Greg drove down the dirt road with Alison sitting next to him.
"I don't see how you can think that New York is better than Las Vegas." He said, looking over at him.
"Ethan has a yard to play in with a fence. We don't have to walk him out to a park and make sure there are no needles in around before he can run around."
"You would say the same thing at any park here."
"True, your editor is here, so it's easier for your to work on your books."
"But my publisher is in New York." Greg glanced over at her.
"Do you really want to stay here?" Alison turned her head, so she was looking out the window.
"I don't know. If this works, then maybe." Greg nodded his head.
"We're here." He said as he stopped the car. Russel came running over to them.
"We have a chopper on its way out here," Russel said. Greg looked at Alison.
"Why that will compromise our scene," Alison said.
"Scene is second the body just came back to life." the helicopter came over the ridge landing.
"I have done my best to document everything before we lose him," Russel called out as the medics hurried over to the victim.
"It looks like a bullet graze wound on the forehead," Greg called out.
"Two gunshot wounds, no blood pool?" Russel said as the victim was placed on the gurney. "This can't be the primary. Alison gets a shot off his wrist. Those are abrasions. That guy was bound." Greg nodded.
"Yeah, and burned. Looks like two stun gun marks on his neck." Alison leaned closer to the victim.
"Russell, did you get a wallet of the guy."
"No, nothing." Russel pulled his cell phone out. "Nick, what's up." Greg looked over at Alison.
"Did you get all your pictures?" She nodded, holding up her camera. Russel walked over to them.
"Alison, I need you to go with the victim to the hospital, process him, then go meet up with Nick. He has a double and could use some help." Greg looked over at Alison. Usually, she would have a hard time being alone with some. Especially someone that she didn't know that well. But when faced with that option or going to a hospital, was presented to her. Greg could see that she would rather stay.
"I can go," Greg said quickly. Russell looking at Alison.
"No, I can go." Greg looked at her.
"Are you sure?" Alison took a deep breath.
"I'm sure." Russell nodded.
"Alright, Alison, you go." She turned, heading for the chopper.
"See you around," Greg called out to her. Greg turned started taking pictures of the scene after Alison left. His cellphone rang. Looking at the caller ID, he smiled.
"Missed me already." Alison laughed on the other end.
"I think that I found the rest of your scene. Head 50 yards from your 3:00."
"Alright, thanks." Greg walked over to Russel. "Alison spotted what looks like the crime scene from the chopper." Russel nodded.
"Alright, We can finish up here and then head over there." Greg tilted his head.
"I could start heading in that direction."
"I don't want you to be attacked by wild animals." Greg froze, looking around them.
"Is that a concern?"
"For the most part, no, but when there's blood around, we try not to go off on our own."
"Maybe Las Vegas isn't so great after all."
Alison sat in her seat in the chopper, doing her best to stay out of the way of the medic. The victim's heart had stopped twice since they got up in the air. He had been muttering to himself about someone named Samantha, but that was it. She felt her phone buzz, and she pulled it out, seeing that it was Russel.
"Still in the air, boss."
"It looks like your guy is tied to Nick's case." Alison tilted her head.
"Really, the Northtown double?" Alison looked down at the victim
"We think he's our guy." Alison nodded.
"Copy that. I'll make sure he's in custody when we land." Alison hung the phone up. The victim started to convulse.
"Hey, help me hold him down." The medic said. Alison did as she was told, leaning forward right then. The victim grabbed Alison's gun out of her holster, pointing it at Alison.
"Get back." The victim said. Both Alison and the medic pulled back, holding their hands up. The victim's eyes locked on the pilot. "You touch that radio or punch in a code. You're all dead, you hear me." He turned to the other medic. "Unstrap me, or the cop eats it." The medic pulled the clasps, and the victim backed up into the corner of the chopper, keeping the gun trained on Alison. "Listen, I want your cans off and your cell phones!" The three of them did as they were told. He took the phones and threw them out the window. "Pilot. Due south. Fly low. I see a town, a cop, or a highway. It's the last thing you see. Got it."
"Yeah." The pilot called back.
"Where are we going?" Alison asked.
"Mexico. I'm not sure how much "we" there's gonna be about it."
Greg was working on processing the original crime scene when Russel walked over to him.
"Have you heard from Alison?" Greg looked up from his report.
"No. Should I." Russel tilted his head.
"Well, that was Nick. He said that Alison never showed up at the scene." Greg pulled out his phone, giving Alison a call.
"No service on his cell." Russel pulled out his own phone.
"Uh, yeah, this is D.B. Russell with the crime lab. Do you have an ETA on a Medevac three, heading from Mount Stirling to Desert Palm Hospital?" Greg moved closer, trying to listen to the other end of the phone call. "All right, well, check with Air Traffic control, will you, please?" He hung the phone up.
"They haven't heard from them." His body grew tense. Russell turned to him.
"Maybe they're taking the scenic route." Greg looked down at his report.
"I should have gone." Russell crossed his arms.
"Alison is going to be fine, and I agree with the choice of her going on the chopper." Greg looked down at his hands.
"I guess you're right."
Alison stared at the gun pointed at her. Her gun. The fact that this guy had been able to take it off of her was an embarrassment. If any one of them died, it would be her fault. Frank looked like he was on death's doorstep.
"Who Samantha," Alison asked. The man looked up at her. "You mentioned her earlier. You might have been dreaming." Frank struggled to focus his eyes on her.
"I wasn't dreaming." Frank muttered out.
"Is she someone special?" Frank didn't respond. One of the medics looked out the window. Frank spun, pointing the gun at him.
"What'd you do?"
"Nothing." The medic said, holding up his hands.
"You moved!" Frank screamed. "You're trying to do something."
"You're on medication. Your vision's compromised."
"You want to test my vision Doc."
"Frank," Alison said, keeping her voice even. "It's not worth it."
"Put him down."
"What!" Frank looked at Alison.
"I said drug him. You have five-second, or he dies." The medic called out instructions, and Aison followed them as fast as possible. Once he was knocked out, Frank leaned back in his chair.
"No, sit back and enjoy the ride."
Russell walked over to Greg, who was looking over the map.
"What do you got." Greg pointed at the screen.
"When he took off from Mount Stirling, the pilot reported his flight plan to Dispatch. Because of the patient's head wound, he wanted to avoid altitude, so he was going to trace Route 160 and cut across Wilson Ridge toward the city." Russell nodded. "Now McCarran radar can't pick up aircraft blocked by the mountains, but at the last radio update to Dispatch, at 9:27 a.m., the copter was here." Greg pointed at a different location on the map. "Now it should've emerged from behind the mountains and onto McCarran radar six or seven minutes later." Greg took a deep breath looking at Russell. "It never emerged. Archie pinged the cells of Alison, the pilot, and the paramedic. All three were emanating from a one-acre area here." He pointed at the new location. "Sheriff's deputies recovered the phones, but no sign of any wreckage."
"Cafferty—he made 'em toss the phones." Greg closed his eyes. "That chopper's hijacked. All right, we keep working on the case. I want to find out everything we can about Frank Cafferty," Russell started walking out of the room, and Greg followed him.
"In case we make contact with him."
"I should have been on that flight." Russell patted him on the back.
"We don't have time for that right now. Let's just stay focused and make sure we bring our girl home." Greg nodded.
"I need to make a phone call." Russell looked over at him.
"To who." Greg pulled his phone out.
"My Father-in-Law."
"We don't want this getting out." Greg held up his hands.
"I understand it will go no further than the police commissioner. But Alison had a history and needed someone in her family to be aware." Russell nodded.
"Alright, when you're finished, go see what Sara has." Greg nodded, heading into his temporary office calling New York.
"Frank, this is Greg." He said, closing his eyes.
"I take it by the tone in your voice that this is not a good phone call."
"No, Alison is currently on a chopper that is believed to be hijacked."
"I'm coming out there."
"All due respect, Sir, you cant. It will confirm that Alison is in Vegas. If we get any new information, I will call, but for now, there isn't much we can do."
"You have 4 hours. Then one of us will be on a flight out there."
"Understood."
"She's dead." Alison looked over at Frank. This was the first thing he had said in several minutes. "My daughter, Samantha." Alison forced a smile. "You asked." He rested his head against the window.
"What happened?" Her voice was even.
"When she was little, I was, um…I was a bad person, you know? I went away. She ended up getting mixed in with the wrong crowd. When I got out…I tried to save her." Alison took a deep breath.
"You wanted a second chance."
"Yeah. Ended up getting her killed."
"How?" Frank didn't say anything, his eyes fluttering closed for a moment. She glanced over at the medic, whose eyes were cracked ever so slightly open.
"Sometimes all that it takes is knowing that the person tried." She reached forward, gently wrapping her hands around the hand holding the gun. It slowly started to drift down. In an instance, the medic was on him, and the three of them were fighting over the gun. A shot ring out. The medic leaned back in his chair, blood seeping through the center of his shirt.
"Look what you made me do." Frank shouted, pointing the gun at Alison.
"We're ten minutes out of Parham Airstrip. We need to refuel, or this party's not going much longer." The pilot called out. Alison grabbed a set of bandages from the bag pressing it against the medics' wound.
"We got to get him to a hospital." She looked over at their captor. "Please, Frank." Alison took a deep breath closing her eyes. "I'll stay with you. Just let us land and get him some help."
"I can't do that." He reached over, grabbing the headset. "Now, You keep him quiet." Alison looked at the medic. The wound was terrible. "Go north." Frank called out. Alison looked over at that. "Hey, come on, man." The pilot called. "We're not gonna make it to the next airstrip."
"I got no problem flying solo.
Greg leaned over the table. He had to find her. He couldn't do it again. The thought of having to go home and tell Ethan that his Mom would never come home killed him.
"Hey, you alright." Russell asked, walking over to him. Greg looked at him.
"Why not let Frank get away?"
"Do you honestly think it would be safer for Alison and the others if we did?" Greg took a deep breath.
"No." Russell tapped his folder on the table.
"Alison was Mac's bottom file, right." Greg looked up at that. "Alison Reagan, or it was before you two got married." Greg nodded. "I take it that she was the one that went missing and not her sister." Greg froze at that.
"How would you know about that." Russell smiled.
"I'm old, and Mac's a friend. I took a look at the file once for him. There were no pictures of her in it. I didn't realize it was her until you asked her if she was alright going to the hospital. All your actions over the past few hours have just confirmed it."
"She doesn't like talking about."
"Understandable." Russell patted him on the arm. "I am going to do everything in my power to bring her home."
An alarm started to go off, and Alison tensed.
"We're on fumes, man." The pilot called out again. Frank looked out the window.
"We're here. Take her down. Take her down now." The pilot started to do as instructed while Frank continued to look out the window.
"Wait, who is that." He looked over at Alison. "Cops" She moved so that she could see what he was seeing. There was a small dirt road with several black SUVs driving up. A man with a gun popped out of one of the skylights.
"Not cops." She said quickly. She turned to the pilot. "Get us out of here."
"What?" the pilot asked.
"Now!" She screamed just as the gunfire started. More alarms began going off, and the pilot struggled to keep it steady. In a second, it was all black.
Greg pressed harder on the gas as they drove down the dirt road. They had found the location that Frank's daughter had sent him. He thought he was going to get help. But in reality, she had set him up to get murdered.
"Lisen, I want the CSI's to hang back." Brass said over the radios. "You got that, Sanders." Greg clenched his jaw before picking up the radio.
"Copy."
Alison slowly opened her eyes. Everything hurt. She didn't' have long to focus on that as Frank pointed the gun at her. Looking around, she found she was in the wreckage of the chopper. It had crashed, and they were the only survivors.
"Get up their coming." He said to her. She moved to get up, instantly getting lightheaded. Grabbing onto the metal siding to steady herself, she cut her hand. Her legs seemed to be okay. She took a few unsteady steps and exited the chopped with Frank right behind her. She could hear the sound of cars getting closer. The chopped had crashed in what looked like an old western town. Frank lead her over to one of the buildings. He was clutching his stomach where he had been shot earlier.
"Open it." He said. Alison grabbed the handle.
"It's locked."
"I know that now open it." Taking a deep breath, she threw her shoulder into the door. It didn't open, but she felt it give a little. It took only one more go to get it available. Clutching her now bruised arm, she entered the building heading for the back, where Fran indicated after closing the door behind them. They hid behind a set of crates in the back.
"I bet you wish they killed me," he said to her.
"I bet you wish you were in Cabo right now." He smiled at that. Footsteps got closer. "How do they know we're here." She said.
"Samantha," Frank said before letting out a loud laugh and falling over. Before Alison could grab the weapon, gunfire went of waking him back up. Alison pressed against the box, not knowing where the fire was coming from. The gunfire slowly started to die down.
"Come on, we got to go!" She said, getting to her feet.
"I cant." She stopped looking at him.
"We have to." He pointed the gun at her.
"I said I cant." Alison froze, looking at the gun. Frank slowly turned it, so the handle was pointed toward her. "I have nothing left. Save yourself." Alison nodded, taking the gun. She moved toward the back door. A man popped out, pointing a gun at her, and she shot him. His body dropped to the floor. Brass came into view, and Alison held up her hands.
"It's me." He relaxed. "Is everything clear outside?"
"Yeah." Alison nodded.
"He's over here." She gestured toward Frank. Brass nodded. "There's someone who would like to see you." Alison smiled, heading for the door. She slowly walked out of the building, looking at all the bodies. Her mind went numb.
"Alison." Greg's soft voice said next to her. She looked up at him, not noticing him walk over to her.
"Are you hurt."
"No." Greg slowly pulled her into a hug.
"You're going to be okay." A lump started to form in her throat.
"You're going to be okay." He said again as the tear started to fall.
"I'm here."