Chapter Four
It was only 6:30 in the morning, but they knew Oscar would already be at his desk; it almost seemed like he lived there. Steve dropped Jaime off in front of the fountain and went off to park the car.
Jaime stood there for a moment, basking in the calm aura of the softly falling water, then headed inside to summon the elevator. She nodded 'good morning' to Michael and the night receptionist, then pressed the button for the express elevator. It didn't light up, and appeared jammed, so – annoyed – she hit the next button over and boarded the waiting car. As she reached for the button to hold the door open, she happened to glance at the floor. Before she could scream or cry out for help, Jaime had crumpled to the floor in a dead faint. The doors slid shut, hiding her from view, and the elevator began a slow, steady ascent.
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Jaime wasn't waiting by the fountain, so Steve hurried inside to join her. He thought she'd be chatting with the night receptionist, but the girl at the desk was alone. "Did Jaime come through here?" he asked.
"Yeah – she went upstairs."
"Thanks." Steve called the express elevator, which was suddenly no longer jammed. Jaime was not waiting upstairs, though, and he found Oscar's inner office door closed and locked. The light was on inside, but the office looked empty, and since Callahan hadn't arrived yet, Steve was forced to think fast. He re-summoned the elevator, and when it opened, an out-of-breath Oscar greeted him.
"Steve – you're here bright and early."
"I couldn't sleep, and once the shots wore off, neither could Jaime."
"She didn't come with you?"
"I dropped her off and parked the car, and...she was gone. I can't find her. You didn't see her in the lobby, did you?"
"No." Oscar immediately sprang into action. "I'll call Security," he said, picking up the phone. "Operator, get me – oh...Rudy? Wait. Slow down. Ok, who found her...where? Alright. Steve's with me; we'll be right down."
"What is it?" Steve asked, following Oscar into the elevator. "...Jaime...?"
"Something's happened to her, Pal," Oscar said carefully. "She's down in Rudy's lab, and...she's not conscious."
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Oscar and Steve found both Rudy and Michael leaning over Jaime's still form on a gurney in the middle of the lab.
"What happened?" Steve asked, fear and guilt stealing almost all his breath away.
"Michael found her," Rudy answered without looking up. "In the elevator – alone – out cold." Jaime moaned softly but didn't stir. "Not a mark on her, though, and no smell of ether or chloroform. She may have fainted, either from exhaustion or stress."
"Knife..." Jaime murmured, her eyelids beginning to flutter.
Steve was instantly beside her, clasping her hand. "Someone pulled a knife on you?"
"No...was...on the floor. It...stabbed...the doll."
Steve looked questioningly at Michael, who shook his head; he hadn't seen it. They were still firmly at square one.
- - - - - -
The cat was almost salivating as he considered the morning's events. He could have finished her off with a final, lethal pounce when he had her alone in the elevator, but he was having too much fun.
One mouse was on her way to the hospital for overnight observation, and the other was finally beginning to show the first signs of fear. Divide and conquer...vanquish...dominate. The game was getting interesting.
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Steve hesitated at the door to Jaime's hospital room, trying to get a firm grip on his own emotions. He'd just come from a conference with Jack Hansen, Oscar and the two doctors, and their conclusions were not encouraging. All four men believed that Jaime had simply passed out from exhaustion (both physical and emotional) and that whatever she thought she'd seen had been a dream...or hallucination. In his own mind, Steve really couldn't be sure either, but he was certain that she believed she'd seen something horrific and his only instinct was to comfort and protect her, in any way he could.
"Jaime...?" he said softly, not wanting to startle her. Jaime was staring out the window, propped up with pillows, and as she slowly turned to look at him, the pain in her face nearly broke his heart.
"They want me to talk to a shrink. I saw it, Steve, and I wasn't dreaming!"
"I know," he answered as he sat next to her on the bed and enveloped her in his arms. She clung to him in a despair beyond tears. "What did you see, Sweetheart?" he asked, as gently as possible.
Jaime's voice was eerily calm "On the floor, right by my feet – under the elevator control panel – was a huge knife. A...meat cleaver really, and there was a doll on the end – a girl, blonde – and the knife went all the way through her."
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