Chapter Eleven – Desperate Measures

Rae had called the hospital after she had spoken with Sally and hadn't been surprised to know that Jesse would be spending another night there. She'd left a message for him, telling him she loved him and that she had sorted out all the childcare for the foreseeable future. Rae had then asked to speak with Steve and been delighted to know that he was at home already. She knew that Mark would be with his son and he would have probably had to stay in the hospital a little longer if it wasn't for that fact, but she was still thrilled for him.

Eliana and Anneya had been overjoyed to see their mother and after the time spent in the garden they had made cards for their daddy, watched videos and eaten chicken nuggets and fries together before having baths, stories and lots of cuddles. Now though, they were both fast asleep and Rae, a cup of tea and all her files in front of her on the breakfast room table, let her mind wander over her day.

The horror of the morning had been replaced gradually by an acceptance of what had happened and a determination that her husband was never going to be that scared ever again. Rae had been glad that she had been able to make it into the precinct, gather up her files and leave without either picking up any more cases or receiving a call from the Captain to explain the current crisis in her life. Tomorrow was Friday, and if she could just get through that then she had a weekend in which to regroup again and work out the next steps she needed to take.

As Rae began to drink her, now slightly cooled, tea the face of Mrs Morrison came up in her mind. Rae had been so pleased to see her two daughters at Sally's and well remembered the feelings of helplessness that overwhelmed her when Eliana had been kidnapped, so she could understand just a little the devastation the woman felt at losing her only child. Rae had undertaken many difficult interviews in her career but, maybe due to the events of the day, or just because the woman had been so distraught, she knew that her time with Leonie Morrison would stay with her for a long while.

Rae knew that the Beach View Hotel had been built as an ordinary house in the late 19th century, when she had seen it though she had corrected her information, it had never been a house, it was definitely a mansion, with beautiful views over the ocean. The building work which had turned it into a hotel had obviously been successful and the main foyer was buzzing when she entered it the previous evening.

"Hi there, I'm here to see Mrs Morrison, I have an appointment." Rae hadn't taken her ID out, not wanting to advertise her presence to the reception staff.

"If you'll hold on, Ma'am, I'll see if she is receiving clients today, the fitness centre is closed right now." The beautifully groomed and polite receptionist flashed a million dollar smile and picked up the telephone, she spoke quietly into it and then looked back at Rae. "She says are you Lieutenant Sloan or Detective Yeager?"

"I'm Detective Yeager." Now Rae did get her ID out and she showed it to the receptionist, who she could see was called Janine Burnham.

A few minutes later Rae was being escorted to the back of the main building and then on through to the fitness centre where she could see a tall, blonde lady who, Rae imagined, was about the same age as she was.

"Detective Yeager?" The woman's eyes were red and puffy, her hands pulled over and over again at a piece of tissue and her whole demeanour was of someone whose world had crashed down around them, which Rae knew was just what had happened to this lady.

"Yes, that's me."

Mrs Morrison indicated with a hand for Rae to go through to an office and Rae moved quietly in and waited for the other woman to sit first.

"Ma'am, I am very sorry for your loss, and I apologise right now for having to interrupt your grief, but I really need to ask you some questions, and the quicker I have answers to them then the quicker we can apprehend the person responsible for all of this."

"Do you really think you will be able to do that?" The voice Rae heard was almost devoid of emotion, as if all of her energy was being put into actually functioning at all and anything additional, such as speech, was almost too much for her. "I read in the papers about how under-staffed you are in the LAPD, and then it says that the number of homicides are down but that didn't stop my baby being … killed did it?"

"No, Ma'am, it didn't, and however short-staffed we are, all the cops who work in this city do the best job they can, and I promise you that we will do everything in our power to catch this person."

For a moment the room had been silent and Rae had sat knowing that there was nothing she could do or say to ease the woman's pain. Finally, after what had been a prolonged and sad, but not awkward, silence Mrs Morrison had looked up and begun to speak again. "You'll have to tell me what it is you need to know. She was so young, only nineteen, and now she's gone."

"Her boss at the drug store where she worked said that she met a young man for lunch, do you have any idea who he was?" Rae had her notebook on her lap and she quickly jotted down details of the day, date and time the interview was taking place.

"No, not really, I just know that he was called Dominic… and she was excited to be meeting with him. Do you think that he was the one who … who…" Leonie couldn't say the word and once again the room was quiet apart, this time, from the sound of crying.

"I don't know, but we need to trace him, if only to eliminate him from our enquiries. Did Samantha give you any other details about him other than his name?"

"She … she said that he was really cool. Quite tall, blonde and neat, she said he was neat." The tears fell once more and this time Rae stood up and moved a little closer to the suffering mother.

"Let me go and get you a drink, a cup of tea maybe, is there a place I can get that?" Rae got no response and so she picked up the phone on the desk traced a finger down the list of internal phone numbers until she found 'reception' she then dialled the number and waited. "Hi, this is Detective Yeager in the Fitness Centre; could you please get someone to bring down a cup of hot sweet tea for Mrs Morrison? Thank you." Rae didn't want to be told no and so replaced the receiver quickly giving the person the other end no chance to speak.

Rae had tentatively put her arm around the grieving woman and when she wasn't pushed away had tried to offer some comfort as she waited for the drink to arrive and for Mrs Morrison to calm herself once more. She hadn't really had very much left to ask, but she didn't want to leave the remainder of her questions until another day.

Once the tea had arrived and been drunk Rae had brought the conversation back to the matter at hand. "Do you know if your daughter had any enemies, anyone who really didn't like her?"

Leonie had appeared scandalised, and Rae had known that it was a tactless question, but one she had to ask. "Detective Yeager, she was nineteen years old, she hadn't had time to make any enemies. She worked in a drug store not for the FBI. She was a normal, happy child, a child … and she's gone, my baby's gone."

Rae knew that the woman was getting closer and closer to the stage where she would be unable to continue and she wanted to finish the interview in one sitting if possible. She waited a few minutes and then began to speak again. "Mrs Morrison, do you have a picture of your daughter that I can take with me? An up to date one would be best."

"Sure, can you hold on a little while and I will go get it." Rae nodded, and watched as the woman left the office. She took the time alone to make sure that she had all the details from what she had been told down in her notebook. Finally, after about five minutes Leonie Morrison returned with a pile of photos in her hands. "I … I couldn't decide which one you would like the best so I brought some for you to choose from.

The pictures had been spread out on the desk and Rae had found it hard to focus for a moment. Sam Morrison looked very much like Jenna Palmerton, the victim before her, tall, young, blonde and beautiful. Their murderer obviously had a type of woman that he targeted, and for a moment the vision of her youngest daughter, now only a toddler, but already, in Rae's eyes, beautiful, and obviously blonde, came up in her mind and she struggled to push it away.

"Your daughter was very beautiful." Rae didn't really know what else to say, but it was the truth. Samantha had been a stunning girl, her long blonde hair had emphasized that, she had also been the image of her mother.

"She was; people said we could be mistaken for sisters, and it was true." The pictures had been looked at then, almost as if Rae was a friend looking at holiday snapshots, and finally she had taken one of Samantha smiling happily in the gardens of the hotel. As she watched Rae putting the picture inside her notebook Mrs Morrison spoke again. "I have no one else you know. I was an only child, and my parents are dead, when he found out I was pregnant with Sam her father dropped me as quick as he could and left town, I was fifteen. I stayed home with her until she started school and then I went back to school too and studied to become a personal trainer."

Leonie picked up a photo, looked at it and then suddenly she screwed it up into a ball threw it into the nearest wastebasket and screamed at Rae. "And now she's gone! We were gonna set up in business together, her and I, but she's gone. I'll never see her graduate from college, get married, have children of her own, all that's been taken from me, from her, she was destroyed, just like that picture!" The woman stood up and swept her arm across her desk. The phone, tea cups, two pictures in frames, as well as all the paperwork, went crashing to the floor and then Leonie Morrison followed it, almost deflating as she sank to her knees and the sound of her sobs echoed around the room. This time the tears that had come wouldn't stop, and Rae, knowing that she wasn't the person that Mrs Morrison needed, picked up the phone, hoping it would still work, and then finding it did, called down to reception once again, asked whether there was anyone on staff who could come and comfort the distraught woman and then waited, crouched down next to her companion, but feeling many miles away from her as well. Ten minutes later a lady from room service arrived and took over as Rae made a quiet, but relieved, exit.

By the time Rae had logged all the details of her interview and made a note of her reactions to it the time had moved on to almost midnight and she realised just how tired she was. Rae put her cup in the dishwasher, set the house alarm, turned all the lights out and climbed the stairs before falling into bed and succumbing to sleep the moment her head hit the pillow. The last thought she remembered having was that she hoped Jesse was sleeping well too.

Steve had spent a very pleasant evening watching football, eating his dinner off a tray and generally being pampered. There had been a difficult few minutes when Mark had told him, in no uncertain terms, that there was no way he was going to be going to work the following day and that he would be on reduced hours for the next week. Once the possible complications, including that of organ failure, had been explained to him though, Steve had calmed down a little, and finally, after seeing the horror in his wife's eyes, he had agreed to stay home until the Monday. Everyone had retired to bed just after ten thirty and for an hour or so the house had been silent.

Steve had been awoken by something, a noise of some kind, but he wasn't sure what it was. As he gradually began to move towards full awareness he felt Jo stir beside him.

"No … please don't … keep away from him … Jesse … Jesse, no!" She didn't know where she was, the room was dark, there were no lights but she could see him, somehow he was fully visible, and in her dream world that was perfectly logical. In the pitch black Jesse stood out, and the man with the knife was there too. Give me your hands … She wanted to help, to save him, but she couldn't reach him … she wanted to scream, to shout, but there were no words. Jo tried to run towards him but her legs wouldn't work, wouldn't do anything other than walk slowly, awkwardly and she knew it would be too late. "Jesse … I'm so sorry … don't hurt him … not his hands …"

"Jo … Honey, it's just a dream, it's ok now." Steve didn't know whether to touch her, to take her into his arms or not, he didn't want to make things worse, but his wife seemed unable to hear him, or to break free of her nightmare.

"Jo … Honey …" She knew that voice, knew that it was there to help her, but in the dark it had no form, she didn't know which way to go to get to it and she swung round looking everywhere for it.

Jo began to thrash on the bed, and Steve knew that he had to take hold of her. "Jo, Honey, it's just a dream, shhh."

"Steve …" Suddenly she knew who it was, but he mustn't be with her, it was a trap, a trap for him and Rae. "No … go … go away…" The flash came up in front of her eyes and Jo felt a scream leave her lips and then suddenly she felt him, his strong arms around her and she collapsed into them, her world safe once more.

Rae was surprised by the alarm clock as it went off at half past seven. She had no memory of being asleep, but she felt refreshed and rested. Surprised by her resilience she headed for the shower, hoping that the feelings wouldn't leave her until her working day was over.

As she moved along the upstairs hallway towards the room shared by her daughters Rae thought about Leonie Morrison again. She felt so much for the woman who had lost the most precious thing to her at the hands of another. Making the decision to call in on the woman again on her way to the station Rae opened the door to the nursery and stood on the threshold for a minute or two just watching her two angels sleep. Eliana slept like Jesse, arms flung above her head and an appearance of total peace and relaxation on her face. Anneya on the other hand slept more like her mom, she lay on her stomach, her thumb in her mouth with her other hand hidden underneath her somewhere. Feeling guilty for what she was about to do Rae moved quietly over to where her eldest daughter slept and, crouching down, began to say her name very quietly.

Rae was, as always, astounded by the way the two little girls could be fast asleep one minute and wide awake and bouncy the next. They splashed around in their joint bath, laughing and giggling, and then the three of them headed down for breakfast, just enjoying being together.

Because her shift wasn't starting until eleven Rae planned to drop her children off, go and see her husband and then Mrs Morrison, after that she would head for the station where she would stay until nine that evening. The weekend would then be hers, and apart from the visit of Cheryl and Martin on the Saturday she didn't plan on doing anything more strenuous than play childish games and spend as much time with Jesse as he would allow.

As the final plate was put in the dishwasher, and Rae handed the little tablet to Anneya to put in the dispenser the sound of the flap on the mailbox was heard in the kitchen and, after receiving permission from her mommy, Eliana went rushing out into the hallway to retrieve the letters. By the time Anneya and Rae had got to the front door the elder child was bouncing on the handle. "Honey, hold on, you'll break it if you carry on." Rae turned the key, disconnected the alarm and then unlocked the mailbox. The little hand disappeared into it and came out with a screwed up handful of letters. Rae waited for them to be given to her but Eliana shook her curls and marched into the house.

"No, Momma, mine, long to Yana!"

Rae raised her eyes to the heavens, locked the box back up and went into the hallway again. They went through the same ritual every time she let her daughter have the post, if she was lucky there would be a circular or junk mail of some kind for the little girl to mangle while Rae saved the good stuff, if not she was in for a long wait for her letters.

Steve had woken just after seven but he hadn't got up, or made any movements except to keep himself comfortable. Until Jo stirred he planned to stay right next to her. He had held her gently as she had fallen back to sleep during the night, and now he wanted her to get as much peaceful rest as possible. The dreams seemed to have left her alone but he was taking no chances of them recurring if he left the room. Steve wondered if what had happened to him had anything to do with his wife suddenly experiencing nightmares, but it didn't seem an adequate explanation and so, trying to keep his mind from going round and round in circles he let it play over the different cases he was working on to pass the time.

Apart from his two main ones he had four others which he would describe as current. None of them seemed easily solvable and he had to admit that the involvement with the serial killer and the murder of his boss's wife had taken over most of his time. One of his other cases didn't involve murder at all but robbery. Although he worked for Robbery Homicide as the senior detective he tended to concentrate his mind on the killings rather than anything else, this burglar or burglars though, had been working in Los Angeles for about eight years, and only stealing very good stuff from extremely nice areas. The case was known as the Night Owl Robberies because of the calling card left in each location, with a hand drawn owl on it, and Steve had inherited it when the department had been rearranged after the carnage there when he was searching for a drive-by killer. For the most part the file had stayed firmly at the bottom of his in-tray, but for some reason he had brought the details home with him three or four days previously and they were now in the morning room.

The perp seemed to know exactly what it was he was looking for in most cases. Beautiful items had been overlooked while safes were cracked and even then some things were left while others were taken. There had been one house in Bel Air which had three safes, they had all been popped, one had been cleared out completely but the other two had been carefully searched, money and jewellery taken but two guns and a pile of stocks and share certificates left untouched.

Steve had a feeling that the person, or persons, involved somehow had inside information, that some of the time they knew just where they were going and what they were doing, and at other times they went in blind, but so far he had been unable to find a vague connection between the thirty plus burglaries, apart from the calling card, let alone a strong link. Maybe though, if he was in enforced exile for the next three days, he would be able to spend some time going over what little he did have and making it add up correctly.

The thoughts he was turning over took Steve until an hour after he had first stirred, and just as he was beginning to wish that he could at least get up and stretch his legs Jo moved slightly and placed her hand on his arm.

"Hey, Cowboy, how're ya doin' this mornin'?" Her eyes were a little haunted and she snuggled up to her husband, the light of morning somehow scaring her, although she didn't know why.

"I'm fine, but you, Jo, are you all right?" Steve wanted to hold her tight and never let her go. The sights and sounds of her terror the night before were things he never wanted to experience again.

"You know, I don't think I am, but I have no idea why."

"Honey, you had a nightmare, you were calling out, trying to protect Jesse." Steve took her hands in his own as he spoke and, seeing the memories come back to Jo, was glad he had done so.

"Oh my … I'm so sorry … I hadn't had any bad dreams at all until I was locked in that attic overnight. I … I was back there, we were chained up, sometimes together some times apart … what?" Jo stopped talking as she saw the look of horror on her husband's face.

"You were locked in the attic, what here? When did that happen?" Steve couldn't believe that Jo had been locked up and he hadn't known anything about it.

"No, not here, an' I just know it was Miss Prissy Knickers who did it. I spent the night that you were attacked in the attic at the ranch, an' I had bad dreams. I hadn't had them before, but I guess that bein' locked up did it; I … I could hear his voice, see his face." With a shuddering sigh Jo realised she couldn't continue any more and buried her face into Steve's chest, and for the next few minutes he comforted her by smoothing down her hair and speaking softly to her. Gradually though as she got herself under control his platitudes ceased and they lay, silently in each other's arms, not wanting to talk any more, just revelling in the fact that they were both safe and together once again.

Jesse had spoken with Alex the previous evening and had admitted to him that most nights he was unable to sleep properly because he either kept waking up, or he was troubled by bad dreams. Alex had prescribed him a mild sedative, and it seemed to have done the trick. When Rae arrived to visit with him, at a little after nine, he was just finishing his breakfast and he smiled warmly when he saw her. "Hey, what are you doing here?"

"I came to see you … if you don't mind." Rae didn't want to push him away, but she also knew that he had been less than delighted to see her for the last few weeks.

"No, I don't mind, but, well, my courage might fail me, and then I won't be able to deal with it, but right now, I'm pleased to see you."

Rae rummaged around in her bag for the things she had bought with her. "The girls made these for you."

Jesse looked at what Rae handed him, there were two pictures, one of two people, well, two heads with arms and legs sticking out from them, which was a picture that Eliana had drawn of herself and her sister, the other one was a spiral of colour that Anneya had done. On the back of one Rae had written Hi Daddy love Eliana in dots and Eliana had done her best to join them together, the other drawing had a second spiral of colour on the back which covered the same message from Anneya.

"Thank you." Jesse didn't know what else to say, and as he carefully looked over at his wife he realised, with a sinking feeling, that she had no idea how to continue either.

The silence was awkward and seemed never ending. Suddenly though, Rae remembered that she did have something to tell him. Fishing around in her bag once again she looked up to see Jesse smiling at her.

"What?" Rae knew that her husband hadn't made a miraculous recovery, even when he smiled there was a part of him that it didn't reach, a part of him that couldn't let go and be his old self.

"You remind me of Mary Poppins, you haven't got a hat stand in there have you?"

"No, just the tape measure which says Rae Travis, practically perfect in every way!" Rae smiled and laughed as Jesse replied.

"Yeah, right! So what have you got?"

"This." Rae showed him the letter that she had rescued from Eliana that morning.

"Wow, our baby, going to pre-school." Jesse shook his head, in some ways it didn't seem five minutes since he had rushed Rae to Community General Hospital when their daughter had decided to make her entrance into the world two months early, and now she would be going to school. His life had had many wonderful moments since he had met Rae, so why couldn't he focus on them? Instead his mind went over and over the bad times, making him feel trapped, inadequate and desperate for escape. Suddenly he needed to be alone, wanted his wife to go, to leave and take the memories good and bad with her.

"Jesse?" Rae didn't know what had changed, but she knew that something had. She had seen the shutters come down and Jesse retreat behind them. "Honey, what's the matter?"

"Nothing, just leave it, Rae, go to work, I want to be by myself." Jesse turned his head away and his entire body shouted at Rae that he no longer wanted to even see her.

With a deep sigh Rae stood up, put the letter from Eliana's new school in her bag and left the room. As she reached the doorway she paused and looked at Jesse again. "Take care, Jesse, I'll come by this evening, and maybe I'll be able to take you home." There was no reply and so with a heavy heart Rae closed the door behind her, wondering whether or not she should have come.

Matthew had gone out early for the newspaper and now Dominic had it spread out over the dining table looking at every headline. "It must be here somewhere, how can it not be here?" The discovery of the body had been made; he knew that, he had travelled past the area just the night before and there had been nothing there to show that either he or Sam had been there. Suddenly he saw it, tucked away on the bottom of page three,

Second Local Girl found killed.

The body of nineteen year old Samantha Morrison was found in PalisadesPark on Monday, she had been stabbed. Anyone with any information should contact either the homicide division of Pacific Community, or North Hollywood.

There were no pictures or any other information but carefully Dominic clipped the article and made his way to the door of the third bedroom and then taking a deep breath and letting out a shudder he opened it and entered.

Rae was surprised to see police tape up at the Beach View Hotel. Rae surveyed the scene from the sidewalk and realised that she didn't actually recognise any of the three cops she could see talking to three hotel employees. At least she presumed they worked at Beach View, they were all wearing the same uniform as she had seen the day before.

Rae took her ID out and moved over to a young officer who was standing just inside the tape.

"Hi, I'm Detective Yeager, North Hollywood division; I need to get through to the actual hotel so I can check up on a member of staff."

"We aren't letting anyone in at the moment, Detective, one of the staff members was found dead this morning, and until the medical examiner has come and surveyed the scene and told us whether it's murder or suicide, well, I'm afraid you'll have to stay here."

Rae suddenly began to get a very bad feeling in the pit of her stomach, and she looked around to see if she could see the officer in charge. Not having any luck she spoke to the young man again. "Look, I should be at the station in …" Rae checked her watch, "good grief, ten minutes, who's in charge here?"

The officer, who Rae could see was called Officer Findlay, looked around himself and then spotting who he was searching for pointed out a tall man in a pair of black jeans and a black leather jacket. "That's Detective Windsor, he's in charge."

Rae headed over towards where the man was speaking to a woman who, both from her clothes and the fact that she had a trolley full of cleaning equipment, was obviously from the housekeeping department. She waited at a discreet distance until Detective Windsor had finished talking and then showing her ID again she quietly explained why she was there. The young detective listened intently and then indicated for her to follow him into the hotel. Three minutes later Rae was looking at the body of Leonie Morrison as it hung from one of the weight training machines in her gym and Rae knew that their murderer had claimed, indirectly, his third victim.