A/N: Happy new year! I hope all of you have an amazing 2025 and also that I may be able to finish this story. Because I got engaged and therefore have a wedding to arrange it has been quite hectic, but I am trying to find the time to keep writing. I also have two other Pretender fics in draft. Hopefully I can post some of that soon.
Just as she decided to risk it all and kiss him, Lyle entered the room, accompanied by two sweepers and holding a box.
The smug smile on his face made Parker in both current and past time contort her face in disgust.
"Well good morning love birds, I have a little distraction for both of you, seeing as you are finally able to get along." He greeted them chipperly.
"And who might you be?" Parker cocked an eyebrow and put her arms in her sides, eying the sweepers to see if she might be able to have a shot.
Jarod followed her gaze and lightly shook his head when she looked his way. She pursed her lips in response.
"That's not really important for now," Lyle said, straightening his tie and throwing the box on the table. "What is important is how long you guys will take to solve this little puzzle."
Jarod eyed the box suspiciously, "and what if we refuse?"
He raised his eyebrows and his smile became even more smug, "let's just say you won't be pretending to be the thing you're going to pretend. We'll make sure of it." Parkers eyes were throwing daggers at him.
Lyle turned as if to leave but then halted and took two steps in Parkers direction, who instinctively took a step back. "You know, you look so pretty when you're angry," I look really forward to watching you some more.
Jarod's eyes pleaded her to keep it together from behind Lyle, she pursed her lips again and kept her face straight.
"No reaction? Pity, I was hoping to hear more from that sharp tongue of yours." He taunted.
He never saw her fist coming, but everyone in the room had heard his nose crack as she hit him. She triumphantly stepped back, her hands raised while the sweepers quickly approached with their guns raised.
"Never speak to me like that again, or next time I'll claw your eyes out, you sick son of a bitch," she spat at him while gloating.
With tears in his eyes and blood running from his nose Lyle was retreated by his sweepers from the room.
"Typical pig." She said to no one in particular as she dropped her arms.
Jarod let go of a breath he'd been holding, looking at her in awe, "remind me never to anger you."
Her lips turned up into a smirk, "now let's see what that psycho brought in."
Jarod reached into the box and retrieved several folders, a floppy disk fell out. Parker took it and observed it. "The Robertson case," she read out loud.
Jarod flipped the folder open and started skimming the papers, "Police reports from rape cases, medical records from several people and spanning multiple years. Even birth certificates."
Parker however saw something else and reached over Jarod to retrieve a pill bottle from the of the box. "What is it?" He asked.
She examined the bottle, "Rohypnol," she said, sounding disgusted.
He stared at her for a second, waiting for an explanation.
She read his expression and clarified, "It's a date rape drug. I think it was originally meant to be used to treat insomnia, but there are men who use it to drug woman and rape them."
She looked around his room, "considering I really doubt you have a chemistry set hidden somewhere in here, I wonder why he needed to include these." She wondered out loud. She started rummaging through the box retrieving more files as Jarod became very still. Parker noticed his change in demeanor and raised her eyebrows at him, "what's with the long face genius?"
Jarod looked at her with a mix of pain and desperation, "Because they want me to become him, they want me to…to..to" he stammered. She gave him an unimpressed look, "Gimme that!" and grabbed the folder from his hand.
He swallowed visibly, "Parker, I…"
"No," she commented harshly while reading the file, "you were crawling into the minds of serial killers before you turned nine. You're not suddenly going to turn into a rapist because they say so." She threw down the pictures on the table, spreading them out systematically. "There are nine cases so far. Two resulted in pregnancies after long term abductions, three deaths so far. Weirdly enough the second case ended in murder, while number three to five didn't. Six definitely was another gruesome death," she said, lifting her eyebrows while scanning the contents of the paper.
Jarod seemingly relaxed a bit due to her rational response, and diving straight into the case, but still didn't seem completely at ease.
"Seven and eight were the ones resulting in pregnancies," Parker continued, "their captures partly overlap and they were supposedly held till the third month of their pregnancy." She paused, clearly uncomfortable, and sighed "One of them killed herself shortly after being released." She read on, her voice strained, "Neither of them had any recollection of their captivity or abductor. Number nine was another murder, they still haven't found all the pieces of her body. If this is the same guy he has a weird pattern of progressing." She lightly shook her head and turned to Jarod who was still eyeing her with deep concern.
"Parker, we need to talk about this," he softly pleaded with her.
She chuckled, "Get this straight" she said while lifting her chin up to him a determined look in her eye, "They want us emotional, they want us to be weak and fearful, just so we can do their bidding." She turned her head away from him, "And while I can't decide for you, I will not play along with their little games anymore." She eyed the camera in the corner and the shot changed to her looking directly into the camera, "they can keep watching us, wanting us to dance to their tunes. Well I hope you enjoy the show for now, because next time I'll see you, I will break more than just your nose." She gave the camera a sweet smile, which fell away immediately when she looked back at Jarod. "You and I are going to solve this case, and if I have even the slightest idea you think about becoming the rapist, I will be the one feeding you the Rohypnol, understood?!"
Jarod's shock was clear to see on his face, he shook himself out of it and blew some air through his nose. "Yes, Ma'am" he affirmed.
She shot him a sultry smile, "Good. Now let's get to work," she commanded as she handed him several files.
Parker gave him five out of the nine cases. Jarod was clearly impressed by her, but not used to working together with someone on something. He liked to be surrounded by all of the details when he was working on a simulation and had therefore spread out his cases on the floor around him like the network they were forming in his mind. Parker meanwhile liked to work organized and had sorted her cases into stacks on the table, leaning over them, her arms resting on the table she hovered above them. She was reading parts she thought Jarod needed to know out loud.
"He chooses the same sort of establishment for his crimes." Jarod commented after having read through most of the files.
"Disgustingly greasy bars, which are in desperate need of a renovation." She held out a picture of a bar in front of her, "Ugh, I can smell this picture." She scrunched her nose up in disgust.
Jarod looked at her questioningly, "What does it smell like?" He asked curiously.
She gave him an annoyed glance, "What do you think it smells like?" She huffed.
He furrowed his brows in thought, "Well, considering it's a place lots of people come together to relax after a workday, consuming alcohol to forget about their sorrows and smoking cigarettes to lower their stress levels. I would assume it smells somewhat like sweat, alcohol and cigarette smoke. " He looked at her expectantly.
She blinked a few times, realization of his lifelong imprisonment settling in once again. "That's…not far off actually," her tone now sounding a lot more mildly. "However, there is also the stickiness of the floor and every other surface to consider. As well as a faint odor of badly cleaned up vomit." She sighed and gave the photo another look, cocking an eyebrow, "The word desperation comes to mind."
Jarod drew his eyebrows together in thought, "These women weren't happy."
"No one that goes to bars like that ever is, most likely they were in a bad place and came there to drown their sorrows or pick up a one-night stand, maybe even both."
Most of the crimes had suspects, all of them describe a dark blond man, about 5'8", normal posture wearing a brown leather jacket and jeans. These suspects look basically the same." She took two photos and showed them to Jarod, "Look, these guys could have been brothers."
Jarod frowned, "The probability of two strangers looking this much alike is very low."
She took back the pictures studying the images, "Well, they aren't related to each other in any way. What are the chances of that, huh?" She mumbled.
"Well there's about a one in 135 chance that a pair of complete doppelgangers exist somewhere in the world. But the likelihood of someone walking around looking identical to you specifically in all eight facial features is only about one in one trillion." Jarod elaborated.
Parker raised her eyebrows, "Meaning something fishy is going on here."
"What kind of fish are we talking about?" Jarod asked.
"No literal fish, but it means there is basically no chance these guys look this much alike without it being preplanned some way." She picked up a third photo from Jarod's pile, "Especially when all three of them look exactly the same." She showed him all three pictures fanned out.
Jarod stared at the near identical faces in front of him. "Fishy indeed."
After two hours of going back and forth between reading the files and combining their info, Parker had taken up residence on the couch, stretched out casually, while Jarod sat on the ground with his back against it leaning against her propped up legs.
"We're missing something." Jarod declared with a sigh.
Parker was chewing on a pencil, "They have different blood types, no related families, no adopted secret triplets or something, they just happen to look exactly alike and in all of the cases the women were branded with a signature mark on their lower back. It suggests the same perpetrator, but none of them were able to have committed even half of the crimes."
"Ironclad alibis for some," he said.
"Weaker ones for others." She added.
How is it possible that there are three men that look this much alike and frequent the same sort of bars within a fifty mile radius." Jarod sat up straight and let his arms rest on his knees. "Let alone be connected to these cases. While the police weren't able to figure out what was going on, they were adamant there most likely was a connection."
"But without any concrete evidence they all walk freely," she shook her head, "there has to be a connection."
"What were the occupations of the first two?" Jarod asked.
Number one is a realtor, number two is a surgeon, what does number three do for a living?
Jarod sighed and handed her a file, "He's a high school science teacher."
She took it and studied its content, "Well the teacher would probably be able to produce the Rohypnol, wouldn't he?"
"Yes, but they searched his house, his classroom, his credit card history. Nothing. Perhaps the surgeon might have been able to get his hands on it." He sighed.
Parker shook her head, "no such luck, they did the same for the other suspects and nothing suspicious turned up."
"Wait," she held up her hand, "what is a surgeon doing at places like these? That's…odd." She furrowed her brows.
"Why wouldn't a surgeon be visiting places like these?" Jarod asked intrigued, looking at her intently.
She tilted her head slightly towards him, "Because they earn more money than they can spend and pretty women flock to men like that, no matter what they look like. If he wanted company he could've easily visited a rooftop bar in the nicer part of town."
"Maybe he was just looking for a friend, or…love?" He turned his head and looked at her expectantly.
She stared at him for two seconds weighing the innocence of his words, blinked, took a breath and told him; "No Jarod, out there in the world money makes all the difference, whether it be in chances in work, education or love. Life isn't fair, never has been. It doesn't matter if you're a balding man with crooked teeth and enough belly fat to keep floating in your own swimming pool, as long as you have enough money to buy your friends and love interests." She held up his picture, "This guy isn't exactly George Clooney, but could've easily scored a trophy wife to take to the country club with him. ER has made sure of that."
Jarod leaned back and looked up to the ceiling, "Well, perhaps he didn't come from money and felt out of place among such people."
She nodded slowly in agreement, "That might be worth looking into."
The door swooshed open and Lyle entered, spotting some severe bruising and a bandaged nose to accompany it. Parker stood up from the couch, clenching her fists, but Lyle remained behind his sweepers this time, "While you two seem to be making some sweet progress it's unfortunately not enough," He directed a sweeper to drop off another box. "Our client is getting impatient, so you have two hours to solve the case, or we'll make sure to inject Miss Parker with some Rohypnol and Jarod with some other drug to help him sim the perpetrator a bit better." He snapped his fingers, "prami-something, anyhow let's see how you two will work under some more pressure." While he made an effort to sound as carefree and in control as he could, Parker was having none of it.
She sauntered over, not once flinching as the sweepers raised their guns at her, "My, my, aren't you an impatient little man. Let me guess, one of your monkeys was supposed to solve this little case and he couldn't do it." She raised an eyebrow in question as Lyle seemed to be looking anywhere but at her. "Even worse, you made promises to your client that were unrealistic and you're now praying we will help you out or it's your ass that's on the line." She gave him a coy smile, "Am I getting warm?"
He swallowed visibly, clenching his jaw and avoided direct eye contact with her.
A smirk played on her lips, "Hmmm, more like burning hot. Perhaps you shouldn't play with fire, someone might get burned."
Lyle put his fingers between his neck and his collar slightly loosening his tie, "Two hours, or you'll be a drugged up mess for my entertainment." He managed to say with only a slight crack in his voice. He tried to make a swift exit, but Parker's next words made him halt at the door.
"You better hope Raines or my father won't be back before your deadline ends. Because not only did you go directly against their orders, you will have failed your first assignment." Lyle quickly retreated without looking back at her, his sweepers right on his tail.
She glowered at the door as it closed, "That asshole better stay behind his sweepers or I will make sure the rest of his body will look like that nose of his." She scowled, her eyes burning with anger.
Jarod's low voice melted away her anger, "How did you know he wasn't doing Raines' bidding?"
She turned and shrugged, "he seems to know enough about pretenders to know how to use one. So he's probably got one inferior to you at his disposal. He's ambitious and clearly trying to impress someone, but only a rookie would make the mistake of promising things you can't guarantee." She sighed, "and while Raines loves to play God, if he wanted to force us to have a child through drugging us, that's the first thing he would have done."
"He was with Raines though," Jarod spoke softly, "when they stopped my heart."
She put a hand under her chin, "Then I guess Raines got himself a rogue intern." Parker sought out Jarod's eyes, "While he may be acting against Raines' orders, we have no idea of knowing whether Raines will discover his ploy or that he will see through drugging us with whatever drug he fancies." She pursed her lips, "I'm afraid we'll have to come up with something, and even then it won't give us any guarantees that he won't try to get us drugged out of our minds."
Jarod nodded, "I think the drug he was talking about was probably pramipexole. I did a sim on it a few years ago,it was meant as a drug for people who suffered from Parkinson. But I predicted that it would enhance libido and impulsiveness. Pathological gambling is also a likely side-effect..."
She raised her eyebrows, "Sounds like a great cocktail for a weekend in Vegas." She cocked her head to the side, "Not so much for a simulation on rapes and murders."
Jarod hoisted himself up to sit on the couch, "Let's just focus on the case for now," he sighed in defeat.
Parker planted herself next to Jarod, "Fine, so what does the perpetrator want? I mean, he seems to want different things, killing, rape and beatings, the forced pregnancies, it makes no sense. Like he has a personality change every few months."
Jarod froze, "Or maybe not." He frantically started rummaging through his files, "the deaths are about punishment, the pregnancies are about some deeper perverted desire to procreate, and the rape and physical abuse are about power." He gave her a look.
"They were executed by different men." They both said simultaneously.
A/N: I know, not much fluff in here, but next chapter will make up for that!