I'd like to apologize for the delay. Life and school have been the reasons I haven't be able to put this chapter up. Oh, and there are some longer paragraphs in this chapter so please bare with me. Thanks to all my readers and reviewers as well as my Beta Reader ^_^
January 14th 10:15 PM
For the umpteenth time, Olivia counted the hours since Peter's abduction. "Twenty four…"she whispered to herself as she ran over the two files about Peter's case. She was at her home now sitting at her kitchen table, Papers were strewn everywhere – the contents of any and all cases that had anything in common with the one she was now trying to solve. She had worked all day on the case with little headway into it. Astrid had tried to help but with Walter pacing about the lab mumbling things about the parallel universe and occasionally slipping into bouts of violent fits of stress, worry, and anger, nothing was getting done fast. She had called in a team along with Broyles to investigate the crime scene further but there was hardly anything left of it. The ice had melted away in a short warm spell during the day. She needed something, anything, to point her in the right direction. The only thing she seemed to have put together was a timeline that was broken and missing large bits of information. It was practically useless.
A knock at her door startled her out of her thoughts and she stood up to go and answer it. She looked through the peephole and was surprised to see McCoun standing in view. Olivia immediately opened the door in time to see her rise back up from picking a package up from the ground. She turned it over in her hand and looked at it suspiciously before handing it to Olivia. Olivia stepped to the side to allow room for McCoun to come in without a spoken invitation.
"Thank you," McCoun said and stepped inside and Olivia shut the door behind her. Olivia was still looking at the package when McCoun spoke up after a glance about the apartment. "How have you been?" She asked as she shrugged out of her Carhartt and turned to look at the agent who was still turning over the parcel. Olivia looked up after a moment and flashed a weary smile.
"I've been better," she said and reached out to take McCoun's coat and hang it on a coat rack that was beside the door. McCoun nodded though Olivia didn't see it with her back turned.
"I'm sorry for what has happened and that I was so curt earlier. Broyles has a knack for bothering me for things I know he can do himself." She said and looked over the pictures that hung on the apartment walls. Olivia gave her a quizzical look and McCoun smirked when she caught the glance out of the corner of her eye. She shrugged nonchalantly and didn't offer an explanation. "He asked me to give you the case though he and I both knew that it could be a risky move." She said and Olivia understood what she meant. If cases hit close to home it usually ended up being a high stress, tension, emotionally draining case that could lead to unwanted consequences. She was all too familiar with those kinds of consequences. McCoun sighed then and looked to the kitchen and then to Olivia again. "Boyles wants this case solved just as much as you do. Peter is a valuable asset to the Fringe department. " She said.
Olivia looked down to the package she had in her hand and then back to the FBI agent. "Thank you for your help but what could you know that I don't?" she asked.
"Sometimes it just takes a new set of eyes, ears, and a fresh mind." She said and Olivia couldn't argue. McCoun glanced to the kitchen once more and Olivia followed her gaze.
"I haven't made much progress," Olivia said as she walked into the kitchen and to the table. McCoun followed behind her and she let her eyes fall to the cases that Olivia had opened back up to review. McCoun stood beside the table and looked over the notes that Dunham has jotted down. She also took a look at the pictures and notes within the files themselves. Olivia watched the woman for a moment and slouched against the table a little. McCoun looked up to her briefly before she returned her gaze to the cases.
"You've made some progress and that's better than nothing." She said and the statement Olivia made her feel hopeful – if only slightly. "Why don't you open that package of yours?" McCoun said not lifting her gaze and Olivia looked down to the little box and couldn't help the mild shiver that ran the length of her back. Something about the parcel made her stomach roll and she didn't like it. Olivia tore her fingers into the cardboard box and discovered a DVD case covered in a thin bubble wrap sheet. After removing the bubble wrap and examining the disk, she found it unmarked and unlabeled. "What do you make of this?" she asked McCoun who looked up to the item she had in hand.
"I don't know. Why don't you put it in a DVD player or something so we can see what it is?" She suggested and they moved to the living room. Olivia loaded the disc into her DVD player and hit play. Both Agents stood and waited as the black screen slowly faded onto a man. He stood somewhat close to the camera, a smile on his half-masked face, as he took a breath and waited for a time. The room he was standing in was cement and plain - giving no indication as to where he was. Then the man started to count. "0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21 now lets step back to two. Olivia I trust that you are likely watching this from the safe confines home. Probably with something to take the edge of the day off - am I right?" Olivia froze as she watched the unknown man speak to her through the television. Who was he? Something close to horror suddenly seized her heart as she watched the stranger on the screen.
He had stopped talking and was looking behind him at someone or something. Olivia hoped and prayed that she was wrong about her assumption as to whom this man might be and who he might be looking at. The man on the TV laughed lightly through his nose and looked back to the camera and started to speak again. "Now Miss Dunham I am going give you a clue as to where I am. Well, I hope you have a pen and paper ready because I'm sure you'll only want to hear this once." He said and reached forward and took a hold of something and when he drew it back it was a wooden bat. A Louisville Slugger was held in front of the camera and blocked his masked face for a moment as he showed Olivia what it was. He took the bat away from the screen and smiled as he stepped to the side revealing whom he had been hiding. Olivia bit her lip to suppress a gasp that threatened to escape her lips in surprise.
Peter was strung up with his hands behind his back in the center of the room. He was sweating profusely and blood, turned black with age, was crusted around the many bleeding wounds on his body. The two deep gashes on his shoulders made Olivia's gut turn with nausea and she fought the urge to empty her stomach. Bruises littered his face and unclad upper body and he looked like death. Olivia turned her attention to the man that now circled Peter and watched as he twirled the bat in his hands. "I hope you're ready Olivia." He said and she could see the confusion on Peters face, as things in the room got quiet. She felt tears prick at her eyes as she watched the man wind up his bat. He shifted he feet and squared his shoulders like he was getting ready to hit a baseball that had been thrown his way. "Charlie!" The man suddenly shouted and swung the bat forward and landed a blow to the broken and beaten body of the blindfolded Bishop. The bat landed squarely on his side and Peter was thrown to the side, reopening the wounds on his shoulders.
Blood poured forth like an undammed river. The scream that pealed out over the speakers of the TV made Olivia shiver and her hand to fly to her mouth in a vain attempt to stop the gasp that fled her mouth. The man moved to the opposite side he had hit and swung the bat once more and hit Peter to the other side to center him. "Hotel!" The man yelled after the blow and then backed away to see where he wanted to hit Peter next. He twirled the bat again and found the next place. "India!" He barked and landed the bat to Peter gut. There was a moment of silence as Peter gasped and struggled for breath. The sound of his stunned lungs trying to recover filled the air before the deranged man placed a blow to Peter's right arm. "Lima," the man hissed just loud enough for Olivia to hear. The twisted man was starting to enjoy his treatment of Peter too much and Olivia could see it in the set of his face.
The blows began to blend into one another and soon Peter was no longer able to scream. "Mike!" the man shouted. "Alpha! Romeo! Kilo!" The man didn't stop his beating after that and left the camera running for another minute before the video stopped playing. McCoun reached forward and turned the television off before any more of the horrendous scene could play. She looked over to Olivia and noted the unshed tears that threatened her eyes. "I think I know where Peter is…" She said calmly as she reached down and pulled a tissue from a tissue box and handed it to Olivia. "Charlie, hotel, india, lima, mike, alpha, romeo, kilo – Chilmark. Chilmark is a town just off the states coast near Martha's Vineyard." She said and moved away from the television and toward the door. It was time for her to take her leave. "There is a public ferry that runs through the Vineyard Sound and docks in Vineyard Haven you can go to Chilmark from there. The number two might have been a reference to one of the old docks or something. We'll go there tomorrow and investigate and I'll see what I can dig up at home. I'll take the DVD and try and get a voice analysis on the man in the video." She said to the agent and took the disk from the player. "I'll come by your house in the morning around 7:45 and then we'll head for Chilmark. For now, however, sleep, eat something, and get your strength up." She said as she took her coat from the coat rack and donned it. "Olivia, it would do you good to do as I say. You will be no good to Peter if you can't hold your gun straight or misfire because you were too tired or even get caught by that sick man yourself." McCoun said and Olivia nodded as she watched the other Agent step out into the cold. "Rest well," McCoun said and was out the door, in her truck, and down the street before Olivia could think about saying good-bye.
She walked back toward her bedroom, popped a sleeping pill, and fell exhausted into her bed. In the morning she would start fresh and do things right – like they should be. Still, even as she fell asleep, emotions she couldn't place weighed heavy on her heart.
