Clear Line of Sight
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Red Eye!
Chapter Nine
A few hours later…
Lisa Reisert was really beginning to hate the news.
Still dressed in her bloody clothes, she lay curled up on the bed of her motel room. The only thing the cheap room had besides a semi-decent shower was cable TV. Jackson had warned her not to use her credit cards and to frugally spend her cash. He had given her a large wad of his own money to add to her small amount of walk-around money. She had tried to refuse him, but he had shoved it into her purse. And once he was shot...
"Eight bystanders were gunned down earlier today in a mid-day shoot out at an outdoor shopping plaza. At least twenty more have been hospitalized for various injuries and two are currently in critical condition…" the newscaster began and footage from earlier in the day played on the screen.
The yellow 'Police Line – Do Not Cross' tape was already in place and flapping in a light breeze as bodies were covered and wounded civilians were wheeled out on stretchers to the waiting ambulances. Lisa scurried to the edge of her bed and craned her head at the small color TV.
"Please," she whispered urgently. "Jackson, please…"
Her eyes scanned the low-quality picture for any sign of the dark-haired man who had saved her life. She could see no covered bodies near the area in which they had hidden, unless the grainy images were distorting her sense of the events.
He might still be alive…Jackson might still be alive…
A slight smile crossed her face at the very thought. He was clever, even when wounded, and if they were lucky, he might be able to escape the hospital alive.
Unless they already killed you on the way…
The reporter continued on until the next report flashed onto the screen. Lisa's ears pricked up at the sound of "Blossom Palms Lane".
"Police responded to the 9-1-1 call concerning a prowler, only to discover the scene of a brutal home invasion. The owner of the house, Joseph Reisert, was discovered inside and nothing appeared to be missing. The police are asking for any information that might pertain to the ongoing investigation and also any information about his missing daughter, Lisa Reisert."
Her heart stopped. No…not daddy! No!
"Miss Reisert was last seen over three days ago. Since then, no one has seen or heard from her. She is considered by the police to be a missing person."
A photograph of herself, smiling, was posted on the screen.
Three days? But I just saw dad the other day…
"The phone number is—"
Lisa clicked off the set. This news crew was only giving the people hunting her an advantage. Now with the entire world alerted to her disappearance it was of vital importance that she complete her mission before they caught up to her. Jackson had given her a few tips, but it was nothing compared to having the experienced manager with her.
"Never again," she whispered, cradling the gun. "It'll never happen again."
The dial on her watch read 10pm. Showtime…
Present Day – 10:30pm
The dark blazer she had found in the backseat of her car helped her to conceal the gun and cover the bloodstains on her shirt. Her left arm and shoulder still throbbed from bullet wound she had received earlier in the day. But there was no time for her to seek medical attention.
Lisa blended into the shadows on the side of the building and she steered clear of the cameras as Jackson had warned. In a few moments, her target would come if Jackson was to be believed, and she would no longer have to look over her shoulder.
Any worry she had about being ill prepared or any qualms she had about killing another man had flown away with the news report of her father's death.
A light drizzle began to fall and she titled her head back, allowing the raindrops to mix with the tear streaks from her crying jag on the car ride over. Her curls frizzed and slowly began to be weighed down as the rain picked up in intensity.
Footsteps sounds and Lisa tightened her grip on the handle of the gun. A dark shape appeared at the corner of her vision from the door that Jackson had described.
The man jogged closer and she waited for him. When he was within earshot, she stumbled into his field of view, shaking and sobbing and her blazer flapping loose and allowing him glimpses of her torn and bloody clothing.
"Miss, are you okay?" he questioned, reaching out to touch her arm.
Hysterical, Lisa screamed and swatted his hand away. "No!!!"
"Miss, what happened?"
Calmly and coolly, she straightened up and aimed the gun at him. He froze mid-step with his right hand half-way reaching into his pocket, presumably for a cell phone.
"Keep your hands where I can see them," she ordered, clicking the safety off the gun.
Don't give him a chance to attack back…
"Miss?"
"Shut up!"
"Are you okay?"
"Sweetheart, are you okay?" Joe inquired.
"I said shut up!" Lisa yelled, the gun quivering in her grasp.
"What do you want? Money?"
"No—I want what you took from me."
"I've never seen you before in my life," protested the stranger—a middle-age man losing his hair to male-pattern baldness.
"Look closer because you have. I'm the woman that you put a contract against. I'm the woman whose life you stole!!"
"Listen, miss, I swear—"
Lisa took a step closer and jabbed the loaded weapon at his heart. "My name is Lisa Reisert and you killed my father, my best friend, two innocent hard-working men, and the one man I might have been able to trust. You killed them!"
A sly smile crossed his face. "Ah, Rippner's favorite. Is he here too? Oh, Rippner—" the man began to sing-song.
"Jackson's dead," Lisa snapped harshly. "Thanks to your men and their orders, he's dead. I watched him die."
"So you decided to come after me? Tell me, little girl, what are you hoping to accomplish?"
The rain was pounding down now—drenching them both as they stood in the middle of the sidewalk.
"I want you to make the call. Call off your dogs and I'll let you walk away from here. You tell them to leave me and everyone else close to me alive and I'll let you live."
"Or?"
"I kill you and anyone else who gets in my way. Do you have a family, Mr. Hoffman? I think Jackson told me about something about a wife and, what was it, two children?" Lisa hissed, baiting him. She had no intention of killing any innocent people but her tone and body language suggested otherwise.
"I—I have no idea what you're talking about," he said nervously.
"Make the call and all four of you can live. Cancel the hits."
She pressed the gun against his chest once again and he shook. He had calmly ordered the death of innocent people for years and had never thought that one of them might come after him. Any other man in his position would have had bodyguards, but he apparently had not worried about such trivial matters.
"You know that some of them will still go after you."
"No they won't. Jackson told me everything about your little organization. I know exactly how everything works. They won't disobey your orders."
"Jackson did."
Lisa snorted. "Jackson quit. He left you scumbags to fail and to die."
"Can I get my phone? Or are you going to shoot me?"
Grudgingly, she stepped back and allowed him to reach for the cell phone.
How did I become so cold? How can I stand here like one of them and do this? This is Jackson's job, not mine…
But it's the only way to save my life.
She waited while he made the appropriate phone calls. Once he was finished, she pocketed his cell phone and told him to get lost.
As soon as the terrorized man turned to run, Lisa shot him in the back.
He fell face down into the growing puddle of water on the sidewalk. The rain washed his blood down into a storm drain and she watched him for several minutes before sloshing her way back to her car.
For the second time that day, she had killed a man.
Author's Notes:
Yeah, Lisa's a little bit on the vicious side this chapter. But then her best friend was murdered, her father was murdered, Keefe was killed, and so was the detective because they knew her and they knew about the case. Not to mention she was shot and she had to watch Jackson waste away in her arms.
I think that's enough to make any normal person snap, not to mention Lisa who's probably been pretty edgy. Besides, she had two choices: kill him or be killed.
Hopefully that all makes sense and Lisa isn't too OOC. Only one more chapter to go and you'll all find out what happened to Jackson. Thanks for reading/reviewing!
RESPONSES TO REVIEWS:
Maria- Thanks:)
athena- Thank you so much! I hadn't even thought of that until you mentioned it! But I promise that this story has a happier ending:)