Trifecta

Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly

A/N:

Chapter 16 (A Regular Gumshoe)

"Have you seen this girl?" Freddie showed the hotel manager a photo of Sam, expecting the man to have seen her running through. When the man shook his head, Freddie's heart sank a bit.

A woman nearby leaned over and Freddie waited as she studied the picture. "Hey, that's the girl that ran into me. I was about to lodge a complaint." Freddie turned to the woman and scratched his chin. "About an hour ago she ran out of the hotel room and practically shoved me aside to get the elevator."

"She was in a hurry, then?" The woman fidgeted with a floral arrangement on her hat, then exhaled sharply. "Was she meeting anybody at the time?"

"No. Why?"

"She's missing." The woman's mouth formed an oval and her eyes darted to a nearby busboy. Freddie followed her gaze and the short man waved to him.

"He was in the elevator at the time, I think. You could ask him for information."

"Thank you." Freddie hurried to the man and showed him the photo. "Have you seen this girl?" As the man studied the photo a wrinkle formed between his eyebrows and the corners of his lips sank down.

"I have. She was frantic on the elevator, saying how she needed to get down to the warehouse district." The man raised an eyebrow and looked up to Freddie. "I don't see why anyone would wanna go there. It hasn't been touched since the police cleared out the criminals some time ago."

Freddie thanked the man and started for the front door, breathing a slow intake of air. "There's always some dirt left over for a bug to come crawling out. You can never truly be rid of the mob." Clearly Nora's push to revive it was proof that even the lowest scum could rise up, but if Freddie nipped it in the bud now, there was less chance of the Seattle Mafia coming back powerful. "I guess I ought to avenge my father in the process of getting Sam out of there."

At this point he didn't know what they wanted with her. All things considered, Sam had nothing to do with the mob, but neither did Carly. Perhaps Nora had been making promises she wasn't about to keep."

En route to the warehouse district, Freddie made a few phone calls to the police. There'd been a voice in the back of his head telling him not to make the same mistake as his father, not to go in without knowing the cops were on their way.

Still, he wasn't going to wait for them to show. His blood already boiled from the thoughts of what the group might have done to Sam, and he didn't want to give them any further chance to harm her.

"Which warehouse is it, though?" He couldn't remember the warehouse he found in Nevel's notes, and there were at least three or four warehouses for him to check. "If only I had a better clue."

He parked alongside a curb and stared outside. His elbow hung loosely as he studied the ground. A nearby patch of grass was covered in overgrown weeds, but amid this chaotic state was a small trail of grass that had been pressed down.

On a hunch, Freddie pushed open the door and walked towards the grass. Each spot that had been pressed down was round and long, resembling that of a shoe print. He stood upright and looked straight across, using his hand as a visor to block the sunlight from his eyes.

There was a slight chance these footprints belonged to Sam, or one of the three he was tailing. This left him torn between whether to follow or look elsewhere. "Footprints are better than nothing. Sam could have tracked through the grass, but if she was in a haste, I'm not sure she would have done so on purpose."

The impressions were spaced about two feet apart, significant for a runner or someone with a wide stride. "I wonder if I could find tire treads, she would have had to come by way of a taxi." It would certainly help him decide which warehouse she might have gone to.

As he crossed the pathway, he heard a metallic rustling nearby and for a moment regretted not bringing some sort of protection. When he saw a homeless man digging through a trashcan, his body relaxed and he turned his mouth up to a smile.

"Thought you were someone else, sir." The man shot up and turned to him, his eyes widened and he began trembling. "Are you alright?"

"Just not used to all the people in this part of town," the man replied with a lisp in his voice and heavy emphasis on the letter 'S'. "First those three people always driving through town, then that pretty dame, and now you. This here's my territory!" He furrowed his brow and focused on the people the man spoke of. If lucky, he may have seen Sam come by.

"Dame? Can you describe her? You don't see many people, I take." The man struggled to straighten his hunched figure and quickly scratched his head.

"She was about your height, had long blonde hair and was running through the streets like a bat from hell." Instinctively, Freddie removed the photo and showed it to the man. The man scratched at his chin, then at the stubble on his left cheek. "Yeah that's her. Didn't know what a looker like her was doing in these here parts, maybe belongs to that strange guy."

"What do you mean?"

"One of the ones coming in here is always bringing these women with him, but they're usually hanging on him like they got nothin' better to do."

"Yeah." He pocketed the photo and rolled his tongue along the ridges on the roof of his mouth. "Some of them probably don't."

"You don't suppose that girl runnin' through here was with him, do you?"

"No sir. That man is dangerous. The girl is missing, and he may have taken her." The man's eyebrows rose and Freddie looked towards a warehouse in the distance. "I need to know if you've seen what building she might have gone in."

"I may have." The man leaned against the trashcan, propping his elbow over the edge and curving up his lips. "What do I get for tellin' you?" Freddie pulled his wallet out with a heavy sigh and flattened his mouth into a line across his face. He had little time for these shenanigans.

"Buy yourself something nice." He removed a fifty that he'd been saving up and held it up as the man's eyes grew large. "But you tell me if you've seen anything. If it's something insignificant, you're not getting anything."

"No, no, I've seen something!" The man leaned forward and motioned to another warehouse on a nearby street. "The fish factory on Smith. I seen her go towards that." He ran the name of the street through his mind and felt a shiver run along his spine.

Smith and Grayson, as listed in Nevel's notes, was where the hideout was. Furthermore, after finding his father's old journal, he remembered that building being mentioned again

Freddie shook himself and slowly handed the man the money. "Go…invest in Fila Co or something-I hear they're doing well." The man held the money to his face, rubbing it against his cheek before laughing and dancing away

Making his way to the warehouse, Freddie was sure to let his contacts in the police department know where to look. His only hope was they show up before anything bad happened.

"I could walk right into danger." He recalled both Fuzzles the snake and Jaws the dog, then shuddered. "It would be my luck." Before touching the door, he tried to glance into the dusty brown windows, but all he could see was darkness. "Shit, how do I know they're not expecting me?"

They may not expect him to know Sam was in here, so it was unlikely for them to expect him.

There was a monotonous beeping above him, drawing his eyes. When he saw a shiny camera, he paled. "Shit. Of course Nevel would put in a camera system." Beside the doorknob was a yellow speaker, another clear addition. "Yet another modern system-but I'm not about to try speaking into-"

"Hello Freddie." Nora's voice rattled him and drew his widening gaze to the speaker. "You're a regular investigator just like that gumshoe of a father you had. You're early, we were getting ready to call you and let you know about Sam."

Freddie's eyes narrowed further and he turned to face the camera, glaring into it with great animosity. "Her mother called." A pause says she didn't know, which was satisfying to him.

"Mother? Now how would that woman know anything?"

"She was on the phone with Sam." His fists tightened and a lump formed in his throat. "I know all about your plans, Nora. I know of your involvement in the mafia. I'm here to stop you from harming anybody else."

"Then come on in, I've got a little surprise for you."

Freddie faced the door and lifted his right leg, then he shoved it into the door, forcing it open. "I was already coming, bitch."

A shuffling sound stopped him in the doorway. He peered ahead and gasped out upon seeing Gibby rushing for him. "Shit!" He dodged to the right, pressing his back against the wall and watching as Gibby shot out of the building and twisted around. "The fuck, Nora?"

"That's not the surprise, that's just a greeting."

"Shit!" He swung into the building, then felt himself being shoved forward. The railing dug into his midsection and he grabbed the rail with his hands in an attempt to push himself up. Gibby's hand planted on the back of his head and shoved it forward.

"Look, Benson," Gibby shouted. Down below were two cylinders, one was cloaked and the other held Sam in it. His heart stopped as Sam watched him and banged hard on the walls of her prison.

He flipped himself over and reached up for Gibby's shoulder. Gibby moved his hands to Freddie's throat, clamping tightly on his circulation of air.

His teeth clenched as he looked into Gibby's eyes. "Why?" He choked on his word, and struggled to get any more out.

"Why what, Freddie? Why would I work for Nora? Simple, she's paying me and giving me something I want."

"You honestly think you can trust her? She's a manipulative witch! She's only using you."

"Fuck you." Freddie was lifted from the rail, then slammed back onto it. He let out a shout and tensed his shoulders.

"Do you really think she's going to give you anything! You're the one that stopped her first plan, you're the one that ruined everything for her. You think she's going to just forget that, Gibby?" His eyes shot open as Gibby's hands loosened. The man cracked his neck and scowled down at him. "Are you so blinded by your hatred of Sam that you can't see that? I'm only surprised she hasn't gone after Guppy!"

"Shut up!" Freddie braced himself as Gibby's right hand moved to his side. He was thrown into the air and fell hard on the metal floor. He flipped onto his back and tried crawling towards the steps while watching Gibby approach him. "Don't you fucking bring my brother into this."

"Nora doesn't care about you, she doesn't care about Nevel either. She'll just kill you later. Hell, Nevel's the reason she failed to get Sam last time!" Gibby stopped and curled his lip into a smirk that made Freddie's blood thin.

"You read all our letters and notes, you think we didn't know? That said, you ought to realize that whole thing was planned."

"Fine! What are you going to do, kill her? You're going to kill Sam?"

"No, just scare her. You're the one that's going to die, Freddie. Though, Nora may have use for Sam in the mafia-maybe she'll make her an associate. A girl like that can fight well."

Gibby grabbed at Freddie's chest. Freddie grasped Gibby's wrists and hissed at him. "She'd never join you."

"Willingly, you're right." His eyes widened as Gibby pulled him up from the ground. He looked down with a scream as his feet drifted in the air. "You forget Nevel's on our side, and he's already been tampering with mind control." Freddie's eyes shot into Gibby's and terror overtook him like a shadow in the dark. "Now come and we'll off you a reprieve, Nora doesn't want me to kill you outright."

"She's already controlling you, see? She only wants you to do what she wants, the minute you step out of line or she has no more use for her, do you really think she'll just let you go free?"

Gibby rolled his eyes and stepped over the stairs. "See you on ground floor, Benson."

"Wha-" He kicked his feet and glanced down, screaming aloud when he saw the stairs descending below him. "You wouldn't."

"Think about it for a minute. Do you really think I wouldn't, at this point?"

"Shit!" Gibby released him and he fell backwards, screaming as his body thumped against the stairs and rolled along them. Each step he hit felt like a knife stabbing his body, with each step wounding him more than the last.

He landed face down on the ground and trembled as the soreness in him spread through him like a plague. A groan descended from his lips as his head rose from the ground. His eyes darted to the tube where Sam was, her palms were pressed against the walls and her lips were moving. "Sam?" Standing at a machine were Nora and Nevel, both watching with a deadly smile.

"Good to see you," Nora remarked, "I'm sure you want to hear her voice one last time, so Nevel? Do the honors." Freddie felt himself yanked to his feet and looked over to Gibby. The man's hands moved to his arms, locking them in place at his sides.

Nevel struck a button on the machine, causing a square flap to open on the cylinder. It was just above Sam's head, so she leaned up to speak. "Freddie, just run!"

"Kind of can't…" He felt a tug at his heart when he studied her fully. She had a split lip and a heavy bruise had spread over her right cheekbone. Anger swirled inside of him and he snapped his glare to Gibby. "What the fuck did you do to her."

"Shut up." Gibby smacked him in the head, worsening the still present pain. "Nora's about to offer you a chance to let Sam go free."

"What?"

Sam's eyes widened and she fell back against the tube, "W-What?" Her body shook as her gaze fell onto Nora. Nora walked to the second cylinder and set her hand on the cloak.

"You've a choice to make," Nora smirked, "But at limited time. I want you to know that I can be nice, I can give you a chance." She looked at Gibby, her eyes glinting in the dim light from the windows above. "Release him, Gibby."

"But-"

"I said release him." Gibby moved his hands away with a mutter and sneered as Freddie shrugged his shoulders and pulled from the man. Freddie sneered at Nora, prepared to attack her, but he knew better than that. She wouldn't order Gibby to let him go if she didn't have something planned for the possibility of him lashing out at her.

"What's this 'choice', Dershlit? Of course I want you to release Sam!"

"Oh I'd think about that for a minute. You might not be thinking the same when you see who's under door number two." Nora pulled the cloak down and Sam screamed out in surprise.

"Freddie!" Marissa's voice caused his heart to drop into his stomach. The woman was standing with her hands over the open flap and her pained, misty gaze pulled at him. "Freddie, honey, they got me after my shift was over at the hospital. I'm sorry."

Nora clapped her hands together and stepped forward, standing between the two cylinders but in front of them. "Oh Freddie, whatever will you do? Do you send your mother home to survive, or do you free the woman you love? One choice, can't free both." Nora's lips curved into a dangerous smirk and her eyes fell halfway. "You only get one mother, but don't worry Freddie…knowing you, you'd find another woman to love, even if you were with Samantha. Face it, everyone knows you'll cheat eventually."

Nora's an evil witch with her own agenda, there's a gun in that desk and Freddie is unarmed. Can it get worse? It can...