Chapter One
Two days later….
Cat got into her car and used her GPS that would take her to the Falls. Her body felt hollow and she had the beginnings of a headache. The girl, Jenna Bannoch, came to her in her dreams the night before. She was lying in the morgue now as the police had found her body but she had begged Cat to help the police find her killer. She didn't want to stay alone in the dark or not get justice for her death. She didn’t want the wrong man to take the blame for her murder. She had begged for Cat to help her as the wrong man would soon stand trial for her murder and she didn’t want that to happen.
As Cat settled down in her car and drove, she prayed for Jenna and for herself. She knew it would be a battle to find someone to believe her, but her dreams suggested there would be someone in Granite Falls who would. She didn't know who, but he was there. She just had to find him.
As she turned onto the highway that would take her to her destination, she closed her eyes briefly and saw him again. The shadow of a tall man with red hair and a soft blue aura. His blue eyes were icy and the area around his eyes had a stern look, but the rest of his face was in the shadows. Her heart skipped a beat when she remembered the rest of her dream from the night before. She had been locked in an embrace…in strong arms and the man had these same eyes.
This had been an odd thing to see and she wondered if the embrace was for her or was it another vision? She shook the thought away as she had more important parts of her visions to track down.
~****~
When she got to the city of Granite Falls, Cat felt at home, and the feeling left her a bit uneasy. As far as she knew, she’d never been here before but she followed her inner compass that had her driving over to the courthouse. When she parked, she stared at the building with dread. Something was going on that didn’t make any sense to her. What brought her to this place? What would she find inside? Did she dare go inside? What would she find if she did? She opened her door and got out of her vehicle. Walking slowly over, she reached the huge double doors, she paused but she made herself go inside. Her footsteps echoed in the halls of justice and she frowned as she stopped at one of the courtrooms. She didn’t know what made her stop but when she looked into the courtroom through the window, she frowned.
Taking a deep breath, she pushed the door open and slipped inside. The courtroom was full of people and she gasped as she viewed the room section by section. The section on the right side was filled with people, just ordinary people of the city while the people on the left side looked to be filled with bikers. They all wore dark colored t-shirts and a vest made of soft leather. The back of the vest had a huge Gate and was surrounded by flames and in the middle of the gates was a huge skull that seemed to keep the gates closed. You could see the flames in the hollows where the eyes and nose should be and the skull was smiling eerily.
She shivered as she looked toward the front of the courtroom.
A man sat at the table on the left and another man sat there with him. The first man looked like someone she should know, someone she remembered somewhere in the back of her mind. But she knew she hadn’t met him before which was confusing for her.
Just then, a man who’d been sitting directly behind the other man turned to look at her.
Cat gasped as the sun came through the window and shone on his red hair and his icy blue eyes. Her belly rolled and she felt lightheaded for a moment.
She slipped into the last seat in the back row, then watched as the crowd stood when the Judge walked into the courtroom.
For the next hour, she listened to the charges being read and the plea entered on behalf of the defendant, Dakota Hawkins.
Cat shook her head when the clerk read out the charges, Murder in the first degree in the deaths of three women, Marla Gibbs, Janet Rainer, and Jenna Bannoch. She sat there with tears running down her face at the mention of Jenna’s name. She wanted to cry out that he wasn’t the man who killed her but she couldn’t. Suddenly, she couldn’t breathe and her throat began to swell.
Cat got to her feet and stumbled as she slipped into the aisle then turned to push the door open. The door seemed heavier than it had been when she came in then at the last minute, she turned to look toward the front of the courtroom.
Dakota’s eyes caught hers and he frowned when he saw her tears.
She glanced over at the red haired man sitting directly behind him and his eyes were icy steel now as he stared directly at her.
Cat turned and made her way through the door. She ran from the courtroom, her footsteps clattering loudly in the silence of the courthouse.
As soon as she gained the outside, she slowed down to walk along the street.
She didn’t know where she was going and she didn’t care. She just had to get away from the drama back in the courthouse.
Finally, she stopped and shook her head as she found herself on a street filled with shops. The scent of fresh bread and coffee permeated the air.
She made her way to one of the coffee and tea shops. Opening the door, the heavenly scent of freshly baked breads and cakes hit her.
After ordering, she glanced around the shop and smiled. This was such a relief after the upset she just had. To simply be sitting here, watching the people around her. She always loved to watch people and wonder who they were, what their lives were like. Now as she sat here, she picked up the habit again.
Looking up from her coffee, she found herself staring into cold green eyes. She sucked in a deep breath and was caught in the revelation that she'd seen these eyes before in her nightmares. She tried to pull away from them, but she couldn't. She felt her heart stop beating in her chest for a moment, then when it began pounding in her chest again, the sensation hurt sending shards of pain throughout her entire body.
The green eyed man then looked away from her to give his attention to his companion.
She could easily confirm his identity with the burnt skin along the right side of his face.
Did she just wander in here or did that sense she had lead her here to this very spot?