Murdock knocked on Hannibal's door and opened it up and poked his head in. "Hey Hannibal, I checked with the front desk, Masterson ain't back yet, you think we should check the phone in his room and make sure the bug's still there?"
"Good idea, Murdock," Hannibal said, "It might've gotten knocked loose."
"I'll check on it," Murdock offered and closed the door behind him.
"He'll check on it?" B.A. repeated skeptically, "That's a mistake."
"We'll see," Hannibal said.
They waited a few minutes and watched the equipment, a light went on and the tape started rolling to signal that the receiver in Masterson's room had been picked up. The phone in their room rang.
"It's working, Murdock," Hannibal said.
"Alright," the pilot responded, and hung up.
"You think we're actually gonna get something on the phone now, Hannibal?" B.A. asked.
"I don't know about now, but I'm sure we will come tomorrow when Masterson calls up Sosa because his date never arrived," Hannibal said, "Maybe then we can pick up something more in the conversation."
"I just don't like this, Hannibal, I got a bad feeling about this whole thing," B.A. said, "I know that sucker here where we are, but I get the feeling that there's something even bigger back in L.A. that we overlooked."
"We did," Hannibal said as he looked up and met the sergeant's eyes, "We canvassed the hospital, the medical examiner's office, the police records, Masterson's office, we went everywhere, went over everything, talked to everyone, except the people who mattered most. Frankie's parents, we should've found them and talked to them before we came here."
"You think they know something about this whole mess?" B.A. asked.
"I think they know more than they would admit to most people," Hannibal answered, and added, "But we're not most people. Once we get back to L.A. we'll look them up and pay them a visit and see what they do know."
"Think it's going to do any good?" B.A. asked.
"I don't see how it can hurt," Hannibal replied.
"Are you sure you got the bug in there right, Murdock?" Frankie asked as she watched the pilot fidget with a wireless transmitter microphone.
"Oh sure, get this," Murdock showed them the tiny transmitter and said, "When Masterson goes to bed tonight, we speak into this, and he's going to hear someone in the room with him, and there won't be anyone there, and he won't have any idea what the hell's going on."
"Are you sure he won't be able to find it though?" Mad Dog asked.
"Trust me, I put it in a place he'll never think to look for it," Murdock told him.
Frankie took the microphone from Murdock and said, "But he'll hear us talking in here too, won't he?"
"Naw, it's got an off switch," Murdock explained, "Just leave it to me, he'll never be the wiser."
"I hope not," Frankie said, "I want to catch this guy off guard and settle this once and for all."
"Frankie, I want to ask you a question," Murdock said as he put his arm around her shoulders and walked her over to a corner of the room, "You told me that when your mother came to see you at the hospital, she brought you a new dress for your birthday."
"Yeah, so what?" she asked.
"It's still there, isn't it?"
"Has to be, but by now it's probably been thrown out or burnt in the incinerator or something," Frankie said.
"What did it look like?" Murdock asked.
Frankie shrugged dismissively and said, "I don't know, it was a white dress, what's it matter?"
Murdock looked at her and asked, "Do you think there's any chance Masterson saw it?"
"I don't know, why?" Frankie asked. Her eyes changed and she said, "You think he was in the hospital?"
"No," Murdock shook his head, "No I don't think that…I think he may have seen it at the house before your mother took it, and he might remember it. Do you remember? Did it have long sleeves, or did it have any…" he rubbed his hand over the front of his T-shirt as he tried to come up with the word, "Embellishments on it, you know those weird patterns they put on bandanas and stuff?"
"No, it was a plain white dress," Frankie said, "What you are trying to say?"
"Sounds like a wedding dress," Mad Dog spoke up, and the others turned to look at him, so he explained, "What Murdock was describing, it sounded like a woman's wedding dress. But what for?"
Murdock took a few seconds to answer as instead he straightened up and raised one hand and one finger specifically to get her attention first, then he explained, "We can kill two birds with one stone, a great way to drive men to the brink of insanity is through fear. Now, I saw a movie once where a woman was poisoned to death and buried in her wedding gown, some company dumped toxic chemicals into the cemetery and she crawled out as a zombie, still in her wedding dress, with flowers in her hair and white heels and pantyhose, but her face…" he placed his hands on his face and pushed the skin on his cheeks back as he told her, "All ashy and blue, skin pulled tight like a skull, the eyes dead, the nose shriveled and pointed, the teeth, like a rat's…if we could do something like that I think we could definitely give this guy a run for his sanity."
"In theory it sounds good, but come on, Murdock, who believes in zombies?" Frankie asked.
"That's what I'm getting to," he told Frankie, "We could convince him that it is you, that you died mysteriously and suddenly, and then here you are, back from the dead and looking for a victim."
Frankie thought about what Murdock said, and slowly she nodded and said, "I like that idea," she sat down in a chair by a writing desk and said, "If only we could pull it off."
"We could," Murdock said, "All we'd have to do is get a dress, a mask, maybe some makeup."
"How're we going to get all that stuff here?" Frankie asked.
"Not here, back in California," Murdock answered, "We could borrow a lot of that stuff from the costume department at the movie studio Hannibal works at."
The door opened and Hannibal and B.A. came in and said, "Well, Masterson is back in his hotel room, so somebody's going to have to go down to the first floor and make sure Face doesn't have any run-ins with him."
Frankie and Mad Dog raised their hands and Hannibal chuckled once and said, "Nice try, but we're going to pick someone else."
"Oh well," Frankie said with a huff, "Either way this is better than that damn hospital, at least I don't have to get up at the crack of dawn to join everybody in the physical therapy room for Jane Fonda's workout."
Hannibal let out a brief hiss and told Frankie, "Don't ever mention that woman's name in my presence."
"Why?" Frankie asked, "Because of the whole Hanoi thing?"
"No," Hannibal shook his head, "Her driver ran over my tail when I took over doing the Aquamaniac movies."
Murdock felt Frankie and Mad Dog starting to crowd in on him behind his back and he reached back protectively and said, "Uh, Colonel, I'm afraid I'm going to have to opt out on this one, I think it'd be better if I stayed here with these two."
Hannibal nodded understandingly and said, "Alright, Captain, I'll go down and keep an eye on Face and his date, and B.A. will stay up here and monitor the phone, you three stay out of trouble."
Murdock did his best to put on a face of innocence and asked, "Us? Trouble? Surely you jest."
"No he don't," B.A. told Murdock, "And if I hear any of your crazy jibber jabber next door, I'm gonna…"
"I know I know," Murdock replied short-temperedly, "You're gonna pound me into next week."
"That's right, and don't you forget it," B.A. said as he poked Murdock in the stomach with one finger, which was enough to double Murdock over holding his stomach and choking.
"Got it," Murdock gasped.
It was the screaming that woke Murdock up.
Before the pilot could even fully comprehend what he was hearing, he shot up in bed and saw that the lights were still on in the room, and he saw that Frankie and Murdoch had fallen asleep on the floor. M.D. was writhing around on the floor and kicking his legs high in the air as if he was trying to get loose from something. Frankie had also been awakened by his screams and sat close to him on the floor looking on in a half-asleep stupor.
"Frankie, get away!" Murdock said as he scooted to the edge of the bed and dropped on the floor.
He crawled up behind Frankie and snaked an arm around her waist and pulled her back towards the bed, holding her at a considerable distance from Mad Dog. She wriggled in his grip and tried to get loose and move over to Murdoch, who was still screaming and kicking. She managed to get halfway out of his grip but Murdock grabbed her by the back of her shirt and yanked her back and pulled her against him and told her, "Get back, Frankie, he's gonna hurt you!"
"He's gonna hurt himself!" Frankie screamed at him.
The door opened and Face stepped in and had to shout to be heard over the racket, "What's going on?" but he quickly got his answer, as did Hannibal as he rushed in behind the lieutenant.
Frankie continued to struggle against Murdock's grip on her and she yelled at him, "Let go of me!" and tried to hit him, but he maintained an iron grip and refused to let go, while Hannibal and Face took their chances getting closer to the young man and between the two of them tried to pin him down and wake him up. Mad Dog got one arm loose and just about managed to succeed in busting Hannibal's jaw, but then his eyes opened and he shot up as he started to recognize his surroundings.
"You alright, kid?" Hannibal asked calmly as he saw a look cross over in Murdoch's eyes as everything started falling back into place.
Slowly, they let go of him and got off of him so he could sit up, he huffed and puffed so hard they thought he was going to start hyperventilating, but he managed to catch his breath and when he did he asked them, "What happened?"
"My guess," Hannibal said, "You had a nightmare, do you remember what it was?"
About a minute passed as he tried to, and then it seemed to come back to him. His eyes got wide and he looked like a scared little kid as he started to recall, "The hospital…I was back at that hospital."
"The V.A.?" Face asked.
Mad Dog shook his head rapidly and said, "No…at Freemont."
Hannibal quickly took control of the situation and to everybody's surprise, slipped into a role as father, he wrapped his arms around the trembling young man and said quietly to him, "It's alright, Murdoch, it was just a nightmare, you're out of the hospital and you're safe now, they can't hurt you now."
"They did," M.D. replied in a small voice, "For two years they did and nobody did anything about it."
"I know they didn't," Hannibal said as he slowly rocked back on his heels, "And I'm sorry."
Murdoch tried to talk but his voice grew weaker and his head slumped down and rested against Hannibal's shoulder as he broke down sobbing hysterically. Hannibal rubbed his back comfortingly and spoke softly to the boy, trying to get him to calm down. Frankie watched this and looked like somebody was twisting a knife in her heart, she said nothing, but again tried to get over to Murdoch; she reached back and kicked Murdock and got him to let go of her, she crawled over to Mad Dog and wrapped her arms around his waist and tried to pull him close to her even though it wasn't possible at that moment. She pressed her temple against the back of his neck and squeezed her eyes shut as silent tears rolled down her face. Face and Murdock looked at each other and saw that they both wore the same sickened expression at the sight before them.
Face counted the number of sleeping pills left in his bottle and said, "I'm going to have to see if they carry these in any of the stores around here before we leave."
"Think they'll sleep through the rest of the night?" Murdock asked.
"As many pills as we shoved down their throats, they'll either do that or lapse into a coma," Hannibal told them as he paced around the room.
Once they'd put Mad Dog and Frankie to bed, they relocated to Hannibal's room to discuss what had happened and what they were going to do. B.A. had come in during the tail end of the excitement and gotten an eyeful himself of what had happened, but he'd been informed that he'd missed out on the real fireworks.
"Colonel," Murdock spoke up, "Permission to speak?"
"You're permitted, Murdock, what is it?" Hannibal asked.
"I want this guy, Hannibal," Murdock's voice was low and the threat in it was clear, "I know we agreed on what we were going to do to him when we caught him, but I want him, Colonel, I want to make him suffer for what he's done to them."
"Understandable, Murdock," Hannibal said.
"No, I don't think you really do," Murdock told him, and that got Hannibal's attention.
Hannibal stopped pacing and they all looked at the captain as he explained, "This is my family, Colonel, that's my cousin and that's going to be my in-law with any luck, and nobody has the right to do this to my family. M.D. has lost three years, people think he's a cold blooded killer, he's been locked up in a hospital where he was tortured by everybody there, all for something that he didn't do, and Frankie, her life has been ruined for years, she's spent most of her life haunted by this jerk and knowing that she wasn't safe anywhere, not even in her own home, and knowing that she couldn't even rely on her own parents to help. All of this, and for what? Because Masterson has spent all these years trying to put his hands on a girl he has no business being anywhere near, I want to hurt him, Hannibal, I want to slowly torture him until he's begging for me to end it, and I want M.D. and Frankie with me to help, retribution."
Hannibal smiled sadly and he took one step closer to Murdock and reached his hands out and lightly grabbed Murdock by the arms and said, "I understand, Murdock, believe me I do," he let go of him and added, "But we still have to do what we originally decided on, it's the only way these two are ever going to get their lives back."
Murdock looked at the colonel as if somebody had just ripped his heart out of his chest. He didn't say anything or even move, and Face and B.A. were starting to get worried, then finally Murdock blinked and shifted his weight from foot to foot, and he said with a slight stutter at the beginning, "We…w-we better keep an eye on them incase one of them has another nightmare."
"I'll watch them," Hannibal told Murdock as he squeezed the pilot's shoulder reassuringly.
Murdock slowly nodded and said, "Th-thank you, Colonel."
Face waited until Hannibal had left, then he walked up behind the pilot and asked him, "You alright, Murdock?"
"Yeah, I guess so," he answered, then turned his neck back to see Face, "I'm sorry it had to get everyone else up, if possible I would've rather handled this situation myself."
"That's alright, I wasn't sleeping anyway," Face told him.
Murdock picked up on something between the lines of what Face said and he asked him, "Something wrong?"
"Just a nightmare," Face answered.
"What about?" Murdock asked, ready to be of any help that he could since he was well familiar with Face's night terrors over the years.
"Nothing like that," Face said, knowing what was on Murdock's mind, "I had a dream that we went off, and we left Mad Dog and Frankie alone, and that creep Masterson got into the room, and he…"
Murdock nodded, "I had a similar dream…what they used to refer to as 'worse than dead'."
Face nodded grimly. "I don't like it, Murdock, they're two adults but to make sure nothing happens to them, like they were a couple of kids, one of us is going to have to be with both of them at all times until this is over."
"That is unfortunate but it is also true," Murdock replied, "However, that usually does become our responsibility when we take on clients for a mission to make sure they're not abducted and used as a bargaining chip against us anyway."
"But this time it's worse," Face reminded him, "Ordinarily we just have to worry about the bad guys hurting the people who hired us, but now, we either have to worry about Masterson hurting them, or Frankie killing him."
"You really think she would do it?" Murdock asked.
"Don't you?" Face asked.
Murdock answered without missing a beat, "I know she would…and it would be justifiable, every person has a breaking point, 7 years seems long enough to me. But as Hannibal said, that's not going to help anybody, not in the long run anyway." He went over to the bed and sat on the foot of it and added, "You know, Faceman, I was thinking, maybe when we get home we could get Dr. Richter to see Mad Dog, maybe he can help him."
"You think Mad Dog's going to want to go back to the V.A. after everything he's been through?" Face asked.
"Well we wouldn't have to go to the hospital, there's a lake that he takes the patients on field trips to occasionally, it would be as close to neutral territory as we could probably manage," Murdock said, "Dr. Richter's been making a lot of progress with his patients, me included, you know before I saw him I used to be weird?"
"You don't say," Face rolled his eyes.
"M.D.'s got a lot of unresolved issues, and as much as Frankie could give B.A. a run for the title of Bad Attitude, she and her share of unresolved issues actually are healthier than M.D.'s, because she releases those emotions, all her ranting and raving and swearing to kill Masterson, it's an outlet for her frustration and in fact keeps her from acting on them."
"You really believe that?" Face asked.
"Oh sure…killing is a last resort, it's what you do when you feel trapped, that there's nothing else to do, nothing else will help, she's finally got someone who believes what she has to say, that's something she's never had and it shows how relieved she is to be believed for the first time in her life. She knows that they can trust us, that we are here to help them, that they have options now," Murdock explained.
Face didn't get it but he nodded to convince Murdock he was going along with it, and he said, "I just hope it isn't too late to actually help them."
Hannibal sat in a chair by the writing table and watched Mad Dog and Frankie as they slept. Nobody had objected more than he did to the idea of letting them sleep together incase Mad Dog would have another nightmare and lash out, but in the end their votes on the matter hadn't counted. And in hindsight, maybe the kids were right; of course it didn't hurt that they had a few hundred milligrams of sedatives in their systems right now either, also perhaps in their favor was that Frankie had fallen asleep pressed against Mad Dog's back, where it would be harder for him to choke her if he started to attack in his sleep, but right now they were both unconscious, quiet, and through some illusion, seemed to be at peace for the time being.
What had happened a short while ago wasn't really anything new to Hannibal; coming back from a war he was only too familiar with what nightmares could do to people, especially when the nightmares weren't the subconscious playing games with the conscious mind, but were in fact vivid flashbacks to actual events. The fact that they'd gotten through this episode without any furniture breaking, or any bones for that matter, said to him that they were lucky and that this was not as bad as it could've been.
He knew that Murdock was right though; there wasn't anything that a court of law could do to really recompense for the hell these two had been put through. He leaned back in the chair and thought on the matter; maybe before they turned Masterson over to the cops he'd let the three Murdocks take turns beating him with a blunt object, something that wouldn't leave very specific markings. He leaned even further back and tried to recall what his mother's preferred weapon of choice was whenever his father came home late at night…let's see, there was the traditional rolling pin, a frying pan, one of the empty milk bottles, and also a police nightstick that he had never managed to find out where she got it from or exactly what she used it for. As he was pondering on those old memories, he heard someone tap on the door and it opened as Murdock stepped in.
"Everything okay, Colonel?" he whispered.
"Everything's fine, Murdock," Hannibal assured him, "They're dead to the world."
"If you don't mind, Colonel," Murdock said as he closed the door partway, "I'd like to be the one here when they wake up, I'd like to try talking to them about what happened."
Hannibal didn't seem too sure and he said, "Well alright, Murdock, but what good do you think that'll do?"
"I wanted to suggest that when we get back to L.A., that maybe one of my doctors at the V.A. could help M.D., I think he needs professional help."
"That seems to be an understatement," Hannibal said as he pushed the chair forward so all four legs touched down again and he got up, "Alright, they're all yours, Captain, but I think it's going to be a while."
Murdock waited until Hannibal had left the room and gone back to his own down the hall, then Murdock checked on the two occupants in the bed, and when he was satisfied that they weren't going to be waking up anytime soon, he went over to the dresser where he'd stashed the transmitter and he turned it on. It was late enough in the night, or rather early enough in the morning, that if Masterson had gone back to his room he had to be asleep or somewhere near it.
Murdock cleared his throat and sang into the microphone, very quietly, very grimly, "Diiiiiiiid yoooooou, ever see a hearse go by and think that someday you'd surely die? They put you in a little box and cover you over with dirt and rocks, and all goes well for about a week and then your coffin begins to leak! A big green worm with rolling eyes goes in your mouth and out your eyes. Your stomach turns a slimy green and pus pours out like whipping cream, you put it on a slice of bread and that's what you eat when you are dead." He summed it up with a creepy laugh worthy of The Shadow, and then shut the transmitter off. If Masterson heard that, then good, let him stay up all night trying to find out where it came from, and if he didn't, then Murdock decided the Phantom of the Airwaves would strike again tomorrow night.
Considering his job done for the night, Murdock went over to the bed and climbed in beside M.D. since he figured the threat was over for the night, and went to sleep beside two of his new favorite people.
Hannibal had gone back to his own room, and without intending to, slowly drifted off to sleep, and quickly lapsed into a dream of his own that could very well qualify as a nightmare.
They were back in California, or at least somewhere back in the states, and he could see a typical suburban neighborhood and a typical suburban block. The air was warm and the sky was gold and pink, the sun was starting to set. He guessed that the season must've been in the spring, or possibly early summer, but whatever time it was, it hadn't gotten hot yet. He looked to the house directly in front of him, a two story house in the middle of the street. He heard giggling and laughing, and looked up and saw it was coming through an open window on the second floor.
It was a bedroom window, and looking in it he could see two people, and he realized it was Murdock and Frankie. For some reason, Mad Dog wasn't anywhere to be found, and Hannibal quickly realized why. Inside Frankie's bedroom Murdock had brought in a dress bag, and unzipping it he revealed a white wedding dress. It was not a typical wedding dress however, in fact it looked like a very old wedding dress. As a matter of fact, Hannibal realized, it looked like his mother's wedding dress, least of all from that time period. It was white, short sleeved, the neckline was a wide V that went from shoulder to shoulder, the dress's skirt seemed to be made up of three or four skirts, double, or more precisely, triple or quadruple deckered on top of each other. And with it was a white veil, and, for some reason Hannibal didn't understand, a big fat white ribbon for her to tie in her hair.
It seemed to Hannibal that Murdock was either the dressmaker or the tailor getting her fitted for it. He had brought along a tape measurer but didn't get very far with it because when he tried measuring her more intimate places, she decked him. But, it was quickly brushed off as they resumed their business of getting the dress ready for Frankie's wedding.
"I want to see how it fits," she told him.
"Alright," Murdock answered, and proceeded to strip down to put it on.
When he realized that he had an audience of one watching him, he let out a high pitched scream and covered himself with the dress until she stepped out of the room. Then he proceeded to slip it on over his head. Looking at himself in the mirror he apparently liked how he looked and proceeded to put a pair of long white gloves that came up near his elbows, and then put on the dress shoes that looked more like dainty white boots, and started doing a little dance around the room. Then he returned to the bed where the dress had been laid out on and picked up the ribbon and tied it in his hair, and then picked up the veil and placed it over his face. He started humming a tune to himself as he fixed his hair through the veil, and so didn't see the person climbing in the window. The next thing Murdock knew was he was being dragged off, and Hannibal was able to see it was by Masterson, who threw a pillow case over the bride's head, then picked Murdock up with one arm and climbed out the window with him in tow and down a ladder pressed up against the side of the house, and out to the street and unceremoniously tossed Murdock into the back of a getaway car, and climbed in the backseat with him so he couldn't escape, and had another man start the car and drive off.
Hannibal wasn't sure how, but he was there when the car pulled up outside of a church, and he followed the two men and their captive in the front door and into the chapel, where there was already a minister waiting. Murdock struggled and resisted every step of the way but Masterson jerked him along and never gave him a chance to try breaking loose or to even pull the sheet off of his head. Murdock was dragging his feet the second half of the way down the aisle, but Masterson had one arm hooked through Murdock's and threatened to break it if he didn't keep up the pace. They reached the minister and Masterson told the clergymen, "Alright we're here, let's get on with it."
The minister went into the usual wedding ceremony dialogue, and every time the bride was expected to answer, only a high pitched muffle was heard from under the pillow case, or the whole slumped forward and down as the bride nodded. When it was over, Masterson pulled the pillow case up, and in the process also yanked up the veil, and looked like he was going to have a heart attack when he saw Murdock standing there in the wedding dress, the big white bow half undone and the ribbon trailing down the side of his face.
Murdock stood there with his clothes disheveled and his white gloved hands on his hips as he tapped one foot and said, "Well I hope you're happy," he raised a balled up gloved hand to his forehead and said in a histrionic voice bordering on crocodile tears, "I'm so distraught I think I'm going to have a headache during our whole honeymoon,"
"What the hell are you doing here?" Masterson demanded to know.
Murdock shrugged off his melancholic attitude and batted his eyelashes and said giddily, "I'm your bride, silly boy!"
Masterson glared at him and shoved Murdock back with both hands, and with such force that Murdock fell back against the pews. He screamed and jumped back to his feet and screamed in a woman's tone, "I've never seen anything like it! Married 30 seconds and already you're pushing me around and putting your hands on me!" He went over to the man and grabbed two handfuls of Masterson's neck and choked him, "How dare you raise your hand to a defenseless young woman?"
Masterson reached out and backhanded Murdock and he fell back but managed to stay on his feet. His hand automatically went to his cheek and he pulled it back and saw the white glove was now stained red with blood. That was when the whole picture changed, Murdock's white dress started running with red, as if the spade and club soldiers in Wonderland had spilled a whole can of red paint on a white rose bush. Pretty soon every inch of white, the dress, the gloves, the shoes, the ribbon and bow, were all blood red, and Murdock looked like he was about to rip the whole church apart with his mind, no more did he look like the blushing bride, now he looked like Carrie White on prom night.
"Married in red," Murdock quoted in a low and sinister tone, "Better off dead."
"Huh—what?" Hannibal asked himself as he shot up in the chair he'd fallen asleep in and realized it had just been a dream. He looked around the room, it was still dark, and B.A. was still asleep, and all was quiet through the walls, everybody was still asleep, nothing was going on.
Hannibal leaned forward in the chair and scratched his head and asked himself, "What in the world was that all about?"
Outside he realized the storm had died down, now there was just a light tapping of rain on the windows. When Hannibal's heart stopped pounding in his ears, he got up from the chair and quietly eased himself onto the unoccupied side of the bed, and decided to try going back to sleep, and he prayed for a less unusual dream. Though he did have to laugh, Murdock in a wedding dress, what were the odds? Hannibal sat up when he realized it rang similar to an old silent film he had seen as a kid, though the name of it escaped him now; but, a few details changed around, it was almost the same scene perfectly, least of all where the bridal abduction was concerned. He fell back asleep trying to figure what possible connection could be drawn between Murdock, Frankie, Masterson, and a wedding dress.