Profiler and all its characters belong to Sander/Moses, Cynthia Saunders, NBC and the wonderful cast and crew. I'm just borrowing the excelent characters they gave us and I promise to put them right back where they belong and not hurt them. And not to make any money from any of them while they're here. Send your comments to betha@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu
Next of Kin
by Beth Arritt
Copyright 1997
The VCTF members were feeling pretty cheerful when they assembled in the Command Center for their regular Monday morning briefing. Their case load had been lighter than normal lately, and they hadn't heard from Jack in two weeks.
"Okay people, listen up," Bailey commanded. The group quieted slowly. "I know we don't have much happening right now, but we do have some updates on a couple of ongoing cases, and you never know when the dam is going to break."
"You mean the universal happy dust will wear off?" John's remark earned him laughs from most of the group and a stern look from Bailey. He flashed Bailey his "innocent and apologetic" look, then turned his attention to the large computer screen. "What's that?"
"Looks like e-mail," George said cautiously. The mood at the table took a radical nose dive as everyone remembered the last time they received an e-mail like this. As if the e-mail were a bomb, George carefully punched the key to open it.
A picture of a dark-haired woman in her mid-twenties appeared on the screen. Everyone looked around, confused for a moment, then one by one their eyes settled on John. He was staring at the screen in shock.
Sam, who was sitting next to him, was the first to turn to him for an answer. "Who is she?"
"My sister."
For a moment the entire group was silent. Then Bailey took charge of the situation. "George, can you trace it?"
George went to work on his keyboard. "I've got a header... but it's a dummy. 'Jack"everywhere.com', routed through 'alltrades.net'. Untraceable."
Bailey turned to John. "Where is your sister?"
"South Dakota."
"I need more than that. Where in South Dakota?"
John sighed. "She's in Rapid City in a home for the mentally retarded. Her name is Marie Adams."
"Why South Dakota?" Sam asked.
John shifted in his chair, uncomfortable with all the questions, but after another look at the screen, he continued to answer. "It's a great place to hide."
"From who? Jack?"
He shook his head. "O'Doyle--my father. He doesn't know she exists. And I intend to keep it that way."
"Well he may not know," Bailey commented, "but Jack does. Nathan, call the field office in Rapid City, tell them to get to--what was the name of that institution?"
"Central Hills Home."
"--tell them to get over there now. John," he turned to face him, "how do you want to do this? We're going to have to move her somewhere else and change her identity, but it's going to have to be done carefully, so Jack doesn't know."
"How do we do that? We know he can access almost any computer in the government, with the *possible* exception of this one!" He got up and started pacing the length of the table. "He can find out when files were created; he can figure out her new identity and go after her any time he wants."
"I don't think you have to worry about that," Sam spoke. All eyes focused on her, but her eyes appeared to be fixed on a distant point only she could see. "I don't think he intends to go after her."
John stopped and gave her an impatient look. "Then why the picture? Just to let us know he can find out anything he wants?"
"No, I think he has plans for her." Sam turned and looked up at John. "What's the worst thing that you think could happen to your sister--a fate worse than death?"
For a moment he looked confused, then shock registered on his face. He sunk back into his chair. "He's going to tell my father about her."
***
An hour later, Sam was sitting at her desk, staring at nothing. She had given Bailey her best guess as to Jack's plans for his latest game. She knew he'd want to see John suffer for a while, wondering what Jack would to do and when. She only hoped that Jack would revel in John's misery and buy them some time. But now all she could do was sit and wait to see if her theories were right. And if they helped.
A knock on her door startled her. She looked up and saw John hovering in the doorway. "Hey. Come on in."
"Thanks." He walked in, forgoing his usual seat in front of Sam's desk, sitting instead on the couch. "Bailey's put traces on O'Doyle's phone lines and called in some favors concerning ongoing FBI surveillance of him. If Jack tries to contact him, we'll know."
"What are you going to do about Marie?"
John shrugged. "Wait. George has an idea, but he's still working on it." He ran his hand through his hair and sank deeper into the couch. "I hate waiting."
"I know." Sam got up from her desk and sat at the other end of the couch. "So, tell me about your sister."
He shrugged again. "What do you want to know?"
"Anything. How old is she? What's she like? Does she ever pick on her older brother?"
"Yeah, she does." A smile flickered across his haggard face. "Every time I talk to her she tells me I'm getting old and I need to get married. Then she turns around and says it's too bad no woman would have me."
"Sounds like she knows you."
John gave her a look, then sighed. "I hate to move her. She's been in that institute since she was 12."
"How old is she?"
"Twenty-four." He closed his eyes for a moment. "I should start at the beginning. My mother left my father when I was five." He stared straight ahead, his voice flat. "She couldn't take it anymore. Not just the crime, but the way he treated us. She was about two months pregnant with Marie when he came home one night and he... he got particularly rough with her. She suffered a couple of hard blows to the stomach, among other injuries. The next day, he went away on business. We snuck off in the middle of the next night.
The doctors warned Mom that there might be some damage to the baby, so she wasn't really surprised when Marie just sort of stopped developing mentally after she was about six years old.
"Mom drilled it into my head that if anything ever happened to her, I had to take care of Marie. She made me promise at least once a year. She knew I would have done it anyway, but I think it made her feel better to hear it."
I was almost eighteen when she had the wreck that killed her. I tried to take care of Marie myself for a couple of months, but I couldn't give her the care she needed and still work. So I had to put her in an institution, after I changed her name."
"You didn't leave anything to chance, did you?" Sam asked.
He shook his head. "I never want him to know. Ever. He'd snatch her out of there in a second if he did. He's a possessive, evil man, and she's a defenseless kid. She wouldn't survive a month in his world."
"You did," Sam commented, watching him closely.
He wouldn't meet her eyes. "That's different."
"Is it?"
They were interrupted by George's knock on the door. "I think I've figured out how to solve this problem."
They both looked at him expectantly. "What's the solution?" John asked skeptically.
"We just have to kill her."
***
"We don't know if it will work," Bailey argued for the fourth time.
"If you have a better option, I'd like to hear it," John countered. He, Sam, Bailey, and George were sitting around the coffee table in Bailey's office.
"It's a better solution than simply faking new records. Jack would figure that one out in no time." George turned to Bailey, who still looked skeptical. "It's being handed to us on a silver platter, Bailey. Melanie Sayer is a year older than Marie and she's only been at the state home in Arizona for a few days. Before that she was in a private institute for fifteen years after her parents died in a car crash. But the funds they left for her ran out and she's become a ward of the state. She has no family, and no friends."
"There's no chance she'll recover?" Sam wanted to know.
"The fall she took down the stairs caused too much internal damage. She's officially brain dead and the state plans to disconnect her life support soon." George turned back to Bailey. "We move Marie to the home in Arizona. A few days later, she falls down some stairs after taking a wrong turn in unfamiliar surroundings, like Melanie Sayer. We switch them at the hospital, disconnect the life support, John goes to her funeral, and she becomes Melanie Sayer."
"There's still the fact that he knows what she looks like."
"Is she up for a little plastic surgery, John?"
John nodded. "If it'll save her life. I'll explain it to her. She'll be okay."
Everyone looked expectantly at Bailey. Finally, he sighed. "Okay. It just better work."
"It will," George promised.
"It has to," John said as they left to put the plan in motion.
***
John made the arrangements with both the Arizona and South Dakota homes to move Marie. Bailey called in a government doctor used by the witness relocation program to perform Marie's surgery after the move to Arizona. Once everything was arranged, John would fly to South Dakota and talk to Marie, then accompany her to Arizona.
A few hours before he had to leave, John stopped by Sam's office. He knocked on the open door, walked in, and took a seat in front of her desk.
Sam looked up from the papers on her desk as he entered. "What's up?"
"I'm not sure what to say to her, Sam. How do you explain this situation to a six-year-old mind?"
"Well, if it were Chloe, I'd tell her the whole truth, and reassure her that she's going to be fine."
"Thanks," he said a bit sarcastically. "That helps."
"You'll find the words when you see her."
"I hope so." He stared at his hands. "I haven't seen her since the day I admitted her there."
"But I thought you said..."
"I talk to her on the phone whenever I can. My father has me under surveillance." He noted the look of surprise on Sam's face. "I know, we take the term dysfunctional family to a new level, huh? He only kept general tabs on me when I was with the Atlanta PD. But it was close enough that I couldn't make trips out to South Dakota without him getting suspicious and checking into it. So I told Marie I couldn't come to visit her, but we'd talk a lot. Now that I'm an FBI agent, my father has taken a closer interest in my everyday movements."
"He has you followed."
John nodded. "Pretty much all the time."
"Why?" Sam was usually quick to figure motives, but she was too stunned.
"An FBI agent who's also his son, and who knows the truth about the death of his wife? Dangerous unknown quantity. But I figure as long as I don't go after him, he'll leave me alone."
"And that doesn't bother you?"
"Of course it bothers me, but I haven't figured out what I can do about it... yet." He sighed. "Anyway, I doubt he'll send his goon to South Dakota to follow me--as long as he knows I'm not investigating him, I don't usually get followed when I'm on a case, and that's how this is being treated. Which leads me back to my original problem of what to say to Marie."
Sam toyed with her pen for a moment. "Well, I still think you'll be able to handle it, but I could be there when you talk to her if it would help."
"Would you mind?" John looked almost relieved.
"No. When are you leaving?"
He looked at his watch. "In just under three hours."
"Great. Stop by and get me on your way out?"
John nodded and rose to leave, but hesitated. "Am I doing the right thing?"
"You're saving her. Whatever Jack has planned for her, whether it's your father or something else, it wouldn't be good."
"There's an understatement."
Sam conceded that with a look. "If I thought I could get away from him with a fake death and a little plastic surgery, I'd jump at the chance."
He looked at her for a long moment, then shook his head. "No you wouldn't. You're strong enough to beat him at his own game. You can take care of yourself." He turned and left the office.
"Who said I wanted to?" she muttered, then went to pull out her emergency overnight bag to take on the trip.
***
The flight was relatively short, but John's constant fidgeting made it seem much longer. Sam sympathized, but that didn't stop her from wishing she could either put him in restraints or sedate him by the time the flight was over.
Two agents from the Rapid City field office met them at the airport. Agent Cochran was blonde, while Agent Heller had black hair--which was a good thing, because if it weren't for their hair color it would have been hard to tell the two men apart. Cochran drove them to the home while Heller filled them in on recent developments, or the lack thereof. There had been no sign of Jack, not that Sam and John were surprised. John called Bailey and learned that Jack had not contacted O'Doyle either.
"Are you sure, Bailey?" It was critical to John's peace of mind, if not to the entire plan, that Marie's "death" came before Jack ever mentioned her to O'Doyle.
"I guess it's possible he has a sound proof room with a high-tech communications system that the FBI agent posing as a maid hasn't found," Bailey shot back, "but I highly doubt it."
"I get the point."
"I'll talk to you guys when you get to Arizona in the morning."
"Okay." John turned off his phone, put it in his pocket, and checked his watch. "How much farther?" he asked the agents in the front seat.
"Not long," the blonde answered.
John looked out the window, then checked his watch again. He continued to fidget, playing with his watch and making other impatient movements until finally Sam placed her hand over his.
"Nervous?" she asked quietly.
He immediately stilled. "That obvious? Sorry."
"It's normal, you know. You haven't seen your sister in a long time."
"And I didn't expect to see her under these circumstances. Why'd he have to pick her? Why couldn't he just go after the old man?"
Sam pulled her hand back and crossed her arms in front of her. "Because he's good at figuring out exactly what will hurt you the most. That's why."
"Oh... Sam, I'm sorry. I didn't mean... well, my problems seem pretty easy compared to... I'm sorry."
She shook her head. "It's not your fault. Not yours, not mine. It's his." She looked out the window. "What more can you say?"
The car stopped. "We're here," Agent Heller announced as he opened his car door. They all got out and went inside. The nurse at the desk looked up and recognized the two South Dakota agents. She waved and went back to her book as they turned down the hall. There was an agent sitting outside the last door on the left; John assumed that was Marie's room. Sure enough, Cochran and Heller stopped in front of that room. John reached for the knob, then hesitated, until he felt Sam's hand slip into his. He took a deep breath and opened the door.
His sister was sitting at a table, coloring. John cleared his throat. "Hey, Rug Rat."
Marie turned toward the door, then a huge smile lit her face. "Johnny!" She jumped up, ran across the room, and flung herself at him. He released Sam's hand quickly to catch Marie, but she still almost knocked him down. He barely had a chance to hug her before she pulled away and started bouncing. "I'm so happy to see you!"
"Me too, kiddo. It's been a long time. How'd you know it was me?"
She frowned at him. "I'm not stupid. I know what you sound like. Besides, they told me you were coming."
Suddenly she noticed Sam standing behind John. She grabbed his left hand and looked closely, then dropped it in disgust. "Man! I thought maybe you came to tell me you were married. Shoulda known you'd never be lucky enough to catch someone who looks like that." She pointed at Sam.
"I'm a lost cause, Marie," John agreed with a smile. He turned and urged Sam forward. "This is my friend, Sam Waters. We work together."
Marie took a good look at Sam, then stuck out her hand. "Nice to meet you, Ms. Waters."
"Call me Sam," she said as she shook Marie's hand. "I'm happy to meet you. I've heard a lot about you."
"Uh-oh." She glared at her brother. "If he said anything bad it's not true."
Sam laughed. "It was all good, so don't worry."
"Okay." Marie crossed the room to flop down onto her bed. "So what's up?'
John looked at Sam and took a deep breath. He walked over to the bed and sat down beside his sister while Sam pulled the chair from the desk over next to the bed.
"Listen, Marie, there's this man in Atlanta, and... well, he's a very bad man."
"Is he after you?"
"In a way. He wants to hurt me." He looked at Sam again, who nodded her encouragement. "We're afraid... we're afraid that he might try to use you to hurt me."
"How?"
"Well, we're not sure but to be safe, we want to take you to live somewhere else."
"But all my friends are here."
"I know, sweetheart, and you know that I would never make you leave if I didn't have to." John took her hands in his and looked at her intently. "It's really, really important."
She didn't quite look convinced. "Where am I going?"
"Arizona."
"Well... can I have my own cactus in Arizona?"
John nodded. "Sure." He hesitated again, and Sam touched his arm lightly, letting her hand linger for a moment in silent support. "I know this is a lot to handle, but I need you to do this for me. Okay?"
She tilted her head to the side in thought for a moment. "Okay," she decided finally.
"Good," he smiled.
After a careful look at Marie, Sam interrupted them. "I think we can talk about the details after dinner." She gave John a warning look.
"Are we going out?" Marie asked excitedly.
"Yup," John answered. "And we're going somewhere nice, so Sam and I are going to leave while you get ready."
"You're coming back, though, right?"
"You bet. We'll be back real soon."
"Promise?"
"I promise." John kissed his sister on the cheek and he and Sam left the room. The agent stationed outside the door informed them that Cochran and Heller were checking the security around the building. They had left the keys to the car and instructions for Sam and John to use that car while they were in town.
After stopping at the nurse's desk for directions to the nearest hotel, they went to the hotel check in and change for dinner. John was ready before Sam, so he went next door to her room. A few moments after he knocked, he heard the locks turn and the door opened to reveal a barefoot Sam.
"Come in," she said as she turned away from the door. "I'm almost ready."
"No hurry." He walked around the bed to sit in one of the chairs by the window. "So why did you stop me from telling Marie the rest of the plan?"
"She was overloaded," Sam explained as she came out of the bathroom, brushing by him as she searched the floor around the bed. "She needed some time to absorb the move before you tell her the rest."
"So when can I tell her? We're running out of time."
"You can tell her after dinner... a-ha!" Sam finally found her shoes under the bed. "I'm ready."
"Then let's go."
***
They had a great time at dinner. They went to a nice restaurant near the home. Marie told them how the staff would sometimes take the residents to dinner there for their birthdays.
"Do they have restaurants like this in Arizona?" Marie asked.
"I'm sure they do," John responded.
"Okay. If they don't I'm really going to miss this one."
"Actually, I was in Arizona a few years ago, and they had a restaurant even nicer than this one," Sam told her.
"Cool." She turned to John. "Can we go there?"
"We'll see what we can do," John promised.
Back at the home after dinner, John explained the plastic surgery to Marie. She looked a little scared, but she didn't argue. She did make him promise to see about getting her a better nose.
After glancing at Sam for approval, he told her about the different name she would be using. She wanted him to write it down for her before he left so she could practice it, but he said she could practice tomorrow on the plane. Tonight she needed to get some sleep.
"And on that note," he added as he rose from the bed, "we're going to get some sleep too."
"Can't you stay a little longer?" Marie pleaded.
"Sorry, kiddo, we have to go. It's way past your bedtime." He kissed her on the cheek and they left.
***
When they got back to the hotel, John stopped in the lobby. "I'm gonna go get a drink before turning in. I'll see you in the morning." He turned toward the bar.
"Want some company?"
He turned back toward her. "A shrink?"
Sam shook her head. "A friend."
"Okay."
They walked into the almost empty bar and chose a table in a corner, away from the bartenders. A television in the corner tuned to ESPN caught John's attention. He watched the silent sports report until the waitress came to take their orders.
After the waitress left to get their drinks, John turned his attention to Sam. "So what do you think of my little sister?"
"She's great. She obviously adores her older brother."
"She's got great taste," he remarked with a grin.
"Or something," Sam countered wryly. "She reminds me of you in a lot of ways. She doesn't look much like you, except for the eyes."
The waitress returned with their drinks. After taking a sip, John brought the topic up again. "If she doesn't look like me, then how does she remind you of me?"
"Similar mannerisms, phrases, that evil glint you both get when you tease someone. Other tendencies..."
"Such as?" When she didn't answer right away, he prompted her again. "That bad? You can tell me."
"Well, you both adjust well. Once a decision is made, no matter how you feel about it, you just accept it and make the best out of it." Sam looked down at her glass. "And you both hide behind humor whenever you're hurt or scared or uncertain."
He tilted his head slightly, his brow furrowed. "Do I do that?" Sam nodded. "Hmmm. I can see I'm going to have to work on being funny more often so you can't tell the difference."
Sam shook her head and sighed as if he was a hopeless cause. He grinned at her for a moment, then sobered as he glanced around at the other patrons. "Do you ever look at the people around you and wonder if one of them is Jack?" he asked.
"Not as much now, but when I first came back to the FBI, I spent so much time looking over my shoulder that I was constantly walking into things."
"But you don't worry about it as much anymore."
"Well, it's not really that. It's more that it's become such a reflex to look for him that I don't have to think about it anymore." Sam finished her drink. "And if our reflexes are going to be sharp tomorrow, we should probably get some sleep."
***
At the home the next morning they found a rather subdued Marie. She insisted that John help her search the room to make sure the staff hadn't forgotten anything when they packed for her, but after that she barely spoke on the way to the airport. She got a little more animated over the actual takeoff, but then quieted again and stayed silent for most of the trip to Arizona.
At the airport a van was waiting to take them to the state home. They checked Marie in, then Sam prepared to return to Atlanta. Officially, John was staying for a couple of days to see that Marie settled in. Privately, he wouldn't let her go through the surgery alone. If everything went according to plan, he would be called in the middle of the night about Marie's "fall". She would be transferred to the hospital where she would undergo the plastic surgery. Then they would make the switch and her recovery from the operation would be covered as Melanie's recovery from the fall.
John drove Sam to the airport. While they waited for the plane, Sam studied John carefully. "Are you going to be okay? I mean, I could stay if..."
"No, we should stick to the plan. It would look suspicious if you stayed behind."
She nodded. "And we'll be back in a few days for the funeral."
"That sounds so strange." He rubbed his eyes. "I hate this!"
"This won't last forever. Every time you think about how bad this is, you're a heartbeat closer to the moment when it will be over."
He looked at her sideways. "Who said that?"
"My mother." She gave him a small smile. "Or something like it." Just then she heard her flight called. She put her hand on his arm. "Hang in there. Call me if you need anything, okay?"
He nodded. "Thanks." She smiled and turned away. On the way to the gate she took a look back over her shoulder. John was already walking away, his shoulders squared, looking very much like a man on a mission. Sam allowed herself a small smile as she boarded the plane. He was going to be fine.
***
The plan went off without a hitch. All of the records were altered slightly to make Melanie Sayer's injuries less severe. John was called to the hospital early in the morning. He spoke to Marie before she went in to surgery, then waited. As soon as her surgery was complete and she was awake, she became Melanie Sayer. Melanie was returned to Marie's room, where she lived for less than a minute after they took her off of life support, and as Marie Adams, was pronounced dead at 2:35 p.m.
John called the VCTF and informed them of his sister's death. Bailey and Sam flew out to Arizona for the memorial service a few days later. The service was held at a cemetery near the home. John and Sam lingered after the few other mourners had gone. She watched as he laid his hand on the stone mausoleum door that bore his sister's name.
"How is she?"
"Okay." He stared at the name on the door. "She's better at remembering her new name than I am." He reached out and traced the engraved name lightly with his fingers.
"It's only a name, John," Sam reminded him, touching his shoulder. "It's not her."
"I know. 'A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.'" He sighed and turned to leave. "After all, it wasn't her real name anyway, right?"
"True. But then you're pretty attached to yours."
"I'm more attached to it not being O'Doyle," he admitted as they left the mausoleum. "Anything but that."
***
A few days later John was back at his desk wondering how so much paper could accumulate in his inbox in such a short time when the phone rang. "Grant," he answered absently.
"Jonathan."
The cold voice on the other end caused him to drop the file in his hands. He sat up straight. "What do you want?"
"I received an interesting package in the mail today. Would you like to guess what was in it?"
"Cut the games." He looked up and saw Sam walking by. After one look at his face, she changed direction and headed down the stairs to his desk.
"A birth certificate, documents of a name change, a death certificate, and a picture of a funeral. Care to guess now?"
"I wouldn't know." He looked up at Sam, the fear he wouldn't let into his voice evident in his eyes. "Documentation of your past competition?"
"Dammit, don't play with me, Jonathan! I had a right to know I had a daughter! Before it was too late!"
"As far as I'm concerned you gave up any rights you had when you chose to hurt my mother. And I have nothing more to say to you."
"I won't forget this. Oh, and one more thing. There was a message for you in the package as well. 'Tell your son I refuse to lose.'"
John held the phone for a moment, then calmly placed it on the receiver without another word.
"What did Jack tell him?" Sam asked immediately.
"That I had a sister, her name was Marie Adams, and she died last week. That's it."
Sam took a deep breath and let it out. "Thank God."
"He also sent me a message. He said 'Tell your son I refuse to lose.'"
"Then let's hope he never finds out he did."