follow his orders precisely, and he'd let me live."

"And he ordered you to show me this?" I ask, still trying to follow her.

"Yes. To get you here and show you this. That's all I had to do, and he'd let me live."

She's crying so hard that it's hard to understand her words, but I think I understand her well enough to spare her more questions. She's not fit to be interviewed right now.

He's shattered her.

"Can I see my father now?" she sobs. "I did what I was told to do. I did it right," she cries.

"Of course, Yuna," I tell her.

We still haven't figured out how to charge her father for what he did. He's been temporarily released just for this.

I gesture with my head to let him in, and they open the door. Seconds later, the broken shell of a man runs in, and he grabs his daughter, who cries out. I turn and let them have a moment as she sobs into his chest.

"Her safe," I tell Jhoanna as I walk out.

"The rest of the message maybe? You can't," she says, pulling up a picture on her iPad of the judge's wife he strung from a building. "Keep," she goes on, pulling up the photo of Staku's arm. "Her safe," she says, looking at me.

Gwen is standing with her, and she shakes her head. "But Yuna is with us. Is he saying we can't keep her safe now that we have her? Maybe notching up his game?"

An icy wave washes over me.

"Mikha Lim, you can't keep her safe. He carved my name into that body with the first part of the message."

Their eyes all widen, and I panic, juggling my phone free. Aiah's phone goes straight to voicemail, and I curse, calling the patrol car assigned to her house tonight.

"SSA Mikha, how can I—"

"Where's Aiah? Do you have eyes on her house right now?"

"No...um...sorry, ma'am. I thought someone told you. We were pulled off to go help find the kids that other sicko buried."

My stomach twists like a knife in me, and I hang up, frantically dialing Jeremy.

"Detective Jer—"

"Tell me you're with Aiah right now," I snap.

"No...I thought she was with you. Didn't I see her back at your headquarters?"

"You fucking left her alone?"

"I thought she was with you! You took her from the house, according to my officers, then I saw her with you!"

"Fuck!"

I hang up, and I start sprinting to the SUV we took here. Jhoanna and Gwen are on my heels.

"I'll stay here and see what I can find!" Gwen calls out.

Jhoanna hops in the passenger seat, buckling up quickly as I tear out of the parking lot. I toss her my phone.

"Keep calling her."

She does, but curses each time, hanging back up. "Her phone is either off or dead. It's not ringing through."

I push the pedal all the way to the floor, turning the lights on.

"Get someone over there, now!"

"Already on it," she tells me, the phone at her ear. She's shouting orders at someone, telling them Aiah's address, and I weave in and out of traffic, never hitting the brakes.

"They said they're twenty minutes out," she tells me, hanging up. "How long has she been home?"

My stomach flips and turns inside out. She left an hour before I did. It would have taken her thirty minutes to get home. It took me almost two hours to get out here. That's at least two and a half hours he's had her to himself.

With no one to save her.

In the middle of nowhere.

Her closest neighbor would never hear a thing.

"Too long," I whisper hoarsely, dreading the worst as I gas the car harder, hearing Jhoanna hiss out a breath as I narrowly dodge a car. "Too fucking long."

***