CHAPTER 14

            As Ralph put his car into gear and pulled away from the small house with J.D. still inside, he glanced over at Victoria.  She looked fragile; delicate; on edge; like she would break into a thousand tiny pieces if the wrong thing was said to her.  He was afraid to speak, fearing that the mere sound of his voice would shatter that frail shroud of seemingly forced composure which held her in tact.  He wondered if she even suspected that J.D. was Michael. He figured she probably did.

From his months of observing Victoria, he knew that if Jana had any of Victoria's resolve and inner strength left within herself; he should set his concerns aside because after all, she was a survivor.  She was a strong person and would come out of it.  His hopes in Jana's ability to fight, what appeared to her to be the entire world battling against her, were gratified as he saw that strength return.  It was a slow process; like a butterfly first coming out of it's cocoon as her head slowly came up and the nervous movement in her hands stopped then the almost imperceptible straightening of her back and the lifting of her shoulders.  She was upright and strong again, ready to do battle.  Ralph had seen this before at boxing matches.  Just when it looked as if a boxer had been defeated he came back with some uncanny strength, swing even harder and inevitably won the match.  Somehow Ralph felt that Victoria would be one of those victors.

The furrow on her brow told him that she was deep in thought, and he was expecting her to say something at any moment.

"Ralph," she almost snapped and he jumped not expecting her voice quite that soon.

"You say that Charles knows something about a Michael.  Exactly how much do you know?"

The question took him off guard.  It was sudden, abrupt and demanding.  The Victoria he knew and loved seemed to be back.

"Well..?"  She ordered.  She wasn't going to let him out of this one.

"Everything."  He responded.

"Everything?  Don't give me that!  What do you mean by everything?"

Ralph pulled over to the side of the road and turned off the ignition.  If Victoria wanted a heavy discussion then that was what she was going to get.  "If you want me to spell it out for you, then here goes.  I know that he is your husband, Jana."

It felt like a lightning bolt had pierced her as his words burned through her.  She blurted out, in what Ralph interpreted as almost a state of panic, "J.D. must never know!  Please, Please don't tell him."  She begged, almost in tears.

"You mean he doesn't already know?"  Ralph questioned in disbelief.

Jana stared at him.

As he stared back at her, he could see changing expressions run across her face, as the implications of what he had just said raced through her mind.

"You know....don't you."  She finally said matter-of-factly, with a deadness in her voice that made Ralph shutter.

"Yes.  I know that J.D. is Michael and I know that you were married and lived in Spencer, Missouri."  He admitted.

"You followed me there and found out about Michael and me, didn't you."  She said accusingly.  "But how did you find out about J.D. being Michael?"

"I saw a picture of him from before he was in his accident."  Ralph remarked, proud of himself for having had the foresight to have the background investigations run.

"Why are you admitting all this to me?"  She questioned suspiciously.

"Probably, out of blatant curiosity.  I'm really curious as to what happened to Michael and you.  Can you tell me?"

"No.  I mean...I don't know.  All I do know is that whatever is going on is so important to J.D., that he would give up everything for it, including me.  That is why it is so important that he not know that he is Michael, my husband, or that I am Jana."

Ralph was shocked that J.D. didn't know his previous identity.  He always seemed to know everything else.  "Have you known all along?"

"Ralph, I don't think we should get into this any farther.  You know too much already, and you could hurt J.D. very much.  I only hope I can absolutely trust you to keep this completely secret.  If you don't some very important work may be jeopardized.  Our lives and the success of our work are totally in your hands.  Can I count on you?"  She asked, almost as a plea, with such a look of worry, or possibly fear, on her face, that the rough interior of Ralph melted.  He said, "You don't need to worry.  I'll keep quite, on one condition:  That maybe you will let me know what the heck is going on here, at some future point, when it is safe to do so….Maybe?"  Then added with a big smile on his face, "I don't think that my PI mind would ever rest if I didn't solve this one."

Jana gushed thank you's all over him, telling him she would let him know whatever she could, if and when she could.  If it was at all possible, but she couldn't make any promises since she didn't know enough yet herself.

As Ralph delivered her to her building and walked her to the elevator; he knew that one way or another, he was going to have to find out the rest of the story"

Standing there with her momentarily, groping for the right words to bid his charge good night the elevator doors opened and standing before them was Suzanne.

“Mrs. Davenport.”  She seemed somewhat surprised, especially at the identity of her companion.  “Uh….I was just going out to meet a friend.  I hope that's all right!"

"Sure."  Jana answered, relieved that she wouldn't have to deal with her.  "I don't think I'll be needing you tonight."  She said.  Thinking to herself, boy! that's a real understatement!

As Suzanne stepped out of the elevator, Jana stepped in and the elevator doors closed leaving Ralph and Suzanne standing almost toe to toe, staring at each other.

"How ya doing Suzanne?"  Ralph asked, with a slightly sarcastic tone before she could leave.

She just gave him a glaring look and started to walk away.

He caught up with her and said with a grin, "You know, I was wondering what a girl with a BA and a dynamite body like yours was doing working as a maid?  Especially, when you already know that you can make a lot more money in other ways."

She stopped in her tracks and turned toward Ralph. "What have you been doing, checking up on me? Gum shoe...! She retorted, with a definite sneer."

"Well, sure."  He said adding with a smug look on his face,  "After all, I am working for the good guys now.  Which I'm sure you already know about"

"Yeah, I understand Charles fired you because you're such a lousy PI."

"Oh, on a first name basis with Charles, are we?" Ralph showed that he didn't miss the slip.

"I figured that Charles would say he fired me, even if he hadn't."

"Frankly, it doesn't matter one way or the other to me. He's a lot better off without you anyway."

"I think it's the other way around.  I'm better off without him...and you."  Then trying to get something more out of her.  "So, you haven't answered my question."

"It's none of your business.  Now if you don't mind, I've got things to do."

"I bet you have."  He said, as he watched her walk out the front door.

On a hunch, Ralph followed her out.  He knew she was one who needed to be watched, so he signaled Pedro to follow her.

*      *      *

Plopping down onto the soft leather chair behind the desk; Jana was glad she was alone.  Opening up the desk, she pulled out the book, key, and the Atlas.  Then she took the pages, that she had gotten from the safe deposit box, and the amulet out of her purse.  Looking at all the items, she promised, within herself, that somehow she was going to figure out how these pieces of the puzzle all fit together.

As she sat there studying the materials, her mind wandered back to the wonderful time she had just spent with Jason.  If she imagined real hard, she could still feel his muscular arms around her tender frame and his lips pressing on hers, with all the longing and desire that might be expected between the soul mates that they were.  She knew in her heart that they belonged together, and that regardless of the work, what They ordered, or the circumstances with Charles; Jason and she were destined to be one.  Even the ordeal of their total change in personalities hadn't been able to change that.  Oh how she already missed him, and the loving security of his presents.  The rewards of finding Michael had been very badly destroyed, by the fact that they couldn't be together.

No matter how hard she thought, she couldn't come up with the rational behind the work that Jason and she were doing or a good reason why They wouldn't allow them to be together.  All she knew was that the only way she was going to get her hearts desire would be, to convince Them to let her be with Jason.  If she could just talk to Them, she knew that They couldn't deny her.  Of course, that meant that she was going to have to figure out how to contact Them.

Jason had mentioned something about "e-mail". She wondered what that could be.  Maybe that was the answer. Going over to the book case and pulling out the dictionary, she tried to look up the phrase, but it wasn't listed.  A search of the library reveled that there weren't any books on the subject.  So, she gave up and returned to the materials that were spread out on the desk.

Opening the book "Last Run", she reread what she had written about her dream.  "The key had been put in the book and the book was then closed."  So, she put the key in the book and closed it.  Nothing happened.  But, then again, she hadn't really expected anything to happen; it was just a wild shot and a little silly anyway.  Working on her memory, she tried to remember if in her dream the book had been turned to any specific page, but she couldn't remember.

Picking up the key, she held it and looked at it.  It was a unique key.  The blade part of the key wasn't very large and the bow (head) was decorated in a filigree design.  As she laid the key down on the book, she thought about the fact that the bow sure had a lot of holes in it.  Sliding it around on the page, she finally brought it to rest with three of the dots showing through the holes of the filigree.  She couldn't believe her eyes, as the key's blade pointed directly to the letter "g".  Ecstatically grabbing the two pages, she had gotten from the safe deposit box, she laid the key on the first set of dots and, sure enough, the key pointed directly to a letter, "s".  As she slid it to the next set of dots, it pointed to an "a".

Jana was getting so excited; she was shaking.  She took out a piece of paper and a pen, and starting writing down the message as she worked down the page.  "s" "a" "f" "e" "L" "f" "o" "u" "r" "t" "w" "i" "c" "e" "r" "t" "w" "e" "n" "t" "y" "t" "h" "r" "e" "e" "l" "n" "i" "n" "e" "t" "e" "e" "n".  The combination to the safe!

Jumping up, she ran over to the bookshelves and opened up the passage to the safe.  Spinning the mechanism to the left, she stopped on four.  Spinning it back to the right twice, she stopped on twenty-three, then, left back to nineteen.  She tried the door latch and was overwhelmingly gratified when it clicked opened.  The door was extremely heavy, but was so perfectly balanced it swung open almost effortlessly.

As she stepped inside, a light automatically came on displaying the enormity of the crypt like chamber, causing Jana to force a sharp intake of breath with surprise.  It was bigger than she had even imagined.  There were shelves on one side, piled with paperwork.  Pulling out one of the folders, she found it to contain the contract and deeds for some of the property she owned.  Returning it to it's resting place, she noticed on the other side was a metal door that was locked; she would deal with that in a moment.

At the far end of the steel reinforced room was a large computer with a terminal.  Sitting next to it was a book of instructions.  She opened it and was thumbing through it, when one of the headings, "E-Mail", caught her eye. Reading the text below, she discovered that it was a secure message system allowing communications between computer terminals.

Excitedly, she sat down at the computer terminal and carefully followed the instructions.  Suddenly, the words "Please enter your password." came on the screen.  "Password? What could the password be?" She wondered.  She tried a few words like: Victoria, Jason, Last Run, Them.  But, nothing she could come up with seemed to gain her access.

Getting up, she went back to look at the metal door. Maybe the key she had used to break the code would unlock this door.  She went back out to the desk and got the key, as she did, she remembered that she hadn't locked the library door.  Since she felt someone might return at any time, she securely locked it and returned to the safe, hoping that no one else had a key to the library door.

The key slid into the metal door lock with almost sensuous ease, and she was somewhat more than mildly surprised when the key actually turned in the lock.  Behind the door was a small multiple drawer cabinet.  She pulled out the first drawer and inside found some absolutely breathtaking jewelry.  Checking some of the pieces closely, she felt that there must be a fortune in precious stones here.  Three of the other drawers also held jewelry and two others were filled with gold and silver coins.

Exploring the remaining three drawers, she found that they contained dozens of passbooks from a number of different banks for checking and savings accounts.  She was surprised to find that some of them weren't in her name; they were names not even familiar to her.

Next to the polished metal cabinet were some shelves. Taking down a box; she found some more folders; inside these folders she found dossiers on several people.  Searching through them, she was pleased to find one on Charles and one on Suzanne.  There wasn't one on J.D. Kline.  Eagerly, she sat down and first started reading the one on Charles and then the one on Suzanne.  Boy, she could hardly believe what she was reading.  The information was red hot; on top of that, there were even official documents to support the damaging information, and they were all contained in the files.  She sighed a sigh of relief because one of her very serious problems had just been solved.  Victoria must have been saving this information, as an ace in the hole, to use against Charles if and when it became necessary.

Looking at the computer again, she felt frustrated because she now knew that this was a link to Michael, if only she could figure out the password.  Then she remembered the second page out of the book.  Returning to the desk she laid the key down on the second page and spelled out "s" "t" "a" "r" "l" "i" "g" "h" "t".

Rushing back to the computer, she typed "starlight" and the screen became a beautiful royal blue color and printed before her, in white, was the heading "MENU" followed by a list of items and among them was "E-Mail".  What do I do next? she wondered.  Reading the instruction book, she saw that she was to use the down arrow key to select a topic. Each time she pressed it, a  different item on the list became highlighted in the color yellow.  When "E-Mail" became yellow she pushed "Enter" and there before her was a new "MENU".  This time there were only two topics: Read Messages and Write Messages.  Again, using the down arrow key, she selected "Read Messages" and hit "Enter".  The screen cleared and a sentence appeared: "You presently have six messages; select a message number or press "A" for all; for a copy press "P" for print.  Below these instructions was a numbered list of messages, each one was followed by a date.

1.       From J.D.   05/10/99

2.       From R.A.   05/12/99

3.       From J.D.   05/19/99

4.       From J.D.   05/20/99

5.       From HQ     06/05/99

6.       From J.D.   06/08/99

The only ones, at this point, that interested her were the ones from J.D. and she quickly moved down the list, using the arrow key, until she came to the last one; it was dated for that day.  Anxiously pressing "Enter", the screen filled with writing and she began to read.  Before she got through the first sentence, her heart began to swell with emotion.  She could hardly believe that what she was reading was really there, but it was, and it was a reflection of her own feelings.  It was as though J.D. had peered into her very soul and memorized what he had seen.  As she continued to read, she could hold back the tears no longer and she ached for Jason.  With every tear drop, she wanted him more. She wanted to join with him and become one, to touch his every thought and emotion, to possess and be possessed by him completely, body and soul.  Then she realized that the message before her was nothing more than a testament, proving that she already was a part of him and what the rest of the world thought or said made no real difference, even though they couldn't physically be together.

The message that J.D. had written that night, after their clandestine meeting, was as follows:

Dearest Victoria,

It's seven o'clock and although we were together only an hour ago, I'm missing you already.  I just can't get you out of my mind.  Even though, we have been told we are not to be together, I'm counting the moments until we can see each other again.  My heart is overflowing with my love for you.  I see your face and hear your voice in everything I do.  I need to write this letter and maybe then I can concentrate better on other things.

I wish I could put my true feelings down on paper but anything I write will fall short of expressing my need for you.

I'll warn you now that this will be disorganized, but it's straight from my heart.

Your eyes haunt my soul and your kisses have rendered my life helpless until I hold you again.  Your touch is the touch of heaven, making my existence meaningless until I can feel your embrace once more.  I long for your whisper of love, the feel of your heartbeat, and the fire of your lips on mine.  Your sweet voice is music in my heart, causing me to bare my soul.  You instill an urgency within that cannot be resolved.  Our love is destined.  Nothing so wonderful could be an accident.  We are meant to be one.  I still feel your hand on my chest and the touch of our tongues as we kissed.  This is forever and we will never suffer the agony of indifference caused by a dying love.

Well my darling, I must stop for now, and I hope that this letter is not to cliché for you, but I just had to vent some emotion.

Remember that I love you more than your wildest dreams can express.

Yours forever,

Jason

When she finished reading, she still couldn't believe it was all real.  She felt like she was in shock.  How could J.D. feel this way, she wondered, after having just met with her twice?  Maybe part of his memory as her Michael was returning.  Whatever it was she didn't really care, as long as he loved her that was all that mattered.

*      *      *

"Did anyone follow you?"  Charles asked as soon as she was in the room.

"I didn't see anyone.  Why would anyone follow me anyway?  It's Victoria that their worried about, and not little ol' me."  Suzanne said.  "That was a smart idea, your getting that Duke guy working for you, it has everybody in an absolute tizzy."  She smiled like a cat, as she put her arms around Charles' neck and gave him a deep and passionate kiss.  He could have sworn that he even heard her purr, as his hungry hands slipped beneath the delicate silk of her blouse.  Her hands eagerly encouraged his.  He immediately started stripping her clothes off and she didn't waste any time in disposing of his clothes either.  Soon they were making good use of the bed.

"I must say, I've missed this."  He said when they finally fell back exhausted.  "I know that playing the buffoon is the best way to put everything over on everybody but it does get tedious.  I'm just glad that I was able to finally bring you back from France.  That makes it all worthwhile."

"Well, everything seems to be going good."  She replied.  "Victoria doesn't seem to be holding up too well.  You should have seen her tonight, she looked like something the cat dragged in.  It looks like maybe the stress is getting to be too much for her, poor girl." she giggled.

"I sure hope so.  It's taken me a long time to put into practice my little plan and I'm ready for it to be over."

"Me too, Mon Cheri'.  I can't wait to sail off into the sunset in our own yacht with a large crew to wait on us hand and foot."

"Why wait any longer.  I think it's time we put the next stage of the plan into effect.  My poor little wife, Victoria will have to disappear.  I think she needs to be locked away somewhere where she'll be willing to tell her husband, Charles, all about how she got her money."

"That sounds like a wonderful idea.  I'm tired of being her maid anyway."  Suzanne said, as they both laughed.

*      *      *

That stupid girl!  She should know better than to mess with Charles, after all the underhanded things he's pulled!  J.D. despairingly thought, as he reread the message on the computer.  He was definitely going to have to devise a way to stop her, before she got herself into a dilemma she wasn't equipped to handle.

Victoria had written that she had discovered some incriminating information about Charles and Suzanne, and that she was going to confront them when Charles returned.  J.D. thought she was out of her mind.  Charles wasn't exactly what you would consider to be a rational person and he was liable to do something serious to her if she tried to push him too far.

Upon returning home, he had immediately gone into his safe and sent a message to Victoria via the e-mail system.  It hadn't been like any of the messages he had sent, prior to that night.  It was a personal message, declaring his love and devotion to her.  He knew that it wasn't right for him to send a message like this to a married woman, but he couldn't help himself, he seemed almost overwhelmed with love for her and had lost reason due to his obsession with her.  He also knew that They wouldn't be pleased with his rebellious attitude, but so what?  Victoria  and he were Their only two major players in the execution of the “PLAN”‚ as far as he knew.  So he figured that it was a seller's market and their services were in enough demand that he really had nothing to lose.

He had returned, again and again, to the computer hoping there would be a reply; he needed to see her declaration of love in return.  He was totally surprised when that declaration also included the fact that she was going to "confront the person that was standing in their way".

Immediately contacting Ralph by phone, he told him what Victoria was planning, and instructed him to get upstairs right away and "get that stupid idea out of her head".

Right now, he was anxiously awaiting a call from either Ralph confirming that he had succeeded, or from Victoria arguing that it was the only way.  J.D. knew better than that and Victoria should too.  After all, Charles wasn't the real problem.  The real problem was whether They felt that Victoria and he could work efficiently if they were together.

*      *      *

Hearing a loud knock on the door, Jana quickly exited the safe.  She yelled out "Just a moment", put all her information in the safe except the combination which she put in her pocket, closed and locked the safe, and then closed the shelves covering the safe.

After running her hands over her hair and clothes, to straighten them out, she opened the door.  It was Jake.

"Ralph Walker is on the intercom downstairs.  He says it's urgent that he see you.  I told him it was late but he insists that it can't wait.  Do you want me to tell him to come back tomorrow?"  Jake didn't like the fact that Victoria was being bothered this time of night.

"No, Jake.  It could be something important.  Are you sure it's him?"

"Absolutely!  I'd know that voice anywhere."

"Okay.  Let him up.  I'll meet him at the elevator."

“We’ll meet him at the elevator.  Just in case there's any problem."

Jake stepped over to the intercom and told Ralph to come on up.  He then sent the elevator down for him.  They were both thankfully relieved when the elevator doors opened and just Ralph was standing there.  He had a scowl on his face and said to Victoria, "We need to talk!"

Wanting to disarm him from his obvious agitation with her, she very politely said, "Why don't we go upstairs to the bar and I'll get you a drink.  Then we can talk."

Ralph grumbled something, and his disposition didn't seem to soften.  He followed her up the winding staircase, still able to enjoy the assent of her beguiling figure and the smell of her perfume, regardless of his outward discontent.

Jana had forgotten about the painting of herself and blushed a little, as she saw the ogling look on Ralph's face as his eyes shifted directions.  She could tell that they had landed on the sensuous curves of the partially clad female in the painting.  She would have to admit though, that she felt proud and flattered, when she detected a momentary smile of approval on Ralph's face.  Taking her place behind the bar, and wanting to attract Ralph's attention back to her, she said, "What's your pleasure?"  Then she realized that she had set herself up when Ralph jokingly replied, "I'll take one of those!" as he pointed to the painting.  She smiled and unpretentiously replied, "You know what I mean."

Ralph, wanting to drive home his point, remarked, "You do too."  Then as Jana gave him a somewhat flustered look, said, "Seriously, I don't want to be a party-pooper, but I'm on the job, so I'll just have a soft drink or something."  He was still gruff, even seeing the picture of Victoria hadn't completely succeeded in softening him up.

Jana poured both of them a coke, and handed one to him, as he took a seat at the bar.  She came back around the bar and sat down next to him, swiveling on the bar stool to face him.

"I just love it up here," she said, "the sound of the fountain seems to echo through this whole area and it's so relaxing."  She hoped he would take the hint.

Ralph was obstinate and remained undaunted, even as Jana gave him one of her most innocent looks and crossed her long legs enticingly.  He remained steadfast in purpose saying, "This isn't a social call, Victoria."

"I didn't figure it was, but I thought we might as well be comfortable, while you chew me out over whatever it is that you think I did."

"How do you know I came to bawl you out?  Do I detect some pangs of guilt?"

"Ralph, you're not the kind of person that walks around with a scowl on his face for no apparent reason."

"J.D. informs me that you intend to confront Charles and Suzanne, about some sort of incriminating information you have on them."

"Well, they're the ones that are giving me all this trouble, so I thought I could give them a little back and drum them out of town."

"You don't seriously think that just some mildly damaging information is going to stop Charles.  I figure that what he really wants is your money, even if it means eliminating you.  In fact, your lucky that he hired me first or you might not be around right now.

"Well, with this information, all that doesn't mat......"

At that moment, Ralph caught a movement out of the corner of his eye, he turned slowly at first, thinking it was Jake.  As he turned, he saw that it was Duke and grabbed for his holstered gun, but Duke was already too close.  Duke jabbed with a crashing right!  Ralph ducked, and Duke missed hitting the chair where Ralph had been sitting.  Ralph grabbed Duke's arm and spun him around, trying to get him into a position where he could effectively smash his ugly face in, but the first shot of his pulverizing fist made contact with Duke's shoulder.  Duke let out an agonizing groan, and charged Ralph and knocked him to the floor. Pouncing on top of him, Duke grabbed Ralph in a bear hug and they rolled around together.  Finally Ralph smashed his hands on dukes ears and he let go of Ralph in agonizing pain.

They managed to stand back up, dangerously close to the stairway.  They exchanged several blows and just as it appeared that Ralph was going to flatten Duke, Ralph charged forward; Duke moved; and Jana watched in horror, as Ralph tumbled down the stairway.

Then Dukes attention turned to Jana; coming at her, as menacing as a charging lion, he grabbed her by the hair, as she was kicking and screaming, and said, "Come on girlie, we're going for a little ride."

Jana fought back with everything she had, but was no match for Duke, who grabbed her arm and twisted it behind her.  Retaining his hold on her hair, he forced her down the stairs, effectively steering her as easily as a bridled thoroughbred.

As Jana stepped carefully over Ralph's still form at the bottom of the stairs, she fleetingly thought how crumpled and lifeless he looked.  Duke, just to reinforce his superiority, brought heavy boot crashing into Ralph’s stomach. Jana continued to scream and struggle as they passed the fountain.  With a sudden kick, she knocked a large vase into the swirling water.  The splash distracted her assailant, and she surprisingly slipped free, with practically no effort.  She quickly ran around the fountain, trying to get away, when she heard the familiar sound of Duke's groan.  Looking back she saw the reason why she was able to escape Duke's clutches so easily.  She saw the glorifying sight of Jake, standing behind Duke with his arm around Duke's neck.  They were both sinking slowly down to the floor as Duke's face was turning blue, but he was still putting up a good struggle.  Jana, though frightened, had just decided to try to help, and was looking for something to hit Duke with, when she saw the glint of something in his hand.  Jake was ahead of her though, and before she had time to scream that Duke had pulled a knife, with a sudden jerk of Jake's powerful arm, up and to the right; Duke became totally lax.  Jake kept his arm around Duke's neck a moment more to make sure that he wasn't going anywhere, when Jana realized that Duke was dead.  She rushed over to Ralph, who's body was still motionless at the foot of the stairs.  She could see that he was breathing, but there was some blood on his forehead, she quickly jumped up, ran over to the phone and dialed 911.

*      *      *

The police were everywhere.  Duke's lifeless body was covered up and the paramedics had just carried Ralph off to the ambulance.  He looked so helpless laying on the stretcher with his neck and head in a brace.

Jana was crying almost uncontrollably.  She couldn't believe that someone was dead, or that Ralph had been injured.  She was so afraid that Ralph's injuries might be serious.  She also couldn't believe, that if it hadn't been for Jake, she would probably be the victim of a kidnapping.

The elevator doors opened and Jana was astonished when, low and behold, there stood Charles and Suzanne.  It was finally too much for her, and she jumped up and at a full run, headed for them screaming that it was all their fault; and that Charles had hired Duke, and that they were working together, and that they should be put away forever.

One of the detectives held her back and tried to calm her.  They told her that they would handle this!  They then asked her if she needed a doctor or if she wanted to go to the hospital.

When the police detective mentioned the hospital, Jana forced herself to calm down.  She said that she didn't need to go to the hospital, she just wanted to make a phone call.  The handsome police officer walked her into the library, where he left her, so she could make her call in private.

"It was horrible, just horrible Jason."  She sobbed into the phone.  "Ralph is hurt and on his way to the hospital, and Duke is dead."

"Calm down, Victoria, just calm down and get control of yourself".  J.D. said, trying to get more information out of her.  "Are you all right?"

"Yes, I'm all right, but I need you.  Can you come over, please?"  She sobbed.

"Before I come over, I need to know exactly what happened.  Do you think you could calm down enough to tell me?"

"Yes, yes, I think I can."  She said, as she wiped her eyes.

Jana started telling him how it all had happened, when she looked up and there was Charles standing there with one of the uniformed police.

"You get him away from me."  She screamed.

"Now, Now, Victoria.  I've explained to this fine police officer about how you have been having threats against your life and it has made you think all kind of strange things."

"I don't care what you've have told him.  I want you out of my apartment, now."  Victoria said, defiantly.  Looking at the police officer, she continued, "And, Sir, if you don't arrest him, your superiors are going to hear about this and I'll see that your suspended or reprimanded or fired or whatever they do in cases like this."

"Ma'am, we don't have anything to hold him on."  The policeman said politely.

"What do you mean!"  Jana retorted.  "I told you that he is behind this whole thing."

"That's just your word, Mrs. Davenport."

"Well, if you can't arrest him, can't you take him down for questioning.  All I really want is to get him out of my apartment."  Jana pleaded.

"Yes ma'am, we'll be doing that anyway."

"Thank you officer."

As Charles turned to go, he said, "Victoria, I wish you wouldn't feel this way.  Everything has been fine for us.  Why are you doing this to me now?"

"Fine for us, huh.  I know about you and Suzanne.  If I can't get you for what has happened to Ralph, I'll get you on the other charge; I think you know what I mean."

Charles gave her a surprised look, and Jana knew, right then and there, that the "ace in the hole" was going to be very valuable.

Going back to the phone that she had been holding all the time she had been talking to Charles and the policeman, Jana said.  "Did you hear all that?"

"Yes, I did.  Your not safe there.  I think you had better have Jake bring you over here."

"They're taking Jake down to the police station for questioning.  They wanted to take me to the hospital but I said I didn't want to."

"I'll send one of my cars for you then.  Let's use the code word "Eagle".  He'll use it in the intercom before you come downstairs.

"Thank you so much, Jason."

"That's okay.  Just please, please be careful.  Now that I've found you, I don't want to lose you."

"I will."  She said, as she hung up.

*      *      *

As J.D. hung up the phone, he quickly went into the library and opened his safe.  Sitting down at the computer, he sent a message to headquarters, he had to squash this story before it got out to the media, it was imperative.  There was no telling what the consequences might be, with the adverse publicity that would otherwise be generated by an incident like this.

Then he went upstairs and changed.  Victoria would be there soon and he had to be at his best.                     

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*      *      *

Beginning     Chapter 15

Copyright 1990 by Anita and David Mathews