Evolution

After two and half hours of finger printing and processing, Antonio was finally able to make his one phone call.

"Scott."

"Where are you?"

"Jess and I are on our way back from interviewing daycares. We-"

"You need to come down to the police station. I've been arrested."

xxxx

Thanks to Nathan's connections, the lawyer he referred Antonio to had him out on bail early that evening. While the children played in the playroom, the four gathered around Nicole and Antonio's living room to try to piece together the crime.

"Okay," Nicole said, "so the killer rings the doorbell. It's someone she knows, so she answers it. They have some kind of fight. He follows her into the kitchen, sees the knife, grabs it, and stabs her here in the family room."

"That's probably how it happened," Jess said, "but why?"

"Did Joe say anything about what the guy was saying?"

"No. He couldn't make any of it out. I thought that was weird at first too, but then I thought maybe he wasn't speaking English. Teresa is Russian. Maybe her killer was a relative or an ex that was visiting her."

"What about the car?" Nathan asked.

"Yeah," Jess remembered, "one of the neighbors saw a black SUV in the drive way…We all know who told the police that."

"Gloria Abernathy," they said in unison.

"Does anyone Teresa knew drive that car?" Nathan asked.

"We don't anyone Teresa knew."

"I can't believe that." Nicole said, still appalled that she left her child alone with someone she really knew nothing about. "I still can't believe we just left her alone, all day, everyday with our kids and we knew nothing about her. I mean who's to say this is the first time something like this happened?"

"What do you mean?" Antonio asked.

"Well, she could have had men here all the time. Who knows what our kids have seen or heard."

"Let's deal with one crisis at a time." Jess said. "We'll find who killed Teresa, and then, when Antonio is off the hook, we can worry about that."

The phone rang.

Antonio went into the kitchen to answer it. When she heard it was the police, Nicole went in to join him.

It was about this time Jess noticed something silver slightly under the entertainment center in the family room. She reached under and picked it up. It was a bracelet that belonged to Teresa. As soon as she realized this, she was taken back to the day before. It was no ordinary vision. There were no metaphors or clues. It wasn't blurry or out of focus. She saw, as if she were standing right there watching, Teresa's murder. She saw it clear as day.

"Babe," Nathan said, "are you all right? Was that a vision?"

"…I think so. Not like…I usually have. I saw him. I saw the man that killed Teresa."

"It wasn't…Antonio, right?" He had to wonder why she looked so shocked.

"No, no. It wasn't. I don't who it was, but I saw him."

"You'll never guess what that was." Nicole and Antonio came out of the kitchen. "What happened to you?"

"I saw Teresa's killing. When I picked up this bracelet. I never had anything like that happen to me before. It was like I was there."

"What did he look like?" Antonio asked.

"White, brown hair, brown eyes, overweight. He had a mustache. He was wearing a black leather coat. And he was Russian."

"You got all that from a bracelet? Let's go down to the office and see if we can find him in the database." Nicole said. "We'll have a name to give to the cops. They may already have him as a suspect. That call Antonio just got, that was the sergeant. They dropped the charges."

"Just like that?" Nathan said. "I knew Barry was good, but not that good."

"They didn't even give a reason," Antonio said. "They just said I have been cleared."

xxxx

On their way to the D.C. office, Jess continued to express her surprise and concern over what had happened.

"I've heard of that before, psychics who can see things if they hold something that belongs to the victim. But I have never done that before."

"Maybe your abilities are evolving. You're getting better"

"This isn't better. That was the worst thing I have ever seen. I'm just going to do that all the time from now on?"

"Isn't it better than just being hit with a vision at any time? Isn't knowing when one is coming better than just minding your own business and suddenly being taken out of this world?"

"I guess. But it isn't easier. I was there, Nicole. Right there."

xxxx

It didn't take long for Nicole and Jess to pull up the profile of the man she saw in her vision. The vision was so clear she was able to give a complete description, right down to moles and scars.

"Is that him?" Nicole asked her partner.

"That's him."

"His name is Harold Petrov. Petty theft in 1992 and assault in 1996. That's it. He lives in the same neighborhood as Teresa, but there's nothing here that connects them."

"He was Russian. Was he from Russia?"

"Most of the people in that neighborhood are Russian. Harold was born here."

xxxx

The sergeant investigating Teresa's murder just stared at Nicole and Jess. He looked pretty much the way they expected him to when he was told how Jess and Nicole came to be certain that Harold Petrov killed Teresa.

"Are you kidding me?" the sergeant finally spoke. "April Fools isn't for another three months."

"I know how crazy this sounds-"

"Do you? Because you look completely serious."

"We are serious." Nicole said. "You don't have to believe us, but what harm could it do to look into the guy?"

"We have a suspect. That is why your husband was let go. This Harold guy doesn't even drive a black SUV. What reason do you have to think he even knew Teresa…what sane reason?"

xxxx

Nicole and Jess did everything they could do to prove how and why Harold killed Teresa, if for no other reason, they wanted the person who took such an important person away from their children to be in prison. But they couldn't prove it. They found out Teresa had been short on money and needed more to send back to her family in Russia. She had been running scams in her neighborhood. Harold Petrov must have been one of her victims. But with no evidence he was going to get away with it.

Nicole and Jess could not let that happen. For the next two months they were (without Kemyss knowing it) only part time agents. They spent the rest of their time trying to get Petrov. Their work deteriorated. Their solve-rate plummeted. Even when she was giving her all to the cases at hand, Jess still had vision's of Teresa that impeded the cases of the people she was supposed to find.