CHAP 6
Another chapter then, don't forget to review.
And I would love to know if it's too predictable. Enjoy.
Disclaimer: I do not own CSI:NY.
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The arsonists MO was that he started a fire as a diversion to be able to abduct targeted women, women involved with certain police officers. It was clever, with all the commotion it would take a while to realise anyone was missing and the unsuspecting women would only be grateful to be taken away from the flames.
Don was sitting by his desk at the precinct, slightly leaning forward with his forehead in his hands, "certain police officers", that's what they had said. They being Mac and the rest, they had finally figured out his MO and his motive, his name even; Terry Wellston.
It had been an hour ago since Mac had briefed them on it all, Wellston's motive was that he hadn't accepted the fate of his wife who had been abducted and murdered four years ago. He had, at the time, tried to sue the precinct claiming the officers who handled the case were the reason her abductor was never caught and brought to justice, thus also responsible for her death.
The officers on that case had been Joe Martinez, Gary Stolls and Don himself.
Mac had taken Don aside and told him to go home, they were going try and find Wellston and would call him if they heard anything. But that had been over an hour ago; Don didn't want to go home to an empty apartment that only would remind him of her and how much it was his fault she had become a victim. He kept re-playing certain things that had been said during the briefing.
"…what with his motive being revenge he waited four years until all three officers had settled down with an significant other…"
Rubbing his eyes he thought how the day they'd gotten married must have been the day Terry Wellston had set his plan into motion.
"…we have to assume that the three women are still alive and we won't rest until we find them…"
Assume? Meaning there is a chance they are dead already? He shook the thought out of his mind; he didn't want to see that as a possibility, he didn't want to think of Amy as another corpse for Sid to put a scalpel to.
"You don't look so good?"
He jumped at the sound of Stella's voice, he had been so deep in thought he hadn't noticed her sit down opposite him.
"Don't feel so good either…", which was an understatement, but he couldn't even begin to describe how bad he felt. "Any news?"
"No, this Wellston guy seems to have gone up in smoke, but we're running his credit cards to see if that might lead to something...everyone feels bad about this, Hawkes feels terrible. He feels he could have prevented him from getting Amy if he had checked for a connection between you and the two other police men sooner."
Don nodded in response.
"Now is a good time to stop being denial about your feelings for..."
"Stella, I really don't feel like having this conversation again…I know ok…"
Stella sat quiet for a moment, "have her relatives been notified?"
"I found her brothers number, but it's three in the morning over there so…"
Stella got up to leave, "ok, we're all at the lab if you need us, don't sit here all night".
He got up and headed for the lab, to sit on the side lines and wait for something to happen wouldn't help.
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It was freezing, she could see her own breath, the concrete floor was damp and hard and the windows sat high upon the walls in the empty space they were in, too high to see out of and impossible to escape through. She held her knees under her chin to keep warm; the shirt she was wearing wasn't the best outfit for the conditions she found herself in.
"I think she stopped breathing…"
Amy looked up at the women opposite her, clad in a thin night dress, who was staring at the still form of a third woman wearing yellow pyjamas. When Amy had been thrown into what seemed to be some kind of empty warehouse there were already two people there. She didn't have to ask who they were, Angela Wicker and Susan Stolls.
"Angela?...Can you hear me?"
Stiff from sitting in the same position and from the cold Amy got up slowly and walked over, kneeling next to the woman she reached out for her wrist to feel for a pulse. Amy's fingers were numb from the cold and were no longer pink, but there was no mistaking it, there was no pulse. She turned to Susan who read Amy's expression and cried hysterically.
"Oh my god…and we're next, we're not getting out of her alive!", sobs racking her tiny frame and fear prominent in her eyes.
Amy didn't have the strength to comfort her; truthfully she also was beginning to give up hope of getting out of there. Not having a watch she didn't know how long she'd been there but it felt like forever.
"People are looking for us, they are bound to have found some evidence that'll lead them here", the words rolled out of her mouth automatically.
When she had got there Angela was already struggling to breath and was very dehydrated, but she managed to tell her how the man had helped her climbed down a fire escape away from the fire and towards the ambulances only to be lead to a car, he had told her he was a cop and he would drive her to the hospital since the ambulances were needed for those critically injured. She didn't see anything wrong with that until he pulled up to the empty warehouse. It was the same story for Susan.
Pulling her knees under her chin once again and wrapping her arms around her legs she tried not to look at the now dead woman beside them. Amy had realised as the man had started walking towards the car who he really was and what would happen if she got into the car, but her attempts to scream and fight back were met by fists and a pocket knife. The wounds weren't deep but enough for blood to flow and trickle down her arms.
Feeling tired and drained from all her energy she knew that if she closed her eyes there was a possibility she wouldn't open them again, she kept a steady train of thought in her mind to occupy herself. Why had she become the next victim? How would this end? Is the team seconds from finding them or days? Would she ever…
"You're married?", Susan had stopped crying and feeling lonely was trying to make conversation.
Amy didn't answer immediately; she looked at her hand, the cheap engagement ring beside her wedding ring made her smile.
"Yeah, a week ago", her smile faded and she felt tears welling up. She wasn't ever going to see him again. This is so bad timing, she had finally began to admit to herself that she did indeed feel something more than gratitude towards him. She fought back the tears, she had to be strong.
"A week? Gary and I have been married for about a year now, it's a romantic story how we met. I was working as a receptionist at this hotel in Yonkers when…"
Susan began telling her lovely story but Amy zoned out, her eyes went back to the rings on her hand and she thought about what her life would look like in a year if she survived this. She swallowed hard so as not to start crying, she didn't like the thought of Don not living with her anymore, not being able to wear these rings or to tell people with pride she was married to the bravest detective around.
Of course if she got out of here or not that would still happen, their 'arrangement' was only meant to be for a month. She had known this the whole time of course but thinking about it now and adding that to the current situation was the last drop and the tears came flooding down her cheeks silently.
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They had him; he was picked up driving towards New Jersey in a car in which they found a piece of clothing belonging to Susan Stolls.
Don wanted to be the one to interrogate him but Mac had put his foot down saying someone without a wish to kill him right then and there should do it. They had to first and foremost get him to tell them where the three women were, hoping a coroner wouldn't be necessary.
"You've done enough damage, just tell us where they are", a Det.O'Brian was questioning him.
The whole team was standing behind the glass listening and ready to run to their cars if he revealed the location.
"Are they suffering?". He spoke in calm voice.
"Who?"
"The three police officers"
The detective didn't answer him.
"…Good" and he grinned.
Standing behind the glass several curse words were uttered,
"That's all he's going to say", Mac said what everyone was thinking, "I'm going back to the evidence, we're not going to get anything from him"
Stella left the small room with him.
The interrogation went on and on, but Wellston didn't mention anything they could use. At this point they were just hoping he would slip up as time went by, but he seemed to be entertained by the fact they hadn't found them yet.
"Why did you do it then?"
"You know why!", he yelled and became aggravated, "I want those police to feel, to understand what I had to go through thanks to them!"
"They did their job, they can't save…"
"They didn't! They didn't! They spent the whole time questioning me, suspecting me! While my wife died alone in a cold basement…that's not fair"
"Well neither is taking your revenge out on three innocent women…tell us where they are?"
But Wellston only shook his head slowly.
After yet another hour Stella came running through the door looking with wild eyes at Don, Danny, Hawkes and Lindsay. She merely gestured with her hands finally yelling at them; "come on!"
"You know where…"
"Yes! Come one!", she dashed out and the others were right behind her.
Together with Adam they had backtracked Wellston's cars GPS system to a location by Riverdale Park out in the Bronx.
Thirty minutes later several police cars pulled on to a property with a large amount of abandoned warehouses, "everyone, spread out!"
Equipped with sledge hammers they hit off the padlocks on the doors and with their guns in their hands searched the warehouses.
Don, together with Danny and two other police officers, entered the first building; hopes went up but once inside it only took a quick glance to see it was empty.
"Damn! Come on, next one!", they ran to the next one.
The officer with the hammer missed the lock on the first throw, but Don was too impatient and grabbed the hammer from him and hit the lock making it fly off the door. Just as they were to sprint in they heard Mac,
"We've got them, Get the paramedics over here now!"
'Paramedics, they're alive', Don ran over to where Mac had shouted from, looking in what he saw made his insides sink. He could see three pale forms all lying down on the floor, now surrounded by police. As the paramedics ran past him his mind caught up with his body and he ran to Mac and Stella who were kneeling. He fell to his knees as he saw it was Amy, clad in his white shirt that was spotted with blood.
"I've got a weak pulse", one of the paramedics said out loud as they got ready to lift her on to a gurney.
