Nowhere to Run
Chapter 7 of 10
by Vanessa
[nemesis@graffiti.net]
6 August - 5 September 1999
Outside
"Frank! Hey, Frank, wait up!" Rachel called, not caring if she was going to make a spectacle of herself to any passers-by on the street. He ignored her, but she persisted. "Dammit, Frank, wait!"
Finally, he stopped and turned around. "What did you follow me for?" he asked.
"Wh-- What?" Rachel looked at him, surprised. "What do you mean, why did I follow you? I want to talk to you."
"There's nothing to say."
"Oh, no, there's plenty to say, mate. There's so much, I don't even know where to start--"
"Then don't," Frank told her. "Look, just go back inside there -- Jack's probably wondering what's happened to you."
"Well, I want to know what's happened to you," she countered, refusing to back down. "What's the matter, can't you share a drink with a few friends any more?"
Frank glared at her. "No, I can't," he told her. "That's my problem, now will you leave me alone?"
"No," she glared back at him. He started walking away, and she joined him. Fine, if he wanted to leave, he could, but she was going too. She shook her head. "I thought we were friends, Frank -- we're equals, remember? Why are you avoiding me now?"
"I'm not." He stared straight ahead, walking briskly.
"So talk to me," she demanded.
He looked at her seriously for a minute, desperately wanting to. But he couldn't. "I've gotta go."
"Don't do this, Frank," she warned him. "Don't shut me out."
"Would I do that?" he replied lightly.
She grabbed his arm and they stopped. "Damn you, Frank! You're the one who came back, you're the one who decided to complicate everything! Don't take it out on me!"
"I'm the one who--?" he stopped short. "Fine. Maybe you're right. I shouldn't have come back, it was a mistake and I shouldn't stay here. I mean, I complicate things, you're right. There. Happy now?" he glared at her and started walking again.
No. Rachel stopped, momentarily taken aback. This wasn't what she wanted at all, in fact, it was the absolute opposite. His return was one of the best things she could have hoped for, having him back reminded her how much she had missed him. And now he was pissed off at her. While she was thinking this, Frank took the opportunity to storm off, leaving her standing in the middle of the footpath. Alone. She heaved a sigh, throwing her head back. "Damn you, Frank," she muttered, watching him walk down the street and out of view. As he disappeared, she added quietly, "Please don't go."
I meant to but
I don't know what
is in the way and could I say
it's you, I bet
I won't forget
maybe I'm not ready yetWater Police HQ
Tayler was the first to arrive for the morning shift, and deliberately so. When Tommy and Gavin passed by, on their way to do a patrol, she pounced on them.
"Gavin," she commanded. "Show me."
"Tayler," Sykes began. He glanced at Tommy, who seemed a little too interested in this situation for Gavin's liking, then he steered Tayler a few steps away. "It's fine," he assured her.
"I don't believe you," she replied, gently lifting his hand so she could inspect it. "You could have at least put on a fresh bandage, or a dressing -- you need something more than ice on it."
"As I recall, we both had better things on our mind at the time," Gavin reminded her, smiling.
"Oh well, I'll fix you up now," she said, turning away. Gavin pulled her back.
"Hey..." he said softly. "You're not going to dump me again, are you?"
"Why would I do that?" Tayler replied, before returning her voice to a normal volume. "Tommy, don't let him leave, will you? I'm just getting the first aid kit for his hand."
"Certainly, ma'am," Tommy grinned. "Hey, Gavin, how did Tayler know about your hand?"
"Huh?" Gavin replied vaguely. "Oh, you know, women. She probably just saw the bandage and freaked."
"Really?" Tommy said, not believing him. "How did it happen, anyway? Your date give you a rough time last night?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Gavin retorted, as Tayler returned with the kit.
"I'm sure we've got burn cream in here some where," Tayler told him. "Here we go." Gavin drew his breath slightly as she applied the cream, rubbing it in tenderly. "That'll teach you not to play with candles."
Tommy's jaw dropped. Seeing realisation hit his friend, Gavin hastily grabbed a rolled bandage from the kit and started ushering him out of the police station.
"Thanks for the lotion, Johnson, but we're running really late -- I'll bandage it on the boat." He said, rushing out and leaving Tayler completely confused.
"Mate, you've got to be kidding me," Tommy couldn't contain his laughter when they got outside. "Tayler..."
"What about her?" Gavin asked, unsure whether to defend or deny.
"She was... you and Tayler... that's even better than Jack and Rachel!" he remarked. "I can't believe you two!"
"Hey, I like her," Gavin said defensively. "A lot."
"You'd better..." Tommy laughed, shaking his head. "You're a brave man, Syksie. Stupid, but brave."
"Why's that?"
"Because, my friend, when Helen Blakemore finds out you are gone. She'll have you for breakfast." The look on Gavin's face clearly indicated he hadn't even thought about Helen's reaction. Tommy just laughed even harder, and they boarded the Nemesis for their daily patrol of the harbour.
"What happened to you last night?" Helen asked casually, seeing Rachel for the first time that morning when she came down to the front desk to fetch a copy of a report. Neither Rachel nor Frank had returned and consequently, Helen and Jack had finished their drinks, waited a while, then also left. Stood up, is how she was thinking of it. And Jack was seriously hurt, Helen knew. Rachel had some major apologising to do to the poor guy.
"Huh? Oh, the pub." Rachel bit her lip. She felt bad about that, honestly. She hadn't meant to leave them there, but after her argument with Frank, she really didn't feel like going back in there. "I, um, I just... I couldn't stay, I needed to get out of there." She paused. "Did you and Jack get home all right?"
"Oh, yeah, fine," Helen replied, non-committal. She looked up, glancing around the office before deciding there that too many people were close by. Taking her friend's hand, she dragged her into the nearest empty room.
"Rachel, listen to me. What you did last night, with the two of them, you cannot keep doing that." Helen looked at her seriously and Rachel glanced away uneasily.
"You think I don't know that?" Rachel murmured. "It's just not very easy."
"It's never easy, you know that and I know that. And I know you'd never intentionally hurt anyone, but you are hurting them." She stressed the last three words, watching Rachel's reaction. None, so far. She continued, "Neither of them knows where he stands with you, and that's not fair. Put aside your own confused feelings for a minute, Rachel, and think about what this is doing to them. I know you don't want to hear this--"
"Oh, don't say it, please don't say it," Rachel begged, knowing exactly where her friend was going. She stared at a point on the wall.
"I am going to say it, because even though you probably know this, you need to hear it out loud." Helen paused, taking a breath. "Those men... They love you, Rachel. They may not realise, but they do. Both of them."
Rachel sighed. "Yeah, maybe," she admitted. "But I can't have both of them, can I? Not even just as friends; they won't let me, they're forcing me to choose. And I just... I don't want to lose either of them. I never thought I'd say that about Jack -- hell, there's a time I wouldn't have believed it possible to feel like that about Frank... but, I mean, what've I got in my life? There's... There's David, and there's this job, and a couple of friends who I hardly see as a result of it. And then there's... well, then all I've really got left is you, Frank, and Jack." She shrugged and looked back at Helen, who was watching her sympathetically.
"All right, circumstances aside for a moment... Hypothetically, if you could have it your way, what would that be?" she asked gently.
"I dunno. I... I honestly don't know. I guess... well, I know you don't approve of mixing work and play, but I'm happy with Jack. I am. And if there was a way I could keep that and still hang on to Frank... I'd do it." She smiled ruefully. "Would you listen to me? Absolutely pathetic. Maybe I should just try and forget about both of them."
Helen smiled. Yeah, right. "So then, you don't think you and Frank would ever..."
"Oh, well... It's just, the thing is, me and Frank, I don't think that would last. I mean, really, what do we have in common? Nothing, right? I mean, hell -- we can't go a week without fighting and I think we just proved that last night... What do we have in common?" She sighed, throwing her hands up.
"Each other," Helen reminded her quietly.
Rachel fell silent, knowing she was right. They had, after all, sustained a partnership of five years -- a relationship, of sorts -- against all the odds. There had been times when she'd been sure they couldn't work together, that they were just too different. But they'd prevailed, right? They'd stuck it out and were now closer than ever. Except for some things, that never changed... And now they were just so complicated! She shook her head. "I'd better get back to Jack -- work," she said quickly, excusing herself from the room. Helen watched her go, then returned to her office.
I like to believe in the future
I wish it was sacred and strong
I wish I could fly on a wing and a prayer
but I've lied to myself for too long"This is the part I hate, you know?" Rachel said, flicking through a witness statement disinterestedly. "You do a few interviews, gather a bit of evidence, and then you just hit this brick wall, and you're down to re-reading everything over and over until you figure out what the hell it is that you're missing."
"Oh yeah, Tootsie called," Jack said, suddenly remembering that he hadn't told her yet.
"Yeah? Who's Tootsie?"
"The pathologist -- you know, Tootsie," Jack reminded her.
"Ah, Tootsie," Rachel replied. "So, what did Tootsie have to say? Any more on our corpses?"
"Yep, their names are Anna van--" Jack paused, frowning at the piece of paper he was reading from. "Von Garrett? Van Gemert? Somethin' like that, the other one is Lachlan Schnell, and they've both been returned to their rightful owners."
"Right, so no real connection with the kidnapper, yeah?"
"No, I had Blakemore check them out -- both accidental deaths, not even connected to each other as far as we could tell. I figure he chose them for resemblance to himself and the girl."
"That's probably the case, right," Rachel sighed. "So we're still at square one."
"Well, what about you? Did you get anywhere with that car?"
"No, no, we tried calling the owner -- uh, his name's Dawson -- a couple of times, but haven't got any answer. Probably time to give up on that one," she thought.
"Yeah, I reckon the kidnapper might have used a stolen car. Reckon we could get a list of any that've been reported missing in the last, say, week or so?"
"If you ask Helen nicely," she agreed wryly. Bored with the statement she was reading, Rachel replaced it in the file and began shuffling through the other papers on her desk. When she came across a copy of the face ID Tayler and Gavin had described, she paused. "Hey, you know what? I just thought of something."
"Frank!" Tayler exclaimed delightedly, surprised to see him back at the station. "You're coming back to work here, aren't you?" she guessed hopefully.
"Actually, Tayler, that's why I'm here, but I'm not," Frank told her. Her face fell. "I'm transferring -- Drug Squad." Overhearing this, Helen turned around sharply, but Frank averted her eyes.
"What? Why?" Tayler asked.
"Oh, it's time for me to move on," Frank said lightly.
"I'm sorry to hear that, Frank," Helen said, raising an eyebrow. He understood what she meant and shook his head.
"Don't be," he replied. "It's for the best, I'm sure of it."
Rachel and Jack, descending the stairs, interrupted their conversation. "Hey, Helen, you want to run an address through COPS for us?"
"What is it?" Helen inquired.
"That Dawson guy from yesterday -- we just want to check whether the address is real," Rachel said.
"Sure, I'll get on it."
"Hey, Rach, you got the car keys?" Jack asked, fumbling around in his pockets for something, which apparently wasn't there.
"Nope, you do," she replied.
"Uh... Actually no, I don't."
"Well, I put them on your desk."
"Did you?" he frowned, trying to remember.
"Oh, you're a worry, Christey," she told him, as Jack headed back to their office to retrieve the keys. Rachel then noticed their visitor. "Frank... here for a social visit?" After the previous night, the last thing she had expected was to run into him at work.
Frank shook his head. "Business -- got a meeting with Hawker." He paused. "So... What're you up to?" he motioned towards Helen, who was typing on the computer for the information they'd requested.
Work. Good, she could deal with that. Rachel unfolded the paper she'd been looking at before, with the face fit. "Okay, picture this bloke, with blue eyes and shorter hair. Remind you of anyone?"
He thought about it. "Bloke who came in with the stolen car yesterday, maybe?" She looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "You're kidding, right? What, so you think he kidnapped her, then came in here and reported his car stolen to the very detective who's investigating the case?"
Tayler, eavesdropping intently on the conversation, couldn't help butting in. "That fits, actually. It's like he wants to give us the chance to catch him, just for the thrill of getting away -- like he did with Gavin and I."
"Stranger things have happened," Rachel agreed.
"Rachel, that address does exist," Helen called out from the computer.
"Right, thanks, Helen. Oi, Jack Christey!" she hollered up the stairs. "You comin'?"
"Yeah, yeah," Jack replied, reappearing with the keys in his hand. He dangled them in front of her and she grinned. "Let's go."
In the car, Rachel could sense that something was bugging Jack. Not simply the case -- something personal. She made a mental note to question him about it. They were silent for a while, then he spoke, straight to the point.
"What was Frank doing there?" He looked over at her and she stared straight ahead.
"Hell, how should I know -- I'm not his keeper," she said, almost defensive. "He said something about meeting Jeff... Why does he get to you so much?"
"Why? Well, I don't like being second prize, Rachel." He gave a sideways glance to try and see her reaction to this.
"What are you saying? And keep your eyes on the road!" she instructed. "You wonder why I always drive..." she muttered under her breath.
Jack continued. "What I'm saying is -- I don't know what you want, and I don't know whether you know either, but I'm not willing to have you screw me over while you decide." Especially, he thought, when ultimately she wasn't likely to decide in his favour.
Rachel had seen this coming. She couldn't say she was entirely disappointed, either -- it made her position slightly easier, although not by much. At least it was his call... "So, it's over?"
"Yeah." Jack stared ahead at the road. "I reckon that's best. Don't you?"
"I guess," she replied uncertainly.
"I mean," Jack continued, "This way, we can't let our personal feelings interfere with the job, and you and Frank --"
"How many times do I have to tell you, Frank and I--" she protested, but he cut her off.
"Just drop it, Rachel. It's over, we're over -- strictly business from now on." His words were final, and they drove the rest of the way in silence.
you hold the future in your hands
and sullen eyes soothe and command
a graceful mouth your deadly tool
too bad the truth has fallen through
End Chapter 7