Alex POV


I stepped into the sanctity of the ladies' room and let out a long breath.

Surprisingly though, now I wished I was still with Bobby. I had mistakenly thought that I needed a minute to myself. Apparently I didn't need that anymore. I just needed him.

But since I was here, I took a quick look at myself in the mirror. I was getting ready to have flashbulbs going off in my face, so I may as well be presentable.

The door opened as I turned from the sinks to leave. I expected Carolyn or Liz, but instead, I got Frankie.

"Detective Alexandra Eames of the NYPD," he said, a slow smile spreading across his face.

I swiftly reached for my weapon, but he shook his head and held up his hand to show me what he had.

It was a detonator. My heart sank.

"Give me the gun. Come with me quietly, and I'll just kill you," he said. "If you put up a fuss, I'll blow the whole damn building."

It was an easy decision to make. I met him at the door and handed over my weapon. He slid the detonator into his pocket and held onto my gun.

He took a quick peek outside to check the hall, and then I followed him out of the bathroom and down the hall in the same direction from which Bobby and I had just come.

"That was a real special moment," he told me sarcastically as he pulled me along by the elbow. "For a minute there, I thought you guys were going to come into the stairwell with me. Figured you two for a couple of bloodhounds."

Shit, he must have been hiding right behind the door where we'd been standing.

"We are," I said calmly. "You're not going to get out of here. Do you know how many cops are in this building?"

"The same amount that was in here a little while ago when I waltzed through the front door. It's amazing how much a baseball cap and a work uniform can alter someone's appearance."

We rounded the last turn before the stairwell, and the door came open. It was Peter.

"Alexandra, there you – "

And the shot rang out.

I choked back a scream as the bullet caught him in the throat and spun him around. He fell face first onto the tile. I made a movement towards him, but Frankie held firm.

"Come on!" he shouted, jerking harder on my arm. "Shit!"

We could hear shouts and footsteps coming down the hall. Frankie shoved Peter's body out of the way and pulled the stairwell door closed. We then kept moving toward the back of the building. It was pretty smart, actually, because then everyone would think we'd gone into the stairwell.

"You didn't have to kill him," I said in disbelief. "He didn't even have a gun."

"Shut the fuck up!" he shouted at me. I knew he hadn't meant to kill him, and this situation was spiraling out of control.

Had he really wired the courthouse to blow? That was pretty ambitious for someone like him. Could the detonator be a fake? Possibly, but I couldn't risk it.

I had thought he would try to get out right away, but instead we went through a series of doorways and came to the door of a judge's chambers.

Frankie wasted several moments trying to pick the lock. It was a cheap lock, and I could've done it in less than ten seconds, but I decided to keep that piece of information to myself. I stood quietly while he pretended to be a good burglar.

We eventually entered the chambers. Fortunately, the judge wasn't here. He shoved me into a chair and pointed the gun at my head.

"So now what are you going to do?" I asked him. "You're not going to get out of here alive."

"Just shut the fuck up for a minute. I need to think. I swear, you make a sound, and I'll kill you."

He began pacing through the room, alternately pointing the gun at me and then using the end of it to scratch at his forehead.

"As long as I have you, I can get out. It's fine. You'll be my ticket out," he said finally. "You and this," he said, bringing the detonator out of his pocket. "I'll get out of here, kill you, and then I can collect my money."

"There's no money," I told him. "Stoat's in prison. This whole scheme to kill me…we knew about it. Why do you think we made such a big deal about this award ceremony in the papers? We wanted you to come after me today."

"Well that was your fucking mistake, wasn't it? 'Cause look how good that worked out for you."

Footsteps in one of the adjacent rooms had him jerking me from the chair. He hustled me behind the desk and then pushed me down onto my knees.

"Get under there right now," he whispered. He got down on the floor, too, and both of us huddled underneath the desk.

"You make a sound, and I'll kill whoever it is that comes through that door."

And then the door burst open. I didn't even breathe. I didn't know who it was, but I couldn't risk getting them killed.

The steps moved slowly across the threshold as the person did a visual sweep of the room.

There was a pause where all I could hear was breathing.

And then I knew who it was.

Please see it, I said silently. Please see it.


Logan POV

I was telling Deakins about my field trip to Minnesota when I saw Goren come back into the lobby alone.

I was on the far side of the lobby, so I couldn't hear any conversation, but as I kept watching, waiting for Alex to appear, Ross and Goren suddenly took off down the hall.

I stopped talking mid-sentence and took several steps in that direction.

And then when I heard Goren call her name, I started running.

"Mike!" Carolyn shouted at me. She was near the front entrance in a conversation with Van Buren.

"It's Alex!" I called back without slowing down. But when I reached the bathroom, both Ross and Goren were turning in circles.

"What the fuck?" I asked. "Where is she?"

"I don't know. I don't know. She was just going to stop in here for a second, but I don't know."

Goren was in freak-out mode and to be honest, I was going right along with him.

"He grabbed her out of the damn courthouse? Are you sure? Maybe she took a walk."

"No. Shit!" He shoved past me and went down the hall to the left. Ross came out and went to the right, heading for the lobby.

"Listen up!" he shouted. "Seal this place up! Nobody in or out! Let's search this place top to bottom."

"Goren!" I called, running down the hall after him. "Bobby!"

"We can't let him get away. He's in here somewhere. There's no blood. He hasn't killed her."

"Of course he hasn't," I said with false bravado. "He's going to be the one that ends up dead. You know her temper. Let's find her."

And then the shot rang out.

We both ran even faster, but it still felt like this was the longest freakin' hallway in architectural history.

We finally came to the end and turned the corner. There was a body lying next to the stairwell door. I wasn't sure who he was, but it wasn't Alex and it wasn't Frankie.

"Shit! It's Peter," Goren said.

"Who's that?"

"He's an interpreter for the NYPD," he told me as he bent down to check his pulse.

"They can't be but a minute or two ahead of us," I said, sticking my head through the stairwell doorway. I looked up and down, but I couldn't see or hear anything.

"Mike!"

It was Carolyn. She came barreling around the corner with her gun drawn.

"Where'd they go?" she asked.

"Stairwell?" Goren suggested. "They can't be that far ahead."

"I don't know. I can't hear a thing," I answered quietly. "Unless they only went one floor up or down, I should've been able to hear something."

Ross, along with a barrage of boys in blue came around the corner to help us out. The gunshot had brought everyone out of the woodwork.

"What happened?" Ross shouted.

"I guess they ran into Peter. Call a bus," Goren said. "But he's DOA."

"Send some of your guys into the stairwell," I told Ross. "I'm going to check out the rooms on this floor. I'm thinking maybe they didn't go anywhere."

So we split up. But I stayed on the main level. And so did Carolyn and Goren. Call it a hunch.

The three of us went through the maze of rooms near the stairwell. It was a tactical nightmare, considering that so many rooms connected to each other and not all of them let out into the hallway.

I went through a courtroom, taking my time to check between each row of seating. And then there was the jury box, the jury room, the judge's chambers…like I said, a tactical nightmare.

I got to the door at the judge's chamber and put my hand on the knob. I turned it slowly, surprised to find it unlocked. A judge that doesn't lock his door before a long holiday weekend? I flung the door fully open and looked around.

I was on full alert as I entered the room. It appeared to be empty, but I still did a slow visual sweep. The hairs on the back of my neck were on end, and my ears were buzzing from my attempts to hear the impossible.

But then there was the smell…was that Alex's perfume? Or shampoo, or something? I wasn't sure what it was that caused her to smell the way she did, but I was pretty sure I could smell it now.

And then I had the odd random thought that maybe I shouldn't know what she smells like.

But I also knew what Carolyn smelled like, so it was okay, right?

Jeez, Mike, focus.

I took a few more steps into the room. And then I stood still and listened again.

I tried not to breathe so loudly because I was afraid I was masking other sounds, but my lungs were doing the best they could.

I looked around the room one last time, and that was when I saw it.

I didn't look at it for long, because if I was being watched, I didn't want to give myself away, but I did glance one more time just to make sure I was seeing right.

And I was.

I slowly backed out of the room and closed the door. Then I pulled out my cell phone and called Goren.

"I think I've got them," I whispered into the phone. "He must have her under the desk."

"Where are you?"

"Judge Taylor's chambers. Hurry."

I didn't really need to add that last word. Hurry. As though he weren't traveling at warp speed right now to get to her.

I quickly called Carolyn, too. Reinforcements were on the way.

But I was worried about what was going on in there.

Why did he stay in the building? He hadn't minded killing two people already. Why hadn't he just killed her and moved on?

Or had he?

What if we were too late? What if we went in there and he was already gone?

Maybe it was just her lifeless body that was crammed under that desk.

The fear that washed over me with that thought was just indescribable. It almost paralyzed me.

I had to go in. I couldn't wait for Goren.

If she was dead, and he found her…

But if she wasn't dead, and I went in without back-up, then what? Would my recklessness get her killed?

Or maybe she's in there getting killed while I'm standing out here trying to make a decision…

I could hear the seconds ticking away as I stood there steeped in uncertainty.

Make up your fucking mind, Mike.

So I did.

I went in.

TBC...