Chapter 9:

Disaster strikes

One week later, Katie sat in her California home reading a book while Steve sat watching the news. And now for our top story of the hour. Katie perked up. There hadn't been anything really interesting until now. Several bombings occurred today in the LA area. "Uncle Mark, come in here quickly!" Katie called. Mark rushed into the room to see what had upset his niece so much, and stared in disbelief at the TV as the news anchor continued to relay the story of the bombings. When he had finished, Katrina asked, "Do you think that Richard Maxwell could have done this?"

"I don't think so," Steve replied.

"Why not?"

"Because he was arrested for the murder of Jacob's fiancée, Christine, today. He was also the person who almost hit your car a few weeks ago."

"How did you find that out?"

"Well, that journal that you found was Richard Maxwell's. He had mentioned several times that he knew Christine, and that he had gone to see her. In one of the last entries, he mentioned something about attempting to start the bombings up again. Apparently, Christine found out about it, and threatened to tell the police, and Maxwell killed her before she could. He made a stupid move by stealing a car and trying to get away, and then returned to his boat to retrieve any evidence, but you got there first, and met him there."

"So what have you gotten out of him?" Katie asked.

"He won't talk," Steve replied in disgust.

Over the next few days, the police tried to get information out of Maxwell, but he refused to talk. Finally, he agreed to talk, but only to Mark Sloan, the man who had 'helped to kill his father'. Mark went down to the jail, and talked to Richard.

When he came out, Steve asked his dad what had been said.

"He wouldn't tell me much of anything. He did say that he was not the one who was doing the bombings, but he knew who was."

"Who is it, Dad?"

"He wouldn't tell me. He said if I kept coming back he would tell me more each time."

"Why will he only talk to you?"

"All I know is that I treated his father when he had cancer. I wasn't able to help him and he died a few months after the diagnosis. The family all blamed me, but there was nothing I could do."

"So why would he want to talk to you?"

"I suppose since he knows that I work with the police, I can pull a few strings. Not that I would, but that's his thinking."

As the bombings continued, Mark continued to talk to Maxwell. Finally, He found that there was a pattern to the bombings. When he went home that night, He relayed this information to Katie and her friends.

"Girls, I need you to help me find the pattern of the bombings."

"What else did he say today, Mark?" Annetka asked.

"Not much. He just talked about how he wanted to have a nice jail cell with a window, and a television and maybe some other state of the art things. I told him that if he would just spill the beans, that it might be able to be arranged. He just laughed and asked if it really bothered me that much. I finally left."

Several weeks went by and more bombings occurred, but the girls couldn't find a pattern. Finally, while Mark was once again visiting Richard, Amy had an idea.

"Katie, you have a big map of LA don't you?" Amy asked.

"Yes, why?"

"Would you mind if we stuck push pins in it?"

"No, I guess not. Why?"

"Go get it and I'll show you."

Katie returned a few minutes with her map and a box of push pins. Amy then instructed Annetka to read the addresses and crossroads of every place that had been bombed. Every place that was read off of the list got a push pin. By the time that they were finished, the three girls noticed a pattern on the map.

"Look, Katie!" Annetka said.

"I see it. Good thinking, Amy. Maxwell's spelling out the name Regan. That's the name of his father," Katrina said.

"But, Kitty, Mark said that it couldn't be Maxwell. He's in jail," Amy said.

"He could have connections you know," she replied, "and besides, Richard did say that he knew who was committing the bombings."

Just then, Mark returned. "I got somewhere this time," he said, "Richard isn't doing the bombings, but he is involved in a round about sort of way. His sister Katelyn is responsible."

"We got somewhere too," Annetka told him, "Look at the map."

"Wow! Good work."

"But, Mark," Amy said, looking at the map, "Katelyn only has two or three more places left, and if this map is right, Community General is in her path."

"She wouldn't bomb a hospital!" Annetka said. "That would be horrible."

Over the next few weeks, Richard Maxwell told Mark more information about the bombings and his sister. At the end of one of these meetings, he told Mark,

"My sister is dangerous, Mark, so take this as a warning."

"What is that supposed to mean?" James asked, but all the man would say was, "We'll answer these questions and more next week, so tune in next time. Don't you just love the suspense of it all? I used to have my own radio program if you remember. Hey, Mark, when you get me that state of the art jail cell, make sure I get my own recording room so I can have my radio program back."

"I'll see what I can do," Mark said sarcastically with a hint of frustration in his voice.

Back at the hospital, Annetka was working with a young girl who had come in with a nasty gash on her head. After giving the girl an examination, she learned that her patient had amnesia. Anya told the young girl that she would go get Doctor Travis, and she left to find Jesse.

After explaining the situation to him, Anya handed the file to Jesse and left to get her things out of her locker. Katie met her in the locker room.

"How is she?" she asked.

"She who, Katie?"

"Becca. The girl you were just with."

"Oh, she's okay. I think she has temporary amnesia."

"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow, Annetka."

"Okay. See you later."

Katie walked to the elevator and road it down to the basement. When she reached her car, she heard someone walk up behind her, but she was lost in thought and didn't really talk notice of it. Suddenly, someone touched Katrina on the shoulder. Katie gasped and spun around.

"I'm sorry, Carrots, I didn't mean to scare you."

"Peter!" Katie said in surprise, "I... I guess I didn't... I mean I... I was busy thinking, and didn't hear you."

"I could tell. Listen, I want to talk to you. Do you have a minute?"

"I suppose so." Katrina tried to sound annoyed.

"Well, I'll make it quick. I wanted to know if you are free on Saturday night after work. I really need to talk to you, and I know it's kind of late to do it now. I wanted to know if you would like to go to dinner with me."

Forgetting that she wanted to brush Peter off, Katie immediately replied that she would love to.

"Good. I'll see you later."

Katie got in her car and started it. Then it hit her. "I wasn't supposed to do that! He was... I mean... I wanted to prove... Oh! I'm tired of trying to prove anything. I want him to love me again, and I have to apologize. I have to say something on Saturday night!" Katie thought to herself.

When Katie reached her house, Mark greeted her and Katie asked him if she could talk to him in his study. She explained that she wanted to find out about the girl who had come into the hospital with amnesia earlier.

"Her name is Becca Walker, and she worked at the Den, a restaurant downtown."

"How do you know that?"

"I already did some searching. So can I do some detective work?" Katrina begged.

"I don't know Katie."

"Please?"

"But why do you want to look into her story?"

"I don't know. I just have a feeling it will help with Christine's murder case."

"Be careful," James sighed.

"I will."

Katrina called Amy, and she came over to the Sloan's home.

"Amy, I think you need to call Annetka. If I do it, she'll say no for sure because of what happened last time I wanted to be a detective."

"Why me? It's your house, and I don't even know what to tell her. Besides, you're dragging me into something I don't want to do."

"Please?"

"All right, I'll call her." Amy replied half heartily. She quickly dialed Anya's number and waited.

"Hello, Annetka?"

"Oh, hi, Amy, what's up?"

"Well, Mark, um, he wants us to learn about this girl Becca."

"Really?"

Annetka suddenly realized that Amy was forced to call her. Annetka smiled as she heard Katrina talking to Amy in the background, and telling her what to say. Annetka tried to sound as if she didn't know who Amy was talking about.

"Becca?"

"The girl with amnesia that came into the hospital today. So Kat... um... Mark wants us check out the place where she works. It's called the Den, and we were going to check it out, and wanted to know if you wanted to go along."

"Mark wants us to?" Annetka asked.

"Well... He knows, but he never really said he wanted us to." Amy replied.

"And does Amanda know?"

"Um..."

Annetka tried not to laugh as she replied, "I'll be right over."

The girls soon found themselves at the Den. The inside was dark, and kind of gloomy. It was ten o'clock at night, yet there were a lot of customers. "Table for three." Amy said.

The host led the three friends over to a table which was next to a table of young men. They looked at the girls, and began to smile and point. Katie glared at them and turned away. When she looked back, one of them smiled at her. She blushed, but took no notice.

Once Annetka had ordered, she asked the waiter, "So, do you know a Becca Walker?"

"Rebecca, yes. Why?"

"I'm her doctor, and she came in with a gash on her forehead today, and I was wondering if you knew anything about it."

"She," he lowered his voice, "she got into an argument with Pierre St. Just. He was dating her, and I heard them yelling at each other, something about payments and plans. I don't know any more."

"Thank you very much."

As he walked away, Katie noticed the man that had smiled at her give a warning glance. Later, as they were leaving, Amy noticed the same man following them.

"Let's hurry up," she whispered.

"When the man reached his car, he pulled out a gun and motioned for the girls to get in. "Get in," he hissed, "All of you." He then ordered Annetka to drive. As she drove he repeated over and over to stay away from Becca. He had a heavy French accent as he spoke.

He directed Annetka to drive to an abandoned warehouse across the street from the hospital. As they were forced into the building, the girls tried to run, but a shot rang out, and Katrina screamed. Annetka turned to help her, but was shot in the stomach, and knocked out.

The man who had shot at Katrina now had her hands tied behind her back. She tried to wriggle free, but was unsuccessful. She looked around for Amy, but didn't see her.

"Your friends are being taken care of," the man said.

"What are you doing to them?" Katie asked.

"I'd be more concerned about what the boss is going to do with you."

With that, he forced Katrina into the warehouse, and into a small room that seemed to have been made into an office. The man shoved Katie into a chair and said, "The boss will be with you in a minute. Don't do anything stupid." He left the room and shut the door behind him.

Katie glanced around the room. There was a wooden desk and a matching book case. Neither had much on it; a few scattered papers, and a couple of pictures, but nothing looked familiar. Katie turned her attention to her left arm. The bullet had only grazed it, but it stung.

Suddenly, the door opened, and two men entered. The first was the same man that had brought Katie into the room, and the second, Katrina guessed to be "the boss".

"So, you must be the girl who was asking too many questions. My name is Joe, and I'm in charge around here."

"What do you want from me?" Katie asked.

"Well, it's my understanding that you've been snooping into other people's business."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Let me refresh your memory. See this picture? It's a picture of my girl Rebecca. I understand that you were wondering why she had a head injury."

"I am a doctor. I was only trying to help."

"Of course. You were just doing your research. Well, let me tell you, I've been doing some research of my own. You haven't been just researching Rebecca; you've been working with the Maxwell case."

"How do you know that?"

"Mr. Maxwell is my employer."

Katrina gasped, suddenly recognizing this man as one of the men at moral bay.

"What's the matter, Miss. Sloan? You look a bit surprised. See. Mr. Maxwell's got a whole lot of people working for him. A network you might call it. Well, Rebecca's part of that network, but she decided to back out on us. She was going to tell the cops where we were hiding, and turn us all in. So I had to fix that."

"What did you do to her?"

"The same thing I'm going to do to you."

The other man walked over to Katrina and jerked her to her feet. He held her directly in front of him, and waited. Joe walked over to his book case, reached behind it, and pulled out a large wooden poll. "Untie her hands, Pierre. We'll give her a fighting chance."

The man holding Katie did as he was told. Katrina didn't dare move. She stood starring at the man in front of her wondering what would happen next.

"You can leave now, Pierre," Joe said, "Miss. Sloan and I have some more talking to do."

Twenty minutes later, Joe left his office carrying a blood stained wooden poll. He met Pierre outside the room. "Did you take care of the others?" he asked.

"They're in the back room. I made sure that both of them are beat up pretty good. I didn't even need to tie them up. They are both out cold."

"Good. You made the phone call just like I said?"

"Yes boss. I called the police just like you told me. I told them there was an accident at the warehouse. I guess we have about ten minutes to get out of town."

"Well, we're close enough to the edge that I could stop and get a soda at that rate," Joe laughed.

"Should I go get the car?"

"No, Pierre, you aren't coming."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean what I said. It's all part of Richard's plan. See, Rebecca wasn't really going to turn us in. I just had to have some reason to get rid of her. It didn't work as well as I hoped though. No matter, I'll be out of the country before she can press charges."

"But, why am I not going?"

"Richard said before I made a break for the border to get rid of all of my colleges and work solo. I'm going to go get the new recruit, and I don't need anyone else with me."

"Why you little traitor!"

"I'm sorry, but that's the way Maxwell, planned it. It's all part of the job. See ya around."

With that, Joe was gone. His partner stood watching him go, cursing the man under his breath. When the police arrived, Pierre was arrested and charged with the entire kidnapping and beating of three girls. He had been betrayed by the man he had trusted.