Pam and Onyx finished eating lunch, and after shaking hands, parted ways. She turned to head toward the exit, only to see Ralph and Bill sitting at a table eating their meals. Pam got a chuckle seeing Ralph try to reel in the angel hair pasta with his left hand, which he normally didn't eat with. He was at times getting more on the plate than in his mouth. 'I told him to get the lasagna when we were going here,' she thought, chucking.
Pam saw the two wave to her and she headed over. "Hey Ralph, Bill, I thought he was going to take me to a different restaurant, or I would've just kept our reservations and talked to him in the lounge."
"That's fine, Counselor, I was glad to join Ralph. But I think you need to sit down, before a waiter drops his tray on you," said Bill as he took a bite of his fettuccini alfredo.
Pam sat down and decided to tell Ralph about her day. "Ralph, you were right about the suit showing its powers at inopportune times. It turned me invisible earlier before William walked into my office. It then decided to pop me back visible with him there. Had to make up an excuse as to why he fainted on the job. I hope this suit bit's not permanent, I mean if this happened when I was talking to a senior attorney I don't know what'd I say..."
Ralph chuckled slightly. "Yeah, that's happened to me once, but fortunately the guy was drunk enough that no one believed him. And, you just make the best excuse you can and hope for the best. But, I really got to talk with you about something."
"Sure hun, I've got a few minutes."
"Pam, that guy you were talking to, what's his name," asked Ralph.
"Derreck Onyx, why," she said, only to see Ralph lean over and put his forehead into his hand. "Ralph, you feeling OK? What's wrong."
Ralph nodded slightly and took a drink of water, but Bill continued. "Counselor, Ralph believes the person you were talking to is the same person who he saw in his dream."
Pam chuckled slightly, but stopped when she saw the look in Ralph's eyes. "You're not kidding are you?"
Ralph shook his head. "No, I'm not. He's the spitting image of the guy in my dream. His face was the last thing I saw in it before I came round. I know the mind can play tricks on you, especially under some sort of drug, but I don't think it would like this."
"All right, I believe you, but what do you want me to do? I have to help with this case," said Pam.
"Counselor, I think the best thing to do is to be careful and keep an eye on him."
Ralph nodded. "I agree. Pam, I didn't want to tell you everything I saw in that dream, but I do remember that I woke up in the living room and the two of you were in the bedroom in the middle of a, well, romantic start. I stopped you from going further, but it only went downhill from there. You have to be careful with this guy."
Pam looked at both men and realized they were serious. "Sure, hun, I will and to be on the safe side, I'll keep the suit on. But right now, I've got to go back to the office, so I'll see you later." She gave Ralph a kiss goodbye and left.
Ralph turned to Bill and frowned. "Bill, I normally don't say this but..."
Though inside he had his doubts about Ralph's dream, Bill decided to allay the kid's fears. "Kid, I'll be over at the Counselor's office later this afternoon to talk about the case and take her home. I wanted to see if she gets me into the interrogation room. Now, why don't we finish eating and take you back to your place." Ralph nodded and they finished eating their meals.
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As he drove down the road, Onyx smiled. It had been too easy to tell Pam the story about Alexandrite. He lied about the plan though, as Alexandrite was not only to set off the plague bomb in LA, but a series of several scattered throughout the area. With the push of one button, all the bombs would have triggered, scattering the virus throughout most of the state. Alexandrite was going to tell them the location to all of them as well as that Onyx was behind it, so he had Alexandrite killed. Though he had to wait while there was heavy security around, there was no way anyone was going to stop him from ultimately making the city pay for their disgressions.
He also started to think about Ralph, who he saw in the restaurant along with Maxwell. Onyx frowned, remembering the expression on Ralph's face when he saw Onyx. "He knows something," he said to himself. "I'll get the others to kidnap him so I can figure out how he knew who I was. Then, when he tells me, I'll make sure he suffers more than a few cracked ribs."
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Bill knocked on the door to Pam's office and entered. "Counselor, have you had a chance to talk to the other guy?"
"No, not yet," said Pam. "Why, you want to be a part of the discussion."
"Well...yeah, since I want to get my hands on the leader. Whoever it was that caused the wreck wasn't fooling around. The sideswipe was too deep to be accidental."
"I know, I got the report," said Pam. "Something else, too. The more I thought about what Ralph said about Derreck, the more I'm beginning to wonder if it wasn't just a dream."
"Come on, Counselor, it has to be. I'm not even 100 percent sure Ralph is right. I mean, he had the dream while he was still out from the drugs they gave him to set his shoulder. Probably also dreamt about getting a pearl ring from Pearl Harbor."
Pam cocked an eyebrow at the Pearl Harbor comment, but didn't ask. "Maybe, but he might be telling the truth. He's had this weird trait of predicting something's wrong even without the suit's help."
Bill shook a bit at the thought and handed Pam a file. "I did some deeper research on the Alexandrite case. Did you know that when Alexandrite was caught, they found more than the vial of plague? They also found a detonator."
"Bill, that's not too out of the ordinary," said Pam. "He probably was going to set up a triggering device so he could get away from the city and not become infected."
"True, but in my research I found there's more to it than meets the eye. The device was designed to set off several. When he was caught, the amount of security went up in the area and we haven't had a threat since. But, for some reason Alexandrite had a change of heart and wanted to confess. I think that the leader knew that and had Alexandrite killed to keep him from squealing on the whole plan."
"Well, we can try to get the guy to confess when I talk to him in about an hour and a half," said Pam. "Right now, I need to talk with an associate on the new case. You can sit down and wait."
Pam dialed the phone and Bill sat down, wondering if Ralph's dream was real or not. The scenario was getting stranger by the minute, and it might take all three of them to figure it out.