She half expected someone-him-to reply to that, but even with her brain fogged she had a strong certainty that she was alone here. Wherever here was. Alone, bound, drugged.

Even through the muffling, quieting effects of the drugs, Lindsay began to feel the first faint twinges of anxiety and fear.

They went out the back way to avoid the media camped out front and encountered Deputy Glen Champion before they could leave the building.

He hesitated for an instant, looking at Samantha, then blurted, "Thank you. The dryer was-I had it checked out. The electrician said it was a fire waiting to happen. So thank you."

"My pleasure. Take care of that baby."

"I will." He sort of bobbed his head. "Thanks again."

Gazing after the deputy, Lucas said, "Well, you made a friend there. See something in the baby's future?"

"Yeah. She's going to be a teacher." Samantha led the way out of the building.

Lucas didn't say anything until they were in his rental car and safely out of the parking lot without drawing the attention of the media. Then, thoughtfully, he said, "Aside from Bishop and Miranda, you're the only seer I know of who can see that far ahead. The baby becomes a teacher in-what?-twenty-five years?"

"About that."

"And you saw her as a teacher."

"A good teacher. A special teacher. And her sort of teacher will be needed more than ever then." Samantha shrugged. "The bright moments of seeing something good I can help bring about are generally outnumbered by the dark moments I see tragedy or evil that I can't do a damned thing to change."

"Which is why you warned Champion."

"I warned him because it was the right thing to do. Just like warning Carrie Vaughn when I thought she was going to be a victim, and Mitchell-"

Lucas shot her a quick look, then fixed his eyes on the road again. "You warned Callahan? You said you'd never seen him in the flesh."

"I said I hadn't seen him… before I had the vision about him."

"Splitting hairs," Lucas muttered.

"I can be very literal-minded, remember? And, anyway, I didn't see him, I just talked to him." When Lucas didn't respond, Samantha said, "It was obvious Metcalf didn't take me seriously when I went to talk to him about a possible kidnapping, so I called Callahan and warned him to be careful. I doubt he took me seriously either, and it obviously made absolutely no difference, but I had to try."

Lucas shook his head slightly but didn't comment on that. Instead, he asked, "And what did you see that brought you and the carnival to Golden?"

"What makes you so sure Leo would change the carnival's normal route just because I asked him to?"

"Leo would go out and rob a bank if you asked him to. Setting up shop in a small but prosperous town when you asked wouldn't have given him a moment's hesitation."

Samantha was silent.

"So? What did you see? You didn't know about the series of kidnappings before you got here, right?" He wasn't very surprised when she answered the last question rather than the first one.

"Not really. We'd heard rumors when we passed through the state last spring heading north that there'd been a couple of kidnappings. Unusual enough in this area that it was noticed and talked about. Heard a few more rumors over the summer as we traveled through Virginia, Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania, but since we were never in the actual towns where people went missing, we never heard more than rumors."

"What did you see, Sam? What brought you here?" For several long minutes, she remained so silent that he thought she wasn't going to answer him. Then, finally, she did.

"I had a dream."

He frowned. "Your visions don't present themselves as dreams."

"They never had before."

"Then how can you be sure this dream was different?"

"Because you're here," she said flatly.

He was pulling the car into the parking lot of the cafe where Lindsay's car had been found, and didn't say anything until he had drawn off to the side and stopped near the yellow crime-scene tape surrounding the sheriff's department cruiser.

"You came to Golden because you knew I'd be here?"

Samantha got out of the car, waited until he did as well, then said coolly, "Don't flatter yourself. Your being here was just part of the package. An indication to me that my dream was a vision. I'm here because I have to be here. And that's all you get, Luke."

"Why?"

"Because, as Bishop was so fond of saying, some things have to happen just the way they happen. If you're meant to know more, you'll have a vision of your own. Otherwise… you'll find out when you get there."

He stood gazing at her, trying to decide if she was just being stubborn or honestly felt that by telling him about her vision she would negatively affect whatever she had seen. She was good at hiding her thoughts and feelings when she wanted to; he had never been able to read her, perhaps because he'd never known her to be afraid.

Of anything.

"Shall we?" she suggested, gesturing toward the cruiser.

The two deputies standing watch informed Lucas that the Crime Scene Unit had come and gone, apparently finding no forensic traces they felt would be helpful in either locating Lindsay or identifying her kidnapper.

"He's not going to make it easy for us," Samantha said. "He's not the type to give you points just for showing up."

The two of them ducked beneath the tape and approached the car.

Lucas said, "If you're right about this game-"

"I am. And you know I am. It feels right, doesn't it?"

Without replying to that, Lucas said, "What Jaylene said makes sense. He can't expect me to play his game until the rules are made clear."

"Not if he means to play fair, no."

"I think he '11 play fair-even if by his own warped ideas of fair play. At least as long as he feels confident of coming out on top. But if I start… getting ahead on points, then I'd say his rule book will probably go right out the window."

"You're the profiler," Samantha said.

He eyed her. "You disagree?"

"I just think it would be a huge mistake to assume or infer anything about this one, at least until you know a lot more. He's different from anybody you've ever come up against." She hesitated, then added, "And I think that's part of the game, you know. To keep you guessing. To challenge your assumptions."

"What aren't you telling me?" Lucas demanded.

She looked to make sure the deputies were out of earshot, then said, "You were facing each other across a chessboard, Luke. Both masters. Both equal in ability. Don't you see what that means? As well as you understand the criminal mind, he understands yours. He's a profiler too."

Sheriff Metcalf eyed the dark-eyed, swarthy owner/manager of the Carnival After Dark and tried to keep a rein on his temper. "You're telling me not one of you saw anything at all?"

Leo Tedesco smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry, Sheriff, but we're a nighttime carnival, you must understand that. My people are generally up very late-and sleep very late. The maintenance crew was up early caring for the animals, of course, but they're housed on the back side of the fairground, far from the road. I can assure you that none of us saw your Detective Graham at any time this morning."

"You're speaking for them all? I don't think so. I want to talk to everybody."

Tedesco sent Jaylene a rather rueful look, having obviously decided that she possessed the cooler head of the two. "Agent Avery, Sheriff, I hope you both know we'll be more than happy to co-operate; I'm only trying to save you wasted time and energy. I understand time is a factor, and-"

"And just how do you understand that?" Metcalf demanded.

"Please, Sheriff, do you really believe anyone in Golden is talking about anything else? Plus we've had the media out here more than once, and from their questions and speculations it's obvious you're dealing with a serial kidnapper who's a bit anal about his timetable. He always demands the ransom be delivered by five o'clock on Friday afternoon. Which in this instance would be tomorrow afternoon. Correct?"