Chapter 96

Dana stoodin the doorway to her office, watching Jake's jaw muscles wage war with the cinnamon gum he'd been punishing since returning with Richter.

Things had gone from bad to worse when Jake had to deliver the news to Claire in person that Max wasn't at her storage unit, nor was there any trace of him on the facility's surveillance. She was already a mess having watched her hypnosis video. Finding out Max was still missing was the final straw.

She'd dissolved into inconsolable tears leaving Dana to wonder if maybe Jake had been right, and this was all too much for Claire. The shell of a girl Dana helped to bed in her guest room said it was.

Dana had already gotten an earful of Jake's opinion on how she'd handled things, in particular letting Claire watch her hypnosis video. Now that Jake was witnessing it for himself, she could imagine he would be even more adamant it was a mistake.

As that haunting demonic voice filled her office, Dana couldn't say she blamed him.

Richter was the first to speak when the video was over. "Well, it's not exactly a smoking gun," he said as he got to his feet.

"I disagree," Dana argued. "At best it proves Dvita is playing some twisted game, at worst it shows he's abusing his license."

Richter shook his head. "His medical license isn't in question here."

"Well maybe it should be," Dana demanded.

"Look, I don't disagree with you, but it won't help our case. The DA will laugh me out of the room if we try using this," he said, pointing to the video. "Plus, it will discredit any evidence we've obtained from Claire."

"Then why did we bother putting her through the hypnosis?" Dana asked.

"If she gave us something solid, connecting him to the murders we could've used it, but convulsing, speaking in tongues, I'm afraid all that does is prove Claire's not exactly a credible witness."

"Seven must sleep for all to rise," Dana repeated. "Claire gave us proof Dvita is trying to brainwash his patients into playing some twisted version of the Seven Sleepers ritual."

"It supports your theory, but it's not enough," Richter argued.

"If we don't do something Dvita will be released tomorrow. We can't just let him carry on killing people because he's deluded himself into thinking they'll all be resurrected. There has to be something we can do."

Richter sighed and pushed past Dana to grab his coat. "Sometimes the best thing we can do is wait."

"You can't be serious," Dana demanded, charging after him. "We should at least put his patients in protective custody and add extra security to Meredith."

"I'd love to do that, Dr. Gray, but we don't have one shred of evidence—" he held up a hand when she started to object. "Actual, factual, hard evidence—linking Dr. Dvita to any of the Reaper murders. Get me that and I'll be the first one in line to nail the bastard."

"It's him, Richter. I know Dvita is behind this."

"Maybe he is. If that's the case, we're on to him, and he'll slip up sooner or later. They all do. And we'll be there to stop him when he does." With that, he shrugged on his jacket and headed out her front door.

"Where are you going?" she asked, following him out onto her porch.

"Back to the lab to meet up with my team, see if they've found anything new to add to the profile. I'll keep you in the loop. You do the same."

She stood there, watching his taillights fade into the distance before going back inside. Jake was right where she'd left him. He sat at her desk, staring at her laptop screen. It was frozen on a still of Claire, her features paralyzed with fear.

"Richter's gone," she said, walking over to join him at the desk.

"I heard," Jake replied, getting to his feet the moment she sat down. "I'm going to go check on Claire."

"I just checked on her."

"Well, I'm going to check again."

"Jake, I know you didn't want her to watch the video, but she begged me. She didn't want to be in the dark anymore."

"You think that's why I'm pissed?" He huffed a laugh. "That's not what this is about."

"Okay, then what?" She stood up, too. "Jake, just talk to me."

But he shook his head and walked out of the room.