THE VECCHIO VENDETTA

CHAPTER 1.

"OK, OK Fraser, let's, er, go from the one at the top again...E, right?" Detective Ray Kowalski closed his eyes as he tried to remember.

"Yes Ray," confirmed his best friend and partner from the RCMP, Constable Benton Fraser. "The first string is E, then A, then..."

"G," Ray interrupted him eagerly.

"No Ray, it's D," Fraser shook his head. "It's E, A, D, G, B, E." Fraser sighed and rubbed at his left eyebrow with his thumbnail. "You know Ray, it may be easier for me to teach you how to play the guitar if we actually had my guitar with us."

"But I want to get all this in my head first," replied Ray, tapping his right temple with his forefinger, "y'know, which string is which, the basic stuff, before I, er, pick up a guitar coz then I'll get all confused."

"It may also help if we weren't sat outside the Police station in your automobile," Fraser continued.

Ray shrugged, opened the car door and got out. Fraser followed close behind, waiting a moment before closing the passenger door of the GTO to allow Diefenbaker to jump out.

"OK, so I'll come by the Consulate later and maybe ya can teach me some riffs, or somethin'?" Ray asked, as Fraser held open the door of the station.

Fraser frowned. "Riffs?" he asked, following Ray and Dief inside.

"Yeah," grinned Ray, stopping half way up the stairs and turning to face his buddy. "Y'know, a bit of Hendrix, or maybe Smoke on the Water?" Fraser's frown grew deeper, he had no idea what Ray was talking about now. Ray shook his head in dismay and continued climbing the stairs, playing air guitar on the way.

Fraser listened as Ray hummed a heavy rock guitar tune that he didn't recognise. They breezed into the squad room. "Ray, I'm afraid it may be a while before your playing progresses to the standard required to..." he stopped talking, distracted by Francesca Vecchio who looked up from her desk and smiled seductively at him. Fraser blushed, tugged at the collar of his tunic with embarrassment and cleared his throat before muttering, "Good morning Francesca."

"Morning Frase," Francesca deliberately lowered her voice as she spoke.

"Oh Fraser," Ray complained, sitting down at his desk, "c'mon, gimme a chance! I haven't even picked up a guitar yet, maybe, um, maybe I'll be a natural, y'know?"

"Possibly," Fraser said, but he wasn't really concentrating on his conversation with Ray any more. Something else had caught his attention. He began walking slowly back towards Francesca's desk.

Francesca had returned her attention to sorting through the pile of correspondence that had arrived at the Two Seven that morning. There was always lots to sort through, each of the Detectives received a large number of letters and packages every day relating to cases, plus all the junk mail that turned up. Something had caught her eye. It was a small package in a padded envelope that was personally addressed to her. She didn't often get packages at work, usually she only received envelopes containing pages of information she had requested on behalf of Ray because he couldn't be bothered to send out his own letters. She rummaged around for a letter opener, but she couldn't find it. Then she realised that Fraser was walking back over to her and she froze for a second, catching her breath. Then she noticed the look of concern on his face. "What is it Frase?" she asked, trying to get her fingernail into the corner of the envelope. The next few seconds seemed, to Francesca at least, to fly past in a blur.

Fraser suddenly broke into a run and lunged at Francesca, knocking the package from her hand and pulling her from her chair and onto the floor, covering her with his body. Francesca didn't even have time to scream before the explosion showered Fraser's back with pieces of twisted metal.

Before the smoke had cleared, Ray came racing over to them. "Fraser!" he yelled. Fraser didn't move for a moment as the sense of relief washed over him. Lieutenant Welsh ran out of his office and joined the crowd that had gathered around the scene. "Fraser, Frannie, are you OK?" Ray crouched down and sighed with relief as Fraser finally lifted his head.

"Francesca," Fraser said urgently, shifting his bodyweight so that he wasn't pressing down on her, "are you alright?"

Francesca's eyes slowly blinked open. She couldn't speak as the reality of what had just happened sunk in. Then the reality of having Fraser lying on top of her hit too and she felt paralysed by her emotions.

"Frannie!" Ray said urgently, helping Fraser brush the debris from his back as he climbed off and knelt next to her. Then he and Ray took one of her arms each and gently brought her to a sitting position as Welsh looked on with concern.

Francesca swallowed hard and looked around at the scene of chaos. Everyone had kicked into action now and people were running about and making phonecalls. Jack Huey was ushering people out of the squad room. She blinked deeply and turned to Fraser. "Thanks," she whispered.

A short while later Francesca was sitting in Lieutenant Welsh's office still trying to comprehend what had happened. Outside, the Forensics Officers were combing the scene and there were two bomb disposal experts with sniffer dogs methodically checking the rest of the squad room. Fraser handed Francesca a cup of hot tea and she took it in a trembling hand. "That package was addressed to me," she said in a shaky voice. She sipped at the tea to try to steady her nerves.

"Hey Frannie, it was probably just some nut who's, er, seen your name on somethin' or other," said Ray encouragingly, "it looked pretty amateur, right Fraser?"

Fraser nodded. "It certainly wasn't an expertly constructed device," he agreed, "although it was effective enough."

"Detective," Welsh nodded to Ray, "please take Miss Vecchio home." Ray nodded and held out his hand for Francesca to take.

As she got to her feet she handed her now empty teacup back to Fraser who took it from her with a smile and placed it on the desk before taking her other hand. Francesca had had a terrible fright and she needed support from her friends so he deliberately put all the feelings of awkwardness he usually had around her to the back of his mind. "Benton," she began as the three of them headed towards the door, "I could have been killed..." her voice trailed off as another wave of fear washed over her.

Fraser didn't want to frighten her more, but he couldn't lie to her, she was right. If the package had exploded in her hands then the fragments of sharp metal could very likely have caused a fatal injury. He didn't want to think about that in too much detail. He was about to attempt to say something reassuring when the door to the office burst open and one of the bomb disposal team burst in. "We need everyone out of here now!" he shouted, "the dogs found another device."

Moments later, Francesca sat in the back seat of Ray's car with Dief next to her. She softly rubbed behind his ears as they waited for news. Ray and Fraser were standing by the car with Welsh. "Whoever did this to my Department is going to pay," said Welsh, twisting his hands together. The entire staff of the Twenty Seventh Precinct had been evacuated to the parking lot. Fraser thought they were being a little overcautious, although you can never be too cautious when people's lives are at stake, he conceded.

Just then the head of the bomb disposal team walked over to them with his walkie talkie pressed to his ear. "OK, well done boys," he said and then he looked at Welsh. "My boys disarmed it," he said, "looks like it was an identical device to the one that went off. It was under a pile of paperwork in an envelope addressed to a Detective R Vecchio."

Fraser and Welsh looked at Ray who had gone a little pale. "I never imagined I would be pleased about your level of tardiness regarding opening your mail," said Fraser.

Ray laughed nervously. "OK, so we got two bombs, one sent to Frannie and one to me, apart from the, er, the Two Seven, what's the connection?"

Fraser and Welsh looked at each other in disbelief and then looked at Ray. "Other than the fact that she's your sister?" said Welsh with more than a hint of sarcasm.

"Oh yeah," agreed Ray. He still had trouble sometimes remembering that as well as taking on Ray Vecchio's identity, he had also acquired a new family.

Just then a terrible thought occurred to Fraser. "Sir," he began, "I believe we should take Francesca home immediately, I would like to satisfy myself that the other members of the Vecchio family are safe at this juncture."

"Of course Constable," replied Welsh, adding, "keep in touch gentlemen."

Ray nodded and ran around to the other side of the GTO. He jumped in and started the engine while Fraser sat himself in the passenger seat and placed his hat in its usual place on the dashboard. As they sped through the streets, Francesca was uncharacteristically quiet. Fraser tried calling Mrs Vecchio on Ray's phone but there was no reply. He glanced across at his partner with concern.

Ray was becoming increasingly worried now. Francesca's mother could simply have gone out of course, but he was getting a bad feeling. The Vecchio family had been so welcoming to him since he took the undercover position at the Twenty Seventh. Mrs Vecchio was very worried about her son, she knew that his undercover role with the mob was very dangerous, but she was so proud of him for bravely taking on the job for the chance to bring down such dangerous criminals and save lives. Sometimes Ray had gone to the Vecchio house for dinner and the evening usually ended with Mrs Vecchio telling him about some of the things that her son and Fraser had got up to. It always brought a smile to Ray's face, at least he wasn't the only one whose life Fraser insisted on endangering in wildly bizarre ways.

They pulled up outside the house and Ray jumped out and ran to the door while Fraser held the car door open for Francesca. "Mrs V!" Ray called out, banging on the door, "Mrs V, are you OK?"

"Ray, I have a key," laughed Francesca as she fished around in her pocket. She opened the door and turned back to Ray and Fraser. "What's the urgency?" she asked. She had been so preoccupied with what had happened earlier that she hadn't noticed it before, but now she saw that the two men were concerned about something. "You don't think that..." her voice trailed off. Surely the bomber hadn't targeted her family home too?

"I hope we're wrong," replied Fraser, rushing into the house with Dief at his heels.

Francesca went white. "Ma!" she called out, running after Fraser while Ray went upstairs. "Ma, where are you? Ma!"

Fraser ran into the dining room while Francesca darted into the living room and then her blood ran cold as she found her mother lying face down on the floor. "Fraser!" she screamed, falling to her knees beside her.

Almost instantly Fraser was there. He quickly felt for Mrs Vecchio's pulse and was overcome with relief when he realised she was still alive and breathing. Ray appeared at the doorway now. "Call an ambulance, hurry," said Fraser to his partner as he began to check for injuries. There was nothing obvious apart from a small bruise on her forehead that most likely occurred when she collapsed, he assumed. He worked on keeping her as comfortable as possible while they waited for the ambulance. "Mrs Vecchio, can you hear me? It's Benton," he said, gently shaking her arm. He looked at Francesca who was holding her mother's hand. "Talk to her," he said, "see if you can bring her round. She's running a very high fever, did she complain of feeling unwell at all this morning?"

Francesca shook her head. "No," she replied, trying to fight back tears, "she was fine." She began calling out to her mother as Fraser had suggested.

Fraser got to his feet and spoke quietly to Ray. "I can't be certain at this juncture, but I believe she may have been poisoned," he explained.

"Jeez!" exclaimed Ray. "What the hell is goin' on Fraser? I was hopin' we were wrong about the family connection, y'know."

"So was I," admitted Fraser, "Maria and Tony are in Florida, perhaps you could contact them. Hopefully this is a local situation, but they should be made aware of the circumstances and of course Maria should be informed of her mother's predicament."

Ray nodded and went out into the hall to call his other 'sister'. Fraser returned to Francesca and her mother and knelt down beside them. Mrs Vecchio let out a quiet moan and quickly Fraser began to shake her shoulder gently. "Mrs Vecchio," he said, urgently, "can you open your eyes?" She moaned again.

"Ma," Francesca squeezed her hand, "wake up Ma, what happened?"

"Tired...so tired..." Mrs Vecchio croaked.

"An ambulance is on its way," Fraser tried to reassure her, "you're going to be alright."

"Who's doing this to us, Frase?" whispered Francesca.

Fraser sighed. "I wish I knew," he replied, "but you have my word that I will find out."

xXx

Francesca sat in the hospital waiting room in silence with her head resting on Fraser's shoulder while they waited for news about her mother. Fraser was very worried about Mrs Vecchio whose condition had deteriorated in the ambulance. Ray and Diefenbaker had remained at the Vecchio house to assist the Police search team and forensics squad with their detailed search of the house. They were currently working with Fraser's theory that Mrs Vecchio had been poisoned as they had nothing else to go on at the moment.

Eventually the doctor appeared. "Miss Vecchio?" he enquired and Francesca sat bolt upright and nodded. "I came to give you an update on your mother," the doctor continued, "as suspected, she appears to have ingested a chemical substance, we're running tests now to determine exactly what that was. In the meantime she is still very seriously ill, but she is starting to respond to treatment. I'm afraid it will be a little while before we know more." Francesca started to tremble and Fraser put his arm around her. "I'm sorry I can't be more positive at this stage," the doctor smiled apologetically, "but in the circumstances, she is doing well. We're doing everything we can."

"Thank you kindly doctor," nodded Fraser.

"Can I...can I see her?" asked Francesca.

"Of course," replied the doctor, "but only for a few minutes. She is in the ICU, it's the best place for her at the moment. I'll take you down there now."

"And Police officers are still with her?" enquired Fraser. Lieutenant Welsh had organised a twenty four hour Police guard at the hospital. They still had no idea who was trying to harm the Vecchios.

"Yes," replied the doctor, "they are outside her room. No one but my staff will be allowed in."

Fraser nodded as he and Francesca got to their feet and started to follow the doctor, but before they'd got very far, the nurse behind the desk called out. "Constable Fraser?" Fraser spun round. "Telephone call for you," the nurse smiled at him and held the telephone receiver in the air.

"I'll come and find you," Fraser said to Francesca, squeezing her shoulder supportively and she nodded and headed off to see her mother. Fraser took the phone from the nurse. "Constable Benton Fraser, Royal Can...oh, hello Ray."

"How's Mrs V?" asked Ray and Fraser explained what the doctor had told them. Then he listened as Ray explained the current situation at the Vecchio house. The forensics team had taken lots of samples from the kitchen as food or drink may have been contaminated. They would have to wait for the test results, although Lieutenant Welsh was going to pull a few strings to push the lab work through quickly. Ray had scoured the house looking for any signs of forced entry, but every window and door appeared to be secure, so the poison was most likely brought into the house by one of the family. Sniffer dogs had also been searching the house for explosive devices, but they'd found nothing.

"There's, er, not much more I can do here, so I guess I'll take Dief back to the Consulate and meet ya there," suggested Ray.

"Right you are," agreed Fraser and handed the telephone back to the nurse.

Fraser exchanged a few words with the Police Officers stationed outside Mrs Vecchio's hospital room and then entered to find, Francesca sitting by her bedside with her head bowed in prayer. A lump formed in his throat and he allowed her a moment of privacy. "Amen," mumbled Francesca and then she was suddenly aware of his presence. "Oh, hi Frase," she whispered.

Fraser took a step closer to her and at that moment had to resist the urge to pull her into a hug. He cared deeply for her, for the whole of the Vecchio family. They had done so much for him over the past few years and he had made a silent promise to Ray Vecchio that he would look after the family while he was away. Francesca harboured stronger feelings for him though, Fraser knew that and it made it awkward sometimes. He took a deep breath. "Your mother is a strong woman Francesca," he said, encouragingly. Francesca nodded and managed a small smile.

They sat for a few more minutes and Francesca tried to ignore the array of machines that were keeping her mother alive. Then the doctor came in and asked them to leave as they wanted to run some more tests. Francesca kissed her mother on the forehead and Fraser led her out of the room.

Xxx

Back at the Consulate, Francesca sipped at her second cup of tea. Dief whined at Fraser. "I know," Fraser mouthed to the wolf, "I'm worried also."

Ray was pacing up and down the hall, he felt useless, he felt like they should be out there doing something, but Fraser had already reminded him that there were plenty of good officers working on the case. The best thing they could do now was care for Francesca and try to think back over old cases, including ones that the real Ray Vecchio had worked on. It was quite possible that this was a revenge attack by someone who either of the Rays had put away. It was just a theory, but it was the only thing they had to go on.

"What about that crazy Doug Barber?" suggested Ray, stopping his pacing for a while and poking his head into the reception room.

"He went down for fifteen years Ray," Fraser reminded him, "and as far as I'm aware he hasn't escaped his incarceration. Additionally, his explosive devices were far more sophisticated than the ones that were sent to the station."

Ray sighed, his partner was right. "There was that Sanchez guy," said Ray suddenly, "Vecchio busted him for, er, armed robbery about a year before ya came to Chicago. He must've told ya about that one, bastard shot him in the leg." Ray had read a lot of Ray Vecchio's big case files when he'd taken on the undercover role just in case he ever got caught out by anyone.

"Yes Ray did mention that case," Fraser nodded. He thought for a moment. "Sanchez did have a penchant for causing small explosions," he agreed.

"Dead," Francesca suddenly said. Fraser and Ray looked across to her for an explanation. "Died in prison last years," she explained.

"Ah," sighed Fraser. They weren't really getting anywhere. Just then the telephone rang and Fraser answered it. "Good afternoon, you have reached the Canadian Consulate, Constable Benton Fraser speaking, how may I be of assistance?" Ray rolled his eyes at his buddy's now familiar over long introduction. "I see," said Fraser, "and the house has been cleared now? Good. Thank you kindly." Fraser replaced the handset and then immediately picked it up again and began dialling a number.

"They discovered traces of a highly toxic chemical compound in discarded packaging in the trash at the Vecchio house," he explained to Ray as he waited for the new call to connect, "It appears that Mrs Vecchio purchased and consumed a pastry from a patisserie this morning." He stopped as someone answered his call. "Hello? Yes, this is Constable Fraser, I'd like to speak to Doctor Matthews please." Fraser passed the new information onto the doctor and then listened with some concern as the doctor updated him on Mrs Vecchio's condition. "Thank you kindly Doctor," he said and put the phone down.

Francesca was looking at him worriedly now. Fraser crossed to where she was sitting and crouched down next to her. Now she was really worried. "Ma…what's happened to Ma, Frase?" she asked. "Tell me what's wrong!"

"Francesca, it's alright," Fraser tried to reassure her, "she had another seizure, but they've stabilised her again." Francesca bowed her head and began to cry. "Francesca look at me," Fraser instructed gently and she slowly lifted her head as he handed her his handkerchief. "The doctors have details of exactly what caused it now so they can concentrate their efforts in the right areas. Doctor Matthews sounded very hopeful."

Francesca nodded and wiped her tears.

"So, er, I guess we should get down to the pastry store?" asked Ray, getting fidgety now as he was keen to get this investigation moving.

"Pierre's," Francesca said and Ray frowned. "That's the patisserie she goes to," explained Francesca, "she goes there all the time, she loves those little vanilla tarts..." her voice cracked and she buried her face into the handkerchief again. Ray sat next to her on the sofa and put his arm around her shoulders.

"Ray, perhaps you should visit Pierre's Patisserie and I will take Francesca back to the house to pack some things," said Fraser, realising that Ray would go crazy if he didn't get involved, "the house has been cleared by Forensics now. I believe that Lieutenant Welsh is arranging a place in a safe house for you Francesca."

Suddenly Francesca shrugged Ray's arm off and sat bolt upright. "No Frase, I'm not going to a safe house!" she exclaimed.

Fraser and Ray exchanged a glance. "Francesca, you will be safe there until we apprehend whoever is threatening your life," Fraser said seriously.

Francesca shook her head. "I'm not going, I want to stay in my own home," she said determinedly.

"Frannie," Ray was trying to keep his voice calm, "ya could've been killed this mornin'! We don't know what he's plannin' next?"

"Ray's right," agreed Fraser, "I would not feel at all comfortable knowing you were there alone."

"Then come stay with me?" suggested Francesca. Fraser could feel the colour in his cheeks deepening and he was angry with himself. Francesca was frightened and needed his protection, she wasn't trying to throw herself at him this time. At least, he didn't think she was? He wasn't sure if Francesca realised his embarrassment, but she quickly added, "you too Ray. Both of you. We have plenty of room and I'd feel completely safe if you were both there with me. I'm not going to let this creep drive me out of my own home."

Ray looked to Fraser for his confirmation which his buddy gave with a single nod. "Sure Frannie," Ray agreed, "sounds like a great idea."