So, this is chapter 4 already. Thank you to anyone who has been reading and thank you Sagey for your reviews. Anyway, I hope you like this chapter
Ch.4: Bad to Worse
"Hi, is this Warden Jefferson?" Mary asked with false sweetness. She was pissed, and she was going to make sure that this incompetent dimwit knew it by the time the phone call was over.
"I'm Marshal Mary Shannon…yeah, that Mary Shannon. Listen, I would just like to know how you could let a meth dealer who had a hand in the kidnapping of a federal agent stroll out of your prison without so much as a peep to anyone." Mary continued to use a sweet tone, just waiting for the right moment to unleash her fury on the idiot at the other end.
"Yeah, I know Russell escaped! Why do you think I'm calling? You would think that the escape of someone who was involved in a federal case would be on the news." Her temper was beginning to boil over with each excuse that the man on the other end tried to make for his incompetence.
Marshall and Eleanor didn't know exactly what the man said to trigger such a reaction out of Mary, but she pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at it as if it had just burned the hell out of the side of her face and melted her ear off to boot.
"I CARE because he kidnapped my sister, asshole! If you had done your job and notified someone other than just your bosses, then he would've been picked up before he even made it to Albuquerque. Not to mention he could've been coming for me." She visibly paled as the words came out of her mouth and Marshall felt his blood run cold at the thought of her being put through that ordeal again. Although, as he watched her worry about Brandi, he felt like he was watching her go through it again. He had the sense that there was more under the surface than just old memories. She was out for blood, but knowing Mary, that was normal in this situation. She seemed to be blaming herself.
"You know what? You can take your bureaucratic excuses and shove 'em up your ass. I hope you have a great day." Mary spoke through gritted teeth as she slammed the receiver down and stalked off with her heels punishing the floor as she walked. Eleanor bore a worried glance at Marshall and he sighed. Three months ago it had been Eleanor on the receiving end of Mary's verbal flogging when Brandi was in danger of going to prison. Some small part of her had to sympathize with the man, but she also agreed with Mary that he should've notified someone of Russell's escape.
"Aren't you going to go after her?" Eleanor asked
"I will. She needs some time to cool off." Marshall stated as he picked up a file off of his desk and began to read it.
Peter sat nervously at his desk. He had been having an odd feeling all morning. First, there was the text message. It was unlike Brandi not to take his calls or messages, and the last time she didn't it turned out that she had been arrested. There was also the fact that she had missed their lunch date. He was going to take her to a new restaurant that had just opened in Albuquerque. She had showered him with stories of how it was her favorite back in New Jersey and she was so excited. He didn't think that she would've been likely to miss this date, and usually when she did miss dates she had a damn good reason.
He just sat tapping his foot; eyes darting to his phone every now and then. Just as he picked up the phone to make yet another call to her, Raph stepped into his office. Peter looked up with a raised eyebrow. Even though they were friends, the Dominican had respect for Peter's privacy within his own office and never entered without knocking. He also looked disheveled and frantic.
"Brandi's been kidnapped." He said when Peter opened his mouth to ask the reason for his unusual intrusion.
"Oh my God…where's Jinx?" He knew that the matriarch of the Shannon family was likely to scour the streets for her baby herself if given even the slightest chance.
"She's in the showroom." Raph said as the two men walked down the hall and towards the showroom of the car dealership.
"Ay dios mio." Raph whispered. Not only was there no trace of Jinx, but looking outside, the two men could clearly see that her Mercury was gone.
'Mary is going to kill me.' Raph thought as they just stood and gaped at the spot where Raph knew her car had been.
Marshall stepped outside onto the patio where he knew he would find Mary. Without a word he shut the door and sat down in one of the chairs. He just looked at her back, certain that she knew he was present. He could make out the very slight shaking of her shoulders every now and then; an indication that she was crying…or at least trying very hard not to.
"What?" Mary asked, finally getting annoyed with his staring, although she still wasn't facing him.
"Nothing, I just came out here to enjoy the sun and the breeze. If you want to say something then that is entirely up to you." Marshall leaned back in his chair and kicked his feet up. He couldn't see it, but Mary rolled her eyes at his response.
A few silent moments passed between them before Marshall could no longer resist digging into his deep well of trivia.
"Did you know that the Japanese Fighting Fish makes its home in fields of rice and that only the males have the decorative plumage?" Marshall asked, already knowing that Mary had no idea what he was talking about.
Mary turned around to face him. "Marshall, I don't even know what a Japanese Fighting Fish is." Her tone was flat and he could hear exhaustion with a little hint of anger laced in it.
"Then tell me what you do know." He stated calmly
"I know that I blame myself for what's happening." She smiled sadly, letting a stray tear fall down her face.
"How is any of this your fault?" Marshall asked calmly.
"Because I failed." Her voice came out in a strained whisper and Marshall couldn't quite comprehend what it was that she failed.
"What?" He willed her to elaborate as he stood up and stepped a little bit closer to her.
"I promised her that I would protect her and I failed. I smelled the chloroform this morning before I left and I had a gut feeling that something was wrong and I still left her there alone." Marshall shut his eyes tightly as the weight of Mary's words sunk in. She could've prevented this.
"Listen to me, Mare. You can't go back and all the wallowing in the world will not change the end result. The fact is your sister is out there somewhere. You need to stop blaming yourself and focus on finding her. You can still keep your promise by doing that." Marshall spoke, feeling his heart break yet again for the woman in front of him.
"I was trained." She said, her voice quivering. This time Marshall knew what she meant, and by the vacant look in her eyes he could tell that she was off someplace else. That place was the basement that she had been chained up in.
"I'm trained to deal with that and I almost got raped…even killed." She began to sob that heart wrenching sob that was made all the more heartbreaking in that she was so strong. "Brandi is completely inexperienced." She nearly collapsed as she sobbed and Marshall caught her and held her, just letting her cling to him for dear life. He knew Mary was right. Brandi had grown a lot, but when it came to life or death situations, the girl probably couldn't be trained to escape a cereal box. On the other hand, Marshall had noticed that Mary and Brandi were more alike than they seemed to be at first glance. He wouldn't be surprised if Brandi had a few tricks up her sleeve.
The two Marshals looked up when they heard they patio door open and saw Stan standing there.
"Spanky's just arrived at the courthouse for interrogation. Do you think you're up to it, Mary?"
Mary simply nodded and wiped away the remnants of her emotional breakdown as she made her way past Marshall and back into the office.
Russell sat quietly in anticipation. He was enjoying his little game with Brandi. Every little scream she made and every quiver of fear only served to make him want more. They were intoxicating to him in his state of insanity. He sat back in his chair and puffed on a cigarette as he surveyed his handy work. There were now two cuts on her face: one on the left cheek and on across the forehead. There were various purple, black, red, and yellow bruises all across her arms and torso, and he was pretty sure he'd broken a couple ribs. To anyone else it was a pitiful sight, but to him it was beautiful and he wasn't done yet.
He stood up from his chair wearing that same maniacal grin and stepped over to her. Leaning over, he brushed her cheek. Even asleep she tried to shy away from his touch, but he wasn't having any of it.
He muttered an "Aww." Before he took his cigarette and jammed it into some exposed flesh on her chest. This caused her to scream and he back-handed her across the face.
"WAKE UP!' He screamed as she continued to writhe and scream in agony. All the movement was aggravating other wounds and making them more painful.
"FUCK YOU!" Brandi screamed back at him. Rage was burning in her eyes as he stepped back from her.
He paused and brought his hand to his chin in thought. "Hey, that sounds like a good idea." The twisted smile that she was sure would haunt her nightmares returned as he stepped closer and ground his hips into hers. She winced with the pain that it brought to her various injuries, and then her eyes widened in terror when she heard the distinct sound of a zipper being pulled.
Mary walked swiftly through the doors of the Courthouse. She didn't even bother stopping when she flashed her badge; she merely held it out for the Marshal on post to see and kept moving. She prayed that Spanky would know something about Russell that would help them find Brandi. As she neared the interrogation room, she began to get nervous. It hit her that this would be the first time she laid eyes on him since that night in the basement. Since he had held a gun to her head and then put a bullet in Chuck's brain. Since he had almost cut her thumbs off.
'Oh God.' She thought as she leaned on a nearby wall for support. She could still feel the muzzle of the gun on the side of her head and she could still feel the clippers laying dangerously on her thumbs. In the back of her mind she couldn't help but wonder what Brandi was being put through. Catching her breath, she stood from the wall and walked into the interrogation room with one thing on her mind: Find Squish. She would not be intimidated by old memories when her sister's life hung in the balance.