Enlightenment
The night was still black when the garage was suddenly lit up from beyond and Jo was startled into consciousness. The safety the velvet blanket of darkness had given her was ripped away and she was unable to contain the scream that escaped her.
"Oh, be quiet, I'll get to you in a moment." The man before her no longer had a mask or hat on and Jo could see that not only was he huge and powerful, but he was as black as the night he had just split asunder.
Jesse moved in Jo's arms and, as she looked down, she was horrified to see that he was sweating profusely his hair plastered to his head, and she could see a reddish gold discharge seeping through the dressing she had wrapped around his lower arm. Her finger was still painful but not throbbing, and she knew that she hadn't been able to return the favour with Jesse, and he had an infection. Gently she touched his hand moving back quickly as he groaned, but it had been enough to know that it was hot and far firmer than it should be.
Don Werner looked at the two captives in his cage and grinned to himself. That cocksure, know-it-all Lieutenant and his British side-kick, British and working in the homicide department of an American police station, even thinking about it made him furious. Well, the two of them would be suffering now, would know just who had the upper hand. With a final glance at his prisoners he opened the trunk of his car and began to take out the things he had collected from one of the other garages he owned. As he did so he heard the doctor groan and call out and he guessed that the night wasn't being kind to him.
"Rae … help me …" Jesse didn't really know where he was, but he knew that it hurt, and Rae wasn't there. He needed to call to her, to make her come. Maybe she was with their girls, she could bring them, but he couldn't say all that. "Eliana…"
Jo wiped the tears from her eyes as she watched her friend suffering. He was becoming restless, and she could tell that moving was causing him pain. "Shhh, they'll come real soon, you just rest some an' before you know it they'll be here." Jo kept her voice to a whisper not wanting her captor to hear her and come over.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Rae had stood in the shower until she didn't have the strength left to stand any longer, and then she had wrapped herself in a long, soft terry towelling robe and lain down on her bed. For a while she had slept fitfully, waking up every twenty minutes or so with images of her husband running through her mind. It was just after three in the morning when she tried to make herself more comfortable and heard Eliana call out from her room. Knowing that it could take a while to get her back to sleep Rae pulled on a pair of pyjamas and then headed towards the nursery, seeing Sally come out of her room she paused and quietly sent her back, she hoped, to sleep.
Eliana was sitting up in bed, her curls in unruly clumps all over her head, and she had one hand in a tight fist which she was rubbing into her eyes. As the small shaft of light from the nightlight picked out the shadow of her mother the little girl began to gulp and tried to speak. "No… Mommy, want… Da ddy."
Rae felt the tears rush to her eyes, up until this minute her daughter hadn't noticed her father was missing, and she had hoped that it would continue. Rae leant over the safety guard and picked Eliana up. "Shhh, Sweetie, it's all right."
"No, want Da ddy." Eliana started to struggle and Rae began to rock her in her arms.
"Daddy isn't here, Baby, he's at work." Rae hated lying, but her daughter wasn't yet three, and she knew that no harm would be done by it. "Shhh, go to sleep my little one." Rae gently moved her daughter until her head was lying on her shoulder and then she began to hum softly to her. Gradually she could feel Eliana dropping off to sleep and, after ten minutes, she was able to lower her back onto her bed, cover her up with the blanket and carefully tiptoe from the room.
Rae checked her watch, it was twenty past three in the morning and she knew that if she went back to bed now all she would do was turn over and over the terrible things that had happened so far, and imagine what might take place next. Instead she went to her closet and got a sweat suit that she had bought for when she went to the gym off a hanger, pulled it on over her nightclothes and then went quietly down the stairs.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Jo hadn't wanted to watch what the big man in front of her was doing, but she didn't have much choice. He was working directly in her eye line in the glare of his headlights, and his partner in crime had come up behind her and fastened the chain which was attached to her neck collar to the bars of the cage so that she couldn't turn away. For a moment Jo had closed her eyes and begun to understand the terror that Rae felt whenever anything was placed round her neck. She didn't think that she could be strangled with what she was wearing, not in the same way that Rae had been, but she knew that if she moved then her airways would be compromised. Which is the same thing. Jo tried to shake her head, realising that she was already suffering from oxygen deprivation.
The beam of a torch assaulted her eyes. "Lee, she's going a funny colour, I don't want her dead yet, man, loosen the chain." The voice of her enemy floated into her head, and then she felt the pressure on her neck fade away. For a moment she gasped for air, although she hadn't realised just how much she needed it.
"Thank you, thank you."
"Shut up, did I say you could speak?" The chain was pulled and Jo felt her head bash back into the bars and then her hair was tugged backwards too and some of it was ripped from her head.
"Arghhh." Jo couldn't help herself, but all that resulted from her cry was the feeling of more hair being yanked out. This time she bit into her lip until she tasted her own blood, but she didn't call out.
"Now, little miss rich girl, I want you to look and see what I'm doing. I don't think that your hot shot husband or his annoying little friend will ever find you, but I want them to, and when they do, well, this is called a trip wire, and it is joined to this." Don Werner lit a kerosene lamp and pointed to a red box. "This is my control panel, if that wire is pulled, or, this button pressed." He held up a smaller red box, which Jo knew was obviously a hand held device of some kind. "Then, kaboom, the whole garage will be a pile of rubble, and guess what? So will you … But do we care about that? Do you think we will dare do it? Of course we don't care, but of course we will blow you sky high. All I have to do is this." The smaller of the two red boxes was now in front of her face, and as she sat there unable to speak or move Jo saw a finger rest over the button and then press it.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Rae had tidied up the playroom, put all the correct jigsaw pieces into the right boxes, the books in height and then alphabetical order on the shelves. She had dressed the two dolls, made sure that all the pieces for the shape sorters were in their right places and then she had sat down at the table and looked about her. However hard she tried there was nothing more to do in this room, and so with a sigh she moved on into the breakfast room.
The room was clean, there wasn't anything that needed to be tidied up, so she went through the newspapers and magazines and threw away all the ones that were more than a couple of days old. Then she went into the kitchen, unloaded the dishwasher and took the breakfast things into the room she had just left and began to put them in the sideboard.
As she did so, Rae caught sight of the album her mother had sent her and with a deep heartfelt sigh she pulled it out and put it on the table.
Dane had heard his granddaughter begin to cry and, looking at the clock by his bedside, realised that, much to his surprise, he had actually fallen asleep. He sat up in bed and, being just down from the nursery, was able to hear his daughter-in-law as she moved down the hallway and in to see to her little girl, he heard her speak with Sally and then there was silence apart from the sobs of the child, but gradually they too died away.
Dane shook his head, he had been trained to remain calm under pressure, and apart from a very few times in his life he had done just that, and he had certainly never lost his temper in a civilian situation before, well, not since Jesse was a little boy and in need of a severe telling off.
Jesse, Dane shut his eyes and the happy smiling face of his son appeared in his mind. He loved the boy with all his heart, but he didn't think he had ever told him. The thought of meeting the woman who had married him hadn't been one he had been looking forward too wholeheartedly, somehow he felt he still had a childhood to live with his son, but he certainly hadn't meant to alienate himself in the way that had happened during the past few hours.
He leant over and pulled a black briefcase up onto the bed. Inside it was a laptop computer, three cell phones and a photo of Jesse and Rae on their wedding day. He didn't even think that the happy couple knew he had it. Dane had been in contact with his ex-wife because he had seen the article about his son's death on the news service he subscribed to. The relief he had felt when he understood why the article had appeared had been enormous, but he had begged his wife not to mention to Jesse anything about him getting in touch. She hadn't understood, but she'd agreed, he had given her a secure e-mail address and later she had sent him a wedding photo. His paranoia had gotten the better of him though, and he had shut it down as soon as he got the picture, and his one line of contact had been severed.
As he sat there looking at the picture in his hand, Dane heard Rae moving around downstairs, and, realising that it may be a good opportunity to go and try to start again with her, he got out of bed, pulled on his robe and headed for the stairs.
The FBI agent, whose name was Aiden Williamson, watched as a second person came down the stairs. It was his busiest night so far, and still nobody had spoken to him.
There was a light shining out from under the door that Dane thought led to the breakfast room, and so with a light tap on it he went inside.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Jo had held her breath, although she wasn't sure what good it would do her, but nothing happened, and then a sadistically cruel laugh assaulted her ears. "It's not connected yet, did you think I was going to blow you to kingdom come? Oh, no, my dear, your husband and your best friend will have the pleasure of knowing for the rest of their lives that they killed the two most important people to them, and in such a painful way, blown into even more bits than I can manage… Now, take off your shirt."
"What?" Jo looked around her, she was scared, disoriented, and she had Jesse in her arms, so instead of doing as she was told she just sat there.
"I told you to take off your shirt!" Don Werner came up to the door to the cage, unlocked it and advanced towards her, a scalpel in his hand. He pulled her up by the hair, causing her more pain, and, because she was unable to keep a hold on him, Jesse fell to the floor, letting out a groan as he did so. The blade flashed in the beam of the kerosene lamp and then she felt the point of it as it cut into her flesh all the way down her front just to the right of the buttons. The blood flowed into the white material mingling with the dried stains from when she had lost her finger, and then it was ripped off her, leaving her standing there in just her jeans and ruined bra.
"Well, aren't you pretty for a white girl?" Jo shuddered as he ran one of his large fingers around the cups of her bra dislodging it further, and down across her body, avoiding the line the knife had made which was still bleeding freely. Then he leant in, kissed her hard on the lips and was gone, extinguishing the light and locking the gate behind him, leaving her to the darkness and the demons that lived there.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Rae was sitting, a photograph in her hand, staring out at the lights of the city through the window.
"Rae, may I come in?" He saw the tiny woman in front of him jump and he moved a little closer. "I'm sorry, my dear, I didn't mean to startle you."
Rae turned to him and he could see the mistrust in her eyes. "Is there something I can do for you, Mr. Travis?"
"I think, if we try to understand each other a little better, there is a lot we can do together." This time he was relieved to see her nod and so once again he moved a little closer. "What are you looking at?"
"Photos my mum sent me. We lost everything we owned in a fire, and so she had this set done for us … Jesse hasn't even seen them yet." Rae closed her eyes for a moment, the release of tears would be welcome, but she couldn't cry; not now; she wasn't alone.
"Rae, I realise that you have known my son for a long while, and in all that time I haven't been home, or even in contact with him, but I do try to keep up with what he is doing. I have a news service that I subscribe to, and it sends anything that has his name in it to an e-mail address. But I had to leave my last location quite quickly, and close everything down for a while in case they were watching me, so I haven't had an awful lot of e-mail for about fourteen months. Before that I was working undercover for just over a year, in one location, which followed straight on from more than two years somewhere else. I try, but in my line of work family and friends are a luxury. I have seen some articles in newspapers, which have kept me in touch too, but, well, as you know newspapers don't always tell the whole story." Dane paused for a moment. "I have always tried not to involve my family in my work, which is why I left Jesse and his mother all those years ago, and I know I have missed a lot of things that have happened, but if it had his name in it I would have gotten it … apart from Anneya, I didn't know about that sweet child."
"Dane, I don't want to judge you, but keeping up with family matters by news service is … well, it's not enough. Jesse loves you, but more than that, he needs you. I don't have a dad anymore, but there are times when I physically ache to have him hold me, or just to be in the same room as me. Jesse does have a dad, and he has those feelings too." Rae lowered her eyes and they caught a glimpse of the picture in her hand. The tears welled up, and it took a supreme effort of will to get them to stay where they were.
"May I see?" Dane's voice was quiet, the words his daughter-in-law had spoken still in his mind, and he knew that what she said was true. He wondered if she realised that he often had much the same feelings, desperately wanting to see or hold his only child. Without a word, Rae handed him the photo. It was of a white house with flowers round the door. He could see a number 37 on the wall. Rae and Jesse were standing with Eliana who was in her daddy's arms, and Dane could see that Rae was heavily pregnant.
"What's that on your arm?"
"Oh, it was a brace that Alex made up for me. I was injured a while back and that arm was paralysed. He made it up for me to make my life a little easier…" Rae paused for a moment. "He's a lovely young man, but he's spoken for … and so am I. Dane, I wasn't aware that my behaviour could be described as flirting, and I do love Alex, but not in the way I love Jesse." For a moment Rae stopped talking and her eyes filled with tears that she couldn't control. "I miss him … and I just want him back." She turned from her father-in-law as a sob escaped her, he placed an arm round her shoulders and she leant into him; but still she refused to let the tears go, even for a minute or two.
Rae had however, let Dane guide her to the sofa in the breakfast room and cover her over with the throw that was across the back of it. "Just for a little while, I have to listen to the tapes … we have to get them back … alive." Rae tried to stifle a yawn but she wasn't successful and Dane smiled as he watched her drift off to sleep.
By ten that morning, Steve was ready to string up the next person who spoke to him. Daniel and Michael had exchanged glances, and Mark, who had called in to see David and Debbie, was warned that his son was like a ticking bomb.
As Mark moved towards the morning room to speak with Steve, he watched his only remaining child come storming out into the hallway.
"Dad, what are you doing here?" The greeting wasn't friendly, and Mark regarded the man calmly.
"And good morning to you, too."
"I'm sorry, Dad, but that long haired idiot at social services said that he would contact me this morning about Daniel. Doesn't he know just how much pressure each extra minute puts us under?"
Mark put a hand on his son's arm. "Steve, you just have to take each of those minutes and live it the best you can. I can't even begin to understand how you're feeling, but I love you and I will do anything you want me to, you know that don't you?"
Steve placed his hand over his dad's. "Yeah, I do." His voice was rough with the emotions that were permanently close to the surface. "Thanks, Dad." As he finished speaking Daniel came up to the two men.
"Grandpa?"
Mark was blinded by the tears that flooded his eyes and for a moment he was unable to answer.
Daniel looked at his Dad. "Did I say something wrong?"
"No, Son, no." It was Mark who answered him. "You just caught me off guard a little bit."
"If they want to take me away could I go to your house? Maybe they wouldn't look for me there."
Mark, with a heavy heart, shook his head. "That isn't the way to handle this. If they say you have to leave, that is what you will need to do. Then we will fight with everything that we have to get you back. If you hide they will say that your dad didn't have control over you, let you run amok, things like that."
"Yeah, I guess so." Daniel looked at the floor, but both men could tell how worried he was.
Steve was just about to join the conversation, when it seemed to the people in the Sloan household that the world went mad. The phone rang and Agent Whitlowe moved over to answer it, as he did so Ron Wagner came in through the door, an expression of grim determination on his face, and Michael came out of the kitchen, an envelope in his hand.
It was Agent Whitlow who spoke first. "Lieutenant, Detective Yeager is on the phone, she needs to speak with you urgently."
Steve's eyes darted from the phone to the doorway where Ron was standing and then to the envelope in Michael's hand, he didn't know where to go first, and so, following the guidance of the FBI agent he took the phone, but instead of listening he spoke. "Rae, I don't know what you're going to say, but something has happened, come here." And then he put the receiver down without giving her a chance to reply.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Jo had vomited after her captor had left her, the feeling of his hand on her body making her shudder and shake each time she thought about it. The whole front of her body now felt as if it was on fire, and each time she moved she reopened the wound and as she had been sick she had felt the warm blood trickle down and soak into the waistband of her jeans.
Jesse had just lain where she had been forced to drop him. He had moved slightly so that he was, presumably, in a more comfortable position, and then for a while he had looked up, although his eyes had seemed unseeing, and Jo had been very concerned for his state of mind.
Despite her situation Jo smiled to herself. She was scared, more scared than she had ever been in her life, and it was a fear that didn't lessen at all, no matter how long she was left alone, but she hadn't, since she had recovered from the initial shock of having her finger removed, felt in any danger of regressing because of the terror she was experiencing. In spite of all that was happening, she was proud of herself.
Jo crouched down so that she could slide her good hand underneath Jesse's head, and he groaned again as she did so. Ignoring the burning pain as much as possible, she gently picked him up and began to think. There was no way that the infection could have taken hold so quickly … unless it had been hastened on in some way. Jo thought for a moment, and then with a heavy heart she opened Jesse's medical bag, carefully with her injured hand, and looked inside it. The bandages that looked similar to the one on her hand were in a box, but the ones that she had used weren't, so she must have done something wrong, he had got an infection and it was partly her fault.
For a while, Jesse leant into Jo and she hoped that somehow he was getting some comfort from her presence, and her warmth, although she had to admit she was feeling pretty cold. The one blanket wasn't big enough for both of them to use, and as much as she wanted to wrap it completely round her injured friend she just couldn't leave her half naked body on view any longer, so she tried to share any heat and comfort that it gave them as she held Jesse off the concrete floor as best she could.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Rae had dropped the receiver back onto its cradle, turned and, shouting to Dane, had run out of the house, across the grassy part of her front yard, along the sidewalk and in through the gates to Steve and Jo's house. Dane, not sure what was happening, but recognising the urgency in her voice had nodded to Sally who was playing with the girls and then followed her.
Agent Whitlowe opened the door as he saw Rae appear and she only slowed down as she entered the hallway.
"I know who has them, I don't know where, but I know who." Rae's voice was shaking, and so were her hands; her heart was beating so fast that she feared it would run out of control and for a minute she had to shut everything out and try to get a hold of herself again.
"Ok, people, we need to go and sit down, things are moving too fast, and if we aren't careful we are gonna miss something vital." Ron Wagner's voice cut through the silence and all eyes turned to him.
"What if social services calls? And, Rae, you know who has them, who is it? We need Cheryl and Martin here if you know that."
"Steve, social services won't be calling." Ron moved over and began to guide his friend towards the door that he knew would take them into the dining room. As he heard the words though, Steve stopped moving.
"What? Why, has the decision already been made? Daniel?" Steve felt his world falling out from under him. The pressure on his back increased and without really meaning to, he let himself be led until he had a chair behind him and then he sat.
The rest of the chairs round the table began to fill up, by common consent Daniel sat next to Steve and in a couple of minutes they had also been joined by Rae, Mark, David, Debbie, Michael and Ron. Dane had hesitated by the door but had been invited in by Mark and had sat next to the man he felt most comfortable with. As they turned to listen to Ron, Cheryl and Martin were heard being ushered into the house, and they quietly came in and joined the meeting.
"Ron, why won't social services be calling? Are they coming to take my son?" Steve asked desperately. He felt that if something wasn't sorted out soon he would spin round and round and fly apart.
"Steve, Daniel, I'll clear up the problems you have been having with those people first. You don't need to worry about them again. I called Mr. Garrett this morning and explained to him in no uncertain terms how much it would be frowned upon if a young man under the protection of the FBI was removed from his safe house." Ron paused and smiled for a moment, "He saw my point almost immediately and assured me that there would be no attempt made to take him at present, and that once everything was back to normal he could see no reason to pursue the case."
Daniel, despite the seriousness of the situation, and the heaviness of the atmosphere smiled and, under the table, took his dad's hand in his own.
"Ron, thank you." Steve let everything else leave his mind for a moment, and he squeezed the slightly smaller, softer hand that was inside his own before shifting his attention back to the other problems that they had. "Rae, you said that you know who it is, how?"
"I listened to the tapes. Unfortunately, I just had them in a pile and I worked my way through them, I only had one left when I heard what I had been listening for."
"Who is it?" Unconsciously, Steve tightened his hold on his son's hand until he heard him let out a small gasp and then he released him.
"Don Werner." Rae shook her head, she was sure that she had been right when she watched him with the Chief and thought it wasn't him, but she hadn't listened to the whole interview because she had been talking with Cheryl and Martin, and not only that, even when she had listened it had been something that she had needed to listen to twice. "I have the tape." She slid her hand into her sweat suit and suddenly realised that she still had her pyjamas on underneath.
"Ron, you needed to speak with me too, and Michael, can we hear what you have to say and then listen to the tape…? Or maybe we should hear Ron first?" For a moment Steve didn't know which way to turn. "I can't do this any more right now. Cheryl, it's your investigation anyway. Please, just get them back." He stood from his chair and stepped back from the table. "Excuse me."
Steve moved out into the gardens, walked to the edge of the patio, rested his palms on the table and closed his eyes. He let all the thoughts leave his mind for a minute, and then, taking a deep breath he began to focus on the case as it was before Jo and Jesse were taken, finally, when he knew that he would be able to not only control himself but also to function rationally and be a help to all those who were trying to find his wife and his friend he opened his eyes, straightened up and walked back towards the house.
Mark had stood up as his son left the room and moved across towards the window. He had no intention of following Steve outside, but he wanted to be close at hand in case he was required. Mark watched and realised that he needed the time away from everybody else to re-group before what they all hoped would be the final chapter of an extremely distressing period in all their lives. He saw Steve stand up and then turn and, not wanting his son to realise that he had been watched, Mark went and sat back down.
The time that Steve had been outside had given all of them a chance to get their thoughts in order. Everybody seemed to realise that something had changed; it wasn't only Rae's announcement, but the increased tension that seemed to hang over each and every one of them. Cheryl decided to wait for Steve to come back, knowing he would probably be ready to take charge again once he had pulled himself together, and even if he wasn't able to run the case upon his return, she didn't want to leave him out of any decisions at this point.
Steve sat back down and looked straight at Ron, somehow aware that they had all been waiting for him. "I think that we need to hear the information that you have, then Michael and then I'd like to hear the tape. David, Debs, I think that it would be best if you took Daniel into the other room and we'll let you know what we have in a little while."
"Dad, no, please, let me stay." Daniel's look almost broke Steve's heart, but he also saw the way that Ron had reacted to his suggestion and he placed his hand on the boy's shoulder.
"Son, I will tell you everything that you need to know later, but right now you have to leave."
Daniel tried to reason with his father, he yelled at him, he even felt a tear run down his cheek but to no avail, and in the end he turned and without another word left the room.
Ron, deciding that it would be best to ignore what had just transpired, began to speak. "We had another package, Steve, it was hair, long, dark brown hair, pulled out by the roots, just as Jesse's had been, and a white shirt." Ron paused for a moment as the news about the hair sank in.
"There was a white shirt in the bedroom, I don't think it's there now, I guess she could have worn it, but why do we have it?"
Rae had gasped as the shirt was mentioned, knowing all too well what could have happened to her friend, and as she looked at her partner she saw the exact moment when he realised as well.
"No, oh, God, no, Ron…"
"Steve, it's been sliced through with a knife, and there's blood on it … a lot of blood."
For a moment Steve couldn't speak but then in a voice devoid of all emotion he asked just one question. "Do you have a picture?"
Cheryl stood up and moved closer to her old partner and placed a Polaroid shot into his hand. The white shirt was lying on a desk and the bloodstains on it were all down the front on both sides of the cut as well as on the sleeves, especially the left one. "Amanda has it right now, and she is gonna call with the results. Steve, it may not all be Jo's blood."
"It could be Jesse's too, couldn't it?" Rae's voice was the opposite of Steve's. Everybody could hear the pent up feelings, but they all knew that she wouldn't show them any more than she was already.
"Michael, I believe you have an envelope similar to the one you received previously." Ron turned to the English butler who was sitting at the end of the table. He had sat without a word along with everybody else, but he somehow managed to make it look as if he wasn't part of the main group, an outsider, someone who was there but knew his place was elsewhere.
"Yes, Agent Wagner, it was delivered with the groceries that arrived this morning. The delivery man told one of your men that he was approached as he left the store and asked to bring this with him."
Ron pulled on a pair of latex gloves and then with a small smile took the evidence bag provided by Martin. Mark rose to his feet once again and quietly moved round and sat in the vacant chair next to his son. Steve gave him a grateful look.
Stevie,
This is just for you as the doctor has spent the last day in either a permanent stupor or coma, I'm not sure which. Your wife is lovely, a tramp I'm sure, but lovely all the same. Have I sampled her? Should I tell you? No, I like to think of you suffering.
The shirt was such fun to remove, and the little scalpel I bought was so sharp that I hardly had to press at all, what a shame I didn't realise until it was too late.
I wonder, do you know who I am yet? Should I give you a clue? Oh, all right, there are two of us, just like there are two of you, and two prisoners. The answer lies with Crosier, but then it always did.
Take care,
S. Todd.
For a few minutes the room was silent. Steve was trying to take the words in; knowing that there were far more clues in that letter than in any of the rest. Rae could hear over and over again, stupor or coma, stupor or coma, and she had to shut her mind off to the reasons for it. She suddenly felt Levington's hands as they roamed over her body and she jerked her chair back. Dane moved quietly behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder but moved it quickly as he felt her reaction.
"Maybe a little air would be a good idea."
Rae nodded her head and moved, with her father-in-law, out into the gardens so recently vacated by her partner.
"Rae?"
"I'm fine, Dane, but Jesse's not, and I can't get to him to help him, or Texas. I was held by someone who … who." Rae couldn't continue. She didn't know this man well enough to tell him how she had been beaten and raped, and so she turned and without another word they returned to the house.
The room was still silent and as Rae sat down she saw Cheryl put a tape recorder on the table, pick up the cassette that she had left there a few moments earlier, and then the quiet was broken by the voice of the Chief as he interviewed the man they suspected of taking their loved ones.
"Detective Werner, this interview is part of the efficiency study that I plan to undertake for each department of the LAPD. You were told of the information that I required from you, I trust that you brought it all with you."
The Chief's voice was a little muffled, and, as the officer replied, his too was a little difficult to hear.
"Some of it, Sir, my shift patterns are noted on the calendar at home on the wall, I didn't bring that, but I have my note books, at least the last few."
"Detective, there is no excuse for not bringing everything that I requested; your fellow officers haven't had any trouble providing me with all I asked for."
"Yes, Sir, I'm sorry, Sir. Is it a problem? Do… c…"
The tape became muffled and then Don Werner's voice came back again.
"Sorry, Sir, I dropped my pen."
"That's not a problem, Detective."
"There, that's it, but you have to really listen. Cheryl, can you wind it back and turn the volume up?" Rae's eyes were flashing with emotion, but no one else was aware of what she had heard.
The cassette screeched and squealed as it was re-wound and then the voice began again.
"Yes, Sir, I'm sorry, Sir. Is it a problem…? Do I care?"
The room was silent for a moment and then Steve began to speak. "The double question, he must have thought that he was safe because he had bent down to pick up his pen."
"We need all his personal information. Cheryl, did you bring it with you?" Ron looked over to the two detectives who were sitting at the end of the table.
"Yes, and we drove past his house on the way here, it's a small condo, no garage or outbuildings, just a small front yard, and an even smaller back one."
"Then he must have other places that he owns or rents." Steve's voice was a little shaky, but he was sure of what he was saying.
"But we only have his word for it that they're in a garage, they could be anywhere, anywhere at all." Rae's voice wasn't shaking but she wasn't nearly as sure of herself as her partner.
"No, Rae, I know he has had us on a string ever since this began but he has never said anything in his letters that hasn't been true. I think that if he says that they are in a garage then that is where we will find them." Steve's voice cut into her train of thought and she knew he was right.
"Yeah, I guess so." Rae nodded her head and was silent.
"Ok, we need to find out everything that we can on Don Werner, bank accounts, credit history, whether he is married, has children, business interests, friends, other family, and I want this now, people, right now." Ron took charge of the meeting, and watched with satisfaction as both Cheryl and Martin were on their cell phones immediately and his two agents went directly to their laptops and began tapping information into them too. "I also want all the information that Rae and Steve got on Crosier. Martin, get on to the squad room get someone to bring it all over."
Steve had excused himself and moved into the morning room where he imagined that David, Debbie and Daniel would be. His brother-in-law and his girlfriend were in there but his son was nowhere to be seen. "David, where's Daniel?"
"He went up to his room, he doesn't know us, Steve, an' I guess that right now he needs familiar faces around him, or none at all."
"Yeah, I guess that's true. Poor guy, he was just beginning to really feel that he had a home here, and now it's all falling around him. I … I don't know what we'll do if she doesn't come home." For a second Steve closed his eyes and he felt a hand on his arm.
"Honey, you an' Jo have done wonders with that boy. From what I understand he was involved in an armed robbery an' things like that, an' now he wants to live with a cop, you have set him up for life already." Debbie still had her hand on his arm, and although Steve wasn't really sure if he agreed with everything she said, he knew that she was trying to be kind.
"Thank you, if you will excuse me I will go and see Daniel for a little while." Steve saw both David and Debbie nod their heads and so he turned and left the room, wondering how he would explain to his son that although they knew now who had his mother they still had a way to go before they found her.
As Cheryl and Martin worked on getting search warrants, and information on the bank accounts of their colleague, Rae had got to her feet and moved over to where Ron was sitting. "I need to get back to my girls, but you'll let me know what you find won't you?"
"Rae, I promise you, you will be the first to know, but you go, it's not as if you are very far away now is it?" Ron rested his hand on hers and to his surprise, just for a moment she hugged him before turning and leaving the house.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Jo had watched the sun come up with a feeling of dread that would not leave her heart. There was definitely something wrong with Jesse, more than just the injury to his arm, or even a simple infection. He was burning up, and then freezing cold, and Jo knew that wasn't good. His arm and now his hand were very swollen and still oozing, and as she sat with him in her arms she felt him move and then begin to heave.
"Honey, hold on an' I'll move you so you can be sick into somethin'." Jo could see the tray that the last meal had been brought in on was still in the cage, and so she pulled it towards them. Jesse was unable to do as she asked but thankfully she moved it into position just in time for him to deposit the contents of his stomach, which wasn't much, onto it.
Jo picked up the last bottle of water that they had left, and carefully poured a little of it onto Jesse's t-shirt, trying not to get it on a too heavily bloodstained part. She then lifted it up and gently tried to cool his fevered brow.
"Hey, you!" Suddenly the silence was shattered by the voice of their second captor. Jo still had no idea who it was, he was wearing the balaclava mask and gloves that he'd had on since they had been taken from the car. "I said, hey, you!" Jo felt herself being jerked back, just as she had been the day before, and she waited for the feeling of her hair being pulled from her head once again. But this time she felt a brush going through it and a deep almost hysterical laugh, and her fear increased.
"Let go of him." He pulled at the chain once again and then Jo had to release her hold on Jesse as her arms were also pulled backwards and she felt the chain being secured so that she was attached tightly against the bars in her cage.
The man grabbed Jesse by his swollen and tender hand and Jo cringed as she heard him cry out in agony. She could do nothing but watch in horror as her friend was dragged out of the cage and back into the one on the other side of the garage, where he was attached to the bars in the same position as she was, Jesse turned his head as much as his collar would allow and the look of anguish in his eyes almost broke Jo's heart.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Steve had sat with Daniel for just over an hour before he made his way back down the stairs and into the dining room. He had listened to the activity going on all around him and then looked over at Ron. "Where's Rae?"
"She went back to see her girls. I called just now, but Agent Perry said that she wasn't in the house. She went into the garden as soon as she arrived back there and hasn't returned yet. I was going to go see her, but I haven't had time."
"I'll go, she seemed kinda quiet when we were working out what information we needed, she is normally right at the front of any enquiry we work on." Steve hadn't realised until he began to speak that Rae had indeed been a little withdrawn, more so than even these terrible events would warrant.
Steve went out of the house and walked thoughtfully round to Oak Place. He was aware of the presence of his FBI Agent right behind him, but he couldn't think of anything to say to him and so he made his journey in silence.
Agent Perry saw Steve come into view and opened the front door, he didn't say anything as he walked by him and into the breakfast room, but the young man didn't seem at all perturbed by that.
Steve opened the patio doors and walked out into the garden. He hadn't seen very much of it before but he knew that Rae and Jesse planned to have an area fenced off with some swings and slides for Eliana and Anneya, as well as flower beds and a barbeque pit. Jesse had said that there was no way that the owner of one of the best barbeque joints in Los Angeles could live in a house with no pit.
Steve walked across the grass looking around as he did so. There were large empty flowerbeds with grass paths between them, and as he followed a softly curving trail he saw Rae sitting on a dark wooden seat looking over the city beyond her garden.
"Rae, Honey, what is it?"
"Three times, Steve, three times I've been wrong, and each time someone has died. I can't do this any more; I can't be a cop any more."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The passage of time had begun to have little or no meaning. Jo realised that it wouldn't be long however before she lost consciousness. Her breathing was getting harder and harder, and she knew that soon she wouldn't be able to take in enough oxygen to keep her senses working. As she half crouched half stood in the agonising position she had been left in she heard a sound behind her, and, because she was able to see Jesse from where she was, saw him vomit once again and then his whole body began to shake. Jo watched in horror as Jesse's body was gripped by a seizure and then as the shaking began to subside his head lolled to one side, and she knew that he was no longer aware of her or his surroundings.