James Norrington stepped off of the airplane, and into the Las Vegas airport feeling very annoyed. First of all, because Turner had beat him to finding Elizabeth. Secondly, because Turner had stolen his badge in order to beat him to Elizabeth. Thirdly, because he was expected to drop everything, fly out to the US, and interrogate the fiend who had snatched the woman of his dreams from her rightful home. And fourthly, because Turner was a bloody secretary with a shiny blue gel-pen. People like that were not supposed to end up with the girl.
The first person he saw, as well, ended up being that feminine nutter, wearing a gigantic grin along with an utterly ridiculous hat. ("Ridiculous" meaning "pink".) I hate my life, James thought.
Turner beamed. "James!" he cried happily, an unwelcomed embrace smothering poor Norrington nearly to death. "I am so glad your flight arrived on time! I was so worried you'd get here after Elizabeth and I had left for England..."
I want to die,
"Anyway, I think you'll enjoy questioning Mr. Sparrow... he's quite a character..."
James nodded. He had never been one for idle chitchat.
The drive to the hospital proved to be nearly ten times as annoying as Turner by himself. It turns out that while he had been in Nevada, he had developed quite a taste for country-western music. Which is what they listened to. The whole drive. And what was worse, Turner sang along, and he couldn't carry a tune in a bucket.
James really wanted to die then.
He was very grateful when they reached Mr. Sparrow's room, and Turner left to fetch the polygraph machine. He stood in the doorway, surveying the rather tan figure lying in the hospital bed... wearing smudged black eyeliner. James mentally raised an eyebrow. People were so strange these days.
"Mr. Sparrow, I presume?" he said.
The man in the bed looked up from a magazine he had been reading. "Yeah," he said. "and you're that police chap -- supposedly here to question me, eh?"
James nodded.
"Well, go away," Sparrow said angrily. "I'm trying to read about People's Sexiest Man of the Year... Damn people keep interrupting me..."
"Mr. Sparrow, I have an associate bringing down a polygraph machine as we speak..."
He raised an eyebrow. "That gives me at least ten more minutes," he said, going back to his magazine. "Of course, it'll probably take about twenty years to figure out how that Depp man does it all..."
Elizabeth Swann was plotting.
A few minutes after Will had arrived at the hospital with James Norrington, she had approached the former and asked if he could take her back to Caesar's Palace, to retrieve her belongings. And while the two of them had been there, she had conveniently grabbed both Jack's pistol and his laptop. When she had been returned to the hotel, in order to say hello and goodbye to James, she had taken Will aside to begin Elizabeth's Grandmaster Plan To Keep Jack Out Of Prison.
"Will," she said quietly, moving her mouth very close to his ear. She could hear him sweating.
"Eheh... Yes... Miss Swann?"
"Will, do you think we could possibly stay until Jack's completely healed?" She gave him the most pathetic look possible. "I'm just so afraid that he'll escape before James can bring him back to England... You don't know how sneaky he is, Will..."
"Well..." He smiled gently at her. "I'd hate for you to be afraid..."
Phase one was complete, and as James was taking a short restroom break during the interrogation, she snuck into Jack's room and got his MSN messenger password. Soon, she had hacked into his e-mail account and figured out how to send instant messages to mobile devices.
Will Turner had an instant message.
His cell phone vibrated in his back pocket as he observed Sparrow's questioning, asking his own questions concerning Miss Swann when Norrington permitted it... which wasn't very often. But he pulled his small silver phone from his pocket, raised a finger at James, and looked at the message.
Will stared at the small words on the screen of his Sprint phone, his jaw dropping. The miniature monologue, however, continued.
"James..." Will whispered, raising his eyes in horror. "I think you might want to read this..."
In the fifth-leval janitor's closet, Elizabeth was chuckling.