The Enemy Is Among Us

Steve and Rae sat in the car until the rest of the personnel needed to secure the scene had arrived. Steve hadn't actually lost his lunch, but he came as close to it as he had in a long time. Neither of them had any positive feelings about the man who, it now appeared, was the male victim in the Todd case, but to see him like that, both of them felt appalled at what he had gone through.

After about a half hour the two detectives had got out of the car and headed back into the house. Amanda was just arriving, and while Rae went inside Steve waited to greet her. He was surprised to see Jesse get out of a car as well, but quite relieved.

"Hey, Jesse, what are you doing here?"

Jesse locked his car before turning and replying. "Amanda called me."

"Steve, I hope you don't mind, but I figured seeing something like that, when you weren't expecting it … well, I just thought, maybe …" Amanda didn't finish the sentence, suddenly it seemed as if she was saying that they couldn't do their jobs properly.

"No, it's fine. Jesse, Rae's inside, we're ok now, but, well, let's just say it was a bit of a shock." 

The three friends entered the house, and Amanda took one look at the state of the

kitchen and headed back to her car to get a set of protective overalls. Rae was in the living room, and Jesse headed in there as well.

"Rae, are you all right?"

Rae, who had no idea that her husband was there, turned and the look of relief on her face told Jesse just how pleased she was to see him. She said nothing, but moved over and into his outstretched arms.

"Shhh, it's ok. Amanda's with him now, she'll remove it, and then we can get on."

"No, I need to go back and look again. How could anyone do that, Jess? I know he was a slimeball, but to cut him up into bits." She shuddered as she spoke, and then Rae gently pushed Jesse away from her and went out of the room and towards the kitchen. "Amanda, is it all right if I come in?" Rae's voice was a little tremulous, but she was determined to see this through.

"Yeah, if you really want to. I haven't moved him yet, but I will in a few minutes." Amanda didn't turn round, but she felt her friend move closer to her.

"He hasn't been in here very long has he? Wouldn't he be … I don't know, more … frosty than he is?"

"Rae, I have to say that I have no idea. It's not something you come across every day. I'm going to take some samples while he is still in situ, so to speak, because as soon as I move him, he's gonna start to defrost."

The flash of a camera went off, as one of Amanda's colleagues began to take the official photos, and Rae jumped.

"Sorry, Detective."

"That's ok." Once Rae had satisfied herself that she could look at the head without throwing up she moved back into the living room and, with a smile at Jesse, she began a thorough search.

Jesse didn't get much chance to watch his wife working at such close quarters, and so, after checking that it was ok, he sat himself in a chair and observed.

Rae moved slowly round the room, looking at different things, especially any pictures or photos that she found. Gradually a small pile, which, Jesse guessed, she would be taking with her, began to form on the coffee table just in front of where he was sitting.

The room was sparsely furnished; there was a two-seater sofa, the coffee table, one lounge chair, a sideboard and a computer table. The sideboard had photo albums in it, which Rae took out and began to flick through. Jesse saw her shut one quickly and, leaving them where they were, she crouched back down to carry on looking.

After about another ten minutes, and with a deep sigh that Jesse heard even though she was facing away from him, Rae moved over to the computer and switched it on. The machine whirred quickly into life, and the screen showed one identity square, which Jesse recognised as meaning that Crosier had been running Windows XP. Jesse got to his feet and moved quietly over to where his wife was sitting and placed one hand on either shoulder. He could tell, just by her body language, that something was bothering her, something more than the head in the other room.

"Rae, are you all right?" Jesse's voice showed his concern, and he was worried when he felt her stiffen under his touch.

"Jess, why don't you go and see how Steve is getting on?"

"I'd rather stay with you." Jesse had a feeling that he wasn't going to get any choice in the matter.

"Jesse, just go!" Rae's voice suddenly blazed with anger.

"Ok, ok, I'm going, see, watch me, I'm turning round, I'm heading for the door, I have no idea where I'm going, but I'm going there." Jesse managed to keep his tone light, but he wasn't planning on going anywhere very far.

Rae turned back to the computer screen and clicked the name 'Neil', a password box came up, and she typed in a set of letters she had found in the sideboard. After being told that the personal settings were being loaded Rae waited, knowing what she was going to see, and hoping against hope that she was wrong.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Jesse had found Steve in the bathroom, where he was carefully searching through a basket of dirty laundry that had a smell all its own. "Hey, Jess, did Rae kick you out?" Steve's voice was muffled through a mask, but the smile in it was evident.

"Yeah, but I don't plan to stay away, Steve, come back with me. She's found something, I don't know what, but I know she doesn't like it, and she won't share."

"Look give me a hand with this and then I'll go see her." Steve handed a pair of gloves and a mask to his friend. "Rae just needs a bit of space, Jesse. She found a severed head in the freezer; I'm not surprised she doesn't want to share."

Jesse was sure that there was more to it than that, but he kept quiet and began to search through the laundry. "What exactly are we looking for?"

"I have no idea, but over the years I've found all sorts of things in dirty washing."

"I don't think I want to know that, thank you very much." Jesse had to smile. It had been a long time since he had worked with Steve on a case, and it was good to be doing it again.

It was another five minutes before they finished their unpleasant task and then they headed back towards the living room, but as they entered they both stopped. Amanda was standing next to Rae, and they could see that she was comforting her friend. She looked round and seeing both Jesse and Steve, Amanda put a finger to her lips and then shook her head. The two men stood where they were, and waited.

"Rae, Honey, turn it off." Amanda's voice was soft and low, but it reached to the doorway without any problem.

"No, I have to see it, all of it; I need to know what's on here. How could he do this? Chopping his head off was too good for him. God, I hope he suffered!" Rae's voice was choked with emotion, and as she moved the mouse with her left hand, both Steve and Jesse knew just what she had been looking at.

The picture that filled the screen was of Rae, naked and tied to a bed. It was obvious that she was battered and bruised, and she was being raped by a faceless individual who seemed to tower over her. Jesse couldn't take his eyes away from the image of his wife on the monitor. It was clear that she had been awake and aware of exactly what was happening to her. A hand was pulling at the nipple on one breast, and the other was resting on a scarf around her neck.

Suddenly he couldn't look anymore, and he began to turn away, but as he did so he saw the picture change, and he willed himself to carry on watching what his wife was watching. The new image was obviously the next in the sequence, and the hand of Levington was now pulling at the scarf, and the terror in Rae's eyes was almost too much to bear. The picture changed again, and this time they could all see that Rae had passed out, and was finally unaware of what the monster was doing to her.

This time Jesse could break away and he turned and found his way blindly out into the front garden of the house. There were two cops searching through the greenery, although it didn't look as if they had been having much luck. One of them smiled as he saw the doctor and straightened up. "Are you all right, Doc? I guess it's a bit gruesome in there, even for you."

"Yeah, you could say that." Jesse paused for a moment and then began to speak again. "When my wife comes out, will you tell her I'll see her tonight?"

"Sure thing, Doc, no problem. Have a nice day."

Jesse didn't say anything else; he just climbed into his car and drove. He had no idea where he was going to go, but he had to get away from that computer and its contents.

As Jesse had moved out into the hallway it seemed to break the spell that they were all under, and Steve moved across to where Rae was sitting. She felt rather than heard him arrive and turned to him.

"Look! Look what he had on his computer! I was his screensaver, his wallpaper, and he had every page of that damn site downloaded!"

"Rae, turn it off, nothing is going to be gained by you looking at this. We'll take it back to the precinct and get the Captain to put it in the evidence locker with the same security code on it as Levington's computer."

"Oh, yeah, let's do that shall we? It's so safe and secure that Crosier was able to go and get all this." Rae's voice rose, and Steve knew that she was struggling to keep her emotions under control.

"No, Rae, you don't know that. It took, what, two days to get that site closed down? He had plenty of time to download this … this stuff."

Rae just nodded and then she carefully closed the computer down so that none of the offensive material was lost. Once it was turned off, Rae seemed to pull herself together a bit and she turned to find her husband. "Steve, where's Jesse?"

"He left; I guess it was a surprise to him … to see what he saw."

"Yeah, well, he hasn't seen the half of it." Rae stood up and moved over to where the photo albums were still sitting on the top of the sideboard. She hesitated for a moment, but then opened one up and handed it to Steve. The photos in it were all taken from the site they had just been on. Pictures of Rae in all states of dress and undress, tied to the bed, spread-eagled so that nothing was left to the imagination. "He was no better than Levington. He was a voyeur of the worst kind, and I'm glad he's dead. I just hope he suffered first." Rae couldn't stay in the house a moment longer, she followed the path that Jesse had taken out into the front garden and then she leant back against the house taking in gulps of the California air into her lungs.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

It took Jesse just over the hour to get to Malibu. It was a journey that should, according to the satellite navigation system in his car, take about thirty-eight minutes. It had never taken him that short a time to get to the beach.

Jesse parked his car in a public parking lot and, once he had locked it, he wandered onto the sand and began to walk along the shoreline. The images that he had seen flooded his mind, and he struggled unsuccessfully to remove them. He had known what that … that animal had done to Rae, but it was one thing to have her tell him about it, and another altogether to actually see it, as if he had been there.

He understood more now about why the man had such a hold over her and how she had been able to carry on as if nothing had happened when he had been killed right in front of her. Rae had told him, after she was first rescued and was finally allowed home, that when he tried to kiss her if she closed her eyes she didn't see him but her tormentor instead. Again now he was able to understand that more and he hoped he hadn't been unsympathetic in the past because he hadn't realised just how appallingly she had been treated.

Jesse's thoughts took him towards the beach house, and without even meaning to he discovered that he was climbing the steps to the deck, and then knocking on the glass door. It was Alex who answered, a smile on his face, as he saw who it was.

"Hey, Jesse, how are you? I thought you were on vacation this week."

"I am, but I just needed some time to think, and my thoughts led me here."

"That I can understand, there's something about this place that makes you feel, I don't know, able to cope a little better I think."

Jesse smiled; he knew exactly what Alex meant. "Is Mark here?"

"No, Steve just called him; he's gone over to Beverley Hills, something about a break in the Todd case. He asked me too, but I start work in …" Alex checked his watch. "An hour! Jesse, I have to go, will you be all right to lock the place up, or can I give you a lift anywhere?"

Alex had dropped Jesse off back at his car, and then he had driven to Beverley Hills. The journey hadn't been quite as bad as he had thought it would be, and he was relieved to see everybody was still at Steve's when he drew up.

Jo had given him a key, and so Jesse quietly let himself in. He didn't want to break up any discussions that were going on, and he hoped that he would be able to just slip in and things would carry on.

Daniel was sitting in the hallway outside the dining room listening at the door.

"I would guess that you're not supposed to be doing that." Jesse's words made the young man jump about two feet into the air.

"Jeez, Jesse, creep up on a guy why don't you?"

"If I tell them that you're outside here are you gonna get into trouble?"

"Yeah. But I'm a member of this family now, at least that's what I keep being told, and I was adult enough to go into the old lady's part of the house, but today, 'oh no, Daniel, you can't listen to this, you're not old enough.' I'm not a kid anymore." Daniel realised that his voice was getting louder and he dropped it so that no one came out and caught him.

"Come with me into the morning room, just for a minute, ok?"

Daniel nodded reluctantly, but he followed Jesse.

"Now, there are things that they will be talking about, not only gruesome things, which I'm sure you think you can handle, but personal things. They affect Rae, and I know she would be just mortified if she knew you had heard. So, just for now, could you go and do something else, please?"

Jesse was relieved when the young boy nodded again. "You know, if they had explained it like you just did, I would have gone straight away. I, ah, I didn't hear anything about your wife, I like her, and I won't embarrass her." Daniel got up then and headed upstairs. A couple of minutes later his music blared out and Jesse sighed. He guessed that listening to … whoever it was he was listening to, was a small price to pay for Daniel's agreement to go.

Jesse moved back towards the dining room and opened the door. In front of him around the table were Jo, Steve and Mark. Rae was sitting at the head of the table, away from the evidence that had been set out, because she had Anneya in her arms. Eliana was on the floor playing with the soggy giraffe that had thankfully been left at Jo's for emergencies. They had forgotten all about its existence until bedtime the previous night, and it was now the only one they had left. "Da ddy." The little girl spotted Jesse before anyone else did, and making 'daddy' sound like two words she clambered to her feet and rushed at him.

"Hey, Sweet Pea, how are you?" Jesse swung the little girl into the air and she squealed with delight, suddenly remembering that he was trying not to break anyone's concentration Jesse looked contrite. "Sorry, Guys."

Rae got up from the table and moved over towards her husband, for a moment the three people left at the table saw the Travis family as they kissed and hugged each other, and smiled at the sight. Rae pulled away from her husband and turned to her friends. "We won't be a minute, ok?"

"You take all the time you need, Sweetie, we have plenty to occupy ourselves with." It was Mark who spoke, but both Steve and Jo nodded their agreement.

Jesse found himself back in the morning room, this time with his daughters sitting and laying on the rug; he could see the concern in Rae's eyes and hear it in her voice as she began to speak. "Honey, where did you go? I was so worried about you, I tried your cell, but you didn't answer."

"I must have left it in the car, sorry. I went to the beach; I just had to get away, for a little while, from those pictures. Oh, God, Rae, what that man did to you."

"I know, but it's ok. I've called Lauren, and I'm going to go see her tomorrow, I'll be all right, Jesse. He's gone, he can't hurt me anymore, it's over, and it's been over for a long while. I just have to shut my mind to the possibility that there are other creeps out there like Crosier who downloaded that site before it disappeared."

"Do … do you remember what happened to you? When you look at those pictures does it surprise you, or did you know already?" Jesse wasn't sure that he wanted to hear the answer, but he knew that he needed to.

"Yeah, some of it. I remember him doing what you saw today, pawing at me, and the scarf, always the scarf. I don't know if I would have coped any better if it hadn't been there, but just knowing that he had that control over me, I was beaten every time he came anywhere near me." Rae shuddered then and Jesse took her into his arms.

"No more, we won't talk about it any more, but speak to Lauren, she can help you."

"I know, and she could help you too, you know that don't you? Oh, what a week!" Rae turned from him and ran her hands through her hair. "I didn't think it could get any worse than seeing someone commit suicide right in front of you, but then there was the fire, and now this. Thank goodness we have a party to go to Saturday night. I think I need a little relaxation."

They walked back to the dining room, carrying a daughter each and opened the door on a half finished conversation.

"… I'm just saying that if you write it out as a timeline, like you did before, it may help, that's all." It was Mark who was speaking, and his son was not impressed.

"So, because it worked with Sandra Breth, which it didn't, by the way, it was a red herring, and nothing to do with the actual reason behind the killings, I have to do this every time?" Steve shook his head.

"No, Son, but there are gaps between the discovery of the … parts, they aren't regular, they jump about. Maybe they jump about for a reason, that's all I'm saying."

"Steve, I hate to say it, but I agree, I think it would be a good idea." Rae joined in the conversation, knowing that Steve wouldn't like it.

"Yeah, well you do it then. I've had enough of being a cop for today; I'm going for a run. Jesse, you want to join me?" Steve turned to his friend, who was pulling faces at his eldest daughter and making her laugh.

"Mmm, I guess I could … Ok." Jesse reluctantly handed his daughter to Mark, who began to pull faces himself, but this time Eliana had a much better game to play, and reached for his glasses and pulled.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"You know, I can't remember the last time we did this." Jesse and Steve were running along one of the beautiful roads in Beverley Hills, the street was almost empty and so they were able to keep off the sidewalk and run next to each other.

Steve just nodded he really didn't feel like making conversation of any sort, although if Jesse wanted to talk then he was happy to listen, and so for the next ten minutes or so he listened as his friend talked about all sorts of different things, knowing instinctively to keep away from police work.

Finally, just as they were turning round and heading back towards home; Jesse began to talk about the house he had seen. "I just can't believe it, y'know, it's a wonderful house, and Jo says she'll make sure we can afford it, but then I guess I should have known that." Jesse paused for a minute, as if making his mind up whether or not to say something. "I … well, I've been a bit jealous of you lately, but then maybe I always have been."

Steve stopped in his tracks and looked over at Jesse. "Why?" Their run had taken them into Coldwater Canyon Park and Steve plonked himself down on the grass, before looking up into the eyes of his friend.

"Why? Are you kidding me? Look at you, everything you have and are and you need to ask me why?"

Steve shook his head, "Sit down, Jess." Steve waited until they were both on the grass and then he began to speak again. "I can't believe you just said that, Jesse, and I can't think of any reason why you would be jealous of me."

"I can give you a list if you like." Jesse smiled, but it was true, the amount of things he could think of would make a list, a small one, but a list nonetheless.

"Jesse, I … I don't know what to say." Steve got to his feet, he suddenly felt extremely uncomfortable in the presence of the man he considered to be his best friend.

"Steve, you have a dad who loves you above everything else in the entire world, a beautiful wife who adores you, a house that I can only dream about. You're tall, you put the fear of God into most criminals, and, according to my wife, you are a very handsome man."

If Steve thought he felt uncomfortable just a minute or two before, it was nothing to how he felt now. But then he realised that it was Jesse telling him this, the man to whom he owed his life, who he loved like a brother. If they couldn't talk about this then they weren't the friends he thought they were. "Jesse, I'll agree with you about my dad, and I know how you feel about Dane, but think about it for a moment, I lost my mom, I saw her suffer and then I lost her, she was too young … and so was I. So all Dad had Carol and me, he was very protective of both of us, and I was that way with my sister, but it wasn't enough … all that we did wasn't enough … she still left, she married Bruce." The way Steve said the name would have left no one in doubt how he felt about the man, even though he had been dead for many years. "We got her back, and she was happy but she left us again, and now she's dead. Look at me, Jess, my dad's a doctor, I'm a cop and we couldn't save her." Steve had begun to walk back towards Jesse, but now he paused, the tears so close to the surface that he had to stop everything else so that he could concentrate on holding them in.

"When I met Ellen, I thought I'd found my soul mate, but I was wrong. When she left I thought my life was over. Were you jealous then? Or when Carol died?" Steve watched as Jesse shook his head, but didn't speak.

"The day Rae started things looked up a bit, she was a breath of fresh air, and I know you felt that too. I was happy, for both of you, when you became a couple, but I wasn't jealous, you were just so right for each other … Then I met Jo." Steve stopped talking again. He could see her sitting in the boardroom at Worthington Laboratories, upset but, once she had gotten control of herself, she had been a good witness; although she had brushed him off when he asked her out. A smile played across his lips, she had kept him on his toes from that day to this.

"Jesse, our lives have changed so much since … since Ellen left, but the one constant in my life has been the love and friendship I get from you and Amanda, and Dad's unconditional love. I don't have anything new, apart from Jo and Rae, which I wouldn't give up tomorrow. None of it matters, not like friends and family."

"I know." Jesse was feeling about two inches high, and wishing that he had never said anything, but he knew that he couldn't take it back and he had to let Steve talk it through.

"Look at you, Jesse, you said look at me, but try looking at yourself. You have a wife who adores you, too. I'm flattered that she thinks I'm …" The embarrassment threatened him again.  " … but she will never look at me the way she looks at you, her world revolves around you, and the two most beautiful children I have even seen. Jesse, I don't have any more than you, I just have different things, I want to be a dad, I may never get the chance, but I want to try. You and I, we're different people to who we were, even two or three years ago, but there has never been a reason for either of us to be jealous of each other." Steve stopped talking, but then a thought occurred to him. "Do you want to rent the house to be like me?"

Jesse thought before he answered, and to Steve's relief he shook his head. "No, if I could be like you I guess I wouldn't have felt jealous. I want to move there because my best friend lives in that street."

Steve leant over and pulled him to his feet. "Of course, you do have one reason to be jealous of me."

"What's that?" Jesse frowned; he thought the conversation was over.

"You've never gotten home in front of me." With that Steve took off, and Jesse, knowing he was beaten before he started, sprinted after him, hoping that just once he might accomplish the impossible.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

After Steve and Jesse had left the house Rae put her youngest daughter into a bouncy chair got some toys for Eliana and crouched down on the floor in front of her. "Sweetie, Mummy has to do some work, you play, ok?"

"K, Mommy." Eliana put her podgy arms around her mom's neck and hugged her. Rae ran her fingers through the soft hair, loving its feel and its curls. Mark, his glasses now safely back on his nose, smiled at the scene, and Jo, a pang of envy trying to escape, wiped her eyes before looking back down at all the information in front of her.

"I guess we'd better get going on this, I get the feeling that Steve wants it done, he just doesn't want to think about it himself." Rae extricated herself from her daughter's arms and watched as the two other people at the table nodded their heads, and then there was a discreet knock at the door.

Michael came in, a tray with coffee and tea on it. "I took the liberty of making you a little light refreshment, and dinner will be in about ninety minutes, Madam."

"Michael, thank you. Could you go an' see if Daniel is all right? Maybe let him watch that music channel he likes so much. It can't be much fun here right now."

"Very good, Madam, Detective Yeager, would you like me to take Miss Eliana out into the kitchen and give her her evening meal?"

"Let her play while she's content, but when she starts getting teasy then I'll call you."

"Teasy, I haven't heard that expression in a long time." Michael smiled, and Rae did the same.

"I don't think I've said it either. My ex-sister in law was Cornish, she used to say it."

Michael left the room, and Rae, once she had poured herself a cup of boiling water and put a tea bag in it, tried to drag her mind back to the matter in hand.

An hour later Eliana was in the kitchen, Anneya was actually asleep, and Rae was standing out in the garden looking over towards the pool. She was finding the conclusion they had come to a little hard to accept.  There had been nothing to link the times of, or between, the discoveries of the body parts and that had been dismissed quite quickly, as had any commonality between the places they had been left in. This had meant that, as far as they were concerned, Steve was the key. He hadn't been to start with, but once they began to look into what he had been doing when parts were found a pattern did start to emerge. It was a little tenuous, but it was definitely a pattern. Rae heard the door to the dining room open and turned to see Jesse and Steve come back into the room. Jesse looked as if he had competed in a triathlon, whereas Steve looked as if he was about to leave for a run, not just come back from one.

"So, did you find a connection?" Steve wasn't even out of breath, and Rae, suddenly feeling a welling up of love and a little pity for her husband, came back into the room, moved over to him and kissed him gently on the lips.

"Mmm, what was that for?"

"Well, to be honest, you looked like you needed it, but I need it too." Rae gave Jesse another kiss and then turned to the other three people in the room. "Mark thinks he has found the link in the bits and pieces case." Rae's voice was tense, and Jesse, realising why she had needed the kiss, moved a little closer to her.

"And you don't agree?" He took her hand in his, glad to be able to do so.

"Oh, I agree, I just wish I didn't."

"Son, we think that you are the link."

"You think I'm the link? I already knew that. He says that in the first letter. He is going to play because I'm on the case. That's why; officially at least, I am off it."

"Ok, let's word this a little differently." Jo stood up and moved round to where her husband was standing. She had a feeling that he would hate what they had to say just as much as Rae did. "We went through everythin' that you have been doin' since the bits an' pieces started to arrive."

"And?" Steve was beginning to get short tempered. His run hadn't turned out the way he planned and now this wasn't going his way either.

"After the first piece arrived, it slowed down a little, you were workin' on the shootin's an' you weren't bothered by too many body parts."

"That's what gave us the hint." Mark took over as Jo felt Steve's arm go round her.

"The person who is doing this seems to know when you are busy, and when you aren't. You have never had a body part turn up when you weren't around, apart from the one when you were on your honeymoon, and that was planned at the last minute. You didn't know you were going yourself until after the wedding."

Realisation was beginning to dawn on Steve. "You think I know the guy don't you, Dad? Like I knew Crosier?"

"Yes, Son, we think it's exactly like you knew Crosier. We think he's a cop."