Chapter Ten
Chip and Tom closed the car doors and sat a moment, taking in the latest revelations: there was yet another safety deposit box to examine; and Lauren Crane had an identical twin sister.
"What do you think?" Chip asked, "I mean, what's the likelihood that Lauren's sister is involved?"
"Who knows? There's certainly nothing to implicate her specifically. I mean, you can't pick your relatives," Tom replied.
"I guess you're right."
"On the other hand, this case has been one surprise after another. I'd say we need to locate this other sister, and find out what she knows of Lauren Crane's deeds. I've always heard that twins are very close."
Chip nodded.
"We'd also better get on that other safety deposit box," Perkins noted.
"It's in San Diego, I'll give Admiral Nelson a call; he'll get ONI working on the warrant."
They were just about to discuss another flying sub ride when Chip's SAT phone rang.
"Morton," he answered, "Yes, he's right here; patch it through," he said, handing the phone to his passenger. "It's for you."
"Sheriff Perkins… yeah… yeah… A bombshell? Wait a minute," Tom lowered the phone examining the keypad. "Can we put this on speaker?"
"Yeah, sure," Chip replied, pressing the button for him.
"Okay Frank, I've got Commander Morton here with me. Bring him up to speed and then drop that bombshell you were talking about."
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Lee was exhausted. The conversation with Harry had been draining; even so, he had needed that talk. He was hurting on so many levels he couldn't hardly process it. He had closed his eyes to lament privately, and before he knew it had fallen to sleep. He had no idea how long he'd been out, but when he woke the lights had been dimmed. He figured he could thank Jamie for that and smiled slightly, then sighed at how good it felt to be free of the ventilator and breathing tube. His muscles were still sluggish, but at least he could move his limbs a little now, of course that was hampered by the new cast he now sported on his right elevated leg.
He had told Harry that he felt "better", but better was most definitely relative. Both legs were still injured and he was still quite ill despite his progress. Jamie had said he could expect a week-long stay in Med Bay. Though he wasn't looking forward to that, he was looking forward to feeling better. He didn't know how long it would be before he felt "fine"; he figured that would depend on how long the dreams held on and whether his undercover work for the last three months would actually clear Rod's name. And then there was Lauren. He'd never had a woman die at his hand before; he knew she was a cold-blooded killer, but something in him still felt remorse that during their struggle she had fallen on the knife. Technically, it was the Sheriff's bullet that killed her, but he knew that the chances of survival were slim with the amount of blood she had lost.
Lee sighed loudly. He knew he wasn't thinking straight; it had been a life or death struggle, and she had come at him like a woman possessed. He had defended himself against a woman who had admittedly killed seven other men. He unballed the fist he had unconsciously made, figuring his illness was playing havoc with his emotions and decided to give it rest.
The door opened and light filtered in briefly as Lee spotted the duty nurse; no doubt coming to poke, prod, or do some other medical mischief and closed his eyes to rest. He was about to drift back to sleep when he heard her call to him.
"Lee…"
His eyes popped open in shock, recognizing her voice immediately; even with the dimmed room and a blond wig, he knew it was her.
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"Okay, so here it goes," Frank started, "the prints on the mug belong to Mrs. Crane; this was verified by the prints the Nelson Institute sent over to make a positive ID on the body, and the lipstick shade in her purse was a match as well, by the way."
"That makes sense," Perkins interjected. "I mean why would Mrs. Crane make coffee with gloves on?"
"Yeah, I agree. So, are you ready for the bombshell?"
Perkins motioned with his hand, even though Frank couldn't see it. "Go on," he urged impatiently.
"The dead woman's prints don't match the prints sent over from the Nelson Institute; or the knife, or the blood trail on the wall for that matter," he said picking up speed and emphasizing each phrase before pausing dramatically before finishing, "The dead woman isn't Lauren Crane."
"Say that again, Frank," Perkins said, leaning forward.
"Either the prints from the Nelson Institute are wrong… or that wasn't Mrs. Crane we loaded into the Coroner's wagon."
Perkins looked to Chip for clarification.
"Lee obtained those prints himself; he brought them in on a drinking glass from breakfast the same morning."
Perkins sat back and sighed. "Now we know where her twin sister is."
"What was that?" Frank asked.
"We just found out that Lauren Crane had an identical twin sister."
"The question is: 'Where is Lauren Crane?'" Chip asked urgently.
"Anything else, Frank?" Perkins inquired hastily, knowing they had another call to make, the sooner the better.
"That's it."
"Okay, we've got to jump on this. Talk to you later, and good work."
He hung up, not even waiting for a reply, handing the phone to Chip who quickly dialed Admiral Nelson's private number. The phone rang without an answer; frustrated he hung up and dialed again, this time reaching the switch board. "Trish, this is Chip, connect me to Med Bay right away!"
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"Hello Darling," Lauren said, pulling the blond wig from her head to expose her familiar brunette hair.
"But... you're… dead," he breathed out trying to make sense of the situation, while trying to rein in the natural fear any man would feel when his dead wife showed up in his hospital room, especially one who was still working through envenomation by a very toxic snake.
"No, you killed Lisa... you bastard," she accused her eyes full of fire and sporting the same unbalanced look as when she came after him with a knife in the cabin.
"So, you had a twin," he stated, as everything came together quickly; his mind was clear, his initial shock reined in, and understanding completely that he wasn't looking at a ghost. "But why?" he asked, knowing full well she wasn't innocent; she had seduced and lured her husbands right into her homicidal maniac sister's hands.
"We did everything together, Lee. You can't understand that can you, being an only child? And I do mean everything," she said smiling lewdly, intimating that "sharing" included even intimacy with her husbands.
Her last statement was rendered so callously that Lee realized that Lauren was as unstable as her sister, and wondered how she could hold it together for three months without him ever seeing it.
"So, she seduced your would-be husbands, and you married them, and then lured them back to her to murder?"
"Almost," she said way too calmly, sliding her hand into the pocket of her white nurse's uniform. "Actually, we took turns… it was Lisa's turn to finish you off."
"You've got to be kidding?" he breathed out at both the seriousness and the lack of remorse she had delivered the last statement with. "You haven't answered why? Lisa said you didn't care about sensitive information from the officers," he needed this clarified in order to clear Rod and the other men.
"You men think you're so important with all your little secrets," she mocked, repeating almost exactly what Lisa had told him. "The real power is in life and death," she stated coldly. "And every time we got away with it, it made us stronger," she said with an incredibly disturbed, if not evil countenance.
"So, Lisa told me the truth… you killed for sport."
She chuckled deviously. "The conquest was the high; gaining your love and trust only to watch you big strong men die at the hands of the "weaker" sex was the pinnacle of that high. Only now… now, I'm all alone," she added sorrowfully her eyes lowering momentarily, before raising them again filled with rage. "I'm going to finish the job, Lee," she said, pulling a syringe from her pocket. "This is for Lisa."
Lee knew he had to act fast, he only hoped she was willing to listen.
"I told Lisa my secrets before she died, don't you want to know them too?" he asked, hoping to throw her off balance. "Don't you want to know what mistake she made and just how she died?" he added as her eyes grew darker. She didn't answer, but he proceeded on anyway. "The authorities were on to you, Lauren, and they enlisted me to play your husband. I only married you to trap a murderer." He let that hang a moment before continuing with the line that had driven Lisa over the edge. "I used you, just like you used Rod and all the other men. I never loved you, Lauren. You may have thought you fooled me with your lies for three months, but you never saw it coming. You never knew that I was using you to catch a Black Widow."
Her breathing increased, her eyes filled with hatred. "You loved me… you're lying," she said, the idea that her love could be rejected more distasteful than the idea of killing her mates for sport.
"I used you for a conviction… nothing else!" he yelled back.
"You made love to me…"
"I played the game, just like you did!" he taunted, needing her to make a mistake. He was pretty sure he could subdue her at this point, but what he didn't need was for her to make a run for it. He could subdue her long enough to ring the nurses station, but he had two bum legs and he wasn't up for a chase through the hospital halls. So, he needed her to commit to using the syringe so that she would come close enough for him to grab her. Furthermore, he couldn't afford to press the Call button yet, the last thing he needed was for a nurse to walk in unexpectedly. He was fully aware that, like her sister, Lauren was capable of killing anyone who got in her way.
"We let you live too long, Lee," she stated hatefully, taking a step toward him, but before he could grab her the door opened.
"Lauren!"
She turned sharply and away from the gurney to face Admiral Nelson in the doorway with several base security guards standing behind him, with obvious orders to hang back until he had assessed the situation.
"It's over," he said resolutely.
"You don't understand!" she screamed, aiming the syringe toward her own forearm.
"No Lauren!" Lee yelled, sitting up on an elbow, but unable to muster the strength to move any further, especially with his leg laden in a cast.
"I loved you, Lee," she said returning her countenance to the "loving wife" she had played for three months. "And now, one of us has to die," she finished as if it all made perfect sense, then plunged the needle into her arm and depressed the contents into her flesh.
Harry started for her, but she held the syringe out like a knife.
"Stay back! There's still enough in here to take you out with me!" she threatened.
Harry stopped in his tracks; Lee was still too close to her and in a precarious position if what she said was true. He held both hands up in front of him to ease her concerns.
"Let us help you, Lauren," he bargained.
"Why couldn't you have left us alone?" she questioned pitifully, ignoring the sweat beading on her forehead. "We never hurt anyone."
"You and your sister killed seven men," Harry countered, disputing her claim.
She shook her head weakly, her breathing becoming shallower. "But we loved them," she explained, tilting her head and urging Harry to understand. "You know I loved you, Lee," she said, turning toward him and looking increasingly mentally disturbed, still holding the syringe dripping with whatever poison she had originally prepared for Lee.
"Then why did they have to die?" Harry asked, taking a step closer, and hoping to throw her off-base with the paradox of her actions.
"Because," she said, as if everyone ought to understand the next words out of her mouth, "once I loved them, I have to let them go... before they betray me."
"You murdered Rod," Lee contradicted, "you never loved him, and I doubt very seriously you ever loved anyone in your life."
"We don't need love," she countered, speaking as if Lisa were still alive, swaying slightly and then thrusting the syringe toward Harry when he tried to take a step toward her. "Lisa and I are conquerors; we take what we want…" she said airily, stopping to catch her breath before continuing. "Did you hear that father?" she yelled to the air. "Nothing we did was ever good enough for you… you were always disappointed in us, but who's laughing now? We made more money than your precious Roger ever did!" she yelled, thrusting the syringe wildly in the air. "So, you see, Lee," she said moving from her raving mad discourse back to speaking calmly, "we offered our love and it was trampled on."
"Rod adored you," Lee countered.
"No, you men always lie… you're not worthy of our love; and so, we have to move on to someone else," she said in almost a whisper looking Lee deeply in the eyes. "And that's why," she said breathily, "you have to die, Lee," she finished lunging forward with the syringe ready to strike.
Harry saw his chance and stepped in, grabbing her by the waist and pulling her hand away, holding it at arm's length as security followed him in, freeing the syringe from her hand. They had no more than secured the poisonous needle when she began to convulse in Harry's arms. He laid her on the floor as Jamie, who had been held at bay until the room was secure, barreled in to care for the new patient.
"What was in the syringe?" he yelled.
"I don't know," Harry answered as Lee watched from the gurney, almost a bystander in this latest turn of events, a cruel twist that left him shocked, confused and weary.
Jamie was busy ordering anti-convulsion medication when all of the sudden her wild bucking ceased and she froze for a moment with her body arched forward. Then she expelled her last breath and her muscles released her arched back, as she fell dead to the floor. Her eyes were still open, staring toward Lee as Jamie worked to revive her. After a few minutes he sat back and sighed.
"She's dead," he said.
Lee fell back onto the gurney, closing his eyes as the shock of watching his wife die twice in as many days assaulted him, as Jamie's attention shifted back to his extremely ill patient.
"Nurse, post the time of death and have the orderlies remove the body," he said, moving quickly to the gurney. "Lee, are you, all right?"
He swallowed and nodded. "I'm okay, Jamie," he breathed out before turning his head toward Harry, who had taken position on the opposite side. "Did you hear, Sir? Not after Intelligence… just two homicidal maniacs," he said angrily.
"I heard, Lee. You did it, Lad, you cleared Rod's name and you stopped them from ever killing again."
Lee nodded weakly, and swallowed; the extremes of her emotions and paradoxical reasons for killing the men she purported to love were almost too overwhelming to take in all at once.
"How did you know she was here?" he asked when it suddenly dawned on him that Harry had appeared out of nowhere.
"Chip's been on the investigative trail with the Sheriff since the cabin. When he discovered that Lauren had a twin, I knew she'd come after you."
"They were raving mad, Harry… I lost track of how many reasons why she said they did it," he said confused. "And I swear… I could see both her and Lisa when she talked… like their personalities were almost shared…" he said, shaking his head when he couldn't quite articulate what he meant.
"Lee," Jamie interrupted, "I need for you to sleep now; I'm going to give you a sedative…"
"Jamie…" he started to protest.
"You're exhausted, Lee, and the release of adrenaline may stir back up the toxins," he explained, injecting the sedative as he spoke and invoking his medical rank in the matter.
Lee was too tired to fight; he was emotionally drained and his body was giving out anyway. So, he gave up and accepted Jamie's care without further protest.
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Chip ran through the Med Bay with Sheriff Perkins following close behind. He arrived at Lee's room just in time to see a body being rolled out on a gurney. He heard Lee's voice inside the room and knew he was safe; still he reached for the sheet, pulling it back to see the dead body of Lauren Crane. He exchanged a glance with Perkins and then entered the room, just as Jamie stepped away.
A small smile and a nod from Jamieson told him that Lee was okay as he stepped up to the gurney, while Tom stayed back to give them privacy.
"Hey Lee," he said quietly.
Lee opened his eyes to the greeting, barely hanging onto consciousness before the sedative took him completely.
"Hey Chip… thanks…" he said before his eyes closed and he lost the battle to stay awake.
Chip stared down at his friend a moment, taking in the close call that Lee Crane had endured once again at ONI's behest. "How is he, Sir?" he asked, finding his voice and having not seen Lee since the Medevac.
"He's going to be all right, Chip," he answered, looking down at his battle-worn friend and nodding to himself. "I think he's going to be all right."