Chapter Twenty Eight
Catherine had allowed Mkibo to navigate through the stark desert. No landmarks guided their way. She could only trust the doctor's geographical understanding learnt some ten years ago. She had stayed silent for most of their journey, letting her to concentrate on finding their way towards the nearest center of habitation. Only occasionally did Mkibo break the silence to ask her about herself. They had shared brief introductions in the cabin. After getting over her initial shock to learn that she was speaking to the announced-dead Catherine Willows, she had come up with a plan of escape. As a doctor, their captors had allowed her to bring some basic analgesics. When she had showed them the seemingly innocent Zolpidem, they hadn't raised a single eyebrow. It took only a single trip to the kitchen, on the pretext of getting food for Catherine, to sprinkle the ground pills atop the pizza.
Mkibo talked about her rocky marriage, the cause of which was her budding affection for an EMT. She talked about her daughter who, Catherine learnt, was five years younger than Lindsay. She talked about her mother, a Broadway actress and her father, a Navy officer. Catherine, for her part, skimmed through the details of her early life. Her innocuously bubbly life in a Montana farm and then her desire to come and see the big city life which led to her failed marriage with Eddie were related in four short sentences. It wasn't that she was ashamed of her downward spiral into the world of drugs, booze and sex and her later stint as an exotic dancer. Those had toughened her and she had met some nice people in that hellhole. It was just that those portions of her life now seemed so far away and distant that it seldom got an entrance into her memory. Talking about it would be like narrating a scene from a movie she had watched one night. Mkibo did, however, ask her about Sara and whether Catherine knew what was being claimed in the news.
"I know Sara has no hand in it." Catherine's tone had a finality in it.
"You can't be too sure nowadays." Mkibo reminded her, somewhat sadly. "You love her and it is hard to imagine the person you love as…"
"No, you don't understand." She interrupted. "I'm not saying this because I love her. I'm saying this because I know her. And if you knew Sara, you would agree with me."
Catherine brushed back limp strands of her hair. "She has this unshakeable sense of morality and justice that, even though admirable, can stand in the way of her reason. And if you are one of those people who she is not close to, or God forbid, she dislikes, then you'll be greeted with her jaded side. She can be blunt, hard-headed stubborn, unimpressed by authority, oblivious to regulations, if she is on the pursuit of her passionate righteousness. Believe me when I say that for the first six years that I knew her, we were not on the best of terms. We were mutually on each other's list of 'ten people I can't tolerate'."
Mkibo wheezed out a chuckle of surprise.
Catherine smiled wistfully. "But even then, I could trust her with my whole life."
Their scattered conversations helped in keeping their minds from the anxiety of being caught. It was only when they noticed a silver streak gleaming in the horizon that they could afford to bring hope into their hearts. The highway was near and that meant so were signs of civilization.
However, hopes shattered faster than they could comprehend and Mkibo noticed someone following them. It was a black SUV, advancing menacingly towards them with its superior size and speed. They couldn't afford to risk thinking that it was some other vehicle being pumped to full gas by a crazy driver. Neither did they have the time to ruminate how could one or both of their captors wake past the sedation. Catherine kept a wary eye at the Explorer nosing in from behind them while the doctor charged the clanging tin of their sedan to Grand Prix limits.
Like manna from Heaven, Catherine saw a car wheeling through the highway towards them. Even better, she caught the insignia of the LVPD painted on the side of the car.
"Drive towards the highway, but don't turn." She advised.
"You have a plan?" Mkibo asked through gritted teeth.
"Swivel the car directly obstructing the path. Those cops won't have a choice but to stop."
She gave Catherine a dubious look but it was an idea, which was more than what she had, and something that might just work.
"What if they reach us before the cops?"
"It's a chance we'll have to take."
Catherine was occupied by dividing her attention between their pursuer and the blue-and-white cruiser speeding horizontally across the highway. With the speed that they were going in, they'll reach the highway much before the squad car could even come near. But she didn't dare ask Mkibo to slow down. The head of the Explorer was now almost touching their Chevy's rear. Just as she noticed that, they received a jarring thump from behind. The doctor swerved right to avoid the SUV from gaining towards them from the side. This got their car trunk another whack. The squeal of rubber tires and the whir of the engines loaded the air. The intolerable sound of metal scraping against each other just added to the noise. As their chaser sped from beside them, she got a good look of the driver. It was the guy called Rocky. He appeared to be alone and he was fixing them with a death glare. Catherine shuddered. Rocky struck as the kind of person who wouldn't think when angry, and he looked very angry.
After what seemed like an eternity of auto race, their sedan swerved onto the smoother asphalt of the highway. As told by her companion, Mkibo stopped the car horizontally crossing the yellow lines of the highway. After the trembling speed of their vehicle, the sudden halt seemed strange. But it did nothing to lower their spiking adrenaline levels. As if guessing their intention, Rocky hadn't followed them all the way but pulled up at quite a distance.
They waited with bated breath as they saw Rocky quickly get out his car and run towards them. The cruiser was still at a good distance and there was a chance they'd never get to meet the cops.
"Get out of the fucking car!" Rocky commanded, pointing his handgun at them.
Catherine and Mkibo exchanged worried looks, but they stayed where they were.
"Didn't you hear me, bitches? I said open the fucking door and step out!"
"Go ahead, shoot me." Catherine challenged. "I know you can't risk doing that. You need me safe and unharmed."
Rocky smirked cruelly. He eyed her with unmasked hatred and then swung the gun towards Mkibo. In an unexpected movement, he pulled the trigger and the bullet zipped past them, narrowly avoiding hitting the doctor.
"I'll shoot her Black ass if you don't get out of the car." He warned.
Catherine swallowed. She knew that he would carry out his threat if she resisted. He wasn't under any compulsion to not kill Mkibo.
He grabbed the doctor's hand through the window and twisted it against the glass. She muffled back a cry of pain but tears sprung up in her eyes.
"Let her go." Catherine immediately tried to help her but Rocky was still pointing the muzzle of the gun towards them.
"You whores thought you'd get away with it, huh? Get out and start walking towards the SUV."
Catherine noticed his eyes constantly darting towards the approaching cruiser. She took the opportunity.
"The cops are here. You can't get away."
"Shut up and walk!"
"You think they can't see you?" Her voice gained confidence as she saw beads of perspiration lining his brow. "You think they won't call dispatch? How far can you run before they catch up to you?"
"I said shut the fucking up!" He forced pressure onto the squirming woman in his hands. Mkibo coughed as her arms twisted further.
"Give yourself up now and you'll get a deal."
"Get. Walking. Else I swear I'm gonna shoot your friend here." Red capillaries webbed his eyes.
"They are here, Rocky. You can't run."
Rocky clenched his muscles as he saw that the police were indeed not that far away. If not bound by his obligation to keep Willows alive, he would have emptied his barrel into their painful cunts.
"Stay in the car and don't say a word. I am gonna shoot and nothing will keep me from doing so if you girls so much as sneeze. So both of you better stay put, you get me?" He demanded for Mkibo to give him the keys. He walked to both sides, scanning the interior before coming to stand in front of the driver's window, blocking them out of view. His right hand held the gun which he hid behind his back.
Catherine couldn't see the officers, but she heard a young voice asking Rocky if everything was okay. Her mind worked furiously to come up with some way of notifying the officers about their situation without harming anyone. However, she had barely begun to spin a plan when she heard a definitely female call.
The thought that Sara was there- so near, so close to her - rushed through her bones like electricity. At that moment, neither logic nor fear of death could have kept her away. She had managed to keep a lot of emotions controlled for so long, but the very feel of Sara's presence knocked down that barrage and she couldn't stop herself from throwing open the door and running towards her.
The brief delight she found on seeing Sara in person was blown apart when she heard simultaneous ringing of gunshots. It was only then that she realized what her impulsive decision had cost her. In that confusion, Rocky had pulled the trigger at the young officer and anyone who had been in the vicinity. Mkibo screamed as she saw blood pooling from the victims. Catherine watched, stunned, as a struck Sara toppled on the ground. Their eyes locked together, until Sara's glazed over and closed.
"Sara! No! No. Please no!" An inhuman cry tore from her lips. She rushed towards her wounded lover and caught hold of her head before it hit back. She cradled the slender body in her arms, gasping.
"Sara? Sara Sidle?" Rocky's eyes widened as he realized whom he had shot. "Shit, what have I done?"
Rage coursed through her veins like fire and Catherine launched herself against Rocky's massive chest. But the guy was still so shocked by the prospect of what he had done that he was rendered temporarily defenseless. That was all she needed to vent out her revengeful spite. She balled her fists and lunged at his shoulders. She grabbed the gun from his limp fingers and before he could react, she struck his face hard, repeatedly. She then pointed the muzzle between his eyes and was all set to fire when Mkibo snatched her hands away.
"Catherine, don't do this. Stop." She struggled.
"Let me." Catherine hissed.
"Sara will be fine. Don't dirty your hands with his blood. Listen to me, Catherine."
"I'm gonna kill the son-of-a-bitch."
"No, you won't. You won't." And with that, Mkibo plunged a needle into his arm. Rocky stared at his hand and then into her deeply tanned face.
"Hey!" He yelled, shaking out of his trance.
"Shut up!" Catherine hit him again, causing a nasty gash on his cheek. She looked at Mkibo. "Your drugs obviously didn't work last time."
But Rocky was already swaying, his eyelids fluttering. He tried to catch hold of Catherine, but his hands missed the aim by a good inch.
"Sara will need you." Mkibo touched her shoulder.
Her fury draining away from her, Catherine remembered the awful horror of Sara being shot. She rushed back towards the limp body. A pulse was still strong in her neck. She gulped and forced her mind to stay clear. She needed to think like a CSI. Sara's life hung on a thin thread and she couldn't allow her emotions to overwhelm.
"Check the car for a steel-case box." She found her voice amazingly calm. "Sara has a first-aid kit in there. I'll get to the radio system in the car and call for help."
Grissom was in his office, reading through all the evidence that the CSIs had cooperatively collected. They got leads into some mafia involvement with the explosion case. But as with all cases that have traces of the seedy gang world, the trails go cold and hidden. The mafia hire young, innocent young men to do their dirty jobs. Corrupted by the promise of riches and power, these kids don't even know what they are getting into until it's too late. On the other extreme, some difficult jobs require the skills of professional assassins. They are as hard to pin down. Fake IDs, fake addresses, no real records, all make their existence a shadowy concept in the real world. Until a few hours ago, Grissom had surmised that Courtney was more likely the target. Whatever she knew from her dead gangster husband needed to be hushed off. The others were innocent bystanders caught in the death. But with evidences that Catherine might be alive or alternatively someone who looks like Catherine is missing was making him wonder if she wasn't the real victim all along. He had given the hair samples to Wendy for comparison with all the other unknown samples collected from the site.
He was just about to head towards the break room for a much needed caffeine shot when his phone rang. He picked it up to find Sofia on the other side. Within seconds, his face blanched to a deathly pale.
