Chapter 2

Tobias sat in the break room alone, just staring at his sandwich like he expected it to do a trick. He tipped it from side to side, examining all its little sandwich idiosyncrasies. He heard footsteps behind him and jumped about a foot and a half off his seat. He looked behind him very slowly and cautiously. Rebekah was staring at him like he'd lost his mind.

"You OK?" she asked, casting a curious glance at his now slightly squeezed sandwich.

"Uh, yeah. I'm fine," he replied, trying to reshape his sandwich into its ordinary form.

"You sure? Did something happen… at a scene…?

He stared at her for a moment. "Did Anthony tell you?"

"He may have… hinted at it."

"It… I'm fine. It was nothing." God, he was a pathetic liar, and he knew it.

Rebekah sat down next to him and leaned in like she was going to divulge a secret.

"Do you see dead people?" she whispered.

Without warning, Tobias jumped up and backed away from her.

"You think I'm… No. I'm not out of my tree!" he almost yelled as he backed into the opposite wall, still clutching his sandwich. She seemed almost at a loss for words.

"What? No, that's not… What I meant…" She didn't get a chance to finish because Tobias quickly left the room, finally taking a bite of his sandwich.

He didn't know where he was going, he just kept walking down the halls of the crime lab, greedily eating his sandwich. He headed down a back hallway, that led to the locker room and such. He turned a corner as he shoveled in the last morsels of ham and bread, and walked straight into Darien Hayward. He wished he had listened all those years to 'chew your food!' because now he pretty much inhaled what he had been trying to swallow.

Darien just stood there watching as Tobias made strange squeaky noises, and with one final peculiar, inhuman guttural sound, swallowed the offending food and looked up.

"What do you want?"

"You said you'd help me."

"Yes, well, I have absolutely nothing to go on here."

"I know where he's going to strike next."

"You do? How? Where?"

"I don't know how, it's just like a video clip. I see him coming up behind someone with a knife. He grabs her… and it ends. That's all I know."

"OK. Exactly where and when is this supposed to take place?"

Darien closed his eyes in concentration. "Um… it's on a sidewalk in front of… a warehouse or a garage. There's a street sign… on the corner. Uh… 3rd Avenue. Can't read the cross street. Time? Uh, well, it's dark outside, I'd say, 10 or 11."

"So what do I do, stake out some sidewalk for the next week?"

Darien shook his head. "Not all week. Tonight."

Tobias' eyes widened. "Tonight? That doesn't leave me a lot of time to prepare, now does it."

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that. I've only known for about half an hour. Then I had to wait for you to get yourself alone. People would think you were crazy if they saw you talking to the air."

"I'm pretty sure they already think I'm nuts. Why is it that I can see you anyway?"

"No idea. As I was dying I was wishing I could run for help, so I guess when I finally kicked off, my mind took off with it." He gave Tobias a little smile. "I guess you're just the lucky one I found first."

Tobias was about to say something in response when Rebekah came around the corner, and the vision of the murdered man vanished.

"Hey, there you are. I've been looking all over for you. I didn't mean that you were crazy, I just… OK, I'm not sure what I meant. But I'm sorry, OK?"

Tobias nodded absentmindedly. He had to find that street corner.

It was 9:43 p.m. Tobias was sitting in the trace evidence lab, looking over some bits of stuff from the robbery the night before. He really needed to be somewhere else. He had to get out of here, and find a warehouse on 3rd Avenue. He kept looking at his watch nervously. Anthony walked by and poked his head in for a second.

"How's it coming?"

"Uh… fine. Hey Anthony, wait a sec," he said as Anthony started to leave. "Um… I have something really important I have to do. You mind if I finish this up… later?"

The senior CSI studied him, noting the seriousness in his expression. "Yeah, go ahead. Just… stay out of trouble."

Tobias jumped up and almost hugged him. Then he thought better of it. "Thanks. A lot." Then he ran out the door.

In no time he was cruising along 3rd Avenue. He was about to give up when he spotted a rundown building with a faded sign proclaiming "Bo's Auto Repair". He quickly pulled into an alley across the street. He got out of his car and sat in the shadows just inside the alley. Now all he could do was wait, and pray that this was the right place.

After about twenty-five minutes, he was afraid he had the wrong spot, and was about to leave when he saw a woman walking alone down the sidewalk in front of the garage. He crept forward out of his hiding place. He quickly jogged across the street.

"Excuse me, ma'am…" She looked at him like he was the one about to kill her.

"You…stay back, I've got mace…you'll be sorry…"

Tobias shook his head. "No ma'am, don't do that. But you need to come with me… you're in dang—" He was cut off by her shrill scream.

"Rape!"

"No ma'am, you don't understand…" He glanced behind her and saw a shadowy figure approaching. "Now seriously ma'am, you need to come—"

"Back!" she screamed, and swung her purse with unexpected force.

THWACK!

The purse, which seemed to have an entire rock quarry in it, connected with the side of Tobias' head, sending him to the ground in a crumpled heap.

"That'll teach you, damned pervert." The woman turned around, straight into a tall, darkly dressed figure, who pulled out a long knife and slit her throat before she could even scream.

Consciousness slowly returned to Tobias, and with it came an intense throbbing in his head. He groaned as he opened his eyes and rolled over. He found himself face-to-face with the woman he had tried to save, only now her eyes were empty and there was a large pool of blood pouring from her carotid.

"Ah, shit."