Chapter Seventeen: Rick the Unwilling Accessory

Rollins was still at Blair's house. Other police officers roamed the house as Casey sat on in a daze, watching.

Rollins walked over to the phone.

"Who're you calling?" Casey asked curiously as he watched Rollins dial.

"FBI," Rollins informed him nonchalantly.

Casey's jaw dropped. "Christ," he muttered.

"Hey, McNeal, this is Ted Rollins from New York State. Just calling to inform you of some information on the Kincaid case. I'm at Blair Warner's house in Peekskill with her boyfriend."

"What have ya got?" Bradley McNeal, a balding man, asked.

"Well, the prints on the trunk of that car Lee Kincaid was discovered upon…they match those of Blair Warner."

McNeal glanced at the ident-a-kit drawings of Jo and Blair from his office. McNeal had worked as an FBI agent for fifteen years, had been through hundreds of different cases but had never seen one quite like this. He knew of David Warner and his textile company. He couldn't understand how his daughter, his only child and heir of his fortune, could wind up getting herself involved in something like this.

I thought it'd be the other way around, with the woman getting axed.

He continued staring at the drawings of Blair and Jo. They were both attractive, pretty, young women and McNeal was having a bit of trouble associating them with harming anybody let alone killing them.

"I'll be damned," he replied. "Isn't that strange."

"The boyfriend who lives here says a gun is missing," Rollins told him. "Plus she took a lot of stuff. Seems like maybe she planned on being gone a while. We found a safe here and had to pry it open – found her credit cards inside of it so maybe she planned on using cash so she wouldn't leave a paper trail."

Rollins cleared his throat. "That's not even the strangest thing – the boyfriend said she would never touch that gun of his. He got it because he works a lot and is hardly home but he said she'd never touch it or even learn to shoot it; just left it in the drawer for years."

"What kind of gun was it?" McNeal questioned.

"It was a .38," Rollins told him.

"So where are they?" McNeal asked.

"We're still looking. A co-worker of Mrs. Bonner informed me they were on their way to a cabin she loaned to Mrs. Bonner and she and Ms. Warner never showed up. Plus, I also visited several friends of theirs who confirm they knew nothing of this trip but mentioned Mrs. Bonner's husband may not have been truthful with them about their actual whereabouts."

"Huh…now that's interesting…do you think he might be involved?"

Rollins bit his lip. "I'm not quite sure, honestly, but who knows? We're going to continue looking for Ms. Warner and Mrs. Bonner – we hope you're looking, too."

It was dusk when Jo, Blair and Cody pulled into the parking lot of Charlie's Motel. Jo shut off the ignition, turning to look at Cody.

"So, we're here," she said. She took the keys out of the ignition. "Ya both had better say ya goodbyes."

And out of our lives.

And with that, Jo stepped out of the car. "I gotta go in there for a minute," she said, closing her car door.

She quickly ducked inside the building, spotting a woman sitting in a small office at a computer.

"May I help you?" The woman asked, smacking loudly on a piece of gum.

"Yeah…I need to pick something up. It's under 'Joanna Marie Bonner'. Is it here?" Jo asked.

The woman typed into her computer. "Nope. Nothin' here under that name, ma'am," she told her.

Jo frowned, instantly feeling herself start to panic. I know Rick said it was here. Why would_

She then briefly noticed Blair crawl into the backseat of the car with Cody out of the corner of her eye. Jo instantly felt herself become annoyed. Before she could think about them any longer, the woman coughed, bringing Jo's attention back to the matter at hand.

"Um…OK…is anythin' under 'Peaches'?" She asked. "Check that."

The woman tapped 'Peaches' into the keyboard. "No, ma'am. Nothin' under that, either."

Just as Jo started to completely panic, she heard a familiar voice from behind her put on a game show announcer's voice.

"Did somebody say 'Peaches'?! Why yes, that's the secret word! Show her what's she's won, Don!"

Jo whirled around to find herself to face to face with her husband. He then dropped a fat envelope in her hands, smiling smugly at her. Her jaw dropped in shock.

"Oh, my God! Rick! What are ya doin' here?" She asked. She had expected Rick would only drop the money off, not show up to meet her in person!

"Hey there, Peaches," he replied, giving her a dazzling smile. He then kissed her cheek and turned to the woman at the desk. "Can you give us another room? Just put it on my credit card."

The woman handed him a key. "They're right 'round the back," she informed them.

"So…how are you, Jo?" Rick asked awkwardly as he and Jo made their way to the car outside the motel. "How was the fishing trip? How's Blair?"

Jo then opened the car door to find Blair and Cody both in the backseat together, cuddling, taking pictures with the Polaroid camera and Blair giggling.

Jo felt a pang of jealousy as she got an eyeful of them cuddling. She scowled. "Ask Blair," she said annoyingly.

Blair suddenly became startled as she noticed Rick and Jo were staring at them. She screamed in embarrassment and began quickly trying to duck back into the front seat, trying to look nonchalant.

Jo only rolled her eyes.

"Rick! Hey there, stranger! What on Earth are you doing here?" Blair asked, blushing hard.

Rick gave Blair an amused look. "Ask me no questions, Blair, and I'll tell you no lies."

Blair nodded. "Yeah…that actually goes double for me."

Cody then struggled his way out of the backseat of the car, looking uncomfortable at being caught in the backseat with Blair.

"Who's your friend here?" Rick asked, smirking. Never would've thought I'd see the day Blair Warner would be caught fooling around in the backseat of a car with a guy, Rick thought.

Blair cleared her throat. "Oh…uh…this is Cody," she introduced. "He's a student. We were just giving him a ride to…to…here, I guess. Jo said we would bring him here and that he'd have to go. So that's what he's doing…he's going. Aren't you, Cody?"

Cody nodded. "Yup, I'm going. Thanks for the ride. You all take care," he said. He then turned to go.

Blair then stared at him as he departed. "Yeah, he's going alright," she muttered to herself. "And I love watching him go."

"Blair's kinda taken to him," Jo said to Rick, trying her best to hide the bitterness and jealousy in her voice.

Rick only grinned, shaking his head in amusement at Blair.

"Well, come on, girls! Blair, I got you a room. You can take a cold shower," he joked. He hopped into the backseat of the car.

Blair blushed again. "Eh, don't mind me, Rick. I'm just a wild woman," she replied, chuckling nervously.

Rick chuckled. "Somehow, I always knew that," he said.

"Yeah…just a regular outlaw," she added.

Jo shot Blair a look as the three of them drove to the back of the motel. Blair turned around, spotting Cody standing at the side of the road. He noticed her looking and blew her a kiss.

The three found their rooms and began to climb out of the car, Jo shutting off the ignition.

"Just let me go in and freshen up a bit," Jo said to Rick. "I gotta go and wash my face and…stuff."

Blair began taking her and Jo's stuff out of the car.

Jo inwardly groaned. She was so caught up in picking up the money, she had forgotten that Rick would probably want to talk, spend time with her and do other things that Jo, quite frankly, wasn't interested in doing.

Maybe he'll just want to talk, she thought hopefully.

Ha! She then thought. Fat chance.

"Sure, honey. Whatever you need to do. I'm not trying to rush you or anything. But I do want to talk to you and…" Rick then lowered his voice to a whisper. "Be alone with you. I'll just be in my room at 117 and when you're ready, come on over."

Jo then gave Rick a fake, flirtatious smile, shuddering inwardly.

He then helped Blair bring her belongings into the room, stopping at the door. He waggled his eyebrows suggestively at Jo.

"I'll be waiting," he drawled slowly.

Jo only gave Rick a quizzical stare. Why's he actin' like this? Rick only grinned and walked away.

Blair gave Jo a teasing smile. "You know, I don't care what you say about him, Jo, but that man has got it bad for you," she remarked.

Jo rolled her eyes. "He's always got it bad as long as I'm runnin' in the other direction. Don't be fooled, Blair. He's no different than any other guy. He knows how to chase and that's it. Once he's caught ya, he doesn't know what to do so what does he do? He runs away."

Blair nodded. "I heard that," she said in agreement.

The two stepped into Blair's motel room, Jo closing the door behind them.

Blair tiredly lay across the bed and Jo took the envelope containing the money out of her purse. She held it up, showing it to Blair.

"Our future," she told her. She then began rummaging around into her purse, looking for her makeup. She then pulled out a tube of lip gloss and mascara and stood close to the mirror in the room, applying her makeup while Blair watched her from her bed.

"So…what are you going to tell Rick?" Blair asked Jo curiously.

"Nothin'. I'm not gonna tell Rick a damn thing," Jo said. "I can't go and make him an accessory than he already is. I just can't."

"Aw, Jo, look at you being so sweet to him! Imagine not wanting to drag him into this. Rick really is a lucky man," Blair said sarcastically.

Jo slid a shade of light red gloss across her lips.

"Well, I never asked him to come! It's just like I said, Blair – he loves the chase."

"Well, he sure has his work cut out for him, doesn't he?" Blair teased, smiling.

Jo rolled her eyes. "Oh, put a lid on it, Blair! It's hard enough as it is. Just let me get this part over with. You just guard the money. If there's any problem, I'm in 117."

"I won't wait up," Blair said.

Jo rolled her eyes again and then smiled at Blair. "Now…tell me… how do I look?"

Blair smiled back at Jo, laying back on the bed. She then propped herself on her forearms to get a better look.

"You're a vision, Jo. A goddamn vision of loveliness is what you are – you always are."

She then winked at Jo, giving her a flirtatious smile.

Jo froze, not exactly knowing how to handle that compliment. She only felt that familiar feeling of her heart skipping a beat.

She gulped, feeling her palms sweat. She then felt herself wanting nothing more than to run across the room, wrap Blair in her arms and kiss her like no tomorrow.

Blair cleared her throat, interrupting Jo from her lust-filled thoughts.

"Rick is waiting," Blair teased, nudging towards the door. Jo had almost forgotten she was supposed to be meeting Rick.

Jo gave Blair a mock-annoyed look.

"Have another drink, Blair," she told her before closing the door behind her.

Blair only shrugged and nodded. "Good idea," she said to herself.

It was raining when Jo stepped outside of Blair's room. She quickly ran down the long strip of motel rooms to find Rick's room.

She didn't have to walk far, spotting his room almost immediately. She knocked on his door.

"Hello?" She could hear Rick ask in a falsetto voice.

Jo inwardly shuddered. She had forgotten how just plain weird and downright corny Rick was.

The next thing she knew, Rick had opened the door of his room, holding out a solitary red rose, yanking her inside.