23

Safe Room

Here is the next chapter. I'd like to thank each of you for being patient with me while I post these chapters as I can. Work is getting more and more hectic but I will not abandon this story. I want to thank y'all for the alerts, favorites, and reviews. I hope that y'all enjoy this chapter. And as always, I would love to know what you think.

Jake and I searched Pam's home from top to bottom and we found nothing. We did the usual things that 'detectives' do. We looked for clues. We took pictures of anything that we thought was out of the ordinary. We even scribbled in our notepads. Yep. Jake has a notepad too. Who would've thought, huh? Anyway, we compared notes and discussed this and that but nothing stood out. Well, at least not at first.

As Jake and I stood in the kitchen, the last place to be investigated, I sighed in exasperation. I leaned on the countertop and stared at my fellow detective. "Nothing," I said. "I don't know why I'm surprised. The clean-up crew came and cleaned this place up a little too good. Not a drop of blood in sight. Not a shard of glass. Not a single footprint or fingerprint. Nothing."

"Yeah," Jake said as he rested his backside against the counter. "We knew that. But hey. All isn't lost. We can find what we're looking for but it's going to take a little time. We can't give up on Pam. I know that she has the worst personality ever but she needs to be here. She needs to be at home. We'll get what we need. We'll find something. I'm sure of it." He nudged me with his elbow. "Hey. Don't give up."

I chuckled. "I don't give up, Jake. You're going to learn that about me soon enough." I stood upright as I slapped the countertop. "Come on. Let's go. I'm hungry. Do you like tuna salad? I made some last night."

Jake turned his nose up and shook his head. "Not particularly."

"Your loss, Buddy. I make great tuna salad."

Just as I said that, a girl popped out of the pantry.

I screamed.

Jake jumped. "What the fuck!?" he yelled.

The girl tried to go back into the closet but Jake stopped her. When he turned her around to face us, her eyes were squeezed closed and tears were rolling down her cheeks. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry," she repeated. She was shaking uncontrollably. I could only guess that it was because she was just as surprised to see us.

Jake released her arm but stayed close to her. "I'm not going to hurt you," he promised her. "I'm not going to hurt you."

The girl was a young, red head. She had big blue eyes and tanned skin; which I found to be quite odd. I've never known a red head that has tanned skinned. Her face was full and beautiful. She had the type of body that I've always envied. Her legs went all the way up to here. She was shapely and tall. She was just so damned tall. Her outfit fit her body perfectly. She looked like the type of woman that Eric would be with when Short Sookie isn't around.

I thought that they were good people.

"We are good people," I said to her.

Her eyes snapped open. For a brief second, she didn't look afraid. She looked intrigued. "How do you know what I was thinking?"

Jake looked at me with a frown on his face. I forgot that none of Eric's Weres or vampires know what I can do. It was too late to turn back now. "I can read minds," I answered.

Her eyes were as wide as saucers.

Shit, she thought.

"Shit," Jake said. He looked impressed. He then looked nervous.

I rolled my eyes at him. "I have never read your mind, Jake. We're friends. I wouldn't invade your thoughts unless you gave me reason to. Don't go acting all loopy on me because you know what I can do."

The nervousness faded from view. "Good," he said. "That's good." I could only imagine what he'd been thinking. I couldn't help but wonder if those thoughts were about me.

"Who are you?" I asked her as I stood next to her.

She didn't answer me verbally. Her name popped into her head.

"Hi, Kensie," I said. "I'm Sookie and this is Jake. We're friends of Pam's. We're here to find out what happened to her."

She squeezed her eyes closed and began to cry again.

"Did you work for her?"

Kensie nodded.

"How long did you work for Pam?"

"Not long," she offered. "I worked for her for about a year. Everyone else worked here a lot longer than I did." She looked at me and asked, "Why was I spared? Why was I the one that was saved?"

I reached to touch her hand but she drew back from me. "I meant no harm," I assured her. "I won't do that again. Okay?"

She nodded.

"Were you here that night?"

Kensie answered, "Yes."

"How long have you been in that room?" I asked her.

"Since that night," she answered.

Jake's eyes widened. He moved impossibly closer to her and asked, "What did you see?"

She stepped away from Jake and closer to the pantry.

"Sorry," he said as he raised his hands in the surrender motion. He stood next to me as he waited for the girl to answer him.

She sighed before speaking. "I didn't see anything. I was in the kitchen. Pam doesn't like it when we leave a mess in the kitchen. If we bake cookies, we must wash every dish before we leave for the night. That's a rule. If we don't, we can't bake cookies for a long, long time. She said that if we cook here, we must follow the rules or we pay the price. No more cookies."

I guess she does let her humans get that comfortable in her home.

"I was washing the last dish, when I heard a vampire yell that they were here." Her eyes widened as she began to relive that night. She pointed at the door and said, "Reynaldo told me to stay in the kitchen. He was one of Pam's human guards. He used to be in the Marines. Pam liked him because he was a fighter. He was so strong and brave." She dropped her head and fell quiet. "I really liked him. We were becoming close."

"You and Reynaldo?"

"Yes," she whispered.

I could soon see the chaos in her mind. "It's okay," I told her. "Take your time. Tell us what happened at your own pace. It's okay," I repeated.

She pointed towards the kitchen entryway. "He stepped out of the kitchen and made his way down the hall. I didn't know what to do so I stayed put until he came back. He told me to go into the safe room. He punched in the code for me and told me to stay there. He said that I needed to make sure that everything that was going on was being recorded. He said that I needed to make sure that Eric got everything that was on those tapes. He said that Eric was going to need them." She began to shake her head no. "I tried to get him to come into the room with me but he wouldn't. He said that he had work to do. He pushed me into the room and said that I shouldn't let anyone in and I should not come out until it's safe." She looked at me and Jake. "It's safe."

"Do you know who did this?" I asked her. I needed to know for sure if it was Maxwell. I wanted to believe that it was someone else. For Eric. I didn't want him to lose someone he'd considered a friend. I wanted to believe that Maxwell was loyal to him and Pam.

"It was Mr. Maxwell," she said. "He killed Ms. Heidi. He killed Reynaldo. Those that were with him, killed all the human servants."

I took in the reality of what Maxwell had done. He'd shed innocent blood.

"Do you know why? Did he say why he was doing this?"

Kensie shook her head no. "He led Ms. Pam from the house. He punched her hard to keep her from talking. She told him that Mr. Eric was going to kill him."

Jake moved in closer. "You heard what they said? You heard everything?"

"Yes," she answered. "The cameras in the safe room are working. Reynaldo set up the safe room for Ms. Pam. While he was in the Marines, he did communications or work. He and several of the other men built the room. Reynaldo set up the security system. He believed that the security system to the safe room needed to differ from the security that was in the rest of the house." Whispering, she added, "He believed that anything could have gone wrong to compromise the house. It did."

"The safe room needed to stay safe."

"Yes," she said.

I frowned as I looked at her. "Why wasn't Pam hidden in the safe room? Why were you put there instead of Pam?"

She opened and closed her mouth several times as she shook her head. "I don't know."

"Kensie," I began. "The man and the woman that were here when the cops arrived, did you recognize them? Had you ever seen them before that day?"

She nodded. "Dawn has been here dozens of times. She and Pam used to be lovers. She worked for the security company that provided security for the main house." She shook her head as she began talking about the man. "I'd never seen him. He and Dawn came in after the massacre and started removing the cameras. When that cop came by, they pretended to be friends of Pam's. He must not have believed their story because he came back later that day."

I nodded my approval. Good job, Andy.

"If you saw that guy again, would you recognize him?" Jake asked.

"Yes," she replied.

With my hand reaching to her, I asked her if I could hold her hand. "I need to be sure that you're telling us the truth. Because I don't know you, I can't take you at your word. I work for Eric and I must be sure that you weren't a part of what happened here. Are you okay with that, Kensie? Will you hold my hand?"

She looked apprehensive. "I don't know." She tucked her hands behind her back.

"I won't hurt you," I promised. "I have to do this. This is my job."

She studied me long and hard. I listened in on her as she contemplated what to do. I could also hear that she was wondering if I was reading her mind. She wondered what I would see while holding her hand. She wanted to know what and who I am. This time, I didn't answer her. With my hand extended, I waited for her to take it.

She finally decided to do what I'd asked of her. As soon as I took her hand, I could see Kensie standing in the kitchen with Reynaldo and couple of others eating cookies and drinking something in mugs. The conversation was light and easy. They all appeared to be at ease with each other. Maxwell soon came into the kitchen and told them that they needed to clean up before dawn approached.

"You know how Pam won't stand to have a mess in her kitchen," he warned them. "We have at least another hour before the dawn." He looked at Kensie and winked.

And that's when I saw it.

She gave Maxwell a slight nod and dropped her gaze to the countertop. She was blushing. She and Maxwell were lovers. She didn't have a relationship with Reynaldo as she tried to make us believe. There was nothing going on with them. They were nothing more than co-workers. I glanced up at her and smiled. "You're doing a great job, Kensie. I can see everything that happened."

Jake frowned as her stared at me. "What do you see?"

"Everything," I said as I stared into Kensie's eyes.

And she knew. She tried to run away from me but Jake had her by her arms and slammed her against the wall … holding her in place. She couldn't move an inch. His body was soon pressed firmly against hers.

"You haven't been here since that night," I said as I pointed at her. "I see that you left long enough to go home and change your clothes."

"Let me go," she growled.

Jake's grip tightened as I placed my hands on either side of her head and did what Eric hired me to do.

After Reynaldo left the kitchen, Kensie pulled out her phone and made a call. "It's happening," she said. "Get over here. We have to get started."

She'd just put her phone in her pocket when Reynaldo came back into the kitchen. She never knew that there was a safe room. She wasn't made privy to it. She watched Reynaldo as he punched in the code and hid her there. She watched everything that happened on the security screens in that room. She watched those people die and she didn't flinch. Her arms were folded over her chest. There was a slight smile on her face. There was nothing in her eyes.

Once everyone in the house has been murdered, she emerged from the room. The person that she'd called was knocking on the back door. "The guards are in the shed. They've been taken care of," he said.

"Good job," she said. "We have to get rid of all evidence because there's more evidence. Did you know that there was a safe room? With its on separate security system?"

He shook his head no.

"Well, there is," she spat. "You said that you'd covered everything. You know that he's going to be fucking pissed when he learns of this."

The nameless guy shrugged his shoulders. "Why? We have access to the room and the security system. What's the big deal?"

She stepped into the guy's space and said, "She's a fucking vampire, dick wad. Do you think that she had only one safe room? If Reynaldo knew of the room, I'm quite sure that her maker knew."

He didn't mention the room to me. Maybe he didn't know.

"We're going to have find out if there are other safe rooms in this fucking big ass house," she groaned. "Why are these fucking vampires so fucking suspicious?"

The guy laughed as his comrade's joke. "You're funny."

She snorted. "I won't be funny too much longer if he finds out that we've fucked up. You were supposed to find out everything that you could. You didn't do that."

The guy pointed at the door. "I got us in here, didn't I? I'm the fucking reason that you got the job working with the vampire."

Dawn laughed outright. "This is what got me the job." She twirled around as she showed off her body. Her dress fluttered around her legs. "You had nothing to do with it but guess what? You had something to do with the fuck ups that have taken place. You should have known that there was more than one security system. You are fucking useless," she growled at him.

"Fuck you, bitch," he said as he stood nose to nose with her. "Do you think that because you're a woman, I won't knock you the fuck out?"

That's when Maxwell walked into kitchen. "What's going on?"

The guy had soon lost his macho posture. He was standing upright and his voice had gone down a couple of octaves. He'd opened his mouth to speak but Kensie spoke up for him. "He fucked up, Maxie."

She rambled on about the safe room and how there could be more safe rooms that they need to find. She took 'Maxie into the safe room. She showed him around. They nodded and talked about dismantling the room. Getting rid of any evidence that had been left behind. "Get it done," he ordered her.

"I will," she replied seductively.

He grabbed her by her brown hair and jerked her back. He kissed her with everything that he had. She replied in kind. "You fucked up, Eddie," Maxwell said as he and Kensie left the safe room. "You know what happens when you fuck up." He began walking slowly towards the guy. Kensie rested her backside against the countertop and watched.

Eddie raised his hands in the surrender motion. "I did what I could," he said as stared Maxwell down. "How was I supposed to know that she had a safe room? I don't fucking live here. If you had gotten me in like you were supposed to, we wouldn't be in this shit."

Without replying to him, Maxwell blurred to the guy and snapped his neck. He pulled out his cell phone and called in reinforcements. "Come," he said. "You need to pick up where Eddie left off." He placed his phone in his pocket. As he left the kitchen, he said, "Get rid of it."

"Done," she said.

She and the new guy, they never talked, did as Maxwell ordered them to do.

I removed my hands from her head, along with her wig, and stared at her. "You're Dawn Greene and you're a liar. You weren't here the entire time. You came back to see if you could find the other safe rooms."

"Wow," Jake said as he peeked at me.

She was doing her best to wrestle against Jake but she wasn't doing a very good job so far. He had a killer grip on her. There was no way that she was getting away from him. If I pulled up the sleeves of her shirt, I'd have bet that her arms were covered with bruises. She jerked one last time before she gave up. "If anything happens to me, Pam will die."

My body tensed as those words played in my mind. The very idea of Eric losing Pam terrified me. They need each other. They're family. I'd hate to think of how Eric would be if something happened to her. He can't lose her. They need each other.

Jake was as calm as ever. He began to laugh at the words that bothered me. "She won't die."

"Are you sure?" I asked him.

"Positive," he said. "Think about it. Don't let your emotions get in the way of your job or your ability to think rationally. They're holding her to get to Eric. They want something from him and they aren't going to get it if Pam is finally dead. Eric would kill everyone that had anything to do with this plan." Using his head to point at Dawn, he said, "She's just a pawn in their game. She's not important anymore. They don't need her. She's done her job. That's why she's still here."

And he was right. They can't get Eric to do their bidding if something happens to his child. They'll have nothing to hold over him. "Who is your boss?"

"Fuck you," she spat at me.

I grabbed her bare arm to see if I could see who employed her. I gripped both sides of her head and both times, I got nothing. Just like with Selah, I could see Dawn in a room with vampires but I couldn't see their faces. His name and face had been glamored from her mind. And that puzzled me. "Why didn't Maxwell glamor what happened from her mind, Jake?" I looked up at him. "Why would he leave the events of that night in her mind? He's a vampire. He would have to realize that once Eric found her, he would glamor her to get the information that he needs."

"Because she's supposed to be dead." He said it as if it was the only answer. "Maxwell has walked this earth for hundreds of years. He's not stupid or careless. He and Eric were friends at one time. He left her alive because he knows that Eric will kill her once he learns the truth." He looked at Dawn and promised, "And Eric will kill you."

I could see the very second reality hit Dawn in the gut. And it hit her hard.

What Jake said made perfect sense but what if he was wrong? What if she left alive to get Eric to come to them? What if this entire thing was nothing more than a set up? I looked at my watch. We still had several hours to go before Eric would rise. "What are we going to do with her?"

"Look for some rope or sheets," he ordered.

I did as he ordered. I checked every closet that I could until I found what we needed. I grabbed several sheets and ran back to the kitchen. I watched Jake as he wrapped Dawn up in the sheets. He was probably a whiz at wrapping Christmas gifts. Dawn was wrapped so tightly that it had to have been hard for her breath. Once he was done, he propped her against the wall and admired his work. "Think she'll escape?" he asked me.

"I don't see how she would," I replied. I pointed towards the safe room. "Wanna check it out?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing." Making sure that Dawn was upright before leaving her against the wall, Jake pointed at her and said, "Don't go anywhere."

I laughed long and loudly.

Jake and I checked the room and to no surprise, there were no recordings anywhere in here. We checked the drawers and the closet. Nothing was there. "Nothing," I groaned.

He didn't agree with me. "Not necessarily," he said. "If we can find where Reynaldo put the main line, we can find what we need." He began pointing to the wires and the TVs. "There's more to this system than what we see. If this guy Reynaldo was an engineer in the Army ..."

"Marines and it was communications not engineering," I corrected.

"Whatever," he said. "If he was this careful to keep the safe room under wraps, there's no way he would leave the main line in this room."

My eyes widened. "His house," I whispered.

"His house," Jake agreed. He looked at his watch. "I don't know where Pam keeps the files on her employees. We're going to have to wait until Eric rises."

I nodded in agreement. "He'd know."

"Yep," Jake agreed.

When we walked out of the room, I noticed that Dawn was still leaned against the wall. I looked at her and smiled. "It's good that you decided to stick around."

He laughed as he patted me on the arm. "Come on," he said. "Let's go."

I watched him as he tucked Dawn under his arm and carried her out the backdoor. He slid her into the backseat of his car with ease. I was about to ask him how he was going to keep her from screaming but I didn't have to. He reached into his dashboard and removed a roll of duct tape. He ripped off a piece and placed it over her mouth. Anyone else would have wondered why Jake has duct tape in the dashboard of his car. I didn't. If you could see the seats of his old, beat up car, you wouldn't have to wonder at all.

"Where are we taking her?" I asked.

"To Colonel Flood," he answered. "Eric wants us to report whatever we find to him and the colonel. Since Eric's resting, the colonel is the one that's going to have to decide where to hide this little minx."

I didn't know this but okay.

Jake must've noticed the worry and uncertainty on my face. "Don't worry, Sookie," he said. "I'm not like Maxwell. Neither is the colonel. We have been friends with Eric for quite a while. You will find on betrayal here."

"Okay," I said.

"Ready?" he asked.

"Yep."

He cranked up and off we went.

I took out my phone and began texting Eric. As I texted him, I asked Jake, "Do you wrap Christmas gifts part-time at Macy's or something? You did one heck of a job wrapping up Dawn." It was supposed to be a joke.

Jake began rubbing his hand through his hair. He glanced shyly at me. "Don't tell anyone, okay? They'll never let me live it down."

My mouth dropped open. Before I knew it, I was laughing and crying.

Jake was embarrassed.

My laughter drowned out the muffled sounds of Dawn Greene as she lay in the backseat.