Episode 1 - The Beginning
Part 1
Day 1 (Monday December 5th)
Sarah picked up her car keys from the coffee table next to the couch, and then checked her watch. It was 7:40am, they needed to get going. Holder was probably wondering where she was. "Jack you ready to go?" she called, slipping on her coat, and putting a fresh pack of cigarettes into her pocket. Despite all he attempts last year to quit smoking, her breakdown at the end of the Larsen case which brought back the bad habit seemed to have lasting effects. She had yet to be able to go a day without one ever since. The best she could do now was just not smoke around Jack.
Her son came out of his bedroom dressed in jeans, a thick hoodie, and black waterproof vest. His backpack was slung over one shoulder, and a skateboard hung in his other hand. Speaking of bad habits he had picked up that one when he started high school. Ever since he begged her to buy him that board a week after school started, it didn't take him long to guilt her into buying it, he had being coming home with scraps, bumps and bruises. It was a miracle he hadn't broken any bones yet. "Let's go," Sarah announced picking up the case folder Holder had left last night, and they both walked out the door. She was in the process of locking the door when her cell phone rang. "Linden," she said snapping the phone open and placing it to her ear.
"Yo it's me," Holder's voice spoke on the other end.
Jack had started down the hallway, and he stopped and looked back at his mom when she replied. "Holder I'll be over there as soon as I drop Jack off at school." Sarah walked down the hallway toward her son, motioning with her hand for him to keep walking.
"I told Carlson that you were going to come in and talk to him about something. But I think he took it for you asking for your job back," Holder replied while Jack turned around and started walking again.
Sarah sighed, rolling her eyes. Sometimes Holder could be an idiot, this was just going to make it that much harder. Not to mention awkward. She was going to walk in and Carlson will be expecting her to ask for her badge back. God Holder's been hinting about Carlson wanting her back for while now. He's probably already going to have it out and waiting for her. "You probably shouldn't have mentioned me at all. I'll see you in a few." She hung up the phone.
They continued walking to the car. Sarah hit the automatic unlock button on her keychain as they approached the car. Jack waited until they were sitting inside before asking, "Why are you going to the police station?" his voice was etched with suspicion.
She looked at him sadly. He was worried that she was going to ask for her job back, that's for sure. And who could blame him? Holder comes by and the next day she's going to meet up with him. What scared her the most was that he might be right; she had not stepped into Seattle PD since she left with Holder to take Rosie's video to the Larsen's. Going back there could easily bring back that addictive itch that almost ruined her life. Some could argue didruin her life. "I just have to go do something over there," she replied pulling her seat belt across her and starting the car.
Yes it was a vague answer, and going by the look Jack was giving her, he saw right through it. At a loss of anything else to say, she put the car into reverse and backed out of her parking spot.
Danny Tanner sat in his arm chair on the set of his talk show "Good Morning Seattle." His co-host and sister in law Becky Katsopolis sat on a matching arm chair across from him. Someone from Makeup was putting on the last of his foundation before they started there show, and Becky was having her hair messed with by another person. One of the workers came out onto the stage and held up one hand. "Ok we are on in five, four, three, two," he counted down lowing one finger with each number then ran off stage.
The shows opening tune came on, "Good morning… good morning… good morning!"
"Good morning Seattle!" Danny spoke to the camera smiling energetically. "I'm Danny Tanner."
"And I'm Rebecca Donaldson," Becky added still using her maiden last name. She smiled widely at the camera herself. "It's another beautifully rainy day in Seattle.
"So make sure you carry around an umbrella," Danny cut in and laughed at his own joke. Becky added her own polite laugh. "Today we have a real treat for you viewers, on our show we have Seattle's very own reptile man. John Brack!" He and Becky both broke into applause, as well as the sound effects. A shaggy bearded man walked in with no joke, a fifteen foot python around his neck.
Now Danny wouldn't say that he was a wimp or anything. Sure he wasn't the biggest fan of animals and especially reptiles, but he dealt with it for the most part. He allowed the girls to take care of that pig, and Jesse brought home that turtle all those years ago. But a fifteen foot snake that looked like it could kill them all without too much trouble, was pushing it. At least Becky seemed to agree with him, as he heard her let out a soft gasp of surprised. Obviously neither of them were informed that John was bringing one of his reptiles with him. "Well hey there everyone!" he greeted enthusiastically sitting in the guest arm chair. Both Danny and Becky flinch back an inch or so.
Danny didn't think he'd ever seen a snake so big in real life, worse yet it was a python which constricts its victims. It was around this guy's neck, was John about to be its next victim? "Wow John that's quite a big snake you got there," Becky commented looking like she was struggling not to just jump up and run off set.
"Oh yeah this is my girl Shayla," John introduced proudly. Danny leaned back into his chair as the python's head inched toward his, forked tongue sprinting out close enough to touch his nose.
"Becky if I don't make it out of here alive, tell the girls I love them…" Danny announced faintly, face going pale.
Luckily for Sarah, if Carlson had expected her to be asking for her badge back, he hid it well. For when she walked into Carlson's office he greeted her with all the professionalism that was needed. "So what can I do for you today Linden?" he asked looking up from the paperwork he was working on at his desk.
Instead of replying Sarah turned around to look at the doorway. Holder walked into the room carrying Savanna Jenkins's case file. "We need to talk about this case Holder is working," she replied turning back to Carlson.
Going by the look on his face, he knew exactly what this was about. A frustrated sigh fell from his lips, and he looked down at his desk, folding his hands together. "Please don't tell me that Holder dragged you into this. I already told him to let it go, she was killed by Barkon. We have tons of evidence to support this, Allen has already told the family-"
"Did you take into account the problems he pointed out in the case?" Sarah interrupted.
"Yes I did, they are weak points that can easily be explained."
"Linden, tell him about what you noticed last night," Holder jumped into the argument, stepping forward and handing her the file.
Sarah took the file and opened it up to the page where it explains when Holder found out Savanna was a prostitute. She slapped the open folder down onto the desk between them, "The guy was killing prostitutes, so explain how he could have known she was a prostitute without actually knowing her personally?" There was no way Carlson would be able to talk his way out of this. It was a pretty big flaw.
Carlson pinched the bridge of his nose, obviously getting to the end of his rope. "There's a million different ways he could found out. He might have gotten a tip from someone who did know her. Unfortunately the guy is dead right now so we can't ask him."
Sarah opened her mouth again to argue some more. Sometimes she just didn't understand Carlson, sometimes it seemed like it was his goal in life to disagree and make her life a living hell. He could be the one reason why she would never go back to being a homicide detective. Carlson interrupted before she could get any words out. "Listen you two. I closed the Jenkins case this morning, so it's over. I'm not allowing anymore investigation, so let it go." Sarah was livid. She dearly wanted to scream out that he was taking a short cut out, and it was unprofessional. But she held it back.
Pastor Robert Hardly sat in his office at the Valley Main Baptist Church. He was just finishing up an email, when there was a knock on his office door. He waited until after he hit the send button before calling out, "Come in!"
A wide smile broke over his face at the site of Lavender poking her head through the doorway. "Hi Rob," she greeted returning the smile.
"Lavender," he greeted warmly pushing his chair back, standing up and walking over to her. The two of them hugged as if they were blood related. "I was wondering when you were going to get here," Rob continued releasing her from the hug. "I expected you to be by hours ago."
"Oh I got caught up with stuff," Lavender replied, and pulled an envelope out of her bag. "Here's the notes you asked for," she handed it to him.
Rob accepted the envelope with a thanks, and stuffed it in one of his desk drawers. "So how's it going at home?" he asked, but already had an idea what the answer would be.
The look that she gave him confirmed his thoughts. He smiled sympathetically at her knowing that he didn't need to pry anymore. He knew Lavender well enough to make a complete story out of one look. "I'm praying for you," he hugged her again.
"Thanks," Lavender replied sighing wearily. "I can't wait to get out of here."
"It won't be long now," Rob laughed heartily. As much as he was going to miss her, he knew that she was honoring God's call and considering her home circumstances he really couldn't blame her for wanting to get out as soon as possible. "Just three more weeks."
"It will be the best Christmas I've ever had," Lavender said, and her eyes started welling with approaching tears. "I'll miss you the most," she said in a choked voice. "You and Martha- and everyone…"
"Well we'll all write to you and maybe even visit you at some point." Rob figured it was probably time to get onto a less sensitive topic. "Did you send out your recommendations yet?"
Lavender pulled out another envelope; this one was sealed with a postage stamp on it. "Going to do that now."
Gia Mahan stood outside her locker after school was let out. She kept looking around, where was Stephanie? The two of them always met at their lockers after school was let out, but she was late. Steph was normally waiting for her. She picked up her phone and started typing a text out, "Dude whre r u?!" she pressed the send button.
She waited another minute, looking around at the passing students trying to spot her friend. Finally giving up, Gia slammed her locker shut and walked off.
Danny was in the process of vacuuming the couch in the front room. After that very stressful show, where he was humiliated on life television by the Johns python Shayla deciding that she would rather be around his neck then Johns. Danny understandably freaked out which caused Shayla to stress and start constricting. They spent the second half of the show with the train handlers pulling the snake off of him while John shouted at him to relax. On the plus side Mr. Strobridge said it was one of their best shows. After that horrible ordeal Danny came home and spent the last three hours relaxing himself by doing his favorite thing, cleaning.
He started with scrubbing the kitchen spotless then waxing the floors. Now he was just finishing up with the front room. Danny shoved the vacuum tube in-between the couch cushions when he detected the sound of the front door opening. He looked up to see his youngest daughter Michelle walk in.
"Hi Michelle," he greeted with a smile turning off the vacuum. "Where's Steph?"
Michelle closed the door behind her, and walked toward her father. She looked somewhat annoyed. "She never came to get me, so Denise's mom gave me a ride home," Michelle explained with a sigh, tossing her jacket and backpack onto the couch.
Stephen picked up the evidence bag containing a single necklace that hung a turquoise Neptune charm on the end of it, and tossed it into a box. Then he picked up a stack of crime scene photos. The top showed a woman with dark hair bleeding on top of a bed. The blood shown running from her neck showed that she was killed by a slash to the throat. He placed the stack in a file and put the file in the box. Linden sat in his desk chair pouring over the case file he was currently in the process of cleaning up. A lit cigarette was held in-between her index and middle finger. She had been staring at that file all day long bouncing idea's off of him while he packed everything up.
Linden turned a page of the report, and brought the end of the cigarette to her mouth and inhaled the fumes. Puffs of white smoke misted the air as she exhaled. "Savanna's last client before she was killed was Brandon Allborne," she suddenly spoke up.
"Yeah so?"
"He's on the city council board, did you question him?" Linden asked sounding almost as if she was accusing him to of forgetting something very crucial.
Stephen rolled his eyes with annoyance. She had been doing this all day long, pointing out obvious facts and practically accusing him of slacking off on his job. It's almost as if she thinks he can't do this job corrected without her babysitting him. "Yeah Linden, weeks ago. His alibi checked out, he was at City Hall the day she was killed." Linden didn't reply, it didn't even seem like she was listening anymore. "Damn Linden, your worse then a leech. Just give it up already, case is closed."
Linden gave him one of her all time famous looks, that said he had put his foot in it again. Stephen raised his hands in surrender, and went back to packing up the boxes, while Linden went back to reading the file. She extinguished the cigarette in his ashtray he kept on the desk, leaving it standing up in the ashes then moved her hand to change pages. However she accidently knocked over his pencil case making all his pens and pencil's roll onto the floor.
With a sigh she dived down under the desk to retrieve the fallen writing utensils. Stephen bent down and picked up a couple of pens that rolled his way and placed them back on the desk. Just as he was about to grab another evidence bag, Linden gave a yelp from under the desk. "Yo, you all right?" Holder asked then added with a grin, "You see a spider or something?"
"Holder, my hairs caught," Linden's voice replied followed by the sound of a soft wince. Stephen walked around the desk to look at her. Sure enough, Linden was kneeling on the ground with her ponytail tangled up in his broken drawer. He couldn't help but laugh out loud. That was freaking hilarious. "Shut up and help me!" Linden growled turning her head to glare at him but that ended with her scalp being pulled unpleasantly, which made her wince in pain.
Stephen squatted beside her and started untangling her hair. She winched in pain again. Unknown to both of them the door opened and Stephen's partner Josh Allen, who just a little younger then Stephen himself walked in. The only thing he could see was the top of Stephen's head behind the desk. "Ow!" Linden cried out when Stephen accidently pulled a couple hair strands from her scalp. "Would you be careful!"
"Relax I'm almost done," Stephen replied with a laugh, still finding this entire situation the funniest thing ever.
She continued to winch and gasp as he untangled her hair. "Ow, owowow," she gasped softly as her red locks finally came loose.
"Ok, done." Stephen announced and Linden sighed with relief.
They both got to there feet again, and finally noticed Allen standing frozen at the door looking uncomfortable. "S-Sorry, I'll leave you two alone," he said hastily and turned to leave the room.
"Get back here asshole!" Stephen called back to him while Linden flushed red.
Allen came back inside looking both embarrassed and amused. "Hey don't let me break it up," he smiled knowingly at Stephen.
Stephen rolled his eyes deciding to skip the explanation knowing that Allen was only teasing them, and went strait into introductions. "Linden this is my partner Josh Allen."
"Oh Linden!" Allen offered his hand and shook Linden's enthusiastically. "It's great to finally meet you. I've heard so much about you."
"Really?" Linden looked at Stephen with raised eyebrows, and Stephen massaged his eyes gently in aggravation.
Allen really needed to work on not talking too much. Seriously the guy was worse then he was at times. Stephen gave him a warning look telling him to stop talking now, and of course he persisted to be the same old idiot and continued. "Totally, ever since we've been partnered together, it's Linden this, and Linden that. He talks of nothing else. Even Carlson mentions you at times, you famous around here. I've been wondering when Holder was going to finally bring you around, when's the wedding?"
It was official, Josh Allen was soon going to be dead man. The glare Stephen gave him was enough to condemn him. But it was nothing compared to the look that Linden was giving Stephen. "Allen you are an idiot. We're not getting married, what the hell gave you that asswise idea?" he asked him outraged, hoping that he could kill Allen before Linden killed him.
"Oh…" Allen looked shocked and uncomfortable now. "Sorry, Its just… Well- h-he spoke about you so often; I just assumed you were dating. Look man I'm sorry," he raised his hands in surrender.
Stephen decided it was time to break the icy uncomfortable tension. "Yeah, whatever. What did you want Allen?" he asked.
"Um, Carlson has a new case for us," Allen said still looking uncomfortable and holding up a file. "Body was found in a back alley by dumpster."
"What?" Stephen was shocked. He hadn't even finished cleaning up the last case, and Carlson was already throwing another case at them. This was almost worse then working the Larsen case last year. He hadn't had a decent nights sleep in weeks, and was excited to sleep in an extra 4 or 5 hours tomorrow. That would never happen with a new case.
Allen nodded. "Yep. So we got to go."
A sigh escaped Stephen's lips. Duty called, "Sorry Linden, gotta go."
Linden nodded with understanding, closing Savanna's case file. "That's ok, I need to go pick up Jack anyway."
Well here's next chapter. Sorry it took so long, and sorry if its starting out kinda slow. Things should pick up once I'm finished with all the intoduction stuff. Also we should all give a moments of silence in rememberence of this amazing show that AMC cancelled. We can only hope that Fox is sucessful in finding another network to pick it up.
Character Ages
Danny Tanner – 39
Rebecca Donaldson Katsopolis – 33
Josh Allen – 27
Lt. Eric Carlson – 46
Pastor Robert Hardly – 54
Suspect Tracker (Who is your prime suspect?)
How to play: Simply pick who your prime suspect is with each chapter posted though review. Each time you pick the right suspect you'll be entered into my raffle. At the end of the story, I'll pick out a name and whoever's name I pick you will get a free story written by yours truly. Just like it was on the AMC website if they are not included on the list then there's no point in suspecting them. So both Linden and Holder are out. This game is optional of course. :)
Danny Tanner – The Father
Rebecca Katsopolis – The Aunt
Josh Allen – The New Partner
Lavender Hawthorn – The Christian
Robert Hardly – The Pastor
Jack Linden – Sarah's son
Eric Carlson – Stephan's boss
Gia Mahan – The best friend
