At the ME's office, Ethan was frantically pulling papers out of a file box in the records room.
"A… Ackland…. Atwood…. Amos…" He paused and looked at the files that were strewn all over the desk.
"It must be here somewhere…" Just then Dani sidled into the room.
"Whatdya looking for, doc?" she inquired, leaning on the desk and looking over Ethan's shoulder as he thumbed through more files.
"Oh, hey there Dani. I'm actually…" as he spoke, he triumphantly produced the desired folder and did a 180 in the office chair with the exclamation
"Archer! Yeah!"
Dani looked puzzled.
"Does this have to do with some dead body? Archer sorta sounds like some secret agent's last name." She smiled mischievously.
"No, actually… uh, Jessica Archer was brought here last year, and she has a twin sister with the same genetic heart condition that killed her sister. So I just wanted to do some, uh, follow up, y'know, to make sure she..."
"Make sure she isn't dead? Oh sure, I understand totally, doc." Dani mischievous grin remained in place, and she whacked Ethan on the shoulder playfully. At that moment Curtis walked into the room, hands on hips.
"And what do you think you're doin' in here? Get yo'self out there right now, this ME's office don't have time for slackers. And if I catch you in here one more time, just one more…" Curtis shook his finger at Dani. She stood up and quickly headed to the door.
"Sorry Dr. Brumfield, I guess my curiosity got the better of me, it won't happen again, honest." Just before she walked out, she called back to Ethan,
"Good luck with your follow up, doc."
Curtis raised his eyebrows.
"Follow-up? Since when did we do follow-up on cadavers? Or is this maybe somethin' I don't want to know about? And you'd better clean up all these here papers, this records room was a mess to begin with anyways, no thanks to you."
Ethan held up his hands defensively.
"I'll put them all back, I promise. I was just looking for some information about a… uh… relative of one of the cadavers that we had last year. I know that sounds weird, but…" Curtis nodded emphatically.
"Mmmhmmm, you have no idea." Ethan continued, looking slightly flushed.
"You remember Karen Archer, right?"
"Mmmhmmm. She thought you were 'cute 'n bossy'. Is that what this is about?"
Ethan shrugged, and nodded, looking embarrassed.
"Uh, yeah. Actually. I wanted to find her birthday, and since Jessica Archer was her twin sister, I could just find her birthday, and then…" Curtis interrupted.
"I don't know what is wrong with you, boy. Why didn't ya just call the girl and ask her for her birthdate?"
"Well, I wanted to call her on her birthday, and I wanted it to be a surprise…"
"Did you ever hear of the internet? White pages? You kin find anybody on there now. What am I talkin' to you for, anyway? Just call her! It's been way longer than two months." Curtis gave Ethan an accusing look. Ethan smiled eagerly.
"You mean, you think I should call her? Like now?"
"No, not "like now". Later, when you're done cleaning up these papers."
"Yeah, okay, I'm on it."
Curtis threw his hands up into the air as he walked toward the door.
"What am I gonna do with that boy?"
Megan heard Curtis's voice coming from the records room. She needed to talk with him, so she headed over, but she stopped before she reached the doorway when she heard their conversation. When they were finished, she smiled.
Good news for Peter.
"Curtis, I just got a call from Bud. They've arrested Jack LaGuardia and most of his gang, but they didn't find Glenna. They didn't get much information from him, but Jill McLaren said she might know where she is. Sam got shot in the leg and is at the hospital now, and Bud wants Peter to go with him to find Glenna."
Curtis looked concerned.
"Shot in the leg? Nothin' too serious, I hope?"
"Bud said she'll be okay, just not able to walk for a while. And you know Sam; she'll probably be stir crazy by tomorrow. So anyway, they got Eli Forrester's killer. Just thought you might be interested."
Curtis nodded.
"Yeah, that's real good. Now you can get Eli Forrester's cadaver off the table and get a new one on, Kate already got one for you." Megan sighed and nodded. She didn't feel like the case of Eli Forrester was
completely out of her hands. And she wouldn't let it go until Glenna Foss was found.
25 Langdon Avenue. On that street, in a brown, ranch-style house, with brown shutters and small windows, on a yellow couch in the basement, sat Glenna Foss. Her face and arms were marked with bruises and scrapes, and her complexion was pale and drawn. Slouched on her left side, gun in hand, was Frederick Haskell. He looked completely miserable as he passed his gun from hand to hand. He was thinking about how he got himself into this mess of a lifestyle… crime, drugs, gangs. Estrangement from his real friends, and now kidnapping his old girlfriend. And everything being in secret. That was always one of his strengths; being able to keep secrets, to hide anything and everything that he did from everyone else. But he hated it. All he could do now was protect Glenna from that monster of a man Jack LaGuardia and his gang. Fred's gang members had been watching him closely lately. Maybe they thought their boss was becoming soft. Or maybe he had never been hard to begin with… just easy enough to get along with. He was a good boss, and they respected him for his brilliant ideas. His latest one was to get Glenna away from Jack LaGuardia so that he would no longer have his bargaining chip.
Fred had been informed that Jack and his gang had been caught by the police. They were looking for Glenna, he knew. Now what would he do?
Jill probably tipped them off… she'll send them my way, too. Not much I can do... I'll turn myself in. At least then I'll just get prison time… unless my gang turns on me first. Or if Jack's lose canon doesn't get me before that…
Jack LaGuardia's 'lose canon' sat in a backroom at the car rental shop, the same place where Glenna and Eli had rented their car upon arrival in Philly.
Bill Travino, or Billy-T, as he was called by his criminal friends, was plotting with himself how he was going to get Jack LaGuardia free. And how to get Glenna Foss back. How to get Freddy Haskell and his gang out of town. And how to put a cork in Jill McLaren's squealing. He was good at killing many birds with the same stone; it was one of his favorite ways of doing crime.
I can pull this off not trouble... just have to get the right cards, and bam! This whole game is mine.
He paused from his wily scheming and pulled out his cell-phone.
Just hold on, Jackie boy. Your uncle Billy's gonna bail you out again… and this time he's in charge of everything.
"Hello, is this the Philadelphia middle school? Great. What time does school finish tomorrow? I'll need to pick up my niece…"
[Thanks for reading! I always appreciate your guys's reviews (there's some bad English for ya! :). I'm reaaaaallllyyyy sad to hear that we'll be losing 3 of BOP's finest next year! Oh well… more reason to write fanfiction about Bud, Sam and Peter, right?]