Free Doom with a View by Victoria Laurie

while Albright talked, and I made a note on my folder that read, Kids did know one another.
    “We’ve also checked bank accounts, cell phone and credit card records, and there’s been no activity since the date they disappeared.”
    “How about any surveillance video of campus at the time they went missing?” Harrison asked.
    “So far we’ve logged about a hundred hours of footage, sir, with about five hundred more to go from various cameras posted in the area, but those that we hoped we might get something from, so far, show us no suspicious activity whatsoever. Just the normal college traffic milling around the area. On one particular digital grouping we have terrific footage of Bianca exiting her dorm to the outside, but as she walks out of view, she does not appear to have anyone trailing her.”
    “And there’s been no ransom note or correspondence to the families?” an agent right across from me asked.
    “None.”
    “Have any of their parents in the state legislature been working on any controversial legislation?” Gaston asked.
    “Only Senator Newhouse, sir. He’s been attempting to allocate funding for a nuclear power plant on the outskirts of a small town in Ohio, and we do know that there’s been some major protest over that from some of the residents near where the plant will be located.”
    “But Kyle was the second victim, not the first, correct?” I clarified.
    Albright nodded. “Correct.”
    “It could be that Newhouse was the target all along, and the other two were abducted as a smoke screen,” one of the agents next to Harrison suggested.
    I shook my head. My radar said no. Gaston seemed to notice, because he spoke directly to me. “Ms. Cooper, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on what you’ve heard so far.”
    I gave him a weak smile and cleared my throat. “Of course,” I began, and couldn’t help noticing that Harrison was rolling his eyes. “My first impressions are the following: These two,” I said, holding up Kyle’s and Bianca’s photos, “are no longer alive. I feel very strongly that they have been murdered. However,” I added, holding up Leslie’s photo, “I believe this young lady is still with us. But I couldn’t tell you for how much longer and the energy around her feels very unstable. My sense is that if she is still alive, she doesn’t have long.”
    Again I caught Harrison shaking his head slightly and swiveling his chair, almost as if he was trying to distract me. I ignored him completely and focused on Gaston, who was taking notes and nodding. “I also believe there is more than just a circumstantial link between the kids. I believe they knew one another. I don’t know if they were friends, but I do believe that they all met at one time.”
    “Why do you think that?” Albright asked me, and I could tell that he wasn’t so much doubtful as he was curious.
    “When you suggested that they didn’t know one another, my radar insisted that they did. I don’t know how old the connection between the three is, but it’s there.”
    Off to the side I heard someone make a derisive sound and I knew Harrison was doing his level best to unsettle me. And by this time I’d had more than enough of his attitude, so I turned to face him and said, “And I know that some of you might not feel that’s good enough, but I would like to remind you about a certain crime scene that was only discovered after my radar pinpointed its location.”
    Harrison avoided looking at me, but I could see that his eyes narrowed and at least the swiveling of his chair stopped. After a moment of awkwardness Gaston spoke again. “Are there any other impressions you can share with us, Ms. Cooper? Perhaps where the teens might be located or anything about the person responsible?”
    I took a deep breath and focused my radar on the photos in front of me. “This girl,” I said, pointing to Bianca. “She’s somewhere near water. I don’t think she’s in it, but she’s not far