Thank you all for waiting patiently! I appreciate it!
Sabrina rushed down the short entry hallway and burst through the set of heavy wooden double doors and into the plush, elegant office of the Townsend Agency. A greeting for Bosley dissipated in her throat as she took in the empty office. From its place behind Bosley's desk, the fax machine noisily cranked out ribbons of printouts that were already piling up in a mess on the floor. For a moment, Sabrina stood puzzled in the doorway, wondering where her colleague had vanished to before he suddenly popped up from behind his desk.
"Hey, there you are!" he greeted her in his garbled sick voice. His face was flushed and sweaty and he looked even more tired than he had when she'd seen him earlier. Despite this, he must have been onto something big because the expression on his face matched the one Sabrina had mentally given him when she'd heard his excited voice on the phone in the car.
"Hey, Bos." Sabrina greeted, hurrying over to perch herself on the edge of his big, wooden desk. "What are you doing down there?"
She peered down behind the desk and her question was answered before Bosley could even speak. There were piled stacks of paper strewn across his desk and apparently his organization methods had continued onto the floor.
"Sorting out all of Charlie's printouts." Bosley answered her absently. His eyes searched the top of his desk then swept to the ever increasing mass of paper piling up on the floor before apparently finding what he was looking for by his foot. He raised it triumphantly and pushed it towards Sabrina's face. "Here. Take a look at this."
Sabrina pulled back to keep from having the paper rammed into her face and plucked it from Bosley's finger to get a better look. It was a copy of an old photo, she realized. Grainy black and white. A group of smiling men and women grinned back at her, their hairstyles and old fashioned doctor's and nurse's uniforms and the festive Christmas decorations pinpointing the setting of the photo to the holiday season of somewhere between the late 1930's to the early 1940's. They seemed to all be gathered together for what looked like a hospital staff Christmas photo.
"What am I looking at here?" Sabrina asked a bit impatiently as her narrowed eyes scanned the photo's surface.
"That photo was taken in 1940 in Munich, Germany at a hospital th-"
"At a hospital that Irene Stone worked at." Sabrina finished for him, to Bosley's slight annoyance. Her eyes scanned the long row of seated and smiling young nurses. There were names listed at the bottom identifying the staff and their titles in the photo and the name Irina Stone made her deep gaze come to a standstill. But without speaking German, it was impossible to be sure if the list identified itself as starting from the bottom or top row. "Which one is she?"
"Not sure yet. I'm waiting on Charlie to send over a more recent picture of her, but that might be enough for the girls to go on." Bosley explained. "Take that to them. Once Charlie has confirmation, he can use his… connections to dig up as much as we can."
Sabrina nodded, carefully rolled up the picture to avoid creasing it, and tucked it under her arm. "Yeah. Anything else, Bos?"
Bosley looked up and gave her a wide, innocent smile. "Not until you fill me in on what you three are conspiring about."
Sabrina groaned, having completely forgotten about his earlier request in the excitement.
Enjoying the victory, small as it was, Bosley leaned back leisurely in his chair and fixed Sabrina with a smug grin. "Anytime you're ready."
"Yeah, yeah." Sabrina muttered, rubbing her face. "Let's just say that there's a good reason that Kelly didn't want to tell Bill anything." She explained and to Bosley's disappointment, immediately failed to elaborate.
His face fell. "And?" he pressed expectantly.
"And… well-" Sabrina stumbled along. "They fought back and there's proof of it."
Bosley raised a brow. "Proof?"
"Yeah. A lot of proof."
Bosley sat up in his chair. His colleagues evasiveness was fast getting on his nerves but her demeanor told him that there was something very serious she didn't want to tell him. "Translate that, please."
"Christ." Sabrina breathed under her breath. "They killed someone. In self-defense, of course!" she added quickly when she saw the shocked and horrified expression on Bosley's face. "And someone else was killed with Jill's gun. Kelly's afraid if we go to the police that no one will believe them."
It took a moment for Bosley to process this before he whistled and slumped back into his high backed leather chair. "So no cops then. What are we going to do?"
Sabrina shrugged. "The only thing I can think of is to figure out what their racket is. We need to know what exactly is going on in that hospital before we tell the police anything."
Her words hung flatly in the air between them and without Bosley having to respond, she knew he didn't agree with her. The two remained in tense silence before Sabrina cleared her throat and hopped down off the desk.
"I'll take this to them. See if we can confirm her identity and then-" Sabrina's voice broke off, suddenly realizing that she really had no idea what to do next. "…and then I'll give you a call from the hospital."
Bosley nodded slowly. Behind him the fax machine began noisily spitting out another few feet worth of computer printouts. He acknowledged the growing pile briefly and then fixed her with a pointed look. "Uh huh. You girls be careful."
"We're five hours away. Kris had on a San Francisco P.D. unform. I doubt they'll start looking in Los Angeles if they're looking for them at all." Sabrina rattled off quickly, suddenly feeling the need to defend herself. But even as she tried to convince Bosley, it began to dawn on her that those nurses had everything they needed to hunt down her friends: Their first and last names, their occupations, and, if Gunther was involved as she suspected he was, that they lived in L.A. Despite her uneasiness though, she stubbornly kept on, unwilling to admit defeat. "And if they do try something, Bill has two guys guarding their room. No one is getting in without permission."
Bosley smiled, humoring her as one would a small child. "Right. Be careful." He repeated himself.
Frustrated, but knowing his concern was well placed, Sabrina let the rolled up picture flop wearily against her leg and, after bidding her friend a quick farewell, trudged out of the office and back to her car. With the picture tossed safely into the passenger seat, Sabrina turned on the engine and nearly jumped out of her skin as her car phone immediately assailed her ears with its insistent jangling.
Swearing under her breath, she quickly snatched it up. "Hello? Jill?"
Kelly's agitated voice answered her instead. "Sabrina! God, where've you been? I've been calling for ten minutes! I thought a nurse had you strapped to a table somewhere!"
"I was at the office." Sabrina huffed back. "I have a picture you and Jill need to see. I'll be ri-"
"No, wait! I need to tell you something."
Her tone was urgent and hearing it made Sabrina feel sick. "Ugh. What now?"
"Gunther! That Gunther guy! Kris saw him too. He came up to her while she was looking at my car and then got spooked because he saw she was a co-… college student. Acted really shady and said he didn't know about a hospital. He's in on it, I know he is."
Sabrina let out a deep breath. Well, she wanted some proof and there it was. Why this didn't feel more like a victory was anyone's guess. "Okay." She said finally. "I'll be right over. Wait there."
"Wait? Where the hell do you think I'm gonna-"
Too jittery now to bother with Kelly's sarcasm, Sabrina hung up the phone and steered her Pinto out into the street. The rolled up picture rolled about as she drove, bouncing about with every little imperfection in the street. She forced her eyes away from it. There were a lot of pieces in this puzzle and she could only hope that one of those women in the pictures was one of them.
Sabrina burst through the stairwell door and into the familiar fifth floor hallway where her two friends were being treated. Her talk with Bosley and then Kelly had filled her with a desperate sense of urgency and uneasiness about their situation. There wasn't a lot of time to figure out what was going on and certainly not enough time to sit around waiting for a damn elevator that refused to come.
Especially after hearing about Kelly and Jill's last encounter with one. That was enough to make her stick to stairs for the rest of the year.
Panting heavily, she got her bearings and hurried down the hallway to Jill and Kelly's room, this time only regarding Bill's officers with a quick "Hey, fellas" before rushing past them and through the door.
Long accustomed to seeing their superior's ex-wife bustling in and out of the room, Carter and Kessler only exchanged a bored look. This was quickly turning into their longest shift yet.
"Hey." Sabrina greeted the room breathlessly as the door shut behind her. She blew past the four mumbled greetings her companions offered her and hurried over to the beds where her two friends were laying. "Kelly, Jill, I need you two to look at something for me."
"The picture?" Jill asked hopefully. "Let me see!"
"A picture." Her friend answered her, but to Jill's frustration, Kelly was closer and was the first to get Sabrina's attention. For the second time in half an hour, a woman leaned over Max as if he wasn't there and, annoyed, he moved out of his chair and relocated himself against the wall, where he was joined immediately by Kris. Ignoring them, Sabrina unrolled the picture she'd brought and let Kelly take it from her. Neither detective noticed or cared when Kris and Max both curiously crowded closer to get a look.
"Charlie did some digging on Irene Stone." Sabrina explained as Kelly studied the grainy photo. "He found an Irene Stone from Germany, maiden name Fleischer, used to be a nurse until she had her license revoked. Her name is listed below, but I need to know if she's in this picture?"
In response, Kelly let out a derisive scoff. "Bri, you couldn't have gotten a more recent picture? This had to have been taken over thirty years ago. How am I suppose-" Her mouth hung open for a beat before she slapped the paper down on her stomach and excitedly tapped the young woman on the first row, fourth from the left. "That's her. That's her, Bri. Her eyes… they kinda… they scrunched up when she smiled, that's gotta be her."
Confined to her bed, Jill could only crane her neck towards the group. To her growing frustration, Max's back blocked any view she might have had. "Hey! Let me see!" she whined.
Blocking out her sister, Kris pushed her way through to see the woman Kelly was pointing out. She studied the young nurse's features nearly a second longer than she needed to. Her eyes, her round face, even her haircut remained virtually unchanged. Despite the thirty year age difference and the extra fifty pounds between the young woman in this picture and the horrifying vision of the older woman from last night that was forever burned into her memory, the two were undoubtedly the same person.
"That is her." Kris agreed.
Jill looked shocked. "What?! How would you know? Bring it here!"
To Kris's relief, Sabrina only waved off her sister's concern. "Are you sure?" she pressed, straight through Jill's outraged protests. "Really sure?"
"It's her." Kelly confirmed.
"Ugh!" came another of Jill's fed up interruptions. "Let me see it, Sabrina!"
Rolling her eyes, Sabrina snatched the picture out of Kelly's fingers and stomped over to Jill. She thrust the photo in front of her and poked her finger at Irene's young face in the photo. "Is that her, Jill?"
Jill scanned the photo for a moment and then, seemingly satisfied, gave her head a nod, sending her blond mane bouncing into her face. "Yeah, that's her." She announced belatedly.
"Thought so." Sabrina mumbled, crossing the room and grabbing up the phone on the table between the two beds. She sighed as she picked up the phone, and gave one last look at the picture. "She does look like Hazel, doesn't she?"
One by one they all nodded their heads, in silent agreement for the first time since that morning.