A/N: I own nothing and please forgive all of my mistakes. Truth bombs galore but another mystery surrounding Quinn has got to be solved. If we had all the answers we wouldn't need Part 3.

46

An hour later, Hunter dropped Cedes off her old friend's house, and she found herself in the woman's den, drinking a glass of wine and reminiscing about the good old days. Not that Quinn was home yet, but Cedes could wait. And she did.

When she heard the keys open the lock at the door, she put the glass down and watched as the woman stepped inside her dark house. She flipped on the light to the living room, turned, and saw Cedes.

"Oh, my God! Mercedes Porter? What the hell are you doing here? You scared the shit out of me."

"Hey, Q."

The woman, a beautiful blond taller than her with hazel eyes, put down her satchel and grew wary, looking around like she half expected a team of law enforcement officers to arrest her, she asked, "How did you get in?"

Cedes showed her the key. "You still keep it in the same place you always did. And you still work late hours, I see."

Quinn kicked off her shoes, looked at the open bottle of wine, and took a glass out of the China cabinet. She walked over and poured herself a glass full.

"Why do I get the pleasure of your company tonight of all nights?" she asked.

"You need to be asking who brings me here when my daughter just had brain surgery and is in the hospital," Cedes said. "Three names. Bryan, Ryan. Menkins."

"The man whose DNA was on the clothing of Sander Menkins that cold case of yours."

"Un huh."

"I don't have the file with the results here, but I will be happy to tell you what I remember if you tell me what you need to know."

"How he accomplished it."

"I only run the tests, Cedes. I am unable to tell you that as you know."

"I know what you do; I'm just wondering how he got you to lie to me your supposed friend and change the results for him."

Her words shut Quinn up, the blond downed the contents in her glass in one long swallow.

"I believe the words you're thinking of telling me are, 'He blackmailed me.' Or 'He threatened me.' Or, hell, even, 'He coerced me to do his bidding by discovering my weakness for bad boys and promised me hot prison sex for the rest of his stay.' Anything but, 'I did it because I love him.' That's just a little too dumb, and you are no dumb blond. Crazy as hell, yes, dumb, no."

"I am in love with him."

"Oh, my God, Quinn, what are your sniffing? Are you on drugs or is it witchcraft that has you acting like you have lost your mind."

Her friend had always been a hot mess, but altering DNA evidence? Every single test she'd ever run would now be questioned. Every person convicted on evidence she processed would be thrown out. People guilty of murder and rape and molestation and trafficking … any number of felons would now have to be retried or released altogether.

What Cedes was about to do was beyond unethical, but she could not allow that to happen. Not if she could help it. She had to know.

"Don't worry, Cedes, he doesn't love me back. I offered him conjugal visits and he declined me. If he wasn't gay before prison, I am sure he is now. You know jail changes men."

"I don't care if Menkins is straight, gay, or bi. All I want to know is how many DNA results have you changed for him?"

"You don't understand. He saved my brother's life in Nevada. They were going to kill him when they find out he was once my sister Frannie and had changed his gender identity and tried to join an Aryan gang for protection there. You know what those fake Christians Nazis think. They were using him as a toilet in there Cedes. He wasn't able to walk or talk from the constant rapes."

"How many cases, Q? How many has he used you to get people out of crimes or frame innocent people?"

"This is the only one, I swear. You've met my brother and know how my family disowned him when he went to Europe and had gender reassignment surgery. Frank lost everything his husband, his house, and he only turned to drugs to self-medicate. He shouldn't have been in prison for drugs. He was only hurting himself. All I know is that Frank wouldn't be alive today if not for Bryan Ryan Menkins."

"He's a shot caller, Q. Your brother probably wasn't going to die from rape. It was most likely a setup to get you under his thumb. To save you for a rainy day."

"No, this happened years ago. Frank told me that Bryan Ryan rescued him, and then I started writing him." She looked away. "He never really wrote me back. I visited him when I visited Frank. He told me he was not interested. That made me want him even more. This is the first time he ever asked me to do anything, and he was reluctant to do that."

"That's how he works. You can't be this naïve. Tomorrow morning, you're going to resign."

"I'm sorry, I can't."

"You can or I'll turn you over to the Eureka Police Department as well as Internal Affairs. All of your cases will be overturned. Lots of guilty people will go free to hurt people again."

"You have no proof. It will be your word against mine, and I think they will believe me over you."

"Quinn, don't make me have to use this. I've recorded this whole conversation. You'll be arrested." She showed her the phone in her hand.

"Then go ahead and arrest me. It's not that I don't want to quit. I am unable to." Her expression was one of both fear and desperation.

"Who else has you under his or her thumb?"

"Someone who I am deathly afraid of and is lot more frightening than you could ever be."

"Did you lie to me earlier when you said that you hadn't altered any other tests?"

"No, I swear to God, I am telling the truth. He just makes me do a couple of side jobs for him from time to time. Off the books. That's all."

What kind of side jobs did she do? "Who is he?"

"If I tell you, we will both be dead by morning."

"I can have you placed in protective custody."

"You can't even protect yourself from him nevertheless anyone else."

"Quinn, you know I can't let you continue to do this."

"You have to do what you have to do."

"The first thing I need you to do is destroy the analysis you falsified immediately."

She nodded. "I promise I will."

"Then you and I are going to talk, and you are going to know just how dangerous I am. I am not the woman you used to know. I am willing to let you die for justice to be carried out." Cedes lowered her voice, hopefully preventing anyone who might be listening from hearing her. "

Quinn nodded again letting Cedes know she believed her words.

Cedes texted her parents to let them know she would be late getting to the hospital the next morning. Gina was being released, and she needed them for them to be there. Ricky's doctor wanted to keep him for a little while longer much to Gina's dismay.

She stepped out of her cruiser into the blinding light of the California sun. She'd gotten exactly three seconds of sleep, which could explain her aversion to the sun shining so brightly in the sky.

"What's wrong with you today?" Hunter asked her.

"It's today."

"And are you hungover from last night."

She was obviously a bad judge of character, and her Cedes senses were not as reliable as she thought. She was wrong about Quinn, she was wrong about Brian Ryan Menkins, and she had to be wrong about Sam. Did her love for him blind her to his guilt? She couldn't understand why Sam kept the truth from her. The law enforcement officer in her came to one disturbing conclusion: he had to know something about her abduction. But why not tell her? Why not return her to her parents as soon as possible? Why fight with one of her abductors and then take to her the hospital?

He was just a kid, himself. Well, young anyway. He was only just turned nineteen when it happened. Had Sander and whoever else was in on her abduction tricked him into helping with her kidnapping somehow? If so, what event led to the fight to the death she witnessed? She ended up with a traumatic brain injury, memory loss, and other injuries before it happened. Did her injuries push him into the deadly fight? And what in the hell did Bryan Ryan have to do with any of it? Had he been involved as well? How many Menkins family members were actually involved?

Her brain hurt with all the questions she was trying to make it process and answer. Now she and Hunter were at the state pen in Eureka because the DA had pulled it off. He had gotten Bryan Ryan Menkins transferred to California, and he'd done it in record time.

"I think I should go see him alone this tiim," she said to Hunt. "Bryan Ryan may talk more openly to me if you aren't around"

"That's your hangover talking, boss and not common sense."

"Don't make me give you an order deputy."

"Don't make me pull give you an ultimatum that involves your parents, sheriff."

When they walked in the intake specialist was going through all the items on his desk, it took him awhile to look up Menkins on his computer. "I see he came in just last night. Bryan Ryan Menkins. He has quite the record. This must be really important to have gotten him transferred here this quickly from Nevada," he said, fishing for information.

"It is extremely important," she said, not giving him any details. She didn't know who she could or could not trust at this point.

"I'll have him brought to you." He radioed the guard and then guided to small room like the one in Nevada, only Eureka, California clearly didn't have quite the money they did.

"You got my message." Bryan Ryan said when they brought him in.

He wondered why Hunter was there, before he returned his attention to Cedes. "No, I didn't get any messages."

"Then why are you here so soon?" He asked surprised.

"Because I have questions."

"She has lots of questions," Hunter emphasized.

"Your questions are going to have to wait. You have to go get Sam. Did you get my message or not?"

"No, my questions can't wait. No, I don't have to get Sam. And no, I didn't get your message." she said. The edge in his voice alarmed her, but she needed to stay focused. "You were only transferred here to give me answers. I have done my part, now you do yours."

"The questions can wait. You need to get to Sam right now. I thought that was why you were here in the first place."

"I have a feeling you're going to be getting a message soon from Quinn Fabray?" She stood and leaned over the table. "You lied to me."

"Quinn?" he asked.

"How did you get her to falsify the DNA test?"

"We don't have time for this."

"And why?"

"If I answer your questions, then you will you go and get Sam to safety?"

"Yes."

"Fine. Get rid of your guard dog."

Cedes turned to Hunter.

"Really again?" Hunter asked. When she didn't say a word, he made a grand exit as he knocked on the door to be let out and exited like the show pony he was.

As soon as the door close, she asked him. "Why did you confess to killing your brother?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Why?," she asked.

"Because it doesn't matter who killed him, chocolate drop. You get to solve the case, and everyone is happy."

"That's not how I work."

"How did you even figure any of this out?"

"I remembered."

"Oh, sorry. That must've sucked."

"You have no idea. I need you to stop playing games with me."

"That's too bad because I don't think I can."

She decided to try another approach with him, "I'm in love with Sam."

He didn't say a word. He just stared at her.

"Last night, everything came to me in a rush, I remembered everything that happened the night I went to the hospital." She tried to look teary eyed to sway him.

"You are finally being honest with me."

"Why was Sam there? Why do you know so much about what happened that night?"

"When I heard what Sandy was up to, I was working a job out of state, and he was desperate for money. Your kidnapping was over and done by the time I got back to town. When I found Sam that night, he was delirious. Bleeding to death in his bed. Refusing to tell me what happened. Swearing he'd be fine. He just needed to sleep it off, but his sheets were soaked with blood, and this was hours after he got you to the hospital."

"Why didn't he admit himself at the hospital was he afraid he would be arrested?"

"You would have to ask him if that's the case. I just knew he would die if I didn't get him to the hospital as soon as possible. I had to risk him being arrested, but I wrapped him up the best I could to slow the bleeding and took him to an emergency room."

"But there were no stabbing victims admitted into any of the local hospitals."

"I drove him all the way to McKinleyville. That was the biggest risk. I was scared he was going to bleed to death on the way there. Took him to Southside Hospital. Admitted him under a false name. Then I got him out of there as soon as I could after his surgery."

The image of Sam almost bleeding to death and undergoing surgery, sickened her.

"He was in a bad state and told me everything in his drugged state. Well, most everything." He grinned up at her. "There were never any ropes, were there?"

Her test. She shook her head. "No. Chains. I only remember chains. And possibly duct tape."

"Clever girl."

"Hardly. It took me fifteen years to figure this out."

"Brain injuries tend to do that. I went back and buried the body of the man in a grave."

"What about your brother Sandy?"

"Like I said. I killed him."

"Do you really believe I believe that lie?"

"It was worth a shot."

"How did Sam find me if he wasn't a part of it?"

"Just dumb luck or skill or both. He had been practicing his tracking skills and was looking for you every day you were missing. He wasn't eating or sleeping according to Stacey. He was hell bent on finding you, and when he found you so close to our property, he almost lost his mind. He knew the dude that was there with you that night who was attacking you had to be working with someone related to us. He just didn't know who."

"Why didn't he just tell me? After all these years, why keep it a secret?"

"Who the hell knows?" He raked a hand through his blond hair.

"He could've died saving my life, and I would never have known."

"Do you have any idea what it would've done to him if you'd died?"

His question surprised her.

"He would've never gotten over it. He would not be the same man you see today. Besides, you helped."

"I helped what?"

"You helped him win the fight that night."

The snort that escaped her expressed her feelings on the subject beautifully, but she elaborated anyway. "Bryan Ryan, I literally lay there and watched as Sam was stabbed over and over. I couldn't have been more useless if I were made of ice."

"When that man tried to rape you, you bit a plug out of his hand. He was weakened from a loss of blood while fighting Sam. His blood loss and injury helped Sam defeat him in the end. You helped rescue yourself. You made it possible for Sam to wrest the knife away."

"How do you know all of that?"

"Because he told me when he was under the medication from the hospital, I believe him because he rarely lies either way. Now, when do I get to see Regina."

"Why do you want to see her?"

"Because I've heard she is a lot like her grandmother."

"Really?"

"Mary was a lot like you. Strong. Beautiful. Fiercely protective of her family."

"You were in love with her."

"She was the only woman who cared about me in that crazy family. She saw what Sander did to me, and she helped me by allowing me to move in with them. She helped everyone there who needed her. She didn't love me back of course, I was too young, and she loved Sam's birth dad. She just couldn't be with him because my brother threatened to kill Sam if she left him. He ended up killing her. The only woman I could ever love."

She sobered with the knowledge that Bryan Ryan had been in love with his sister-in-law. With Sam's mother. "You're telling me Sam is Gina's father."

"You have to know he is," he said.

She took a long moment to process this fact. "You just said he wasn't a part of my abduction."

"I don't understand. What does your abduction have to do with Sam being Gina's father?"

"Because that's when it happened. I woke up pregnant."

"You woke up with retrograde amnesia."

"True, but I've remembered a lot since then. Almost everything."

"Clearly, you haven't. That could explain why Sam hasn't told you the truth. Maybe he's waiting for you to remember. And a little sad you haven't. According to him, that night was everything. His word. One night you're underneath him with skin so soft smelling so sweet like a drop of chocolate—again, his words—and the next you're gone."

All these years, the answer was right in front of her. How did she not guess the truth? Was it denial? Or just sheer incredulity?

She'd gone for so long believing she'd been raped by a monster. But she'd never wanted Gina to feel less-than because of it. Because of something beyond her control.

"Does Sam know?" she asked, about to break down in tears. "That he's Gina's father?" The words seemed foreign. Surreal. Before Bryan Ryan could answer, however, she did it for him. "Of course, he knows. He loves her so much."

"She's yours, chocolate drop." He reached up and brushed the wetness off her cheek. "He would love her either way."

She couldn't stop her crying then. She didn't even care. Screw policy. Screw procedure. Screw the rules. She stood, walked around the table, and threw her arms around him. He'd stood as well, anticipating her break from reality, and hugged her right back. Astonishingly, he let her cry and slob on him and didn't seem to care in the least.

After another crying for what felt like forever she stepped back from him, and asked, "Wait, what did you mean I have to get Sam? What message were you talking about?"

"Oh, now you want to know?"

"You know I do."

"Cooter is going to take him murdered. He's working with a man named Schuester."

"Yes. Lima Springs's former sheriff. How do you know these things from prison?" she asked.

"Connections."

"Names?"

"Not on your life."

"Okay then. Well, I've been aware of Cooter and Schuester for a while. They're planning something."

"Cooter wants the business Sam spent the last decade building from the ground up. He brought our family out of poverty and despair, and Cooter can't stand it."

"From what I hear, he also wants to be inducted into the Southern Mafia again."

"The Southern Mafia isn't quite the well-oiled machine you might think it is. It's basically a few pockets of the criminally clueless, and half of those are now beholden to crime families a little farther south."

"LA?"

"Mexico cartel," he said with a smile. "Among others."

"Okay. But what does Schuester hope to get out of it? What does he want besides my badge."

"Your badge?" he asked, surprised.

"Yes. He very much wants this badge back."

"That would make trafficking humans and drugs easier."

"That makes sense."

"Maybe. I'll have to look into it for you."

"And Quinn Fabray?"

"Hey, she came to me. I didn't ask her to."

"Really?" Cedes said, knowing this man's penchant for lying.

"I'm not quite the evil mastermind you imagine me to be."

She kind of believed him. Kind of. Quinn was always a hot mess. She had daddy issues. Her brother Frank and she both suffered growing up in the household of an alcoholic mother and a cheating father who was obsessed with perfection. "Someone she is afraid of is pulling her strings."

"Who?"

"I don't know. You look into Schuester, and I'll look into Fabray. Does Sam know he's in danger?"

"That boy thinks he's invincible. I need for you to buy me some time. A week or two at the most."

"What the hell are you talking about Bryan Ryan? How do I buy you time?"

"By getting Sam into hiding. I'll take care of everything else."

"Bryan Ryan, I can't allow you to kill Schuester and Cooter even if they deserve it."

"And you don't have to. I'll get you the evidence to arrest Cooter. I just need a couple of weeks to do it. In the meantime, you have to get Sam to safety."

"And just how am I going to do that? You know he's not just going to come to me willingly."

"Elope to Vegas and go on a honeymoon. He would marry you, his chocolate drop, today if you asked him."

"My daughter is being released from the hospital today. I've just had three violent attacks in my town. One was in a mine. And multiple stabbings. Not to mention all the dead bodies. There is no way I can leave Lima Springs."

"Then you have only one option left and he is going to hate you."

"I don't care if he hates me; he's been lying to me for the last fifteen years."

After she and Bryan Ryan came up with a plan to keep Sam safe, she wanted to know everything that had happened in the past. She started by asking, "Who was Sander's partner?"

"That man who attacked you and injured Sam was a drug dealer from the Indian reservation who supplied Sandy with the drugs he sold. Sandy started taking the drugs instead of selling them, he was also using the drugs to lure young people to the cabin for sexual favors, and he owed the man lots of money. Sandy swore he was going to get paid from abducting you. The dealer ran out of patience and followed Sandy to your location. After Sandy left, he was going to have fun with you and that's when Sam found you a bloody mess having fought your attacker. I found and got rid of his body. Because the man was a half breed from the reservation, nobody reported him missing. Sam never knew it was exactly Sander who was involved until later when Stevie showed him where Sander was taking him. It was the same place you were held, and Sam lost it."

"He told Sandy that he was going to jail. Sandy pulled out his knife and the two fought. Sandy was no match for Sam. By the time I got to them, they were rolling on the ground and Sam had gotten cut more than once trying to get the knife and that's how Sam's blood got on Sandy. I was the one who crushed his neck when I got to them, but Sam had already plunged the knife in his heart. It was self-defense, I didn't lie about that. Sander was not going to jail, and he would have killed Sam in order to avoid it. I buried my brother in a shallow grave and took the knife so the weapon wouldn't be found and tied back to Sam."

"So, you are the reason everyone was confessing. You knew the truth but wanted to keep Sam out of jail."

"I wasn't responsible for every confession though. I have wanted to kill Sander forever. I am just sorry, Sam beat me to it by a second. And as for the other confessions, what can I say? The man is loved by everyone who has sense and can see how good he is and how good he has been to the Menkins family even though we are not his blood family. He takes after his momma."

"The man thinks he is a superhero and has the following of one, truth be known. When are you going to tell me where the knife is?"

"I will tell you that later."

She nodded and got up to leave the room. When she was finally reunited with Hunter. He was not happy.

"Are you okay?" he asked, looking past her to Bryan Ryan Menkins behind her.

She didn't answer with words. She just threw herself into him, needing him to hug her.

"Alrighty, then," he said, hugging her back and, Cedes was certain, looking at Bryan Ryan with questioning eyes from over her shoulder.

The guard ended their hug by reminding them that he had to get Menkins back to his cell. Cedes surprised the guard by hugging him, too, he didn't hug her back though but did gently pat her on her back.

She felt relief. Probably because he didn't use his stun gun on her for sexual harassment.

She stood back and realized the fool she was making of herself. There were several witnesses if the guard decided to file a sexual harassment lawsuit including a few inmates.

As one of the officials came forward, determined to put a stop to whatever was going on, she turned and pushed her luck as far as she possibly could by giving Bryan Ryan another quick hug, then she faced the wrath and questions of Hunter Clarington as they left the state pen with half of the employees believing she was a lunatic who was a compulsive hugger.

"We have to hurry up and get to Lima Springs, we have to save Sam Menkins' life, and he's going to be pissed off."