Cleaning Up Chapter 4

"Hey Nolan," Lopez calls, the lab report came back on that capsule your boot found. "It was full of ketamine. It would have been enough to knock the dog out cold if the capsule dissolved. But Rosalind's acolyte used the wrong kind."

"So she was fallible," John realizes. "If Rosalind picked someone in her own image, she should have gone for some brains."

"Her attention might have shifted," Harper suggests. "I traced that capsule. A woman didn't buy it, a man did."

"Rosalind must have replaced Caleb," Nolan considers. "Does her new acolyte have a name?"

"No name. He paid cash. But the clerk remembered what he looked like. She said he reminded her of Jesus, you know, with the long hair and the beard, but he was even better looking than most of the actors who played him. She practically purred when she described him," Harper adds.

Angela snorts. "Sounds like Rosalind got herself a boy toy."

"Even if he is a boy toy, Rosalind wouldn't waste him on something like buying capsules," John figures. "She must have something bigger and a lot more twisted in mind for him. And it probably has something to do with Bailey and me. The dead dog was a tease."

One week later

With a sudden shiver, Bailey snuggles into John's arms. "Are you cold?" he asks. "I can turn down the air conditioning."

"I'm not cold," Bailey insists. "I just flashed back for a minute to being in the water, in that trap. I'm still having nightmares about it."

"I know. You scream sometimes, and I can feel you thrashing. I try to hold you, but there isn't anything I can do, any more than there was when Rosalind was pulling my strings."

"But you cut them, John. She couldn't turn you into one of her acolytes, a cold-blooded murderer."

"It wouldn't have been murder. It would have been killing in defense of another. But I couldn't look straight at an unarmed woman, even a serial killing psychopath, and pull the trigger. I should have been able to save you."

"John, you don't know that killing Rosalind would have saved me. She was probably lying. She lied about everything else. Her crazy apprentice Eli Reynolds who built the trap might not have let me go. When the FBI got him, they found out he killed all those other women. He probably wouldn't have let me live no matter what you did. And he killed Rosalind. He probably wanted to replace her."

"That's what she said he wanted," John recalls. "But she was always lying. So maybe he didn't. The profiler said he was trying to make the women stronger. Rosalind was already strong. And the FBI never proved he was the one who shot her. They found his mask but no weapon. It could have been the other acolyte, the one who looks like Rosalind, and gave the dog the pill."

Bailey shivers again. "Then she could be the new Rosalind. And she's still out there."

John's fingers curl into fists. "She may look like Rosalind, but she isn't her. She made a stupid mistake. Rosalind never did. She was always in complete control, wheels within wheels. The whole LAPD is still on the alert for the Rosalind doppelganger. She'll try something. She'll screw up, and we'll get her."

Bailey pulls out of John's embrace, her eyes blazing. "I hope she tries coming after me. There was nothing I could do to fight back in that f***ing trap except practice holding my breath. But Eli and his traps are gone. And if she tries to come at me straight on, I'll kick her brains out."

John's eyes flick involuntarily to the front door. "If she tries to come after you, she won't get that close. Grey will have a unit guarding the house as long as it takes and she'd have to go through me."

"You can't be here forever, John. You need to go to work. And so do I. We both run toward danger: fire or bullets. We both want to save the world. That's who we are. Rosalind couldn't take that away from us. No one she left behind is going to either. If her double wants to come, let her. I'll be ready."

John pulls Bailey close again. "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

Lopez swivels her chair toward Harper. I just got an alert from that genealogy site. They found a partial match for the DNA on the dead dog. It's a first cousin, Sadie Smith. She lives in San Diego. The site didn't have a phone number for her, and I couldn't find one matching her address. Feel like taking a ride?"

Harper checks her watch. "That's a two-and-a-half-hour drive, more if we hit traffic. And I'm due to pump in an hour."

"We can take a cooler, and you can pump in the car. I did that a lot when Wesley was driving out to one of Jane Evers' events."

"You actually like your mother-in-law don't you?"

"She's rich, generous, and has already set up a trust fund for Jackson's college. She also knows Wesley a lot better than he wants to admit she does. And she's head over heels that he's working for the DA instead of representing scum bags. So, yeah, I like her. How about James' family?"

"I only know his sons and his ex. He was dumped in the system and pulled himself up to build his business. That's why he spends so much time at the community center. He's trying to help others up the ladder."

"You got a good one this time."

"I got a good one last time. Donovan's good for Lila and she loves him. I was the one that messed up. I couldn't handle that kind of UC and a family. If Lucy keeps going with UC I hope she doesn't try nesting too. I don't want to see her go through what I did."

Angela grabs the keys to their vehicle. "I don't see that happening. She's with Chris out of guilt that she and Tim were thinking about playing house while Rosalind was slitting Chris' wrists. If she's ever out from under Tim's command, those two are going to be in each other's pants so fast they'll probably still have their guns on. He was that way with Isabel. They couldn't keep their hands off each other. But Isabel got addicted, and he tried to be her white knight and save her. She didn't want someone to save her. She had to do it herself."

"But he saved Lucy, or at least she thinks he did. He still feels guilty for telling her to go out with Caleb. But Lucy loves to save people herself. She talks jumpers off of bridges. She saved Tamara. She's still working on rescuing Chris. So if she and Tim ever get together, who's going to be the white knight?" Harper wonders.

Angela starts toward the garage. "Maybe we'll just hear the crash when their armors hit. But let's go. I don't want to get stuck on the I-5."

Harper settles into the passenger seat with her pumping supplies right behind her. "So do you think this Sadie Smith will even know Rosalind's acolyte?"

Angela starts the car and shrugs. "We won't find out until we ask her, but right now she's all we have."