The Attack !REWRITE!
He couldn't do it.
Once the woman was laying on the concrete ground a large blood gash in the side her head, unconscious from the two times he had slammed her head into the ground of the parking garage of her work place, in the blind spot of the security camera, or from his hands around her throat till her skin turned nearly purple and she was unable to get enough oxygen to stay conscious. His eyes again got a glance of her visibly pregnant belly.
Jack lost all his nerve.
He couldn't kill a pregnant woman.
On orders from Rick Stetler who paid him $5000, once Aimee Caine was on the ground, he was supposed to stab her multiple times, making sure her baby was killed. Rick also ordered that to make sure Aimee was killed, to stab her through the heart and lungs. Jack picked up the large knife but just fast dropped it back on the ground and fled. He vomited looking back at the sight of what he had done. This time not taking care to be outside of the security cameras.
It was only moments before Aimee Caine was found. Horatio felt ill when he got the call. He couldn't even drive. Eric had him to the hospital in under seven minutes.
Aimee and the baby were in critical but stable condition. Aimee's skull was fractured in two places. She was still unconscious. The doctor wasn't sure when she would wake up. The CT scan didn't show any apparent brain damage. An ultrasound showed the twenty-two week fetus she carried was unharmed and the heartbeat was strong. Frank Tripp arrived at the hospital moments after Horatio had. He ordered Horatio to stay with his wife. The rest of the team would work the case. The image on the security camera was clear and facial recognition had matched the face of the man who had vomited in the view of the security camera to a man named Jack Lewis. The man had a criminal record in Georgia but not Florida. His address was listed in Dade County.
Horatio winced and chocked back tears, sitting down in a chair next to the bed where she lay. He watched the screens monitoring both his wife and unborn child, as well as Aimee's chest raise and fall. He grimaced at the nearly two inch gash on the side of her head. A slight bit of her hair shaved away so the wound could be stitched. Horatio silently begged his wife to open her eyes. He would stay at her side till then.
The news report sent rage though Julia and Rick.
Aimee Caine was not dead!
And even worse the report mentioned only head injuries, no stab wounds.
When Jack contacted them and stated he could go through fully with the attack, Julia couldn't believe what she heard.
"What do you mean you couldn't bring yourself to kill her?" She demanded. "We had a deal!"
The facial recognition, not to mean a DNA match to Jack Lewis and the vomit left on the scene gave them a prime suspect. The man's DNA was on file in Georgia. Now they had to find him. And that proved to be easy. Before the cops even rounded the corner to his living room, Jack was on the ground, his hands on the back of his head. Five thousand dollars wasn't worth it. He would "sing like a canary." All he would ask in return was protection from Rick Stetler.
Aimee was bought to the hospital at 5:02pm after being found by someone else worked in the building when he entered the parking garage. It was now 3:12am in the morning. From his groggy state, his head on the side of his wife's bed Horatio thought he heard a moan and felt Aimee's stir. Rising his head Horatio saw Aimee's eyes briefly flutter open
Aimee never did like hospitals, she had seen too much of them as a little girl and realizing where she was now, she began to panic. Horatio was quick ro soothe her.
"Sweetheart, look at me. It's okay, it's okay," Horatio said, holding his wife ;s face in his hands. "It's all right," he said as calm as he could.
Aimee's breathing slowed down. Then a thought occurred to her.
Their baby.
Horatio read the panic in her eyes.
"The baby is fine," he assured her. "Just as strong as mommy."
At the police station Jack told Ryan and Frank everything. He was in contact with Rick and some woman calling herself "Bree," through her cellphone. When they traced the number, it was a throw-away cellphone that appeared to be still active but as with all cellphones of that type, they could be recharged and minutes added but they weren't traceable.
"Rick said that the woman had to go 'cause her husband had taken too much from him," Jack said. "Bree said that the woman and her husband had "crossed the line" with her and both had to pay. The woman had to go," Jack quoted the woman as saying.
Rick hadn't shown up for work in a week. He never intended to return.
When Ryan and Frank, accompanied by two uniformed officers showed up at his home, Rick tried his best to act surprised. Julia was also found at the home. Equipped with a search warrant, they found a photo of Aimee. One that appeared that Aimee didn't know was being taken. It was taken when she was getting into her car in the driveway of her home. They also saw what looked like a weekly schedule of Aimee's work, in Rick's handwriting. Jack Lewis had copies of the same things.
"Care to explain this?" Ryan asked both, holding up the photo. "Most people don't keep photos of people they hate laying around the house."
Julia's only reply was to scoff and roll her eyes.
Both she and Rick were promptly arrested despite Rick's resistance.