Of folded schedules had she many a one,
Which she perused, sighed, tore, and gave the flood;
Cracked many a ring of posied gold and bone,
Bidding them find their sepulchres in mud;
Found yet moe letters sadly penned in blood,
With sleided silk feat and affectedly
Enswathed and sealed to curious secrecy.

W. Shakespeare

"Remember that conversation I've been mentioning?" Abbie asked, arms folded.

Crane continued his steady pace around the cabin's great room. "This makes no sense." he insisted. "Why would the water turn to blood?"

Abbie sighed, realizing he had chosen to ignore her She sighed and ran her hand over her hips. Rhythmic chugging in a stop and go pattern assaulted her ears. Across the room, katrina, as if mesmerized turned the tap on and off. "still red." he said out loud to no one.

Abbie nodded and gathered her strength. Taking a step toward the woman at the faucet, she spoke. "Mrs...Katrina, hey I know it's been a bit crazy for you, but I need to-"

"Miss Mills," Crane interrupted, he had come to her elbow and Abbie ully expected him to grab her arm and lead her out the door. perhaps our efforts would be better suited to researching the incident."

She turned on him then. "The water in this town has turned to blood, Crane. Somehow i think the research should begin with the strange reappearance of your wife."

The sudden silence in the room was broken by the jangle of Abbie's iphone.

"Wanna tell me why we are experience the first plague of Egypt," Irving shot from a distance, Abbie assumed he had put her on speaker while trying to handle ten things at once, those ten things more than likely had to do with the sudden sanguination of the public drinking water.

Abbie shrugged as if he could see her surrender. "Not precisely at this moment, Captain." She looked around the room; Crane had come to stand beside her, ear bent into the phone as if he were entitled to it. Perhaps he was and Abbie was just not feeling he was an active member of team Witness.

Not as long as questions surrounding his wife were still off limits in any of their conversations. "We just discovered it ourselves here, sir."

Irving's voice was strained and in danger of leaping through the phone in effigy. Abby could not imagine how much restraint he was using to not scream. "Think maybe you two could break up the afternoon tea long enough to give me a hand around here?"

Abbie loved the man, she did. there was a lot about Captain Irving that was ore than admirable. Plus, he had great taste in ribs. the problem was, he was a tad bit of a drama queen. "Captain, as soon as i get a handle on things here, we will make it out that way."

"By a handle on things," the man on the other end of the phone spoke, "I am assuming you are referring to interrogating the witness."

"Small and capital 'W' yes sir." She threw a look at Katrina, who had ceased her own interrogation of the bloody faucet and was now engaged in a staring contest with the tea kettle. "Just get here as soon as possible." Irving reiterated before ending the call.

"We should go and investigate this." Crane insisted mid pace. "Water turning to blood is at the root o many Biblical-"

"Back up," Abbie said. She had unconsciously assumed the Lieutenant in charge tone to her voice. "Before we start to look into what is happening now, we need to back track and assume that eents have been set into place a while ago."

Crane stared at his partner as if she had now grown a second head. "Miss Mills, i don't see how this is not been in place for a time. What have we been fighting for nearly a year. You yourself have-"

She cut him off a second time and raised her hand. She angled her head toward the woman in the kitchen. "It's time, Crane."

"I don't understand." he flustered.

Abbie walked over to where Katrina stood. The red haired woman turned to meet Abbie's gaze, her green eyes ablaze. "I know what you want to ask me." Katrina began.

Crane moved across the room in three quick strides to stand beside his wife. "Miss Mills, wife has had nothing to do with this. You were there, how can you even ask?"

Abbie squared her shoulders but pushed forward. "I saw the water begin to turn red when her feet touched the water." Abbie paused but went on. "I know that, no offense Mrs. Crane-"

"Katrina, please." she corrected, the older woman's voice seemed to gain strength.

"-but we don't know where you came from. That night in the forest. We were being carted off into Go knows what. Now, I can't speak for your husband, but i certainly can attest to not knowing what the hell happened out there that night. Care to cast any light on the situation?"

"I don't believe this is the right time nor place for an inquisition." Crane said as he placed his arm around Katrina. "Perhaps we really should focus on the matter at hand."

Katrina moved nearly imperceptibly, away from her husband's grasp. She seemed to rise in height by six feet and addressed Abbie. "Miss Mills. I understand your line of questions, it is most relevant to ask these things given light in present circumstances." Katrina placed her hand on her husband's cheek. "He does attempt to protect me." she smiled.

"Mrs-Katrina, if we could get to the heart of this. what do you remember about that night?"

Katrina nodded and moved away from Ichabod. "I don't remember." she offered solemnly. "I was just as surprised to find myself here."

Maybe it was her downcast stare, or her reticent body language, but Abbie had a hard time beleiving her. "Are you sure, Katrina? You don't recall anything?"

Katrina shook her head. "No, I tell you honestly. I don't recall anything from my last moment in Purgatory until waking with my husband at my side."

Abbie sat at the rough hewn table and motioned for Katrina to do the same. "Katrina, can you tell me what you were doing before you left Purgatory. What was the last thing you recall?"

Crane spoke up. "She's answered already, Katrina says she does not recall what happened. I don;t see how further interrogation could be helpful."

Abbie favored her irritated partner with, what she hoped, was a look of fiercely intentioned patience. "Crane, step away." she offered quietly. "Unless you have something to add that is helpful in this, you need to stand down. " Her voice had not risen in cadence nor ardor. Abbie knew he would fight her in this,; knew firsthand how protective he could be of Katrina. What she was not ready for was the act of God pushing things to a faster tempo.

"I see no need to continue this conversation." Crane went on. "She has said we are equally measured in our memories from a fortnight. We have established that there is nothing new here to learn. At least not at this time. Perhaps we should tend to the matter at hand and go see about the water? I would assume that was a more pressing matter."

She hated his logic, but mostly because he was right. Abbie placed both hands on the table and stood. "All right, we are in a situation here. Obviously you are not in a place where you can speak about this."

"There is nothing to speak about, Miss Mills." Katrina said.

Abbie nodded, she had not realized this would be that hard. "I need to head to the station."

Crane moved to get his coat and follow her. Abbie wanted to tell him to stay where he was, but she had learned early that arguably, he would eventually be needed. Letting him tag along had become less tagging, and lore saving herself an extra trip to go and get him anyway.

XxX

The streets were paced. Abbie almost regretted taking the extra ten minutes to argue with the Cranes. The parking lot of the Buy More spilled over with SUV's and panicked people. "Irving said it was the running water that was affected. The stuff in bottles, still potable."

"Seems ironic." Crane said. "Water from taps and lakes completely fouled, whereas the water we are forced to pay for, unharmed."

Abbie grinned despite the situation. "Told you that stuff will kill you."

"Indeed." he said.

"So what do we know about water turning to blood." Abbie asked.

"Well, it's obviously one of the signs of the Apocalypse." Crane said. "The third angel poured his bowl into the rivers and the springs ofwater, and theyturned intoblood."

"Revelations 16:4." Abbie said. "But unless i got my bible trivia wrong, there is a a whole slew of things that happen before we even get to Crimson Tide. "

"Perhaps. Or, perhaps there were signs that we have missed." Crane offered as he thumbed through Washington's Bible.

"You mean seas boiling and dying? Dead rising from the grave? I think we would have..." Abbie stopped and looked at Crane. "On second thought."

"She wasn't dead Lieutenant." Crane insisted. "Why must you insist on continually returning to this line of thought? That my wife had anything, has anything, to do with this is preposterous."

"And yet here we are." Abbie said. "And I don't know what Sunday School you attended, but where i am from, Purgatory is dead."

"As you so eloquently put it before, the rules on tht have gotten a little 'bendy.'

Abbie flinched at the memory of her friend's twisted corpse. "Be that as it may, i ain't calling Andy and havin' him over for dinner, either." she threw. "There's dead, and then there is dead

They arrived at the station to find complete chaos; phones rang incessantly, shouts and clipped conversations from the other officers were drowned in a sea of angry words being lobbed from civilians who felt the police should fix the problem immediately.

Irving caught them on their way to the archives. "I certainly hope you know what the hell this is all about. I got the National Guard patrolling the Buy More and the Wal-Mart has become a DMZ"

"We're just going to find out something now, "Abbie answered.

"It's definitely Biblical." Crane offered.

"No shit, Sherlock." Irving cut. "Just get to the Bat Cave and get me some answers before i completely lose any pretense of control of this situation." He nodded and turned to Abbie. "Mills, a private word, in my office?"

Crane opened his mouth to say something but clamped it shut again quickly. He knew what that private word would be about but was hesitant to create more havoc in an already tight situation. Instead he turned toward the glass doors and left the two of them to their idle gossip.

XxX

"So, you don't believe her, then." Irving asked room the corner of his office nearest to the phones.

"It's not that i don't believe her, it's that i know she is lying. Whether she has anything to do with this or not, she is definitely keeping something. " Abbie said.

He nodded and went on. "Do you trust him to be impartial in this?"

Abbie shrugged, nodded, then shrugged again. "If it was about anything else, Captain, i would answer with a resounding yes. But.."

"Put Jenny on the other side of the research when she gets in later tonight. " He raised his hands aas Abbie geared up to fight. "I know, I know, but i think having someone else in this on the other side, completely impartial-"

"-I'm impartial." she insisted.

"Someone not so close. Look, we know Jenny has connections that we aren't even to the surface of. Pass any information through her. She'll understand."

Abbie wasn't so much worried about her sister understanding so much as her sister's ability to be discreet. She'd already seen Crane's reaction to the recent events, she knew Irving was right, but she wished Cane had been able to be more removed she had to admit she missed his insights into things. "Yeah," she nodded.