Episode 14: Crossing Jordan

Episode 14: Crossing Jordan
by Toni Walker

Avery Ashton didn’t know how long it had been since she called for help but all she did know was that she couldn’t stop shaking. The men in the front room were only now starting to wake up and one of them stood in her doorway watching her.

“Heard you had a little excitement last night.”

She turned and saw Tucker McLeod. “Excitement? You call what I went through last night excitement? That was torture. You let him get to me.”

Tucker remained in the doorway leaning lazily against the door jam.

“If I am not mistaken, this was *your* lame brained scheme. Remember, I know you, Avery. I know how your mind works. You did date my brother for a year, after all.”

“This is not what I expected.”

Avery knew when to turn on the waterworks and her eyes dripped with fake tears, at least, Tucker thought they were fake tears. He had no way of knowing that Casanova really had been there last night. All he could see were the police officers passed out in the living room and her ripped clothing and a tiny scar on her cheek that ran a beet red line down her face.

“Do me a favor and keep your wild schemes to yourself. It’s not like it’s a secret that you want to drag Parker into your bed. We all can see it. You stick to him like some trained dog waiting for a command. Can’t you see that Parker has a thing for someone else?”

“That’s -- That’s not true.”

“Sure it is. You weren’t in San Francisco with him when he met, what’s her name? Zan? You could have melted bricks with the looks those two were exchanging.” Tucker seemed to enjoy the role reversal. He hadn’t had the pleasure of torturing Avery before in the same way Avery tortured everyone else in her life. He found it to be somewhat of a kick.

“Shut up. Leave me alone.” Avery laid her head back on the pillow and pulled the covers up to her chin.

“Whatever you say.”

Tucker closed the door on Avery and sauntered slowly back into the room where the officers were recovering. Zan and Trent had arrived while he was in with Avery.

“How is she?” Zan asked. “She sounded frantic on the phone.”

“Melodramatic as always but safe. If Casanova really did anything to her, it was purely psychological. Parker and I have been fairly certain from the get go that she’s been playing him. Unluckily for her, she seems to have drawn the psycho out of hiding again.”

“You think this whole thing -- that Avery was making it up?” Trent asked.

“Up until last night? Yes. But one of the officers saw a glimpse of a man crawling into Avery’s window before he passed out. He wasn’t able to phone us but his testimony jives her story.” Tucker took charge of his men and ordered a new team to replace the ones off to the hospital.

“Where’s Parker?” asked Zan. “Shouldn’t he be here too?”

A hint of a smile lifted the edge of Tucker’s mouth. “He was more worried about his ex-partner, Samantha than Avery. I’m sure if you hadn’t been preoccupied with Trent here that Parker may have spent part of the evening with you. But his interest in you seemed to have spooked you last night.”

Trent gave Zan an intense look. “That’s what was bothering you last night?”

Her silence was telling.

***

Jaxx Sinclair wasn’t sure what had happened to Charlie Cooper and Karen last night but their disappearance was worrying him. He’d already put a call into the police station and no one had seen either Karen Chamberlain or Sheriff Cole since the previous night.

His first thought was the hospital. Maybe Karen had been injured last night. Charlie, however, could have wandered off to a next door neighbor‘s house. He wasn‘t certain about anything. Frankly, he had already gotten too involved in the lives of the residents of Park Ridge. All he had come back for was closure on his sister‘s death, not to delve into a mystery.

He had been sitting in the parking lot contemplating his options when Charlie’s nurse friend, Sydney Green knocked on his Jeep window.

“How’s Charlie doing?” she asked after Jaxx rolled down his window.

“Good question. She and Karen disappeared on me last night. You don’t know who Charlie would go to when she’s in trouble, do you?”

Sydney laughed. “Charlie? In trouble? Not gonna happen. That girl is the most straight laced person I know.”

Jaxx got out of his Jeep. He literally towered over Sydney. An envelope fluttered to the ground as he exited.

“You dropped something,” Sydney said. She leaned down to pick up the invitation, then whistled. “Not in town a week and you’ve already been invited to an exclusive McKenna Corp function? You must have friends in high places.”

“What do you mean?” Jaxx accepted the invitation. “Paragon Island? Maybe that’s where Charlie and Karen have gone.”

“You never know. Good luck on the search.”

Jaxx turned to get back into his Jeep but then stopped short. “Interested in attending the party of the year?”

***

Charlie listened as Cole and the black woman bickered in the front seat of the black sedan. They thought they were safe. They thought they could speak frankly amongst themselves since the cone-of-silence aka the window separating the front and back seat was in place. But the thing was either not working properly or left open enough for Charlie to hear most of what they were saying.

“What does McKenna want with the girl anyway?” Cole asked. “It’s not like she can give him the clue to Paul’s whereabouts.”

“Mr. McKenna believes Charlie holds a clue to the final sequence that will allow the scientists to finish the weapon. He merely wants to question her himself,” Asia Mott said with a bit of venom in her voice.

“Question her, hell. Torture her is more like it. And Wayne isn’t much better than dear ole dad.”

“They each have their own issues to work through with Miss Cooper.” Asia Mott’s voice never once betrayed her employers true motives, but Charlie was sure her trip to hell would be a short journey. If hell had dark angels, she would definitely be one.

“I have to get out of here,” Charlie whispered to herself. She tried to open the door but it was locked and there was no way to unlock it from the back seat.

The sedan began to slow down and Charlie’s heart jumped into her throat.

“Do not get out of the car, Cole,” Asia insisted. “We have a deadline to keep.”

Cole smiled and gestured to the long legs of the woman stranded by the side of the highway. Her head was peeking under the hood of her old beat up Mustang.

“I’m the Sheriff and she’s stranded. It’s my job to help her.”

Asia let out a slow breath. He was out the door before she could protest a second time. Rain began to drip on the hood of the car and pebbles of moisture streaked down the windshield.

“Great,” she muttered.

“What seems to be the problem, little lady?”

The young woman looked over her shoulder and smiled. She was wearing Daisy Duke short shorts and a barely-there top. His eyes appreciated the sight she made. And that image was getting better by the minute now that she was getting wet. She didn’t seem to mind the rain and brushed a wet strand of hair out of her face.

“Thank God you’re here. It just died. I don’t know why. Everything seems to be in working order as far as I can tell but my flashlight is out of batteries so I can’t get a good look at all the connections.” She held out her hand. “My name is Jordan.”

“Sheriff Cole Dalton at your service.”

“Sheriff? Well my lucky stars must be watching out for me tonight if the first car along just happens to be the sheriff. Karma is on my side for a change.”

“Can I offer you a lift into town?”

“That would be great. I’m on my way to the Island. Got a new gig to waitress and sing in some big hotel over there.”

Cole chuckled. “It really must be your lucky day. We’re on our way to Paragon Island ourselves.”

“Fabulous. Let me get my suitcase. I travel pretty light.” He raised an eyebrow at her one and only battered suitcase. “I move around a lot.”

Cole put her bag into the trunk and opened the back door. She leaned in and then let out a loud giggle. She sat down next to Charlie and the door closed.

“What are you doing here?” Charlie asked. “I thought you were on your way to Hollywood.”

“I took a left turn at Albuquerque.” She smiled and leaned in for a big hug. “How ya doin’ big sis?”

***

Karen Chamberlain fished the cell phone out of her pocket. She placed a call to a familiar number not saved in the address book of her cell. She couldn’t afford to let anyone know about this private line.

The man that answered didn’t reveal himself.

“You’re not going to believe this. McKenna is inviting everyone to the island.” Karen fingered the invitation she’d received hours earlier. She felt guilty for leaving Jaxx in the lurch but she had no choice. She had a mission here. “I know that psycho is searching for the final sequence and he isn’t sure who Paul gave it to. I know it’s a trap.”

“McKenna won’t give up, Karen. You know him. And anyway, we have bigger fish to fry. Paul escaped.” Erik Winters moved the curtain a fraction of an inch and peeked outside.

“He escaped? Why didn’t you call me sooner.”

“We didn’t discover it until a few minutes ago,” Erik admitted.

“It was Adam, wasn’t it? Adam strikes again.. No one has ever gone fugitive on your watch, Erik.” Karen sighed in frustration.

“Give the man a break, Chamberlain. He and his wife are having trouble again. Paul waited until he was distracted, then booked. Paul is concerned about Charlie and Joy. He’s convinced McKenna is going to get tonight.”

“The man has good instincts. I think someone snatched her right under Jaxx and my nose.”

“There is another problem though. I never had a chance to tell Paul about his condition. If he does find Charlie, she may not recognize him. Or worse, it may push her further into Wayne’s arms.

“I thought the distortion of his cells had calmed down. The last time I saw him he looked fairly normal.” Karen was not ready for Paul or Charlie to reunite but she didn’t want the man to morph into a monster either.

“The condition came back suddenly this afternoon. Not sure why. My concern is that the disfigurement will remain permanent. Once he finds out about his face, he’ll return to the island, I’ll guarantee it. He’ll have to break into his secret lab to fix his condition.”

“I agree with you,” Karen said. “Take Adam and get to Cooper’s lab. Tell Adam to block his wife’s number on his cell. The last thing we need is her distracting him.”

“Already taken care of.”

“Meet up with you in, say, an hour?”

“Got it.

***

“I have to admit, I’ve never seen you looking quite so disheveled, Avery.”

“Shut up, Tucker. I don’t want to talk anymore. Go away.” Avery threw the covers over her head. She really didn’t want to deal with anyone now, especially Tucker.

“I thought you would have recognized my voice by now considering I’m the father of your child.”

Avery slowly lowered the cover from her head.

“You’re -- You’re dead,” Avery stuttered.

“When you do a job, Ashton, you might want to make sure the deed is done to its fullest. It was a surprisingly fast recovery considering the deep hatred I harbored for you.”

Avery had no words for Trey McLeod.

Trey grabbed a handful of Avery’s blond hair. “I’ve been watching you, Avery.” He gestured to the men lounging in the other room. “This is who you replace me with? Tucker’s do-good partner?”

Tears came to Avery’s eyes. “He’s more man that you’ll ever be, you freak.”

“Freak now, is it?” Trey ran a finger Avery’s cheek. “ remember when those lips begged me to make love to you. And that wasn’t so very long ago, in fact.”

Avery reared back from him, but not far enough to get out of his reach. Her body trembled, yet she remained rooted to the spot.

“Yes,” Trey whispered. “You fear me, but you still want me. I can feel it.”

“You’re sick. Leave me alone.”

Another voice came from the bedroom door. “Yeah, leave the lady alone.”

Trey didn’t bother to turn and acknowledge the voice. “Ah, Mr. Sutherland. Fancy yourself a hero, do you?” He chuckled. It was low and menacing.

“Maybe you didn’t hear me, McLeod. Leave the lady alone.” Leo leveled his weapon at Trey.

“You surprise me, Leo. I had no idea you had so much grit in you.” Trey squeezed Avery’s hair and she screamed in pain. He used the distraction to throw Leo off balance then he thrust Avery’s body into his and both of them tumbled to the floor.

“Love to stay around and chat and reminice about old times but I must depart.”

By the time Leo disentangled himself from Avery Trey had escaped.

Avery got up slowly, almost in a daze. “Was that Casanova?” she asked, her voice as shaky as her trembling body.

“Casanova?,” Leo said skeptically. “It would make my job easier if he was. At least then I’d have a face for this killer.”

“What does he want with me?” Avery asked.

Leo slanted an intense look at Avery. “That’s a very good question. Why would a psycho like McLeod terrorize you the same time a serial killer is hot on your heels? Either you’re not telling me everything or you have some seriously bad karma.”

Leo grabbed his cell phone out of his pocket and walked toward the door. “I’m going to call this in. You might want to get your story straight before I return.”