"I know what you're going to say, I look different." Ronan began as he poured himself some sparkling water. "I lost about 70 pounds after the last time we met. Of course that kind of happens when you have your jaw wired shut for six months." He rounded the desk, sitting on it, bringing him uncomfortably close to her. Even being in the same room was uncomfortably close for her.
"Not that I'd recommend it as a diet plan, but I think I kind of look better now." He told her. "Maybe I'll thank the Colonel one day. He kind of did me a favour in the long run."
"How did you get this job?" She asked him. "What lunatic thought it was a good idea to leave you to watch over women?"
"Well I have you to thank for that." He responded in a small chuckle. "You see because you never made a complaint, there was no reason for the Department of Corrections to ignore my application. Given my spotless military record, I was an ideal candidate. To be honest, this is the best job I ever had. I should be thanking you for this change in career path."
Summer looked into her chest as a tear fell down her face. She knew that he was right. She had been weak back then. He had taken so much out of her back then that she couldn't face having it all dredged up again by going through a court case. Of course it was because of that she had ended up in this situation. There was no guarantee that he would have been convicted, but the accusation would have created doubt over his suitability for such a position. At least if she'd reported it there would have been an investigation into his conduct. As it stood right now though, she was surely in the worst possible position. She was an inmate in the prison he was now in charge of. He had control over her entire life.
Ronan came around behind her chair and stroked some hair from her face with his thumb, sending a shudder through her spine. She couldn't bear to be in the same room as him, much less have him touch her. She flinched away from him.
"Now, it doesn't have to be like that." He told her. "I can be quite a good friend to have in this situation."
"Don't touch me!" She warned him. "You're sick!"
"I might be sick, but I'm also in charge." He reminded her, placing his hands on her shoulders and rubbing them gently. "You know, you are in here for life. It all depends on you how easy that life is."
"I think I'd like to go back to my cell now." She responded, shrugging his hands off her shoulders. "I think I prefer it in there."
"Hey, I've got all the time in the world." He stated with a shrug. "So do you. Sergeant!"
One of the guard officers came into the room at that point. Ronan smiled at her insincerely.
"I think Ms. Landsdown needs to be taught a lesson in respect." He told the Sergeant. "Take her to the infirmary to get her wounds tended to, and then take her to the hole."
Summer looked at him, her eyes wide in a combination of disgust and fear. That didn't sound good. She knew that "the hole" was a solitary confinement unit used as a punishment for misbehaviour. Being separated from the general population would probably be a good thing, especially now that she had been involved in an altercation with some of the inmates, but that wasn't what worried her. Those units were small. VERY small. She had been shown one during training in case she was called on to work as a guard. There was barely room to sit in one, there was certainly no room to straighten out or stand up in. "Take her off work detail. Throw her in the hole for the night."
"You can't do that!" She shrieked, struggling against the guard dragging her away. "You can't..."
Her words were cut off as the guard hit her hard in the stomach with his night stick. She lay, curled up on the floor, wheezing loudly as she fought for breath. Ronan knelt on the floor beside her.
"This is my prison." He reminded her. "I can do whatever I want. Besides, I can't let prisoners get away with fighting on my watch. It makes me look like I'm not in control. I wouldn't want to look like I'm not good at my job now would I? Get her out of my office."
As they dragged her from the room, Ronan made his way back to his chair, and pressed a button on his intercom.
"Housekeeping, could you send someone to my office?" He asked them. "There's a blood stain on my floor."
He settled back into his chair with his feet up on his desk as he considered the fate that awaited the woman who had cost him his last job. In many ways, things could not be working out better for him. He had her right where he wanted her.
Meanwhile, Ziggy, Flynn and Dillon arrived at the recycling centre at the coordinates Ziggy had lifted from the phone records.
"Well at least it looks like the cleanup crew hasn't been through here recently." Flynn chirped a little cheerfully. "I'll start over here, Ziggy, you head over there. Dillon..."
Dillon didn't say anything, instead just dialling his cell phone. Ziggy came returned to his side carrying an old toaster.
"Dillon, the phone will be switched off." He reminded him.
"It's worth a shot." Dillon said with a shrug. "The GPS chip was still working."
"I told you, that would run on the battery's residual power; the phone doesn't need to be on to power that." Ziggy reminded him. "It's been a legal requirement in new cell phones since 2024."
"Well I'll give it a try." Dillon said sarcastically. "Unless you really want to spend the rest of the day digging through old cans and used diapers."
He dialled the last couple of numbers, at which a cell phone started ringing.
"It's coming from over here." Flynn stated, pulling on some latex gloves and rummaging through a nearby pile. He smiled and held it up, at which Dillon hung up. The phone stopped ringing immediately. "Fortunately for us it looks like our man was in a hurry to get rid of it."
"Now all we need to do is figure out how to find the guy who used it." Dillon replied.
"I think I know someone that can help us with that." Flynn said with a grin. "I happen to be dating someone from the forensics lab. It's only a few blocks from here."
"Well in the absence of a better plan, I say we go for it." Ziggy responded.
As Flynn turned, leading them down the path towards the lab, Ziggy leaned in towards Dillon with a cheeky smile.
"Flynn has a girlfriend?" He asked. "What do you think she's like?"
"We'll find out soon enough." Dillon replied. In truth he hadn't really given much thought to Flynn having a girlfriend. Right now, there was only one girl he was thinking about, and he was sure he was running out of time.
Summer was led from the infirmary back into the exercise yard after having her injuries tended to. She saw the tiny metal boxes at the other end that the guards were dragging her towards. As much as she wanted to fight, to try and stop them putting her into the cramped, claustrophobic boxes, she knew that it was pointless. It would only lead to the guards beating her again. As she arrived at the door to one of the boxes, one of the guards removed her handcuffs. She rubbed the feeling back into her wrists.
"Get in." He demanded. Summer slowly climbed into the box, becoming painfully aware of how little room there was in the punishment box. Despite not exactly being a huge person, she still couldn't straighten out her legs. As he closed the door, she felt like the world had collapsed. The only light entering the box came from the small crack around the edge of the door and the viewing hatch. "Are you comfortable yet?"
"I could do with a blanket." She responded sarcastically. The guard just laughed and slammed the viewing hatch shut, before pounding on the top of the box. Inside, the sound echoed and vibrated through her painfully. She clutched her ears to shut out the worst of it. As he stopped and left her, she began to panic. She felt like she could barely breathe in the cramped cell. She curled up into a ball on the floor, wrapping her arms around her head defensively and closed her eyes tightly, trying to think of something, ANYTHING to take her out of this place.
Her mind drifted back to the first time she met Dillon. She remembered seeing him climbing out of his car and recalled her helmet. She could see something in his eyes, a certain warmth that she just had to see up close. He was so much taller than her that she had no choice but to look up at him.
She had thanked him for saving her, a situation she hadn't been in since Colonel Truman had saved her from Ronan. At that moment, she felt a connection she couldn't deny. When the soldiers arrived and scanned him, finding his implants, she just had to do everything she could to return the favour. He had saved her, and she had to save him in return. He had already proven to her that he was one of the few men she could trust.
Over time, he had shown her more and more of himself that she liked. While he still had his doubts about himself due to how little he remembered about his life, she could see the goodness and the tenderness in his soul that she had come to admire, perhaps even love. Thinking about him gave her something it felt like she had lost long ago. It gave her hope.
Scott was sitting in his room back at The Garage, looking tearfully through some old photo albums. He hated to think what was happening to Summer. He knew as well as anyone that former soldiers and guards didn't tend to have easy lives in prison, and so he knew that for her, it had to be a thousand times worse.
He looked at a picture taken a little over two years previously, showing himself and Summer in each other's arms on the day they graduated from the military and air force academies respectively. He had known her most of his life, she had been the first girl he'd really been friends with. She had been at his apartment so many times before their Ranger days; she practically had her own room there. She was like a sister to him. That just made this whole situation worse.
He looked again to that picture. She was smiling so warmly and contentedly, and yet he had since found out what had happened to her. That picture could only have been taken a few months after she was attacked. He remembered Summer briefly staying in a hospital around that time, but both she and his father had always told him that it was an accident in training. It upset him to think that after everything they had been through together she wouldn't trust him with the truth about what had happened to her on that night. She was like a sister to him, and it hurt that he couldn't be there for her. It hurt even more to think that he didn't know. He turned as he heard a knock on the door a short way off.
"Things are pretty quiet downstairs." Colonel Truman announced as he arrived.
"The others are out." He replied.
"Probably violating my direct order to leave Summer's case alone I would imagine." He sighed, sitting on the bed with his son. He took the photo album from him and pointed to the picture of them on the day they graduated. "I'd have thought you'd have joined them."
"You told us not to." Scott replied stiffly. Colonel Truman looked at him a little disbelievingly.
"When's that ever stopped you?" He asked in response. "I can't be involved; I'm needed to keep things running at central control. I have to be seen to be handling this properly..."
"But you were counting on us to disobey you." Scott interrupted him.
"Summer means so much to you, I thought it would be instinct for you to help her." He commented. "So why aren't you?"
Scott snatched the photo album from his father, snapping it shut and throwing it aside. He rounded on his father with an annoyed look on his face.
"Why didn't you tell me?" He demanded angrily. He hadn't had a chance to speak to his dad since the court case. He hadn't talked to him since he had found out about Summer. "She's my best friend!"
"It was hard enough for her to get over the attack as it was." Colonel Truman replied. He took a deep breath as he relived the day in his mind. "She didn't stop crying for almost four hours. After that, she didn't talk for the first two days. She was completely heartbroken; Ronan had taken all of her confidence. It took all the strength I had in me to take care of her. She was completely humiliated by the whole thing, she felt like she had something to hide, so she made me promise I'd never tell anyone. She didn't want anyone to know what had happened."
"But I was like family to her..."
"She didn't want you to think any less of her. She didn't want you to feel like she couldn't stand up for herself." He told him sadly. He took off his glasses and looked into his eyes. "I told her she had nothing to worry about, but she thought you'd lose respect for her. She made me promise I wouldn't tell you. It's a promise I kept up until I was forced to during her trial."
"I can't believe she went through that alone." Scott said, wiping away a tear from his eyes. "I would have helped her."
"Well you couldn't back then, you didn't know." Colonel Truman stated. "Of course you can help her this time. If there is evidence, I'm sure you and the others will find it."
Scott nodded in understanding and got off the bed, making his way out the door.
"Where are you going?" Colonel Truman asked.
"I'm going to disobey a direct order." He replied as he left.
"That's my boy." Colonel Truman said under his breath as he put his glasses back on and left. He wished he could help Summer himself, but he knew that now the team was together on this, her fate was in good hands.
Flynn, Dillon and Ziggy arrived at the forensics lab. Flynn looked around briefly, before finding who he was looking for. A large smile crossed his face and he came over behind her. She was a little shorter than him, and long, dark hair. He arrived behind her and reached around her, covering her eyes.
"Guess who?" He asked her.
"Flynn!" She screeched, hopping with excitement and turning around, wrapping her arms around him and kissing him enthusiastically. Ziggy's jaw almost hit the floor as he saw her. She was a little pale, likely through working indoors so much, but she was very attractive. He didn't know what to expect, but since Flynn was the "grease monkey" of the group, he certainly hadn't expected anything like her.
"Guys, this is Sam. Sam, this is the guys I work with." He introduced her. She greeted each of them with a handshake and a kiss on the cheek.
"It's great to meet you all at last!" She said excitedly. "Flynn talks about you all the time. So to what do I owe the pleasure? You don't normally visit me at work."
"I'm afraid it's business Sam." Flynn told her. He handed over the cell phone. "I need you to tell me everything you can about this cell phone."
"I'll be back soon." She replied, making her way into the lab.
The door to Summer's punishment box was unlocked, and opened. She shielded her eyes with her hand as a torch was shone into her face, and she felt a sense of relief as the fresh, cool air rushed suddenly into the cell. Blinking a little to return her eyes to focus, she looked up to see Ronan kneeling by the door with a guard a short way behind him.
"Well, you've had a few hours in here." He reminded her. "Have you thought any more about your conduct?"
She couldn't say anything. She knew that speaking back to him would only be likely to cause him to torture her further.
"Now, are you ready to behave?" He asked her. "Will you play nicely with the other inmates?"
"Getting my ass kicked again isn't high on my 'to do' list." She responded weakly. He handed her a bottle of water, allowing her to take a drink. She quaffed it enthusiastically. She hadn't eaten or drank since before she had arrived at the prison, and thirst was quickly becoming an issue. He pulled the bottle away again, before shoving her back inside and slamming the door closed, locking it again. She began pounding on the door in her desperation to be released.
"Release her after breakfast service tomorrow back into general population." He instructed the guard. "We've almost broken her. She should be nice and receptive by then."
"Sir, by then she'll have missed dinner AND breakfast service." The guard reminded him. "She'll have been without food for 36 hours by then."
Ronan cast a little glance to the punishment box with a twisted grin.
"She'll live." He replied as he turned and left the yard. Mouse looked around; making sure no one was looking in the direction of the punishment boxes, and scurried out of her hiding place near the training equipment. While she couldn't unlock the door, she knew she could help Summer in one way. She slid open the viewing hatch.
"Summer, here." She beckoned her. She pulled out a small dinner roll that she had smuggled out of the mess hall from dinner, and shoved it through the hatch. "Sorry, it was all I could get."
Summer didn't care though; it may as well have been a thanksgiving roast with all the trimmings. Her stomach growled as she accepted the small gift.
"It's great, thanks Mouse." She replied, looking through the hatch. She could see the tiny woman's glasses had been hastily repaired with tape, and the right side of her face was badly swollen and bruised. "Listen, thanks for helping me out there. I was pretty much a goner."
"I couldn't just stand back and watch them kill you." Mouse replied nervously. "It's important to have friends in here. I know that better than anyone. I didn't have any until you came."
"Well you do now." Summer assured her. "I'm sorry you got hurt."
"Please, it wouldn't be the first time someone's beaten me up in here." She replied. "I'll try and smuggle something out of the breakfast service tomorrow. Check in your pillowcase when you get out of here."
"Thanks Mouse." Summer answered. "See you after work detail."
"What are you doing Mouse?" One of the guards asked her, coming over to her. "This prisoner's in solitary. You do understand the concept of solitary confinement don't you?"
"Sorry sir." She replied weakly, shrinking away from him nervously. "I didn't mean anything..."
"You know how much you enjoy solitary don't you Mouse?" He threatened her. "Would you like another stretch in the hole? I could arrange that."
"NO!" She shrieked in an obvious panic. "Please, anything but that!"
"Just get the hell out of here Mouse." He snapped. "If I see you near here again, you're going into one of them."
Mouse just ran from the yard as quickly as she could. The guard slammed shut the viewing hatch, once more shutting Summer into darkness. She immediately began wolfing down the dinner roll with gusto. It wasn't much, but it staved off the worst of her hunger, but more than that, it lifted her spirits by reminding her that she had something important to her survival in this place. She had a friend.
Back at the lab, Sam came back to them with the phone and a report she had compiled.
"OK, normally I wouldn't put in this much work pro bono, but since it's you I ran the works on this." She told them. "It's a pre-paid cell phone, so there's no contract to find the owner by. It was wiped off before it was disposed of, so there's no fingerprints on the casing, and with the exception of a call to 911, there's only one other number on it. A call received on it from four days ago. The number was withheld."
"So we've got nothing." Dillon groaned. "That was a waste of time!"
"I know you better than that Sam." Flynn chipped in. "What else do you know?"
"This model of phone is only sold in one store." She told them. "Only one was sold last week, it was a cash transaction."
"That still doesn't help us." Dillon responded. "How does it help us find out who made that call?"
"Fingerprints." She told him.
"I thought you said it was wiped down." Ziggy said, looking a little confused. Sam smiled at them.
"I said the CASING was wiped down." She corrected him. She clicked open the back and pulled out the battery, presenting it to them. "But we have a very clear thumb print on the battery."
"So we just need to find a match for the thumb print." Dillon said, allowing a smile to cross his lips.
"Actually there's no need for that. It matches a print on file." She informed him, pulling out a file with a photograph. "Stephen Walker."
"The barman?" Ziggy asked her. "He has a record?"
"He was arrested a year ago for buying contraband." She informed them.
"He was on duty the night of the murders." Dillon stated. "I think it's time we had a word with him."
"You're a legend as always Sam!" Flynn complimented her with a soft kiss. "I promise I'll make this worth your time."
"You better mister." She giggled. "Movies, on Friday as always?"
"You know it pet." He replied. "Right now, we need to go. I'll see you later."
As they were leaving, Ziggy came to Flynn's side with his mouth hanging open in amazement.
"How on earth did you end up with someone like her?" He asked him. "She's hot!"
"It's the accent boys." He responded. "Trust me, girls love the accent."