He gets it, Russell finally gets it and the mystery is starting to unwrap but did he connect the dots too late?!


"I need to see those detectives," Russell said. Carol took his phone and called the police station. The detectives promised to visit the hospital as soon as possible and they were true to their word: they showed up in less than half an hour.

"What the hell happen to you? I mean… Mr. Jackson… sir," Burns asked.

"This is my wife, Dr. Carol Jackson," Russell introduced with slightly annoyed tone. He used the F-word and all the other cuss-words generously, but he practically never cursed in front of Carol.

"Dr. Jackson," detective Grier greeted.

"Hello. Last night someone lured my husband outside to the garden and attacked him. He got several hits and kicks to his head and to the body. There are broken ribs, swelling in the brain and he has some issues with the eyesight," Carol said.

"How's the memory?" Burns asked.

"He has trouble with short term memory but that is not why you were called here," Carol said.

"Do you wish to report the assault?" Grier wanted to know.

"I don't have a choice in that matter but that is not the issue here. I know who the assailant is, and I think I know who raped Pauline," Russell Jackson interrupted. Burns and Grier stepped closer.

"Please, tell us," Grier said.

"I also think I know who raped Claudia Milton," Jackson added.

"Who?" Burns asked.

"Mitch Farrell," Russell Jackson said.

"Can you elaborate a bit?" Grier asked.

"Have a seat. This is a long story," Jackson said. The detectives found chairs and Carol sat on the edge of the bed. Russell pushed the button than lifted the top of his bed, so he got to a better position.

"Mitch Farrell lived across the street from Sarah and me when I was married the first time. He had a habit of getting close. We had barbeques and outdoors parties and he would always be there. Not that he wasn't invited but the four women, my wife and her three best friends sometimes mentioned that Mitch had a nasty habit of getting too close, to skin. He would touch people, if it was only an arm or shoulder but he was very touchy-feely, and it wasn't always very nice for the women he touched. He seemed to have an issue with Sarah who slapped him once I think but his real obsession was Claudia Milton. She was single, and Farrell could never get over the fact that she wasn't head over heels for him. On the night Claudia disappeared Farrell was, by the alibi he gave to the police, in Boston. He had train tickets to prove it and no one really probably told the police about his habit of coming to our parties to spend time with Claudia. I think it was the shock of something like that actually happening to someone so close to us. So, Mitch was overlooked as a suspect," Jackson told the police and then reached for a glass of water. Carol helped him drink and the detectives waited until he was ready to continue.

"Today… no, yesterday I guess, I went to see the Secretary of State Elizabeth McCord and I told her about the night Claudia went missing. She made me close my eyes and remember everything from the bar my friends and I spent the evening. I didn't recall it then but when I was laying on the garage floor and Mitch Farrell appeared at the door, I suddenly remembered something I haven't thought about in well over 20 years. McCord asked me if there was anyone else at the bar I could have recognized, and I said no. But all this time a figure in the far corner table has bothered me some. I can remember him turning away from me and covering his face with a hood. I thought he was someone I knew through work, I never saw his face, but I didn't need to. Tonight, seeing Mitch Farrell standing in the threshold, I recalled the way he moved his head, like he was headbutting a soccer ball. I had seen Mitch do that dozens of times and I saw the man in the far corner table at the bar do it and tonight the assailant stood there and headbutted an invisible ball. Tonight, I didn't see his face, I just saw the headbutt and I heard his voice, and something just clicked. Mitch Farrell was not in Boston when Claudia Milton was raped. He was in that bar. Now I know you will ask me how the hell a man who was 35 or 40 at the time could be capable of raping someone now. I don't think he is. I think that Pauline was raped by Mitch's nephew Michael," Jackson said.

"Based on what?" Burns asked.

"The same night when Pauline was attacked, I interviewed Michael Farrell for an internship at the White House. We met at a hotel bar and by some weird coincidence my intern, Stephanie McCord happened to show up. She was expecting company. When I went to the men's room, Michael walked to Stevie, touched her, she asked him to stop and he didn't. He is exactly like his uncle. He was thrown out of the hotel bar and I think he waited and followed Stevie. You need to ask her where she went from the bar, but I can tell you already I'm pretty sure of her answer: she went to the library, met Pauline and Pauline left before Stevie. They look alike in daylight. In the dark they are like two berries in a pie. Michael followed Pauline, tried to take her with him but she found and then the arrogant bastard raped her," Jackson finished his theory-based story.

"That is… that is a huge pile of theories and assumptions," Grier said. Russell Jackson nodded.

"I know. I know it sounds crazy, but it also makes a lot of sense," he said.

"What did you mean when you said that the Secretary of State asked you to remember everything from the bar?" Burns asked.

"I have photographic memory. It's a little stained from that night due to overly excessive alcohol consumption but I remember the headbutt. The booze just stopped me from connecting the people. I guess I also didn't want to think that a rapist could live across the street from me. Mentally I willed him to be someone I didn't know. But this… Mitch and Michael Farrell. It fits everything," Jackson said.

Right on the cue the Secretary of State Elizabeth McCord and POTUS walked in.

"Russell, Stephanie is missing," Bess said.