Monday morning. 8:00am.
As Evan Lorne entered the police station on Monday morning, the first thing that drew his attention were the two uniformed officers standing outside the captain's door.
He frowned, stopping at his desk, setting his coffee down and taking off his jacket. Ever since last night, when Doctor Weir had suggested the possibility of Kenmore's involvement, the tension involved with the case rose considerably. It was almost impossible to stay within a few feet of John without feeling like you were about to be used for target practice.
A smirk appeared and quickly faded. He was suddenly grateful that his partner had the day off.
He heard the door open to O'Neill's office and he noticed one of the younger Assistant District Attorneys stepping out. She nodded at Lorne curtly, then turned on her heel and walked towards the door. Inside the office, he caught sight of his captain stretching back in the creaky chair, blowing out a breath that he had probably been holding for quite some time.
Lorne walked at a slow pace to the office, tapping on the door lightly. "Captain?"
Jack's elbow was braced on the desktop, the palm of his hand supporting his cheek as he gazed indifferently at a picture on his desk. With his left hand, currently out of work, he motioned Lorne to enter.
Just to be on the safe side, Evan shut the door behind him after he came in. "What was that about?"
"DA's office is filing a subpoena for the law firm's contractor work records for the past six months," he replied blankly, turning his eyes from the photo to the detective in front of him.
Lorne raised an eyebrow. "That was fast," he responded, taking a seat in front of the desk.
The only visible reaction from Jack was a weary blink.
Lorne nodded his head, clicking his tongue. "They accepted Dr. Weir's hypothesis?"
Jack shook his head in the affirmative. "Though why they felt the urge to get a subpoena instead of sending my guys, I do not know."
"Why wouldn't they get the records from Kenmore as well, if they have reasonable cause?"
"Hmph. That's where it starts getting messy." He picked up a file and flung it across the desk to Lorne, head still supported in his right hand. "This is from my boss."
Lorne let out a disrespectful snort. As far as most of the Metro PD were concerned, Robert Kinsey had weaseled his way to the top. Unfortunately, having to acknowledge him as the police commissioner was a cross they all had to bear, no matter how much hatred they secretly - or publicly - harbored for the man.
Jack ran his hands over his face, letting out another sigh. "Basically, he wants to stay as far away as possible from Kenmore because of … well, you know," he summarized, throwing a nod in the direction of the squad room.
Lorne turned in his chair and saw an off duty John Sheppard making his way through the room, heading towards the corridor that housed the department psychiatrist's office.
He bit his lip as his partner disappeared from view, then looked back to O'Neill. "What do you want me to do?"
"For the moment, follow up on Kendra Billings. Talk to her roommate, her neighbors, her folks. Treat it as just another missing person's report. Even though we know better," Jack added, throwing a sharp look across the desk.
Lorne nodded seriously. "Understood."
"And take Mitchell with you, make sure he's up to date. If this case gets any worse, we're gonna need more of his help anyway."
"Yes, sir," he replied, standing from his chair and striding back to his desk. Across the wall divider, he tapped Cam on the shoulder. "C'mon, breakfast is on me."
Cameron smirked as he rose from his desk chair, imitating Lorne's motions as he pulled his jacket off the back. "You do realize I've already eaten breakfast?"
"All right, then, Starbucks!"
As he left the station, he was unaware of the victorious smirk on Cameron's face as he walked out behind him.
"Kenmore turned on us. I got shot in the line of duty. So yeah. I'm gonna be a little tense whenever his name gets brought up."
Dr. Kate Heightmeyer paused, eyes darting up as she held a pencil to her lower lip, tapping it gently. "If you don't mind me asking, Detective, what concrete proof do you have as to Kenmore's involvement?"
He let out a heavy sigh as he leaned back in the oversized chair, loosening his tie in the process. "When you say concrete, you mean..."
She rolled her eyes, glaring slightly. "Definite. Ironclad." She thought for a moment, then smiled knowingly as she called his bluff. "Actual proof, not suspicions."
That earned her yet another dirty look from Sheppard. The first one had been for scheduling their regular appointment on his day off.
Kate only chuckled and closed her leather bound notebook. "Let's go off the record for the rest of the session. What suspicions do you have?"
Sheppard eyed the psychiatrist for a moment, then cleared his throat quietly. "Watson fled MacDill and got a job with Kenmore Security. Doesn't seem like just a coincidence to me," he replied confidently.
She leaned forward in her own chair, resting her cheek in the palm of her hand. "Maybe that's all it is. Maybe it is just a coincidence," she suggested, much to his silent disdain.
He paused, choosing his words carefully before he spoke again. "Believe me, getting wrapped up with Kenmore is the last thing I want right now."
"So why are you trying so hard to believe that he's involved?" she asked, fixing a stare on him.
He bit his lip in contemplation. Raising his eyes to meet Kate's, he let a faint proud smirk appear as he said, "Because I trust Elizabeth. And if she thinks that he is involved, she's got a darn good reason that thinking that."
Kate sighed, closing her eyes for a long second. She laid her book and pencil down on the small table facing their chairs, wishing she wasn't obligated to ask this question. "John," she asked in a slow yet professional tone, "would you even be considering this notion if Lorne or McKay had brought it up?"
She knew that John was an expert at reading between the lines. As his eyes narrowed, his gaze becoming more intense, she knew that he had. "Exactly what are you suggesting?" he asked frankly, in no way disguising the answer he already knew.
Her only reply was a pointed stare back at him.
John sighed, then leaned forward, standing from the chair. "You think that I'm letting my feelings for Elizabeth affect my judgment," he said, rather than asked.
"I only asked if-"
Holding up a hand to silence her, he replied, "Yeah, I know what you said, Doc."
As he reached for his suit jacket, Kate sighed. "You know that I have to ask. It's part of my job," she offered quietly by way of apology.
John let out a humored chuckle. Yet as he turned to face her before he left her office, his eyes turned a darker shade. "And part of my job is catching the bad guys."
As the door shut behind him, Kate couldn't hold in a shudder. She had seen the same steely determination behind his hazel eyes.
It was there the moment they told him that Michael Kenmore, his former partner, was the one who shot him.
Elizabeth found Rodney in his office, muttering at the data currently filtering across his laptop screen. He was so oblivious to her presence that, even though she was in his line of vision, she had to knock on his door to get his attention.
"Yes?" he replied agitatedly, eyes darting for not even a second to see who was at his door. "Oh hey. C'mon in."
She smiled at him. "What did you find?"
"Nothing," he responded blankly.
Raising an eyebrow in confusion, she repeated, "Nothing."
Rodney rolled his eyes. "Yes, nothing. There was no foreign substances that appeared in their blood work and excepting victim number two, no conclusive DNA results."
She crossed her arms, starting to feel the beginnings of a tension headache approaching. "Then why did you call me, email me, text me, and tell me you HAD something?"
"Suspected victim number three hasn't been found yet, right?" he asked, not taking his eyes off of the screen.
Elizabeth blinked as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Not to my knowledge."
Rodney smirked and held up a pointed finger in front of him. "I think I know how to find her."
Her hand slowly fell away from her face. "How?"
Rodney McKay wasn't sure why, but every time he entered this particular room he always found himself slightly intimidated. In no way did it compare to his lab at the morgue, with its active board and multiple computers running. The light grey walls holding the windows in place seemed to be standard in most of the government buildings on this side of town, but the furniture in O'Neill's office was sparse. A single laptop sat in the middle of his desk as the police chief sat behind it, elbows propped on the smooth, dark finish.
As it happened, less than an hour after he had called Elizabeth into his office, he found himself standing in front of the sturdy wooden desk, trying to translate his proposal into simple English. Again.
Jack nodded as he leaned back in his office chair, reclining slightly. "So let me see if I got this straight." He glared at McKay. "You think we're idiots?"
Jack O'Neill was one of the few people in this universe that could shock the scientist into momentary silence. The police chief's wife was one of the others.
Rodney almost gaped at him until he felt a nudge from below. In the chair directly in front of him, Elizabeth sat, inadvertently a physical barrier between the two men. She turned her head and shot Rodney a knowing glance as she spoke to Jack. "We're only suggesting another possibility. She wasn't found murdered like the first two victims. The M.O. has altered, and so might the outcome. She might still be alive."
"And you don't think we've already started tracking her cell phone? Credit cards? Internet usage?" Evan Lorne asked from where he stood, perched against the book shelves facing the left side of the desk, his back towards the windows facing the squad room.
McKay rolled his eyes, ready to walk out of a room full of people that he had already designated incompetent, until Elizabeth stood, a friendly smile on her face. "We're not insulting anyone's intelligence, and we know standard procedure."
"But I don't think anyone has taken another important aspect into consideration during this discussion," Rodney interjected, raising his hand, holding the subpoenaed records. "All three victims do indeed work for law firms that Kenmore Security has had involvement with. Each of the offices are high profile, which requires you must have a security card to access them."
"But, Kenmore Security installed their security systems. Wouldn't it be safe to assume that, of all the people in the Metro area, they would be able to break in if they wanted to?" O'Neill posed, brown eyes looking to each of the persons in the room.
Rodney scoffed, not as quietly as he attempted. "If all your cases are based on assumptions, I might as well be talking to primates," he angrily muttered under his breath.
Jack glared at him. "Elizabeth. If McKay calls me a monkey one more time this week, I'm gonna arrest him," he threatened, watching as Rodney rolled his eyes.
"Gentlemen," Elizabeth spoke up, holding up a hand to each of them. "Let's not loose focus. We aren't insinuating that they are trying to break in to the firms. That is the connection to the victims. We're suggesting setting a trap."
Jack chuckled, then threw a sideways glance at Lorne. "Why is it Elizabeth is the one coming up with all the ideas, huh?"
Lorne only shrugged, crossing his arms.
Jack rubbed his eyes, dragging said hand down his face. "All right, you wanna set a trap. Who would you use? How would you get in his sight to make yourself a target?"
"Uh, I think that's your part of the job," Rodney replied, his tone patronizing.
"Actually, I've already given this some thought." The serious contemplation in Elizabeth's voice brought the attention of the three men in the room to her.
Her arms were crossed. Her green eyes were studiously fixed on the edge of the desk, not quite willing to make eye contact with anyone just yet. Her forehead was furrowed in thought. When she finally looked up, her lips were pressed firmly together.
Rodney's stomach began churning in dread.
"The bait would have to be a woman, a runner. She needs to be between 25-40 years of age. She would need to gain employment at a law firm in the area, of similar prestige and one that Kenmore has worked on."
Jack stared back at her. "Are you volunteering?"
"As a matter of fact, I am."
Rodney sputtered, "Elizabeth, are you crazy?"
Jack pushed his chair back from the desk, standing up as he cast a glance at Lorne, who uncrossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at his captain.
"I'm a perfect candidate, Jack, and you know it," Elizabeth persisted. "I worked in my father's law office for a short time after graduation, and I've kept my finger in it since then. I can infiltrate with the least amount of suspicion of anyone here!"
"I agree, for what it's worth," Lorne spoke up, looking between the doctor and the captain. "Since she works in the coroner's office, her face isn't well known. She would probably have the most success of anyone." He shrugged good naturedly. "For what it's worth," he repeated.
Elizabeth smiled at him in thanks.
Rodney was still horrified. "Elizabeth, do you have any idea of what you're getting yourself into?"
"Yes, Rodney," she replied sternly, turning to face him, "I do. I've had to do autopsies on two young women because of this, and a third is still missing. I don't want to do hers, or a fourth, or a fifth." Her green eyes darkened with determination. "This is going to end. Now."
Chapter 15: John finds out about Elizabeth's plan. So does someone else ...