The MP car came up to the stretch of road off from the house and pulled into the driveway. Two young MPs got out of the car and went over to the corvette parked out in the yard, where they saw a young woman was in the driver's seat and a young man was standing beside it.
"Excuse me," one of the MPs said, "Do you folks live here?"
"Yes we do, why, is there something the matter?" Frankie asked.
"Is this your car?" the other MP asked.
"Yes it is, we just bought it this morning," she said.
"Looks like it's already seen some wear," he said.
"Well we got it second hand," Frankie explained as she climbed out over the driver's side door.
"Do you mind if we ask from whom?" the first MP asked.
"Seems to be a lot of interest in this car, what's the matter, is it stolen?" Mad Dog asked.
"No, but we're curious about who you bought it from," he answered.
"A traveling man," Frankie answered, "He said that he'd just won a new Mercedes in a sweepstakes and didn't need this one anymore, said it wasn't a convenient size for his family."
"What did he look like?" the second MP asked.
"Oh, I don't know," Mad Dog looked to Frankie and then back at the officers and said, "I guess about 30, maybe 35, tall, thin, light brown hair."
"No," Frankie said, "He was flabby and had blonde hair."
"Well, blonde highlights," Mad Dog corrected his previous statement.
"What was his name?" the first MP asked.
Frankie glanced at Mad Dog and answered, "John Smith."
The MP did a double take and repeated, "John Smith?"
"Yeah, ain't that the corniest name you ever heard?" Frankie asked, "Maybe in Pocahontas's time it meant something but…"
"Did this man say where he was going?" the first MP asked.
"Nevada," Mad Dog said, "Said a buddy of his had won the car in Las Vegas."
"So how was he getting there?" the MP wanted to know.
"He had some friends pick him up in a van," Frankie answered.
The two MPs looked at each other and then back at the two of them and said, "Thank you, you two have been a lot of help."
Frankie and Mad Dog could hear part of the one sided conversation the passenger MP had on his radio right before they backed out onto the street and drove back the way they had come, "En route to Las Vegas, Peck's gotten rid of his corvette…"
They went up to the porch and stepped in the front hallway and declared, "All clear!"
Face let out a loud exhale as he and Murdock stepped out of hiding.
"That was close," he said.
"Not really," Murdock told him, "Lynch wasn't out there with them, just a couple of rookies, we could've taken them no problem."
"So now they're off to Las Vegas looking for you," Frankie said, "How long do you think that'll keep them gone?"
"I have a feeling it'll be long enough," Murdock answered.
"How did you know it would work though?" Mad Dog asked.
"I didn't," he confessed, "But that doesn't mean it wasn't worth trying."
"Oh Murdock, I could kiss you," Frankie said with a grunt.
"Good idea," Murdock said as he gave M.D. a shove towards her, "Go ahead."
They saw a flash of lightning up in the clouds and a few seconds later, thunder struck and everybody felt a rumble underneath them. Face ran to get the top up on the 'Vette and Murdock and the others went into the house.
"Sure is coming down out there," Murdock said as he gazed out one of the windows in the sitting room.
"Mm-hmm," Frankie murmured from where she sat by the large front window, watching it pour down against the glass.
Murdock turned towards her and watched as she watched the rain almost hypnotically, "You like the rain, Frankie?"
She made a sound in her throat that wasn't distinctive but somehow it struck him as being an affirmative response. She told him, "One time when it was really coming down back home, my latest plan to convince my parents I'd lost my mind was I went out in the yard, took off my clothes and showered in the rain. Somehow even that didn't do the trick."
"Well hell, that's how I got most of my showers as a kid," Murdock said, "Rain water was always the best, nice and soft, no calcium buildup, no hard water, and in the summer that cold rain was a Godsend." He thought of something else and said, "You told us that no matter what you tried, nothing ever stuck, even when other people were involved, how did that happen?"
"Well, after a few years my father's business started to dwindle, he didn't have much pull in the community, but I'll give you one guess who did," Frankie said.
"Richard Masterson, he did all that?" Murdock asked.
"He became a big business man with a lot of money and a lot of authority and since he was a friend of my father's, he always managed to smooth things over and pay for the damages so nothing had to be done with me," Frankie explained, "He was always able to take care of everything, until I was ready to kill myself, that was the one time he couldn't fix it, he must've found out what I was trying to do, why else would he do all that?"
"Well there is one other possibility that I can think of," Murdock said, "Granted, you were a little old to be doing it, but one thing I've been learning in new psychiatric findings, teenagers who have been abused often act out to get out their rage because they can't or won't tell anyone what happened…and it's just possible that Masterson was getting worried that when your parents inquired about what was wrong, that you were going to tell them what he'd been doing and that they'd actually believe you. After all, you were too old for him to scare you with that 'tell and your parents die' threat."
"True," Frankie said, "But I still can't understand how they always thought I was lying, I didn't lie to them more than most kids usually do, and those were all small, most they never found out."
Murdock shrugged and said, "Nobody ever wants to admit that the people they think they know could be capable of something like that."
"Oh yeah? Well if I ever have kids, I'm never going to treat them like that," Frankie said, "I don't care who it is, they say anything happened, I'm going to believe them."
Murdock could hear the desperation in her voice and the fatigue of fighting a losing battle for so long. He sat down beside her by the window and said quietly, "I'm sorry," and he lightly stroked the back of her head.
"I have one more question," he said to her, "Once you were committed, did your parents ever come to see you?"
"Once," Frankie said, "My mom came to see me for my birthday, my dad never came."
"How'd that go?"
"As you'd expect, I spent the whole visit in bed with my back to her, at that point I didn't have anything to say to her," she told him, "She brought me a present, I opened it after she left, it was a brand new dress, really nice actually, but I never wore it…" she laughed and said, "Instead, that night I tore down the drapes from the window and wrapped myself up in them instead and tried to escape, and boy I'll bet I was a sight to see then."
Murdock smiled at the mental image that presented and almost laughed.
"Hey," Frankie thought of something and turned to him, "How did you ever get committed to the V.A.? What'd you have to do to convince them you'd lost your mind?"
"Oh…surprisingly little," Murdock told her, "Veterans of war have that whole image of shellshock and post traumatic stress to give them leeway in that field, plus it helps if you have a blemish in your flying record of one time crashing your plane. They really seem to find it easy to believe then."
"Did you ever kill anybody in war, Murdock?" Frankie asked.
"Yes," he answered, "It was a war after all, not a game of marbles."
"What's it like?" she asked.
"Well…I wouldn't recommend it," he said somberly.
"Is it true what they say about it staying with you…haunting you?"
Murdock thought about it for a few seconds and then slowly nodded his head. "You never forget the face of somebody you kill."
"Especially if you murder them," Frankie said, "How can people like Masterson do it and not be bothered by it?"
"Well that," Murdock told her, "Falls into a separate category, that's where you get into sociopaths and they don't count because they don't feel anything, they have no conscience, no real emotions, they derive pleasure from enforcing pain and suffering on other people, that's why a lot of them don't just simply kill their victims, they torture them for any amount of time before killing them."
"Do you think he did that with the Arden woman?"
"I don't know, what did the coroner find?"
"No bruising, no other notable signs of assault, just a bunch of stab wounds," Frankie said.
"Well, he may have made the first ones shallow so they just hurt and the suffering lingered and then made them deeper, moving in more for his kill," Murdock theorized, "It's hard to say."
"What about when he dies? You think he'll feel anything then?" Frankie asked.
"What do you mean?" Murdock asked.
"I was just remembering, when I was a kid I used to see a bunch of those old black and white movies on TV, you remember an actor, a big fat guy named Tod Slaughter?" Murdock shook his head, "Big fat guy, played a lot of maniacs who laughed as he murdered people, but at the end whenever he died and he always died because that was the rule in movies back then, he became a screaming coward begging for help. You think it really works like that, or do they not even care?"
"That one I couldn't tell you," Murdock said, "I never knew any that personally."
"Murdock," Frankie spoke up, "What're we going to do if you and your friends can't stop him?"
"What makes you say that?" Murdock asked.
"There's no telling how far Masterson's influence goes, if he's already got the cops and the lawyers in his pockets, how're you guys ever going to get close to him?"
"Don't worry, we'll find a way, he isn't the first slime ball with some money and muscle that we've gone up against," Murdock told her, "I could tell you stories…"
But he didn't get a chance to finish because at that moment they saw the shine of headlights flashing in through the window.
"Alright, they're back!" Murdock said as he jumped to his feet, "Let's see what they found out!"
As he and Frankie ran out of the sitting room they about collided with Face and Mad Dog and the four of them pretty much ambushed Hannibal and B.A. as soon as they stepped in the door.
"Alright, everybody calm down," Hannibal told them as he led them to the living room, "I'll tell you what we found out. First we paid a trip to the coroner who performed the autopsy on Miss Arden, and even he agreed he didn't think Murdoch was responsible for it, but he couldn't offer much insight as to who he thinks did kill her. Now," he turned to Frankie and added, "You probably know as much about Masterson as anybody we can ask, do you happen to know if he made a habit out of messing around with women closer to his own age?"
"Well he always considered himself a ladies man so I guess it's possible," Frankie said, "Why?"
"The coroner knew Miss Arden and said that she'd been involved with a couple of married men in the past, and Masterson is married, isn't he?"
"Aren't they always?" Murdock asked.
"After the coroner's office we went to talk to the police, and found out everything they knew about the case, which isn't much more than what you told us," Hannibal said, "So then we decided to go see Masterson himself."
"Oh no, you didn't," Frankie groaned.
"Well we got to his office," Hannibal explained, "But it turns out he's not there, so we helped ourselves in and looked around and went through all his records, all his memos, everything he's ever jotted down there. And it turns out, that the morning of the day the V.A. informed Murdock about the lobotomy the next day, our friend Masterson had booked himself on a chartered flight heading out to a tropical island somewhere out on the Atlantic."
"He took himself out of the equation so it could never be tied back to him," Murdock said.
"Perhaps, but it also turns out that this island he's on doesn't get long distance phone service," Hannibal said, "No telegrams, no nothing, meaning that there is no way Masterson knows that the operation was aborted or that you two have gone AWOL from the hospitals."
Frankie rolled her eyes and let out a sigh of relief, "We caught one break anyway."
"And another," Hannibal said, "Since he doesn't know you two are gone, he can't possibly anticipate what's going to happen next."
"What is going to happen next?" Face asked suspiciously.
"Murdock," Hannibal turned to him and said simply, "We're going to need a plane."
"Hannibal, I told you I wasn't flying nowhere!" B.A. told him.
"We're going after him?" Frankie asked.
"That's the general idea, yes," Hannibal said, "I managed to get the flight coordinations to reach the island, tiny place, won't find it on any general map."
"A plane, a plane!" Murdock was practically jumping for joy, "What type do we need, Colonel?"
"Well there are going to be six of us going, so I'd recommend something with a little breathing room, but, it's going to be a long trip, Murdock, we're going to need something good," he shook his head warningly, "Nothing off the repair line this time."
Murdock nodded, "Gotcha, Colonel." He thought of something else and added, "Oh but…it would be harder for them to say no to two people instead of just one, so when I go to get our bird, can I take somebody with me?"
"Who?" Hannibal asked.
Murdock pointed towards Frankie and added, "I don't know that they're less suspicious with women around, but they don't tend to ask quite as many questions, I've noticed."
Hannibal turned towards her and said, "How bout it, Frankie?"
"Why not?" she shrugged helplessly, "What's the worst that could happen?"
"That's the spirit," Hannibal said humorously.
"When're we going to go get the plane?" Frankie asked Murdock as she watched the rain continue to pour down from one of the second story windows.
"As soon as the weather clears up," Murdock told her, "I figure by tomorrow we can have it ready and be in the air before noon."
"I get the feeling that your friend out there doesn't like flying," Frankie said.
"Oh B.A.'s always like that," Murdock said, "Nothing but a big 230 pound crybaby. Anytime we gotta fly he always does that," Murdock cocked his head to the side and said in a rough imitation of B.A.'s voice, "I ain't flying", and then cocked his head to the other side and said in his normal voice, "B.A, we gotta fly to get this mission done on time." He switched back and said, "Forget it, ya crazy fool, I ain't going!" Then he switched again and said, "And then Hannibal gotta stick him in the neck with a sedative and he's off to beddy bye while we're kissing the ground goodbye."
"And he's always that way?" Frankie asked, "Why?"
"Ah who knows?" Murdock shrugged, "He's been like that ever since we flew in 'Nam."
"He flew with you?"
"Yeah, well that is how we met, you were asking about the bank job in Hanoi, I flew them during that mission."
"But you didn't need to knock him out for that," Frankie noted.
"No, that started once we got back here to civilian territory," Murdock explained, "Silliest thing I ever heard, I mean just because a guy's locked up in the psychiatric ward of a V.A. hospital is supposed to suddenly mean he don't know how to fly a chopper or a Gulfstream?"
Frankie guffawed and said, "Hell, half those nitwits licensed to fly don't belong up in the air anyway."
"Exactly, you get it," Murdock said.
"So what do we do in the meantime until we can get the plane?" Frankie asked.
"Hannibal's working on the plan, until then we just take it easy and wait for him to call us," Murdock answered.
"Hannibal, I told you before, I ain't flying," B.A. said the next day as he, Face, Mad Dog, and Hannibal waited near the intended destination for Murdock to land the plane for loading up once he'd given it a onceover test flight.
"B.A., I told you before, we don't have any choice," Hannibal said, "In the time it'd take us to get there by boat, Masterson's going to get word of what's going on. This is the only way we're going to be able to get the drop on him. Remember B.A., we're talking about an innocent man's life here, and two lives already ruined because of this jerk, doesn't that count for anything?"
"Don't start, Hannibal," B.A. growled warningly.
"Oh come on, B.A., you heard what this guy did," Face said, "Now just think if it was one of the little girls from your daycare center that he tried getting his hooks into? What would you say then?"
"I'd say he one dead sucker," B.A. told him.
"Well there you go," Face said, "Now B.A., relax."
"Relax? Getting on a plane's gonna be bad enough but with Murdock flying it's going to be even worse!" B.A. said.
"B.A. don't get excited, you're going to get an upset stomach," Hannibal told him.
"Oh that reminds me," Face said as he took something out of his pocket, "I got the airsick pills."
"Good idea, let's take them now, Murdock should be here any minute," Hannibal said.
Face dished them out and handed one to Mad Dog, one to Hannibal, one to B.A., and took one himself. B.A. looked at the pill in his hand suspiciously, but when he saw the others swallow theirs, he did the same, reluctantly. A minute later they heard the roar of the plane's engines as the Gulfstream neared the destination. They saw the jet as it came closer and watched as it eased down onto the runway strip at the rundown airport a few hundred yards ahead and they went to meet the pilot.
By the time they got up on the runway, the stairs had already unfolded and Murdock had already made his way down them with Frankie in toll, but something was wrong. Frankie was seated on the bottom steps and Murdock seemed to be trying to revive her.
"Come on, Frankie, wake up," he said as he patted her cheek.
"Murdock, what happened?" Hannibal asked as they came running to see what was the matter.
"Ya got me, Colonel," he said, "She was alright when we took off but once we cleared 500 feet she just slumped over."
"Let me see," Hannibal said as he took a look at Frankie.
Murdock turned to B.A. and said scoldingly, "Boy, do you have any idea how much time and trouble you'd save us if you could learn to just relax like that?"
B.A. growled and grabbed Murdock by his jacket but Face got between them and said, "Now Murdock, be nice, B.A.'s trying."
"Man," B.A. said as he ran his hand over his face, "This heat today is really something, I'm…" his eyes rolled back in his head and he fell down, but Face and Mad Dog caught him at the last second.
Frankie started to come around at that time and she looked at B.A. and asked, "What happened to him?"
"He's relaxed," Face answered.
"Already, everybody get the supplies and get on," Hannibal said as he took B.A. from the others and started to lug him up the stairs, "We've got a long trip ahead of us."
Everybody grabbed one of the duffle bags or carry cases from the rental car they'd used to get out there, and were just about finished loading the plane when they heard the sound of sirens approaching from the distance.
"What's that?" Mad Dog asked.
Hannibal was starting down the stairs when he saw the cars approaching. "Dammit, Lynch must've spotted us on the way out here."
"What's going on?" Frankie asked Murdock.
He didn't have a chance to explain because they could hear Lynch's voice on the bullhorn speakers on top of the car, "This is the United States Army, everybody stay right where you are and drop any weapons you have."
Hannibal put his hands up and called at the top of his lungs, "Don't shoot, we've got innocent bystanders here!"
Somebody didn't get the message because before anybody got out of the cars, a shot rang out.
"Dammit Lynch!" Hannibal said as he took a gun out of his pocket, jumped down to the ground and returned fire to buy the others the distraction they needed to get on board.
Apparently Lynch and his men must've been on a new brain food diet because one car sped over to them and cut off the access to the jet's stairs. As the driver stopped the car, two more MPs got out of the back and started firing at them.
"Get out of here!" Face told Mad Dog and Frankie as he and Murdock also took out their guns and started returning fire.
They took off running around to the other side of the jet and disappeared, with a handful of MPs chasing right after them. Hannibal, Face and Murdock ducked for cover in close proximity to one another around the airport and did their best to keep Lynch and his men at bay but they knew the odds weren't looking good for any of them. Face felt his heart sink when he pulled the trigger again and only heard a click.
"Hannibal, I'm out of ammo!" he said.
Murdock did a double take when he heard the same noise from his gun and he called out, "Me too!"
And the rest of the ammo had already been loaded up on the plane. Hannibal craned his neck down to see how bad the situation was and he laughed, "Looks like we're getting some help!"
Face and Murdock looked down to see what he was talking about and they saw Frankie and Murdoch coming back without the parade of MPs behind them, they'd each grabbed a couple of guns off their pursuers and started shooting at the remaining army. Lynch and the others turned at the noise and then ducked for cover and started shooting at them. It bought the Team enough time to crawl out from their hiding spots and take off for the plane. Murdock caught the glimpse of something through the corner of his eye and only had a second to realize it was an MP who lunged himself at the pilot. However, what the MP hadn't noticed was that Mad Dog was right behind him, and he grabbed the man by his foot and yanked him back and he hit the ground hard; Frankie just missed stepping on his head as she ran past him to the car. Hannibal realized she had gotten the keys off the driver and she threw herself into the driver's seat and got the car started and floored it, clearing up the entryway to the jet's stairs, and she swerved the car into a sharp U turn and brought it back around and proceeded to chase the MPs with it.
"Come on, Murdoch!" Hannibal called to the young man who had busied himself incapacitating the MP on the ground. He gave M.D. a shove up the stairs as the others reloaded their weapons and came back down the stairs and opened fire again to make sure that they didn't have any trouble this time. By the time they got back down onto the runway, they spotted the car Frankie had stolen far over on the other side of the runway; Hannibal ran over to get her and found her running back towards the jet.
"Come on, we're getting out of here!" he told her as he marched her over to the Gulfstream and up the stairs, "Alright Murdock, get us out of here!"
"Will do, Colonel," Murdock said as he brought the stairs up and closed the hatch and started the plane moving.
"Do you guys always have to put up with those people like that?" Frankie asked as they made their way down the aisle to get strapped in for the flight.
"Oh no," Hannibal assured her, "Sometimes we have trouble."
"Meanwhile," Face pointed to B.A., who was strapped down in his seat and unconscious, "The big baby sleeps through the whole ordeal."
"Well what he doesn't know won't kill us," Hannibal said.