"Well, we could try," the officer, a beefy, sweating man said slowly, frowning at the piece of paper he held in his hand. "The fact is, I don't know what the fuss is about."
Rachael wanted to strangle this guy. After waiting for nearly an hour for him to arrive, explaining the story in a very detailed way, while he listened absently, then he was wondering what the 'fuss' was about. It was as if she was to blame for getting him off his ass and doing his work.
"I want a complete report on this," She snapped. "Check the print for DNA- then dust it off for any fingerprints. She might have used her own blood to do this."
The officer nodded slowly. "Okay. It'll take time."
"How long?" she gritted out.
"Two weeks, maybe more. Possibly three." He said absently, blithely unaware that his life was nearly in danger by pushing his luck.
Rachael bit back a curse. "This is urgent," she said, forcing a note of calm politeness into her voice. "I would take it as a personal favor if you could give me the results any faster then two weeks."
He shook his head. "Can't do that. See," he said in a patient voice, as if explaining something that was painfully obvious, "We've got other things to do, as well. Two weeks is the fastest I could give you."
Mentally, Rachael sent the Police department to hell. "Fine," she bit out shortly. "As soon as you do, send it up to Washington. You know where to send it to."
There wasn't anything she could do for now.
"Go away!" he yelled.
She didn't have time for this. "Nick, open up, it's me."
"I said leave me alone!"
She sighed. This was going to me one of those days. "Fine." She produced the extra keycard and swept it in. the door opened with a click.
The whole room was pitch dark. She saw the silhouette of him standing near the window, looking out at the scenery. At the sound of her entering, he stiffened.
"Get out, Harrison."
"No."
"I'm your employer, remember? You'd better do as I said." He said bitterly. "I might fire you."
Boss above employee…
"For what charges?" she drawled. "Doing my job?"
"Turn around and walk out, Rachael, before I bodily remove you," he said tightly.
She walked in. "I'd like to see you try." She said blandly, turning the lights on.
He whirled around. "What the hell's wrong with you?" he spat.
"My exact question," she replied. Pale and haggard, he looked ten years older.
He turned away abruptly. Silence thundered in the room.
"The police going to check the note," Rachael said finally. "They are-"
"I don't want to know."
She went on anyway. "If this is the stalker, we've got enough evidence to-"
"DAMNIT! I SAID I DON'T WANT TO KNOW!" he bit out forcefully.
"You have to know." She said flatly.
"I know enough! It's pretty obvious!" he shot back.
Rachael had no choice but to break one of her Codes; never, ever touch her client personally. She strode over and whirled him around by the shoulders, surprised by the lack of resistance in them. "Nick," she began calmly, "Whoever this is, she's trying to scare you and by the look of it, it's working. It's only paper-"
"Only paper," he mimicked angrily. "Only paper, with only some words written in blood. Right. So I'm supposed to pass it off as a joke and go on as if nothing's happened?"
"I did not say that!" she said sharply, short of shaking him into his senses. "Snap out of this!"
He stared at her for a long moment, then looked away. Rachael let her arms drop. Nick wearily sat on the edge of his bed, staring blankly at the carpeted floor. It was then she saw that he was shaking. She began to feel a sense of dread. If he reacted this violently to what was actually the beginning of the assault, what was going to happen when something else, something worse happened?
Her tone somewhat gentled. "Listen, I know this must be…unnerving, but we've got a lead now. I promise you that we'll get this criminal." She snorted softly. "The faster we do, the faster I can get out of here."
He looked up slowly. "Why me?" he asked softly.
Rachael wasn't sure if she had an answer to that. She watched as he went back to staring at the ground. She knew it was time to make her exit. Her duty to tell him of the incident was over. She stood up. "You'll be okay?"
"Yeah."
She walked towards to the door. She stopped, turning around. "Use the beeper if you need me."
"Yeah."
Turning, she walked out of the room and closed the door.
"Is he all right?" Mike asked as soon as she came out.
"As right as any one would be in his state," Rachael said unhelpfully, walking past him.
The others were waiting downstairs, anxious and somewhat unnerved by the sudden threat that dropped on them. Some of them didn't even know what was going on- they only knew that it involved Nick and somehow, the police was as well. The other guys looked at each other, silently contemplating the situation. The outlook wasn't good.
"So," Kevin started, taking a deep breath, "this is it."
"What?"
"Nick's going to be…disturbed quite a lot from now."
"Disturbed?" Brian asked, a brow raised.
"Well, maybe not the best word, but you know…" Kevin jerked his head to the tour mates. "They don't know. And you know with that beeper that day. Only a small number of people knows about this." He said quietly.
"What are you saying, Kev?" AJ asked sharply. "You mean we're supposed to keep this to ourselves?"
"There's no point in telling everyone," Howie said thoughtfully. "Kev's right. The less it's known the less of the threat of it leaking out. And you know what that would mean to Nick- in the end, to all of us."
The door opened, and Rachael came in with Mike and a Police Officer. They all had bleak faces. Everyone turned to look at them.
"Is he-" Julian asked, looking at the three uneasily.
Rachael nodded. "He's all right." She said in a clipped tone. "Just leave him alone."
"Leave him alone?" Julian demanded, sounding uncharacteristically loud and angry. "Jesus Christ, he's in a wreck and you're saying he's all right and we should leave him alone?" the people stared at him, somewhat taken aback by the violent show of emotion.
"Julian," Brian said, "calm down."
"With all due respect, sir," Rachael said calmly, "Mr Carter would not appreciate the management team worrying too much about this incident, when he himself is not affected by it seriously. He considered it as a sick hoax, which it is. He is quite fine, which is why I left him alone in the first place."
Julian said nothing. He looked, however, like a man who was struggling to compose himself.
"I'm disappointed in you, Miss Harrison. I doubt if hiring you in the first place was actually a good choice." He turned around and left.
"He's never like this," Mike said, bewildered, looking after him. "He didn't mean to say that, Rachael."
If Rachael was affected by Julian's stinging remark, she didn't show it. In fact, she didn't give a damn as to what he had said. It was his attitude. She gazed at the retreating figure, her eyes narrowed.
He was the one who brought the pile of goodies to the boys.
Could he…?
