Page 100 of Girl Between

“DoctorGray,” Dana corrected.

“Right,” Creed said, his attention already back on his phone.

“Where were you?” George asked, after dragging Dana to the watercooler.

“Tying up loose ends with NOSA. What did I miss?”

“Creed might be young and unconventional, but he gets shit done,” George said. “He’s got a whole team of analysts running every file we’ve digitized through a program they wrote specifically for this case.”

“What does that mean?”

“In theory, it’ll create a custom database from the parameters you gave Lena.”

“We’ll be able to pinpoint the number of victims?”

“Exactly,” George said. “And by cross-referencing missing persons, we might get hits on who these Jane Does are.”

“That’s great. Identifying the victims will help us paint a clearer picture of our unsub.” Dana scanned the room again. “Where’s Jake?”

“He was here for the official sign off, but Creed made it clear it’s essential personnel only from here on out.”

Dana balled her hands into tight fists against the unexpected anxiety rising in her chest. She’d worked cases without Jake before. She told herself this was no different.

You haven’t worked an active case without him.

Dana shut out her annoyingly accurate subconscious, but the damage was already done. Jake had been by her side through the last four high profile FBI cases. In fact, she was confident she wouldn’t have survived any of them without him. They were partners. Theybrought out the best—and sometimes the worst—in each other. But there was no denying that they always had each other’s backs.

Or he used to.

This time, she’d be going it alone. Well, not exactly alone, she reminded herself as she looked around the crowded room. But still, doing this without Jake made her feel like she was walking into a dark forest without a flashlight.

Dana resisted the urge to text him. Not being part of the case was one thing, but he wasn’t even in the building. Last night she’d asked him to stay, to be her plus one to Cadie’s wedding. He’d heard her, she was sure of it.

Was it too little, too late?

The only thing she knew for certain was that his absence was affecting her.

She wanted him here. Acknowledging that was more than she’d bargained for.

She shook herself from her baseless worries. Now wasn’t the time. “What else do I need to know?” Dana asked, ready to dig in.

89

Dana still lookedup every time a tall, dark, and suited agent strolled into the room, but she’d managed to keep her focus on getting up to speed as George introduced her to the rest of the joint task force.

The team was made up of half a dozen NOPD officers and just as many BAU agents. As Richter had warned, the new Feds were all young—more comfortable behind a computer than in the field. But that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Dana always found more answers reading books than reading people. It didn’t mean she wasn’t good at both. She just preferred the controlled environment of her library over the chaos of field work.

“Got a list of possibles!” Richter bellowed, stomping into the room.

Wearing a pair of tactical cargo pants, white t-shirt, black flak vest, and his token salt and pepper stubble, he resembled an action hero at classroom show-and-tell day. The young BAU agents gathering around him like eager children only cemented the image further.

Dana looked at George. “Suspects? Already?”

He shrugged. “Let’s see what these pencil pushers can do.”

The room fell silent as Agent Creed took the tablet from Richter. After briefly scanning it, he nodded, handed the tablet back to Richter and walked up to the smart board at the front of the NOPD conference-room-turned-command-center.