Barrel of a gun
Jenna heard a knock on the bathroom door and called out.
"Yes mom."
"Your dinner is ready I'll put it in the microwave so it stays warm." Jenna turned off the shower. She just wanted to get the smell of jail cell off her and warm up. The hot water had finally started to run out. She got out and dried off, she got into a pair of Hello Kitty pj pants that Anya and Karen got her and a black hoodie. She dried her hair and decided to ask her mother to do something she hadn't done in years. She grabbed the brush and some ponytail holders and went into the kitchen. Her mother was fussing in the kitchen, doing the dishes that Jenna had left in the sink yesterday.
"I was going to do those," said Jenna. Clarissa shook her head.
"I'm babying you, just deal with it." Jenna shook her head and held up the brush.
"Since I'm being babied, would you braid my hair, I have trouble doing it myself now that's so long." Jenna fingered it. "I should cut it, it gets in the way." Clarissa dried her hands and followed Jenna into the living room. Jenna sat down on the floor and Clarissa started brushing the waist long hair.
"It's pretty, don't cut it." She divided the hair into sections and started brushing the sections. "I don't think I've braided your hair since middle school. You got all grown up on me and wanted to do your hair yourself."
"I let you do my hair for my Quinceañera." She felt a hard tap on the back of her head.
"That was after we fought for nearly an hour about how it was going to be done." Jenna laughed.
"Yeah, I was a pain in the ass." Clarissa smiled and started braiding.
"But, you're my pain in the ass and my daughter and I suppose I can forgive you." They were quite for awhile; Clarissa finished the braid and patted Jenna on the head.
"All done."
"Mom…do you ever regret things?" Clarissa shook her head.
"Miele, I'm an old lady, I regret lots of things. You're not one them though." Jenna turned around and mocked glared.
"Gee thanks." She got serious. "I mean, do you wonder who you could have been if you hadn't met daddy? Do you think that you could have fallen in love with someone else, had a different life?" Clarissa kissed her only daughter on the forehead.
"I don't regret meeting your father; I regret that he died before he got to know you that he didn't get see how wonderful you and Frankie turned out, that he didn't get to met Karen and Anya. See miele, you don't regret meeting Greg. You regret that you didn't get a chance, you regret not knowing what could have been." Jenna frowned.
"I thought yelling at him would make me feel better, I thought slapping him would make me feel great…and it felt good to do both those things, for about five minutes. Now I feel like an ass."
"If it makes you feel better, I told him if he hurt you again I make him one sorry son of a bitch. I wanted to tell him that right after you got off the plane and you looked like you a zombie, I remember you came home and went right to your room and you cried for days. I hated that you were hurting so bad and that I couldn't make it go away."
Jenna put her head on her mother's lap. The two of them had always been closer than other mothers and daughters that Jenna had known growing up. Jenna figured it was because her father had died before her mother even knew that she was pregnant. Jenna's grandmother Sophia had always told her that she was a gift from her father, something for her mother to hold on to and keep her going. Her mother had always been very protective of her and that carried over even though Jenna was in her thirties.
"How can they make you want to love them and kill them all in the same thought?" asked Jenna.
"If I knew that, I would be filthy rich and women everywhere would call me their leader." Jenna laughed.
"So what's for dinner?"
"I made you French toast, with bacon and eggs in a little smiley face." Jenna looked at her.
"How old am I again?"
"You're always going to be five to me, so just get over it."
"Yes mommy!"
………………………………………
"Ok we have our vic's credit card at your drug bust, the question was how did the card get from our scene to your scene?" asked Grissom. The whole team was gathered in one of the conference rooms trying to piece their cases together. So far, they were all drawing a blank.
"One crazy dealer comes in looking for cash, gets spooked by the victim, kills her than robs her and leaves?" suggested Nick.
"But if he already killed her, why not go upstairs and look for cash?" asked Sara.
"Maybe he was freaked that an alarm was already going off because the door was already kicked in," said Catherine.
"That doesn't make sense though, if your worried about an alarm than why kill someone?" asked Greg.
"You're a moron, that's why," said Warrick.
"No arguing with that," said Nick.
"Well for a moron they sure have us chasing our tails. I'm hoping that Wendy's DNA report will give us something," said Catherine leaning back in a chair.
"Oh did someone say my name?" asked Wendy waving a file. "I got lots of results, should I start with good results, bad results, or weird results?"
"Start bad, end weird," said Warrick. Wendy opened her report.
"Ok Bad-Lots of the stuff just wasn't helpful, either too many contributors to get a get anything useable or their not in the system. However lot of it was male so maybe it can help in the future, I'll have something to compare. Good news- I was able to get one name in the system- Mikey Wolf, he has some priors for trafficking, possession, all your regular drug related charges. I have his last current address here." She handed the info to Catherine. "Ok your weird news, female DNA, unknown, matches the crystals found at the bakery and it matches a couple of bottles and baggies found at the drug bust." Wendy handed that report to Grissom. "Sorry there isn't more."
"Ok, so we know our killer is female, over half the people who work at that bakery are female, but we got everyone's DNA from the bakery so that rules out anyone from their," said Sara. Greg felt something click in the back of his mind, something that Sara said. Something wasn't right and he couldn't put his finger on it.
"Well, I'm going to pay a little late night visit to Mikey and see if we can charge his memory," said Warrick.
"I'll follow," said Catherine grabbing her jacket. Grissom left the room to talk to Brass about the recent developments. Nick looked at Greg.
"So, how's your face?"
"I'm lucky she didn't have something to throw at me, she always had really good aim."
"She threw something at you? When…do you have some weird pain fetish?" asked Nick.
"It was a long time ago, I said something really shitty to her and she threw a really hard plastic bouncy ball at me, hit me dead center in the back of the head. Surprised, I didn't suffer any brain damage."
"How the hell did you two end up together?" asked Nick.
"Well before I dumped her and before her ex fiancée stole almost ten thousand dollars from her bakery and she had to do god knows what to get it back, Jenna used to be a pleasant person. I have a feeling she's still a pleasant person when she's not being accused of murder and I'm not pissing her off. I read her letter, she wasn't getting married to screw me over, she thought we were done and well he was their." Greg handed Nick the letter. "Here read, I screwed over the one person who actually really cared about me." Nick took it and read it quickly.
"Damn G, she had it bad. What are you going to do?" asked Nick.
"Well I'm going to close this case and get out of her life like she asked me too." Nick blinked.
"You're giving up…where is Greg and what have you done with him?"
"She wants me gone, I giving what she wants. I couldn't give her what she wanted eight years ago, the least I can do is give her what she wants now."
"She doesn't want you gone and you don't want to go. The Greg I know never gives up or does what anyone tells him. If you start now, you're going to let her slip by again. She was pissed off and you were something to take it out on."
"Well she took it out good, I don't know man. You didn't see the look she gave me."
"Think about this, if she didn't care about you, why did she go through the effort of lying to Warrick to sneak into a hospital room to see you, she did that almost two years ago…she still has to feel something for you right?" Nick headed out and Greg sat their and started to hear that little voice in the back of his head nagging at him.
It's been lonely without her…she was our friend, she always knew us best, and she could make us laugh with a smile or a look. She loved us; it hasn't been like that with anyone since her. You remember don't you, how she felt, how sweet it was when she kissed you, when she fell asleep in our arms…yeah we've been happy, but think what we could of had…it's been eight years…you could have been married…wow that's a scary thought, want another one, kids. You could of had a family…Marv was right, you would look back someday and wonder why you pushed away something so good, the years you wasted being a stubborn asshole. No, your not going to do what she wants, you never have anyway why start now. You want her back, now stop being a whiny bitch and take a step forward.
Greg shook his head, god damn he hated that nagging voice in his head, but at least it was honest with him. He missed her, he missed her a lot over the years and the dumbest shit would make him miss her.
When he first came to the lab and heard Grissom explaining to Catherine that he was freezing some cockroaches for an experiment, he couldn't help but wonder why he and Jenna had never thought about freezing bugs and placing them in Barb's desk. When he started hiding porn around the lab, he could almost hear her voice from the time she dared him to hide porn in the office just to see what would happen. When he flunked his first proficiency, he wanted to someone to buy him a thing of peanut butter cups, a root beer and sit on a stair with him and listen to him bitch. He wanted her, but he kept pushing that want away.
Stop pushing…she's here now.
…………………………………………
Jenna and Clarissa finished dinner and Jenna caved and let her mother do dishes. Jenna went to make sure the guest room was set up for her mom when the phone started ringing. Jenna answered it.
"Hello."
"Well it's my favorite jail bird, it's good to see you got home and hopefully without bringing home a new friend or disease," said the female voice on the other end. Jenna sighed; it was her sister in law, Karen.
"How do you know I don't have a new friend, she was really sweet and gentle with me." Clarissa turned around and gave Jenna a puzzled look. "It's Karen and she's implying that I started playing for the other team while in my cell."
"Tell her to behave or else." Clarissa turned back to the dishes. Jenna took the cordless and headed to her room.
Karen was the closest thing she had to a big sister, the former Karen Cavanaugh of Chicago was the only girl in a family of six children and Jenna was her first sister. The two soon found themselves becoming thick as thieves and forming a solid friendship. Jenna was always telling Frankie that it he and Karen ever split up, that he would have to find a new sister because Karen would get her in the divorce.
"Are you ok? God, your mom called here in a rage when she was got held up in New York. Frankie got held up at O-Hara, but he should be coming in soon."
"Whoa what, Frankie's coming in?"
"Well he just called a little bit ago, something about a delay in Denver, but that he should be in Vegas later on tonight."
"Jesus, I'm fine." Jenna started pacing. "I got let go, they didn't find anything to hold me, or charge me with anything. Tell Frankie to get his ass home."
"No can do, I spoke to him about an hour ago via payphone, he forgot his cell like a jackass and is probably on a plane now. So…."
"So what?" asked Jenna.
"Your mom was quite irate about a certain CSI working your case, is it, he-who must-not-be-named?" asked Karen coyly.
"No, Lord Voldemort is not a CSI, thank god for small favors," said Jenna. Karen let out a noise of disgust.
"You know who I'm talking about! Come on, Jen…give me some gossip. Anya is asleep and you know I won't tell Frankie. Spill!" Jenna sat down on the bed and sighed.
"You're a horrible person."
"Makes you love me all the more." Jenna laughed and filled Karen in on the past week.
Karen is a horrible person, but at least she'll push you to do what you don't want to do.
May 2003
Las Vegas
"Ok and now we crack the egg into the bowl, like this…but without getting the shell in their. Now what is egg is Spanish?" asked Jenna holding Anya on her hip.
"Huevo," said the three year old proudly. Frankie had been trying to teach her Spanish and so far she seemed to be catching on quickly. Frankie, Karen and Anya were here for a visit, school let out early in Chicago and being teachers, Frankie and Karen were even more excited than their students to get summer vacation on. Frankie headed out early that day to go see some of the guys he knew from high school, Clarissa had offered to take Jenna's shift at the bakery and that left Karen, Jenna and Anya the house to themselves. Jenna was trying to teach Anya how to make cupcakes and Karen was watching the pair with amusement.
"Now we add the flour, that's two cups."
"Dos cups!" cried Anya sending Karen into a giggling fit. Jenna had to smile.
"That's right, dos cups. Ignore mommy she's being a meanie," said Jenna looking at Karen who had gone into full laughing mode.
"It's just so damn cute, I swear I just need to leave a video camera on you two." Jenna stuck her tongue out.
"We're making cupcakes and if mommy doesn't behave there won't be any for her. Isn't that right puff-a-lump?" asked Jenna. Anya nodded gravely.
"You know she's going to grow up someday and hate that nickname."
"It's not my fault that when she born she looked like a puffy lump. But, she's my puff-a-lump now," said Jenna tickling Anya, causing the little girl to giggle like her mother.
"You spoil her rotten, I don't what I'm going to do with her when we go home."
"It's my job has her Tia, to spoil her rotten, hyper her up on sugar, buy her needlessly loud toys and than send her home with you and Frankie. Isn't that right?"
"Sí," said Anya grinning. The pair finished the cupcakes and put them in the stove. Anya went off to go play with the swings outside and Jenna and Karen enjoying the quite.
"So what do you want to do after I finish frosting those?" asked Jenna.
"Shopping?"
"Not surprising," said Jenna flipping on the mini TV in the kitchen to an afternoon news show.
"Jury selection is slated to start in the Laci Peterson case, an explosion at the Las Vegas Crime Lab, may hurt several pending cases and what you can do to avoid the dreaded 'Summer cold' all of this plus your local weather coming up," said a very perky female announcer.
"Don't you love how chipper they sound when telling you about all the doom and gloom in the world? God I hope they hang that son of bitch out to dry, what kind of son of a bitch kills his pregnant wife?" asked Karen handing Jenna a mixing bowl.
"A son of bitch that's who." The pair finished cleaning the kitchen, Jenna poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down with Karen to watch the news.
"Our top story this afternoon, the lab explosion that happened at the Las Vegas Crime Lab, earlier this morning could have very serious consequences for several cases pending in Clark County."
"The explosion happened this morning around seven in the DNA portion of the building. A lab tech that has been identified as Greg Sanders was injured in the blast, but is in stable condition at this moment at Desert Palms…" Jenna dropped her coffee cup on the floor and she heard that shatter on the floor, but couldn't hear a word that the reporter said after that. Jenna felt like the world was closing in on her.
"Hey, Jen…Jen, you ok…"
Greg Sanders…no it can't be…he's in California…but…how many Greg Sanders work DNA in a crime lab?
"Hey, Jesus your whiter than a sheet! Jenna…
He always said that he didn't want to be in California forever, better lab equals better pay…it can't be him though…god is he ok?
"For Christ's sake, snap out of it." Karen grabbed her by the shoulders and gave her a good shake. Jenna felt the world coming back and she could hear the reporter droning on about summer colds and what meds to take.
"Shit, I'm sorry…I didn't mean to scare you like that." She noticed that her sister in laws face was just has white as hers and her eyes were filled with worry.
"What the hell brought that on?" Karen started picking up the broken coffee cup and cleaning up the coffee. "Do you know that guy from the lab or something?"
"Yeah, it's nothing though." Karen threw the broken cup in the trash.
"Nothing, doesn't make you freak out like that. You look like you just got over the flu, your all cold and clammy feeling too. Now spill, what the hell brought that on." Karen handed her a cup of water, Jenna took a sip, her mouth felt dry. Jenna, for the most part had kept her relationship all those years ago with Greg a secret from those here in Vegas.
She just felt that he was a different chapter in her life and that there was no need to bring up something that painful. Her mother had been quite about Jenna moving in with Greg, because she was old fashioned and the neighbors would talk and god knows what they would think. So the only people who knew were Jenna and her mother. Jenna took another sip and spilled everything to Karen. How they met, how crazy she had been for him, how he dumped her long distance, she didn't leave anything out. It took a good two hours, with an hour break to feed Anya, take out the cupcakes and frost them, than put Anya down for a nap. When Jenna was finished, Karen just stared at her and smiled.
"Well go get dressed, wrap up those cupcakes and go see him."
"What, no…I can't!"
"Why not?"
"Um, well…I think his wife would have something to say?"
"Do you know if he's married, maybe he's doing the single parent thing and that's why he moved to Vegas. From the way you describe that bitch I don't think Vegas was far enough, I think he should have moved to the East coast." Jenna frowned.
"And what am I going to say. 'Hi remember me, I'm the girl who you were supposedly in love with and who you broke up with in by far one of the shittiest break up tactics I've ever seen. How are you?"
"Yeah, just like that. Come on, it's pretty clear that you still care at least a little about his dumb ass or else you wouldn't have freaked out the way you did. I think it's time you got yourself some answers from him. Hell, you're friends with half the nursing staff their, tell them to cut off his pain meds until he gives you answers. Or at least take him a get better gift…show his dumb ass what's he's missing out on a good person." Jenna sighed and looked at the cupcakes.
"How do I explain who I am to the other people who might be their?"
"Just say you're me, use my maiden name. I don't think Vegas has a lot of Cavanaugh's running around. We were retarded and stayed in the cold weather areas." Jenna smiled and looked at Karen.
"I don't know what to say to him…it's been so long." Karen hugged her.
"Well you could start off with a hello."
Jenna walked into Desert Palms later on that afternoon, with a bakery box of the cupcakes, her and Karen agreed that it would be her cover to get in.
I swear she can talk you into the craziest shit sometimes. Jenna walked over to the check in desk and called over to Vanessa one of the older nurses on staff. Vanessa spotted Jenna and smiled, she walked around the front desk and gave her a hug.
"Oh it's so good to see you pumpkin. We've missed you and all the goodies you brought in. How's your mother, still healthy?"
"She's talking about going to Italy next year. I need a favor from you…a big one." Vanessa raised an eyebrow.
"How big?"
"I need to know the room number of Greg Sanders, the lab tech who got injured in that blast."
"Why?"
"He's an old friend…I just wanted to pay him a visit," Jenna held up the bakery box. Vanessa knew that there was more to the story, but she wasn't going to press it.
"I'm actually his call nurse and was heading up there to see if he was still out. Care to join me?" Jenna smiled.
"You are the best." Jenna took out a cupcake and handed it to her. Vanessa finished it in two bites.
"Still got the magic touch. This way," Jenna started following Vanessa down a hallway.
"So how bad was he hurt?" asked Jenna. Vanessa sighed.
"Poor baby, almost got hit head on with the blast. If he hadn't of turned around when he did, we be looking at face and chest burns not neck and back burns. He also went through a window so he'll have some scaring from that. The doctors hope to start him on skin grafts soon, but he'll always have the scars." Vanessa stopped outside a door. "I need to check his stats first, but after that you can see him." Jenna watched Vanessa through the window, she didn't see anyone but a male form lying in the bed. Vanessa was quick and quite. She went back out to Jenna.
"He's still out like a light, so don't expect much in the way of conversation." Jenna nodded and Vanessa gave her another hug and went to finish her rounds. Jenna took a deep breath and walked into the room.
You never know, this could be some other guy named Greg Sanders who works in a crime lab. Jenna walked over to the bed and almost gasped…it was Greg, no denying that. She felt a smile coming on; he always did look cute when he was sleeping. He had given up on trying to making his hair stay flat and it was sticking up in spikes all over the place and he had gone blond with little brown patches here and there. He looked a little thinner in the face, but it was him and she felt her temper rise slightly. She wanted to shake his ass wake and demand answers.
Why! Tell me why you end things with me, you stupid son of bitch. How long have you been living in Vegas? Just tell me why? Jenna couldn't find the heart to do it though, she looked at the IV with morphine drip and noticed the bandages on his neck and shoulder and felt the angry fade away.
Poor guy. Jenna sat the box down on the table next to the bedside and looked at Greg. She felt horribly nervous being here, god what was she thinking? Dana could walk in; his parents could stroll in and want to know why she was here.
I wonder who's taking care of your kid…god they would be five, I wonder if they take after you.
She went to touch him and found she just couldn't do it. She went to run a hand through his hair, something she had done countless times when they were together. She got an inch away from his head and jerked her hand back.
What the hell are you doing, you'll wake him up!
"Excuse me," whispered a man's voice. Jenna jumped and turned to look at him. It was a tall African American man with a modest afro. Jenna had no clue who he was, but she had a feeling she should get going.
"I'm sorry, I was just getting ready to go," said Jenna softly. She held up a white bakery box. "I just wanted to drop these off, I know hospital food sucks and yeah…" she had a feeling that this dude wasn't buying this and she really needed to get out of here before Greg woke up.
"Can I have one? I haven't eaten anything all day," she opened the box and handed him a cupcake; hoping it would buy her a way out of here.
"I didn't catch your name," he said.
"I'm Karen…Karen Cavanaugh." She shook his hand; she hoped she sounded more convincing than she was.
"You know Sanders? I work with him; I don't recall him ever mentioning a Karen." She nodded.
"We knew each other…a long time ago, back in college. I just heard about it on the news and wanted to make sure he's ok. And now that I know he is, I should be going." She went to leave the room and the man followed her.
"Do you want to leave him a message or anything for when he wakes up?"
"Nah, in fact it's best he not even know I was here, like I said…we knew each other a long time ago. I really don't even know why I came," she muttered this part to herself; she couldn't believe that she was dumb enough to come here.
"Just enjoy the cupcakes." She headed out and cursed her retardation all the way home.
We know he's going to be ok and that's all that really matters.
………………………………………….
"So what are you going to do now?" asked Karen.
"I don't know…move on. Get back to work; let him get back to his family. Go back to the way things were before our lives started fucking each other over again. I just want my life back," said Jenna sitting down on her bed, she noticed that the closet door was open. They must have been in her closet when they were searching the house, she than noticed that her box from Stanford had been moved and it worried her.
"Hey Karen, I'm getting kind of tired. Let me tell mom that Frankie is coming in and we'll talk later."
"Sure, I'll tell Anya you love her."
"Bye." Jenna hung up the phone and took the box down and looked in the box, the contents in the box had been moved. Jenna felt her heart sink; she took out the letters and counted them.
Thirty six, I sent him thirty six letters…there should be thirty six in the box…OH SON OF A FUCKING BITCH!!!! She counted again; there was only thirty five here. Oh god, they were Greg's friends, his co-workers…they must have found the box, but why take one of her letters? She was burning this damn box as soon as possible. She closed it and put it back in her closet and went downstairs to talk to her mother. Her mother was sitting on the sofa watching a Friends rerun.
"Hey, Frankie is on way into the airport. Do you think we can pick him up?"
"I'll get Frankie, you stay here and rest," said Clarissa. Jenna frowned.
"I'm fine…"
"Don't fight with me young lady. Just stay here and make up the sofa for your brother and get some rest. Oh by the way, Ofilia let herself in this morning and dropped off your purse, you left it in her car. I found it on the kitchen table."
"Good I was wondering where my cell phone went." Clarissa gave her daughter a hug.
"I love you sweet heart."
"I love you too." Clarissa headed out and Jenna fell on the sofa. She was thinking about burning that damn box right now, it would take her mother at least a good two hours to get Frankie. Jenna sighed and decided to make herself a cup of tea to take outside with her when she started the bon-fire. She put the kettle on and got out a mug when she heard her cell phone go off. She went over to the table to get her phone and dropped her purse and everything fell out.
Damn it. The phone kept ringing and Jenna was picking up the stuff she dropped. Wallet, keys, checkbook, and the crystal bracelet she had fixed for Lissa. Jenna went to pick everything up and felt something cold and round touch the back of her head and she heard a very defining click and she froze.
"Get up and turn around," said a voice. Jenna got up slowly and turned around to face Lissa pointing a gun at her.
"I really need that bracelet back."
…………………………………………
Greg and Nick were sitting in the observation room next to the interrogation room watching Warrick and Catherine question Mikey Wolf. Mikey was only twenty five but had quite a record in drug dealing. This was his third strike, so it really didn't matter what he said, he was going away.
"So did drug dealing become a bore, was murder more entertaining?" asked Warrick. Mikey held up his hands.
"Murder, hell no, I don't deal in that. If one of my people OD's that's their own damn fault for not knowing when to cut back. If you're going after me for that, are you guys gonna start going after fast food places for people who have heart attacks when they eat too many Big Mac's?"
"Wow and to think you missed a promising career as a lawyer. Sadly blunt force trauma is not the same has OD'ing. You have to physically do that yourself," Catherine showed him the photos of Linda with her head caved in.
"I don't know this bitch. If she owed someone money, they fucked up by killing her. Dead junkies don't buy," said Mikey.
"Maybe you took her payment in plastic," said Warrick showing him the credit card they recovered. Mikey looked at it and laughed.
"That was a present for me, someone owed me cash and they gave me this to hold me over."
"This someone have a name?" asked Catherine. Mikey shrugged.
"What do I get if I sing?"
"You avoid a needle, the chair, gas chamber, all those little unpleasant death sentences," said Catherine.
"This is your third strike, if we tie you to this murder it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when you walk that mile," said Warrick leaning back in the chair. Mikey shrugged.
"College girl gave it to me; she's been running up a tab getting perky pills from me. She gave me the plastic, thought it was her mom's."
"A name!" said Catherine.
"Lissa something, I don't know." Greg and Nick exchanged looks.
"But, we collected DNA from everyone their,' said Nick. Greg felt a sinking feeling.
"No…Lissa wasn't there that day, Jenna gave her the day off. She was on the phone with Lissa when we got there. We never got her DNA!" Nick looked like he had a light going off in his head.
"On the roof…Lissa asked Jenna about fixing a bracelet. We searched that house top to bottom and didn't find it!" Greg started to think.
"We didn't find it in the bakery or in her car…did you find a purse at the house?"
"No, did you?" asked Nick.
"No." Than he remembered that Ofilia told them that Jenna had ridden in her car, maybe she left it in Ofilia's car. Greg ran out the room and into the conference room where they left the case files and called the bakery.
"Torta dei dolci, this is Ofilia, how can I help you?"
"Listen this is Greg Sanders with the Crime Lab and this is really important…do you have Jenna's purse." He heard Ofilia mutter something in Spanish and she took on a pissy tone.
"God, you broke up with her. Why do you feel the need to keep fucking her over?"
"Listen to me, I'm trying to help her, she could be in real trouble right now and I'm not in the mood to take your bullshit, just answer the question, do you have Jenna's purse?" Something in his voice must have moved Ofilia and she answered his question.
"I had it, but I dropped it off at her house this morning."
Shit!!!!
"Is Lissa their?" Please god let her be their!
"No…she left earlier tonight. Why…" Greg hung up the cell phone and flipped through the files to find Jenna's cell phone number, he dialed it quickly and listened to the ringing on the other end. Greg headed back to find Nick and to get one of the SUV's he ran into Nick who jingled a pair of keys. The phone kept ringing while the pair made their way to the car.
"She's not answering," said Greg has it went to voice mail. He hit redial and got in the SUV. Nick peeled out the parking lot and hit the lights.
Come on baby, answer the phone. It picked up after the fifth ring.
"Hi mom." It was Jenna, but she sounded tense and forced, Greg was puzzled by the greeting.
"Jenna, it's me, is Lissa their?"
"Yes mom, you take the underpass all the way to the Strip and you just follow the Strip out of town, get on Route Five and the airport is three exits after that." Lissa was their and from the way Jenna was talking she was trying to buy time and make Lissa think she was on with her mom.
"Does she have a weapon?" Greg was dreading the answer.
"Yes mom, just stay on the underpass and you'll get to the airport in plenty of time." Oh fuck!
"Jen, listen just stay calm, we're on our way and we'll radio for some back up. Just try to stay on the line."
"I really tired right now," he heard that hint of fear in her voice. He thought he heard something in the background.
"I'm going to go make up the beds for you and Frankie and than I'm going to bed…I love you mom, tell Frankie I love him too okay."
"No damn it Jenna stay on the phone." Greg heard the dial tone and he threw the cell phone the floor.
"Lissa is their and from the sounds of it has a weapon." Nick radioed for back-up and checked his weapon and handed Greg his back-up piece.
"I know CSI 1 don't carry weapons, but you were trained right?" asked Nick. Greg nodded and tried to recall everything he could about arms training and hostage situations.
Please god let her be okay, please god…
………………………………………….
Jenna froze and looked at Lissa and the gun she still had the cell phone in her hand. She looked at the id screen and saw it read LVPD. She blinked, she must be seeing things in her panicked state.
"Who is it?" asked Lissa still pointing the gun at her head.
"My mom," Jenna answered. The ringing stopped and all that could be heard was the tea kettle starting to warm up and Jenna could hear her heart pounding in her chest.
Keep her talking…try to throw her off so we can try and get out of here! Jenna was having a fight or flight reaction, she thought about her family and friends and knew that she had to get out of this for them.
"How did you get in? I locked the doors before I left, they were all locked when I came home?" Lissa shrugged.
"Ofilia dropped off your purse and forgot to lock the backdoor. I was going to take the purse and run for it. But, you and your mom came home. I've been in the hall closet the whole time, I just wanted to get to the bracelet before the cops got it. They've been sniffing around you, I'm surprised that they let you go. They had your prints and I knew you wouldn't use me for an alibi….I was so dumb to wear that, you told me to stop wearing it remember." Jenna nodded.
"It's easy to lose a ring or other hand jewelry in a batter, we don't want people choking on your mood ring," said Jenna remembering the lecture her mother gave her years ago. Lissa nodded.
"I'm really sorry about this Jen."
"Why, tell me why?" The phone started ringing again.
"Who the fuck is that?" snapped Lissa. Jenna looked at the caller id and saw it read LVPD again.
Get someone over here to help!!!
"It's my mom again…she could be lost, she could be coming back. Just let me take the call. If I don't she'll keep calling and than she'll get worried that I didn't answer. She may even come back sooner. Just let me talk to her."
"Keep it short." Jenna answered the phone and prayed this worked.
"Hi mom." She tried to keep her voice light, like she was talking to her mother. Greg's voice was on the other end and Jenna knew if this wasn't so damn serious she would have appreciated the irony of it all.
It would figure he's the only one who can save our sorry ass and he told him to go away.
"Jenna, it's me, is Lissa their?" They finally must have figured something out to point them towards Lissa who was glaring at Jenna and tightening her grip on the gun.
Play this careful, or else we're screwed.
"Yes mom, you take the underpass all the way to the Strip and you just follow the Strip out of town, get on Route Five and the airport is three exits after that." God let him understand what I'm doing.
"Does she have a weapon?" Jenna almost laughed, it was like playing a prank and Jenna had a feeling that if anyone else had called her they wouldn't have been able to pull this off.
"Yes mom, just stay on the underpass and you'll get to the airport in plenty of time."
"Jen, listen just stay calm, we're on our way and we'll radio for some back up. Just try to stay on the line."
"Get off the fucking phone," hissed Lissa pointing the gun closer to Jenna's face. "Or else she's gonna hear your brains hit the wall." Jenna nodded.
"I really tired right now, I'm going to go make up the beds for you and Frankie and than I'm going to bed…I love you mom, tell Frankie I love him too okay." Please let him understand what I meant.
"No damn it Jenna stay on the phone." She hung up the phone and sat it down. Lissa moved the gun away from her face and relaxed slightly.
"Ok, now we're going to go down the road and to my car. From there we're going to the bank and you're going to get me some money and we'll see what happens from there."
"Is that what this is about…money?" asked Jenna. The kettle was starting to whistle.
"I didn't mean to kill that lady, she was just there. I just wanted make my parents happy with my grades and school, but I just couldn't keep up, you know. So I meet this guy and he tells me if I start taking these pills I can stay up for hours, get everything done and than some. So we start seeing each other, he had the pills and I had the cash. And they were great, I could stay up all night and study than come in and work and not feel tired at all."
"But he kept jacking up the price, I owe him almost six grand, I couldn't ask my parents, they would kill me. I knew you kept petty cash in your office, but there was no way I could do it without you noticing. So I thought if I faked a robbery, I could get the cash, insurance would pay you back and everything would be good. But that fucking bitch was their and I freaked out, I just grabbed the pin and kept hitting her." Jenna nodded.
"Sweetie if you just would have asked for the cash, we could have come up with something." Lissa let out a bitter laugh.
"Yeah right, I heard the stories about you and that guy you were supposed to marry. You dumped him over money…what would you have done with me?"
"I dumped him because instead of coming to me, talking to me and asking me for help, he went behind my back and stole from me, it was more than money that broke us up Lissa." Jenna had a feeling deep in her gut that Lissa was going to get the money from the bank and than kill her.
I'm not going to die, not like this. The kettle went into a full whistle and it startled Lissa. Jenna took that split second to pick up the mug she had planned to used and smacked Lissa upside the head with it. The mug shattered against her head and Jenna went for the door.
"Bitch," cried Lissa. Jenna got three steps when Lissa grabbed the braid that Clarissa had braided lovingly for her daughter and used it to slam Jenna's head into the stove. Jenna's world went black before she hit the floor.
I'm sorry…I was so dumb. I was just so lonely…
Writer notes-So did anyone figure out it was Lissa, before I wrote it. Oh well, I tried to keep people guessing.
Thanks for those who leave reviews-they encourage me to write faster.
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