Disclaimer: Highlander belongs to Davis/Panzer. They are being borrowed and returned hopefully in about the same shape they were taken in. Jeff, Emmy, and just about everyone else, belong to me. You can use them if you like, just return them please.
Chapter 19
Emmy stared at her cell, trying to decide if she was really going to call Amanda. Calling Amanda and telling her about Rick, about how she felt, was terrifying. She had always wanted to have the intensity of connection that was blossoming with him, but now that it was happening to her, she was really scared. In all her six hundred years of life, she had never found anyone with whom she felt she could spend forever. After David, she had doubted it even more. Yet fate seemed to be showing her that she was wrong. Here he was, staring at her, an Immortal still younger than most mortals. Amanda had been well over six hundred when she had first met the then rather young Duncan MacLeod.
It had taken them centuries to become what they were now, though. Emmy had only known Rick for three weeks. Was it really possible for something this amazing to happen in only three weeks? She thought back to that first coffee date with Jeff, and how she had tried to learn more from him about the smoke-eyed, sharply alert Rick Cloud. Through subsequent coffee dates she and Jeff, in only a few days, had become very close friends. Emmy was aware that you could become friends with someone in only a day, but she had never thought it possible that it could take as little time to fall in love with someone.
Finally, she hit her speed dial and waited for it to connect on the other side.
"Hello?" questioned Duncan's familiar voice.
"Hello, old friend," Emmy replied, staring at the wall and trying to decide if standing was a good idea. "Is Amanda around?"
"You know, you never seem to want to talk to me. Why is that?" Duncan asked teasingly.
"Because you're not a very good conversationalist over the phone," Emmy answered, drawn to smile.
"Fine, I'll get Amanda," Duncan said in a pouty voice.
The phone was handed over and Amanda's powerful alto voice came on the line. "Yes?"
"Hi beautiful, how are you?"
"Oh, Emmy, I'm so glad it's you. So how are things going with this Rick Cloud fellow? Any better? Give me details!"
Emmy laughed. "Why don't you come meet him for yourself?"
"Are you serious?" Amanda asked. Emmy could just imagine her sitting up in a chair, wondering if she had really heard that correctly.
"He kissed me last night," Emmy said, quietly.
There was no reply on the other end for a second, and then Amanda asked, "Wasn't he trying to avoid contact with other Immortals?"
"Amanda, give me some credit. You are not the only one who can weave magic with men."
"Oh, honey, you know very well that's not what I meant." Amanda tone had become the one she used only with the few Immortals she had taught. It was the voice of a mother with her kids. It did not matter how old an Immortal got, their teacher was still pretty much their parent. "I mean, what's changed? Did you whisk him off his feet or something? And aren't you worried about this? I mean it's a bit soon since David died, isn't it?"
This did cause a stab of pain through Emmy's heart, but only for the sad memories it stirred. "Amanda, I think I stopped being in love with David more than twenty years ago. This isn't a rebound. It's perfect timing. Besides, Rick's changing... I think both of us are." She paused for a moment, taking a breath. "Amanda, I really want you to come and meet him."
"Okay, I'll discuss it with Duncan and we'll come down soon."
"Why can't you come by yourself?" Emmy knew that she needed to separate the two for the first official meeting. Amanda would be a great help if they could just get her on her own. "It'll be a nice break for you two. I know sometimes you need that. Rick's even offered to pay for your ticket. He says it's time he built some friendships in the Immortal world again. Besides, Duncan can be... a bit intimidating." She almost laughed for using that ruse.
Amanda sighed into the phone. "Well, that's true, and it would be fun to have a vacation for a few days. Oh, I could get a nice tan, go to the beach. You know, that actually sounds like a great idea, now that I think about it."
Emmy smiled to herself. "Good. Well then, how about you come down on Monday? Think you can swing the tickets by then?"
"Sure, I'll have your... friend Rick, pay me the money after, shall I?"
"I'm sure that Rick would be fine with that. We'll take you to dinner that night and everything. There's this cute little Italian and Pizza place I like to go to called Nino's that I think you will just love."
"Well, now you have got me excited! Oh, but the twenty-two-hour flight is going to kill me!" Amanda said with mock melodrama.
"I'm sure we can find ways to make up for it," Emmy replied, laughing. She was already scheming up things to do with her best friend.
Rick was starting to get used to sensing other Immortals regularly, but when the buzz hit him in the shop, he still reacted cautiously. He walked into the lobby, wrench in hand, just in case. It was not Emmy this time; it was Marcus. Marcus was a lawyer who lived in Lehigh Acres, a sort of a subdivision of Ft. Myers to the east. He was one of two other Immortals in the area that Rick had left alone when he cleaned up the streets back in '06.
For a lawyer, Marcus was an honest man. He also believed mortals were just as important as Immortals. Though he and Rick were not friends, they felt no antagonism towards each other, and when trouble hit they usually discussed it.
The other Immortal in the area was older and went by John, but he kept to himself and traveled a lot. The only reason that Rick knew about him at all was because he had fixed his bike once. John was a decent man as well, going about his life in quiet solitude. It was a life that Rick would never choose, nor did he understand it, but he did respect it and so left him alone.
"Marcus," Rick said with a careful smile on his face. "How can I help you?"
"I've seen the news about some killer hacking people up with a sword. Have you heard anything about it?" Marcus met his eyes with solemn directness.
"I've got my guy looking into it." Rick always referred to Jeff as his guy to Marcus. It made him sound like a mortal employee who knew about Immortals and had ties to the media. In other words, he had resources that neither of them could get to without attracting too much attention.
"Does he have any idea what's going on?" Marcus asked, brow furling in worry.
Rick shook his head, "He was on a stakeout all night last night on the guy the police think it is, but I think they're wrong."
"Why?"
"Guy's down in Pine Manor. Doesn't seem like the kind of haunt for an Immortal now, does it?"
Marcus nodded unhappily. "But looks can sometimes be deceiving, as we well know."
Rick sighed. "I know. All I can tell you right now is that Jeff's on it. There's no one I know who is better at finding things out. He's the master of deception. You want to know if anything pops up?"
Marcus nodded again. "Also, if Jeff is good at Google searching, ask him to find information on an Edward Mathieson. He was born in England in the late 1800s. He moved to America in the early 1900s, was a serial killer for a while, then disappeared."
"One of us I take it," Rick said, frowning.
Marcus' troubled expression turned into a full scowl, inwardly directed. "Yes, and he is a devious prat, too. I tried to take him then, but he caught my tail and ran. He's done similar killings in different areas of the U.S. since that time. He always uses a different alias and always chooses different types of victims. The M.O. on all the killings is the only thing that stays the same. I almost feel like this time he's baiting me."
"I'll let Jeff know about this. He can probably get you a lot of information."
Marcus nodded abruptly. "Good, and Rick, if it is Edward, he's mine. I should have taken care of this almost a hundred years ago. I'm taking care of it now."
"Okay, I'll make sure any information I get, gets into your hands too. If this guy is as bad as you say he is, he needs to be stopped, and it sounds like fast."
"Thank you, Rick. You are a good man." With that, Marcus turned and left the shop.
Rick stood in the lobby for a minute, then he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He hit the speed dial and waited patiently until Jeff picked up.
"What's up, boss?"
"I need you down here now. It looks like we've got a situation with these killings, and you are going to need to get on it right away."
"So studying for my GREs is out, right?" Jeff asked snidely.
"Yes. Marcus dropped by," Rick said, curtly.
"Oh, it's that serious. I'll be down in no time at all," Jeff said, his tone changing to determined.
"Make sure you bring the pictures that you got last night. I don't want to think I bailed you out of jail for nothing."
