“Who?”
“Oh, the place is swarming with news reporters. They attacked me, asking a bunch of stupid questions when I drove up.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t even realize they were there. They must’ve arrived after I did,” Bob said. “It’s not a surprise, though. Murdock has taken up a lot of news time.”
“Have you seen Marla? I’d like to talk with her a bit.”
“Yeah, she just went in the interview room to see Murdock. He’s been in there since they brought the prisoners in. There’s not enough room in the back, so they stuck him in there.”
“Great, I’ll watch for her. When I’m done, I’ll come hang in Department Four with you.”
Marla, uncomfortable sitting in the interview room with Murdock, wasn’t about to let him know. She felt safe enough; she just didn’t want to be near him. The room, about eight feet wide and ten feet long, was divided down the middle by a three-foot high wall and a heavy plastic window reaching from the wall to the ceiling. A thick wire mesh lay over the plastic, and a shelf protruded out on the top of the wall on either side. Marla sat in a chair with her papers on the shelf. Murdock sat on the other side of the wall, handcuffed to his bench.
A door led out of each side of the room. On the visitors’ side, it opened to a small hallway and the courthouse lobby. On the prisoner’s side, the locked door led to the back hallway, away from the lobby, just in front of the bailiff’s station.
Marla continued with her interview of Murdock. He turned on the charm, but failed to have any effect on Marla. He had burned her once, and she wouldn’t let it happen again.
After finishing, she stepped out into the lobby. “Hi, Sabre, how are you doing?”
“Not bad,” she said, with a tense smile. “I’ll be glad when we’re done here today, though.”
“Yeah, me too,” Marla said. “Hey, can you wait here a minute? I need to give something to County Counsel. I’ll be right back. I’d like to chat with you a bit, if you don’t mind.”
“Sure, take your time. I promise I won’t wander off and get lost in the crowd.”
The bench along the wall was filled with people waiting for their hearings, so Sabre stood with her back against the glass leading into the hallway by the interview room, waiting for Marla. Suddenly she felt cold metal against her throat and hot breath on her neck. A shiver shot down her spine. She felt the chain tighten around her neck and heard Murdock’s voice in her ear. Murdock was back in control.
A hush came over the crowd as people stepped back. The silent alarms went off in the courtrooms. Judges descended from their benches, hastening into their chambers for safety. The bailiffs ran through the lobby from every direction, pushing people out of the way. Murdock scooted along the wall toward the door leading outside, keeping Sabre in front of him. The crowd had moved back and the bailiffs gathered around. One of them moved toward Murdock.
“One step closer and I break her neck,” Murdock said coldly. The bailiff stopped. Murdock continued toward and through the door, dragging Sabre with him.
The news reporters aimed their cameras as Murdock exited the building. The bailiffs filtered out and strategically positioned themselves around the parking lot. People ran toward their cars. Others tried to move in as close as they could while the officers struggled to keep them back. Sabre, terrified, didn’t want to be imprisoned again. She’d rather die. He dragged her toward her car. She looked around and saw her friend, Mike, not far away with his gun drawn. She yelled out to him, “Shoot him! Shoot him, Mike!” She screamed as she struggled to get out of the way so the Bailiff could get a shot, but Murdock tugged tighter on the chain he had around her neck and pulled her closer to his body to provide a shield for himself.
“Shut up,” he snarled at her.
“Shoot him, Mike!”
“I’ll do it. I’ll kill you,” Murdock said.
“Go ahead. Give Mike a reason to shoot you.”
“Sabre, don’t push him,” Mike said, staying with them as they moved across the parking lot, keeping the same distance between them.
“Mike, just shoot him. Don’t let him take me. I’d rather die,” Sabre screamed. Murdock squeezed tighter on the chain. She felt faint, hardly able to breathe. She heard Mike trying to talk Murdock down, to reason with him, but he would have no part of it. Murdock kept pulling Sabre slowly across the parking lot.
She yelled again, “Shoot him, Mike!” Off to the side she heard a deafening sound. An excruciating pain shot through her body. She felt herself falling, the force on her neck releasing. As she fell to the ground, the people and buildings seemed to turn sideways; she saw both the sky and pavement. She heard another shot before she felt her body hit the ground. The lights went out.
“Sobs!” Bob yelled, as he pushed through the crowd. He ran past Stimson, the rookie bailiff, just as Stimson hurled. Bob heard him coughing and hacking, saw yellow and red chunks spew from his mouth. Bob dodged to the right to avoid the flying vomit. He finally reached Sabre, lying on the ground next to Murdock, in a pool of blood. “Call an ambulance!”
“It’s on the way,” Mike said.
“Oh my God,” Bob yelled. He threw himself down onto the ground and pulled Sabre’s head onto his lap. Her limp wrist lay in his hand, but he could feel a faint pulse. “Hang on, Sobs, you hang on.” His breathing heavy and his heart pounding in his chest, he sobbed as he held his buddy in his arms. “You’re strong; you can do this. You can’t let him beat you, Sobs. You just can’t.”
Mike dropped down on one knee, level with Bob. “How is she?”
“She’s breathing.” Bob’s voice cracked.
“What the hell happened?” the Sarge yelled as he walked up to Mike.
Mike stood up. “It was Stimson. We were closing in on Murdock as he moved toward the car. All of a sudden, Stimson starting shooting.”
“Why in the hell would he do that?”
“He heard Sabre yell, ‘Mike, shoot him.’ He thought she was talking to him and freaked.”
“Stupid rookie,” Sarge said. “Where is he now?”
“He’s over there by the car, puking his guts out.”
“How did Murdock get out of custody, anyway?” Mike demanded.
“Somehow, he managed to remove the handcuff from the chair, climbed up on the shelf, pushed the ceiling tile aside, then climbed across, and dropped down on the visitors’ side of the wall. From there, he walked out the door and grabbed Sabre,” the sergeant responded before walking off.
Mike knelt back down. “Stay with us, Sabre. We need you.”
Sabre lay in Bob’s arms, covered with blood. Bob felt helpless. He took his handkerchief and wiped the blood from her splattered face. He knew some of the blood belonged to Murdock, and she would want him to wipe it off. He looked down at her blood-soaked clothes. He didn’t know where Murdock’s blood stopped and hers began or where she had been hit. From all the blood on her chest it looked like she had taken a bullet on the left side of her body, just below the shoulder. Bob told himself to breathe, to keep from hyperventilating. Afraid she’d been hit in the heart, he checked her pulse again. She still had one, but fainter than before. The sirens grew louder as the paramedics neared the courthouse.
“They’re almost here. Just hang on, Sobs.” He leaned over her, murmured, “Sobs, I tell you what I’ll do. If you’ll just come through this for me, I’ll quit smoking for you. I will. I promise.” He half expected her eyes to pop open with shock. Maybe that’s why he did it. He didn’t know, but he had made her a promise and he would keep it. All she had to do was live.
The paramedics jumped out of the ambulance and went to Sabre. They took her out of Bob’s arms and placed her on the stretcher. Bob watched as the paramedics loaded her in the ambulance, praying they’d be able to stabilize her. For the first time, he looked over at Murdock just in time to see them pull the sheet over his face. Bob didn’t feel good about it, as he had imagined he might. Nor was he upset because someone had just died. He felt nothing.
38
Sabre was groggy. She wanted to wake up, but her eyelids seemed too heavy to open. Unsure of her whereabouts, and afraid to find out, she opened one eye and then the other. Through the haze, she saw a doctor sitting on the side of her bed. She looked around the room, satisfying herself she was in a hospital.
“Good morning, sunshine.”
“Hello, Dr. Steele,” she replied. She smiled up at him, “You sounded just like Ron. That’s the way he always greeted me in the morning.”
He looked back at her and smiled a sheepish little smile, making his eyes twinkle. Sabre’s heart skipped a beat and her stomach fluttered. He looked so much like Ron.
“Sabre, it’s me, Ron. Dr. Steele’s in his office.”
Sabre pinched herself on the wrist. She closed her eyes for a second and reopened them, this time filled with tears. “Am I dreaming?”
“No, you’re not dreaming. I know this seems strange, but I’m really here. Now if you’ll just give me a hug, I’ll tell you what’s going on.”
Sabre reached up. Ron leaned over and hugged her, being careful of her shoulder. Tears streaming down her face, she asked in disbelief, “Is it really you, Ron? I’m not hallucinating?”
“It’s really me.” Ron smiled his devilish smile.
“You’re not Dr. Steele?”
“No, I’m just lucky enough to have someone who looks a great deal like me.” He picked up her hand and held it in his. “Where do I begin?” he paused. “Sabre, I’ve been in the witness protection program for the past five years. I couldn’t contact you or Mom because it would’ve put you both at risk. I couldn’t even tell you about the program because the mobsters I testified against think I’m dead. That’s the only way this would work. I’m so sorry. I know you’ve gone through hell, but I just couldn’t put you in danger.”
“You’re here now. It’s all that matters.”
“Sabre, I can’t stay. I only have a few hours and then I’ll have to go back.” He watched the smile leave her face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know which was worse, to let you go on thinking I had died, or to take this opportunity to see you. I’m afraid I was selfish. I just had to see you again.”
“Oh, I’m so glad you did. I’m selfish, too. I want to keep you with me.” She fought back the tears.
“Who knows? Someday I may be able to return. You never know.”
“So what happened?”
“Well, you already know about my relationship with Gaylord and Beth. I met Beth at the gym. We became very close friends, nothing more. Oh, don’t get me wrong; I loved her, and had she been single, we may have had a chance. But nothing ever happened, not even so much as a kiss.”
“Did Elizabeth, I mean, Beth, love you?”
“I don’t know. I’d like to think so, but we never discussed it. I do know she cared a great deal for me. We shared a lot of secrets.”
“Gaylord thought there was something between you?”
“Apparently, although I didn’t realize it at the time. He never gave any indication he had a problem with our relationship. Instead, he fed me information through Beth so he could set me up.”
“Yeah, I heard about that, but wouldn’t it have been simpler for him to testify against Atlanta himself?”
“Sure, but Gaylord never did anything the simple way. Besides, he didn’t want to be the one to testify and end up dead or in my situation. So he devised a plan where Atlanta would fall, Dallas could move in, and wipe his slate clean. If he used me as his pawn, he got a bonus by getting rid of me at the same time.”
“So you testified and put some sharks in prison?”
“Yeah, quite a few of them. Gaylord made sure we wiped out their leadership. Then the FBI put the word out on the street about me being dead and faked a cover. So, it appeared they tried to protect themselves from looking like they screwed up, a pretty ingenious plan actually.”
“Is Beth with you?”
“No. I didn’t even know she was missing until this morning, but I’d bet my life Gaylord had something to do with it.”
“Don’t be doing that. You can’t have too many lives left,” Sabre teased. “Enough about the Murdocks. Tell me about Ron Brown, or whatever your name is now. Are you married? Do you have any children?”
“None of the above,” he responded. “Unfortunately, my life doesn’t really lend itself to an honest commitment. When you live a lie, it’s hard to build trust in a relationship.” Ron didn’t sound bitter. Instead, he sounded as if he had come to terms with his plight and accepted it.
“I do have a dog, a yellow lab. He’s a great hunter. I have a good job, something I really enjoy doing. I told them when I signed up for this gig I’d only work out of doors. And I have some very dear friends.” Ron paused, “Yes, all in all, my life has been good the past five years. Except for the fact I don’t have you and Mom around, it’s a life I would choose for myself.” He chuckled a little. “I guess, in a way, that’s what I did. Not many people have the opportunity to do such a thing.”
“Mom. Does she know?”
“Yes, she knows. I spent the morning with her in Dr. Steele’s office. She’ll be in here shortly. She wanted to give us a little time alone.”
“Just like Mom, always giving.”
“Yeah, she’s the best,” Ron agreed. “Sis, I’m so sorry about your house burning down.”
“Hey, it’s only material things. I’m safe, Mom’s safe, you’re alive; the rest doesn’t really matter. Besides, I retrieved the most important thing from the house the day before it caught fire … my little red notebook you gave me for my sixth birthday.”
Ron laughed out loud. “Are you still writing in that old thing?”
“Every day I either write in it, or at least review what’s already there. Every day I think of you when I do it. Look at all the things I’ve accomplished because I put them on my list.”
“Like what?”
“Like getting my law degree.”
“Yeah, and it nearly got you killed,” he teased.
“Well, like buying my own home, with a view.”
“And that lasted what? Six weeks? You certainly have a view now.”
She laughed, “Okay, I have one. Remember the roller coaster? It took me six months after I wrote it in the book to work up the nerve to actually go on it.”
“Yes, and when you finally did, it got stuck at the top and you sat there for over three hours before they brought you down.” Ron laughed. “Oh, and let’s not forget the love of your life, Victor Spanoli. That one worked well. Not only did you not marry him, you haven’t married anyone. Why is that, by the way?”
“Just waiting for Victor, I guess.” Sabre thought about how much she had missed the banter only she and her brother could do. He had been teasing and cajoling her as long as she could remember. When she reached about ten or eleven years old, she started to give it back to him, and by the time she reached her teen years, she held her own.
Sabre couldn’t take her eyes off her handsome brother. “Wow, it’s so good to have you here with me.” She sighed. “Do you ever hear about what’s going on in our lives?”
“I receive reports from time to time on you, Mom … and Carla.” Ron paused. “I feel so responsible for Carla. I should’ve taken her with me, but it all seemed too risky at the time.”
“Hey, you did what you had to do. It’s not your fault Carla has problems. Besides, she’s doing much better now with the help of Dr. Steele.”
“I know. He told me about Carla’s progress. He sounded real promising.”
“He’s right, Ron. She’s come a long way. I believe she’s going to make it. By the way, how were you able to come home to us?”
“It seems you made an impression on someone who wanted to return a favor.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You retrieved some
information from Beth’s mother, which in turn helped clear the name of a cop in Atlanta … Courage or Carriage or something like that.”
“Carriage, Joe Carriage.”
“Yeah, that’s it. Well, he has a friend in the FBI who owed him big time, so he called in a marker. Even with all that, it wouldn’t have worked except for my outlandishly handsome look-alike, Dr. Corbin Steele. I must say, he has been a prince through this whole thing. I have to tell you, it’s really strange looking at someone who looks so much like you.”
“He’s a pretty great guy,” Sabre said.
“And a handsome devil, wouldn’t you say?”
“I don’t have to. You’ve said it plenty.”
The door opened and Mrs. Brown peeked in. “Can anyone join this party?”
“Hi, Mom, come on in,” Sabre beckoned.
The three of them spent the next few hours sharing their lives and reminiscing. They talked, they laughed, and they cried, always touching, trying to hold on to each other and to the few precious moments they had together. They feared the moment the door would open and they would be split apart.
When the FBI agent walked in, he was greeted with three very disappointed faces. “Sorry folks,” he said. “I hate to do this to you, but it’s time. You have a few minutes to say your goodbyes and then here’s what you need to do. Ron, when you leave here, remember you are Dr. Steele. Nurses and such may be vying for your attention to ask you things. Sabre’s friend Bob will be out in the hallway. He’ll be asking you questions about Sabre and acting crazy, if he has to, in order to keep others distracted. You’ll lead him to your office where Dr. Steele’s waiting. From there you’ll slip out the back and we’ll be on our way. Any questions?”
“No, I’ve got it,” Ron said. He hugged his mother for the longest time, both holding on. They had all agreed earlier they wouldn’t cry when it came time to leave, but it didn’t work. Mrs. Brown bawled as she gave him some last minute motherly instructions on how to take care of himself. Tears rolled down Ron’s cheeks as he agreed to be careful. He turned to Sabre, gave her a hug, and whispered in her ear, “Don’t ever forget how much I love you, Sis.”
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