Happy Star Wars Day everybody...(May the 4th be with you...). I am still having issues with getting my stories up and published the right way. Hopefully this one will show up correctly. So much to learn in this chapter! If this loads correctly and shows up as published today, make sure you read the previous chapter, Cold Steel, so that this all makes sense. Thanks!

Bridge of Sighs

Chapter 14

A Monster Unleashed

Adrianna stared at the madwoman, stunned at the rapid deterioration in her mental state.

"Adrianna. Liefste...come back right now or I'll slit your brother's throat" Miriam said softly, glaring at the terrified woman. The knife was at the side of Cal's neck, lightly pressing on his jugular vein.

Adri turned to look at the back door longingly. It was so close, if she extended her hand she could touch the doorknob. Then she stared at her helpless brother and the bleeding man slumped on the floor. The knife Miriam was clutching was rarely used, brand new and razor sharp, the best quality steel. It would slice through Cal's skin faster than Adrianna could turn the doorknob and run away for help. Cal didn't struggle, knowing his life was in the hands of a lunatic.

"Aaaadriiii" said Miriam in a sing-song voice, "come baaaackkk."

Seeing no other way out, Adri turned around and took tiny steps back towards her Aunt and brother. Jane had recovered his senses and grabbed a tea towel from the oven door handle to make a tourniquet on his upper arm above the wound. His arm was bleeding profusely but if he could slow down the flow he could make it to a hospital, if he got out of this mess alive.

"Miriam, let them go. They've done nothing wrong" Jane begged her. "We both know that they didn't do anything to hurt you Miriam."

Miriam turned and looked down at Jane and laughed. Such a stupid predictable speech. And so wrong.

"Oh but they did. They did as much as the rest of them. All of them. And they will pay for what they did just like the rest had to pay for what they did."

Adrianna gathered her courage and spoke back to her Aunt while Jane busied himself with his arm and the pooling blood.

"What did we do Tante Miriam? Tell us and we'll make it right! Just, don't hurt Cal or anyone else and we'll make it right" said Adrianna, still so innocent. "Let me help Mr. Jane and we'll get this all sorted out OK?"

Adrianna took a few steps tentative steps towards Jane under her Aunt's watchful eye. When Miriam didn't stop her, she put her arms around Jane and helped him up. Miriam didn't mind, but then, she had the knife.

"Everyone, over there!" she barked, indicating the living room. Adri helped a pale Jane into the living room while Cal was marched out with the knife at his throat.

"They don't know what happened Miriam, and they didn't hurt you. If you let them go I can explain everything to my colleagues and make it right for you. I understand how you've suffered. I understand how they made you feel" said Jane, trying to diffuse Miriam's anger and get on her good side. But a crazy person doesn't have a good side. Just a different type of crazy.

"So far the only thing that happened was a flesh wound, totally by accident when I surprised you" he suggested to mollify her. "Everyone will testify to that."

"Liar! Liar just like every other liar! No, I'll have to make this right myself, like I always do. And you're going to help me Agent Jane" Miriam said. "Let's see how well my niece and nephew can take instructions" she smiled, indicating the side door to the carport.

"Adrianna, be a good girl and grab the zip ties you'll find in the front of my purse. Go on...chop chop!" Miriam laughed.

With shaking hands Adri picked up the large brown purse and found the bundle of zip ties, wondering what on earth was going to happen next.

"Excellent. Now hand them to Agent Jane and have him put them tightly around your wrists, hands around the back please."

Adri handed them to Jane. His arm throbbed with each tiny movement, but he had to do what he was told. Taking a long zip tie, he gently grasped the young woman's wrists behind her back, securing them together, as loosely as he dared.

"So you can follow directions after all, very good liefste" smiled Miriam, relaxing slightly.

"Mr. Jane, come over here and tie Cal's wrists together, then tie yours as well. Once you've managed to do that, run a zip tie through yours and tie yourself to Cal. We wouldn't want you wandering around with such a nasty cut" she ordered him. Jane slowly made his way towards the still young man and tied his wrists together, then his own. Struggling, he then took another long tie and slipped it under his zip tie and secured his wrists to Calvin's. Each movement was extremely painful in his injured arm.

Miriam grabbed her purse and opened the side door leading to the carport. "Everyone out!"

Adri walked as ordered towards the door and was followed by Cal and a rapidly weakening Jane. His wound sent lightning bolts of pain into his shoulder and hand, the blood still leaking out from under the tea towel, but fortunately, not so quickly now.

Miriam stepped through the doorway and opened the doors to the beige van. When had she appropriated the van keys and unlocked the doors? Cal realized that his Aunt had planned this in advance. But why now?

"Front seat!" Miriam barked at Adrianna, and pointed to the back seat for Jane and Cal. With some difficulty the men got themselves into the back seat and Adri sat next to her Aunt with trepidation. With her hands behind her back, she couldn't wrest the controls of the van out of her Aunt's hands. As they pulled out and drove up the street, Adri's mind was racing. How could she save herself and the men behind her?

(FBI)

Teresa was done her paperwork quickly and grabbed her car keys. Checking the time she noted that Jane would still be at the Hoekstra house searching. Smiling to herself, she decided to grab a coffee and a tea for him on her way over there, along with a muffin and donut. Might as well be well fed during a dull search. When she drove up the street leading to the Hoekstra house, she saw Jane's car parked at the end of the block. Still searching…

She pulled in closer to the house and noted two cars in the driveway. Who had stayed home today, or did they take transit for the short trip over to the office? She took the tray of drinks and stepped up to the front door, ringing the doorbell as the drinks wobbled. A minute passed with no one responding. Jane must have been in a back bedroom snooping around. Teresa rang the bell again, maybe someone else would answer the door.

When no one appeared after another minute, Lisbon tried the door handle and found the house unlocked.

"Hello? Jane? Cal? Anyone home?" she called before stepping into the quiet house.

"Jane?" she called again, this time with some concern in her voice. She put down the drinks and stepped farther into the living room. The silence hit her first, then she noticed a trail of blood on the carpeting. A cold shiver crept up the back of her neck as she pulled her gun out of its holster. Lisbon stood still for a moment, her eyes sweeping the room, then she advanced slowly through the living room, placing one foot silently in front of the other. The trail led to the kitchen, where a larger pool of blood lay splattered on the kitchen floor and across the bottom cupboards. Bending down to examine the blood stain, Lisbon noticed a tiny piece of dark gray fabric. A rush of anguish stabbed her heart. The material matched the jacket Jane had worn to work today! A little off to one side, she saw what looked like fingerpainting in blood against a baseboard under a cupboard. In dripping blood, someone had printed "PJ/MH. Patrick Jane...Miriam Hoekstra!

Lisbon got on her cell phone and jabbed the number for Abbott while she proceeded to creep through the house, checking for more victims or suspects. A quick search proved she was alone in the house while she filled Abbot in on her discovery. Within minutes a forensic team was on its way and Abbott was going to join Teresa as quickly as possible. She followed the blood trail to the side door leading to the carport. Jane had purposefully leaned against the doorframe to leave a smudge of blood on the wood to tell law enforcement that he had been taken to the carport. 'Thank you Jane' thought Lisbon. The first parking space was empty. Someone had driven a vehicle away with Jane as a hostage. She picked up her cell phone and dialed Wylie.

"Hi Lisbon! What's up?" he said cheerily.

"Wylie, drop whatever you're doing and check something for me. Jason, can you check and see what kind of cars Calvin and Adrianna Hoekstra drive? There's a Toyota here in the driveway and I know Miriam Hoekstra drives a Fiat, but a third vehicle is missing. Can you find out who drives what?"

"Sure, give me a minute."

"Hurry Jason, it's very important!"

"Got it…"

While she waited she checked Miriam's bedroom as Jane had told her that it held some interesting bits of evidence. She wasn't sure what exactly he had wanted to find today, but she opened drawers and dug around trying to find something significant. There were the items Jane had mentioned yesterday, minus a scarf. Next she found a bundle of passports sitting one atop the other. Grabbing the first one, Lisbon studied it and flipped through the pages. When she got nearer to the back, she saw something that made her pause. Reaching for her phone, she needed another favour.

"Wait, Jason, there is something else you can do. What day did Herman and Miriam Hoekstra die?"

"O...K...looking it up ...right...now…" Wylie muttered to himself as his fingers played over the keyboard. A moment later he was back on the phone.

"OK, they died in a car crash late in the morning of March 10th, 2013. Anything else you need Lisbon?" he said innocently.

"No...no that's all Jason. Thanks. Did you find out anything about the cars?"

Jason flipped back to his other screen and perused the data coming up. "Just a minute…"

"Hurry Jason, we need this information!"

"Ok, ok...OK! There it is! Yes, the Toyota belongs to Adrianna, the Fiat is Miriam's and Calvin drives a 2012 Chevy van, beige. Should I give this to Abbott?"

"Yes, Jane's been attacked, and I believe he's a hostage in Calvin's van. I don't know if we're looking for Cal as the perp or someone else, but we need to track that van ASAP!"

"I'm on it!" barked Wylie, suddenly all business, ringing off to put out a BOLO on Cal's vehicle.

After that, Lisbon called the office of Hoekstra Importing. The line rang and rang until it diverted to the warehouse. A husky male voice answered.

"Chuck, warehouse…"

"Ah hello Chuck. Can you tell me if anyone is working in the office today?"

Chuck snorted in derision. "Nope. Looks like they all took a day off, lucky bastards. We're still working and they don't show up. Wait til my union hears about this" he began to complain.

"Thank you Chuck" Lisbon said, hanging up on him mid-rant.

So the Hoekstra's were missing and there was blood in the house. The situation was going from bad to worse. Lisbon studied the passport in her hands once again and suddenly another piece of the puzzle fell into place. Was it the piece that had caused Jane to be attacked?

(Cal's van)

"Where are you taking us?" asked Adrianna.

"Wait and see" smiled her Aunt.

"Why are you doing this to us Tante?" asked Cal from the back seat. Miriam just looked at him in the mirror and smirked.

"Always the last to know, poor Calvin" she said, giving nothing away. Jane spoke up next, not sure if it would be stupid to do so, but Cal and Adrianna needed to know what was going on before it was too late.

"Go ahead Miriam, tell them. They deserve to know" he said softly, staring at her through a haze of pain.

Miriam hit the gas pedal and sped up, agitation taking over her more conservative driving methods. They were out of town now and heading into open roads running through the countryside.

"Tell them what Agent Jane? That their family was cruel and a bunch of liars? Is that what you want me to tell them?"

"Tell them who killed their grandparents. They've suffered enough guilt. Tell them Miriam."

The car rocketed down one hill and up another, the cars passing them getting fewer and farther between.

"If guilt is the only thing they've ever suffered, I'd consider them lucky wouldn't you Agent Jane?" she suggested.

"If you don't tell them I will" Jane said defiantly.

"What aren't you telling us Tante Miriam? If you know why our grandparents died, you have to tell us!" begged Adrianna, tears falling down her cheeks. "Did someone kill them after all?"

Miriam drove on, ignoring the young woman's plea.

"Have you ever wondered why your Aunt keeps her bedroom door locked? Why you can't just go in there?" asked Jane, waiting for a reaction from Miriam. She clenched her fists on the steering wheel and took a quick look at Jane in the rear view mirror.

"It's because the proof of what happened to your grandparents is in that room, I'll bet on it. But even if there isn't proof in there, the proof is right here in this van, in your Aunt's purse...isn't it Miriam?" said Jane harshly, rightly.

"You've lost your mind Agent Jane, there's nothing in my purse that would explain why my parents died in that accident. Nothing."

"So now it's an accident again? Yesterday you wanted me to believe it was all Henny's fault, that somehow she was to blame for what happened to your family" he said, seeing Miriam's eyebrows furrow at this contradiction.

"What? My mother? Tante Miriam, my mother had nothing to do with Oma and Opa's deaths!" shouted Adrianna. Miriam took a swipe at her with her right hand to shut her up.

Jane continued, seeing how he had struck a nerve. "But we both know that Henny had nothing to do with killing your parents, don't we? I'll bet if we looked in your purse right now we'd find a keyring, with a cute pair of wooden shoes hanging on the ring."

Cal and Adrianna both looked at each other. They had seen that keyring on Miriam's desk for a couple of years!

"So? There are millions of those trinkets in the world, sold in every souvenir shop carrying Dutch products" spat out Miriam, getting angrier with every mile.

"But not for sale at your factory outlet store Miriam. There is one store that carries them in downtown Amsterdam, quite close to Centraal Station. That store carries those keyrings but they go one step further than most souvenir shops. They write the date on the bottom of one shoe, and the word 'Amsterdam' on the other shoe, so you can remember exactly when you visited that city. And your wooden shoes have 'March 9th, 2013' painted on the bottom."

Adrianna stared at her Aunt with the truth dawning on her.

"Tante, how did you get that keyring in Amsterdam, if you were home in Austin while we were in Holland with Oma and Opa?"