Infinite Kates?
Chapter One
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: There's a lot of this and I don't own any of it. Rating: K Time: Sometime after Interrogation of a Vampire.
She had just finished taking off her orange prison clothes and was down to her scratchy prison issue bra and panties when she felt her stomach tighten up again. She bent over and wondered if she'd throw up again. She stayed that way for a bit, then stood back up.
A door opened and a female guard she'd never seen before came in followed by a man in scrubs. She guessed he was a doctor from the hospital they'd brought her to.
The guard smiled coldly. "There you are, bitch. I thought I'd lost you and a hell of a lot of money, too."
She frowned having no idea what the guard meant. The doctor pulled a gun from under his shirt and aimed it at her. At the last second, he shot the guard in the head, the weapon only making a soft pop. She pitched forward, dead.
The fake doctor aimed at her again. "You ratted them out, Collette. You know what happens when you do that, don't you?"
As he started squeezing the trigger, the guard who'd brought her to the hospital opened another door. "Sullivan, what the hell is going…." She saw the dead guard and the man with a gun and went for her own gun. The man fired and hit the woman in the throat. She staggered back, clutching her throat with one hand and trying to pull her sidearm with the other. The man took a few steps towards her and shot her in the forehead. She dropped like a stone.
He turned back to her, again raising his weapon. "Goodbye, Collette.
"I'm not Collette. My name is Rita Sullivan and I'm…"
The man never fired, but began shaking and fell face forward. Behind him Rita saw a woman in prison orange holding a Taser, two wires led from the weapon to the man's back. The woman dropped the Taser by the dead guard and grabbed the man's pistol. "Did he say he was going to kill Collette?"
Rita just nodded.
The woman bent over the man, put the muzzle of his gun to his forehead and fired. The pistol once again made only a soft pop.
"You're a prisoner?" The woman asked Rita, gesturing to the orange clothes she had taken off.
Rita nodded. Then it hit her. "You're me."
She shook her head. "No, I'm Collette. Collette Stenger. I wondered why they were taking me to a hospital for a little rash. That's bitch sold me." Collette turned to the other dead guard and dragged her into the little dressing room. "Do you want to help me or do you want to stay here with three dead bodies?'
Rita nodded. "I want to go."
"Then check the two guards. Get their pistols, ammo and any money they have. Hurry."
Collette went through the pockets of the dead gunman. "We're rich." She said, holding up a thick envelope. "His pay. There's a good ten thousand here in hundreds." She checked his wallet. "And another couple of hundred. How much did you get from the guards?"
"Not much. Not even a hundred."
"Can you shoot?"
Rita shook her head. "Never."
"Okay, give me the weapons."
Rita hesitated for a moment, then handed them over.
Collette went back to the dead man. "And car keys. We have a ride."
"Sure, but how do we get out of here wearing orange prison clothing?"
"Just a second. "Collette disappeared into the next room and came back with a handful of hospital scrubs." Put these on and we'll just walk out. Wait. Grab your guard's ID badge, as hospital personnel we should have IDs. But put it on backwards. I'll use this one."
She knelt over the dead Federal Prison guard, then laughed. "They're helping us get away." Collette held up to cardboard signs that said, "Dangerous Chemicals. Do Not Enter." They figured they'd leave my dead body here and with the signs up, no one would check for a while." Collette placed the signs on both doors to the changing rooms.
They walked out of the hospital looking like just another two hospital employees. Once in the parking lot, Collette clicked the car key and got an answering beep. "Good, a nice non-descript, dark colored Ford. Get in."
Collette drove slowly away and headed for Interstate 95. Once on the highway, Collette drove at about five miles an hour under the speed limit. "What's your name again?"
"Rita Sullivan."
"You weren't in the Federal prison. Someone would have noticed us."
"I was in Florida State Prison."
"What for?"
"I stabbed my ex-boyfriend."
"Did he deserve it?"
Rita thought. "I guess so. He was Doug McClain, an ex pro football player. I had a son by him."
"The bastard dumped you, I bet."
"I never asked for a penny from Doug, but then Caleb became sick. It was his kidneys. He needed a transplant. I would have given him both of mine, I loved him so much, but I wasn't a match. The doctors thought Doug would be. I went to see him and he told me he'd have to talk to his lawyers. After that, he wouldn't talk to me. Caleb died. The bastard was a big sports hero, but he didn't care about his own son."
"So you killed him?"
Rita laughed. "I snuck into his house and stabbed him in the neck. But it didn't kill him. His wife came in later and found him. She decided to get rid of her cheating husband for good. She pushed the knife the rest of the way in. The DA decided to make a big deal out of it. His wife got life without parole. I was charged with attempted murder and got twenty five to life. The DA got reelected." Rita looked over at Collette. "What did you do?"
"I sold some things that didn't belong to me."
"You were like a fence?"
"Something like that."
They drove for two hours, the hitman having thoughtfully gotten a full tank of gas. Suddenly Collette slowed down and started to pull off the Interstate. "A shopping mall. We need clothes. You go in. Try to go to different stores, try to go to ones that are really busy so they won't pay attention to you. We're the same size so anything you can wear, I can wear. Get some shorts, since it's hot, but also some summer dresses. And two baseball caps and two pairs of sunglasses. And for God's sake, get some underwear. I hate this damned prison issue stuff."
Collette parked and gave Rita five hundred dollars. As she headed for the mall, she wondered if Collette would be there when she came out. Collette didn't really need her, after all.
Rita was pleasantly surprised to see Collette in the car when she came out a half an hour later with two bags full of clothes.
"Let's see what you got?" Collette said, opening the door.
She selected a pair of white shorts, a colorful tee shirt, some running shoes and a very flimsy bra and panty set. She go into the back seat and wriggled into her new clothes.
"I also got us hair brushes, an electric shaver, toothbrushes and toothpaste, and some makeup."
Collette laughed. "Thanks. You're a good partner. Now get in the back and change. I'll head for a fast food place for lunch."
As they drove, Rita considered Collette. "You have an accent. You're not an American."
"My father was German and my mother was French. I have dual citizenship."
"If you're just a fence, why did someone send a hit man to kill you?"
Collette shrugged. "Do you want to go back and ask him?"
They were almost to Jacksonville when Rita saw a sign. "Turn off the highway here."
"What is it? Trouble?"
"Opportunity. There's a college here. I was a bartender for a while in Miami. I never met a college student who didn't have a fake ID. We can get one around here, I bet."
Rita saw a group of male students and told Collette to stop. She walked over to the students and started talking. In a few minutes, she came back with a slip of paper in her hand. "The best phony ID guy is named Kurt and he lives about six blocks from here. He's a computer major and will probably have to take a cut in pay when he graduates, or go into more lucrative computer crimes."
Kurt lived on the second floor of a building that apparently was all college students from the sound of rock music and the number of empty beer cans around. They knocked and Kurt opened the door. He was tall and thin, but wiry, wearing cargo shorts and an Atlanta Braves tee shirt. "Can I help you?"
Collette pushed past him and into the apartment. "We need driver's licenses. Now."
Rita followed Collette in. The place was your basic shabby chic college apartment, something she'd been in a lot when younger.
Kurt smiled. "I'm afraid I can't help you, officers. Would you please leave?"
"What makes you think we're cops?" Collette asked sweetly.
"You have a gun tucked into the back of your shorts. Now get…."
He never got any further because Collette slammed her fist into his stomach and then kneed him in the balls. He dropped to his knees and when he looked up, Collette was holding a gun in one hand and some hundreds in the other. "We need driver's licenses. You can take our money, or…." She left the rest unsaid.
Kurt looked up and nodded. "It'll cost you a grand. Each. But I do the best work around. I have a contact that sends me real license blanks. All I have to do is fill them in and laminate them. What state do you want?"
"Florida. That a problem?"
"Not a problem."
Kurt took them into a bedroom and got to work. In a half an hour they were twins Collette and Rita Johnson from Miami. They carefully examined the licenses. "Okay, now hand over the memory card from your camera." Collette demanded.
"Why?"
"So you won't be tempted to give anyone our pictures. Okay?"
Kurt began to look stubborn. Collette smiled. "Look, you just made an easy grand. And if we really are bad people, you're an accessory. We're doing you a favor by taking the memory card. Now there's no proof you ever helped us. Okay?"
Kurt nodded slowly and handed over the memory card.
Collette smiled and kissed him on the cheek. "Thanks, sweetheart. You have a good day, y'all hear?"
Once on the Interstate, Collette checked the clock and odometer. "We'll need to stop soon. We'll wait until we're in Georgia and find a nice place off the highway."
Just at dusk, they pulled into a Motel 6. Rita went inside and registered them. She came back out with two keys.
"How did it go?" Collette asked.
"I used my best southern accent to flirt with the boy behind the counter. I leaned over so he could see my boobs and told him that my sister and I had our credit cards stolen, but we had cash. He was so interested he never looked at my license and I wrote down the license plate so sloppily, no one will ever figure it out. And there's a Mickey Dee's right around the corner. Getting drive through will be better than going in where people can see us."
Once in their room and fed, Rita headed for the bathroom. "I've had all I can take of lukewarm showers with rusty water and a bunch of bull dykes, groping me. I'm going to take a long, hot shower."
"Go ahead. I want to watch the news. Just in case we're on it." Luckily, they weren't and when Rita came out, wrapped in a towel, Collette stopped her from getting dressed. "Drop the towel, I want to get a look at you."
Rita backed up. "Look, I did some things in prison because I had to…."
Author's note: In case you didn't already know it, Collette Stenger was played by Stana Katic on 24 and Rita Sullivan was played by Stana Katic on CSI: Miami.