“She isn’t being held hostage, whoever is up there is bullshitting you, they can’t get in the safe room and meanwhile Cassie is watching them on closed circuit TV and is probably terrified” Karin returned hotly.
“How do you know this?” the Sergeant asked looking at her for signs that she was lying to them.
“It’s my apartment” she snarled angrily feeling the unreasonable anger she was subject to these days rising and not caring in the least. “I remodeled it, I found that room and restocked it and rewired it! I know exactly what she is seeing if she is in that room!”
“Please wait here” the Lieutenant said and the two of them walked away. Karin was not thrilled. They should rush the apartment and get Cassie out of there!
“Could you give us the layout of the apartment?” the sergeant asked her a while later. They hadn’t really decided what to do about the situation, they had a hostage negotiator in route but they weren’t sure it was necessary with what the woman had told them. If Cassie Summers was in the apartment and she was in the safe room then who exactly were they holding hostage?
Karin was annoyed. She didn’t know the number to call to get into the safe room and she wasn’t certain Cassie had her cell on her. She didn’t want the intruders to know any more information than what they had so she wasn’t sure she should even try to call. She sighed and drew out a rough map of the apartment including the hidden room with several cops looking on.
The hostage negotiator had arrived and they had gotten nowhere with the intruders. All they knew was that the person on the phone was female and not making any demands. She didn’t want safe escort, she didn’t want anything outrageous, she wanted nothing, just to be left alone, she had hostages (this they weren’t certain of) but she was demanding nothing.
Karin was exhausted at the wait as she sat on a couch in the lobby. The unconscious body of Stan the elevator attendant for today had been retrieved. She was grateful he was at least alive. She looked at the EMT’s taking out the body and shook her head wondering what was going on upstairs. She had broken down and called Cassie’s cell number but gotten an irritating beep so she didn’t know if it was out of range or what. If it was on Cassie and she was in the safe room then it might not be picking up a signal.
Cassie looked at the monitors. She could see them going through the entire apartment, smashing things at random since they had determined they couldn’t get into the safe room. She had tried calling out again and again but the phone wasn’t working properly and she didn’t know why. She looked at it for hours and then it suddenly occurred to her that instead of trying 911 she should call someone else, maybe Karin could call the police for her?
“Hello?” Karin answered the strange phone number; she didn’t recognize it on her caller I.D.
“Karin?” Cassie tried to speak normal, she didn’t want to upset or alarm Karin.
“Oh thank God, Cassie” she said without thinking and the Lieutenant and Sergeant spun around in consternation and started to walk over to where she sat. She held up a hand. “Where are you?”
“Um, I’m in the apartment” Cassie said, she could hear the anxiety in Karin’s voice and wondered if she knew what was going on.
“Are you in the safe room?” Karin asked concerned wondering if she hadn’t made it in time.
Cassie was surprised and nodded and then realizing Karin couldn’t see a nod answered in a small scared voice “yes.”
“Can you see how many people are in the apartment?” Karin asked trying to draw the facts out. She could hear the fear in Cassie’s voice and it scared her. Her head was beginning to throb from the worry. She could tell exactly where the plates were in her scalp as she rubbed her forehead. The Lieutenant was making gestures that she should give him her cell phone, she shook her head.
“There are two, they are women and I think they killed the body guard and I can’t tell but they may have killed Don too” she sobbed giving into her fear.
“But you’re okay?” Karin asked, her concern was only about Cassie, and where she was.
“I am for now, but the police don’t answer, could you call them?” Cassie asked, her voice betraying her terror as she glanced at the monitors.
“What do you mean they don’t answer, didn’t you hit the alarm?” Karin was asking, trying to keep the questions going in a methodical way as she avoided the Lieutenant’s reach for her phone, swatting away his hand.
“I hit the alarm and tried calling 911 but they didn’t believe me and the line was bad” Cassie could hear the crackling in the line again which had been her problem earlier, she was afraid to lose this call, this line, and to the woman she loved more than life itself.
“But you are safe in the room, they can’t get to you?” Karin asked trying to reassure her, to reassure herself as well.
“Yes, they tried to break in, they broke the hidden wall but they can’t get through into here” she answered, her hands had started to shake in reaction. “I’ve got D.O.G. and C.A.T. in here with me” she added to reassure Karin.
Karin hadn’t thought of the pets but it relieved her in the corner of her mind, she wasn’t worried about her fur kids though, she only cared at the moment about the woman being terrorized in their apartment. “That’s good baby” she said in answer. “The police are here and they are working to get you out, I’m going to give the phone to one of them okay?”
“I don’t know if ….” But the line crackled and went dead again.
The lieutenant had grabbed the phone in his attempts to get on it to get information that they could use to end this situation. Hearing the dead line though he stared at the phone in disgust and then turned the look on Karin.
Karin didn’t care, she began to remember the ‘Ice Queen’ within herself and fueled with the anger that had become part of her everyday life since the attack she rose to the occasion and demanded to know what they were going to do about the situation.
“If you had given me the phone when I asked…” he started but Karin Myers wasn’t going to take that lying down.
She pulled herself to her full height. “If you care to do your job, you would already know that there are two people only in the apartment. I told you my fiancée is in a safe room. They may claim to have hostages but according to her he may be already dead. Who are they holding hostage? My fish in my fish tanks? Do something, do your job!” she shouted in his face.
“Look ma’am you need to calm down…” he began but he had never dealt with Karin Myers before.
“And you need to do your fuckin’ job” she said in a no-nonsense voice as she walked away in disgust dismissing him. She knew they wouldn’t let her up there but when were they going to do something? Anything?
It was decided to send a tactical team up there. Apparently the intruders were bluffing. They had proven that they would and had killed. The body of the bodyguard had been retrieved by snaking it to the elevator. They refused to negotiate demanding that the woman come out of the safe room. They didn’t mention the man who had been in the apartment as well; it was assumed he was dead as well. The team rushed through the front door and one of the intruders backed away so quickly that she fell from the balcony plummeting twenty five stories to her death. The other was taken into custody after a vicious physical fight. They found no weapons besides aluminum bats.
“All clear” came over the radios in the lobby. The Lieutenant wasn’t sure how he found himself riding up in the elevator car with Karin Myers in attendance but he wasn’t sure she wouldn’t have gone anyway. If she had just cooperated more…he thought.
Karin had never seen the elevator move so slow. Maybe it was because there were so many cops in it and the weight was making it work overtime? She wasn’t allowed out of it until all of them had emptied out of it and gone into the apartment.
“All clear Lieutenant, we lost the one over the balcony but this one was hiding in one of the bedrooms” they showed a black clad woman with long blond hair that was worse for wear from h
er struggles.
“You, YOU should be DEAD” she spit and snarled at Karin when she saw her.
“Do you know this woman?” the Lieutenant asked Karin.
Karin looked closely, it had been a while but she couldn’t help but notice how beautiful the blonde had once been. She nodded as she replied “it’s Em Phillips, I once represented her and her brother when I worked for Kreske’s in Chicago years ago” she volunteered.
“You, you ruined MY life!” she snarled struggling against the two burly cops trying to hold her. “I tried to ruin yours and I’ll get her” she said in a demented strained voice. “You took everything from me! EVERYTHING! I’ll take her from you as you took him from me!”
The Lieutenant made a gesture with his head and the two cops took a struggling, kicking, and screaming Em Phillips out of the apartment and into the elevator.
Looking in the apartment Karin’s heart broke over the many things she had carefully put out to make it a home that were now ruined and destroyed. The main thing though was that Cassie was okay. She watched dispassionately as they examined the broken body of Don, she remembered her own limp body being handled by EMT’s. She wasn’t surprised to hear he was dead as she saw how crushed his bones were and the amount of blood on her floor.
“Could you have Ms. Summers come out of the room” the Lieutenant asked as he watched Karin carefully, her reactions were important since she had known the intruder.
Karin walked up to a vent that she knew contained a camera and looking up into it said “Cassie, it’s okay, you can come out now. Just put your hand print on the panel and the door will slide open.”
She waited. They all waited. No sign of Cassie Summers coming out of the room though. Karin walked over to the door, knocked on it, and shouted “Cassie! It’s okay, you can come out now” she wasn’t sure that Cassie could hear through the door, she hadn’t thought about it being sound proof.
The cops were looking everywhere in the apartment making sure no one else was in there hiding but also looking curiously about. The place was a mess, debris everywhere.
After waiting a while Karin walked up to another spot she knew that a camera was hidden and talking calmly into it she called “Cassie! Can you hear me baby? It’s okay, you can come out now!”
They waited together and suddenly the door slid open to have two excited pets leap out. The size of the cat had several officers leaping back but the cat’s aim was to Karin’s arms. She gave both animals hugs and said “stay” before looking up at a very relieved Cassie who then fell into her arms.
“Are you okay? Baby, did they hurt you?” Karin asked concerned looking into her tear stained face.
Cassie shook her head as she came out of the small room, it had been terrifying, hearing the banging on the door with the bat, being able to see them as they tore apart the apartment looking for anything, something, and finding nothing. Knowing they were there and unable to get at her was no comfort really, she wanted and needed this woman and as she took Karin in her arms and held on for dear life she felt the only real comfort she needed as she sobbed in relief. C.A.T. stood up on his back legs and hugged too, not to be left out D.O.G. joined them although he looked like he was humping the couple.
Karin looked down and laughed and gathered her pets into their group hug. The laughter had Cassie look down and laugh as well as she included them as well, their fur kids, the only comfort she had during the long hours of the siege.
“Are you okay Ms. Summers, do you need medical attention?” the Lieutenant asked carefully not willing to interrupt their reunion but needing to know.
Cassie shook her tear stained face and tried a tremulous smile. “I’m okay” she hiccupped to the cop who stood there and he nodded before backing away and leaving them to their reunion. The cops went into the safe room to check it out. It wasn’t often they came across one of these and it was fascinating.
Karin took Cassie into her arms alone again after shaking off the pets and then led her into the ravaged bedroom. Not content with bashing everything with a bat they had torn the mattress set with knives and stuffing was everywhere combined with the dirt from all the plants they had destroyed. It was obvious they had batted the pots against the floor to ceiling windows as dirt still clung against the glass in places.
“Oh babe, I’m so sorry” Cassie gasped upon seeing the destruction in person.
“It’s okay, just as long as it wasn’t YOU that they did this to” Karin said sniffling ominously.
Cassie looked into her amazing eyes and kissed her gently and then a little more fiercely to let her know her inner feelings. “Is it over this time?” she asked after they pulled apart.
Karin nodded once and then said “it was Em Phillips.”
Cassie’s eyes widened as the name penetrated and she remembered the story Karin had told her over two years before “and after everything you did for her!” she began hotly but Karin shushed her as she glanced at the door but the cops were busy elsewhere.
“Let’s just say she is mad, crazy, and no longer a threat.”
Cassie nodded once and pulled her close until she had another thought and pulled back “what about Don?”
Karin shook her head and then held Cassie as she began to cry anew.
The police seemed to take forever. Karin made a few phone calls and arranged for a hotel room for the night for them. Not too many were willing to take a dog and a cat but Karin still had a name in this town and managed to get them a room. They gathered a few things that hadn’t been destroyed to last them a couple of days, packed a bag for the animals as well before clearing out of the apartment. A cleaning crew would spend the night in straightening up the place, getting rid of the mattresses that had been knifed and strewn everywhere and repotting the plants as well as cleaning it all up for Ms. Myers.
“Do you think she will get off with an insanity plea?” Cassie asked as they lay facing each other in the hotel room. C.A.T. was behind Karin in the curve of her legs and D.O.G. was snuggled up to Cassie’s back.
“I don’t know” Karin shrugged, for some reason she could really feel the plates in her head against the pillows. “I do know the questions they asked were very uncomfortable.”
Cassie chuckled and as Karin looked up she answered the unspoken question “you managed to answer without answering, you were brilliant. I think your secret is still safe but I worry that she will get off.”
“On attempted murder and murder?” Karin asked dryly. It had required a lot of mental prowess to answer without answering too much. Her cold ‘Ice Queen’ demeanor had helped immeasurably but who knew what else they might uncover.
Attempts to question Em Phillips were fruitless especially once she realized her partner and girlfriend had fallen from the balcony and to her death. An autopsy and DNA test revealed who she was.
“Who did you say she was?” Karin asked incredulously as the Lieutenant watched her reactions to the news.
“Travis Collins’ sister.”
“You’re joking?” Cassie asked disbelievingly.
He shook his head from the file folder he was holding as he looked down after carefully mentally filing their reactions. “Apparently she was a frequent visitor to him at the state penitentiary in Tennessee.”
Karin and Cassie exchanged a look. How in the world had Travis found out about Em Phillips? How had he managed to hook his sister up with her?
They discussed many things with the Lieutenant most of which centered around the case against Em Phillips who would be put away in an asylum and not tried by reason of insanity. She had been upset to have been captured, seeing Karin and alive had sent her plunging into the abyss, but losing her girlfriend had been the final straw. They weren’t certain she could be sane again and the district attorney had decided that pending an evaluation they would not be prosecuting. The whole problem of her talking to the police was solved when she was found hanging from her bed sheet from a light in the center of her cell, not very efficient but it ha
d strangled and silenced her effectively.
“You know you could have divulged everything at this point” their lawyer informed them. Elliott Kreske had provided him and Karin knew with certainty it was so that she didn’t do that very thing. Having him suggest that very course of action would have jeopardized their safety in ways that she didn’t want to think about. Em Phillips would have been the least of their worries. He looked at her curiously to gage her reaction.
“No, I don’t think so, it’s better to leave sleeping dogs lie” she told him without turning a hair, the ‘Ice Queen’ was never more present than when dealing with people like him.
He nodded, they understood each other and while he hadn’t been able to get her to give him any information the little she had allowed to be leaked during her recovery had proven she still had the upper hand. He could go back to his superiors and inform them that she wasn’t going to spill the beans, not now, possibly not ever. They were safe. She was safe. It was better to leave her alone to live her life.
Looking around the apartment it was amazing what a week could do. They had decided to stay in the hotel for that week enjoying room service, each other, and the looks they got when they walked their fur kids. The apartment had been painted, a brighter set of colors this time, Cassie had insisted. The plants had been repotted and most of them would survive. The keepsakes and trinkets could be replaced and they looked forward to shopping for them together. The fish tanks hadn’t survived a direct blow with the aluminum bat or the resulting rush of water all over the den floor but replacements were on order. Furniture could be replaced and Cassie was determined a warmer atmosphere would prevail in their home. They had decided to stay in New York together as their base and Cassie would tour and record from there.
Cassie was thrilled, Karin had agreed to manage her and go with them on tour. It wouldn’t be like when she was at Kreske’s with multiple clients or teams of people working under her but she could handle it. Karin smiled at how happy this made her fiancée. She was bored anyway and needed the challenge. Overcoming her anger and the other physical limitations she had now as a result of her attack would be a challenge as well but she was up to it.
REPRESENTED Page 36
