Disclaimer: FX: The Series does not belong to me, and I'm in no way profiting financially from this story. It is written purely for my own entertainment and for the entertainment of others. FX is a Fireworks Entertainment Inc. and Winterset Productions Inc. production also produced in association with Rysher Entertainment and Hallmark Entertainment. The show is also based on the movie FX, an Orion Picture Corporation movie.
Unrequited Love
by Erin Bickers
This story is set during the first series of FX: The Series.
Rollie, hair still wet from the shower, strolled down the stairs from the loft. "Angie, you're here awfully early today." Rollie looked pretty unimpressed as her early arrival had woken him and he had only got to bed at 3am after tinkering with his latest gadget.
"Oh, yeah Rol, I wanted to check my e-mail before we head off to the set. I'm expecting a message from Sherlock." Angie typed in her Simmoril password and sipped a hot coffee while she waited for the computer to dial up the server.
"Sherlock? Don't tell me... he's a new mate on the net?" Rollie poured himself a coffee and wandered over to the computer workstation.
"Yeah, Rollie, he is... Oh good, the message is here." She turned and looked up at Rollie. "... must you read over my shoulder?"
"Alright, Ok, I'll go... maybe read the paper or something..." Rollie put his hands up in surrender and, picking up the newspaper on his way past the sofa, sat down on the stairs and started reading the paper.
The message to Angie read: "Hi Simmoril! Will be in NY tomorrow, how about we meet for dinner around 7pm. You choose the place. E-mail me if you're busy. Sherlock."
"Oh good," thought Angie, "finally I get to meet him in person. I think we should go to somewhere casual." Angie e-mailed back suggesting that they meet at the Fujiyama Mama's and then shut off the computer. "Alright Rollie, I'm ready to go."
The next day, on the way back to the shop Angie started brushing her hair in the back of the F/X van.
"Ange, what are you doing back there?"
"Getting ready Rollie. Can you drop me off at the Fujiyama Mama's?"
"Hmm, Sushi, you got a date?"
"No, I'm just meeting Sherlock."
"Sounds like a date to me!"
Angie threw a magic marker at Rollie's head and made a face at him. He ducked and laughed.
The van pulled up just up the road from the restaurant. Angie hopped out. "Thanks for the lift Rol, I'll see you tomorrow."
Angie entered the cafe and spied a man sitting on his own at a table in the middle of the room. He saw her and smiled. The man had short blond hair and is dressed in a linen shirt and jeans. Fairly normal looking but not a Mr Perfect. Angie walked over to him.
"Sherlock?" The young man stood, and wiped his hands nervously on his jeans.
"Yes, my name is Robert Cooper. You must be Simmoril?"
"Yep, Angie Ramirez. Mind if I take a seat?"
"Oh, please, sit down." Robert gestured to the seat opposite him, and sat down again. Angie took the seat and dumped her bag on the ground beside her. "Wow, this is strange, I know you yet it feels like I am sitting in front of a complete stranger."
Angie chuckled, "I know what you're feeling. Last time I tried meeting a friend off the 'net it didn't work out particularly well."
"Oh really, what happened?"
Angie's expression darkened as she remembered Hemmingway/Joey. "I was to meet him at his apartment. When I got there I found him dead on the floor, bullet to the head..." The young F/X specialist decided it was time to change the subject. "Anyway, how was your trip from Chicago?"
Robert's eyebrows rose as Angie mentioned what happened to Joey. He decided not to pursue it as her abrupt subject change indicated that she did not really want to talk about it. "Oh, umm, the trip wasn't too bad. How was work?"
Angie and Robert keep talking over their dinner and until quite late into the night. Angie learned that Robert was keen on movies and so he showed a great interest in her job with Rollie. They also debated the quality of various movies from "Gone with the Wind" to "Independence Day".
Later that night Robert sat down at the desk in a seedy looking apartment. The new laptop computer contrasted sharply with the dingy dented dining table on which it sat. A scrapbook sat next to laptop and next to that was a newspaper clipping about the movie that Angie and Rollie were working on, it included a photo of the two of them with the movie director. Robert starts typing... "Simmoril. I know..." The look on his face remained blank as he typed. After he sent the message Robert shut the computer off and opened the first page of the scrapbook. Inside the first page is a newspaper article about a female journalist in England. The article stated that she was being awarded for an article she wrote as an investigative reporter. He turned the page, this page showed a newspaper clipping that described the murder of the same reporter. She was smothered and found in her car in the basement of her office building two days after she disappeared.
Robert opened a small decorated box on the table, it was full of jewellery. He took out a locket. It was the same one as the reporter is wearing when she was awarded with the reporter prize. He ran his fingers over it and placed it back in the box as he turned the page. The next page shows a picture and article about a South African congresswoman. She had successfully brought in a controversial bill to parliament. Robert turned the page, a second article on the congresswoman - and her murder. She was found in her car, smothered, two days after she disappeared. This time Robert took an engraved bracelet from the box and fingered it as he stared at the photo of the congresswoman.
Robert placed the bracelet back in the box and flicked to the
first blank page in the scrap book, the book obviously had a lot
more articles in it. He picked up the article of Rollie and Angie
and pasted it into the book. Robert smiled as he ran his fingers
over the image of Angie...
Chapter Two
The next morning Angie was barely on time to work, after the late night she had slept through her alarm. On the way to set Rollie took the opportunity to quiz Angie on her evening.
"So, Ange, who's this Sherlock guy? Did ya like him?"
"Rollie, I thought we agreed that you wouldn't quiz me on my private life?" Angie looked up from the computer workstation. It was pretty obvious that she had not had enough sleep the night before because she was a bit grumpy and her appearance was not quite as immaculate as usual.
"Oh, come on Ange. You know there ain't much going on in my life at the moment. I gotta get my kicks out of someone's private life." He grinned at her via the rear-view mirror.
Angie gave Rollie a dirty look and decided that she may as well spill the beans on her evening or he would give her a hard time about it all day. There were just some days that Rollie's big kid attitude drove her nuts and she sensed that this could be one of them. "OK, Rol. Sherlock's real name is Robert. His family is from Chicago and they are pretty well off... I think. He works as an accountant for his father's company. He was up in New York on business."
"Angie, you can't tell me that you only found out that stuff yesterday. What's he like?"
"Well, he's a little bit shorter than you and I guess he is kinda cute."
"Kinda?" Rollie questioned.
"Well, I mean he has good features and everything but... I don't know, there is something that isn't quite right... it's weird. I'm not entirely comfortable with him."
"Do ya think you'll go out with him next time he's in New York?"
The van pulled up at the set. "I guess so. Anyway... enough of the 20 questions Rollie, lets get some work done." Angie smiled and gave Rollie a light hearted thump on the arm as she stepped out of the van."
The next morning Angie turned up at the shop obscenely early again (well, obscenely early in Rollie's opinion anyway). Angie expected another message from Robert, but there was only e-mail from someone named Hyde. It was disturbing:
"Simmoril. I know your name is Angie Ramirez, I'll find you soon. Love Hyde."
Angie called out to Rollie (who, incidentally, had been banished to the stairs again with the daily paper). "Hey, Rollie, come look at this."
"I thought I wasn't supposed to read your mail. What is it?" Rollie smiled as he glanced up at Angie from the paper.
"I'm serious Rol, come take a look."
Something in Angie's tone indicated to Rollie that she was really worried. He got up, walked over to her and read the message. "This guy sounds like a bit of a whacko, Ange. Do you want me to give Leo a call." Rollie was worried, he wasn't sure how messed up someone had to be to send an e-mail like this.
"No not for the moment. It is probably just a prank. If anything else happens then it is might a good idea." Angie was a concerned but she had decided that she was being paranoid. "Come on, let's get going. We have a long day ahead of us." She got up from the computer workstation and grabbed her jacket.
That evening Angie walked slowly up the stairs to her apartment. It had been a long day at the set. All she wanted to do was to have a shower and head for bed. There were two bunches of flowers on her doorstep. Angie took them inside and shut the door behind her before she opened the cards to read them. The first was from Robert:
"Hi Angie Just to let you know that I am going to be up in New York again next week. I would love to catch up with you again. R."
Angie sniffed the flowers and smiled to herself. The second note, attached to a single red rose, was disturbing:
"Surprise Angela! I know where you live now. Hyde"
Angie sank down on the sofa. A look of shock and fear spread across her face. "Oh, great" she thought, "I'm being stalked on the 'net and in real life. What a wonderful day this has turned out to be."
Half an hour later Rollie and Leo were at Angie's apartment. Rollie was trying to convince her that she should stay at the shop for the time being.
"Angie, this guy sounds like a total fruit loop. I mean he knows where you live now, you should stay at the shop for the moment."
"Rollie, I'm not a kid anymore, I'm 23 years old and I'm not about to be chased out of my own apartment by some (probably harmless) guy who is getting a kick out of scaring me. Besides the couch at the shop ain't that comfortable."
"Ange, be reasonable, if comes after you... Leo, you agree with me on this don't you."
Leo was not overly keen on climbing into the middle of the argument but it appeared he didn't have much choice. "Rollie, I think that Angie is right on this one. This guy is probably harmless. The only thing that staying at the shop would do would be to make you feel better and to give Angie a stiff neck, she is also right about that couch, pal."
Angie interjected as Rollie gave Leo a 'you're supposed to be on my side' look - "Yeah, and Rollie, what would I do with Chiops - you know he doesn't get on with Bluey. Last time I took him to the shop he nearly tore Bluey's head off."
With that final comment Rollie gave up in disgust. The two men checked Angie's apartment carefully to ensure that there was no way this Hyde character could get in and then they left for the evening.
The next morning when Rollie came down the stairs he found Angie already at the computer again. She was writing to Robert, telling him about Hyde and how the movie shoot was going:
"Hi Sherlock.
I enjoyed the dinner the other day. Life has been pretty busy since then. Rollie and I are working some long hours on set. The director is so full of it, he keeps giving us over-the-top compliments so that we stay late to make some new thing he has just thought up and has to have.
I am also getting some odd e-mail at the moment. Some person named Hyde has written to me and he also sent me some flowers with a bizarre message, I've never heard of him before. Rollie thinks that I should stay over here at the shop until it blows over, I think he is over-reacting. I mean, this guy does scare me but I don't think I should be driven out of my own apartment because of it.
Well, I had better get going, Rollie and I need to get to set. I'll talk to you later.
Simmoril"
Rollie poured himself his standard morning coffee. "Morning Ange, how long you gonna be on that thing."
"I'm almost done Rollie, just got to send this message... Alright, you ready to go."
That evening Rollie drove straight back to the shop, they had finished on set early for a change. Angie decided to check her e-mail again before she went home. The computer showed there were two new messages, there was one from Sherlock and the other - Hyde. Angie found smiled to herself as she read the message from Sherlock:
"Hi Simmoril. I'm glad you enjoyed yourself the other night. I'll be in New York on Wednesday night so keep it free if you can. It would be really good if we can meet for Dinner and a movie or something.
I'm sorry to hear about this Hyde guy. I had some chick stalking me once on the 'net. She turned out to be harmless - an old school friend trying to be funny. I'm sure that this guy is harmless. If I was you, I wouldn't worry unless he got really kinky.
See ya soon, Sherlock."
The message from Hyde had the opposite effect on Angie - it scared her.
"Angela I saw those two guys at our apartment last night. Are you trying to make me jealous? We are destined to be together forever - it will just be the two of us soon. Love Hyde."
Rollie called Leo over to get his opinion on the situation. The message really scared Angie but she was determined not to let this guy get the better of her. This time Leo agreed with Rollie - she should stay at the shop until they figured out what to do about Hyde.
"Rollie, I am not staying here!" Angie shouted, "This is my life and I am not going to let this guy turn me into some paranoid freak! How much do you two know about Internet weirdos anyway. Sherlock doesn't think that I have much to worry about, and he knows about this kind of thing." Angie paced around the shop lounge, she was obviously agitated and Rollie's overprotectiveness was only succeeding in agitating her further.
Leo realised that there was no way Rollie was going to succeed in talking Angie into staying. "Hey Rol, if she doesn't want to stay then she doesn't want to stay. How about you give her some sort of tracker or something so that if this guy does have a go at her you know where she it." Rollie looked resigned but nodded in agreement. "Well Ange, does that sound alright to you too."
"I guess so, if it will keep Rollie off my back." She shoved a PDA in her bag knowing that Rollie could triangulate the position on it if he ever had to. Then with a final look that told the two men she was big enough to look after herself she took off for home.
Over the next few weeks Rollie and Angie were kept busy at the set. They were nearly finished the movie and were trying to get all the last minute shots finished up. The pattern with Hyde continued, e-mail and flowers. There was never any sign that he was able to break into the shop or her apartment. Both Rollie and Angie took some comfort in that and their attitude towards Hyde changed from fear of a menace to annoyance. Angie continued to talk to Sherlock on a regular basis, their friendship blossomed. He was up in New York on a semi-regular basis and they usually met up for a meal when he was in town. He also came out to the set a couple of times and as a result met Rollie. Rollie was pleased with the friendship between Angie and Robert, he knew that the Hyde problem was bothering Angie more than she let on and Robert was a good friend for her throughout it all. He was aware of the fact that he was sometimes overprotective of Angie and that it sometimes bugged her more than the problem he was being overprotective about. The friendship with Robert was an opportunity for her to have someone else to discuss problems with, without the overprotective issue arising.
The first morning after Angie and Rollie had finished the shot Angie got up and got organised for work. She and Rollie were going to have a really exciting day (NOT) - packing up all their F/X gear and carting it back to the shop. She looked at the jewellery box on the side of the bathroom cabinet, she didn't usually wear much jewellery but decided on this day that she would wear the small silver "A" that her Dad had given to her for the last birthday she had had before he died. The phone rang, it was Rollie.
"Hey Ange, I'm on my way. Meet me out the front?"
"Sure Rol, see you in a few minutes." She hung up the phone, grabbed a few more things and shoved them in her pack before heading out the door.
Angie was careful to check that her door was locked properly from the outside and still had her keys in her hands as she headed down the stairs. She heard her landlord call out to her, he was on the stairs - the next floor up and he had seen her leave her apartment.
"Angie Ramirez! Hold up, I want to talk to you for a minute."
Angie started taking the stairs two by two. He had caught her blading in the hallway again the previous day and she knew that he was going to have a go at her about it. The blading lecture usually took 5 - 10 minutes and Rollie was probably out the front by then so she knew that she didn't have time to hang around.
Angie's landlord got to the bottom of the stairs and jogged around the corner to the foyer, he noticed the back entrance door was just closing as he went past. It was at this point that Rollie Tyler came around the same corner and they almost ran into each other.
"Hey Tyler, where did that assistant of yours go."
"What do ya mean? I'm on my way up to her apartment. She's seems to be running late again."
"Hey, quit trying to cover for her Tyler I saw leave just a minute ago. That girl's been skating in the hallway again. If she wasn't such a nice kid I'd throw her out on her butt, she's damaging the floor with those skates."
"Whoa, back up. Are you saying that she has already left?
She's not out the front." Just then Rollie noticed something
on the ground. It was Angie's keys. A cold shiver ran down the
length Rollie's back as he stared down at them...
Rollie reached down and picked up Angie's keys, what were they doing there? She was usually so meticulous about her keys - and security (especially since the Hyde thing had started). He knew something must have happened and he turned to her landlord.
"Do you have any security camera's covering this part of the hall?"
"Yeah... yeah we do. Why?"
"...'cause I think something has happened to Angie and that camera will have probably caught it on tape." Rollie held up the keys in front of the landlord, "...she's not in the habit of leaving her keys on hallway floors."
Angie's landlord nodded and then led Rollie to his office where the security system was based.
Angie's head felt like it had been stuffed full of cotton wool, she shook her head to try and clear it. She went to rub her eyes with the back of her hand but found that she couldn't, she went to yawn but found that she couldn't do that either. The back of her mind was telling her something was seriously wrong but she couldn't figure out what it was through the fuzz that clouded her thoughts. It was then that she decided she ought to find out where she was, the sense of the room was unfamiliar so she blinked her eyes open and looked around.
'Oh, God!' she thought as the memories came flooding back and she took stock of her current situation. She remembered locking her apartment door before running down the stairs to meet Rollie, someone had been after her, who was it?... Her landlord, she remembered, she was in trouble with him again for blading in the building. She couldn't remember anything beyond that point until she woke up here.
Here... where was here? She looked down and saw that she was sitting in a chair, her wrists tied to the chair arms and her ankles tied to the chair legs. There was also a rope around her waist and duc tape over her mouth. She looked around the room, it was an apartment, pretty old and in bad repair, she was alone. Other than the door leading to the hall there were three doors going off the room she was in, she assumed that they were for the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. Over her shoulder was a window. The room was empty except for a table against the far wall with a laptop computer sitting on it. Her pack was sitting on the table next to the computer. She remembered, the PDA was in her bag! But it had to be turned on. If she could do that then Rollie would know where she was, her heart rate jumped at the thought, all was not lost, there was a way for her to get out of this.
Just then she heard a key in the door. Someone was coming... Angie began struggling with her bindings. The door opened and a man came in, he closed the door and locked it again behind him. He placed a grocery bag on the tape and walked up to Angie.
"Hello my love, how are you today..."
Angie looked up at his face and confusion ran across her features as she recognised him instantly. It was Robert...
Rollie rewound the Security tape until the time index showed the time to be 5 minutes prior to when he had run into Angie's landlord in the hallway. There was not much on the tape for the first few minutes and then the door for the back entrance opened and someone stepped into the hallway. He was dressed in an overcoat and woollen balaclava hat pulled down over his face. He looked around and then stepped back into the entrance way again. The door did not shut properly behind him, it was slightly ajar. A few moments later Angie could be seen on the tape. She jumped down the last couple of steps and after a glance back up the stairs she turned and began to walk quickly towards the security camera's position (near the front entrance). As she walked past the back entrance door, the door opened and the masked man stepped out again just behind Angie. One arm wrapped around her waist while the other was clamped firmly over her mouth pulling her back. The hand over her mouth held some sort of white cloth to her mouth and nose. Angie struggled fiercely for the first few moments as she was dragged back towards the back entrance door although her struggling could be seen to be diminishing as she disappeared from view - the cloth over her nose and mouth must have contained chloroform.
Rollie heart raced as he watched the last few moments of the video before Angie disappeared from sight. She was in trouble, big trouble, and there was nothing that he could do about it. Frustration, anger and terror rose in his throat like bile until there was almost nothing he could do to contain it. He punched the nearest wall, the drywall shattered beneath his fist and he left a fist sized hole in the wall.
Thoughts raced around Angie's head as she looked up at Robert. He was her friend and she could not understand why he had done this too her. She had told him things, some things she had not even told Rollie, the anonymity of the Internet had allowed her to confide in him more than she may have if she had just met him on the street. She got angry - fast, only trouble was that struggling against her bindings did little to reduce the heat of her anger and only succeeded in tiring her out.
Robert watched her struggle for a few moments then crouched down in front of her so that they were at eye level with each other. He reached out a hand towards Angie's face and she pulled away.
"Relax, I'm not going to hurt you, I could never hurt you. I love you."
Angie's eyes opened wide in shock at what he had said to her and she looked him in the eye and realised that he was telling the truth, for now. He reached towards her face again and this time she did not pull away. He gently removed the tape from over her mouth, talking to her as he did it.
"Now, I am going to remove the tape for now. But you've got to promise me that you won't scream or I'll have to put it back again. OK..."
"Why are you doing this to me? We were getting along really well, why ruin it?" The words poured out of Angie's mouth the second the tape was removed.
Robert was calm, as if he had expected her questions. He began to explain, "Well, you see. It has to just be the two of us. I've seen you with that Rollie guy, you spend so much time with him and so he is always around either literally or in your head because you're talking about him. For us to have a chance I needed to get you away from him so that it is just the two of us and you can forget about him."
Angie interrupted, "Hang on a minute, Rollie and I are just friends and workmates. There is nothing romantic between us." She couldn't believe that she was sitting there talking reasonably to a man that appeared to be obsessed with her to the point where he had kidnapped her but that seemed to be the best thing to do at that moment in time.
Robert continued, "It does not matter whether or not there is anything romantic going on. He is the number one guy in your life and I only fit in under that. If you had to choose between us you would choose him every time. If we are going to spend the rest of our lives together then I need to be the number one guy in your life."
Angie spoke again, slowly, the fear was creeping back, "What do you mean spend the rest of our lives together?"
"Well, in a few days, when the heat dies down a bit and you realise that we were meant to be together I am going to take you to the mountains. My family has a cabin there and we can spend the rest of our lives up there blissfully happy." He smiled and walked back over to the table slowly as though he could imagine their future - together.
Angie realised that there was no way she could reason her way out of this. If she played along he would take her out of New York and there would be no way that Rollie would be able to find her. The only thing she could do was hope that she would be able to get loose and activate her PDA. She did not realise that there was going to be a time limit...
Francis and Leo met Rollie at the shop. Rollie had phoned Leo from Angie's building before taking the security video and Chiops back to the shop. Rollie knew that Angie would want him to look after Chiops while she was away - it was easier for him to think of it like that. Angie was away and would return soon. His mind wouldn't let him go over the other possibilities - that she might not come back, ever. Rollie put the tape on for Leo and Francis to watch, he couldn't watch it again. Every nanosecond of that tape was etched in his mind. He got Chiops some food and water and started to tidy up some of the equipment that they had been using on the movie they had just finished.
Leo shut the video off and phoned Colleen with the details of what had happened. He needed her to find out as much as she could about this case. Had this guy done it before, was there a pattern? Leo shut his phone off and watched Rollie for a few moments. Rollie was still tidying - trying to keep both his body and mind busy so that neither had a chance to react to the events of the morning. Leo hated to see him like this. He had never had a bond with anyone they way that Rollie and Angie had a bond (they had been through so much together), but he felt like he could understand what was going on in Rollie's head. It was written all over his face. Over the course of a few hours worry lines had formed on his forehead and the smile had been erased from his face so profoundly that he looked as if he had never smiled in his life.
Francis was also contemplative as he watched Rollie work. How would he react if something like this had happened to Sarah, or maybe one of his girls. He knew that he would never be able to deal with it as calmly as Rollie appeared to be dealing with it.
Rollie's phone ringing interrupted the thoughts of all three men. Rollie answered it, it was Robert. "Hi Rollie, hey is Angie there? We are supposed to be meeting but she is late and I can't get her at her apartment so I thought that she might be there."
Rollie took a deep breath and told Angie's newest friend what had been going on. "Robert, Angie is missing. She was..." he took another deep breath, the word out was hard to get out "...kidnapped."
Robert sounded deeply concerned at the news and questioned Rollie about what had transpired. They agreed to meet at the shop early that evening to discuss what the best course of action would be.
Leo and Francis left then. They needed to get started on all the Police grunt work that would be required to solve the case. This was one case that they were both determined to solve quickly, it was too personal to become anything but a top priority.
Colleen had spent quite some time on the computer looking for similar cases before she finally found a match, several matches in fact. This type of case always bothered her, and when it was someone she knew it bothered her an awful lot more than usual. Leo finally arrived back at the station and looked for Colleen the minute he walked in the door.
"Hey Colleen, any luck so far..." He had a grim but hopeful look on his face.
"Hi Leo. I went online and did a search. I think we are looking at a serial killer here."
"Wha... Talk to me."
"Well, there are a number cases with very similar bio's to Angie. England, South Africa, Australia, basically all over the world. All relatively young women - none older than 40 although Angie is the youngest, and all appearing in the local newspapers within a few weeks of disappearing. Between the cases they've helped you crack and their movie stuff, Angie and Rollie have been in the paper a bit lately. Anyway, all the women had complained to the local authorities about being stalked on the Internet and in person. Short time later they disappeared and they were found 48 hours after disappearing, dead and left very close to where they were taken from. No signs of sexual or physical assault, just smothered within 12 hours of being found."
"Which means we've got a time limit."
"Yeah, tomorrow evening"
"I better go tell Rollie..."
Rollie was pacing around the shop, agitated as Leo walked in.
"Leo, anything new?" He kept pacing.
"Yep, Colleen's been busy. She's found a profile, this guy has done it before."
Rollie stopped walking, Leo could see the tension in his back as he waited for him to continue. "Keep talking Leo."
"We got a time limit Rollie, if we don't find her by tomorrow night..." Leo trailed off as Rollie spun around sharply, a shocked expression on his face.
"Leo, we gotta find her..." Fear crept into Rollie's voice as he began pacing again
"I know Rollie, I know"
Rollie stopped in front of Leo angrily and looked Leo in the eye. "No you don't Leo..."
Leo interrupted him. "Yes... I do know. Sure, I haven't experienced anything like myself but I've seen you two work together. Rollie, she's your other half, she's like a sister to you. You feel protective of her, responsible for her, and neither of you is complete without the other."
Rollie stepped back from Leo, the pain etched his face as he tried to regain control of his emotions. The ringing doorbell interrupted the moment, Leo went to answer it.
As Robert drove over to the shop he thought carefully about what had happened that day, what had happened in the past and what he planned to happen in the future. He had done a lot of travelling, his parents had seen to that. They were a well off family and had spared no expense in his education and upbringing, he had always had a nanny as a child and they had made sure that he had seen all the wonders the world had to offer. The childhood travelling had just further fuelled his desire to see the world. The only thing that they had never given him and it was the only thing that he had ever wanted was their time. With the nannies, boarding schools and summer camps he had never spent much time with either of his parents and so he had never experienced how love was supposed to work. His driving need for love in combination with having been given everything he had ever wanted made him think that he could obtain love the same way he had obtained everything else in life - simply by demanding it.
He thought about some of the other women he had met over the past few years. The first, an English reporter - Victoria. He had first met Victoria in London when she had been doing a stint as a society columnist. She often did that in between major investigative stories. He had fallen in love with her almost as soon as he had met her, a love at first sight kind of thing. They had spent a lot of time together in London and then, when it was time for her to go away to do a story on some tribe in Kenya or where ever she had been planning to go he had 'commanded' her to stay. She refused and broke off their involvement together - permanently. He had got angry and had kidnapped her and taken her to a cottage not far from London so that they could spend some time together alone and he could convince her to spend the rest of her life with him. On the second day together he still had not had any luck and in a fit of rage at her constant refusal to do as he asked he had smothered her with a cushion.
He remembered at the time he had felt terrible about what had happened and had taken her back to where he had taken her from. He had left her there just as he had found her, the only other thing he had done was to remove a silver locket that she often wore.
And so the pattern had been established, each time he met a woman and fell he love with her he demanded that she fall in love with him also. When that did not happen he kidnapped her, 36 to 48 hours later killed her and left the body where he had taken her from. Every time he swore that this time would be different and every time it was the same. He did not think of himself as a serial killer because each time he believed it was an accident when the women died.
It was then that he arrived at the FX shop.
Leo opened the door and saw a young man standing there, looking worried. The man spoke, "Hi, I'm Robert. You must be that cop, umm, Leo isn't it."
"Yeah, I'm Leo. Come on in, we've been expecting you."
Robert walked in and saw the expression on Rollie's face. It confirmed what he had thought about the relationship between Rollie and Angie and it pleased him. However he kept his grim poker face. "Hi Rollie. Have you heard anything from the kidnapper?"
"No, and I don't think we will either. Leo you explain - I don't even want to think about it."
Leo told Robert about their Serial killer theory and the previous victims. Robert looked shocked thoughout the explanation. Leo and Rollie thought he was shocked because of the danger that Angie was in and the possible end result if they didn't find her soon. Robert however was shocked for a completely different reason - he had never thought of himself as a serial killer. He also realised that they were right on target for finding the guilty party, the profile that Leo presented to him was an exact description of him and the motivation that he had in the killings.
Just as Leo was almost finished his explanations Rollie interrupted, "The PDA!"
Robert looked confused as Leo picked up on where Rollie was coming from. "You're right. Will it still work?"
Rollie's whole demeanour brightened as he moved behind the computer workstation and activated a trace on the PDA. There was now a tangible piece of hope that he could grasp on to. Robert and Leo followed Rollie around the side of the workstation and watched what Rollie was doing, Robert was still confused and concerned at the sudden chance that he could be caught, he questioned Rollie. "What's going on?"
"Angie had a PDA in her pack. If she can turn it on then I can find her location thanks to the GPS chip in the unit. It's up to her to make the first move but as soon as she does we can find her, and nail this guy." replied Rollie.
Robert was tempted to panic at this turn of events but was careful to keep a straight face. He had to get back to Angie as soon as he could and get rid of that PDA. He questioned Rollie again, "Has she activated it?"
"Not yet, but if I know our Ange, she'll figure out a way to do it soon enough."
Robert excused himself at that time with a vague story of having a meeting to go to. He gave Rollie his cell phone number so that they could reach him the minute the PDA was activated.
As soon as Robert had left the apartment Angie had gotten to work on the rope that was tying her to the chair. It took quite a while but finally she was able to get at the knot and loosen it. From there she quickly untied the rest of the ropes around her feet and her waist and removed the tape from her mouth.
Two strides and she was over at the table and sorted through her pack for the PDA. Moments later she had activated it and put it in her back pocket. She then turned her attention to the door - it was deadlocked so she would need a key to open it or some other way of getting out of the apartment.
Bluey barked at the computer screen in front of him. Rollie and Leo who were sitting on the couch in the lounge area both leaped to their feet and ran for the computer workstation.
Rollie reported the result on screen, "Alright, we know where she is." He grabbed the PDA on the table next to him - it showed the same trace as the main computer had shown. Both Leo and Rollie then ran for the door, they had decided that Leo's car would be fastest thanks to the siren.
Robert was walking up the final set of stairs towards the apartment when his cell phone rang. Rollie was on the other end, "We've got a trace, and we're on our way there now."
Robert's heart pounded - that meant Angie was free up in the apartment. He kept his voice calm. "Wow, that's great! Where is she?"
Rollie gave him the location and said they would be there in about 10 minutes, it was a bit of a distance from the FX shop.
Robert told them that he would be unable to join them, he was currently busy with something that he could not leave at the present time but he wished them luck and disconnected the call as quickly as he could.
During the conversation he had reached the door of the apartment and he carefully unlocked the door listening to try and establish where Angie was in the room.
Angie was at the fire escape window trying to jimmy it open with a bread and butter knife she had found in the kitchen when she heard a key in the door. She looked around in a panic as if she was hoping that an opening would magically appear so that she could get out before Robert entered.
At the last moment she decided to get behind the door so that she would be behind him when he entered the room. She was halfway across the room when the door flung open and she found herself face to face with Robert. She backed away from him slowly desperately trying to organise the panicked thoughts running around in her head into some semblance of order and hopefully an escape plan.
Robert closed the door behind him and went to lock it again with the key when Angie rushed at him - the blunt knife still in her hands. Her fighting skills were no match for Robert as he quickly took the knife from her with one had while the other wrapped around her waist and pulled her towards himself. She was facing away from him and went to work on his shins with the back of her heels as she struggled to get away. Robert threw the knife away and with his now spare hand he reached into his pocket and pulled out a hypodermic syringe. He used his teeth to remove the needle cover and jammed the needle in Angie's shoulder feeding the contents of the syringe into her bloodstream.
Angie cried out in frustration as well as pain as she felt the needle go into her shoulder, she jerked away causing the needle to scrape across her shoulder. She did not know what was in the syringe but she had a pretty good idea what it was going to do. Her guess was confirmed as, moments later the fog rolled back over her thoughts and she slumped to the floor unconscious.
Robert wasted no time in getting them both out of the apartment. He dumped the contents of Angie's pack on the table and shoved the scrapbook, laptop and the small decorated box in it and swung it on his back. He also found the PDA and left it with the rest of Angie's stuff on the table. He picked her up and left the apartment.
Leo screeched around a corner and pulled up outside a dilapidated apartment building. Both he and Rollie leaped out of the car and ran inside. A number of Police cars pulled up behind Leo's car.
Robert looked in his rear view mirror as he drove off down the street. He saw a silver car pull up outside the building along with a number of Police cars. He smiled to himself as he turned the corner.
Leo and Rollie ran up the stairs and into the first open door apartment that they found. The room was almost empty except for a chair in the middle of the room and a table against one wall. On the table was a pile of stuff - Angie's things, including the PDA. Leo spoke first, "We're too late. He got away."
Rollie moved further into the room towards the chair, and saw
the ropes and tape, along with an empty bloodstained hypodermic
syringe sitting on the floor next to the chair. He groaned and
put his head in his hands - what do they do now?
Chapter Five
Francis entered the apartment, Leo was looking though Angie's stuff on the table. Rollie was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall, his head in his hands. Leo glanced up at Francis, "Hey Francis, building secure?"
"Umm, yeah Leo. No sign of them, they're long gone. Oh man, is this where Angie's been?"
"It looks that way. This looks like all the stuff she normally has in her backpack - isn't it Rollie? Rollie!?!"
Rollie didn't respond to Leo's question. He had let his hands drop and was staring into the space straight in front of him. He spoke, quietly "He's going to kill her isn't he Leo."
"Hey, Rollie, we don't know that, not for sure anyway. We know she was still alive when they left here, and that was only a short time ago." Leo grimly looked down at the not quite dry bloodstain on the syringe on the floor. He desperately wanted to know what he should do next, but the fact was - he had run out of leads. Without leads there was no way he could give Rollie any hope of finding Angie alive - all he could do was offer some hollow comfort and hope like hell a lead would turn up, and soon.
Francis picked up the PDA that Robert had discarded on the table before leaving the apartment with Angie earlier that evening. "So, do you think that Ange left a message on this thing?"
Rollie looked up at Francis, his face brightening, Leo spoke first. "Hey, not bad Francis, not bad at all - it's a possibility." Francis handed the PDA to Rollie, who in turn began pushing buttons.
"She put a password on here, I guess so that he couldn't turn it off again if he got his hands on it before we had the chance to find her. Let's see, what are the passwords she normally uses - it's got to be something that she would know that I knew." Rollie spoke more to himself than to the two detectives, "Got it - Chiops, her cats name, and only my third guess."
Leo interjected dryly "And what were you first two guesses Rollie?"
Rollie glanced over at Leo "My full name, she knows I don't use that much, and most people don't know it, and her Dad's name, Manny. She's usually a little cleverer when she doesn't want me to get into a file... OK, a message, I guess the first place to look is the notepad." Rollie bought up the appropriate screen on the miniature computer. "Got it, she wasn't too subtle about it, I guess she assumed that the bad guy wouldn't get past her password... Oh God, we told him everything..." Rollie stared at his friends - a stricken look on his face.
"Who Rollie, who are you talking about?" Leo started to feel nauseous as he began to realise who Rollie was talking about. Rollie beat Leo to the nauseous stage and handed the PDA to him on his way past him heading for the bathroom to throw up. Leo read the note out loud to himself and to Francis:
"Rollie
Hyde is Robert. He's totally nuts.
A."
Francis spoke first, "Oh Jeez, what are we going to do now."
Leo looked over at his partner, "I dunno yet Francis, but whatever it is, we are going to have to be so careful. DAMN IT!" He slapped the PDA back down onto the table. "I should have guessed, been suspicious of him, noticed something..."
Rollie returned to the living room just as Francis started speaking, "Well, you know, he doesn't know that we're on to him yet. That's somethin', I mean it's a place to start. Rollie, you can use some trick, find out where he's keepin' her. We'll work something out." Francis was determined to be positive about the situation - they had their lead, it was a huge lead. All they had to do was play their cards right, they could find Angie, and she would be OK.
Later on that night, after several cups of coffee a piece Rollie and the two detectives had worked up the backbone of a plan - there was just one problem - they couldn't get past the first base. They needed Robert to answer his cell phone so that Rollie could triangulate his position on it. Rollie had taken the van over to Queens, leaving Francis in it to run the computer while he stayed at the studio with Leo. All they needed was Robert, on the phone, and they had the three corners of the triangle.
Angie's thoughts were swirling through a mist again as she tried to figure out what was going on and where she was. The last thing she remembered was struggling with Robert as she had tried to escape the apartment where he had been keeping her. She had not opened her eyes as yet but the feeling of this place was different, it felt damp and she was lying on some sort of mattress or bed. Her hands were taped behind her back this time and her feet were taped too but there was no tape over her mouth. That must mean that they were somewhere where calling out would be futile.
Angie opened her eyes - the first thing she saw was Robert, he was sitting on the other side of the room, his back was towards her. He was flicking slowly through his scrapbook, and every so often he would remove a piece of jewellery from the small box on the table, run his hands over for a few moments and then put it back in the box. It was all womens' jewellery, a locket, an engraved bracelet, a ring... He looked sad and reminiscent as he went through the book. Angie diverted her attention to her surroundings - she was lying on her side on a mattress on the floor of an office. It looked like it had been a foreman's office for an industrial plant or warehouse. There was a desk against the opposite wall where Robert was sitting and against a third wall there were some shelves. Angie decided it was time to find out what was going to happen, she struggled to sit up and the movement caught the corner of Robert's eye.
"Hey Angie - you're awake. How are you feeling?" he seemed to be happy she was awake but the sadness surrounded him like an aura as he moved across the room towards her.
Angie's response was sullen (and angry), there was no way she was going to give him any false hopes about her falling head of heels for him. "Oh, yeah, just peachy. I've been kidnapped, drugged and now I'm tied up and I've got no idea where I am. HOW IN THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM!"
Robert's expression hardened as Angie finished her tirade. The pressure of almost being caught had made him decidedly unstable, he snapped, "Why don't you love me DAMMIT! That's all you have to do!" He strode back across the room and picked his book up from the table. "You're just like them, all of them. Did you know I was in love with them too, all of them at one time or another but they didn't love me either. Did you know I'm apparently a serial killer... that's right, your friend Leo has been doing some digging." He went through the pages of the scrapbook one at a time showing them to Angie, the sarcasm dripped from his voice, "Yes, they found Victoria, and her, and her too. Oh gosh he missed this one, I must tell him to tidy up his work, he's getting sloppy. IT MIGHT JUST GET SOMEONE KILLED!" His last sentence came out as a shout and he was right in Angie's face as he finished it.
Angie drew back from Robert, she started to connect the dots - and the sickening realisation came to her that Robert must have befriended Rollie and was in on the rescue plans. That's why he had taken her from the apartment and brought her to this deserted place. That's why the PDA was gone from her pocket, he must have known about the tracker when he had gotten back to the apartment - all she could do was hope that he had left it there, that Rollie had worked out her password, and that he had found the message. Tears formed in the corners of her eyes as the hope of rescue (she had used as a shield to protect her emotional core) began to fall away.
Robert drew a gun, if Angie could have pulled back any closer to the wall she would have, she was beyond terrified. He grabbed her by the front of her shirt holding the gun to the side of her head. "Wanna die? Do you want this to be over? Did you know I've never fired a gun before, always smothered the ladies, must break the pattern mustn't I, that'll keep Mr Leo the Cop confused now won't it. All you have to do is love me, that's it! That's all you have to do. But can you? Noooo, I don't think so. You've got one last chance - if not... well... we'll just have to confuse the cop."
Robert stood up then looking down on Angie with an evil smile on his face...
Leo could hear a persistent ringing close by, he couldn't figure out what it was or where it was coming from, the only thing that he knew was that it was bloody annoying. He rolled over and remembered as his body hit the floor with a resounding thud that had spent the night on Rollie's couch, not trusting his friend to be alright on his own. Landing on the floor woke Leo fully and he realised that it was his phone that was ringing, and it was in his coat pocket - the coat was slung over the back of the couch.
"McCarthy here, talk to me."
It was Colleen on the phone and she didn't waste any time getting to the point of her call, "They've found a body."
"Where?"
"In the alley behind Angie's building."
"Positive ID?"
"No. She had no wallet or identification of any kind but she fits Angie's description."
"Thanks Colleen, I'll go check it out and let you know." He switched his phone off, and looked up to see Rollie walking over from the computer workstation where he had dozed off the night before. "How much did you hear?"
Rollie picked up his coat from next to Leo's one on the back
of the sofa and walked out the door "Enough. I'm going with
you." Leo didn't think that it was the best idea in the
world, if it was Angie's body then seeing her like that would
just about kill Rollie. However after taking one look at
Rollie he realised that there was no way in hell he could stop
him so he grabbed his coat and shoes and followed him out the
door.
Leo pulled up outside Angie's apartment building, both he and Rollie sat in the car for a few reflective moments before they plucked up the courage to go and find out if it was Angie or not. The NYPD officers had secured an area around a garbage Dumpster, Rollie stopped at the tape. Leo turned to see what had made Rollie stop, he couldn't see any physical reason and based on the fact that Rollie was pale and had a haunted look about him that there was no way he was going to be able to make himself look at the body. Leo walked back over to his friend, "Hey Rollie, it's Ok. I'll check and tell you..." Rollie looked up at Leo's face, the haunted look remained but there was some small show of relief.
Leo turned back and approached the body bag lying on the ground next to the Dumpster. He crouched down beside and while holding his breath unzipped the bag. He was careful to make sure Rollie couldn't see who was inside.
The woman had been shot in the side of the head, the blood matting her blonde hair; she had been the victim of both physical and sexual abuse before the perpetrator had finally killed her. But it wasn't Angie; this woman was just another victim of violence in the huge city. It took Leo a few moments to register that it was not Angie - the gruesomeness of this woman's injuries and the expectation and fear that it was going to be his young friend clouded his thoughts and eyes as he initially stared down at the body.
Rollie saw Leo pale at the sight of the body and his stomach turned over, there was no way he was going to be able to cope if it was Angie, especially as they had been so close to rescuing her the previous evening. He watched Leo zip the bag up again, a sober look on his face. Leo walked back over to Rollie, then without looking Rollie in the eye he spoke, "Relax Rollie, it's not Angie. It's someone else." He couldn't look Rollie in the eye because he knew they only had the rest of the day maximum to find her or tomorrow they would be doing the same thing again without the relief at the end of it being someone else. He knew there would be someone out there grieving for this woman and he feared that tomorrow it would be his best friend grieving.
Relief filled Rollie - it wasn't her. There was still a chance - it was on with Plan B. "Thank god Leo. Lets get on with finding her then." They both turned away from the gruesome scene.
Monsters were chasing her and no matter how fast she ran they were always getting closer and closer. She felt like she had been running forever and there was no end in sight. Cold water splashed onto her face and she woke with a start. Relief filled her as she realised the monsters were only a dream, the emotion quickly swapped to terror as she then realised where she was. She saw Robert staring down at her, an empty (but still damp) drinking glass in his hand and an expression on his face that personified evil.
"How did you sleep, my darling?" The sarcasm dripped from his voice like honey.
Angie didn't respond to his question. It had only confirmed her fears that she was in huge trouble and unless some miracle happened she would be dead soon. His cell phone ringing interrupted their respective musings.
"Hello." He had great difficultly in getting control of himself. Now he had snapped, the madness had been let loose, it was difficult to harness again.
Rollie was on the line. "Robert, I'm glad I finally got hold of you. We tried several times last night. The guy got away... We still don't know where Angie is and we're running out of time."
Robert didn't notice the tremor in Rollie's voice, and a smile appeared through his grim concentration. The relief that they apparently did not know he was the killer helped him close the gate on the madness and he replied with a worried tone in his voice. "Oh no. I was so sure you would have found her last night. Have you got any more leads?"
Rollie paused before he could keep going - the call was almost traced and the tension of trying to talk amenably with this, this... this monster was taking a huge toll on him. "Well, we do have one minor lead, Leo's looking into it..."
Angie's emotions and mind had been shutting down to ease the pain of what she was sure would be the end of her life so it took her a few moments to realise that it must have been Rollie on the phone and that she had no gag. She screamed, "ROLLIE! ROLLIE, HELP ME! ROLL..."
Rollie's breath caught in his throat as he heard Angie's voice. She sounded terrified, and then her voice cut out to a loud thud, a male voice swearing and then a second thud that dissolved into static as the phone cut out.
He turned to the computer screen - it showed a location on the outskirts of the city. A good 20 minutes drive from their current location. Plan B went out the window (it depended on Robert remaining in the dark about what they knew) - he and Leo ran for the car again.
The madness broke completely from it's restraint as Robert first used the phone to knock his victim unconscious, cutting her head in the process, and then throwing the phone against the far wall smashing it to pieces and swearing the whole time.
He shook the limp form, "DAMN YOU! I MADE IT SO EASY FOR YOU AND YET YOU STILL COULDN'T DO AS I ASKED!" He dropped her to the mattress again and stormed from the room and towards his car. Earlier that morning he had left an exhausted Angie asleep on her own and had made use of some his substantial contacts in the city. He had acquired some explosives - just enough to destroy a small room. He retrieved them from the trunk of the car, returning to the room he placed them at several strategic points in the room to ensure its total destruction upon detonation.
The cut on Angie's forehead had finally began to clot. Tenderness reached through the madness as Robert reached down to her, brushing a piece of hair aside that was getting matted in the drying blood, "Good Bye Angela. It's too bad you had to be like the others. I thought you were different." With that he stepped away from her and left the room walking towards the main entrance of the building, the radio detonator in his hand.
Leo drove as fast as safety would allow towards Angie location. Rollie sat silently, sweating, the tension of the relative inactivity was infuriating but he knew they were going as fast as they could.
Angie awoke, groggily blinking her eyes. Her head was pounding - making her vision foggy. The first thing she noticed through the fuzz was that she was alone, the second thing she noticed were the explosives in several locations around her, and around the room.
"Oh god, I've gotta get outa here." She began struggling against the tape tying her hands and feet together.
Rollie and Leo pulled into the parking lot of a warehousing complex. They saw Robert standing boldly in the middle of the huge doorways into one of the warehouses. Leo drove towards him, stopping the car at a respectable distance, the following swat team stopping just behind him.
Angie could feel the tape around her wrists begin to loosen. She ripped a hand from its sticky grasp and unravelled the tape from her ankles. She scrambled to her feet and ran for the open doorway.
Leo got out of the car, his gun drawn and took several steps towards Robert, "Robert, it's over. Where's Angie - you've gotta let her go."
"Oh Leo, you found me. How sweet. You've made me realise the error of my ways and so you're right, it is over, once and for all." A smile spread across his lips as he held up his left hand - it contained a small black box. His right hand held the gun - he held it up against his own head. His left hand moved slightly and an explosion rocked the area destroying the back part of the warehouse. A moment later he fired the gun - killing himself instantly.
Rollie ran for the warehouse, "ANGIE! ANGIE, WHERE ARE YOU?"
Just as Rollie got near the demolished area he saw her. She was lying on her stomach on the floor, unconscious, and injured by the blast. He knelt down beside her, rolling her over and held her close, "Oh god, you're alive. Thank god you're alive."
Angie opened her eyes, her vision focused on the relieved face of her boss and best friend. She questioned hopefully but not entirely convinced of her safety, "It's over?"
Rollie's relieved expression broadened into a grin as he stroked the side of her face with the back of his hand, "Yeah sweetie, it's over. You're safe now." He looked up at Leo crouching opposite him for conformation.
"Hey Ange, he's right. It's all over."
The battered but unbowed young woman smiled though her bruises and scrapes, and uttered one word before passing out again. "Good."
Several days later Angie was sorting through Rollie's mail, it was bill paying time of the month again... The cut on her forehead had almost healed and emotionally she was recovering quickly thanks to the fact she knew Robert wasn't out there to hurt her anymore.
Rollie was working close by - computer designing some explosion sequences before filming started on their next movie. Angie picked up one envelope, and noticed the return address was in her building, her landlord's apartment in fact. She opened it and stared at the contents, totally bemused. "Rollie?"
Her boss glanced over the top of the computer screen, "Yeah?"
"Why has my landlord sent you a bill for one sheet of drywall and a can of paint?"
The End.
Chapter 1 Footnote: Thanks to the fact I've never been to New
York in my life I posted a request of the forum asking for ideas
for restaurants to go to in New York city. Well, several people
posted responses and I quite liked some of their ideas, that was
until one final person posted - giving several ideas depending on
the mood I wanted for the dinner date. Well, all the other ideas
went out the window - I decided I had to follow the suggestions
given by this person. After all, she was the supreme authority on
Angie - it was CC...