Primal Instinct

“Look, Adrienne. I want to give you this chance, while we’re here alone, to tell me if there’s something you want to tell me. You know, about your abilities or about when you worked for the FBI before.”

“I don’t understand.” Adrienne was honestly puzzled.

“I mean, if you were in some way exaggerating what you could do—in terms of profiling and working for the FBI—either then or now. Or, hell, even if you had completely tricked the Bureau before, you can tell me, and I’ll make sure nothing happens to you.”

“What?”

“I’m just telling you, I’ll protect you from any repercussions. We’ll come up with some reason why you can’t help us that everyone will buy. I’ll even make sure Rick Vincent is taken care of and won’t be arrested.”

He had the nerve to sit there with his gorgeous green eyes and say this to her.

Adrienne struggled to keep her temper from boiling over. “So let me make sure I understand this. You think I deceived the FBI ten years ago when I worked for them and that I’m back again, lying now. Wasting my time and yours.”

She could see Conner attempting damage control in his mind. But she never gave him a chance to speak.

“And you, very magnanimously I might add, are offering to protect me if I just come clean now and, what, admit this was all a hoax?”

“Adrienne, calm down.”

Adrienne raised her eyebrows at that—no man should ever tell an upset woman to calm down—but she kept quiet.

“I’m just trying to offer you an out if you need it.”

“Well, thank you, Agent Perigo.” She saw him grimace. “But despite you thinking I’m a liar and a cheat, not to mention some sort of juvenile attention-seeker, I don’t need an out!”

“Listen, I’m not trying to offend you. But I’ve been an agent a long time, and I’ve never seen anything that suggested a gift such as yours is real. As a matter of fact, the exact opposite is true. When someone comes forth and claims to be ‘psychic’ and know something about a case, almost always he or she is involved in some way.”

Adrienne took a deep breath. Conner was skeptical. She had dealt with skepticism before, even considered it healthy. No one should blindly believe someone else without reason. Why did she feel the need to prove herself to him when she never had felt that way about anyone else?

“I’m not a psychic,” Adrienne said quietly.

“Whatever you want to call it. Good, smart detective work is what solves cases, not hocus-pocus.”

“It’s not magic, Perigo. It’s just the way my brain works. Some people are geniuses with musical instruments. Some are whizzes when it comes to math. My brain is just wired differently than most people.”

“Then why isn’t your gift working now?”

Temper threatened again. “I don’t know!”

Seth chose that moment to come in with the coffee. He put the cup carrier down, looking back and forth between Adrienne and Conner, noticing the obvious tension between them.

“Here you go, Adrienne. Coffee, black. And here’s your froufrou, princess,” he said as he handed Conner his drink. “You owe me $4.50.”

“How come I have to pay, but she doesn’t?”

“Because her drink didn’t involve an embarrassing list of words to order.” Seth sat down in his chair. “Anything come to you while I was gone?”

“Nothing, Seth, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry, we’ve got time.”

Adrienne hoped time would help.

Chapter Five

Six hours later Adrienne still had not experienced anything helpful to the case. Conner and Seth had left her alone in the interrogation room but stood just a few feet away on the other side of two-way glass. They could see Adrienne, but she couldn’t see them.

All day Conner had watched Adrienne pore over the pictures again and again. He had watched her try different methods, studying each picture one at time, spreading as many out on the table as could fit, flipping through them all quickly. Everything she tried ended with that same blended look of frustration and confusion.

He had to give it to her; if she was pulling some sort of scam, she was definitely tenacious about it.

They hadn’t talked again about his get-out-of-jail-free offer. She seemed legitimately offended by it, so he didn’t bring it back up. Conner shrugged. He was just trying to provide her an escape if she needed it—not all those things she had accused him of doing.

He and Seth had tried to help her any way they could. They encouraged her to take breaks, walked her outside to get fresh air and took her on a lengthy lunch to get her away from all of it for a while. Nothing seemed to help. Now, watching her, she just looked exhausted.

Conner would be angry at Adrienne, but Adrienne was so frustrated with herself that he couldn’t bring himself to be mad. But he was definitely concerned that they had wasted an entire day doing something that had provided zero results. Conner had stayed with her the whole day—he could admit it was at least partially because he didn’t trust her out of his sight—and watched her get more frustrated and disheartened as the day went along.

“I guess this is a bust, huh?” Seth broke into Conner’s thoughts as they both watched Adrienne. “Looks like you were right.”

“About what?” Conner asked, breaking his gaze from Adrienne to look at his partner.

“That this was all bogus and a waste of time. She’s done nothing to help us.”

“Yeah, I guess, but you definitely can’t say she didn’t try. I almost want her to get a feeling or reading or whatever, just so she won’t have that look on her face anymore.”

“Yeah, she looks pretty upset. I told Chief Kelly that we weren’t having much luck with her. He wanted to know if we thought she was withholding information on purpose.”

Conner shook his head. “I don’t think so. If she is, she’s one hell of an actress. What do you think?”

Seth gazed through the two-way glass again. “Who knows? But it doesn’t seem like she found something and isn’t telling. The chief wanted to know if we wanted him to come in and talk to her since she had worked with him before. I told him no. That okay?”

“Yeah. The way she spoke about Chief Kelly before, I don’t think seeing him would help any. What are we supposed to do? Call her a failure and send her home?” Conner asked.

“The chief wants us to consider letting her see the packages Simon Says sent. The hair locks.”

Conner’s eyebrows shot up. “I’m not ready to do that yet. I don’t want to give away anything that detailed about the case.”

“I told the chief that. Bureau’s going to pay to put her up in a hotel room at least for tonight. See where we are by the end of tomorrow. Maybe she just needs a good night’s sleep.”

“All right. But look at her, she’s exhausted. How about I’ll drive with her in her car to the hotel, and you follow and give me a ride back.”

Seth nodded and headed out of the door. “Sure. Let me shut down my computer, and I’ll be ready to go. I’ll meet you at her hotel.”

Conner walked over to the interrogation room. Adrienne was still poring over the pictures. She didn’t even look up when he entered.

“Hey, you about ready to call it a day?” Conner asked as he sat down across from her.

“Conner, I still don’t have anything. Nothing. These women...they died so horribly, and I can’t seem to help them in any way.”