Chapter 3

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Pam sat in her couch, several folders were scattered on her coffee table. She sipped her cup of coffee as she read one of the case files she brought home from work. There was a knock at the door. Pam looked up, placed her cup and the papers on the coffee table and stood up to go to the door. She walked over and opened it. "Bill, come in." she said, surprised to see him but mostly at his roughened up appearance.

"Has Ralph been here?" He asked as he limped his way in holding articles of clothing under his arm and to the living room.

"No, I thought he would be with you working on a case. What happened to you?" She asked.

"I got shoved into a wall, had my car stolen and had to walk a couple blocks till I could find a cab to come here." He answered as he slowly sat down.

"Let me get you a cup." Pam said as she headed to the kitchen and brought back a cup of coffee for Bill.

"Thanks." He said as he put Ralph's clothes on the table. He took a sip. "And that's not the best part." he said hesitantly.

Pam looked at the clothes on the table. "Where's Ralph?" she asked with a concerned look on her face.

"Wish I knew, Counselor." he shrugged. "Seeing as how our boy in red decided to shove me into a wall with the help of the magic jammies, causing me to be out for the ten count.. I have no idea of his whereabouts at this moment."

Surprised, Pam responded "Shoved?? Ralph would never do that to you!"

"Counselor, I know that." he defended. "Something aint right. One of the guys we were chasing today is now laid up in the hospital for a week. I found Ralph's clothes and a wall that he apparently used our pal up in the hospital as a battering ram."

"Bill, that doesn't sound like Ralph. He would never do that to anyone, no matter who it was."

Bill looked at Pam with a serious expression on his face. "That's why I've got to find him." Pam nodded in agreement.

"Did you try his house?" she asked.

"Yeah, no sign of him being there." Bill replied.

"Where could he be?" Pam questioned as she picked up Ralph's clothes and held them close. As she did that, something fell out of the shirt pocket to the floor. Pam looked at the necklace with a stone fragment of gold and purple color still secured in the pendant. She picked it up asking, "What is this?"

"That? Oh, well, that was going to be a gift. Ralph found it earlier today and thought you would like it." Bill replied.

"It's nice. Or atleast what's left of it." Pam said examining it. "The stone looks familiar."

"Jewelry looks the same to me. Back to Ralph disappearing." Bill stood up. "I gotta head back to the department and figure out what's going on here." he said.

Pam put the necklace on the table and stood up. "Whatever happens, remember it's Ralph." She said as they walked to the door.

"Yeah, I know." Bill said as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Counselor, if you hear anything from Ralph, give me a call."

"I will, if you'll do the same." Pam said holding the door open.

"Yeah." Bill said as he limped outside.

"Wait. Bill, do you need a ride?" Pam called out to him.

"No, I got a taxi waiting for me here. When we find Ralph, he's gonna owe me." Bill said limping towards the taxi.

Pam half grinned, still concerned about Ralph. She looked over at the necklace on the coffee table. She looked up as if she realized something. She headed towards the cabinet where she kept old case files for reference and started to browse through them.

---

Bill stood up from his desk after finalizing the case on Cook and Foster. Though he was able to do the paperwork he still had Ralph on his mind. He grabbed the folder containing the case for that day and walked toward one of the filing cabinets against the wall. He walked by a group of agents talking.

"Hey Maxwell, have you heard about this?" one of the agents asked, stopping Bill from going any further.

"Sharp, I don't have time for any of your office humor. Real busy." Bill responded.

"No, not that. The boys here said there's some nut in red pajamas causing chaos out there." Agent Sharp said.

"Red Pajamas??" Bill said faking disbelief. "You gotta be kidding me."

"It's true. A few of our guys have seen him. They said he was trying to fly like some comic book character." Sharp explained. "There's also been reports of vandalism all over the city. I'm guessing he's on PCP or he escaped the mental ward."

"Read too many comic books when he was young." Bill commented.

"Yeah, we've named him The Scarlet Ranger of Glendale." Sharp joked as he laughed.

Bill half-heartedly laughed at the joke and continued on to the file cabinet. He put the folder in and closed the drawer. "See you guys Monday." he said as he slung his coat over his shoulder and headed out the door.

Driving home he passed what seemed to be the leftovers of a car accident. Barely able to get a good at it under the night sky. He looked in the mirror and pulled to the side of the road. Bill got out of his car and walked over to the wreckage.

"That's my car!" he said in a shocked voice. Looking inside, he saw what looked like the steering wheel ripped from the steering column. He then checked the front of the car which looked like two fists had slammed through the hood and halfway through the engine. "Don't know what's wrong with ya kid, but I better find ya fast." Bill said as he walked to the car he was issued that afternoon. He got in and drove off.

---

Bill sat in his chair wearing his army jacket, as he studied over a map of Los Angeles laid out on his table. Also on the table was a police scanner, his gun and a cup of coffee. There was a knock at his door. He looked up, grabbed his gun and slowly walked to the door. He looked through the peephole with his gun raised in the air. He gave a sigh of relief as he opened the door. Pam walked in carrying some folders.

"Counselor, you just took a couple of years off of my retirement." Bill said closing the door.

"I had to come over. This is too important for just a phone call." she said as she looked around the room and at Bill. "Bill, you look like you're getting ready to go to war."

"Davidson, our favorite school teacher has been busy and I'm in the middle of tracking him down. So unless you can help out in some way, I really need to concentrate." Bill said as he sat down in his chair again.

"I've got help." she said letting the folders fall onto the map as she seated herself.

"What's all of this??" Bill asked moving the folders to the side out of his work area.

"Old case files I had." Pam answered as she pulled the broken necklace out of her pocket.

"Case files? How are they gonna help me find Ralph?" He asked.

"Not so much help in finding him, but it does explain what might've happened." she replied. "See the broken stone fragment in the necklace?" Pam asked holding up the necklace.

"Yeah."

"When I dropped it on the floor, I noticed the two colors in it. Purple and gold." Pam stated.

"So it's a two colored rock. The owner was ripped off if you ask me." Bill replied.

"No, it's supposed to be that way. This is an ametrine gemstone. I remember having a case that dealt specifically with ametrine gems. Take a look at that first case." she motioned at the group of folders she brought. Bill read the contents of the folder.

"Voodoo??" Bill questioned.

"Voodoo." she insisted.

"Counselor, this is nuts." he stated in disbelief.

"Not really. As you read in there I had a case where a guy accused a supposed witch doctor of using voodoo and witch craft on him. In this case he was using ametrine gems along with other materials." she explained.

"What does that have to do with Ralph?" Bill asked.

"It was proven that this witch doctor did practice voodoo. We later found out that he was using the gem stones with the voodoo in attempts to control people or capture their souls." Pam explained as she put the necklace on the table.

"This sounds like something out of a bad horror movie." Bill said as he rubbed his face.

"I know, but there have been cases where voodoo has done strange things." Pam added. "Where did you say Ralph found the necklace?"

"On the floor." Bill said.

"Floor? What floor?" Pam asked?

"The floor inside that tomb." Bill answered.

Pam's eyes grew wide and her jaw dropped. "You found this necklace in a tomb??"

"No, not me! Ralph found it. I told him you'd be mad at him about it." Bill defended.

"Who's tomb??" Pam asked with a worried look.

"Uhh.. Sheila Redman's tomb." Bill replied.

"Sheila Redman?" Pam's head fell into her hand. "Ralph, what have you done??" she asked.

"I'll find him. It'll be alright." Bill said reassuringly.

"Bill, I don't think you're getting the point." she looked up at Bill. "Ralph told me about Sheila. The two of you were in that old house. Ralph saw things and went through a wall to some other dimension and was attacked." she explained.

"Yeah, I know that." Bill said.

Pam continued, "You had a brass chandelier fall on you and Sheila was somehow able to posess you and takeover. Ralph had to find you and bring Sheila back to that place."

"Oh." Bill said starting to look concerned. "Ohh."

"Which means we need to find Ralph soon. I have a bad feeling Sheila has taken over and is going to cause a lot of problems for a lot of people." Pam said.

"Yeah.." Bill said as he tried to think what his next plan would be.

"Possible ten ninety-six on the corner of Olympic Boulevard. Subject wearing red and black. Assistance needed." said a voice over the police scanner.

Bill looked at the scanner and exchanged looks with Pam. "Gotta go." he said.

"I'm going with you." Pam said.

"There's no point, if it's Sheila and she's got a hold of Ralph, he won't know you." Bill said as he put his gun in his shoulder holster and reached for several gun clips. "Plus, I don't want you to get hurt. Sit by the radio just in case he.. she flies off to somewhere else and let me know."

"Be careful, Bill." Pam said as Bill left.

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"Ralph" stood at the edge of the rooftop looking down at the squad cars parked below and the officers with their guns aimed at him.

"You can't stop me. I'm free now and with this suit there is nothing no one can do to me ever again!" "Ralph" paced back and forth. "All the things I can do with this suit. The options are limitless." He looked towards the sky. "I can get my money back by simply walking through the bank vault and taking as much as I want." He clinched his fist. "I will also have revenge on those who trapped me."

"I don't think you've had that much time to learn the suit's tricks." a voice said nearby.

"Ralph" turned around to see Bill facing him with his gun drawn at him. "Well if it isn't Billy. Good to see you're back on your feet again." he said with a grin.

"Nice to see you too.." he paused "Sheila."

"Ralph" laughed. "So you found me out. How? By my baby-blue eyes? Oh, that's right. Ralphie has the same color of eyes I do! Doesn't that make things just a little bit harder, Billy?"

"Not much, but it does clash with the suit. So why dontcha take the suit off." Bill replied.

"Ralph" adjusted the cape and tunic. "This suit isn't coming off, Maxwell. I've escaped what would have been my prison for eternity and now I'm going to run with it as far and as long as I can!" he said defiantly. "Thanks to this suit no one will be able to defeat me this time."

"You were defeated before, I'll figure out a way for this occasion too." He stated.

"Ralph" grew angry. "Before, I was in your weak, pathetic body with only a gun to protect me. Ralph had the suit. It's reversed now. I have the suit, and you have your gun. You know this suit is invincible."

"Yeah, the suit is invincible. You got me there." Bill said. "How do you know if it protects you fully or not?", he asked as he raised the gun up to point at Ralph's head.

"Ralph" backed off a bit. "It doesn't matter, I can still do whatever I want wearing this suit." He backed away. "For the moment I tire of you, Billy. I assure you, we'll meet again." After he took a few steps, "Ralph" flew off a bit more clumsily than he usually flew.

"Atleast she hasn't figured out how to fly better than Ralph." Bill said putting his gun back in the holster and headed towards the building's staircase.

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