A second interview

JJ arrived back an hour later, carrying a plastic bag, which she handed to Prentiss.

"Best I could do, sorry." she said, "A casino gift shop was the only place I could find you anything."

Prentiss tipped the contents of the bag onto the table next to her. A pair of white cotton panties with "I (heart) Vegas" across the front, black leggings with white writing on each leg, "Las" down the left and "Vegas" down the right, and a black t-shirt with a colourful image of several of the bigger casinos printed on it, and "Viva Las Vegas" across the top.

"They don't sell bras in any gift shops, sorry." JJ said, "And the second victim is waiting to see you."

Prentiss dressed quickly, glad to have anything to put on at this point. Her section of the crime lab seemed to have become very popular, a lot of people were finding excuses to stop by outside her windows.

In a few minutes, she made her way to an interview room, where an attractive dark-skinned woman sat waiting.

"Alisha Derby? I'm Agent Prentiss, with the FBI."

"Really? Cos you're dressed like a tourist."

"It's a long story. Can you tell me what happened last Saturday?"

"Sure. I work for one of the casinos, at the tables. I worked the morning shift, started at seven and went through to four in the afternoon. I clocked out, walked to the back to get my stuff and go home. Next thing I know, it's six o'clock and I'm in the reception at the front of the casino, with not a stitch on me."

"And you have no idea what happened to your clothes?"

"I do not. The casino are gonna make me pay for the missing uniform unless I can prove someone else took it."

Prentiss ran through the same memory-recovery techniques she had before, but they proved just as useless on Alisha, so she thanked her for her time and left the room.

Sara and JJ were looking at a map of Vegas pinned to the wall back in Chan's office when Prentiss reached them. There was a red line and a blue line drawn on it.

"What’s this?" Prentiss asked.

"The red line is Louisa," Sara explained, "from where she left her friends until where she stops remembering. The blue line is Alisha, same thing, although shorter since she doesn't remember leaving the building she was in."

"They look like they're roughly converging," JJ said, "although with only two data points it's hard to tell for sure, and could be a coincidence."

"We'll have to get the other two in and add their journeys," Prentiss added, "no point adding in mine, I just followed Louisa's route."

"The other victims are coming in later."Sara said, "In the meantime, let's go check out the casino where Alisha works, see if anything comes up."

Prentiss and Sara set out together, so at least one of them had an official badge and looked like a cop rather than a tourist. Prentiss hated wearing leggings, they were so tight she always felt like she might as well be wearing nothing, but then she reminded herself that she had already tried wearing nothing, and this was actually slightly preferable.

"Okay," Sara stopped by a blackjack table, "she started from here, made her way to the back to get her stuff to go home." the two of them set off, away from the tables, down a row of slot machines, and to the back of the casino, where there were signs up advertising various shows- singers, comedians, cabaret acts- performing through the day and night.

Prentiss blinked in sudden brightness, which when it did not go away she realised was sunlight.

"What the hell?" she looked around, "How did we get outside?" she was standing on the crowded pavement in front of the casino. She turned to Sara, "Do you... Oh my god! Your clothes!"

"What about... My clothes!" Sara looked down at herself and then rushed to cover her naked body, "Where did they go?!" she squirmed around, trying to hide herself with her hands, and then glanced over at Prentiss, "And where did yours go?"

Prentiss looked in horror at her own body, realising that Sara was right.

"Not again!"