After they ate, trying to keep Jessie's mind off things, John asked her if she wanted to play 'Tic Tac Toe'. It was the only game he could think of to play, that didn't require anything but something to write in the dirt with. John was up 20 to 17 when they stopped playing that and started playing 'Hangman'. Jessie was up this time, beating him 14 to 10.
"There's three I's in 'inconvinience', John." Jessie laughed, guessing his word.
"Really?" John looked down at the dashes he had drawn in the dirt and spelled 'inconvinience' in his head. "Damn, you're right. Okay, your turn."
"Nah, I don't want to play anymore. We'll call it a draw. I'm kinda tired." She leaned back against the wall. "What time do you think it is, anyway?"
"I don't know. I'd say early...real early, Tuesday morning." He looked her over. She was so pale. "You feel, okay?"
"I have a headache...but mostly, I'm just tired."
He took some aspirin from the first-aid kit and gave them to her with some water. He slid over and sat down next to her. "How's your wrist?"
"It hurts sometimes, but it's okay."
"Sometimes?"
"Yeah, every once in a while a sharp pain goes up my arm from my wrist...otherwise, it doesn't bother me at all...I barely feel it."
'That doesn't sound good.' John thought to himself. "How 'bout your head?"
"The aspirin makes it better, but the headache is always there." She looked at his side, then his leg. "What about you? Are you okay?"
"My side hurts a little...you did a great job wrapping it up... I don't think it's bleeding anymore, either." He rubbed his thigh, gently. "This, on the other hand, hurts like hell. Sitting on the ground is making it stiff and it goes numb. There's a constant dull ache, kinda like a toothache. Langston really did a number on it."
"Sorry," Jessie said quietly.
"Don't even think about it, Jessie. I told you, you're not responsible for what he did, so stop. You didn't hurt me...he did. Got it?"
"Yeah." She couldn't help but grin at him.
He winked at her. "Good." He picked up the backpack and opened it up. "Want some chips or something?" He took a bag out for himself.
"No thanks."
John finished the bag in a couple of handfuls. "I think there were about ten chips in there, the rest was air." He took a drink of water to wash them down, then held the bottle out to her. She shook her head, to let him know she didn't want any, so he closed it up and set it down in between them. "Hey, you said you were tired...why don't we lay down for awhile, huh?"
"I don't..." She looked down at the ground. "I don't...want to go to sleep."
John crawled over to the duffel bag they were using as a pillow and laid down on his back. "Come on." He said patting his chest.
Reluctantly, she laid down next to him. She let him guide her head to his chest and smiled when she felt his fingers run through her hair. "Are you sure this is okay? I don't want to hurt you."
"I'm fine. Relax...you don't have to go to sleep. Just rest."
"It's too quiet," Jessie said after a few moments.
"We could sing," John suggested.
"I don't know about you, but I couldn't carry a tune with someone else's voice." She laughed.
John laughed too. "Me neither. I sing in the shower and the car...and only in the car if I'm alone. I made the mistake of singing in the car when Sam was with me and it was a month before the jokes died down."
"What song?"
"Sweet Caroline...I mean, how could you not sing that song, from the top of your lungs, when you hear it?"
"Yeah, that's a gimmee...ya gotta do it. My Mom sang all the time...while she was driving, cooking...she was good too. Dad told her she should have gone into the music business, not real estate. What was your Mom like?"
John thought for a moment, then said smiling. "She couldn't sing, but she tried. She use to sing to me when I was sick or couldn't sleep...she couldn't carry a tune but she had the softest voice...she was beautiful."
"You were close?"
"Very close. It was just us...me and her...Dad was always-" He stopped suddenly, not wanting to say anything bad about Patrick.
Jessie turned to face him. "It's okay, you can say it...Dad told me how he was back then...it won't hurt me."
"He was always drunk and angry...and when he wasn't beating on me, he was beating on her. So, we just had each other. She use to tell me I was her best friend."
"I'm glad she had you...that you had each other."
"Me too. On weekends we would stay up all night and watch movies...eat popcorn. She loved Clint Eastwood...we'd watch his movies over and over again...she liked Frank Langella too...I think I saw Dracula about a hundred times."
"Frank Langella was a very hot 'Dracula'...he could bite me anytime...well not now, but back then." Jessie looked up because she felt John staring at her. "What?"
"He could bite you anytime?"
Jessie laughed. "What you've never been bitten before?" She grinned devilishly.
"We're not talking about me, we're talking about you..."
"Is this an older brother thing? C'mon John, get with the times...it's the new millenium...I'm twenty-one...I've had-"
John put his hand over her mouth. "Oh God, please don't go there." He could feel her laughing into his hand. "It's not funny."
She pushed his hand away and continued to laugh. "Yes, it is. Jeez, I thought Dad was bad."
"You told him when you..." John left it at that.
"Had sex. Yes, I told him. I told him everything...not, ya know, everything...but I could talk to him about anything, no matter what it was. Though I must say, he was pretty tongue tied that night...and that was before he started drinking. I kept trying not to laugh...he was funny...he was trying so hard not to freak out."
"Boys. If I have kids, I hope they're all boys. I don't think I could handle my daughter with boys."
"You're funny too."
"Well, I'm glad I entertain you." John laughed. "Seriously though, can we not ever mention that again, ya know, you and sex."
"You're killing me," Jessie said, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes.
Bailey paced, while George, Nathan, and Sam went through all the resources they had, for what seemed like the hundredth time. He was waiting for Grace to call from the M.E's office about the body that was found in the van. He kept saying it couldn't be John in his head, but the longer it took for her to call, the harder it was getting to believe. When his cell phone finally rang it took him a minute to get up the courage to answer. Expecting Grace, he didn't even look to see who it was.
"Grace, was it..is it John?"
"Agent Malone..."
"Krieger?" He looked at the screen of his phone and saw that the call was from John's cell. He motioned for George to get on his computer to get a trace. "Krieger?"
"I'm just checking in Agent Malone...what's this I hear about John? Did you find them?"
"No, we haven't. But, we did find a van...and a body."
"Oh, that. Well, the body you found, that's Roy Langston. Probably not much left, but I promise you it's him. I killed him. Now, did you find O'Doyle where I said he would be? The tide didn't take him out to sea did it?"
"No, we recovered his body...under the pier, where you said it would be. Thank you. Steven Lewis...did you kill him too?"
"No, Roy did that. He kind of lost his temper when Lewis ruined his plans and shot O'Doyle...anyway I was just making sure you found him...for the girl's sake. You'll hear from me tomorrow...and that will be the last time we talk Agent Malone-"
"Wait, wait! Why can't you just tell me now...what difference would a day make?"
"Exactly."
"Krieger?" The line was silent. "Dammit, he hung up. George, did you get anything?"
"Ohio. Just outside of Cleveland according to the cell towers."
"Try to pinpoint it the best you can and call our field office in Ohio and the Highway Patrol...let's find this guy."
"What else did he say, Bailey?"
"You were right about him, Sam...he said the body from the van is Langston...he killed him. He said Lewis shot Patrick, so Langston killed him...because, I'm guessing, that killing Patrick before he killed John and Jessie messed up his plan. He said he was still calling tomorrow to tell us where they are. He killed Langston, but left them alive..."
"Langston must have screwed up pretty bad...Krieger doesn't seem like the kind of man that would leave anyone alive." Nathan said looking at Thomas Krieger's criminal file.
"Well, maybe John could shed some light on what went on after Krieger calls tomorrow."
"I guess it's back to the drawing board." George sighed, as he looked at the stacks of photos and paperwork that covered the table. "Nothing from Kerrigan yet?"
"No," Bailey said, joining him at the table. "He is supposed to check in at eleven, hopefully, he'll have something... anything."
Tbc
