Fire and Ice
Chapter 14
The Crucible
Three sets of foot-steps echo like thunder down the corridor of the bunker. Connor leads, followed closely by Locke, and Sayid. Connor is carrying something slung over his shoulder, they glitter in the light, and rattle. Chains. Sayid, and Locke are both armed with the remaining pistols
Hurley, at the computer console with Sun watches them, Hurley looks the other way, his stomach is filled with dread with what is coming. Bernard, selecting a book to read from the bookcase, looks at Connor. Connor looks at him, Bernard helped him fill in Eve's grave. He's a good man, Connor thinks, I can see what Rose sees in him. Connor smiles. I'll need their counsel for after what I'm about to do. The steps echo.
Jack stands at the make-shift cell door. There is a look of despair within his eyes. He glances at Connor, before walking away in resignation. Sayid and Locke take station at both sides of the door, Locke nods to Connor. There is a harsh sound, as the lock is unbolted.
Kate is standing at the wall, shabbily dressed. Eyes red with tears, hair a mess. Connor breathes deeply, as he removes the chains from over his shoulder. Sayid, then Locke appear from behind him. Back-up in case Kate puts up a fight, she's did it before when she was cornered once, no risks this time. Connor coughs to clear his throat.
"Kate Austen." Connor says calmly. "You have been found guilty of the murder of Eve Jackson. Sentence will now be carried out. You will be taken to a place of our choosing." Connor pauses. "Where you will be executed!" The three advance towards her. Sayid produces a black cloth sack.
Hurley closes his ears, from the awful sound, of Kate's screams of protest.
Foot-steps echo down the corridor.
I hate hospitals.
Connor walks down a hospital corridor, until he reaches a private ward. A few phone-calls the day before, ensures that the hospital security staff, let him through without question. A flash of an FBI ID card, to the nurse, allows him to be escorted into the ward.
There is a woman in a bed, surrounded by monitors. Connor feels his lower abdomen. He knows what the function of these grim machines is, to keep you alive. The woman on the bed, is conscious, she's in her early fifties, but looks much, much older. The ravages of cancer, Connor reminds himself. The nurse sits on a chair by the door. Connor sits down next to the bed. Weakly, the woman turns her head. Similar facial features Connor observes.
"Diane Austen, my name is Agent Connor Sutherland, FBI, I'd like to ask you a few questions about your daughter Katharine!"
Diane breathes deeply.
Two days before.
"Do you recognise this knife Kate?"
Connor holds a clear plastic bag with a blood stained knife in it. Kate sits on a chair, hands tied in front of her. Jack and Locke watch Kate.
Kate looks at the knife, and turns her head away. Connor frustrated walks round, and holds the bag, inches in front of Kate. "Answer the question, do you"
Kate nods. "How do you recognise it Kate?"
Kate looks at Locke. "It's the knife, John gave me!"
Connor pauses.
"How did the knife end up with Eve?" Jack next asks.
"She must have stolen it!"
"Did you use this knife to kill Eve?"
"No!" Kate shouts.
Diane sips some water, kindly held to her mouth by Connor. Connor places the glass on the cabinet next to a jug of water.
"What made you turn your daughter in Mrs Austen?" Diane looks round and up at Connor, who is just sitting down.
"I loved Wayne, my husband." She pauses. "Wayne wasn't perfect, I believed I could make a relationship work, he was Katharine's dad."
Does this feel good Connor, torturing some woman over her kid's mistakes? Connor watches Diane with a cold detachment.
"He had a drink problem, but he never hit me!" Connor, checks his notes, that definitely wasn't the case.
"Katharine did not respect him. She murdered him!"
Cigarette, all gas appliances left on, witnesses seeing Kate leave, big explosion, a big insurance policy on the shack, started by you know who. Connor sums up his notes on Kate.
"My daughter is evil Agent Sutherland, and deserves to rot!"
"You found Eve lying on the ground stabbed several times in the chest and stomach?" Connor sits on the table in front of Kate. He folds his arms. "How did you get all those scratches on your face, arms and legs?"
Kate breathes deeply, trying to think. "I got some of them climbing up trees trying to find Eve?"
Connor looks with a I'm trying really hard to believe you but its not working Kate, look.
"The rest?" Locke asks.
Kate starts to breathe sharply. "I got those when Eve reacted to w,when I tried to revive her!"
Connor sighs.
"Jack are the wounds on Kate, do you believe that they are consistent with self defence?"
Three pairs of eyes in the room stare at Jack. The most pleading of all, are Kate's.
Jack looks at Kate. "Yes they are!"
Connor looks at Kate, whose head is now in her hands. "I think we'll have a short break before continuing!"
"You look a little bit too old to want to sign up!" A friendly but authoritive voice from across the interview room table greets Connor. Connor smiles. "I have brother's in the Marines and the Navy, Sergeant Austen!"
"Then you have my sympathy Agent Sutherland!" Sergeant Austen, accepts a coffee from Connor. Who sits across from him. Uncomfortably for Connor, the sergeant is in his dress-one's. He is rather intimidating.
"This isn't a social call, isn't it?" Austen asks. Connor nods.
"Have you received any contact recently from Katharine Austen?"
"No I haven't, I think I would be breaking a few laws if I did!" A direct answer, this isn't going to be easy.
"Letters, emails?"
"I said before, no contact Agent!"
"Are you aware that your former step-daughter, murdered her father, assaulted federal marshals, and her actions inadvertently lead to the death of a doctor. Also the small matter of wounding her three partners in a bank robbery in new mexico, and the attempted murder of an FBI Agent"
Austen nods. "Before I left Diane and Kate, I was proud to call Kate my daughter, but that son of a bitch Wayne was her father."
Raw nerve, go with it. "Do you believe that Kate killed her father given a sufficient motive?"
Austen sips some coffee. He shakes his head. "I met Kate shortly after me and Diane split up. She changed!"
"How?"
"She was quieter, and more distant!" Austen shrugs his shoulders. "She was a good girl, Agent, people don't go bad over-night!"
Connor sighs. "Your all American girl did!"
"How did Eve come into her procession, fake id's with your picture on them Kate?" Jack shouts. Connor glares at Jack. Tone it down!
"I don't know." Kate replies. She looks at the three of them. "She must have found them!"
Connor sighs, Kate turns round in the seat to angrily face him. "Eve found something else, something worth killing for, did she Kate!"
Kate looks at Locke, then Jack. They're awaiting an answer.
"No I didn't!"
"Ok." Connor groans. "If you didn't murder Eve, then who did Kate?"
Kate looks again at Locke, at Jack, then Connor. We're waiting!
"Lana!"
"Why you!" Connor lunges over at Kate, stopped albeit narrowly by Locke. Jack looks at Kate in disgust.
Moments pass, nothing is heard except breathing.
"Asides from me, and Sawyer, she was the only one looking for Eve in the jungle!" Connor laughs. "Lana was back a few hours before Sun and Jin found you, with Sawyer as a bystander with Eve's body!"
"We found your forged ID cards, with a sizeable sum of money." Connor comes face to face with Kate. "We found your knife with Eve's blood on it. We found Eve's blood on your body, defensive wounds on your body, Kate. What else did Eve have on her Kate, that was worth killing her for?"
Kate doesn't answer.
Connor walks away, he looks at both Jack, and Locke. All have faces of grim recognition on them. The rest of the day is just going to be an exercise in futility.
"Do you ever lose your cool John?"
Connor finishes writing his notes. Locke glances in Connor's direction. "I learned a long time ago if I let my emotions influence my decisions, I hurt myself as well as others." A thin smile. "It's my turn for a question!"
Connor sighs. "Go ahead!"
"Did you ever once love Kate?"
Jack coughs. Locke and Connor turn in his direction. "A decision!"
Locke looks over. Waits a moment, breathes deeply. "Guilty"
Two pairs of eyes turn to Connor. "Guilty."
Two final pairs turn to a reluctant Jack, who drums his hands nervously against the table surface.
"Jack?"
"She's guilty okay" You got your wish Connor.
"Katharine Austen, this tribunal finds you guilty of the murder of Eve Jackson." Kate starts to cry, her head is in her hands. Locke carries on. "We have reluctantly come to the conclusion, that there is only one sentence that remains open to us. Stand up!"
Sayid, and Ana-Lucia, forcibly get Kate onto her feet. Locke turns to Connor. Connor stands up. "We here-by sentence you to death for the murder of Eve Jackson. I'm recommending that it be carried out as swiftly as possible."
Kate falls to the ground. There are murmurs, and gasps. A lot of eyes fall on the three members of the tribunal.
Connor glares back. "So you'd rather she live." He sneers. "Okay, I recall a lot of faces here." He looks at his watch. "Who forty-two hours ago, where wanting to lynch her." Claire, Libby, then Hurley, and Charlie turn their gaze away when Connor locks his eyes onto them. He shrugs his shoulders. "Go to hell the lot of you!" Connor gets up, and walks through the crowd, not caring if he bumps into a few of them unintentionally. He stops and turns round. "Oh I forgot, we are all already in hell!"
Two days later
The rain beats down remorselessly down. Connor looks down at the glock in his hand. He has slotted the magazine clip in countless times now. There is only a single bullet in the chamber. Sayid watches from the cover of trees a good five metres away. Connor turns round. He flicks the safety off.
Kate is kneeling on the ground, back to him; there is the occasional spasm of a sob, and then a glance round, eyes pleading for mercy, for help.
Connor places the pistol's muzzle at the base of Kate's skull.
"Connor please!" She wails.
The trigger is squeezed.
A shot rings out.
To be continued…
