Early the next morning Sabrina, Bill, Bosley, and Julie had gathered in a conference room the hospital administrator had offered them for privacy, away from the press that had gathered outside the hospital. Charlie, Tiffany, Jill and Kris were on the speaker phone.
"How's Kelly?" Kris wanted to know.
"She is still in surgery. The doctors said they would let us know as soon as they are out" Bosley informed the group grimly.
"What did the doctor say before they went into surgery?" Kris pressed.
Sabrina looked down at her hands, she didn't want to tell Kris what the doctor's said, she wasn't sure she could without crying. Bill gently went over and squeezed Sabrina's shoulder.
"Julie, what is going on? Tell me something." Kris pleaded.
"The doctor gave her a 50-50 chance of making it through the surgery." Julie told Kris, looking at Sabrina in exasperation. Julie felt like Sabrina was trying to keep too much from Kris. Julie looked over at Sabrina and whispered, "She can handle it."
"What aren't you telling us?" Kris continued to press, "I can hear something in your voice Julie."
"One of the bullets hit her spine, so they aren't sure how much damage there is to her spinal cord." Julie continued, "She could be paralyzed."
"Are you saying she may not walk again?" Kris said weakly.
"No, she will NOT be paralyzed and she will be FINE." Sabrina stated emphatically with tears building up in her eyes. Bosley patted Sabrina's hand comfortingly. Sabrina gave Bosley a half hearted smile and wiped her tears away trying to regain her composure.
"Yes, Kris she could be paralyzed the doctor said it did not look good from the x-rays." Julie continued softly, ignoring Sabrina's look.
"Now, everybody just calm down there isn't any need to get upset until we know what's what. Kris we just have to keep good thoughts until we know otherwise" Bosley said trying to restore some order and calm everybody down. Sabrina shot a look at Julie to say quit making this worse. Julie looked back at Sabrina defiantly; don't tell me what to do her look said.
Bosley tried to change the topic and get everyone's mind off Kelly, "Let's talk through what we know about the case. We need to find out if this ends with Paolo or is there someone else out there."
"Bill, what have the police found out?" Charlie requested.
"We found Paolo shot in the back in Carl's study with a gun in his hand. We found Kelly shot twice, once in the shoulder and another one in her back, behind Carl's desk, also with a gun by her. Both weapons had been fired. Right now it looks like Paolo shot Kelly and when he turned to leave Kelly shot him in the back and he got off one more shot, hitting her again. We are running ballistics to verify who fired what shots."
"Kelly would never shoot anyone in the back!" Jill exclaimed.
"Now Jill, just calm down. Bill didn't say that is what happened, just that it could have happened that way. Maybe he turned as she fired, maybe he fell we won't know until Kelly wakes up and tells us what happened." Sabrina interrupted trying to head Jill off.
"The important question is where does that leave us?" Tiffany asked, "Do we know if Paolo killed Carl?"
"LAPD searched his hotel and found a rifle that matches the model that killed Carl. Forensics will have to verify if the rifle is the same." Bill continued.
"Julie, did you find any pictures of Paolo?" Charlie said.
"Yeah, Charlie I found several of him in the crowd outside the hotel, but nothing with a gun in his hand."
"If he was around the hotel entrance he could not have been across the street with a rifle." Tiffany stated, "So who was he working with?"
"Julie, can you tell when the pictures were taken? I mean what time they were taken?" Sabrina asks.
"No, I can get an idea from the people around him and the amount of activity but there isn't a time stamp on these pictures." Julie replied.
"So he could have left the crowd, killed Carl, and then came back to watch." Sabrina theorized.
Bill added, "I don't think so, that building was covered with officers right after the shots were fired, the shooter would have planned an escape route and been moving as soon as the last shot was fired to avoid the officers."
"Then we are back to Paolo and a shooter and we don't have a clue if they were working together or who else could have been there. Back to square 1!" Sabrina said pacing the room.
"Well, I don't think we are quite back at square 1, Sabrina. I think we need to go back to our original plan. Tiffany, what have you discovered?" Charlie said, getting everyone back on track.
"Well, Charlie, Carl was sponsoring 2 major bills one on drug smuggling and one on money laundering. Both were pretty ambitious."
"Ambitious – How?" Charlie broke in.
"They carried high fines and gave the justice department leeway to freeze accounts of foreign suspects and they added a lot of money to the border patrols in southern California, even created a special task force to investigate what Carl and some others believe is a connection between drugs smuggled into the US then the money is sent to Europe to be laundered and then back to Mexico."
"That sounds pretty serious; did Carl or his staff have any names to go with their suspicions?" Kris inquired.
"Yes, he did. The suspected European connection is a company called Solice International in Brussels. A man named Karlos Karazna runs it, very powerful, very reclusive; the feds don't have much on him."
"Wait a minute, Tiff. Did he have a nephew named Dino, killed in a racing accident about 7 years ago?" Jill asked.
"Umm, yeah he did. How did you know?" Tiffany asked.
"Sabrina, remember the case where Kris was kidnapped by Antone Karazna to get to me? This is just too spooky a connection to be a coincidence." Jill exclaimed.
"Yeah, I remember. The father who blamed you for his son's death and was going to kill Kris. Right?"
"That's the one. Do you think there could be a connection? I mean why kill Carl, when if he wants revenge he would come after me or Kris. I don't get why he would kill Carl. Does he even know the connection between Carl, Kelly and me and Kris?" Jill said lost in thought.
"Tiffany, who is the Mexican connection Carl, was looking into?" Charlie asked.
"Bartone, Charlie. Frank Bartone out of Mazatlan." Tiffany replied.
"Bartone, Bartone, that name sounds familiar." Sabrina said almost to herself.
"It should, it was one of the first cases you girls worked on after coming to work for Charlie. He was the drug dealer out of Mazatlan, that you three, I mean you, Kelly, and Jill tricked into coming back to the states so he could be arrested." Bosley reminded her.
"I remember that case; he was hiding the heroine in wine bottles and sending the bottles to the US on contracted planes." Jill added.
"Charlie, do you know how long he has he been out?" Sabrina prompted.
"I'm a head of you Sabrina. He was released in a prisoner exchange 4 years ago."
"But how would he know Paolo?" Tiffany asked.
"Charlie, check and see if Paolo was in the same prison." Sabrina requested.
"Sabrina, as always you are right. One, Paolo Donatelli was in the same prison the same time as Frank Bartone."
"Now what about Antone Karazna's men." Jill asked.
"Also there during that time." Charlie replied
"Ok, so we know that Paolo who was there when Carl was shot and at Kelly' house when she was shot, was in prison with Frank Bartone. Bartone has a grudge against Kelly, Sabrina and Jill. Also in this prison were Karazna's goons, who would have a grudge against Jill, Sabrina, Kelly, and me. Both of these men are under investigation by the government and would be harmed by legislation Carl was sponsoring." Kris summarized.
"Those are way too many coincidences for me." Tiffany said.
"Yeah, I don't like it either. Was all of this to stop the legislation, Carl sponsored or to get revenge on us or both." Sabrina said thoughtfully.
Julie always looking for the bottom line said, "How do we prove it and is it over? Do they have what they want?"
"I don't think it is over," Sabrina stated.
"Why?" Bosley said.
"Because if this was just about some legislation it would have stopped with Carl. Why try to kill Kelly?" Sabrina replied.
"Maybe because she was taking his senate seat. They were worried she would get the bill passed." Julie responded.
"Yes, but Kelly has not even said how she would vote or even if she would continue to sponsor the bill." Sabrina noted.
"You know criminals are not always so logical, maybe they didn't want to take a chance on how Kelly would vote and she gave them the opportunity by being alone." Julie replied.
"No, Kelly had a plan. Maybe, not a good plan, but she had a reason. She just needs to wake up and tell us what it was." Sabrina said defending her friend.
"Alright Angels, you are both right. We need to investigate this from both angles. Julie, I want you and Tiffany to go to Mexico and see what you can find out about what Frank Bartone has been up to. Jill, you and Kris go to Solice International and talk to Karlos Karazna, maybe he will feel so confident he will tip his hand. We need to know how they are operating. Bosley, I need you to…"
Charlie was interrupted by a knock at the door. "Hello, my name is Dr Janis. I just operated on your friend Kelly. I have some good news and some bad news, what do you want to hear first?"
8
