Undercover Disaster

Keiko Fujiwara

Chapter Ten:

Fire

~BEAUTY AND THE BEAST~

As Tess received a heaven-made back rub, she couldn't help but wonder where her partner was. Cat was already twenty minutes later than she said she'd be. Suddenly, she heard her cell phone going off and shooed the misuse away so she could answer it in private.

"Vargas."

"Tess, just wondering, has Cat arrived to the spas yet?" Evan asked with a shaky voice.

"No. She hasn't come by at all. Did something happen?" Tess asked, worried.

"Well, from what Vincent told me…it's nothing you're going to like." Evan replied.

"Spit it out Britboy!" Tess exclaimed as she sat up with a towel against her chest.

"Okay! Okay! Cat deliberately lied to us and went to investigate Thomas Gilmore on her own. She went to his suite and from what Vincent said, she found a body as well as two potential murder weapons. On her way back down to the main level of the building, her voice cut off and Vincent heard a huge crash through the phone. I think someone must have pushed her down the stairs."

"SHE DID WHAT?! Honestly!? Does she really want to lose her job!?"

"Tess, I think this is a highly different situation. After remembering everything that Cat has told us…her theories and all…I think she may be right about Thomas. I mean, remember how I didn't see Peter as the killer?"

"Where is she?!" Tess asked as she threw her bra and shirt back on.

"I don't know…Vincent went ahead to see if he could find where she fell. He'll start there and…"

Tess cut Evan off and said, "I'm on my way. Vincent doesn't have a gun so I'll call him to meet me there."

"Right." Evan replied, ending the call. Now it was his job to call Joe even if Cat gets in trouble, he couldn't let her lose her life.

He waited for the ringing to cut off and a voice answer the phone. "Bishop."

"Joe, it's me, Evan. We've got a situation." Evan said as he brushed back his hair.

"What kind of situation?"

"We have reason to believe Cat was kidnapped while on her way to the restrooms." He lied.

"Time of disappearance?"

"Roughly five minutes ago." Evan stated, looking at his watch.

"Thanks. I'll notify Thomas."

"No. I don't think that's a wise decision, Joe."

"And why the hell not? He can get the resort's security to help search for her." Joe said, his voice annoyed.

"Cat…and I have reason to believe Thomas Gilmore is our killer. He fits everything we've investigated. Cat was the only one to see it until she was kidnapped for it. Tess is on her way to the sight of disappearance as am I. I just thought you should know in case…in case your friend isn't as innocent as he claims to be." Evan said bravely as he started his way out of the deluxe suites.

"Thanks Evan for your honesty. Call me in one hour and give me a status report. Are we clear?"

"Crystal." Evan said. "I've got to go." Evan ended the call and started running towards the suites. Even if he's not Superman, he still can't afford to lose a friend.

~BEAUTY AND THE BEAST~

Catherine slowly opened her eyes and felt her head throbbing in pain. As she tried to touch it, her eyes widened. She couldn't move her limbs. She opened her eyes to assess her surroundings and groaned. There was one small light emitting above her—a candle on the wall. She felt shackles wrapped around her wrists and her ankles, keeping her locked into a prostrate position.

"I see you've awakened." A voice echoed through the darkness.

"Who are you!?" Catherine demanded.

A figure stepped into the light and smirked, "Are you surprised?"

"I've suspected you all along." Catherine replied. "Hasn't your mother ever told you to never keep a woman's hands tied?"

"I'm afraid she didn't. Anyways, it won't matter anyway. You'll soon be dead."

Catherine felt fear inside her stomach but brushed it off. She had to be strong for Vincent. "Even if I die, my coworkers will know it was you. You see, before you shoved me down the stairs, I told my boyfriend everything I saw in your suite."

"Oh? You mean the suite that is burning down as we speak?" he laughed. "Honestly, you're going to have to do much better than that Catherine Chandler."

Catherine mentally cursed as she tried squirming against her shackles only to feel a burning sensation against her skin, causing her to wince in pain.

"Do you like my torture table? I invented it myself. You see, the more you struggle, the more you'll burn your skin off. These shackles have motion sensors so if ever you squirm to free yourself, the iron will overheat."

"I've gone through worse." She spat as she lied through her teeth. Sure, she's gone through worse emotional pain but physical? Despite what this psycho wants to do, she knew Muirfield would have done worse if she were ever captured by them. "My boyfriend will come for me!"

"Who? Vincent Zalanski? I highly doubt it. You are 200 feet below ground with only one way in and one way out. Even if he tries to get down here, I'll kill him before he can save you." Thomas smirked. "But first, let's put your strength to the test, shall we?"

"Hit me with your best shot." She stated boldly. In all honesty, if he was planning on killing her, she wished he would just do it quickly. But she knew that wouldn't happen.

"We'll put that off for a bit." He replied as he turned away for a brief moment and whipped out a pair of scissors. "First and foremost, all clothing must disappear. We wouldn't want them to protect you, now would we?"

"You're a sick bastard!" Catherine shouted as she felt a cold dull blade run along her hip as he sliced through her dress. While her dress, slip, panties and bra fell to the ground, Thomas marveled at her body.

"What a beauty you are." He smiled. "This is going to be fun for sure."

~BEAUTY AND THE BEAST~

As Vincent made his way to the stairs, Tess called after him. "Vincent! Wait up!"

"I don't have time to wait, Tess." Vincent replied, not stopping.

"Just hold up a sec! You don't have a gun so you aren't qualified to save Catherine." Tess stated as she continued following him.

"I don't need a gun. I have my own defense." Vincent said while stopping suddenly. He saw Catherine's phone a few steps in front of him. As he got closer, he noticed her phone was smashed to bits and pieces. 'Damn!' Suddenly, he said, "This was where she landed when she fell."

"How can you tell?"

"Her phone." He replied. "Do you smell something burning?"

"No. Why?" But as she looked up to see what he would say, he was already three flights ahead of her as he continued running up the stairs. 'Damn! He's fast!'

Vincent smelled smoke coming from the top floor of the building. As he approached the room of the source, he felt the door and it was extremely hot. "TESS!" he yelled. "CALL 911! THERE'S A FIRE!"

"On it!" she hollered back. He kicked down the door and could see the flames engulfing the entire suite. Without thinking, he rushed in so he could find the blades Catherine was talking about. As fast as he could, he went from room to room until he found a room with burning medieval equipment. There were too many weapons and so little time to look for them. He trusted Catherine and he remembered she said something about swabbing them. Hopefully that'll be enough to peg Thomas. He ran to the master bedroom and looked under the bed. Luckily the flames haven't reached the body under the bed yet. He pulled her out and carried her over his back as he forced his way out of the flaming suite. Tess saw him come out of the room and shouted, "What the hell were you thinking?!"

"Catherine called me earlier…before she was kidnapped. She told me there was a body lying underneath the master bedroom's bed. I pulled her out in case her body may be useful for the investigation. The murder weapons are in there too but I don't know which ones they are. There is too many of them and so little time to find them. Catherine did say she took swabs of each blade, hoping to find DNA."

"Well, we have to find her first." Tess replied. "We first have to find a fast way to evacuate the guests on this floor."

"That'll be easy." Vincent stated. He took a large breath and yelled as loud as possible, "FIIIIRRRRRREEEEEE!"

In seconds, there were people scattering in the hallway and rushing down the stairs. Vincent and Tess followed suit, making their way to the bottom of the building and meeting Evan along the way.

"Who is the Jane Doe?" Evan asked as he saw Vincent carrying a lifeless woman.

"She's Thomas Gilmore's wife." Vincent replied. "I grabbed her out of the burning suite in case her body could be useful towards investigation."

"Smart move." Evan smiled. "Now, where do you think Thomas would have taken Cat?"

"I don't know." Tess replied. "I'm going to call Wolansky and Philmore. We may need their help."

As she walked away, Evan whispered to Vincent, "So….can you sniff her out?"

"I'm not a bloodhound, Evan."

"Well, what CAN you do?" Evan asked as he continued whispering.

"Shhhhh….I need to focus." Vincent said, closing his eyes. Of all of the people around him, he tried finding Catherine's heartbeat. A few seconds pass and he can hear one very familiar heartbeat—one that beats whenever its owner is in trouble. He didn't realize that Tess had joined him and Evan as he said, "I can hear her heartbeat. It's very faint but we need to go underground. It's coming from below us."

As he opened his eyes, Tess gave him a weird look. "You can hear her heartbeat?"

"Ummm…yeah…"

"I'm guessing that's a story for another day?" Tess asked, knowing they were pressing for time.

"Yeah." 'Great, JT is going to kill me.' Vincent ran to the receptionist and said, "Excuse me! Are there any levels underneath this floor?"

"Well, not of the building…but, If I remember correctly, to the west side of the building, there's a cellar door that leads to an unfinished tunnel under Greenbrier. Why?" the woman asked.

"No reason. Just curious for its history." Vincent lied, making his way back to Tess and Evan. "Let's go."

"Right." Evan and Tess agreed. As they were running towards the cellar doors, Vincent's phone rang. He dug it out of his pocket and answered it.

"Got anything for me, JT?"

"Yeah…actually I do." JT replied.

"Okay…I'm gonna put you on speaker really quickly. There are cops that are going to want to hear this." Vincent said, as he stopped dead in his tracks.

"Alright…well, Thomas and Zachary used to be roommates in college. Zachary majored in business and Thomas majored management with a minor in medieval weapon studies."

"I didn't even know they taught classes like that." Evan stated, throwing JT off guard.

"Wait! You brought Birthday Boy into this conversation?!" JT exclaimed. "A little WARNING might have been nice."

"Birthday boy?" Evan looked confused but Tess whispered, "Not now."

"Anyways, JT, continue." Vincent said. "We're kind of limited on time so the faster you tell us what you've found, the better."

"Okay…well…how do I say this? Zachary and Thomas were both offered CEO positions for Greenbrier and for several years, they partnered for it. Then, Zachary left because he wanted to focus more on his family. Anyhoo, I spoke with Zachary's brother, Charles, on the phone and he told me Zachary mentioned some things to him in case things go south. Charles said that Zachary found out that Thomas was hiring illegal immigrants and paying them as little as possible so he didn't have to pay them minimum wage. When Zachary confronted Thomas about this, Thomas told him that if he ever said anything, there would be hell to pay. A week later, they received an invitation to go and visit Greenbrier for a 7 day spa retreat. Since Zachary couldn't exactly tell his family it wasn't a good idea to go there, they went. And, well, the rest is history." JT replied.

"Thanks, man. I owe one. Gotta go. Bye." Vincent ended the call before JT could gloat about his amazing research skills and continued running again. "So that explains all of the medieval weaponry found in his suite."

"Yeah…no kidding." Tess replied, even though she didn't see the weapon room.

"If Thomas minored in medieval weaponry studies, he was probably taught on how to use them as well. That would explain why I didn't think he was the killer before. I didn't think he would have the proper training." Evan said. "I see the cellar!"

"Good. Let's go!" Vincent shouted, and the three of them slightly picked up their pace.

Keiko Fujiwara:

Here's more to fill the void from the last chapter!

Consider this and the last chapter as one chapter. :)

Hope you're liking the suspense!