Jeffrey could hear the yelling coming from inside the house. It killed him to hear Reva telling Sandy those things, and he couldn't help but blame himself for Sandy's whole charade. It was him, after all, who had recruited Sandy to play Jonathan in the first place. Of course, that had been a completely different situation. There had been no real family involved…
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"Sandy if you leave right now, you know that you leave all this behind…" Jeffrey said as he walked through the door.
Sandy zipped up his suitcase and turned to face Jeffrey. "I thought you left…" he said coldly.
"Sandy, I just… I have to make it clear to you that all this… What we've done… Who we've been… It stays here… You can't go play Jonathan somewhere else… Once you step foot on that plane you are Sandy Foster…"
"I can do whatever I want…" Sandy spat.
"No, Sandy… You can't!"
"Yeah, well, don't worry, ok…" Sandy said. "I'm not gonna spoil your precious little investigation, all right… I'm just going to get myself as far away from you as I possibly can…"
"You're really willing to leave all this behind?"
"Leave what behind? Taking orders from you? Living in close quarters with you… The man that I love… The man that I hate… And the psycho bitch that you cheated on me with? Yeah, Jeffrey, I'm more than willing to leave all that behind…"
"Sandy, I'm warning you…" Jeffrey started, stepping in front of the doorway.
"Just get outta my way, Jeffrey…" Sandy spat. "I've got a plane to catch…"
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Jeffrey sighed at the memory. It all seemed so distant. Like a whole 'nother lifetime ago. He listened again, as the sounds coming from inside the house fell almost silent. They'd finally had it out. Or maybe they'd just killed each other. He shook his head at the bad joke and dialed his boss's number.
"Hello…" the man answered the phone.
Jeffrey swallowed nervously. "This is agent O'Neill…" he said.
"O'Neill! Damn it, O'Neill! You're alive! When they couldn't find your body after the bomb went off… You had me fucking scared! I didn't know where the hell you were…"
"So, I take it you've heard then?" Jeffrey said. "Does that mean that you've already sent back up?"
"Jeffrey, I sent them over an hour ago…"
Jeffrey eyes darted around, as he listened closely for the sound of any approaching siren. "Are… Are you sure?" Jeffrey said. "I mean, there's… There's no one here… Did you send them to the location of the shooting, or only the blast sight?"
"Shooting? What shooting? O'Neill, maybe the blast shook your head up a bit, huh? I have them combing your place right now…"
"My place?" Jeffrey asked, confused.
"Yeah… For the bomb… That's not what you were talking about? O'Neill, you tell me right now, what the fuck is going on?"
"A bomb went off in my house?" Jeffrey asked.
"Yes… What, you didn't know? Where the hell were you tonight?"
Jeffrey had his suspicions, but still, it all seemed too weird to make any sort of sense. "The umm… The point of origin of the blast, have they found it yet?"
"Yes, O'Neill, the bomb had been planted…"
"Under the bed…" Jeffrey said, as the horrid realization finally washed over him completely.
"Yes… How did you know?"
"I umm… I wasn't the only one targeted tonight…"
"Is that why you called me?"
"Yes…"
"Where are you?"
"I'm at the Winslow farm…"
"The princess?"
"She's umm… She's…"
"No, O'Neill… Don't! Don't even say…"
"She's dead…"
The man sighed. "Another bomb?"
"No, a shooting… And Joshua Lewis is dead too…"
"Joshua Lewis? What? Why?"
"Look, could you just get some back up out here soon? I need to put an APB out on Jonathan Randall…"
"O'Neill, what the fuck are you talking about?"
"I have a witness who…"
"Who saw the shooting?"
"No, but…"
"Then how could your witness possibly know?"
"Look, George, it's complicated all right… Just, get some back up out here now… And the ME… And an ambulance…"
"Ambulance? Somebody survived?"
"I found Cassie's sister passed out… I know she's already woken up, and she doesn't have any apparent injuries, but I don't think that it would hurt to get her checked out…"
"Just gimme a second…"
Jeffrey listened to the click of the phone, and a few minutes later he heard another one.
"All right, O'Neill, they're on their way…"
"Thank you…"
"Don't you hang up on me, Agent…"
"What?"
"You still haven't explained to me, O'Neill… You said that Jonathan Randall was dead… You said that you were told by…"
"Yeah, well, he saw him tonight…"
"He did, O'Neill? Are you with him? Is that where you were tonight? With him? Is that what's distracted you from doing your job? Is that why you didn't protect her?"
"If I hadn't been with him, I would've died in that explosion, and you damn well know it!"
"Don't you talk to me like that, O'Neill… You are damn near bordering on insubordination! And with your job coming up for review so soon, I wouldn't be surprised if, given your recent failure…"
"Look, George… You can berate me about this later, all right? But if you don't trust me to run this investigation, then you'd better get your ass down here soon and do the damn job yourself!" Jeffrey huffed.
"I swear to God, O'Neill, sometimes you are just absolutely infuriating…"
"Well, then, what's it going to be? Are you running this case or am I?"
"I don't know, OK? For all I know the local cops are going to want to claim jurisdiction…"
"The local cops? Come on, George… Cooper couldn't solve a case if his life depended on it…"
"Look, O'Neill… I will get there as soon as I can, all right… But I need you run things for me in the interim…"
"I will…" Jeffrey said. "You just make sure that we have complete jurisdiction here…"
"I have a bad feeling that this is going to become a joint investigation…"
"Fine. Whatever. Just hurry up." Jeffrey said before hanging up the phone.