Body Swappers 27
"You're spiraling."
Intro/outro sound is Prime Light Harp Melody 165 BPM.mp3 by snikpohneb — https://freesound.org/s/173463/ — License: Attribution 3.0
Even once she was outside in the parking lot, Maya felt like she was suffocating. She couldn’t speak—she could hardly form coherent thoughts.
It can’t be.
How many questions had Camille asked about her work? Maya had thought it was a normal amount, sprung from the curiosity of one who believed in auras but couldn’t see them. In retrospect, though, the questions had a certain bent…
A memory, half-forgotten, surged back in full clarity.
Eyes rapt, Camille asked, “How do you start a transference?”
Maya closed her eyes, focusing on her breath. Forced it slower, deeper. Focused on the bite in the cold air, the sense of winter settling in. She rolled her shoulders down, forward, up, back. Opened her eyes.
Robert had watched her silently till this point, but now he asked, “What did you see?”
“The view out the window. I’ve seen that same view before. At—” Tears rose in her eyes, in her throat, but she forced her voice out, cracking. “At my friend’s previous apartment.”
He paused only a little before saying, “It could be a neighbor’s apartment. Or whoever took over once she left.”
“She’s a phlebotomist.”
The cast of his face darkened.
“She’s a phlebotomist, and a survivor. Her ex…Oh God, she said he’d killed himself. I didn’t question it, because so many abusers are unstable enough to do it.”
“Hold on,” Robert said. “You’re spiraling. We have to be sure.”
“How?”
“We know the men we’ve interviewed had their blood drawn at Deaconess, right? Where does she work?”
“She says she works for Lab Corp.”
“Write down her name for me. I’ll make some calls. In the meantime, go through our notes. See if there’s anything that would contradict this theory.”
Maya nodded, numb. She wrote on the paper he offered her, sat in the passenger seat of her car, and opened her laptop. The ability to read proved elusive. As she looked at the words, her vision blurred and her thoughts whirled.
Her house is a two-bedroom, but I’ve never seen inside the second room since helping her move in. Maya had never given this a second thought before. Camille was a private person. But how many people kept their spare room’s door shut? If it were something innocuous, like a home office or a craft room, wouldn’t the normal thing be to leave it open?
It didn’t feel like much time had passed before Robert was standing next to her.
“I’m sorry, I have to ask,” Robert said, rubbing his neck with one hand. “Did you talk to this friend about our case? I was just thinking about the attack at Geiger. That the killer decided to cover their tracks.”
Maya wanted to fold in on herself. “Yes,” was all she could manage.
“Camille has only been at LabCorp for three months. She worked at Deaconess before that.”
Maya felt as though she couldn’t breathe. She could, she was, but her body was telling her the oxygen wasn’t making it through.
“This is important, Maya. What all did you tell her?”
Maya knew if she could look at herself, her aura would be flooded with white. She didn’t think she could be more in shock. She couldn’t remember everything she’d told Camille, only their last conversation. Slowly, she turned her head to look up at Robert. “I told her my dad was bothering me. And she told me it would be okay.”
Robert’s aura flashed with white at that, then a strong core of red surrounded by blue took over. “Get in my car, tell me her address, then try to get ahold of her. See if she’ll let you come over.”
“I can drive—”
“—No, you can’t. Say you’re drunk if you have to explain it.”
Maya moved as if she was made of wood as she followed his instructions. Dimly, she thought, Who is he to tell me what to do? Just as slowly, she thought in response, Someone who isn’t completely compromised, at the moment.
I need to talk to you, she managed to type out on her phone. Can I come over?
She stared at it, waiting for the read receipt.