Disclaimer: I do not own anything.
Beck had pulled up outside the old, run-down warehouse. Jade's attention was instantly drawn to the muscle car that was parked outside.
"Beck, look at this." She grabbed the Detective's attention.
Jade ran her hand over the side of the muscle car, pointing out several prominent holes.
"Bullet holes… and blood." Jade noted grimly.
Suddenly, a scream came from inside the warehouse, springing Beck and Jade into action.
"Quick! Move!" Beck urged, drawing his gun and rushing to the door. Jade followed suit.
Behind the door, Beck could hear mumbling… and the clanking of metal.
What the hell is going on here?
Beck pressed a finger to his lips to signal 'Be quiet' to Jade. Jade nodded as Beck crouched down and peeked through a small crack in the door. Jade leaned over to whisper to him.
"What do you see?"
"I've got multiple people." Beck whispered back. "Someone's lying on his back in the middle of the room, and someone's standing over him. There's movement in the back too… maybe one, two more people…"
Suddenly there came another howl of pain.
"We're going in!" Beck shouted, winding up and kicking the door in.
The door flew off its hinges as Beck and Jade rushed in, guns drawn.
"S.F.P.D! Freeze!" Beck ordered, examining the room.
He was in a makeshift operating room. The room was full of medical supplies. A shirtless man was lying on an operating table in the center of the room. Dr. Rose stood over him prying at a bullet wound in his shoulder.
And then Beck noticed the two bulky men stood at the back of the room, pointing guns straight at him.
"What the hell is this?" Dr. Rose yelled. "What is going on?"
"Put down your guns, NOW!" One of the bodyguards ordered.
"Do it!" The other bodyguard said.
Beck and Jade kept their guns firmly pointed at the two bodyguards, neither of them ready to surrender.
"Let's just take it easy. No one has to get hurt here…" Beck attempted to calm everyone.
"I have a feeling, Detective, that it won't be that simple." Rose sighed as the man on the operating table beneath him moaned and strained.
Jade glanced at the man on the operating table, instantly recognizing him.
Miguel Flores.
"You pigs… know what my family… will do to you?" Miguel warned them in his thick, Mexican accent.
"Beck… that's Miguel Flores. Ranking officer and scion of the Flores drug cartel." Jade informed her partner.
"Ah hell." Beck cursed. "So you're a mob doctor now, Rose? Stitching up cartel footsoldiers?"
"Since that sham malpractice case, I had to make a living somehow." Rose defended himself calmly. "Now if you don't mind, I'd like to operate here."
Beck glanced at Jade uneasily. The bodyguards adjusted their grips on their guns, still pointed firmly at Beck and Jade, whose guns were pointed firmly back. Dr. Rose very slowly turned to resume examining Miguel's wound.
"Back away, pigs. If you value your lives." Miguel threatened.
"We just want to talk." Beck said.
"I ain't talking… with you." Miguel denied, moaning in pain.
"Not you, Miguel. We want to talk to Dr. Rose." Beck corrected the Mexican.
"Me?" Rose scoffed. "You want to talk to me?"
"Bull. They're playing you, doc." Miguel told the doctor. "The moment you get outta the line of fire… they're gonna haul me off. Keep working." He ordered.
Dr. Rose took one last look at Miguel's bodyguards, then resumed examining the wound.
"Miguel, just tell your men to put down their guns." Jade attempted to reason with the man. "We'll get you to a hospital…"
"I ain't going to… no hospital!" Miguel interrupted before turning and barking something to his bodyguards in Spanish. One of them immediately stepped forward.
"Hey! HEY! Back off!" Jade yelled furiously.
"Last chance. Put the gun down." Miguel warned them.
Beck lowered his gun…
…and pointed it at Miguel.
"Tell your men to back off, Miguel, or I will put a hole in you." Beck warned him.
"Oh ho, big talk, little man. You do that… and you and your little girlfriend are next." Miguel chuckled.
"Yeah, probably. But you'll be too dead to appreciate it." Beck countered coldly.
Miguel paused for a moment, deep in thought. Beck picked up on this instantly, and saw a window of opportunity open up in front of his eyes.
"Just let us take the doctor. That's all we want." Beck promised.
"It's not going to happen." Dr. Rose spoke up again. "I'm not going back to prison." He insisted.
"Who said anything about prison? We just want to talk." Beck said.
Rose continued to dig deeper into Miguel's shoulder for the bullet, eliciting another howl of pain and agony from Miguel.
"Oh really?" Rose tested. "And what precisely do you want to 'talk about' anyway? What trumped up charge justifies bringing an FBI agent along?" The doctor asked.
"It's about the Maskmaker case." Beck informed the man immediately.
"The… the Maskmaker case?" Rose questioned, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion.
"The dude that's been killing all those girls?" Miguel asked, surprised. "Is that you, doc?"
"You… you think I'M the Maskmaker? That's what this is about?" Rose laughed. "Oh, that's just ridiculous. The idiocy of this city's police department knows no bounds."
"Then you'll come with us to answer some questions?" Beck persisted.
Dr. Rose, without warning, violently jerked the tweezers out of Miguel's shoulder and dropped a bullet into a little tin tray as Miguel groaned in agony.
"Ugggghh! Goddamn!" He cursed.
"There. That's the bullet. Anyone with even a little medical training can stitch you up from here." Rose confirmed.
"You leaving…?" Miguel asked.
"I'm going to go with them to get this absurd little mess cleared up." Rose told Miguel. Beck and Jade both secretly let out sighs of relief.
"We'll take the doctor, and leave. Then you and your men can go." Beck promised.
Dr. Rose stood up and set down his tools.
"I'm just going to go over to them very slowly. Understand?" Rose informed Miguel and his bodyguards in a very dragged out tone of voice.
Jade's eyebrows furrowed. She knew something wasn't right about this.
"I got it, doc!" Miguel nodded. "I understand…"
Jade tightened her grip on her gun.
"Understand this!" Miguel yelled, whipping his hand out from behind his back, pointing a chromed, semi-automatic pistol straight at Beck.
Beck immediately pulled the trigger. The sound of gunfire blasted through the room as a bright red circle appeared in the center of Miguel's forehead. His head snapped back, his blood splattering over a shocked Dr. Rose.
"No!" The doctor cried out.
Miguel's body flopped off the table, knocking Rose down to the ground. Beck hurled himself behind a wooden cabinet.
"Jesus! He killed Miguel!" One of the bodyguards yelled in fury.
"Shoot him! NOW!" The other bodyguard screamed.
The room erupted into chaos as both bodyguards opened fire, their gun shots whizzing audibly past Beck. Jade popped up and fired off one shot, which missed. Thinking fast, Jade threw herself forward, flipping over the operating table to use as cover.
"Jade! Are you okay?" Beck yelled to the agent.
"I'm fine!" Jade assured him.
Beck peeked around the corner of the wooden cabinet he was using for cover and saw the two bodyguards crouching behind cover. Turning his head, he quickly noticed Dr. Rose scampering away, retreating into the darkness.
"Get back here, Rose!" Beck yelled, popping out of cover for a second, but instantly popping back in as the bodyguards opened fire again. The side of the cabinet burst apart, spraying Beck with wooden splinters, forcing him to pull back.
"You're a dead man!" One of the bodyguards taunted as more bullets exploded against the cabinet. One of them blew a chunk off the top as Beck scrambled to stay behind cover.
"I'm pinned down here!" Beck yelled to Jade.
"What do you want me to do about it?!" Jade yelled back angrily.
Suddenly, there was the sound of an engine revving outside.
"Dammit, it's Rose! He's getting away!" Jade shouted in frustration.
For a moment, Beck considered jumping up and running out after Rose, but the Detective assessed the situation and quickly came to his senses.
"We can't get him without risking ourselves! Stay down!" Beck ordered.
Outside, Rose's car revved up and zoomed away.
"Damn…" Beck cursed to himself.
"Beck, listen!" Jade urged him.
Beck went quiet. An eerie silence filled the room as neither of the bodyguards were shooting.
"You two ready to surrender?" Beck asked uncertainly.
There was no response. Beck and Jade could hear soft, padding footsteps… and then they heard it. The sound of one of the bodyguards fumbling with what could only be a glass bottle.
"You smell… rubbing alcohol?" Jade asked, fear snaking it's way up her spine.
There was the sound of cloth crumpling… and a lighter flicking.
"They're making a Molotov cocktail!" Beck shouted in panic.
"We have to shoot! Now!" Jade urged.
Beck stopped for a split second, wondering just how the hell he was going to make this shot count. Jade could only wait in fear and suspense as the cogs in Beck's head turned and turned, making a decision. Finally, Beck aimed his gun and fired a single bullet under the wooden cabinet he was using for cover.
The first bodyguard's shoe burst open. He screamed and fell down, dropping his Molotov cocktail on himself. Jade felt the heat from the small explosion of flame from halfway across the room. The bodyguard writhed around on the floor, completely engulfed in flame.
"That leaves just the one…" Beck noted, popping over the cabinet but seeing no sign of the second bodyguard.
Slowly and cautiously, Beck rose to his feet and walked towards the other side of the room.
"Come out with your hands up! No one has to get hurt!" Beck called out, his voice echoing around the room.
Silence.
Then, a voice.
"Beck."
Beck turned around. The second bodyguard was stood behind Jade, his gun pressed firmly under her chin. His head peered over Jade's shoulder. Beck lined up the shot.
"Put down your gun! Put it down, NOW!" The bodyguard ordered.
Beck had no choice in the matter.
"Okay. Okay. Just… just let her go." Beck surrendered, slowly lowering his gun to the ground and kicking it to the side.
"Good boy. Good… boy!" The bodyguard chuckled, suddenly lifting his gun to fire at Beck.
Instantly, Jade knew to take advantage of the moment. The FBI agent grabbed the bodyguard's arm and jerked him down, elbowing his brutally in the side of the head.
"Aggggh!" The bodyguard yelled in pain, dropping to his knees, wobbling, and finally falling over, unconscious.
Beck let out a huge sigh of relief.
"Jade! You good?" Beck checked.
"I'm good." Jade confirmed.
The two of them stood together. For one moment, the room is completely, and utterly… silent.
"We just killed Miguel Flores." Beck said, the gravity of the situation hitting him full force.
"Yes. Yes we did." Jade responded, letting out a deep breath.
Beck and Jade stood outside the warehouse in the evening sunset. Police cars were parked all around them, their lights flashing. Officers swarmed over to the warehouse. Beck walked over to the side of the lot, where Jade was finishing up a phone call.
"Yes, sir. Yes. I'll have the full write-up to you by tomorrow morning. Goodbye, sir." Jade said softly.
"Doing okay?" Beck asked.
"Yeah. A little shaken, but yeah." Jade admitted, letting out a small chuckle. "I just can't believe we made it out of that without getting a scratch on us!"
"We got lucky. That's all." Beck told her. "You ever been in a shootout before?"
Jade briefly glanced out, over the water.
"Once. It didn't go well."
A cold breeze washed over Beck.
"You in trouble with your chief?" He asked, concerned.
"Are you kidding?" Jade turned back to meet Beck's eyes. "Miguel Flores was a drug-runner and a rapist who we suspect of at least sixteen gangland murders. I might just get a medal out of this." Jade replied, cracking a smile.
"Catch Dr. Rose, and you might get two." Beck said.
Jade let out a deep breath and looked back out over the calm, waving ocean as the cold air tickled against the back her neck.
"Beck… I don't think he's the Maskmaker." Jade admitted. "The way he acted in there... the way he reacted to us? He didn't suggest someone with a deep psychosis." She pointed out.
"Yeah. I had a feeling you'd say that." Beck sighed.
Half an hour later…
Back at the precinct, Beck and Jade were reporting to Captain Vega.
"And I'm telling you, I don't want to hear it, Detective." The Captain insisted. "Miguel Flores is dead, Dr. Rose escaped, and now you're telling me he might not be the Maskmaker?" She asked, angrily.
"It's a theory." Beck defended himself.
Tori let out a stressed sigh.
"I appreciate that you're working on a theory, Detective."
"Thanks." Beck smiled.
"But what facts do you have to support it? All the evidence you've collected points to Dr. Rose!" Tori pointed out, skeptical. "He even matches the profile Agent West developed."
"Yes, but…" Jade spoke up before being halted by Tori raising a hand.
"I don't want to hear it, Agent West." The Captain interrupted. "Unless and until you two can prove otherwise, Dr. Rose remains out prime suspect."
"Listen to me…" Beck started.
"No. You listen to me." Tori ordered, her tone of voice suddenly becoming a lot angrier. "Thanks to you, I've got one cartel officer in the morgue, one in the burn ward, and a third with a broken jaw…"
"It was a righteous shoot!" Beck interrupted, defending his actions.
"I know, and that's the only reason you're not on suspension pending review." Tori told the Detective. "I pulled every string I and cashed every favour I had with the Commissioner to keep you both on, at least until Dr. Rose is brought to justice."
"Thank you." Beck sighed.
"Don't let it get to your head. You're my best detective, and our prime suspect is still at large." Tori warned him. "Find him." She ordered. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a press conference to prepare for."
Beck and Jade nodded, stepping out of the Captain's office and slamming the door shut behind them.
"Well, that could've gone better." Jade frowned.
"There's a television in the break room. We can watch the press conference from there." Beck suggested.
Beck and Jade made their way across the station into the break room. The two stood in front of the television, watching the news broadcast.
"She shouldn't be doing this. Not yet." Beck complained.
"We did everything we could." Jade reasoned.
"I know, but still…" Beck trailed off, sighing.
The door swung open, and André strolled in.
"Well, well, well. If it isn't Wyatt Earp himself. Heard you had yourself one heck of a shootout." André greeted his friend.
"It was something alright." Beck chuckled.
"Popping Miguel Flores, IDing the Maskmaker… bet the Captain's glad she put you back on the force!" André smiled.
Beck hesitated to respond to his friend's assumption. André knew something was up immediately.
"Hey, what's wrong?" He asked.
"We don't think Rose is the killer." Beck admitted.
"What? You're kidding me. The guy's guilty as sin!" André said in disbelief.
"I don't know, André. It's not as simple as that…" Beck informed him.
"You're gonna have to fill me in some time." André said.
"Quiet, you two." Jade spoke up, her gaze fixed on the television. "The press conference is about to begin."
The three watched the small television screen as Captain Vega addressed a crowd of reporters.
"Thank you all for coming. As many of you know, there's been a break in the Maskmaker investigation. We now have a primary suspect: this man, Dr. Christian Rose. For the moment, Dr. Rose remains at large, but we hope the citizens of San Francisco will cooperate in our attempts to bring him to justice." Tori told the news-hungry journalists.
"Every cop in this city is going to be stuck looking for Dr. Rose…" Beck sighed.
"That's not good." Jade observed.
"No. No it's not."
So, do you guys think Beck and Jade are right? Or is Dr. Rose really the Maskmaker? Find out next time.
XxDisneyTurtlexX (Turtle): Yaaay you read it! I knew I could convince you to join the dark side. ;)
xxBadeRomancexx: Aaaah, good ole' Cat and Robbie... ya' gotta love 'em. :P
Sylkia Whacamolia: NO SLENDY NOOONONONO!
karlaserna: It's pretty ridiculous, but I just reached a point where I looked at the word count and realised I had passed 4000 words (most chapters are 2500-3000 words) and just thought 'Oh...' And it's a fine line between portraying Jade as a highly intelligent, professional profiler and also keeping her in character, but I believe I'm getting there! :)