Chapter 9
"Hey, take it easy!" Jill cried, as she was roughly pulled to her feet. Looking beyond the fence, she watched the vague outlines of her two friends hesitate and then retreat into the gloomy dark. The officer spun her around and with a firm hold on the back of her neck, led her towards the squad car.
Jill stared glumly ahead as she struggled to keep up, mentally berating herself for falling off of the fence. She hadn't fallen off of a fence since she was twelve, she thought with digust. This was certainly a mess. Her identification wasn't with her and even if it was, it was that of her alias, who was very much not a detective. How was she going to get out of this without sitting in jail and wasting precious time.
The policeman reached the squad car and shoved her inside and locked the door, leaving to go radio in what had just happened to his superiors. Jill let out a soft curse and leaned back in her seat. Her cap had fallen off, and a few wisps of hair were in her eye, sticking to her wet face. She tossed her head in frustration trying to put them back in place, since her hands were secured behind her. It just made it worse.
Mumbling more choice words, she rested her head against the window and waited to be taken to the station. A few minutes later, the tall, skinny policeman that had led her to the car, opened the door and got inside. his leather jacket squeaking annoyingly as he did.
"Little young to be a cat burglar, aren't you?" he patronized her, turning in his seat.
Jill rolled her eyes. "Look, I can explain everything."
The cop scoffed and turned on the engine of his car. "Yeah?" he asked, his tone full of contempt. "You'd better start now."
Jill's mind raced frantically for a life saving lie. Suddenly, a big smile spread across her face.
She had an idea.
Sabrina and Kelly wearily trudged back to Jill's hotel room and changed out of their wet clothing, feeling defeated and unaccomplished over their lack of evidence and guilty over Jill's capture.
"She's smart, she'll talk her way out of it, don't worry." Sabrina assured Kelly as they changed.
Kelly sighed and peeled off her wet black shirt. "I know she is. Just seems like it happened for nothing, ya know? Her cover could be blown. Our covers could be blown." she said miserably.
Sabrina shook her head. It had been Kelly's idea to break in and she was clearly blaming herself. The girls finished dressing quietly in preparation for going out. Jill would call in a few minutes and they would have to take a chance that they wouldnt be recognized and be ready to bail her out.
And hopefully not be arrested themselves.
"What happened to your arm?" Kelly asked, as she watched her friend wincing in pain trying to roll down her sleeve.
Sabrina looked up. "Oh, I cut myself on the fence. Damn thing." she said dismissively.
Kelly sighed and sat next to her on the bed. She pulled up Sabrina's sleeve and grimaced at the deep scratches on her friend's right arm. "Weren't you the one that warned us about tetanus?" she said, getting up and heading to the restroom.
"Oh, shut up." Sabrina replied good naturedly. Kelly returned with their first aid kit sat back down, taking her friend's arm. Sabinra made a face while Kelly disinfected her wound with alcohol, applied a salve, and bound it tightly with some bandages from the kit.
"Thanks, Kell." she said gratefully, as Kelly secured the bandage in place and gave her arm a final pat.
Kelly smiled sadly at her. "I wish Jill's problem was as easy to fix." she muttered with a frown.
Sabrina carefully rolled her sleeve down over her bandaged arm and sighed.
"She hasn't called. Let's just get down to the station and see if we can find her and get her out of trouble."
Kelly nodded in agreement and the two put on their coats and tiredly headed towards the door. Just before Sabrina's hand reached the doorknob, it was abruptly pulled opened. Sabrina and Kelly reeled backwards in surprise as their grinning visitor stood in the doorway.
Jill.
"Jill! How-?" Sabrina sputtered, recovering from her shock. Jill bounded past them into the room, flanked by Sherriff Joe McMurrey. Sabrina and Kelly stared at the pair in disbelief.
The night was evidently full of surprises.
"Feel free to explain." Kelly laughed in relief, as she shut the door behind them.
Joe shook his head in wonder. "You three are insane." he said with a chuckle. "Fairbanks police hasn't officially begun an investigation into my cousin's disappearance yet. It took a bit of explaining on my part. but I don't think they're going to hassle you three about it. It might even speed up their own investigation."
Kelly looked confused. "How did you get involved, Sherriff?"
"You of all people should know about the one phone call." Jill teased, hooking her arm around her friend's shoulder. "I told the police I was undercover with the Bellfort police, so I had to back it up somehow." she giggled. She turned to Joe and smiled gratefully.
"Thanks again, Joe."
Joe blushed and rubbed the back of his head. "It's usually a bad thing when a woman calls me out of bed at three thirty in the morning. Glad to be of help." he said, smiling fondly at Jill. He wouldn't mind hearing from the beautiful, shapely blonde no matter what the circumstance or time of night.
Jill smiled back and leaned up to kiss his cheek.
"Well, I appreciate it, Sherriff." she said softly, still smiling. The two stared dreamily at each other for a few moments, while Sabrina and Kelly exchanged amused glances.
Finally, tired of the awkwardness, Sabrina cleared her throat. Jill and Joe broke eye contact and chuckled to themselves.
"I'll leave you ladies to the rest of your night." Joe said politely, backing towards the door. He glanced at Jill again. "We'll be in touch?" he asked hopefully.
Jill nodded shyly. "We'll be in touch."
She flashed him another gleaming white smile and he beamed and let the door click shut softly behind him. The three girls watched the closed door quietly for a few moments, Kelly and Sabrina still stunned.
"Well." Sabrina started, breaking the silence. "Only Jill Munroe can get a date at three in the morning while she's under police custody." she teased.
Jill giggled and shrugged her slim shoulders. "I had to say something to stay out of trouble. And can I help it if the sheriff is tall and handsome?" she said innocently.
"Right." Sabrina scoffed. "I'm amazed the guy remembered to put on pants before coming to your rescue."
Jill swatted the back of her head. "He's a nice guy. Behave yourself." she laughed.
Relieved that their covers hadn't been blown and completely exhausted by the night's events, the girls wearily sank onto Jill's bed. The first aid kit was still sitting in the middle of the bed and Jill glanced at it in concern.
"Who got hurt?" she asked, her brows knitting with worry.
"Me. Cut myself on the fence." Sabrina sighed, extending her arm and pulling up her sleeve until the white bandages showed.
Jill frowned. "Are you ok? Weren't you the one that warned us about tetanus?"
Kelly burst into laughter and, also seeing the humor in Jill's comment, Sabrina started as well. Lost and confused, but unable to keep a straight face herself, Jill soon joined them. The three girls giggled together, releasing their stress and nervous tension as they rolled around on Jill's bed. Finally, their giggles dissipated and they let out a collective sigh.
"What a night." Sabrina groaned, rubbing her eyes.
Jill scoffed derisively and flopped onto her back. "You're complaining?" she asked incredulously. "I was the one carted away in handcuffs, remember."
"Well, it was just as bad watching." Kelly insisted, patting Jill's head. Jill gave her friends a faint smile and rolled over onto her stomach to look up at them.
"And our covert missions aren't over, ya know. We have a secret meeting to attend tomorrow night, don't we, Bri?" she asked.
Sabrina nodded wearily.
"Any ideas how we're going to get inside this time, Kell?" she asked. "This time there's going to be people there."
Kelly looked thoughtful for a moment. "Maybe." she said slowly, carefully weighing her options in her head.
"Maybe?" Jill asked, sitting up. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Kelly grinned broadly.
"Well, I have an idea." she started, still grinning her mischievous grin. "But I don't think you're going to like it."
"We really couldn't think up of anything better than this?" Jill whispered miserably.
"No. Quit complaining." Kelly shot at her. She shuddered. "And scoot over."
Jill grinned and moved aside to give Kelly some more room. She knew her friend was severely claustrophobic and being stuck with another person on top of a toilet tank inside a cramped restroom stall was probably stressing her out.
"You ok, Kell?" she whispered gently, squeezing her hand.
Kelly nodded her head. "Yeah, sorry for snapping at you. I'm fine."
Jill watched her for a moment waiting for her face to give away the contrary. It didn't, so she patted her hand and turned her attention back to listening for Sabrina.
It was 5:10 P.M. Closing time for the office and people were milling around the lobby, coming and going, talking in clusters, and getting off of the elevators in droves. Neither Kelly or Jill had shown up at their jobs today. They had spent their time carefully searching Adam's apartment, hoping their search would yield the missing document that was garnering so much attention. Unfortunately, it hadn't turned up, so at 4:45, the girls had taken the bus back to the office, where Sabrina snuck them inside. Kelly and Jill snuck into the women's bathroom on the second floor and when no one was looking, had crawled through the metal grate into the air vent above the bathrooms. They had planned on waiting up there until the maintenance people cleaned, and then biding their time until Piper's secretive meeting at eleven that night.
However, Kelly had been forced to climb back out after realizing that her claustrophobia wasn't going to allow her to hide in the much narrower than anticipated 2x2 air vent for even five minutes. She had started going into a panic attack before she scrambled out of the vent as quickly as she could. Jill followed and it had taken several minutes for her to calm Kelly down. Though she seemed to be alright now, Jill was still worried about her friend.
Her and Sabrina had seen Kelly have a panic attack once before in a stalled shopping mall elevator and it wasn't a pretty sight.
"Sabrina will be here soon and we can figure out what to do." she whispered, gently rubbing Kelly's back.
The girls waited several more minutes until Sabrina walked into the restroom. They watched her through the slit on the side of the door as she came in and looked around to make sure she was alone. When she started checking under the stall doors, Jill gave Kelly a mischievous grin and put a finger to her lips. The stall they were in was the last in line and when Sabrina knelt down to check, Jill jumped off of the toilet she was perched on and stomped her feet loudly in front of Sabrina's face.
Sabrina jerked back in alarm with a shriek of surprise and toppled over backwards.
Jill and Kelly giggled and opened the door to greet her.
"What's the matter with you!?" Sabrina scolded them, her hand to her heart.
Jill knelt down and helped her up. "Change of plans. Kelly needs wider pastures to graze in."
Sabrina looked at her in confusion and then slowly nodded her head in understanding. They all should have realized that before.
"Sorry." Kelly mumbled sheepishly, looking at her feet. She was clearly embarrassed by her shortcomings and had hoped to overcome them by forcing exposure.
"Hey, don't worry about it." Sabrina said, clapping her on the shoulder. "We understand. I would sure say something if I had to be around a rat for hours." she said with an understanding grin.
Jill grinned and tilted her head, pleased by the sheer luck of the opportunity presented to her.
"You didn't say anything when you brought that Danny guy to my house last month." she piped up happily.
Sabrina slowly turned and glared at Jill. "I don't say anything when I work with you either." she shot back with a grin.
Jill made a face and clapped her hand over her heart.
The girls giggled for a moment and Kelly was glad for their understanding attitudes. She had been disgusted with herself for her limitations and had expected them to be too.
Sabrina clapped her hands and drew her friends into a huddle as if she was a coach going through a game plan. "Ok, the maintenance ladies are already cleaning on this floor, so they should be by in about-" she cocked her head thoughtfully. "- twenty minutes or so. As soon as they're done, no one else should come by, so we can hide out in here."
Kelly and Jill caught each other's eye and giggled at Sabrina's enthusiasm.
"Sounds good, Chief." Kelly replied with an over exaggerated nod.
Sabrina's light hearted response was interrupted by the creak of hinges as the bathroom door swung open. The girls scattered away from each other, assuming menial tasks, as the cleaning lady walked in. She was twenty minutes earlier than expected and Jill giggled softly as she pushed her way into a nearby stall. Sabrina rolled her eyes, and then exchanged polite nods with the older woman as she pretended to check her makeup at the sink. Kelly needlessly washed her hands a few sinks down from her and then walked out the door. Sabrina did the same soon after and Jill followed a few minutes later.
The three girls independently wandered around the building for the next twenty minutes, laying low and being careful not to attract too much attention. Sabrina was the first to walk back into the newly cleaned restroom and waited patiently for her two friends to join her. She looked at her watch. 5:51. As she walked around, she noticed the amount of people inside the building had begun to noticeably decrease after 5:30. That was good. The less people inside, the less chance of someone walking in on their hiding place.
Sabrina turned towards the sink again when the door swung open. She looked into the mirror and was relieved that the newcomer was Jill.
Her friend grinned and clapped her on the shoulder. "Twenty minutes, huh?" she teased, flashing her a toothy grin.
"Yeah, yeah." Sabrina muttered, shoving her lightly.
Jill giggled and hopped up to sit on top of one of the sinks. "What are we going to do in here for five hours?" she sighed.
Sabrina shrugged. "Kelly probably has a deck of cards with her."
As if on cue, Kelly walked into the bathroom and grinned at her friends. "The building is emptying out. There's no one still here on this floor." she announced, leaning up against the wall.
"Good." Jill said. "As soon as the lights are out, we can leave this palace here."
Sabrina giggled and looked around. "I don't know. I kind of like it. There's a kind of soothing ambiance in here. Nothing like a bathroom environment to clear your head." she joked.
Kelly groaned. "Now I know why it takes you so long to answer your phone."
The girls shared a giggle and looked around. When they had planned this, the five hour stay in the empty building had seemed like the easy part.
A few hours later, the girls were restless and bored. They had played every card game they could think of and had run out of things to entertain themselves with.
Jill sighed miserably. "You know, usually on a stake out I try not to drink too much water beforehand so I won't have to get up to go the restroom." She looked around. "Beats me why I worried about it this time."
Kelly and Sabrina laughed.
"It's past eight, you think we can look around outside?" Kelly asked.
Sabrina shrugged. "I think we'll be alright. We'll just stick close and stay away from lit areas."
The girls stretched out their cramped arms and legs and cautiously exited the restroom, peeking outside in every direction. The hallways were dark and deserted, the cleaning staff having left just a few minutes ago. The girls crept over to the banister that overlooked the lobby and peeked out into the building. A light was on in one office on the seventh floor, the bright light immediately obvious in the darkness.
Russell Piper.
"I wonder if Dale Warner is here too." Kelly whispered, as the girls drew themselves out of sight.
Sabrina shrugged. "Let's find out."
Though they had never seen him, Sabrina had learned that Warner's office was on the fourth floor and the three girls walked quietly up the pitch black staircase in search of it, alarmed at how dark it was once the soft moonlight could no longer stream through uncovered windows. They opted not to use their flashlights in case someone was still lurking about. It would do no good to botch another mission and risk being seen. Unable to see anything in the darkness, they held hands and groped about uncertainly, hoping they wouldn't run into anything.
A soft thud revealed Sabrina had failed.
"Ow!" she muttered in the darkness. Jill was second in line and stopped in her tracks. "What?" she asked quickly.
"There's a wall. Time to turn."
Kelly and Jill giggled softly as the trio continued up the stairs.
By the time they reached the door to the fourth floor, all three girls had either tripped and fallen or run into something painful.
Sabrina gratefully swung open the stairwell door that lead to the fourth floor. There was a light on in a room down the hall.
"That must be him." she whispered.
"Let's see who else is here." Jill suggested. "Maybe everyone who's involved will stay after."
Kelly furrowed her brow. "Why stay after? Why not just meet somewhere else?" she questioned out loud.
The girls pondered that for a moment and found that they couldn't come up with a solution.
"Maybe they need it to be here?" Sabrina thought out loud. "Why would it have to be here, though?"
The girls gave up and decided to search all twelve stories for anyone else who might be in the building. Their search turned up nothing further, but earned them each a few bruises from groping around in the darkness.
Finally, irritated and tired, they sat in the dark stairwell between the eleventh and twelfth floors to rest, mumbling and rubbing sore shins and elbows. Suddenly, Kelly realized something.
"Why isn't Mayhew here? Wasn't he involved?" she asked.
Sabrina and Jill shared a look and shrugged.
"Maybe he'll be along later." Jill guessed. That was as good as they could do for now.
The girls waited, chatting quietly, until 10:30 P.M., then bumped and thudded their way back to the second floor, where the conference room was located. They snuck back into the restroom and flicked on their flashlights.
"I guess I have to wait out here." Kelly said apologetically, as her friend's prepared to crawl back up into the vents. "I'll check their offices while they're meeting."
"Good idea, Kell." Jill grunted, as she swung herself up into the vent. She helped Sabrina through and Kelly watched them disappear into the darkness. She looked at the narrow vents and shuddered, despite herself. She sighed and sat down against the wall to wait, feeling utterly useless and completely disgusted with herself
Sabrina and Jill crawled through the narrow vents guided by a thin penlight clamped in Sabrina's mouth, sliding as quietly as they could along the maze of tunnels to the conference room. Jill was in the rear and desperately hoped that Sabrina could find her way back. She had long ago lost her way in the dark.
After several twists and turns, Sabrina clicked off her light.
"We're close." she whispered.
Jill nodded and doubled her efforts to stay quiet. She followed Sabrina's dark outline until she saw a soft yellow glow in the distance. That had to be the conference room.
The two girls edged closer until they could both comfortably peek through the metal slits of the grate. It was 10:45 and Warner and Piper were conversing with each other in low voices. This was the first time they had seen Dale Warner in person.
"Think he'll sell me a used car?" Jill joked. Sabrina smiled. He did look like a used car salesman, she thought, with his dark slicked back hair, pencil thin mustache and bright green colored shirt. The girls listened carefully, but couldn't make anything out what the men were saying and soon gave up. At ten minutes till eleven, Warner left the room and returned a few minutes later with another man that neither Sabrina or Jill recognized. The newcomer was grossly fat, sweat glistening on top of his bald head. He wheezed when he walked, and wore a trim goatee and mustache, their neatness contrasting the rest of his slovenly appearance. The girls shared a look and listened intently, hoping they would speak louder now that there were more of them present.
"Gentleman." Piper called to them, by way of greeting. The newcomer nodded his head at him and took a seat.
"So why the secrecy, Russ." he said, slumping into a plush rolling chair. He leaned back and propped his feet up on the expensive conference room table. He pulled a bag of chips out of his jacket, crinkling the foil loudly, and set them on the table, gesturing for his companions to take freely. They declined his hospitality
"Ask Warner, he set this up, not me." Piper answered back.
Jill and Sabrina shared an amused look. The two men didn't like each other.
"I can't leave the building with these." Warner explained, leaning over. He pulled a long, thick roll of paper out from under his seat and spread it out across the table. The sheets were creased, seeming to have been folded into a square at some point. Sabrina and Jill strained their eyes. They were too far away to tell what was on the papers that Warner had spread out, but it appeared to be some sort of chart or graph, it's meaning unclear to them. Could this be what Adam had been working on?
"Well, I'll be damned." the newcomer muttered. "John's gonna love this."
The girls sighed in frustration inside their hiding place. Who the hell was John?
"I thought as much, man." Warner said cockily.
The fat man rolled from his seat with a grunt and, pulling out a small camera, began to take several snapshots of the charts.
Sabrina sighed in annoyance. "Who is he?" she sighed. Jill shrugged, listening intently and hoping for someone to drop his name.
"How's McMurrey doing?" Warner asked suddenly.
Sabrina and Jill froze.
The fat newcomer dug into his bag of chips and shoved a handful of the snacks into his mouth.
"Haven't talked to John since day before yesterday." he said, crunching noisily.
Piper looked disgusted. "He's still alive, isn't he?" he asked.
Still chewing, the fat man nodded his head. He swallowed and wiped his hand on his pants. "I'm sure. John would tell me if he wanted him dead. He hasn't decided yet. He's slept this whole time, probably won't even remember what hit him."
Sabrina and Jill bounced in silent excitement in the vent. Adam was alive. There was a chance this could all end happily.
Warner scoffed. "Can't do that forever, you're going to kill him." he said derisively.
The newcomer glared at him. "It won't be for forever."
Warner snorted at him. "It's been nearly a week, man. How much longer will it take? I didn't sign on for something like this." he said angrily.
The fat man crunched another handful of chips before answering.
"Things got complicated." he replied smoothly. "As for how much longer, that's up to John. I don't even know where he's keeping the guy." he said, spraying crumbs from his full mouth. He chewed and swallowed. "By the way, the stock is running low."
Warned groaned. "I can't." he said shortly.
The newcomer gave him a piteous look. "Oh, come off it. You can. Get Rich to help you." he responded, throwing his greasy hand in the air.
Warner glared at him. "Fine. Last time, man."
Sabrina was about to pitch a fit. "Say his goddamn name." she fumed. Jill smiled and shook her head at her friend's impatience. She pulled a camera from her pocket and took several shots of the three men. If they couldn't get a name, someone was bound to recognize him somewhere.
And if no one here could, there was always Charlie.
Then men talked several minutes longer, bringing up nothing of interest to the two hidden detectives and revealing nothing further about the identities of the obese man or the mysterious John. Sabrina and Jill began to grow restless in their hiding place and were extremely grateful when the men stood and appeared to be getting ready to leave.
"Let's go get Kelly." Sabrina whispered.
Jill nodded silently and followed her down into the maze of vents, taking advantage of the men bustling around and gathering their things to start crawling away. Once they were far enough away, Sabrina pulled out her penlight, stuck it back in her mouth and led Jill back to the women's restroom where their evening had started. It seemed like days ago, they felt so tired.
As they neared the metal grate they had come from, both felt suddenly anxious to get out of the confining area. Sabrina felt she couldn't be inside for another minute and shuddered, wondering if the feeling was something what it was like for Kelly.
At the sound of rustling around above her head, Kelly tensed and aimed her flashlight up at the open vent above her. She heard the familiar whispered voices of her friend's and quickly got up to help them down.
She had spent the evening painstakingly going through both Piper's and Warner's office, finding absolutely nothing of value. She was frustrated and restless and glad to be getting out of here.
Sabrina's lower half swung down into the stall, and Kelly took hold of her legs to help her down. Sabrina jerked in surprise and uttered a sharp curse.
"What?" Jill called in a frightened voice from behind her.
"It's me." Kelly whispered, fighting back a laugh.
Sabrina's hanging body relaxed and Kelly again took hold of her legs and guided her to a sure foothold.
"Sorry, Bri." Kelly grinned at her when she was back on her feet. The two girls helped Jill down and watched as she resealed the metal grate, as if they had never been there.
"How did it go?" Kelly whispered.
Sabrina licked her lips. "Adam is alive, they're keeping him somewhere. They don't know though. Some guy named John is in charge it seems. We took some pictures, maybe we can run the names by Charlie tomorrow morning and see what he can dig up." she explained quickly. They told Kelly everything they had learned. She looked both relieved and impressed by their story.
"Did you find anything in their offices?" Jill asked her.
Kelly made a face and rolled her eyes. "Sure. Lots of things. Just nothing important" she said sarcastically.
Sabrina grinned and clapped her shoulder. "We found out a lot just now. And it was your idea, don't worry about it." she consoled, seeing that Kelly was irritated with herself.
Kelly gave her a faint smile and turned towards the door. "Did they leave yet? I can't wait to get out of here."
Sabrina peeked her head out of the door, and cautiously made her way to the banister. Piper's office was dark. The lights were off in the conference room and the building appeared to be empty. She crept back into the bathroom.
"I think we'll be ok to leave now." she decided.
Kelly and Jill heaved a sigh of relief and they followed Sabrina back towards the stairwell. Holding hands, they inched their way down the stairs for the last time that evening. Sabrina had wedged a side door open with a stick, so that they wouldn't trip the alarm on their way out and they paused in front of it. They waited for a few minutes longer before venturing out of the building into the parking lot, to make sure that the three men were truly gone. Finally satisfied that they were safe, the girls walked out into the night towards the shopping center that Sabrina had parked last night. Sabrina and Jill stretched their cramped muscles gratefully as they trudged through the snow, enjoying their walk after having been crouching for so long.
The lack of alarm made the walk even more enjoyable for Jill.
The girls reached their car without further incident and climbed inside, pleased that the night's excursion had gone smoothly.
"Drive fast, Bri." Jill mumbled, as Sabrina backed out of her parking space. "I need to get back to the hotel as soon as possible."
"We all need to get back." Kelly sighed wearily, leaning her head against her window.
Jill looked pained. "No, I really need to get back." she said slowly.
Sabrina gave her a curious look through the rearview mirror. "Why, Jill?"
Jill looked around in distress, her face blushing in embarrassment. She sighed loudly in resignation.
"Because I have to go to the bathroom."