Chapter 13

Sabrina had just stepped into her office when the phone rang.

"Sabrina Duncan." she answered.

"Bri, it's Jill. I just dropped off Kelly and now I'm going to get this film developed. Let's meet for lunch, I think I'll have it ready by then."

"Sounds good, Jill. 1:30 alright?"

"Perfect."

Sabrina hung up the phone and looked at the clock. It was eleven thirty.

How was she going to kill two more hours?

She paced up and down her office.

After a few minutes, she decided that pacing was doing nothing to ease her anxiousness. She was about to sit at her desk and jot down some notes when there was a soft knock on her door. Sabrina frowned, hoping it wouldn't be Peralta.

"Come in." she said quickly.

The door opened to reveal Tom's handsome face.

"Hey, just stopping by and decided to visit you." he started. "Can I come in?"

Sabrina smiled at him. "Sure, sure. Come on in."

Tom slipped inside and took a seat in front of her desk.

"Hey, sorry if I came on a little strong earlier. I didn't mean to chase you off like that."

Sabrina looked baffled for a moment and then realized what he was talking about. She had run off after Peralta and left him standing there right after he had asked her to a lunch date. That must have looked really bad.

"No, it wasn't you. I just remembered something I had to take care of." she explained quickly. Her excuse sounded fake to her ears, she could only imagine what Tom was thinking.

Tom nodded his head. "Oh, I see. Anyway, I just wanted to come and apologize because I felt like a real heel for putting you on the spot like that."

Sabrina sighed to herself. She hadn't wanted to hurt his feelings. She liked him.

"Well, don't feel bad. How about I let you buy me lunch sometime to make up for it." she joked, trying to salvage what she could of the situation.

Tom grinned at her, obviously relieved.

"What about today?" he asked hopefully.

Sabrina cursed to herself. Today wouldn't work. Damn you, Peralta.

"Sorry, I have lunch plans today. Maybe another day?"

Tom smiled, believing himself to have been blown off again.

"Sure, just let me know." he said good naturedly. He looked at his watch. "Well, I better get back to work. See you around." he said. He gave her an understanding smile and left her office.

Once her door was closed, Sabrina dropped her head down on her desk. Oh well, she thought to herself, there would be other, more convenient guys.
_______________________________________________________________________________

Kelly wearily pried her heavy eyelids open. She lay in confusion for a moment, wondering what had woken her.

The phone rang again, solving the mystery.

Kelly moaned. Was it already 4:30? She looked up at her alarm clock and squinted.

1:12

Why couldn't anyone just let her sleep?

She pushed herself up and groped blindly around her nightstand for the phone, knocking down the water glass that Jill had placed there earlier. Kelly cursed softly as she watched the water soak through her carpet in a dark spreading stain. The phone was still jangling loudly, making her head feel like it was going to split in two. She finally managed to pick it up.

"Hello?" she answered groggily into the wrong end of the phone. She realized her mistake, flipped it over and repeated herself.

"Kelly. Change of plan. I need you here. Come to the shack. Now." she heard Fred's voice snap at her. He hung up.

Kelly held the phone out and rested her head back on her pillow in disbelief. She hadn't been able to sleep very long. She felt like crying, she was so exhausted.

Her body screamed its protest as she sat up in bed, her head spinning with lack of sleep. She picked up the water glass that was on the floor. Jill must have left it after she had fallen asleep. She didn't even remember falling asleep after Jill had followed her inside and tucked her in. She must have been out immediately.

Grumbling to herself, she pulled on her jacket and shoes and staggered into the kitchen. There was a note taped on her counter in Jill's large loopy handwriting.

LUNCH FOR YOU IN THE FRIDGE IF YOU EVER WAKE UP.
LOVE, JILL

Kelly read the note, a puzzled look on her face. She opened the fridge and noticed a bowl covered with foil. She smiled to herself. Jill was so thoughtful. Looking around, she noticed her kitchen and living room had been cleaned. Touched, she set the note down on the counter and made a mental note to thank Jill the next time she saw her.

She plopped a few spoonfuls of the chicken salad Jill had made her onto a slice of bread and headed out the door.
__________________________________________________________________________________

At 1:15 Sabrina locked her office door and walked briskly out of the building and to her car. To her surprise, Jill was parked beside her.

"Hey!" she greeted breathlessly. "Take a look at these pictures."

Sabrina looked them over. They were damning indeed. Of course, he probably hadn't killed the kid himself. But it certainly wouldn't help him when he went to trial.

"Nice. Let's see him try to talk his way out of this." she said as she flipped through them.

She suddenly froze, her eyes wide open in shock.

"What?" Jill asked, looking over Sabrina's shoulder.

"That's Tom." Sabrina said in disbelief. "I work with him. He was with me right before I left. How the hell did he get there so fast?"

She thought for a moment. Peralta, even in his hurry hadn't taken the most direct route to the shipyards and she had gotten stuck at several lights. It was possible. The fact that Peralta had told Tom about a message suddenly jumped out at her, a glaringly obvious give away now that she knew the truth. That must have been his way of informing him.

She shook her head, completely blown away by Tom's involvement. He hadn't seemed at all suspicious.

"That guy?" Jill asked, pointing at him.

"Yeah, that's him."

"He's cute." Jill remarked casually. "I imagine he'll be popular in prison."

"I imagine so." Sabrina said slowly, still staring at his face. She shook her head and handed Jill the pictures.

Jill tucked them into her purse and started to get into Sabrina's car.

"C'mon. I'm hungry and you're driving." She settled herself in the passenger seat, buckled her seatbelt and looked impatiently at Sabrina.

Sabrina chuckled to herself and shook her head as she got in and started the car.

The two girls enjoyed a quiet lunch in a nearby cafe. They were tense and anxious about what would happen in a few hours and went over the plan a few times together. After eating, they left the restaurant and headed back to Sabrina's office. It was only 2:20. They still had some time to kill before meeting at the office.

Sabrina pulled into the spot next to Jill's car to let her out.

"So, I'll see you later then.' Jill said, getting out of the car.

Sabrina nodded. "Oh hey, how's Kelly doing?" she asked.

Jill laughed.

"I took her home and put her to bed. Poor kid was asleep before her head hit the pillow. I need to call her around 4:30 to wake her up for our meeting."

She tilted her head and looked at Sabrina.

"Hey, remind me to call her. You know how I forget."

Sabrina laughed. "Oh, trust me I kn-"

Her words were cut off with a shriek as a hail of bullets sprayed around them, shattering the peaceful quiet of their surroundings and pinging loudly against the metal of her car. She felt someone yank her to the ground.

"Bri!" she heard Jill scream in terror.

Jill had tackled her to the ground and was now dragging her behind the car. Sabrina recovered from her shock and scrambled to safety as bullets whizzed by, ricocheting off of the ground.

The two girls huddled together behind Sabrina's car, their arms instinctively thrown over their heads for protection.

After a moment the barrage of bullets stopped. The two girls heard the screeching of tires.

Sabrina lunged from behind the car, needing to see who had been shooting at them.

She saw a sleek, black car speeding away from them, tires squealing as it turned a sharp corner and disappeared from sight.

She turned back towards Jill, who still lay on the ground with her arms over her head.

"Jill!" she called to her, her voice shrill and frightened. "Are you alright?"

Jill lifted her arms and sat up, her chest heaving up and down and her breathing ragged.

"Yeah." she breathed, still panting. "I'm ok. Are you?"

Sabrina took a deep breath to steady herself.

"I'm ok." she said shakily.

The two girls rose to their feet, dazed and shaken by the unexpected attack.

"Who was that?" Jill asked finally.

Sabrina rested her head on the roof of her bullet ridden vehicle.

"I don't know, Jill" she admitted softly. She turned to look at her friend and was alarmed to see her gingerly wiping blood off of her forearm.

"Jill, you're hit!" she cried, springing forward and grabbing her friend's arm.

Jill gave her a forced smile and gently pulled her arm away.

"No, I'm not. I scraped myself on the pavement. It's fine, Bri." she explained.

Sabrina sighed in relief.

Jill had already been hurt. She didn't need to be put through anything else. Her mind flashed back to the frightening scene at Lisa Conrad's apartment.

She suddenly froze.

"Bri? What's wrong?" Jill asked in a worried voice.

Sabrina turned, her face tight in alarm.

"Jill, that car. That's the same car I saw when we were at Lisa's place. The one that picked up that guy I was chasing." she gushed excitedly.

Jill's blue eyes widened in shock.

"He knows who we are."

Sabrina cursed to herself.

"Do you think this is coincidence, or did he see us at the shipyards."

Jill moaned in despair. "I don't know. We need to call Kelly and let her know what happened. She needs to be careful."

She jerked the car door open and dialed Kelly's house number on Sabrina's car phone.

Her stomach knotted with dread when Kelly didn't answer.

She looked back up at Sabrina, fear etched on her face.

"She was pretty tired. Maybe the phone didn't wake her up." Sabrina said without conviction.

"I'm going to go check on her." Jill said tersely. She quickly got in her car. "Bri, go inside and stay in your office," she ordered.

Sabrina nodded and watched her drive away, hoping with all she had that Kelly had just slept through their call.

Still shaken from her near death, Sabrina walked back toward her building. With trembling hands she pushed open the double doors and walked inside. She headed for her office, then decided she was far too jittery and anxious to sit at her desk and pretend to do paperwork.

Instead, she roamed the hallways, avoiding people the best she could. After a few minutes, she found herself inside the break room. She walked inside and paced around for a few minutes. Coffee would be of no help to her nerves.

She spotted a bowl of peppermints in the middle of one of the tables and walked over to take one. As she unwrapped the candy and popped it into her mouth, she heard footsteps right outside.

She turned and her stomach did a flip as Tom walked into the room.

"Sabrina." he greeted her.

Sabrina swallowed her candy.

"Tom, how are you?" she said lightly. She hoped her voice held no trace of suspicion.

Or fear.

He smiled at her. His behavior didn't reveal anything sinister.

"I was actually hoping you could help me with something." he said smoothly, eyeing her for a reaction.

Sabrina opened her mouth to reply and then realized she didn't know what to say. She stood there for a few awkward seconds.

"Help you with what?" she stammered finally.

"I need some financial expertise." he answered. "It won't take long."

Sabrina shrugged. "Well, alright."

Tom smiled and extended his arm, which Sabrina took reluctantly.

They walked out of the break room and down the hallway together. As they neared Tom's office, Sabrina drifted to the right, towards his door. To her surprise, Tom didn't follow her. She turned to him with a puzzled look on her face.

"Oh, not in my office. In the file room." he said casually.

Sabrina felt an icy chill run up the back of her neck. She had a very bad feeling about this. Did he know that they were on to him? Or was he trying to get her alone for other reasons. If he didn't know, she didn't want to risk raising his suspicions. She racked her mind, trying to remember where the file room was.

They walked down the back stairs together, Sabrina growing more and more terrified as she realized how isolated this file room was. All too soon, they approached the file room door. It was behind the staircase and no one would be able to hear her scream if something happened.

She panicked and decided for a direct approach.

"Look, Tom, I'm really not that kind of girl." she said uneasily, pushing away from him. He held her arm tightly.

"What are you talking about, Sabrina?" he said innocently. With his free hand, he keyed open the door and swung it open.

"Ok, I'm going to have to take a rain check." she said firmly. She jerked her arm away from him.

To her surprise, he grabbed her again and yanked her towards him, holding her tightly against his chest.

"Oh no, Sabrina. We need to talk." he growled into her ear. Before she could react, he spun her into the file room and slammed the door shut, sealing them both inside.

Sabrina rammed her elbow backwards and was delighted to hear Tom grunt in pain. She broke free from his grip and backpedaled away from him as fast as she could. Tom looked up, his face contorted in rage.

"Where are those pictures, Sabrina?" he seethed, righting himself. He began stalking towards her.

Sabrina backed away and cursed softly. They had been seen.

"Are you some kind of undercover cop? Is that it?" Tom said slowly.

He took her continued silence as an admission.

"I knew you were up to something when you followed Peralta out of here like a damn bloodhound."

Sabrina felt her back hit the wall.. There was no where else to go. She raised her fists, ready to defend herself.

Tom laughed and reached out to grab her arm.

"What could you possibly do to m-"

He was cut off by a right hook to the face.

He roared in pain as Sabrina ducked around him. She sent another fist his way as he turned around, this one catching him in nose.

Tom fell to his knees, blood gushing from his now broken nose.

Sabrina shook out her fist in pain and ran towards the door. Tom dove towards her and caught her ankle, sending her off balance and to the floor.

She quickly rolled onto her back as Tom lunged towards her, trying but failing to kick him away. He yanked her up by the front of her suit and slapped her sharply across the face.

Dazed, Sabrina's next punch went too far right and missed him completely. She wouldn't get another chance. Tom took control of the situation by wrapping his hands around her throat. Sabrina gagged and choked as she slapped and clawed at his arms and face, desperately trying to free herself. It quickly became obvious that her feeble attacks were accomplishing nothing, so she looked around frantically for something to help her. Even through her pain and terror, her logical and strategic mind bombarded her with possible means of escape. Her right hand shot out and groped blindly around the floor, looking for a weapon and not finding one. Tom let out a triumphant laugh as he watched her thrash helplessly, thinking the fight over.

She turned her head to the left and spotted a heavy glass doorstop. Her heart jumped. If she could get to it, she might survive. There wasn't much time.

Tom continued his assault, squeezing tighter, pleased by the purplish shade her face was taking on.

"It's a shame I have to do this." he taunted her. "I honestly liked you. We could have had something together, me and you."

Sabrina strained her arm, her fingertips uselessly brushing the surface of the doorstop. She let out of strangled cry of anxious frustration. She felt herself losing consciousness. She had one last chance to get to it and if she didnt, it would all be over. Her vision was already starting to get fuzzy.

Sabrina's will to live was strong and with a grunt of effort, she bucked forward with her legs and was overjoyed to feel her hand gripping the cold glass of the doorstop.

With her strength ebbing, she gripped the cold glass firmly and aimed for Tom's head. She swung with all her might and smashed the weight into his temple. The impact made a dull thudding sound and Sabrina felt her weapon crack in two in her hands.

Tom bellowed in pain and rolled off of her, clutching his head, blood spurting through his fingers. He writhed in pain for a few moments, cursing and moaning in agony, made a few pathetic attempts to get up and then sank to the floor, unconscious.

Sabrina coughed and sputtered, gratefully sucking air into her burning lungs. Badly shaken, she backed up against the door, trembling and still clutching the broken doorstop tightly in her hand. After a few minutes, she willed herself to move. Their cover had been blown and they were all in danger.

She whipped off her belt and tightly tied Tom's hands behind his back. She reached down to check his pulse and was relieved that she hadn't killed him. Hopefully he would be out for awhile, though. She rooted around in his pockets and found a ring of keys. She flipped through them until she found the one marked file room.

Sabrina turned off the light and closed the door behind her. Before she left, she stuck the key in the door and taking a step back, kicked it hard, breaking the key inside the lock.

Goodbye, Tom, she thought to herself.

She ran back upstairs to her office with the intention of calling Jill. Right as her hand touched the phone, it rang. Sabrina jerked it up in agitation, intending to hang it up again to free the line, but stopped when she heard Jill's voice.

"Bri!" she heard her yell into the phone.

"Yeah, Jill." she answered breathlessly, her voice hoarse from being choked.

"Bri, Kelly isn't home and her car is gone. Do you think she's driving to the shipyards already?"

Sabrina felt her stomach drop. She swallowed hard, rubbing her throat with one hand. "We're busted, Jill. Tom tried to kill me."

Jill was silent for a moment. "What?! Are you al-"

"Jill, I need to call Kelly. Meet me at the office as soon as you can. They saw us together."

Jill hung up immediately. Sabrina hurriedly punched down the button on the receiver and dialed Kelly's car phone. She had to stop her from going to the shipyard. If her cover had been blown, there was a good chance that Kelly's had too.

Right outside of the isolated shack, Kelly took a deep breath and got out of her car. She had no idea what Fred wanted, but it was best to play her part. Determined by the thought that she would bring them all to justice tonight, she purposefully strode towards it

As she walked, her phone went off, ringing urgently inside her car, unheard and just a second too late.