Hey folks! Thanks again for all the reviews, your enthusiasm keeps me going :0). Just a couple more chapters to go so I'm going to try and get them up before I go on my hols. Thanks again all xxx
Doug had left Kelly and Sam to check out the rest of the room. He had followed Hanson and Mackenzie at a discreet distance until they had lost him in the crowd. He was now loitering around the hall trying his best to block out the chatter around him, especially anything to do with religion. He had wished constantly over the past few days that they hadn't placed him in a catholic school. It brought back too many memories of his not so dearly departed father. It was bad enough that he worked in a damn chapel. Still it wasn't anyones fault seeing as though he hadn't ever mentioned his parents to any of his partners. Doug Penhall could teach even Tom Hanson a few things about playing your cards close to your chest.
"Penhall?" came Ioki's paniced voice from across the room startling Doug from his thoughts.
"Harry? What are you doing here?"
"Where's Hanson?" Fuller asked urgently.
"I haven't seen him for a while, but he's around here somewhere."
"When did you last see him?"
"He was talking to Mackenzie, just like you said." he replied looking on nervously as Harry and Fuller exchanged a look of panic "What's wrong?"
"Mackenzie's not too bothered about what kids have downstairs." Harry said. "As long as they're young enough and have the right look"
"What are you talking about?" Doug said getting more confused by the second.
"Emily Carter's cousin…" Harry began.
"The other one Emily said was raped?" Doug interrupted.
"Emily's cousin is a 17 year old boy".
"A boy?!" Doug yelled in surprise
"Yeah. Skinny kid with dark hair and brown eyes."
"Just like Nikki and Emily" Doug said. His eyes widened as realisation hit him. "And Hanson!"
"Find Hanson!" Fuller said urgently
"That would be why they put him in an all girls school then." Doug said as he walked quickly beside Harry.
"Didn't count on him playing for both sides did they?" Harry said bitterly.
"I guess he's not in for such a shock after all." Doug said as he followed after his friend and commanding officer.
They came across Kelly talking with a small group of teens and Doug raced over to her closely followed by Fuller and Ioki. Sam had spotted the group from where he was stood only a short distance away and headed to over to see why these men seemed so worried.
"Kelly where's Tom?" Doug yelled as he approached the young girl.
"I don't know. I think I saw him go into the back room with Father Mackenzie."
"How long ago was this?" Fuller asked
"Are you cops too?" she asked looking at Fuller and Ioki
"How long?" Harry yelled
"I don't know, not too long ago why?" she said looking bewildered.
"Come on, it's this way." Doug said leading them towards the back of the hall. "I don't see what the panic is. He might be small but Tom can handle himself." he said as they reached the door leading to the small room at the back of the church hall.
"Mackenzie gets a little violent when people say no." Harry said coldly.
"I tried to tell you." Kelly said mournfully, "Tom too. None of you would listen." After briefly staring daggers at the girl Penhall threw open the door. His stomach lurched when he saw the room was completely empty.
"They're not here!" he yelled in frustration to his captain.
"Is there anywhere else in this place Mackenzie would take him to?" Fuller asked looking urgently at Kelly. She looked back at him helplessly.
"I don't know!"
"Think!" Doug snapped. Then on seeing the hurt on her face his voice softened. "Look, Tom's not just my partner, he's my best friend. Please think carefully. Is there anywhere else?"
"Hey back off her" Sam snapped.
"What are you doing here?" Doug asked as he noticed the young boy had joined them.
"I wasn't going to leave Kelly on her own".
"We're in a hurry here guys" Fuller pointed out.
"There can't be that many places they could go. This hall isn't that big." Harry said hopefully looking at his friend and commanding officer.
"Doug, you and Harry take Kelly and get her to show you every corner she knows in this place. You" he said grabbing Sam by the collar, "Are going to show me every possible way there is of getting out of here."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"What do you think you're doing?" Tom asked awkwardly as Mackenzie managed to back him into a corner. The older man didn't answer he just smiled as he looked Tom over, his eyes leering making the young officers skin crawl.
"Bit skinny, but you're much prettier than the last one" he said as he closed the distance between them once again. He was a good head taller than Hanson and definitely a few pounds heavier and seemed to have no trouble in blocking his attempt to get round him.
"Last one?" he asked nervously
"Yes. He had your eyes you know."
"I really should get those back one day" Tom said swallowing and trying to cover his panic.
"Sense of humour too." he said running his fingers over the bones of Hanson's face.
"That's enough" Tom spat and grabbed Mackenzie's hand and forcing it away.
"What are you going to do to stop me?" Mackenzie said his tone slightly amused.
"I'm a cop!" Tom said as calmly as he could.
"You kids and your fantasies." Mackenzie said, smiling down at him like an indulgent father.
"I'm 23 years old, I'm hardly a kid."
"I don't like liars" he said, his eyes flashing anger as one arm pinned Tom against the wall and the other hand roughly grabbed hold of his neck. Hanson began to reply but his words were cut off as Mackenzie's mouth closed over his. His eyes widened in shock and he turned his face away as quickly as he could, sudden neausea threathening to bring up the entire contents of his stomach.
"Liars make me angry." he said as he ran a finger over Hanson's bottom lip. Unable to move his arms Tom bit down hard on the priests finger causing him to yelp and back up just enough for Tom to get some distance between them. Mackenzie glared at him with what could only be described as mixture of lust and pure malice.
"I'm going have to teach you a lesson" he said. Catching Tom off guard he let fly with his fist knocking the younger man to the floor. "One you won't forget." he said as suddenly reached out, grabbed a handfull of Hanson's hair, and pinned smaller man face forward to the wall and placed his hands round his waist in a vicelike grip. Tom's stomach rolled once more as he felt something move where Mackenzie was pressed against his hip. He was pretty sure he didn't want to know what it was.
"Never had one as pretty as you" he whispered in the young mans ear sending cold shivers up his spine.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Hey there's Helen" Kelly yelled spotting the slim red head in the centre of her little group as usual. "She's being shadowing Tom for days, she must have seen him."
"Let's hope so" Harry said as he and Doug followed.
"Helen" Kelly said urgently, "Have you seen Tom?"
"Who?"
"Tamara. Tammy"
"Oh yeah she was walking somewhere with Father Mackenzie. I didn't really see where they went."
"Think, please it's important." Doug said.
"What's the problem? It's only Mackenzie."
"You know for someone's who's as nosey as you, you haven't got a clue." Kelly spat. "Where did they go?"
"I don't know. Back room?"
"You're fucking useless" Kelly said in frustration.
"I'm sure they'll turn up." Helen called brightly as they carried on their hunt.
"We checked the back room" Harry pointed out as Kelly started to lead them back.
"Not all of it." she answered.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Round here!" Sam said as he led Fuller round the building. "That's the window to the office. It's the only other exit apart from the front door."
"It's locked." Fuller said trying the warped and peeling window. "There's no back door or any other windows?"
"No. Only the windows in the roof. I don't think he'd get out that way."
"Probably not" Fuller said thoughtfully.
"You think they're still in there?"
"If they haven't left already they won't get out without us seeing them"
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I'm not going down there" Doug said looking into the darkness. "You go Iokage. You're small enough."
"It's not exactly a tight squeeze Penhall." Harry said impatiently. "Anyway there could be rats or anything down there. I'm not going."
"You guys are pathetic." Kelly spat. "I thought Tom was your friend."
"He is" they answered together. She glared daggers at Doug then let out a sigh and said "Right, I'll go."
"You're going to let a young girl go down there into who knows what by herself?" Harry said looking at Penhall. "You disgust me."
"Ok, out the way" Doug said as he began to climb down the steep stairs. There was pretty much nothing he wouldn't do for his partner and they all knew it. Which was why he was now heading down the steep stairs into pitch blackness. His face brushed against what could only have been the world's largest cobweb, made by the world's largest and most poisonous spider no doubt. He felt along the wall for a light switch and finally found one. He flicked on the switch and the stairway was flooded with light confirming his suspicions about the cobwebs. Letting out a shudder he drew his gun and headed down the stairs. The place was totally silent and all his senses were telling him that there was no one down there. Still better to be safe than sorry. As he reached the foot of the stairs he called out in a shakey voice.
"Hanson? You down here?" he hadn't expected an answer but still when there was no reply his heart sank. Where the hell was he? He decided to check around, visions flashing throug his mind, that he was too late and Tom was down here somewhere lying hurt or worse but all he could see was old dust covered boxes and disused gym equipment. It looked like there hadn't been anyone down here in years. A sudden movement past his leg startled him and let out a yelp as he jumped back against one of the boxes tipping it over. He jumped to his feet and found himself aiming a gun at a rather large rat.
"Great" he sighed as his heart beat raced. He turned to look at the box he'd knocked over and as he did so he noticed that this one wasn't as old as the others and there were a few bits of paper spilt out onto the dusty floor. He picked them up and went to put them back when he realised what they were. The bits of paper weren't the usual thin kind but the thicker higher quality sort used for photographs. He quickly looked through them. Some of the pictures were of the same girls and one really young looking boy, all skinny with dark hair. He carried on flicking through until he came across one that looked familiar. He had seen her talking to Hanson the day before. Emily Carter. He leafed through at least five of Emily until he came across the now familiar face of Nikki Stokely. These pictures had been taken at a distance with the subject having no idea that they were being photographed. There was more of Nikki than the rest of the kids put together, he must really have been obsessed with the girl. However as he looked closer he was shocked to see that half the pictures of Nikki were actually the face he had seen nearly everyday for the past two years. Mackenzie had pictures of every kid he had raped, he had followed them, photographed them and then eventually raped them. And now he had pictures of Tom Hanson. In a panic he stuffed the photos in his jacket and made to dash for the stairs, once again loosing his footing and knocking the box over spilling all its contents. Video tapes scattered across the dusty floor. He grabbed hold of a few and ran up the steps to where Harry and Kelly were waiting.
"Well?" Harry asked as Doug reached the top.
"He's not down there." Doug answered sounding worried and harassed. "I found these though" he said brandishing the video tapes and pulling out the photos and handing them to Kelly. "Recognise any of them?" he said with an ominous glare. Kelly rapidly looked through the photo's, Harry peering over her shoulder.
"That's Maria Stephenson, she was a senior the year I started. That's Emily Carter" she said starting to sound confused." These are the other girls he..." she stopped mid sentence and turned to look at Doug who simply nodded his head. She carried on leafing through. When she reached one in particular Harry put out a hand to stop her.
"That's the kid who came to the chapel." he said showing Doug the photo, Penhall noting the similarities between these kids. Kelly let out a choked sob bringing their attention back to her.
"That's Nikki" she said sadly, "These are all Nikki."
"Look closer" Doug said, his voice strained.
"Hey that's Hanson!" Harry said. "Has he been following him? Does he know he's a cop"? Doug looked back at his friend and the young girl in front of him who were staring at him with pale anxious faces.
"I don't know" Doug said helplessly
"We gotta move fast" Harry said voicing all their feelings.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Are you sure there's no other way out?" Fuller asked.
"Like what?"
"Like maybe a basement or an attic."
"There's a storage room under the hall, but the entrance to that is through the office". Sam said looking up at the imposing figure of Adam Fuller "You already looked there right?" he said as he noticed the older man's expression.
"We missed it" he said in frustration. "Let's hope the others checked it out." he said turning back towards the hall.
"How do you know all this?" Fuller asked suspiciously.
"Junior high didn't have a gym so they let us use the hall. All the gym equipment was stored down there. Junior high got a gym a couple of years back so no ones used it since" he replied. "They're over there" Sam pointed out as he saw Doug and the others weaving trough the crowd. "I don't see Tom though."
"Damn" Fuller said in frustration. He knew Hanson was quite capable of taking care of himself, but he couldn't stop thinking how small and fragile Hanson appeared. Obviously there was no issue when it came to the usual high school and college kids they had to deal with, but against a man who was both taller and more heavily built he wasn't so sure.
"Any luck?" Fuller asked breathlessly as he and Sam reached the others.
"No. We already searched the only other room in this place."
"Sam say's there's a basement under the office. Did you check it out?"
"Yep. No sign of anyone down there." Harry said.
"I did find these" Doug said handing his cargo to his commanding officer. Fuller looked at the photo's giving Doug an anxious glance.
"Any sign at all?" he asked. Doug just looked back and shook his head." Well the only way there is out of here is through the main door or the office window" Fuller said, "We block the exits and Mackenzie doesn't make it out of here without being seen."
"What about Hanson?" Harry asked.
"Hanson's a trained police officer, we'll just have to trust he can handle Mackenzie himself."
"What if he can't?" Kelly asked her eyes as wide as saucers.
Fuller looked back at the anxious faces surrounding him. He knew Doug hadn't bought a word of what he said. He knew that the same thoughts were going through the younger mans mind. Tom was a tough kid, there was no doubt about that. But there was a huge difference between being tough and having the strengh to fight off a larger attacker. After what Hanson had been through the last few months this was the last thing they needed. It seemed they had spent the last few months doing nothing but searching for Hanson. This led to flashes of images of finding Hason in a mental hospital pumped full of drugs, and how small and vunerable he had seemed as he and Hoffs had all but dragged him out of there. In fact after the events of the past few months he had begun to be seriously worried about Tom's state of mind. These were thoughts he really didn't need right now so he pushed them away and his eyes rested on Doug.
"We'll find him." he said as reasurringly as he could.
"If he touches one hair on Tom's head and I will tear him to pieces" Doug growled as he slammed his fist on the curtain covered wall. He stopped suddenly as his fist hit what could only be wood. After sharing wided eyed glances with the rest of the group he threw the material aside to reveal a door.
"Shhhh" Doug said harshly as he put his ear to the door. He could hear the sound of crashing and he was certain he could hear someone screaming on the other side and a wave of panic swept through his entire body.
"He's in there!" he said
"You sure?" Fuller asked hopefully
"Nowhere else in here they could be" Penhall said as he tried to push the door open.
"It's locked" he said in frustration. "Tom!" he called as he hammered on the door with all his strengh. "Hanson!"
When he got no answer he rammed full force into the door popping the hinges and the door flew open. As their eyes scanned the room they saw broken chairs and splintered wood and traces of blood on the floor. However when they finally saw thier friend relief washed over them in a giant wave. Hanson had everything under control. He looked a little worse for wear, his lip was cut, his face was grazed where he had been thrown against the wall and he may have a black eye before too long, but that was the worst of it. Mackenzie on the other hand was flat on the floor with the full weight of Hanson to keep him there and looked at the new arrivals with pleading eyes. Tom, however didn't notice the others come in despite the noise. He was too busy smashing Sean Mackenzie's face into the ground. The faces of everyone this man had hurt passed before Tom's eyes fueling his anger and disgust. Nikki, her mother, Emily. More than that he was furious that Mackenzie had made him feel weak and helpless. He was 23 years old and a trained police officer, yet Mackenzie had made him feel like that scared, helpless 16 year old boy sitting on the school steps watching the squad car pull up to bring his world crashing down. How dare he make him feel that. How dare he make anyone feel that. He had been frightened by MacKenzie's actions and he had been able to fight him off eventually. But those poor kids never stood a chance.
"How does it feel huh? Do you like being powerless and frightened?" he was yelling as he pulled Mackenzie's head back grabbing a handful of the older mans hair. "Are you deaf? I asked you a question?" he spat when Mackenzie didn't reply.
"No" Mackenzie said, his voice thick with the blood pouring from his mouth.
"Hanson, that's enough, you got him." Fuller said keeping his voice calm and reasonable.
"Oh it's not nearly enough, Captain. He deserves to suffer." he said finally acknowledging their presence. "This is how you made those kids feel. Not much fun on the other side is it?" Mackenzie whimpered and shook his head. "Look at you, you're pathetic. Not so tough against people your own size are you?"
"Come on man, it's over" Doug pleaded with his partner. "We'll make sure he gets what's coming to him." Tom looked up at his partner. Doug's face was a mixture of horror and disbelief as he looked at the mess that was Mackenzie's face. Sure Hanson had a temper, Doug knew that, but it looked like he'd completely lost it. Seeing the look on Doug's face, the anger left Tom's eyes and he looked down at Mackenzie with distaste.
"You're not worth it" he said letting Mackenzie's head fall to the floor. Doug rushed over to his partner and pulled him to his feet.
"You alright?" he asked as he looked Tom over.
"Never better" he said absently.
As Doug watched his friend regain his composure his expression turned from worry to amusement. Tom's wig was hanging off, his shirt was torn and flapping open and the skirt Judy had so carefully picked out for him that afternoon, he had hoisted unconsciously up to his hips so he could move easier. Doug let out a chuckle.
"Look at my girl" he said smiling, "So refined and ladylike." he finished as he pulled Tom into a bone crushing hug.
"About time you showed up for work" Tom smiled as the larger man released his hold.
"Need some help there honey?"
"No I got it." Tom said as he pulled Mackenzie to his feet. Before anyone knew what had happened Tom brought his knee up full force into Mackenzie's groin. He let out a loud yelp and crumpled to the floor.
"No means no" Tom spat "You're under arrest for the rape of Nikki Stokely and Emily Carter. You have the right to remain silent, blah blah blah!" he said pulling him up and handing him over to Fuller.
"You really are getting way too into this character" Doug said grinning and putting his arm round his friend. "And you're hardly his size."
"I've not had the best night Penhall, so unless you want to be next in line quit it."
"Well, you can't really blame him, you do look awfully pretty."
"What can I say, I'm irresistible" Tom said rolling his eyes. His smile quickly vanished as the reality of the situation and what may have happened hit him and he doubled up and proceeded to empty the entire contents of his stomach at Dougs feet.
"Tom what happened?" Doug asked concerned, suddenly worried as to how Hansons clothes got in that state. Breathing heavily Tom looked up at his partner shaking his head.
"Nothing. I'm ok, really."
"Come on. Let's get you outta here." he said as he pulled Tom to his feet. They both smiled weaky at Kelly and Sam as they reached the door, relief and gratitude evident on the teenage faces.
"We're going to need you guys to come and give us a statement" Doug said as they followed him and Hanson from the room.
"Sure, no problem" Kelly said. Then she turned shining eyes to Hanson. "Thank you"
"I would say it was my pleasure but ..." he began
"Hey!" Kelly interupted looking him square in the eyes. "I mean it." Doug smiled fondly at them before coughing uncomfortably.
"Well the hero needs to get out of here before I have to arrest him for indecent exposure."
"You wouldn't!"
"Try me." Doug replied grinning.
"You know if you were any kind of gentleman you'd at least give me your coat."
"Well it's cold and I'm not a gentleman."
"Damn my low self esteem!"