Chapter Eleven

Last Reserves

"That woman is a nightmare even when she's dead," Del Monte muttered sourly.

Chris Sanford held his breath. His wrists tingled oddly as he thought back upon the day when Rosalind Dyer had disguised herself as a police officer and driven him to Lucy's apartment. She was a cold and effective professional when it came to torture and killings. He hadn't seen it coming. She'd escorted him inside then quickly jabbed him with a needle, dragged him over to the sofa, rolled up his cuffs and began to sing that lullaby Lucy had sung in the barrel. He couldn't move, he was completely at her mercy, she had smiled at him, told him the lullaby was actually hers and Lucy's thing while she ran the knife over his bare skin. "I hope it doesn't hurt," she had said apologetically before she applied some more force and slit his wrists. He would never forget the blood pouring down his hands, over his pants and Lucy's sofa. Nor would he forget the wicked smile on Rosalind's face before she kissed him gently on the cheek. "Say goodbye to Lucy for me."

"Hey Sanford?!" Del Monte called. "Are you in there?"

He shook his head, feeling perspiration spreading across his forehead and upper lip. "Yeah," he said and nodded then added a little more forcefully. "Yeah."

"You know what? I think you should take the rest of the day off," the other man said kindly.

Chris shook his head. "I'm fine," he assured him.

"If you say so," Del Monte replied skeptically as he headed out of the conference room.

Sanford sighed. He was glad Rosalind was no longer among them. He had thought that after her death she could no longer hurt anyone but he had obviously been wrong. His thoughts wandered back to Lucy, that kind and lovable woman whom he'd thought he would spend the rest of his days with. He didn't know how she did it; how she was able to function the way she did. How she could be so nice and friendly, so lovable, so full of life despite everything Rosalind and her acolytes had put her through.

Or actually, he did know why; she drew strength from Tim. He hadn't given much thought about it then but it was obvious to him now. Lucy always had Tim's back, always wondered what he was doing, checked in with him from time to time with a text even when they sat next to each other watching a movie. He had been naïve to think it was just a partner thing within the LAPD. Sometimes the two of them seemed so off together. Tim could be difficult, no smiles, no nonsense former military officer but he could be nice too and he knew how to do his job.

The two of them had him totally baffled and he was pretty upset back there for a while when he realized he had meant nothing to her – the one she really wanted to have in her life as a partner and a soulmate was Bradford. It had taken him some time to get over that - it hurt his ego pretty bad - but they had reconciled and he wasn't holding a grudge. For now, he was suffering with her for what she was going through. He fished his phone out of his pocket, brought up Sergeant Grey's number but then hesitated. He had no ties to Lucy any longer and maybe he had no right to call? He put down the phone again and headed back to his office.

OOOOOO

John collapsed in a heap next to Tim while Celina sank down next to Lucy. The four of them sagged one way or another against the remains of the outer wall.

Tim cracked an eye open and then the other one as he realized they were no longer alone. He had no idea how much time had passed since he'd been talking to Lucy but he guessed it couldn't have been that long ago. "Nice of you to join us," he said with a dry smirk as he turned his head a little toward Nolan.

John moaned as he closed his eyes and leaned his head against the wall. "Don't scare me like that," he whined lightly. "For a while back there, I thought the two of you were dead."

Tim turned his head to look at Lucy and noticed for the first time that Celina was sitting next to her, gently shaking her shoulders.

"Looks like you had a bad landing," Tim said kindly. "Are you okay?"

Nolan sighed. "Ask me later," he managed.

"Seems like you picked up something on your way here," Tim added with concern as he looked at the metal rod that stuck out of Nolan's leg.

"Huh," the older man managed through clenched teeth as he followed Bradford's gaze. "I am not sure if it keeps me from bleeding out or if it's killing me."

"Seriously, don't touch it, just sit tight from now on," he cautioned. "A buddy of mine - back overseas - got into trouble when our vehicle ran over an IED."

Lucy raised her head a little as Tim offered a glimpse of his military life to Nolan.

"What happened?" John asked, not sure he wanted to hear the answer.

Tim licked his dry lips. "He got impaled by parts of the steering wheel. It nicked an artery and we didn't have the equipment to save him."

Lucy filed that for later. She had a feeling Tim had some traumatic memories concerning that day that needed to be processed, not bottled up. She moaned as she tried to straighten her back.

Celina grabbed her shoulder. "Sit do-," she paused and bowed her head down.

"Celina?" Lucy said worriedly. "Hey?!"

"Head injury," John informed softly. "Frankly, I am worried about her." He paused as he took in Lucy's bruised chin and cheek, the way she held herself, how she took shallow breaths. He swallowed as his eyes wandered over to the soaked cloth over Tim's stomach, the way his blue eyes clouded, the blood on his face. "I am worried about all of us."

"Yeah," Tim whispered sarcastically. "What a sorry bunch we are."

John nudged his superior officer's shoulder. "Any thoughts, sir?" he tried.

Nolan wanted to keep him awake and alert. Tim appreciated the gesture. He placed his hands on the floor in an effort to push himself up, to sit a little straighter.

"Huh," Nolan began. "I don't think you should move around, sir."

Tim managed one of those T.O Bradford steely looks that dared no one to question his judgement. However, Nolan was far from a rookie nowadays.

The fairly new training officer gently placed a hand on the now blood-soaked dark blue shirt that once belonged to Lucy's uniform and carefully removed it to look underneath. He didn't like what he saw. The wound was still bleeding. Tim would be bleeding out if help didn't arrive soon. 'Damn Rosalind and her followers,' he thought angrily. 'All this because he had been nice to her a few years ago?' He would never have imagined that being nice to someone would lead to so much suffering.

He followed Tim's gaze up at the streaks of starry sky above them, visible throughout the debris. John frowned. He hadn't realized there was an opening a few meters above them. Filled with hope he shouted; "Hey! We're down here!"

"We tried that earlier," Tim said, his voice no more than a strained whisper. "They can't hear us. Too much background noise."

"I hoisted myself up on Tim's shoulders -," Lucy paused, feeling guilty at Nolan's terrified expression "- I couldn't reach the edge. I would try and throw something up there but I've hurt my ribs."

John quickly grabbed his badge, undid it from his shirt, and threw it in the air. It hit a wooden beam and bounced back down, ending up in Bradford's lap.

Tim grimaced and picked it up, handing it back to John.

Nolan threw it again; this time his aim was better.

OOOOOO

"Mrs. Juarez," he said kindly. "My name is Wade Grey. I am the watch commander back at Mid-Wilshire."

She forced a worried smile. "It is nice to meet you in person. However, I do wish it had been under different circumstances."

Karla turned around as the door opened behind her to reveal another well-dressed woman who appeared to be some kind of authority figure.

"Karla, this is Lieutenant Pine, she is in charge of the Metro Unit, a special branch within the force," Grey explained. "Lieutenant, meet rookie Celina Juarez's mother."

Pine nodded somewhat tight-lipped. "My sincere apologies Mrs. Juarez for what you have been put through. One of my guys are in there too. Unfortunately, we can't do anything else than wait for the LAFD to get their thumbs out of their asses."

Grey held his breath. The lieutenant had a tendency to be rather blunt and straightforward at times. He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and picked it up. "Grey," he said.

"It's me," Nyla said. "Angela and I are on our way back from prison."

"Anything good coming out of it?" he asked curiously as he glanced at the various monitors before him in the mobile command center.

"You'll be getting a request to take Hutchinson on a trip to Santa Monica," she replied unamused. "He wanted to spend some quality time outside, get some tan and a little sand between his feet."

He frowned. "That good, huh?"

"Apparently the clowns are hired people with no clue about the real reason behind their deliveries. They have been contacted randomly on the streets from a production company."

Grey put the phone on speaker so that the rest could hear.

"So, they are getting paid to dress as clowns and make a delivery?" he asked.

Pine moved closer while Daniels began to listen more attentively where she sat.

"Not sure about that first clown who got bitten by the tiger," Harper added.

"We've cracked that one. Turns out it was completely unrelated," Grey replied calmly. "A group of animal friends has been rallying against the Zoo for the last couple of weeks, demanding they should release their 'prisoners'. A clown, a hippo and a horse managed to free one of the tigers before the guards could get the situation under control. The Hollywood division have a fairy, an elf and a zebra in custody."

Lieutenant Pine rolled her eyes, hearing about it for the first time herself, as she had been outside coordinating with the firefighters, trying to get them to move in.

"The others are just extras looking for a little money," Harper noted.

"So, there are no ties to anyone?" Pine mused. "Someone must have contacted them; someone must have set it up? What about the inmate; Oscar Hutchinson?"

"Just a decoy; a loose end from Rosalind's followers. However, he does know something about a production company," Harper answered. "Just spoke to Rex and Jan. They have one of the clowns in their shop. We're heading over there now to see if we can find out how he was contacted and by whom and where he got the money from. First-hand information this time."

Pine's phone vibrated and she picked it up. "Metro's expertise is needed elsewhere," she said seriously.

"You should go then," Grey replied kindly. "The team can't do much here anyway."

"Still, the team would have wanted to assist the firefighters, digging Bradford out with their bare hands if they had to. He's a member of the family."

"I appreciate that but someone else needs you right now and I don't think Tim would mind," he reasoned.

"You'd better find them. All of your missing officers," the lieutenant said seriously. "We're back as soon as we can but give me a call if they are pulled out before that and we'll come to whatever hospital they are taken to."

Karla watched somewhat confused as the other woman left the mobile command center. "I thought Sergeant Bradford worked for you?" she said curiously. "Celina did call him her superior officer."

"And he is. However, Bradford answers to Lieutenant Pine as the liaison officer between Metro and the Mid-Wilshire district," he explained softly and gently placed a hand on the woman's shoulder. "I must ask you to step outside Mrs. Juarez. We are doing everything we can to reach your daughter, you have my word on that, but we're also trying to decipher everything we have learned so far about who might be behind it all."

"That should be obvious," Karla reasoned somewhat accusingly. "The followers of Rosalind Dyer. I did not know that my daughter's training officer had a personal connection with such a dark force."

"I can assure you; the last thing Officer Nolan would do would be to expose your daughter to unnecessary danger. However, sometimes we do cross path with vicious and extremely dangerous people. I know this is not what you want to hear but it comes with the job. Being a police officer is not a walk in the park."

She ran a hand through her thick hair. "I knew something like this would happen. I have felt it for days; had this foreboding feeling."

"Please, Mrs. Juarez, I won't tell you to leave the premises, just the command center. I'll make sure Officer Jacobs is nearby to keep you company."

OOOOOO

To be continued