Disclaimer: I do not own Human Target and intend no copyright infringement.
The warehouse in the middle of the same night.
"You've brought cookies?", Winston greeted Ames with raised eyebrows as she stepped out of the elevator.
"Nelly sent me some for watching over her. I thought I'd share with you."
Winston gave Chance a pointed look.
"Hey, she didn't almost have to dance naked around a fire!"
Guerrero reached over to the box of cookies and grabbed some. Ames rummaged around in her bags and produced a couple of loose sheets, earning more raised eyebrows from Winston.
"The report. For Ilsa." She said it as if her having it already finished was the most natural thing in the world.
Guerrero urged her with a nod to start reading and polished off another cookie.
"Three knocks on the door, very quietly. Then three more knocks, louder. Finally three bangs and then the bursting of wood." Ames looked up from her report. "That's how all of Nelly's nightmares begin."
"Her shrink says the knocks represent the future, knocking on her door. Her father's death left her with deep fear of the challenges she'll now have to face alone", Winston read from the patient file Guerrero had retrieved while they had been waiting for Ames.
"The next part of the dream consists of something Nelly calls "the chaos phase" – a horrible mixture of voices, screams, shattering and crashing noises…."
"This represents the emotional chaos she's currently going through. Her father's death left her with a void. She doesn't know what to do and feels confused." Winston frowned while reading. Too many sessions with police psychologists and couple therapists had left him with a deep mistrust towards anyone who professionally meddled with someone else's mind.
"The chaos of noises ends in sudden and complete silence. That silence terrifies Nelly a lot more than the noises. That's when the dream "turns red" – she hears footsteps in the eerie silence and then everything becomes crimson red."
"Her shrink interprets that as her longing to be back in her mother's womb."
"But if she's "longing", then why is she terrified?" Chance reached for the cookies. "Doesn't make any sense." Guerrero pulled the box away from his friend, fished out a single cookie and handed it to him.
"Out of the red, a hand appears. That's when she starts screaming", Ames finished her report.
"According to this, she's angry with God for taking her father away", Winston read from the file, clearly not convinced.
Guerrero snorted and took another cookie.
Chance shook his head. "Her father's death triggered something, so far the shrink's right. But I don't buy this abandonment issue stuff. If she feels overwhelmed with facing her life alone, then why did she leave the farm? The people there would have provided her with plenty of suggestions regarding her future decisions. This is only half the picture. Call Nelly. We need more information."
… … …
The warehouse later in the night or, depending on your point of view, very early in the morning.
"Let's put this into chronological order", Winston said, studying the list of places Nelly remembered visiting. "Nelly's father dies and her nightmares set in. She decides to leave the farm because she needs time to think…"
"Did she ever explain why she came to San Francisco of all places?" Chance tried to get another cookie from Guerrero. "Try" being the operative word here…
"Does it matter?" Ames asked. "I can't explain why I went here either; I just kind of stranded here."
"Maybe her subconsciousness was speaking", Guerrero mused.
Winston shot him a doubtful look.
"How do you think I figure out most passwords? The subconsciousness speaks all the time."
"Nelly said she was totally lost in thought when she was looking at that McLaren guy statue…Could that be her subconsciousness speaking?"
Ames noticed that everyone was staring at her.
"Yes, I've read your reports, too. Stop looking at me as if I just sprouted a second head!"
Guerrero wrested the list from Winston's hand and started typing into the computer. A short time later a street map of San Francisco appeared on the screen, several places marked with blinking dots.
"McLaren statue, McLaren Park, McLaren Avenue…", Ames read. "Her subconsciousness seems to be interested in that name. That something to go on?"
Guerrero shook his head. "Too broad a search item."
"McLaren and San Francisco?"
He shook his head again. Ames let out a frustrated groan.
"You end up with tons of stuff about gardening", Winston reluctantly agreed with Guerrero. "But look at the other places she visited. She regularly eats at a restaurant in Francisco Street. She's rented an apartment in Franconia Street and she's washing her clothes at a Laundromat in Franklin Street."
Chance and Guerrero figured it out at the same time.
A complete name…
"But isn't that still too broad…?", Chance asked his friend.
"Have faith, dude…" Guerrero started typing again.
An hour later they had a result.
"Oh my God…", Ames whispered, staring at the computer screen.
Even Winston, hardboiled cop that he was, felt his skin crawl as he read through the information Guerrero had uncovered.
"Now her nightmares make sense."