Closing In?
"Rae, what do you mean, three times you've been wrong?" Steve sat beside his partner and he could see the anguish in her eyes.
"I told you that it was a date gone bad, but I didn't think that she would target the station and seven people died. Then I went with Cheryl to see Joseph Logan and she killed him too."
Steve didn't need to ask who 'she' was, it had been a long time but Sandra Breth was one name that would never be forgotten, not in their precinct. Rae was silent and Steve realised that she didn't have anything more to say. "Rae, that is only two things … not that I agree with you, but what else?"
"There were the school girls, I tried, Steve, I really tried to talk to them, to get her to put the gun down but … but she shot her friend and herself. That's three errors of judgement and ten people have died, ten. I didn't think that Don Werner was guilty, I listened to some of his interview and I dismissed him, what if I just caused two more deaths?"
Rae stood up and tried to move away from her partner but he held her firm in his grasp. "Rae, stop it. If you want to wallow then fine, wallow, but do it on your own time, when Jo and Jesse are back. We have more important things to do than pat you on the head and tell you it's all in your imagination. So just grow up and get back on the case or look after your children and let us do the investigating!" Steve pushed her, none too gently back onto the seat and then without another word, and ignoring the look of shock on her face, he turned and strode out of her garden.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Jo had no idea how long she had been tightly fastened to the bars of her cage, somehow reality had ceased to be of any importance to her. She knew that sometime since the collar had been yanked back one of her captors had moved her again so she was almost, but not quite, hanging by her neck. She was having trouble breathing, her head was pounding and she had found that if she closed her eyes she could imagine herself anywhere in the world. She was just deciding on whether to have iced tea on the veranda of her home in Texas with her daddy or a cold beer with Steve in the mountains of Switzerland when she heard her name being called.
"Jo … Jo, Honey, don't go to sleep." Jesse had slowly recovered from his seizure, and having no idea where he was had tried to move and found to his horror that he was unable to do so. The pressure around his neck was almost unbearable, and as he had tried to shift into a more comfortable position he had seen Jo's head begin to nod and he knew somehow that if she let herself fall asleep she would surely die. "JO!" He shouted out, ignoring the pain that such an action called him and the relief he felt as she began to look at him was enormous.
"Jess? Do you want a beer or are you gonna wait for Rae?" Jo was still on her mountain; somehow she knew that she couldn't take tea with her daddy.
"Jo, you mustn't sleep, we have to stay … we have to … stay awake." Jesse moved his arm and the whole room seemed to turn into a million pain filled points. He understood now that he couldn't look down and so he carefully tried again to move his arm. Somewhere in his memory he remembered being fastened completely to wherever he was, but now it seemed he was just held tightly by the throat and his arms were a little looser again.
This time by supporting it with one hand, which didn't seem to hurt, Jesse was able to see a filthy, wet bandage and he wondered whether it had always been there. "Jo … what … what … happened, why are we like this?"
Jo watched with regret as the mountain scene disappeared in front of her eyes and left her in a dark, dusty and very dangerous place. She heard Jesse's question and was trying to work out what to say in reply when the doors were flung open and bright sunlight caused her to move her head sharply sending arrows of pain through her neck.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Steve had walked through Rae's house and then back the way he had come. The FBI agent whose job it was to follow him wherever he went, outside of his own home, sighed and retraced his steps. He hadn't been on a case before where two victims had lived so close together, and he felt a little superfluous, not to mention tired of pacing back and forth between their homes.
Cheryl was on the phone when Steve arrived back, and so was Ron. Mark and Martin came over to Steve and spoke to him in hushed tones.
"Steve, where were you? I was getting worried, Son."
"I went next door to get Rae, but she's feeling sorry for herself right now, I guess I blasted her out, but she'll get over it." Steve looked towards Martin, not wanting his dad to get involved in what Rae had said.
"I would be feeling pretty sorry for myself too, I have to say, but unfortunately we don't have time for me to go see her. Son, Amanda is coming over, she has some more information from the shirt, and Martin has something to tell you too."
Steve looked at the young detective next to him and he could see that he was excited. The news obviously wasn't bad. "Yes?"
"I've been on to the station, Lieutenant, in the vague hope that Don was in, but he hasn't turned up yet. His ex-partner though is due to start work in an hour, Alison left a message on his cell, and they are gonna try to get him to come straight here when he gets in. That way we can get some information from him. They worked together for a long time before I came and they swapped to new partners."
"Oh, right, what's his name?"
"Raab, Leroy Raab." Martin watched as Steve smiled.
"I know Lee, I have for years. Dad, do you know what Amanda has?"
"No, he doesn't, but if you go and sit down I'll tell you all at once." Amanda had been let in silently by Agent Whitlow who had worked with Ron Wagner since his arrival in LA and knew better than to keep his fiancée waiting on the doorstep.
Everybody moved back to the room where they had started their morning, and this time it was Amanda who took centre stage.
"Ok, I got the shirt that was sent in to the station. I have tested all the different things on it and come up with some interesting and, I have to say, worrying things." Amanda paused for a moment and opened her notebook. She was pretty sure of her facts but didn't want to leave anything out.
"Steve, I'm sorry, but there is a lot of blood on the shirt, and the majority of it is Jo's."
"You're sure, aren't you?" Steve knew but he had to ask.
"Yeah, I'm sure. I … I have the finger to compare it with." For a moment even Amanda couldn't continue, and as everybody watched the normally completely unflappable pathologist struggle with her emotions they all realised even more just how deadly this now was. "The whole shirt has dust on it, cement dust mainly, but also just dust. Nothing outstanding in it, unfortunately, it is ordinary outside … well, dust, there is no other way to describe it. The right sleeve is more interesting. The blood here isn't all Jo's, and it's easier to distinguish between her blood and Jesse's. And yes, I'm as sure as I can be that it is Jesse's. I have his DNA from the hair and I have sent through the tests to get a positive ID, it's his type and unless someone else was kidnapped, too, then I am going on the assumption that it is Jesse's. But there is more than that; the sleeve has pus as well as blood on it. One of them has an infection, no, not one of them, Jesse, Jesse has a serious infection. Again I have run some tests and my initial diagnosis is toxic strep."
Steve heard his father gasp and he turned to him. "What? Toxic strep, what is that?"
"It's … it's very, very serious, Steve, I'm guessing that it would have happened after he was injured… Do you want the simplified version?" Mark watched as his son just nodded and then continued talking. "It normally starts as Cellulitis, and progresses to toxic strep, but Jesse has three open wounds on his arm and has had no treatment so I guess it just moved very quickly. It is caused by the release of exotoxins of a bacterium called Streptococcus pyogenes, and its proper name is Streptococcus Toxic Stress Syndrome, but it is normally called toxic strep."
"But things like strep throat can be cleared up with just antibiotics so this can't be that serious."
"No, Son, this isn't just serious, if it isn't treated promptly it can be fatal."
Steve didn't say anything, but he looked at his father; after a minute a thought struck him. "Jo, she could have this too right?"
"No, Steve, she hasn't, at least she didn't when the blood was spilt on the shirt. But Jesse is more at risk than Jo."
"Why?"
"He's a doctor. He could be a carrier of the bacteria, but if he has no split skin, and since we spend half our lives with our hands under the hot faucet, he stays infection free. But once he was injured he could have very easily infected himself."
There was nothing more to say and for a little while the house was quiet except for the sound of voices on phones, and the soft clack clack of computer keys. Steve heard the sound that indicated he had mail and headed over to his own computer. He hated the thing, couldn't comprehend why his dad and Jesse liked them so much, but understood their importance.
He went to his inbox and saw that the sender was the station. He opened up the attachment and scrolled through transcribed vice squad interviews and hitting the button he watched the pages slide into the tray of the printer on the other side of the morning room. Then he picked up all the information and made his way back to the dining room and sat down at the table. Somehow he felt more able to concentrate when he was sitting in earshot of all the other officers who were also working to find, and save, his wife and best friend.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Ahh, Doctor Travis, you are back with us, how nice for you. I trust you are still enjoying your accommodations. I have decided that this is getting a little boring. Are you bored? Are you in need of a little more excitement in your life? Shall I provide it for you? I have advised my partner in crime to lead the police here. I am, of course, not planning to be around when they arrive, well, not where anybody can see me. And, do you remember our little talk? You should you know, you really should."
The man before them grinned, but it seemed to be more of a leer. Jo was having trouble concentrating on what he was saying, she wasn't sure why, but the room kept moving around her and she just wanted to sleep.
Jesse tried to shut him out, he didn't want to listen, didn't want to remember, but what he did want to do, desperately wanted to do, was call out to Jo again, to try to keep her awake, but it was getting harder and harder for him to keep his own eyes open, and he was feeling more and more ill by the minute. As he watched the man responsible for their predicament Jesse felt himself begin to shiver, and the metal of the collar seemed to grow tighter, harder, and colder before the room began to disappear once more.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Rae had watched Steve leave her garden without a word. She was so worried and anxious that she had no idea what to do next. For a while she just stood there, staring at the path Steve had taken away from her and then she sat back down and for a moment she let her mind go where it wanted. Jesse. When she had found out that he had tried to kill himself after Levington had her she had been astonished. She guessed that she had never really tried to understand how he felt, but now it wasn't hard at all. However much she loved being a cop, and lived for the time she spent doing her job, everything she did was held together by him.
When she had arrived in Los Angeles Rae had been completely alone for the first time in her life, and although it was a frightening thought she had relished it. She certainly hadn't planned on meeting someone that she would marry and start a second family with, and definitely not on the first day, well the first day she had been fully awake, anyway. But ever since then Jesse had been there, apart from the time when her job had frightened him away, but even then they had come back to each other, even then they were meant to be together. The picture in her mind became one of his smiling face, his eyes twinkling and sparkling as they did when he was happy and enjoying life, which, she knew, was most of the time. Suddenly everything that had happened, all the feelings that she had kept inside herself since he had been taken, flooded out of her. Rae could no longer stop the tears, no longer wanted to. She was alone; she was more scared for her husband than she had ever been for herself and she threw herself onto the soft, sweet smelling grass and began to sob.
Rae had no idea how long the tears lasted, but she knew that although her outburst had exhausted her in one way, it had liberated her in another. For a little longer she sat, letting her emotions come back under control, but she knew that was a luxury she couldn't really afford, "So stop sitting on your bum and go find him." Rae's voice shocked her, she hadn't meant to speak out loud, but suddenly fired up again she left her garden at a run, stopping only long enough splash cold water on her face, tell Sally where she was going and give her children a kiss each, then she headed back towards Steve's house.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Jo had listened through what seemed like a fog as her captor talked with his partner in crime, and as she did so her heart constricted. They were setting Steve, Rae and quite possibly the entire police department up, and she and Jesse were the bait.
"Don't give anything away, but tell them everything, ok?"
"Don, I know just what you want me to do, and I'll do it. I couldn't have done what you did, but Crosier deserved everything he got, man."
"Yeah, well, if you ever change your mind and want me to deal with Crystal you just let me know. He used her even more than my Gwen, he married her and she let him." Don Werner had his hand on Lee's shoulder, and the slightly smaller man could see that his eyes were black as coal and cold as ice. He managed to suppress a shudder, but there was no doubt that this man scared him, and he had no intention of getting on the bad side of him.
"It's wasn't legal, and maybe I can get her to come back to me, y'know. And if Gwen hadn't been married to you, I guess he would have married her too. It never seemed to bother him that he already had a wife, or two or three for that matter. Look, I can stay if you want. We can leave together once everything is finished." Lee closed his eyes, the tears that always seemed to appear when he thought of his girlfriend coming to the surface again.
"Lee, just go, I'll be in touch, man. In the meantime, I'll start the ball rolling with the lovely Reagan. I just love these wireless phones." The laugh that she heard chilled Jo to the bone, and then suddenly the man was standing in front of her.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Rae had been halfway across her front lawn when Agent Perry called her back. "Detective Yeager, come quickly." She had turned and run back towards him, her heart beating loudly as she did so.
The handset for her hall phone was thrust at her and still a little disorientated from her breakdown, and not really understanding Rae spoke. "Hello?"
"Rae … don't come … please … don't, Arghhhhhh."
"Texas!" Rae almost screamed the one word, but was instantly silent as she heard another voice in the background 'and now it's your turn, speak to her … I said speak with her'. Rae heard a scream filled with agony and then her heart constricted as once again she heard her name.
"Rae … why aren't you here? … I need you … it hurts…" Jesse's voice was faint and there was pain in it and Rae dropped the handset as if it had burnt her.
Agent Perry was right behind her and he caught it and handed it straight back to her. "Keep the line open."
"Jesse? Jess, tell me …" Rae closed her eyes for a second. "Tell me where you are, Baby, and I'll come get you."
"Oh, no, Detective, that is way too easy. But I don't know … should I tell you? Would you come? He is dying, Detective, she isn't but you will be too late anyway, all of it will be too late."
"Hello…? Hello…? Please, speak to me, where are they? Let us come and get them, please." Rae knew in her heart that there was no point in begging but she also knew that she had to try. The connection was still in place but now all she could hear was the sound of Texas sobbing somewhere, and Jesse calling her name.
"We have it, we have the address." Agent Perry called out and Rae, with a heart that felt as if it was made of lead, replaced the receiver. Then she and Perry raced out of the house and round to Steve's.
The door was open when they got there, and Agent Whitlow didn't say a word as they entered. The information that they had a location had been sent through on the headsets that the agents were all wearing and Steve was standing in the hallway his jacket already on.
"Rae, what happened? How do you know where they are? We have to go get them back."
"No, wait, Steve, you need to listen to the tape first, Texas said not to come." Rae didn't want to wait any more than she knew Steve did, but he had to listen to the phone call first, had to hear what had been said.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Jo had stopped talking as the scalpel that had been used to slit her shirt was plunged into her arm. There was no way that she could even stop the blood flow and it's warmth as it ran down her arm, and the dizziness that had been coming on was overtaken by the pain she felt, and gradually she gave in to it and began to cry.
Jesse had heard Rae's voice, she had been on the phone when she should have been here, wherever here was, and he had told her so. Maybe now she would come. His whole body felt as if it was either on fire or freezing cold and he knew that he was ill, his hand had begun to turn a very dark colour and he was glad now that it was hard for him to see it. He would have spoken to her even without the man who was with them grabbing his arm, the pain from it now was almost all encompassing, he knew that it was bleeding because he could feel it, and somewhere in the back of his befuddled mind the doctor in him told him to raise it up, keep it higher than his heart and it would be less dangerous. However hard he tried though he couldn't do it. The pain and the restrictions of the chains he wore were too much for him. Jesse felt the nausea rise up in him again, and although he had nothing to bring up he was unable to stop himself from retching and causing himself more pain.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Steve listened impatiently to the tape as the voice of his ex-colleague was heard.
'This is Sweeney Todd, I need to speak with Detective Yeager.'
There was a pause then, and Rae knew that she had been walking across her grass at that moment and then she heard herself.
'Hello.'
Rae took Steve's hand into her own as his wife's voice floated out into the room, and as she screamed Rae felt him grip her tightly. No words were spoken until the end of the tape and then the house seemed to burst into action.
"We have to go get them back, where are they? You said that you knew where they were, we have to go now." Steve was desperate; he looked around him, wanting to see people moving, running to cars, or on phones calling in the troops.
"No, Steve, you and Rae can't do this." Ron moved over, but stopped as he saw the two of them look at him.
"Ron, Jesse needs me, and … and he said we would never see them again, please, Ron, don't make us stay behind, please."
For a moment the whole house seemed to wait on Ron's words, and he struggled with the emotions that were running through his mind. He knew that if it were Amanda who was being held then there wasn't a man on earth who could stop him from hunting her down and taking out anyone who stood in his way with his bare hands. Deciding it would be better to have them where he could keep an eye on them than sneaking around behind his back; he began to speak. "You're with me then, and I suggest that you don't change the rules." Ron took in their expressions and his demeanour softened. "Come on, let's go bring them home."
Mark moved across, "I'll call 911, get ambulances there, and I'll alert Community General, I'll go straight there to treat Jo, and I'll get Alex for Jesse."
"No sirens, Mark, this has to be a silent operation." Ron looked round at all the people who had congregated in the hallway. "We have an address, and they are both still alive. Agents Whitlow and Perry will remain here, and we will report back any news to them." Ron's eyes travelled up the stairs and he saw Daniel standing halfway down, almost frozen to the spot. He thought about Dion and CJ who were at school. They weren't his own sons yet, but he could still begin to understand a little of what Daniel was going through. He carefully made his way through to where he was audible only to the boy and he began to speak again. "Daniel, as soon as your mom gets to the hospital I'll get one of the guys to bring you over, ok?"
Daniel was unable to speak and so he just nodded his head. He appreciated what the man was saying, but he couldn't trust his voice right now. He saw Amanda come up behind her fiancée.
"Honey, I'll stay with Daniel, we can go to the hospital together."
Ron smiled briefly at her and nodded his head. "Let's go."
Steve and Rae didn't need any more encouragement from Ron and the three of them raced out of the house and into the vehicle nearest to them.
"Where are we going?" Steve had sat in the back next to Rae and he looked over at the FBI man as they drew out into North Crescent Drive.
"Murietta Avenue." Ron didn't need to say anything further; he heard both of his companions draw in breath before they spoke.
"Crosier lived in … Crosier's house, the letter said the answer lay 'with Crosier, but then it always did.' But … we searched that house, it was clean." Rae tried not to think about the last time she had been to Crosier's house. Not only had she found his head in the freezer, but she had found herself on his computer.
"I know, but that's where the call came from, and just because they are there, it doesn't mean that Crosier and Werner's wife were held there."
"But what about the cement?" Steve thought back to what Amanda had said, the dust on Crosier's foot had been ordinary cement dust. But it had been found on the skin from Jesse, and Jo's shirt.
"I don't know, maybe he moved all his stuff to the garage behind Crosier's place when he took Jo and Jesse. Steve, all I know is that the call came from Crosier's address. So that is where we start."
Both Steve and Rae were silent then and for the rest of the half hour journey there was no noise except for the occasional crackled message over the radio, or the sound of car horns. As they drew up outside the ranch style house that used to be home to one of the nastier members of the LAPD, Steve's phone began to vibrate in his jacket and he checked the screen before answering it.
"Dad?"
Ron waited to leave the car until he heard what Mark had to say.
"Oh, ok … no, that's what we arranged, but thanks for letting me know … yeah, me too, bye." Steve folded his phone back up and returned it to his pocket. "Alex and he are both at the hospital now and waiting for whatever … whatever happens, and he says that … he says he wishes us good luck." Steve swallowed down his fear. For all he knew his wife could be lying dead somewhere behind the house that sat neatly but desolately in front of him, and now that the moment to find that out was here, he almost wished he was still waiting at home.
His mood was broken by Ron touching his arm and he looked over at his friend. "Steve, you and Rae have to stay here … No, no arguing, this is not up for discussion. I only brought you because I knew damn well you'd come on your own if I didn't. But you stay in the car, and trust me; I will lock you in if I have to. Once the area is secure and we know there is no danger I will come get you."
Both Steve and Rae knew that there was no point in arguing, and so they both just nodded. Rae looked at her partner and then over to her friend. "Can we just move into the front?"
"As long as you don't steal my car." With a small smile Rae got out of the car and climbed into the driver's seat and Steve sat next to her. The doors were quietly closed and then they sat and silently waited.
The garden to the house was now a little overgrown, and had an unkempt look to it. Rae could tell that no one was living there, but then she wasn't surprised. She had been homeless for a little while and she knew that no matter how desperate she had been, there was no way she could have moved her family into a house that had been used for the purposes this one had. The gardening service that had been hired to keep the house looking tidy while Crozier was missing had been cancelled, and Rae had a feeling that the house would never get over its association with this case.
Ron gathered his men just behind the large wooden gates that shielded the garage and garden from the road. The gates were over six feet high and made of brown wood. The driveway behind them was clear and tidy, although the obvious signs of emptiness had begun to show. There were weeds growing up through the cracks in the paving slabs, and some had begun to grow up the side of the house. He could see, as he talked to the men in front of him, that the grass in the back yard was in desperate need of a cut, and he could also tell that even though the house hadn't been lived in on a permanent basis the garage was being used.
That thought made his heart beat faster, but the entire yard was filled with an eerie silence, and he pushed the thought that maybe they were too late to the back of his mind.
"Ok, this guy's a cop, he knows everything we know, and he's probably armed. It's the LAPD's view that there are two men involved, so don't leave yourself open. The main requirement of this exercise is to get the hostages out alive. I want this bastard, but not at the expense of Jo Sloan and Jesse Travis, is that clear?"
"Yes, Sir." Jackson Manning was an experienced FBI agent, and he knew just what was needed to finish this case off successfully, but he also knew that in a confined area such as this driveway and garage that there would be problems in getting the hostages out unharmed, or no more harmed than they were already.
Jackson checked his weapon, made sure that there was no chance of anything going wrong and then looked at the three agents standing with him. As he began to speak again the gate opened slowly and first an LAPD badge appeared and then the two cops from Sloan's house followed it.
"Ron, sorry we weren't right behind you, but we had to let the Chief and Captain Newman know what was happening." Cheryl moved over to where Ron was standing. This was his field, she knew that, but she was in charge of the Crosier case, and she wanted in on the end of everything, and she fervently hoped that this would be the end.
"I saw Steve and Rae sitting in your car. They didn't acknowledge us, but I thought you would like to know they are doing as they are told." Cheryl smiled at the tall man who had become a friend, knowing exactly what instructions he would have given Steve and Rae before leaving them in the car. Friends with a fed, girl, you would never have thought it. Cheryl brought herself back to the present and looked at the five men in front of her. "What's the plan?"
"We go in, carefully, quietly, but quickly. It's too quiet, I don't like it, and I want in and out as fast as is sensible." Ron nodded to Jackson and he turned to his three men.
"Jonas, you and Bryan take point, I'll go behind you, and Sid, you take Bryan's back. Detective, you and your partner need to keep out of the way." Jackson had split them up so that there was one veteran agent front and rear, although the other two men had been on a few of these operations themselves, and he knew that Wagner never chose inexperienced men.
The four of them began to move, they were all right handed and they held their weapons close to their chests as they walked. There was no sound, but suddenly they all knew that something was very wrong.
"How long d'you think we'll have to sit here?" Rae hadn't said a word since she had joined her partner in the front of the car, but suddenly the silence was too much for her.
"I have no idea. It already feels like hours, but it's only a couple of minutes. Ron is still telling them what to do I guess." Steve stopped talking and for a moment they both watched as Cheryl and Martin made their way down the driveway and then disappeared behind the large brown gates that effectively barred their view of what was happening. "You all right? You seem, I don't know, different somehow." Steve looked at his partner; there was an air of calm about her that hadn't been there before. He could tell she was frightened, scared, just as he was, but the sense of her just about holding herself together, and her self loathing seemed to have gone.
"Yeah, I … I lost it after you left me in the garden, everything I had been holding in, I guess it had to come out sooner or later." Rae looked at her hands, her collapse now embarrassed her, but she knew she needed to have done it.
"Good, I'm glad, I was worried about you, and sometimes you have to let go, y'know?"
Rae nodded, but then her words rushed out of her. "I hate this. Steve, I need to be in there, not here, arghhh, I'm a cop not a bystander."
Steve was about to reply when the air was ripped apart by an explosion and the car was hit by a wall of sound and then they clung to each other as dust and debris rained down on them.