"Taylor, Taylor are you okay?" Lt. Johnson asked as he reached down to reassure her.
She tried to scramble away from him. Kim stopped her.
"Taylor!" She said firmly, "Calm down, breathe."
Lt. Johnson checked over his shoulder to see how everyone else was doing. Davis and Sully were watching the scene as well.
Kim was trying to get Taylor to calm down with little success. She was sweating and still frantically scanning the faces of everyone on the scene.
"Taylor, listen to me. You gotta slow your breathing down." Kim said
Taylor shook her head in acknowledgement.
Kim turned to see their coworkers pulling two badly burned bodies from the car. She tried to shield the sight from Taylor, but she had already seen them. That is why she was having this panic attack.
Taylor finally calmed down. "Someone's after me." She panted
"What do you mean?" Lt. Johnson asked
"There was a note, in my locker. 'I know where you work and where you live.' I gave it to the detectives. Some one is after me." Taylor said
Lt. Johnson and Kim looked at each other, and then they too scanned the scene. Walsh walked over to them.
"She okay?" He asked Lt. Johnson
"She says someone is after her." He replies, "Stay with her while I go talk to the cops."
"Sure thing boss." Walsh said as he went and knelt beside Taylor
Kim returned to helping Bobby with their patient.
"Don't worry." Walsh told Taylor, "We're not gonna let anything happen to you."
Lt. Johnson told Davis and Sully everything that Taylor had just told him.
"Those Detectives are working on getting to the bottom of this thing." Sully said
"Yeah, I mean there's not a lot to go on." Davis said
"Well, I'm very protective of my Squad, and right now Taylor's scared to death that someone's trying to kill her!" Lt. Johnson said
"They are doing everything they can." Sully said
"Well I hope they do what they can soon! Before Taylor's fear becomes a reality." Lt. Johnson asserted.
Aiden and Danny were at the lab working on the small amount of evidence they had to go by.
"Damn is that all we have to go on, there has to be more some where." Aiden said, "I'm going back to the scene and look again I'll keep you posted."
Aiden walked around the backyard again. There had to be something they missed. She saw something on the ground that flashed in her flashlight. It was a gold Maltese cross that had been somehow not found the first time. She scooped it up and bagged it carefully. If it belonged to their vic someone should know.
She sighed and rubbed one temple as the headache that she'd been fighting since they had left the firehouse earlier began growing in intensity. She called Danny to let him know what she had found and that she would drop it by the lab before she headed home.
"I may go by the firefighter's apartment, she told us where she lived right?" Danny asked
"Yeah, I'll go with you, what's another hour?" Aiden asked
The Squad got back to the house and slowly took their gear off. They had seen enough dead bodies for one day. Taylor was cautiously looking around the bay.
"You want us to go make sure there's no one upstairs?" Jimmy asked
Taylor nodded; she didn't want to admit how scared she really was. Jimmy, DK, and Lombardo went upstairs and checked around while Walsh waited with Taylor.
It was a couple minutes before the guys gave the "All Clear."
They headed upstairs as well. Taylor poured herself a glass of milk. The guys all milled around, no one dared to ask her about what happened. It was out of respect that they left it alone.
Taylor looked up at everyone, "Thank you." She said.
They all nodded in acknowledgement.
"I'd like to go lay down." Taylor told them.
It was nearly 3 AM. They all needed to head off to the bunkroom. So they all went up together. Jimmy was the first up the stairs, he turned on the light and then walked over to the shower and bathroom to make sure it was clear. Lombardo decided to open everyone's locker to make sure no one was hiding in them. DK checked under the beds.
Taylor was grateful for what they were doing for her. Her bunk was next to the window.
"Don't worry Taylor, no one's gonna walk through here without one of us knowing first." Walsh assured her.
First they'd have to get past Lt. Johnson's office, and he heard a pin drop in the night. He often took them by surprise if they went to the kitchen to get a drink or relax because they couldn't sleep.
Taylor turned back the covers of her bunk and climbed in. The lights went out and soon everyone faded off to sleep. Taylor tried to fight it at first but finally she did as well.
"I can't believe we're searching an apartment at 3 in the morning." Aiden said to Danny
"Yeah well, I'm not about to have something happen to this firefighter. She's terrified." He returned.
They quietly opened the door and turned on the light. The caller ID box blinked that there had been new calls, the answering machine blinked as well. They checked around the apartment. Everything was neatly in place.
"I think you need to hire her to clean your place." Danny teased
Aiden was looking at the pictures around the apartment, "Hey Danny, take a look at this."
He walked over and they looked at a picture of Taylor and another paramedic standing beside a bus.
"That looks like the charm you found." Danny said
"And it's on a female, who works for the FDNY." Aiden put things together.
"We find out who the woman in the pic is and we find our vic." Danny said
"Now we have to find who did it and why." Aiden's head was throbbing, but they were now getting somewhere in this case.
She took the picture down and took it with them back to the crime lab. She intended to ask about it tomorrow.
Taylor was the last one to get out of bed. It was after 8 when she made her way down to the kitchen. They guys had already made breakfast and eaten it. They had collectively decided to let Taylor sleep in.
"I'll make you some eggs if you want." Walsh said
Taylor nodded as she walked over to the refrigerator to get the orange juice out.
Lt. Johnson came out of his office.
"Taylor got a call from the detectives. They need you to meet with them today, they think you know the vic." Lt. Johnson said
Taylor sat down at the table and put her face in her hands. She took a deep breath. It was daylight so she didn't have to worry as much.
9 AM rolled around and everyone was leaving. Lt. Johnson told Taylor to call him if she needed anything. Everyone made the same offer. No one wanted her to feel alone. Walsh volunteered to go to meet with the detectives if she wanted.
"I'll be fine." She said
"Okay, I'll call you this afternoon to check on you okay?" He asked
"Billy Walsh, if I didn't know any better I would say you are being protective." Taylor smiled
"Someone's gotta act like your big brother." He smiled
Taylor walked into the office of Detectives Burn and Messner. The receptionist gave her a Visitor's Badge and showed her to where the Detectives were.
"Ms. Taylor, we searched your apartment last night hoping for a lead." Aiden said
"Okay." Taylor said
"Sit down for a minute would ya?" Danny asked
Taylor did as was requested.
"I went back to the scene behind the firehouse last night, and found this," Aiden produced the Maltese cross charm, "I was hoping you might know who it belonged to."
Taylor stared at the charm; there were hundreds of people who wore similar charms. "I…" she started to say.
"Ms. Taylor, the vic was a female, mid twenties. We found a trace of an FDNY patch on her charred clothes. We also found this at your apartment." Danny said as produced the picture.
"Oh my God!" Taylor said as she looked at the picture and then the charm, "Allison." She cried
They took down the information and Danny quickly went to try to contact Allison. Aiden stayed with Taylor
"We haven't been able to come up with anything from your note." Aiden said
Taylor was discouraged.
"The perp must have used gloves when he did it." She said
"Is this the part where it helps to admit that I am scared?" Taylor asked
"I don't blame you a bit." Aiden reassured Taylor, "But we are working as hard as we can to get to the bottom of who did this."
Mac stood outside the room and observed Aiden and Taylor. Danny walked up to him.
"That the firefighter?" Mac asked
"Yeah, turns out that the vic was her former medic partner." Danny said
"Great, we have a killer out there who gets enjoyment out of killing female members of the FDNY." Mac swallowed a bit of his coffee. "Keep me posted."
Danny nodded in acknowledgement. He looked at his desk and noticed a message that had been placed there. He picked it up.
"Got a match on your prints from the locker door." Is what it read.
He quickly entered the lab.
"Who's are they?" He asked
"They matched a Brandon Ziegler." Lindsay
"Does this guy have a sheet?" Danny asked
"Does he ever!" Lindsay begins to run off his list of offenses and perks Danny's attention when she says "Protection order filed by Allison Harden."
"Wait a second." Danny says as he takes the paper from Lindsay, he notices something else. "Arson…"
He quickly returns to Aiden and Taylor
"Ms. Taylor, do you know a Brandon Ziegler?" he asks
"That's Allison's psycho ex-boyfriend." Taylor says, "Why?"
"Did you two ever have any problems?" He asks
Taylor thought for a minute, "One night he beat the crap out of Allison and she came to my apartment to hide. He practically beat down my door and I called the cops." Taylor recalled
"Did you have anything to do with their breakup?" Danny asked
Aiden was clearly curious as to the events that had just transpired.
"I convinced her to get away from him. Helped her move out." Taylor said
"And he blamed you for it?" Danny asked
"Yeah, called me the usual names, asked me where she was." Taylor told them
"Okay." Danny ran out of the room
Aiden looked confused. "We'll call you when we know something." She said as she followed her partner out.
"Danny what the hell is going on?" Aiden asked in front of Mac
"Lindsay got a print off of Alex Taylor's locker. Turns out that it belongs to our vic's ex Brandon Ziegler. Our vic had a protection order filed against him; he has an arson charge among others on his file. He hates Taylor for the breakup. So the way I see it, he kills Amber because he can't have her, and now is going after Taylor because she's responsible for helping get Allison's life back together. Perfect motive." Danny says
Mac nods, "Find him!"
The Detectives rush out.
Taylor leaves the office and heads off to her apartment. She walks up the hall and finds that her apartment door is open. She quickly turns around and walks back down the hall.
Before she can reach the door she hears his voice.
"Bitch!" He yells behind her
She quickly dials 911 on her cell phone. She loses signal in the stairwell.
"Damn it!" She cries out as she begins to run down the stairs of her apartment. The door behind her slams shut.
"I'm going to kill you!" He yells
She looks up and sees him peering over the handrails. He holds a gun out and fires it at her. She screams and continues running down the stairs and to the first floor.
Once she gets outside she runs across the street, again dialing 911 on her cell phone.
"Taylor!" She hears a familiar voice yell out
Brandon runs out of the building and frantically searches both directions. He spots Taylor and fires at her again, missing. Sirens can be heard in the distance.
"Taylor, get in." Walsh says
Taylor jumps into his Explorer and Walsh backs it quickly down the street. Brandon runs the opposite way as RMPs round the corner
They pull to a screeching halt in front of the building.
Taylor gets out of the Explorer when she sees Aiden and Danny.
"He ran that way!" She points, shaking
They nod and get back into their car, racing down the street.
"It's okay Taylor, I've got you." Walsh says as he wraps his arms around her.
Taylor starts to cry.
"There he is!" Danny points out as Aiden rounds the corner.
She pulls the car to a halt and Danny jumps out to chase him.
Aiden drives up the street trying to get back around and cut Brandon off. He runs through a park. Danny runs for all that he has.
"Head him off on 109!" Danny radios
"Got it!" Aiden returns
She steers the car around the corner and can see Brandon.
"I got him!" She says as she pulls the car up to the curb and jumps out.
He fires a couple shots and Aiden takes cover behind her car.
"He's got a gun!" She radios; she doesn't want to return fire with Danny following behind.
Danny continues to follow. "If you get a shot take it!" He calls
Aiden looks and sees an opportunity, squeezing the trigger.
Brandon drops to the ground. The gun falls from his hand.
"We need a bus on a rush on 109 between 1 and 2." She radios as she approaches the perp.
Danny quickly reaches him and takes Brandon's gun.
"Bitch shot me!" Brandon says
"You're lucky you're still breathing." Danny says
Aiden gets over to her partner and the perp.
"I don't know what's gonna be worse for you, me shooting you or the time you're about to spend in jail for the murder of Allison Harden and the attempted murder of Alex Taylor." She offers him
"I didn't do nothing!" Brandon calls out
"Oh so you decide to shoot at a police officer and evade arrest every day huh?" Danny says
"We've got evidence to prove otherwise, so consider these your rights. You have the right to remain silent…" Aiden says, "And for God's sake use them."
The medics come and begin treating Brandon. "I'll ride with him to the hospital, you go check on our firefighter." Danny suggests
"Okay, I'll see you at the hospital." Aiden replies as the medics load their patient.
Uniformed officers had secured Taylor's apartment and she sat on the curb with Walsh while waiting for the detectives.
"We got him." Aiden said
Taylor was happy. "Thank you."
"We went to his place and he wasn't there. We found some stuff and realized that you were in serious danger. We got here as fast as we could." She said
"I lost service in the stairwell." Taylor admitted
"When dispatch said there was a 911 hang up from a cell phone at this location, we knew." Aiden responded
Taylor took a deep breath as she leaned into Walsh.
"It's over." He said
Aiden smiled and headed back to her car.
"I can't stay here tonight." Taylor said, "Guess I'll have to go to a hotel."
"You can stay at my place, I've got the spare room." Walsh offered
"Thanks." Taylor smiled
"Anytime… after all someone's got to watch out for you." Walsh grinned
"So how did you?" Taylor asked, curious as to what Walsh was doing in her neighborhood
"I was coming to check on you, I hadn't heard from you and your cell phone was off." Walsh admitted
"You were worried about me?" Taylor smiled
"A little." He admitted as she playfully hit his chest.
"Thank you." She said
They stood up, "How about some dinner?" He asked
"You buying?" she asked
"Why does the guy always have to buy?" He returns
"Because that's the way it is." She jokes as they walk back to his Explorer
"Go figure." He laughs as he puts his arm around her.