To Tell a Tale (Season One)

Airianna and Nash walked into the room where Smitty and the captain were still going over the old cases, looking for anything linked to the painting.

“Captain,” Nash said as he watched the older man skim through a folder.

Captain Dish looked up at Nash and Airianna standing in the doorway and set down the folder. Smitty turned when Nash spoke and set his folder down as well.

“We have a break.” Nash held a notepad out to them.

The captain moved to take the notepad from Nash and stared at the perfectly drawn portrait, then looked up at Airianna, who was watching him, waiting for a response. She didn’t know what the captain was going to say.

“You drew this?” he asked, holding the notepad up toward her, slowing his words so she could read his lips.

Airianna didn’t know what to say, so she nodded.

The captain grinned as he looked back at the picture. “Dream?” he asked, looking up at Nash.

Airianna looked at Nash when the captain did, not catching what the captain said. Nash looked at her, then back to the captain, and nodded.

“What is it?” Smitty asked, moving closer to the captain to see the notepad. “Is that what I think it is?”

Again, Airianna didn’t catch what was said; she had to depend on Nash. He was her ears. A smile spread across her face at the thought of this large, stubborn man being her ears. But he was, and more.

“She had a dream hit her while we were lounging by a lake….”

“See, I told you they were making out rather than working,” Smitty smirked.

Airianna only caught a few words from Smitty’s voice and lips, but she definitely recognized the words making out, and her cheeks turned a bright red.

“That is none of your business,” Nash said, giving Smitty a look Airianna had never seen before.

She had a feeling it was a look that told his partner to shut up before he shut him up—for good.

“I needed the quiet of the lake to help clear my head.” Airianna looked between the two men staring at each other.

“Yeah, sure.” Smitty turned to her so she could read his lips.

Airianna felt like slapping him—until she saw the mischief in his eyes. He was teasing them because he’d known she and Nash were meant to be together. She gave him a secret smile, then scowled and turned away from the men.

Nash almost snarled at his partner. What the fuck was up with him? He was making Airianna blush on purpose.

“I have seen this face before,” their captain said, bringing everyone’s—except for Airianna, who did not hear him—attention to him as he scanned the drawing of the young woman Airianna had drawn not thirty minutes ago.

“Where?” Smitty asked, watching their captain.

Captain Dish looked up at them. “She was a missing person’s case—until her body was found in a ditch a mile from her apartment three days after she was filed missing.”

“How long was she dead before they found her?” Nash asked.

“Not even an hour,” their captain grumbled.

“Fuck,” Nash swore. “We’re running out of time.”

“Not necessarily,” Smitty said, getting both their attention. “We haven’t heard of anyone being reported missing, especially a young woman with golden hair. She may not have been taken yet, or the killer waits to kill them until after….” Smitty stopped; none of them wanted to think about what the killer did to them before he shot them.

“She was missing for three days before her body was found,” Nash said, remembering his captain’s words about the girl in the picture.

“What’s going on?” Airianna asked, turning to face the three men.

Nash looked at her and smiled. He filled her in on their conversation, and Airianna’s eyes widened.

“So we know who she is?” she asked, looking at the captain.

Captain Dish nodded. “I don’t remember her name, but it will be easy to look it up. Ten years is a long time for a case, but we’ll find it.”

The captain smiled at Airianna, and Nash felt pride for the woman he hadn’t believed not so long ago. Now, they would have to pull his arms off before he would ever say Airianna Williams had no gifts—maybe even more than just his arms. When she looked at him again, his heart soared. He could see the trust in her eyes, which meant more to him than his arms.

~🔮~

It took four hours to find the young woman they were looking for. Airianna learned in that time that when these three men put their minds to it, they could solve just about anything. She had looked through other files as the three men searched for the single one, seeing if any were familiar. But none clicked in her mind. Not that she expected them to. Maybe like this one, it will come to her in another dream.

“Now we just need to know what the new victim looks like so we can put a stop to her kidnapping,” the captain said, looking over the case of the woman from the first painting. “They look about the same age, and their hair color is similar.”

Airianna didn’t hear what the captain was saying, but she got the gist of it by what she could hear and read on his lips. The two women were similar in more than one way. So, the killer has a preference that should help.

“Captain?”

Everyone in the room, except for Airianna—who hadn’t heard the newcomer—turned to the door. When the men turned to the door, she moved closer to Nash to see what they were looking at. A young officer stood at the door, looking at the captain, expecting an ass chewing for interrupting whatever they had going on.

“What is it?” Captain Dish asked, returning to the report of the woman who had been killed ten years ago by the same man they were looking to stop before he killed again.

“There was a report about a missing woman yesterday. I didn’t want to disturb you….” the officer squealed when Nash rushed at him and lifted him off his feet, pinning him to the doorframe.

“When someone is missing, no matter what the fuck we are doing, you report it!” Nash snarled in the young officer’s face.

The man paled as he looked into Nash’s steaming eyes.

“Nash,” Airianna whispered, taking hold of his arm and pulling. “Don’t kill him.”

Nash snarled in the officer’s face and dropped him to the floor. Airianna pulled him back away from the door and made him look at her. She wasn’t sure what was going on. She couldn’t hear most of what was said, but she knew it was something to set this large man off. Airianna smiled up at Nash, and his face softened.

“Get up,” the captain growled at the officer still on the floor.

The officer was holding his neck and coughing. He stood, his face pale.

“Detective Jackman is correct. You should never hold back information like that.” Captain Dish gave the man a nasty stare. “Show me the report,” he ordered, holding his hand out to the officer.

The officer handed him the report and ran off as soon as the captain dismissed him.

“I think we have it, boys.” Dish looked at his two best detectives.

Airianna looked at the captain when Nash did and read his lips when he said it was time to put another case to rest.

~🔮~

“How long has she been missing?” Airianna asked from the back seat of Nash and Smitty’s cruiser.

She’d had to fight to get to go with them. They had great points—like she’s deaf and wouldn’t hear if someone snuck up on her. She’d threatened to go on her own if they didn’t take her, then reminded them who it was that had rescued them from the warehouse.

They’d reluctantly let her come, but she was to always stay at one of their sides. Nash had shoved the pad and pencil she had used earlier into her hand and told her if she had a dream, she was to use it. She wasn’t going to argue about that.

Smitty, who sat in the passenger seat at the front of the cruiser, turned so he could talk to her.

“Two days.”

She read his lips and bit her bottom lip. One more day and the woman would be dead.

“Are we in time?” she asked, hoping the young woman in her painting was still alive, just waiting for someone to come and rescue her.

Smitty smiled at her. “I hope so.”

He turned back to face the front, letting her know the conversation was over—for the moment.

It didn’t take them long to get to the woman’s apartment. Once they were there, Airianna did as she was told and stayed close to Nash. When Nash went into a room alone, she remained at Smitty’s side. But there was nothing to worry about. There was no one in the apartment and no clue what had happened to her.

“What a waste of time,” Nash grumbled when he returned to them.

Airianna read his lips and frowned. He was right. They were wasting their time looking through her apartment when she probably wasn’t even taken from here…

“Where does she work?” she asked, looking straight at Nash.

She could tell Nash was thinking. Then Smitty pulled out a piece of paper with the full report of the missing woman. She looked at Smitty as he told them where the woman worked, and Airianna got an idea. She told them her idea, and they agreed it wouldn’t hurt to follow through.

They returned to the cruiser and headed to the street the woman’s work was on. They parked outside her work, a few blocks from the girl’s apartment. Airianna started walking down the sidewalk toward the woman’s apartment.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Nash demanded as he spun her to face him and made sure she understood every word he said and knew he wasn’t too happy with her. “I told you to stay by our side at all times….”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, looking into his angry eyes. She didn’t like when he was angry with her. “I wasn’t thinking; I was just following my thoughts.”

Nash took in a deep breath. He hadn’t meant to be so harsh with her, but if something happened to her… well, he wouldn’t be able to live with himself.

“I’m sorry for shouting,” he said, much calmer inside and out. “I worry about your safety.”

She smiled, and he knew she forgave him.

“I think she was taken on her walk home,” she said, watching him.

Nash looked at his partner, then up the road that led to the missing woman’s apartment. He looked at Airianna and smiled. She would make a great detective.

“All right, Sherlock, let’s check out the path home.”

Airianna grinned at Nash. He trusted her in more ways than one. And it made her feel special.

The three traveled down the sidewalk, looking for any sign of a struggle or a woman being abducted.

Airianna stopped when she saw something under a dumpster behind a restaurant.

“What is it?” Nash asked.

She didn’t hear Nash as she moved closer to the dumpster.

“There’s something under this dumpster,” she answered, not realizing she was answering his question.

“Look out.” Nash lifted Airianna off her feet and placed her behind him—away from the dumpster.

“Don’t do that!” Airianna hollered, her heart beating rapidly behind her ribs.

He’d startled her good.

“You shouldn’t touch things when it comes to a case,” Smitty said, watching her, a smirk on his face.

She huffed. “I wasn’t going to touch it. I just wanted to see what it was.”

“It’s a needle,” Nash said from his hand and knees before the dumpster.

Smitty repeated Nash’s words so Airianna could read his lips, and she spun around to watch Nash take a pair of gloves from his pocket and pick up the needle.

“Don’t let it prick you,” she whispered.

Nash smiled up at her, then sniffed the end of the needle.

“Cocaine?” Smitty asked, watching Nash.

Airianna didn’t hear Smitty’s words, but she heard the vibration of his voice through her hearing aids.

“No scent,” Nash grumbled.

“Are you sure it’s safe to sniff a needle?” Airianna asked.

“Not really,” Nash smirked.

She caught his words and frowned at him. “Are you stupid or something?”

He looked up at her and chuckled. “I guess so. But I think this is what he used to knock her out.” he held the needle up toward them.

Airianna felt light-headed. They found where the girl was snatched and taken to who knows where to have who knows what done to her just to be killed three days later.

“We’ve got to find her,” she whispered, a tear sliding down her cheek. “I couldn’t save the first one….” She looked up at Nash, who had gotten to his feet.

Airianna watched Nash and Smitty place the needle into an evidence bag. Nash pulled off his gloves and pulled her into his arms. Airianna let herself go and cried against his chest. Yes, she was only twelve when she’d painted the first woman this man killed—well, as far as Airianna knows, she was his first. What if he’d killed several before and after her? What if this woman isn’t his last?

Nash pulled her back from him and wiped her tears with the pads of his thumbs. He smiled down into her face and spoke the sweetest words he could have said at that moment.

“None of this is your fault. His killing the first woman or kidnapping this latest one. Don’t ever think it is,” he growled, gently shaking her arms. “You are the bravest woman I know. Now buck up, and let’s get to finding us a killer and saving his last victim.”

She grinned up at him and leaned on her tiptoes so she could kiss him. He pulled her closer and deepened the short kiss she had planned to give him.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and got lost in his kiss. Only they existed in that moment. No parents, no partner, no captain, no dreams, no victims, and no killers.

Just Airianna and Nash, her strong, stubborn detective.

TO BE CONTINUED