Before I wake

4.

    "Maybe."

     "That's why you want me back?"

     "Yes."

Fear fluttered in her stomach.

   Fear.

She'd forgotten what fear felt like.

The worst feeling in the world.

    As she watched him, she got the uneasy feeling that he wasn't done, that he had another card to play.

    "Why me?" she asked

     "You were one of the best."

     "Were." her mouth was dry. She swallowed. "Past tense." She couldn't go back. Or maybe more to the point, she couldn't make herself leave the safty of the desert. "Arden Davis no longer exist."

    Most people would of said,"Yes, she does. She's in there somewhere." Instead, he watched, silently acknowledging that she could be right.

She picked up the small folder and pulled out the ticket.

  A flight from Albequerque to Charleston, Wesr virginia.

   A line from an old TV show popped into her head: Your assignment, should you choose to accept it...

What was the name of the show? Something her Father had liked...

    Her mind click shut.

She returned the ticket to the folder and handed it to him. "No, thanks. I'll have to pass."

    "One more thing about french." He stared hard into her eyes, issuing a challenge. For a fraction of a second, something flitted across his face, and she got the idea he didn't want to tell her what he was about to tell her. "He recanted." He paused. "He denied killing your parents."

Nausea washed over her, and her heart flopped in her chest.

No.

She didn't want to believe it. She stared into the stranger's blue eyes, looking for some sign of a lie.  She saw none. "But he confessed."

The agent slowly blinked. "I know."

   "What about evidence? There must have been evidence."

  "The crime scene was compromised by the local cops. It was chaos. They'd never seen anything like what they found that day."

What they'd found was what she no longer remember. What had been erased from her mind.

    "And we didn't need it. We had him on the Virginia homicides. We knew Virginia would take care of him and make sure he didn't kill again."

    She could taste her fear. It was metallic. Or maybe she'd bitten her tongue.

      Make it stop. Make it all go away.

      Arden had been instrumental in catching French. The first time. Her profile had led detectives to him. From there, a DNA match and the murder weapon--a butcher knife-- had sealed the case.

By that time, the FBI was feeling pretty proud of Project TAKE, and the media was touting Arden as a superstitious. She'd been there for the arrest. With French 's hand cuffed behind him. He'd smiled, broadly. His pupils glazed and flat. "You're next on my list, sweet pea," he'd said before being roughly tucked into the backseat of the police car.

       Two months later, French escaped while being transported to a hospital for treatment of what they thought was a massive heart attack.

  He wasn't caught for three months.

That's when Arden really began to study him in depth. That's when she slipped under his skin and saw the world through his eyes. That's when he came after her family-- or so they thought. Shortly after the Davis's killings, he wad recaptured and confessed to the murder of Arden's parents.

Now he was dead-- the killer was very possibly still out there.