Author's Notes: Thanks for your patience. I'm working as fast as I can to get out these next couple chapters!
Answers to questions- In my version, Mike had to come up with the money for the buy rather than the FBI because it was too short of notice for them to go through all the necessary paperwork to approve that kind of buy, especially since it was DEA/FBImixed jurisdiction, and also because FBI would not have allowed Mike/Jakes to go alone, they would have just insisted on busting in on the place and putting someone else in charge of Paige's extraction/would have asked too many questions about how Mike and Briggs got the information. They didn't have a team, they just planned this as an off the record mission. As for the why Briggs was blamed for Mike's death, I'm planning on addressing that a little more a little later.
Sid stood in the hospital morgue examining the body of a very dead Pedro Perez. Something about all this wasn't adding up. There was a link he was missing somewhere. He had sent Franks out to gather more information on Paige Arkin, but for right now all he had to go on was this body and the idiot coroner who would not stop babbling at Sid. It was almost like the guy had never seen a murder victim before or spoken to a cop.
"We think the mugger panicked and shot him. He couldn't have been that good of a shot. We've found evidence of at least ten shots and he only hit the victim twice. The other bullets were found in the brick wall around him."
"Yeah, I read the report." Sid says to the coroner as he looks at his body. "Hate to disagree with you, but this shooter knew how to handle a gun."
"No. The wounds were to the head and the stomach. That's a large difference in aim. Not to mention all the times he missed. This man was obviously a large target to miss. Perhaps his hands were shaking from withdrawal." The coroner continues to back up his theory. "It's not uncommon for junkies-"
"Listen Doc. With all do respect, you deal with the dead and leave the investigative work to me." Sid says, annoyed with being lectured on junkies behavior from a man who wasn't a good enough doctor to be trusted with living patients.
As the coroner huffs with indignation, Sid ignores him and turns back to the body, feeling a strange level of respect for his shooter.
"Nah, this wasn't incompetence. It was something else. The first shot was out of passion. To the stomach." Sid says, admiring the clean shot directly through the organ of the corpse. "When you shoot someone in the stomach, all that acid spills out into the rest of the body. Unless you get shot in a surgery room, you're a dead man. Death comes in maybe fifteen minutes, and he'll be in agony the entire time. It's one of the most painful ways to die. Our guy wanted the victim to suffer."
"If that was the case why the other shots?"
"For some reason, he thought about it, and he didn't want to wait the fifteen minutes and delivered a shot to the head. Maybe our boy Pedro was making too much noise, and the shooter didn't want to be discovered. Maybe he found something more important and just didn't have fifteen minutes to wait." Sid says, intrigued by this case. He has a feeling in his gut, that something doesn't add up. He's just not sure what yet.
"And the shots to the wall?" The coroner asks rudely, clearly put out that Sid did not agree with his assessment.
"I would guess he was either emptying out the canister to make sure it looked like he panicked, or to make sure no one else found a loaded gun." Sid shrugs, not too concerned with this fact. "If you run the gun through forensics, I'm sure you'll find it completely wiped clean of fingerprints."
"His wallet was missing. You really don't think this was a mugging?" The coroner asks, clearly just thinking Sid was crazy by this point.
"I'm not so sure..." Sid looks at the clean shots to the center of the head and stomach again. Too neat for your random mugger. Too neat for just about anyone other than an expert shot. Something is definitely not adding up about this case. Nothing about Graceland agents is ever as it seems. Turning to the police officer who had initially took the report he asks, "What was blondie doing during all this shooting? There's no bullet holes in her right?"
"If so, she didn't die from them. I don't deal with the living." The coroner says rudely, clearly thinking that assholes like this cop were why he prefered the dead.
"No bullet holes. She has a nasty crack to the head though." Franks answers Sid's question as he walks in the room with the file with Paige's statement. "DEA just sent her over to the hospital to get it checked out."
"Just now?" Sid asks, surprised.
"Well it took a while to process her paperwork and get her admitted." Franks tries to explain.
"I knew the DEA was slow but according to the report this guy was shot around midnight. It's almost seven thirty. You're telling me one of their agents gets injured and it takes twenty hours to get her medical care? I'm telling you, one of my guys get injured? They have a doc down his throat sometimes before the cuffs go on." Sid scoffs in disbelief. "Workers comp is a bitch man. Bureaus always trying to cover it's ass. What's her report say?"
"Says she was outside in an alley with the now deceased. She heard a gun cock and was told to stay still they were being robbed. She tried to turn around and before she got a look at him her head was bashed into a wall. She didn't get a look at the guy." Franks reads from the report.
"When was the report filed?" Sid asks.
"At three o'clock this afternoon." Franks answers, slowly catching on to what Sid was saying.
"Ok, what was she doing for those missing fifteen hours?" Sid asks.
"She doesn't know. Her report says she was in shock with a head injury. She says the first thing she really remembers is waking up on the beach. Before then she has some hazy memories, but nothing concrete. She could have been wandering around town for hours for all we know." Franks replies as the coroner just stands there looking befuddled, wishing these two would go discuss elsewhere.
"Unless it's halloween, we would have received reports of a hot bloodsoaked blonde with a headwound wandering the streets." Sid says bluntly.
"It's not uncommon for people with concussions to have lapses in memory or confusion." The coroner added like he was reading out of the textbook.
There's a moment of dead silence in the morgue as both Sid and Franks stare at the coroner in a belittling fashion.
"Do you guys actually go to med school past the first year?" Sid asks in disbelief of this guys incompetency. This settles it, when he dies he wants cremated because he wouldn't even trust this idiot with his corpse. Sid rolls his eyes, eager to get away from the idiot coroner who thought he was Sherlock Holmes. "We're done here. Better get to formaldehyding this guy before he stinks up the place, Doc."
"So what are you thinking boss?" Franks, who has learned to be silent mostly in Sid's presence, asks as they walk down the sterile halls of the morgue to the hospital up above.
"I think there's more to this than what's in her report." Sid mumbles. "I want to talk to blondie."
"Shouldn't be a problem. She's being treated upstairs." Franks says.
"Ok, why don't you go grab me a cup of coffee while I do the interrogation. I don't want her to see us together. I may need you later." Sid says. As Franks scurries away, Sid yells after him, "Franks, make sure you get me the good stuff. Not that crap they serve in the cafeteria."
Sid walks up to the fourth floor. He has to sweet talk a nurse, but she quickly releases the information on Paige Arkin to him after seeing his police badge and charming self depreciation. It takes a few minutes of charming the nurse before Sid knows it's time to push further. Laying the icing on the cake, he begs the nurse, "Actually, she's an old friend and I'm quite worried about her. Do you think I could see her to make sure she's alright? I just want to ask her a few questions. Make sure she's ok."
"I'm sorry you can't right now." The nurse says, knowing she's said too much already, but she can't seem to help opening up to the handsome cop.
"To tell you the truth I… Can you keep a secret? I'm in love with her. Always have been, but I never had the nerve to tell her. Do you think you could make an exception this one time please?" Sid has this nurse pegged as a romantic, and the way she seems to melt from hearing a man confess his pathetic love proves he's right on target.
"You can't right now. Ms Arkin is getting an MRI, but I can let you wait outside for when she gets out." The nurse finally concedes.
"Thanks. You're a peach." Sid says as she shows him into the room leading to the MRI room.
Through the glass pane, Sid can see long tan legs sticking out of the giant machine that he assumes belongs to the blonde agent. Sid takes a moment to appreciate the view of her legs, knowing that when she came out of the machine she would not be pleased to see him. He appreciated the edge interviewing her in a hospital gown would give him. He wanted to catch her as off guard and exposed as possible.
Sid stands patiently waiting in the room looking around as he waits on the machine. He walks over to the table that has Paige's clothing piled on it with her position, he examines each piece, seeing blood stains and dirt to back up her story. He comes to a small platic bag full of her jewelry that she's not allowed to wear in the MRI. He stares at the clunky bracelets and rings, wondering why women went to such over decoration, when he sees something that makes him stop in his tracks.
"Oh Mikey… So sentimental." Sid grins sadistically as he sees the St Michael's medallion in the plastic bag of Paige's jewelry. "You almost had me… but now I've got you."
Sid leaves the room before Paige comes out of the MRI. He's found the link he's looking for.