Author's Notes: This is what happens when I'm supposed to be studying... ;-)
XI.
Scotty was beginning to feel stupid. Here he was, sitting in his car and waiting for the two FBI agents to arrive. Stay by the house, but wait for us until you go in, Taylor had said; like Scotty couldn't do this by himself, although, he had to admit that the fact that he was now standing here by the house, in which Lilly could be as a prisoner, was a big breakthrough in the case, but it wasn't his achievement.
Don't tell anybody about this, Taylor had added, and Scotty had soon found out why after the other man had given him the address. This house belonged to Stephen Anderson who was the owner of Anderson Medical Technology, a company founded by his father in the 1980's. The family had run the company since then, and although it wasn't as huge as others, the Anderson family, and especially Stephen Anderson, were pretty well-known and influential people in this part of the country.
And that meant they would have to be sure that Lilly was inside otherwise they would never get a chance to prove that Stephen Anderson was involved in this, and that meant they would have to enter the house illegally.
Slowly all the pieces of the puzzle started to fit together: so Anderson was the man who helped Dr. van Snyder do his experiments on human beings, and the motive behind that was probably just money. Obviously, after van Snyder's death, his wife had decided to put an end to it and for whatever reason she had contacted Lilly for help.
Scotty knitted his brows. There were just two more questions left; why had Mrs. van Snyder waited until after her husband's death before she had contacted Lilly? Had she wanted to protect her husband, or had she just found out about it afterwards?
Maybe Lilly would know that.
The second question – and this was bothering Scotty even more – was where was Mrs van Snyder now? There were only two possibilities Scotty could think of; either she was inside this house, like Lilly, or she was dead.
Or was she maybe hiding somewhere before they could get her?
And who were they? Thinking about what had happened during the last two days there had to be more people involved in this, but maybe Lilly would have more information.
If she was still alive.
Quickly Scotty pushed this thought away; they couldn't have killed Lilly, but then again she probably knew a lot about what had been going on, so maybe… but maybe they had kept her alive to try and find out who else knew.
A car came to a halt behind his and Scotty knitted his brows; he couldn't see who was sitting inside the other car, but he was sure it wasn't Taylor or Spade. This was a different car and that could only mean somebody else knew that he was here. Before Scotty had time to look at the plate a man got out of the car and he recognised him as Special Agent Dirk Shaw, the man who had questioned him the day before.
So Shaw was involved too?
Cursing silently Scotty tried to think of something to do. Think quicker, Valens, he told himself, as he watched through the mirror as Shaw approached his car. Should he try to overpower Shaw? But no, there wasn't much chance of that; Shaw had already drawn his weapon and would be ready to shoot at any movement Scotty made.
So the other possibility was to lure Shaw away so Taylor and Spade could get into the house without trouble. This seemed to make more sense to Scotty.
There wasn't any more time to think because Shaw was standing by his door, gun aimed at Scotty, and motioning for him to open the window.
Scotty did as he was told.
"Where are Taylor and Spade?" Shaw asked in a cold voice.
"Not here", Scotty answered. He saw anger flicker through Shaw's eyes and quickly added: "But I can take you to them."
"Alright, get out of the car, slowly, I want to see your hands all the time…"
Scotty hesitated a moment, not moving at all. "I don't think you got me right; I said they are not here. Get in the car and I'll take you to them."
For a moment it looked as if the plan was working, but then Shaw shook his head and grinned "You're not expecting me to fall for this are you?" His hands disappeared into his pocket and reappeared holding his phone. "Look, we'll find them with or without your help. I'm going to call for some backup here, and while my colleagues are searching for Taylor and Spade I'll arrest you and take you back to the office so you can start telling me what you have done to Detective Rush."
"What we… what we did to Detective Rush?" For a moment Scotty was taken aback. Was the man blaming him for Lilly's disappearance? Or was he maybe just bluffing, using it as an excuse to arrest him? But why would he do that? If he was involved and he wanted Scotty out of the way he would just have to kill him, or lock him up.
Suddenly it came to him; Shaw was not involved, they were probably just using him to make it seem like somebody was investigating Lilly's disappearance. Shaw was probably supposed to find him, Taylor and Spade and made sure that they could get their hands on them and then get them out of the way!
So Shaw was maybe on his side.
But how the hell am I going to convince him? Scotty thought. He looked at the other man who was still aiming his gun at him, with his cell phone pressed to his ear, waiting for somebody to answer.
Damn! Once he had called for back-up there wouldn't be much chance for them to free Lilly. Scotty had to make sure that Shaw wouldn't get that far…
"Drop the weapon!" a loud voice interrupted Scotty's thoughts. He craned his neck to see whose voice it was and realised with relief that Taylor and Spade had arrived. Both of them were approaching with their weapons drawn and aimed at Shaw, who was clearly distracted by the change in the situation.
Deciding that now was his only chance to do something, he pushed the car door open with a quick and forceful movement into Shaw who was standing too close. Scotty got out of the car quickly preparing to overpower Shaw when he heard the noise of a gun being fired, and saw the FBI agent fall to the ground.
………………
Lilly was nervous. She had no idea how much time she had spent in her little prison now, and what was worse; she didn't know how much more time would pass before they decided that they didn't need her anymore and got rid of her.
She had spent what felt like days lying on the small bed, wondering if somebody was looking for her, and – more importantly – if somebody would find her here. She was also worried about Danny, and Scotty too of course, although she wasn't sure if they knew that she had tried to reach Scotty that night.
But they did know that she had contacted Danny. Over the last couple of hours, since the man had told her that they knew, she had expected him to come back again and tell her that Danny was dead or something.
All the waiting and not knowing had begun to make her feel like she was going crazy. It didn't help that she hadn't had anything to eat or any sleep in hours.
The room she was locked in was small, and it seemed to be getting smaller all the time. Lilly had tried to get the door open earlier, when she had guessed that she was alone in the house, she had even tried to kick it down, willing to try anything to get out of here.
She was about to start trying again. She hadn't heard any sound in the house for a while, so maybe she was alone again. At least she could try to do something.
………………
Shaw didn't seem seriously wounded, but Scotty felt rage build up inside him. He stared at the man on the ground, his fists clenched around the gun and the cell phone he had picked up then he directed his angry stare at Taylor who had shot the man. He and Spade had almost reached them.
"Damn it, what were you thinking!" he couldn't help but shout at the other man. "I could've overpowered him without hurting him, and now we have to make sure he gets medical attention."
Taylor frowned. He didn't seem happy with the situation either, and when he answered he spoke in a small voice that didn't sound like the man Scotty had met the previous day. "It didn't look like you were going to make it, so I shot."
"Great, and now what?" Scotty spat. "I mean, we can't call an ambulance right now, so what're we going to do?"
"One of us has to take him to the hospital" Spade interjected in a calm voice. "That would give the other two some more time."
"Who?"
"I could do it", she volunteered. "You'll have to help me get him into the car."
Both men were thankful for Spade's offer, but Scotty wondered why she had made it. Of course he was happy that he didn't have to take the responsibility for Taylor's mistake.
Was it really a mistake?
All he knew was that for some weird reason Taylor seemed to be more anxious than he or Spade were to find Lilly.
While Scotty was still thinking about it, Spade had got the car she and Taylor had come in. It had been parked just around the corner, a short walk from the scene. She drove as close to the wounded man as possible and then got out of the car.
"Okay, let's get him in there."
"I wouldn't do that" a voice said behind Scotty. He turned around just to find himself looking into the barrel of a gun for the second time within half an hour. A man was holding it. He was wearing a suit and an expensive looking coat, and Scotty was almost sure he had seen the man before. He just couldn't place him. It wasn't Stephen Anderson, though, that much was for sure. And it confirmed Scotty's assumption that more people had to be involved in this.
However, their opponent seemed to know who they were. He ran his eyes over all three of them and finally rested them on Taylor.
"It's over. Put your hands where I can see them."
Scotty sighed as he and the two agents obeyed.