The ambulance, its siren screaming a warning, came to a halt outside the ER at Community General and Mark leapt out and rushed in with Jesse. Alex and Amanda were both waiting as the gurney came to a halt outside Trauma Two.
"Ok, Jesse has been shot, he's lost a lot of blood, he's dehydrated, and he's been badly beaten. He is also in shock, and he crashed on the way over. I want an OR set up immediately, Alex you're with me." Mark had hardly paused for breath since he left the ambulance. By the time he had finished speaking Jesse was in the Trauma Suite and everybody knew exactly what he or she was doing.
"Ok, on my count. One, two, three." Jesse was moved across onto the table and the original gurney was removed. As Mark started to gently undo Jesse's shirt all the alarms started to go off again.
Steve and Jo had followed the ambulance to Community General, and they entered the ER just as the sound of alarms filled the air. They saw Amanda sitting outside Trauma Two and stopped for a moment.
"Amanda I'm gonna take Steve to the doctor's lounge, he is wound up way too tight to stay here." Jo looked at Steve, his eyes were on the doorway of Trauma Two and the feverish activity beyond. "Honey, come on, they don't need us waitin' out here, let's go sit." She pulled on his arm and reluctantly Steve moved away from the scene in front of him, but he didn't think he would ever forget the sight.
Alex put his hand on Mark's shoulder. He wasn't exactly sure how long he and Mark had been working on Jesse, but he felt he needed to intervene. He checked the clock as he waited for Mark to turn to him. He had been doing CPR for ten minutes, while Mark had been trying to shock him back, but maybe enough was enough. "Doctor Sloan, I think you should stop." He could see that Jesse wasn't responding, and he was getting very worried for the older doctor in front of him.
"No! I can't… Not yet. Nurse go and check on that OR."
"Yes, Doctor Sloan." One of the other staff members left the room, spoke quickly to Amanda as she passed and then went on to do her errand.
Amanda stood up and walked down towards the doctor's lounge, looking over her shoulder at the trauma suite as she did so. As she opened the door Jo and Steve both leapt up and moved across to her.
"Amanda, what's happened?" Steve could tell from his friend's face that things still weren't going well.
"Sit back down, Steve, Jo. I just thought I should come see you, you know that he crashed again… it's taking a while to get him back."
"An' Rae, without Jesse, we will never have a chance to find her." Jo wiped at the tears she felt and turned to find Steve looking at her with fury in his eyes.
"Don't speak like that, we will find her, and Jesse will be all right…" The anger left Steve's voice as he carried on talking, "…he has to be."
.
It was an hour later that Steve stood in his friend's room and was able to collect his thoughts. His Dad had managed to stabilise Jesse's condition, and he was finally alert and coherent. At last something was going right. Slowly Steve moved across the room, not wanting to startle him.
Jesse lay very still, and tried to see how much of the room was visible to him without moving his head. He saw Steve move into his eye line and smiled.
"Hey, Buddy, you gave us a real scare this time! What happened?"
"Steve, did you find her yet? He'll kill her, if he knows about the baby, he will kill her." Jesse could feel himself getting very agitated, and he shut his eyes. He knew that he could be in big trouble if he moved.
"Jess, listen to me. Dad will be back up in a little while, he's only gone to get the brace, if you promise to keep still, I will talk to you, ok? You're stable now, you know that, but if you get agitated you will need more than that blood transfusion. Promise?"
"Ok."
Steve took a deep breath. "It is gonna take some time to find her… I know, Jesse, she doesn't have a lot of time, but she doesn't look pregnant, and that will be in her favour. I'm heading back to the station now and I'll see what I can do to help. There are two cops on your door so he won't get to you. I'll report back to one of them and then they just need to put their head round the door to let you know what's going on." Steve stopped talking for a moment as he saw Jesse's eyes begin to get heavy. "Now don't move, you know you have to stay still." But Steve could see that Jesse wasn't going to be moving, he was already half asleep.
"Find her for me, Steve, I need her here."
"I'll try, Jess, I'll try."
Steve stopped to talk with the policemen outside the room as he left, and told them that he would send any information through them for Doctor Travis and Doctor Sloan, then he headed down to the doctor's lounge to meet back up with Jo.
Jo parked the car at the precinct and rushed round to open Steve's door. She knew that he wouldn't want to be kept waiting, she also knew that whatever temper he let fly now would have nothing to do with either herself or his situation. His fury was already directed at whoever it was that hadn't let anybody know that Levington was free. They were already later than they had meant to be getting here, but it had been important for Steve to be with Jesse until he had come round.
Bob was standing behind his desk waiting for his replacement so that he could go home when he saw Steve Sloan and a very pretty young lady come rushing into the station. "Steve, I thought you were on sick leave. Can I help you?"
"No, but you can tell me whether the Captain is in." Steve's voice was just short of unrestrained rage, but both Jo and Bob heard the pain there as well, and they could see he had his arms wrapped round his ribs to protect himself.
"Ok, pardon me. Yes he is in, but I think he has the Chief with him right now." Bob had taken a step back as he had felt the heat from the Lieutenant's words.
"Good, that will save us explaining it twice then." Steve and Jo headed for the stairs.
"Ah, excuse me, Ma'am, but I have to sign you in as a visitor."
"She's with me. Jo Walters. We don't have time for this, Sergeant." They were both at the top of the stairs before Steve had finished speaking. He stormed into the squad room and straight over to his Captain's door. Jo was right behind him, and she placed a restraining hand on his arm. Cheryl was sitting at her desk, she saw the two of them rush past and looked up, worry crossing her face. She had felt fine and had persuaded her mom to let her come back to work early, as long as she went home every night.
"I think I had better do the knockin' honey." Jo rapped gently on the door and then making sure that Steve didn't move, she waited.
Jesse wasn't sure what had woken him up, but slowly he became aware of voices outside his door.
"…liability since her first case. She went rushing off… most got herself killed, and Sloan didn't have any idea..."
Jesse wanted to call out, to tell them that it hadn't happened that way, but he knew that he mustn't move. He couldn't hear everything that they were saying, but he felt that he had to stay awake and try and listen, so that he could tell them later that they had it wrong.
"This Levington… takes the cake… gotten to her, …seems final… Martin always liked her… would have been better off … doctor friend… can't stay out of his own hospital." The voice changed then and Jesse knew that the other cop was talking.
"… it's over… no comeback..."
Jesse felt his head swim, he couldn't believe what they were saying. He must have been asleep for a long time, and Steve had sent news. He realised that he was missing what they were saying, and so once again he concentrated hard.
"…Jane Doe is her. No doubt..."
They had found her. Jesse couldn't dispute what he had just heard. Why hadn't Steve come back, or Mark. Rae was dead, and he hadn't prevented it and nobody had even bothered to come and tell him. He hadn't been able to save her, he had promised her that he would always be there, and straight away he had let her down, and now she was gone. He moved his hands through his hair, and realised that he would never see her do that again. Taking a deep breath he removed the IV giving him the blood transfusion, and then he got carefully out of bed, knowing that he needed to be quiet and careful to do what he had to do. If the bullet moved now, he could be paralysed before he got a chance to do this. He went over and picked up a carton of tablets, he checked the label and then, brushing a tear from his face, Jesse walked painfully over towards the sink.
Captain Newman had been discussing Steve Sloan's absence when he heard a knock and glanced up to see the very person looking as if he could spit fire. Guessing that if he didn't say anything his officer and the young lady standing beside him would enter anyway, he sighed. "Excuse me, Sir. I think this could be important… Come."
The door crashed open as Jo turned the handle and Steve pushed at the same time.
"I think that it's open now, Lieutenant, Ma'am. Won't you come in? Ah, I see you are in. So to what do I owe this unexpected visit?" The Captain was trying valiantly to remain in control of the situation, but he had a feeling he would lose the fight any moment.
"I want to know who the hell decided not to let any of us know that Phillip Levington was loose!"
"I'm sorry, I don't understand. Who is Levington? Sit down, Lieutenant, I can tell that you are in pain." Steve sank gratefully into the chair next to him, his face pale from the exertion.
The Chief knew exactly who he was and he turned in his seat to face the two newcomers to the room. "He is the ex-police photographer who had a fixation on Detective Yeager. And I had no idea he was free either."
The Captain got to his feet and walked over to his doorway. "Chapman, here, now."
There was a pause, and then a voice floated back. "He's not here, Sir. He's tailing Robertson."
"Ok, then, Banks, you can do it instead." The Captain turned back to the group of people in his room and Cheryl came into the office.
"I want you to find out all you can about Phillip Levington, where he is, where he is supposed to be, why he isn't there, and more to the point, why we weren't informed about it. And I want it half an hour ago."
"Yes, Sir. I'll get on it right away."
The Captain sat back down at his desk. "Ok, Sloan, I imagine that there is more to this than just the need to know."
"Yes, Sir. Levington has Rae. We have no idea how long, but it must have been after Friday lunchtime I would think."
"He has Detective Yeager, why didn't you say that straight away?" Masters was on his feet as he spoke and Steve could see the worry in his eyes. He knew that Rae had a strange effect on the Chief, he sighed, that was the problem, she seemed to have a strange effect on most people she met. They seemed to love her, want her or try to kill her.
"I think we should all sit down and go through this methodically. We can't do anything until we know the facts." Captain Newman had a clean pad in front of him. "So, how do you know that she must have been taken after Friday lunchtime?"
"Because she put an announcement in the paper, which came out on Saturday. You have to get them in by mid afternoon the day before if you go in person to the offices. At least you did last time I put one in."
"What did the announcement say, Lieutenant?" It was the Chief who spoke this time.
"That Rae and Jesse Travis had gotten engaged. I guess that enraged him enough to come and reclaim what he feels is rightfully his. We found Jesse at Rae's apartment this morning, he had been shot, beaten and tied up in chains." Once again Steve was enraged, not only by what had happened, and the incompetence that had led to it, but also by his inability to do anything concrete to help.
"Good grief, I imagine that he is at the hospital right now?" The Captain looked shocked, and he could understand now why his officer had been so furious.
"Yeah, with my dad. He got him stabilised before we came over here. There is something else that you should know. Rae is pregnant."
"Oh. How do you think Levington will feel about that, Lieutenant? You have more experience of him than me." The Captain could see the situation getting more out of hand by the moment.
"I think that if he finds out he will kill her!" Steve had no doubt that what he was saying was true.
Amanda sat with her head in her hands. It was three hours since Jesse had been brought in, and still she couldn't believe it. She had a feeling that she would never truly accept what had happened. There was a half drunk cup of coffee in front of her, and a pile of wet and tattered tissues.
Alex placed his hand on hers. "Amanda, I am so sorry."
"I know, but I just can't talk about it right now. I need to go and get some air. If Mark comes back, or Steve and Jo, will you tell them where I am?" She watched the younger doctor nod his head
"I am just gonna call Steve, and I'll tell Mark."
"Thank you, Alex." Amanda looked at him, her eyes full of tears and then she took a deep breath and left the room.
Steve's cell phone began to ring and Jo leant over and took it quietly from his pocket. She moved away to the other side of the office as she answered it.
"Hello… Alex… no, this is Jo. He can't handle a phone at the moment… No, we haven't spoken to anyone… Oh, my God."
The three men in the room looked at her, and Steve could see that she had lost all her colour. He moved quickly over to her side, wrapped his arms round her and she leant into him as she continued talking.
"No, no, I'll tell him an' we'll be over as soon as we can. Alex, you take care of Mark y'hear?" Jo turned back to the people in the room. She was shaking, and knew that if Steve didn't have a hold of her she would probably have collapsed by now.
Jo took a deep breath to calm herself, "I need a moment with Steve, an' then I have to head back over to the hospital." She steered Steve out of the room and over to his desk. She began to talk quietly to him and the Chief and the Captain saw him go grey too. Jo was speaking to him in such hushed tones that they couldn't hear any of it, but they knew by the response of the normally stoic detective that she must have devastating news.
Martin was on his seventh drop before he had a chance to see what he was delivering. Larry had stood so close to him on every previous delivery that had begun to feel claustrophobic. In the end he had go so fed up he had burst.
The sixth drop was to a small laundry, which was only big enough for two people and a bag of washing. Martin could feel the other man standing right behind him and he had finally turned. "Ok, this is the last drop where you follow me like a lost puppy. Unless it is chocolate in those boxes you are in no danger of loosing your merchandise. Now back off!"
Larry had moved outside the shop and watched as Martin had handed over two boxes, received an envelope, which they both knew was full of cash and walked back out. No words had been exchanged between Anderson and the storeowner, and they had walked back to the vehicle in silence as well.
Now Martin was in the back of the truck looking for the next set of boxes. There should be three of them with a circle and a square stamped on them. No distinguishing marks should anyone get caught. No addresses, no contents, no nothing. Martin picked up one of the boxes nearest to him and shook it. It was quite heavy, but whatever was in it shook silently. It was stuck all round with brown tape, and Martin knew that he was going to have trouble checking the contents without arousing suspicion. He found his three boxes and then walked back to the cab.
"Ok, Mandy, this guy is new too. So you may have to explain things to him, do you want me to come?" Martin just glared at him. Larry held his hands up in mock surrender. "Hey, I was joking man. I trust you."
Martin turned without a word and headed to the store, which sold computer games, and entered. He felt like he was in another world. There were large box shapes hanging from the ceiling covered with tasteless artwork and life size models of all sorts of garish monsters dotted around the shop. Almost every inch of wall space had computer consoles with racing or shooting games running on them. The rest of the shop was full of racks covered with computer game cartons.
He walked over to the counter and looked around. He couldn't see anyone; business couldn't be all that good. "Hey, anybody here?"
A young man in his early twenties came into view, "and you are?"
"I have your packages." Martin had no intention of telling him who he was.
"Ok, come in back, and lets have a look at what we have here." The young man opened up the flap and Martin moved through it. The door was opened and the two men went into the small office behind the shop.
Martin knew that Larry would have eyes on stalks, and that he would need to be quick. He took a pocket-knife out, slit the tape and opened the boxes. "There you go. Is that what you were expecting?" Martin was thanking his lucky stars that this man needed to have reassurance that they weren't fleecing him.
"Yeah, grade A stuff. Ok, the money is here." An envelope changed hands and then Martin left. He had a feeling that the guy in the store had no idea what 'grade A stuff' looked like, and he smiled to himself as he walked.
"Hey, you need to be careful, going out the back like that. Guy could have jumped you." Larry seemed more concerned than angry.
"Yeah, I guess he could. Still I survived. Now where?" Martin picked up the delivery sheet and looked at it. He looked up and back at it again. The address was just down the block from the precinct. It was also a store that he frequented a lot. His mind began to work, he needed to sort this out and get Larry to do the delivery otherwise his cover would be blown.
Detective Campbell was behind the truck as it began to drive along a familiar route. He realised that there was every possibility of Martin getting into big trouble very quickly. He picked up his cell and put a call into the squad room.
Cheryl was sitting looking through the information that she had pulled on Phillip Levington. She knew that Rae had been stalked while she had been in London, but this guy was seriously creepy. For a moment her mind went back to her time in the British capital and she smiled. She had loved every moment of her time there, and had made some good friends. This was where she belonged however, and she could understand why Rae wanted to stay here too. There was something about this city that got under your skin, and once it had you, it didn't let you go very easily. She was brought back from her meanderings by the ringing of her phone.
"Detective Banks… Hey, Campbell…Oh, right, no, I'll get the back up but I think you should go in. There are two of you right…? Ok…wait outside the store and we'll be there in five." Cheryl put the phone down and headed towards the Captain's office. She knew that something else very big was going down, but Martin needed to be pulled out, and fast. She knocked and waited. She could see the Captain, the Chief and Steve through the glass, and Steve looked ghastly.
"Come in, Detective Banks." The Captain and the Chief stood, as they always did when she entered a room. "I hope you have some relevant information on Mr. Levington for me?"
"No, Sir, we have another problem. Detective Campbell just called in. He is tailing Martin Robertson, and he thinks that the next drop is going to be just down the block from here and he might get made. He says that there is enough evidence to pull him in. I need to go down as back up."
"Very good, Detective, but as soon as you are back you and Robertson get on with Levington, you leave Campbell and Bannister to write reports, interview suspects and every thing else, ok. This will take precedence again."
"Yes, Sir." Cheryl turned to leave the room.
"Oh, and Detective…"
"Yes, Sir?"
"Be careful." The Captain smiled at his officer as she left, and then immediately returned to the problem at hand.
"Lieutenant, do you have any idea where Levington might be hiding with Detective Yeager?"
"No, Sir, I'm sorry, but I'll discuss it with Dad when I get back to the hospital. I'm sure he will have some ideas."
Cheryl could see Steve was deep in conversation in the Captain's office as she shrugged herself, a little painfully, into her shoulder holster and grabbed her jacket. She had called down and knew that there would be two black and whites waiting to follow her lead.
She put a call through to Campbell as she climbed in her car and then she eased herself out into the traffic. She didn't want to scare the truck off, and lose the chance of the bust or getting Martin back.
Martin pulled up outside a deli that he knew only too well. He'd bought lunch there for himself and Rae quite often in the past, and the owner knew all the cops in the neighbourhood. Martin guessed that he probably felt safe because of that fact. "Larry, you want to do this one? I have a migraine coming on, I could do with a few minutes with my eyes shut." Martin hoped that the excuse would work. He was feeling very sick, but he was pretty sure that was just nerves.
Larry looked at the young man next to him. "Yeah, you've done well today. I guess I could do just the one drop for you." He got out and went round to the back of the truck and opened it up. There were only about ten boxes left now, and he needed four of them. They should all have two stars on one side. It took only a few minutes to find them and then he was out of the truck and walking into the store.
Campbell and his partner, Bannister, moved quietly round and up to the side of the deli. As they did so they saw Cheryl and a couple of uniformed officers moving into position. Seeing her nod the two detectives announced their presence.
"Freeze. Police."
Larry spun round a gun in his hand as he did so, but Campbell was quicker and he fell to the ground. The shopkeeper raised his hands, and the whole thing was over very quickly.
Martin had been sitting with his eyes shut, just in case Griffith came back and caught him out, so the first thing he knew about the end of his operation was the sound of a gun cocking in his ear. He turned in fear to find the smiling face of his partner Cheryl looking at him. Then she had turned serious again. "You know I have to arrest you, Martin, I'm sorry."
"Yeah, I guess you'd better get it over with, I'm just glad you're alright." They both jumped then as they heard an exchange of gunfire, and Cheryl dropped down behind the window, and Martin lay down on the seats. As soon as they were sure that the danger had passed Cheryl opened the door to the truck and pulled Martin out. She put the handcuffs on him and escorted him to her car, sat him in the back with an officer in charge of him and then moved over to the deli. There were two men in there, one on the floor and the other up against the wall. She could see that the situation was under control so she moved over to the back of the truck.
"Ok, I want this stuff impounded, and the truck taken back to the precinct." Cheryl moved round to the front of the truck again, pulling on a pair of gloves as she walked. Then she opened the door and picked up the clipboard with the addresses of the drops on it, and headed back over to her car. "We'll have people raid these addresses straight away, but I need to return to the station. There are other things happening that we need to get back to."
Cheryl got into her car and drove away. Once she got out of sight of the crime scene, she stopped and uncuffed Martin. "Ok, we need to work together, I know you have been out of the loop for a good while, but I need you to get straight back into it."
"Why, it sounds serious, what's happened?"
"I'm not sure, but I know that it has something to do with Phillip Levington, and Rae."
"Oh, God, he was the guy who stalked her and nearly killed Jesse, you know, while you were away." Martin thought back, it had been a very difficult time for all of them, and he knew that for a while Rae had thought that he was her stalker. But they were still close friends, and they had gotten over that.
They were back at the precinct before they had finished talking, and Martin and Cheryl walked up to the squad room together. "I have been looking into his prison career, and well to be honest, we may as well have just given him a key before he went in."
They walked over to the Captain's door and waited. Cheryl knocked and they were waved in.
"Captain, I think this criminal belongs to us." Cheryl smiled as she moved out of the way so that Martin could be seen."
"Robertson, welcome back. I wish that I could spend more time talking about your case, but we really need to get on with finding Detective Yeager."
"Finding her? You mean that creep has her?" Martin looked horrified, as did Cheryl.
The Captain nodded his head. "Yeah, and there is more. Come in both of you, and shut the door."
Rae wasn't sure what day it was, or where she was, but she knew that she was getting weaker and weaker. She had been trying not to consume what Levington gave her, but she had to eat for her baby's sake. The drugs he was giving her seemed to be in the food for one meal, and the drink for another, there seemed no pattern to it, and she couldn't keep fighting him. She tensed up as the door opened and he walked towards her.
"Well, my darling, I think I have kept you confined for long enough. It is time you learnt what it means to be my wife. So I suggest you get dressed, there are clothes in the closet, and then you can come into the family room, and we can discuss your chores for today."
With that Levington moved over and undid her bonds. He then left the room, turning to speak as he reached the door. "Oh, and you have five minutes, my sweet, or I will be back."
Rae rubbed her wrists. It was the first time she had been left unattended and unbound since the day she arrived. She had only been let out of the bedroom to eat and use the bathroom. But sometimes she seemed to wake up in a different room. She knew he was trying to disorientate her, and he was succeeding.
Slowly Rae stood up and moved over to the closet. She opened the door and then she just stared. Inside were three dresses, more suited to Levington's mother than herself, but she guessed she had no choice. She pulled the one nearest to her off its hanger and pulled it over her head. She looked down at herself. The dress was a dull dusty pink colour. It had three buttons at the neck, and long sleeves. It was what her mother would call an a-line shape, and she hated it. But at least it would hide the fact that her pregnancy as it began to show. She felt her chest constrict as she let Jesse's face appear in her mind. It had occurred to her as she had lain on the bed earlier, that nobody would go and look for either of them until Tuesday, because that was when he was due back at work. She had no idea what day it was, but she hoped that he had been found. She couldn't think any further than that.
Jo had arrived back at Community General, in a daze. She headed straight for the doctor's lounge where she knew she would find Mark and Alex and maybe Amanda as well. She tapped on the glass and then slowly opened the door. Mark stood up immediately he saw her, and Alex followed suit.
"Honey, I am so glad you are here, but where's Steve?"
"He's gonna get someone to drive him over. He needed to fill the Captain an' the Chief in on what had happened so far, an' to tell him about Jesse…" her voice tailed off, and she ran her hand across her eyes. "Mark, what happens now?"
"I have spoken to a reporter, and the news will be in the paper tomorrow. She said that she thought it would probably make the front page, as Jesse's so well known."
"Does she understand about what you wanted said?" It was Alex who spoke. He looked tired and dishevelled.
"Yeah, she has worked with us before, she knows how to word this thing so it is reported accurately."
"Alex, Jesse said that Rae was pregnant." Jo looked at the doctor. She knew that he was Rae's physician. "I can't even begin to understand how frightened she must be."
"She is still in her first trimester, hopefully it won't show. She didn't seem to be too bothered by morning sickness, but she will be way more at risk because of it. The guy is a lunatic." Without realising it Alex was rubbing his arm as he spoke. He could still remember seeing the car as it bore down on Jesse. He tried to switch his mind away from Jesse. He couldn't think about his friend, not right now, it was just too much.
Rae looked at the list written on a piece of paper resting on the table. Some of the things on there were ludicrous, but she knew that she couldn't refuse to do them; he was way too unstable to antagonise. The first item was washing up, that she could cope with. "What time is it?" She looked across at the man sitting the other side of the table.
"Now, we have gone over this. If you wish to speak to me you know how I must be addressed. I suggest you try again."
Rae took a deep breath. She knew if she was going to survive this ordeal she had to work with this man, so that she could move against him. "I'm sorry. What time is it, Husband?" She managed to repress the shudder that threatened to overwhelm her.
He looked at her and slowly lifted his right arm. "It is ten past two in the afternoon. I expect the washing up done, the meal cooked and the family room tidied up by five." I will be in here reading should you want me. The rest of the items on this list will be carried out tomorrow."
Rae rose from her seat. She headed into the small kitchen and her heart sank. She still didn't know what day it was, but one thing she was sure of was that every dish used since she had arrived was looking at her from the draining board. She began to stack them in tidy piles so that she could work her way methodically through them. As she let the water into the basin her tears mixed with it. She couldn't help but let them fall, and she tried not to think about the life she had left behind. There was no way anybody could find her. She was one single person, hidden away in a huge city. Levington had beaten her. Her life, that she loved, was over and when the pregnancy began to show she had a feeling that her entire life would be over too.
By the time she had finished the washing up it was almost four o'clock. For someone who provided salad and a small side dish her new husband had sure used up a lot of dishes. Once they were all washed and dried Rae began to put them away. The cupboards were almost empty and so she organised the kitchen as she went. She realised with a sinking heart that slowly she was accepting that she would never leave this house.
"I would suggest that you start the dinner, you still have this room to tidy." The voice broke through her thoughts from the other room. Rae jumped and then she moved over and opened the refrigerator. Inside there was a pack of pork chops, the ever-present salad and two packs of beef burgers. Rae moved over to the cupboard that she had seen had food items, and looked through that. There was some tinned sweet corn, and under the sink there was a bag of potatoes. Then Rae checked the utensil drawer and found no sharp knives or peeler. Sighing to herself she took a dinner knife from the drainer and slowly and with difficulty she began to peel the potatoes. Once they were done, it took her another ten minutes to make the salad and then she took the pork out of the refrigerator and put it in the oven.
Taking a deep breath Rae picked up the polish and a cloth and headed into the other room. Phil stood up as she entered the room. "You have just under an hour to get this room tidied and the dinner on the table." He moved away across the room, and as he went by the dresser he swept his hand across it. The books and the pot plant on there crashed to the floor. Then he smiled at her and left the room.
The tears that came to her eyes this time were ones of anger and resentment. She went back into the kitchen for the brush and got rid of the soil that was on the carpet. She began to polish the surfaces, and then she put the books back. It didn't take long before the room was presentable once again, and she went back to the dinner. Rae looked under the sink. There was a cleaning spray, and washing up liquid, but that was all. She considered putting some of the washing up liquid in the salad, but decided against it. She would wait. One day she would get the chance to destroy the man, but she would wait.
The meal was eaten in silence and then Rae cleared the table. She came back into the room once she had done all the tidying up and stood quietly by the table. After five minutes Phil looked up.
"It is half past six and I need to go for a run. I suggest that you come with me." He stood up then, and Rae could see that he held a gun in his hand. A thought flitted through her mind that if she wasn't pregnant she would let him kill her, but she pushed it away, and turned towards the bedroom.
With a gun to the back of her head she began to take her dress off. She had found no underclothes when she had dressed so she stood naked before him. Then as she tried to remain calm she was pushed roughly over into the middle of the room. She lay on the bed, knowing what would follow; her arms were tied to the bedposts and then her feet. She began to pray that he wouldn't add his final piece of torture equipment, but she knew that it was in vain. The scarf was placed around her throat and then tied to her wrists.
"Goodbye my darling, I will return soon." Levington moved over to the closets and changed into his running suit. He came back over to the bed and began to kiss her, passionately on the mouth. She felt his hands as they roamed across her body and then to her relief he stood up and was gone.
Rae let her body relax as much as she dared. The tears ran down her face, and she was unable to wipe them away. Her emotions were so raw and unstable at the moment that she had no idea how she really felt. Some of the time she felt that she could withstand Levington's mental and physical torture, because she knew that Mark and Steve would be looking for her but then the next instant she would be overwhelmed with hopelessness and feel that she would never escape his clutches.
Steve had arrived at the hospital a while after Jo. He too had headed towards the doctor's lounge. Martin had also driven there, as the Captain had insisted that he go and be checked over.
Mark had taken Robertson down to a trauma room to do the examination, and Steve had moved over to where Jo was sitting and had taken her in his arms. He tried to ignore the feeling of pressure as she leant into his ribs, because he needed to be next to her just as much as she needed to be next to him.
Half an hour later Martin and Mark had come back to join them and they had sat in silence for a while. Amanda had come into the room, and Alex sensing that it may be a good time to do other things had left the five of them together.
Martin stood also. "Steve, I'm gonna head back to the precinct for a while, see what we can do from there. Can you get home?" He had received just a curt nod, and so the young detective had left and returned to work.
As Martin entered the squad room he realised that something else had happened. There was an air of anticipation and knowing that hadn't been there when he had left. He moved over to where Cheryl was sitting.
"Something has happened hasn't it?"
"Yeah, Campbell got the call on Saturday on a body found just outside the city limits. Don't ask me why, but he did. Anyway the fingerprints were run through the system and came up as Samuel Middleton. Our Mr. Middleton had a little trouble with his drivers licence and had to get a new one made." Cheryl held up the picture, which had been sent to her. The man may have been called Samuel Middleton, but he was the exact double of Phillip Levington.
For a second Martin was elated, but then he began to think. "But that doesn't help us unless we have an address for Mr. Middleton which has been taken over by Levington."
"I know, and we don't, we sent two guys to the last known address and it is just as it would have been if the guy was on vacation. But there was an ad ringed in a paper on the table for a camper van for sale. We called the number and Middleton bought it, we have the registration number, so maybe that will help."
Cheryl didn't sound convinced and Martin wasn't either. But at least it was a start. They had nothing else, and searching for Rae in this city would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.
It was ten o'clock before Steve or Jo felt that they could leave the hospital. Mark had said that he would stay overnight and look after Jesse's patients as well as his own, and Alex had already left. They drove to the beach house in silence, and then went together down to Steve's apartment. Neither of them wanted to be alone, not tonight. Not until they had found Rae. Tomorrow was going to be another horrendous day, and they both knew that until this case was over every day was going to be like that.
Jo lay in Steve's arms tears running down her cheeks. She had woken with a jolt from a dream that had Rae running toward a faceless man who had a baby in his arms. Rae was screaming and crying. Begging for the baby back because it was hers and Jesse's, that Jesse had left it for her. She had suddenly found herself awake, and Steve had moved so that she could be close to him. She looked up at him and saw that he too was lying there awake, even though it was almost three in the morning. "What are we gonna do, Steve? We have to find her. That newspaper headline will destroy her."
"Honey, I know that, but it had to be put in. There's just no way we could call all the people who would want to know." Steve kissed the top of her head and felt her silky soft hair against his face. "I know it's hard but you need to sleep. We are gonna have to be on top of everything over the next few days. There will be a lot to organise and plan. So close your eyes, and together we will get through this, I promise you that."
The sun came up over Los Angeles the next morning, as if it was just another day, but for a few it was a day that would haunt their lives for a long time. Steve and Jo slept until just after eight. The got up almost silently, and for the first time since he got home Steve just stood quietly and let Jo organise and assist him. By nine he had showered, got dressed and eaten, and was waiting in the car for Jo to lock up the beach house so that they could return to Community General. They stopped at the first newspaper stand they saw and bought a paper. As they had expected the news was right there on the front page. They threw the copy unread onto the back seat and continued their journey.
Phillip Levington took his normal morning run, having left his new wife tied to the bed. He had been so right about the problems associated with her neck, and he knew that as soon as he put the scarf there she was his and his alone. He jogged to a halt at the newspaper stand and purchased his morning paper, and then folding it up under his arm he began his journey back to the house.
Rae heard him come in. She had given up trying to work out how long he was out for; it made no difference to her anyway. But this morning there was something different about him, and the way he came back. Suddenly the door was flung open and he was there in the room a maniacal grin across his face.
"Look at this, look, my darling. I did it. I finally did it." Levington undid her arms and then her legs then he handed the paper to her and waited.
Rae picked up the paper, a feeling of dread enveloping her heart as she did so. There at the bottom of the page a headline screamed at her.
"Doctor Dead, Detective Missing."