FicWad

Chapter 19: Out of the frying pan...



About forty minutes after she hung up, Kirsh reaches the Wentz residence. Two police cars are parked outside.

They're still here, great. That means I will not only have to argue with Douglas but with some other colleagues as well.

The woman wavers between ringing the door bell or just trying if the door is open. Finally she presses the buzzer.

"Who the fuck rings your doorbell in the middle of the night?" Kirsh hears Douglas' angry voice inside the house. Then foot steps, the door is opened.

The man eyeballs her intently. "Now look at that. You're really what we need around here right now," he spits out venomously.

The woman pushes her way past him, "Keep it to yourself, Douglas. Wentz called me, he wants me to come by... Obviously you were not able to prevent this."

Before he can reply she rushes upstairs, suspecting Pete has retreated while the police is still searching for clues. As she walks past his bedroom, she sees several men from the forensic unit and other officers trying to secure evidence. They are too busy working than to notice her in the doorframe.

She holds on for a minute and makes out muffled sobs coming from the guest room she stayed in. She hurries down the hall and knocks at the door.

Since there's not answer she says softly, "It's me. Kirsh."

"Thank God. Come in!"

Pete is rolled up in the recliner in a corner of the room. His face is damp, his eyes are puffy.

"I am so sorry this happened," the female detective mutters awkwardly. She didn't waste one minute to make her way over to him, but she didn't think of what to tell him once she got there. What can you say in a situation like this? This is the first time in her career that somebody's pet has been murdered.

"It was so horrible... he was just... I'll never get the image out of my head..." the shaken-up man stutters.

While he retells the whole incident of finding his slaughtered dog, Kirsh listens quietly. At first she wants to sit down on the bed but then remembers that Douglas is sleeping in it. She shutters automatically with disgust and then sits down on the floor right in front of Pete.

A quarter of an hour later the couple is abruptly interrupted by Superintendent Maxwell entering the room. On his coat tails is a stupidly grinning Douglas, eager to witness his boss taking out his anger about Kirsh's disobedience on the woman.

After a pointless discussion with the senior officer, in which Kirsh points out Douglas' inability to protect a bulldog, let alone a human being, Maxwell threatens to allocate her to a different station if she doesn't leave right away and stops investigating on her own.

"I want her to stay!" Pete can't restrain himself. "She needs to stay here! I don't feel safe with him!" He points at Douglas.

Douglas puts on an endearing tone, "Dear Mr Wentz-"

Maxwell cuts him off, "All of you, LISTEN to me now! Everyone in this room will do exactly as I say, ok? Kirsh, you go home. If you dare taking up this case again you can expect to spend the rest of your life behind a desk and you will never do field work again. Mr. Wentz, you try to pull yourself together. I understand that this is a great shock to you and I am sorry for your loss, but it's no use losing your head. Douglas is a capable cop. And Douglas, you go and check with the others in Mr. Wentz's bedroom. Maybe you can help them."

Before the female officer heads for the door Pete holds out the crumpled sheet of paper that he's still holding in his hand because he was showing it to her when the two other detectives came into the room. It's the letter from the envelope that was attached to Moe's top when he found her.

He had completely forgotten about it but then found it lying in his bathroom that he had walked into to clean himself up after vomiting next to Hemingway because of the horrible sight.


Peter,

I understand that you worry about Moe.
Since you showed yourself cooperative, since you showed me that you are willing to improve our relationship and take it to a higher level by sending Kirsh away, I decided to let her go.
You see I do keep my promises.
I really care about you, Pete. Please, don't ever doubt my feelings. It won't take long and you will understand everything I did was just for the best of both of us.
We will be so happy together! :)
However, I am still mad at you, my love. When I told you to get rid of Kirsh I didn't mean for you to exchange her with some other fucking cop!
So you better remove this Douglas twat (He's not exactly treating you right, is he?) from the scene before I must resort to more drastic measures than kidnapping or leaving a tiny little wound on someone. (I hope you know that you shouldn't trust Patrick. He's obviously jealous of your success.)
I know you will do the right thing in the end. We don't need anybody to stand between us. Especially not the police. The cops are called when criminals are at work. I am not a criminal, I just use unconventional methods to show you the right way.
I only mean to help.

Ever so much in love with you - P.

P.S.: I didn't mean for Moe to lose her consciousness. On the contrary, I wanted her to be very conscious of what happened when she was with me. She has something important to tell you. I hope she wakes up soon. It just happened, unintentionally, and I apologize.


"What's that?" Douglas snaps and quickly pulls the letter out of Pete's hand before Kirsh can reach for it.

The man's eyes scan through the printed sentences, then he looks up at the bassist, "And why didn't you show this to me? Where did you find this? When did you find this?"

The musician exchanges a look with Kirsh who encourages him to speak the truth. Even though she doesn't respect Douglas much, he's part of the police and not one single piece of evidence should be kept from them.

"It was attached to Moe's clothing with a safety pin when I found her lying on the front lawn. I forgot I had it until tonight when I saw it lying in my bathroom," the bassist explains meekly.

"We'll send this, together with any other possible clues found in your bedroom, to the lab," Maxwell pipes up. "Anything you receive from the stalker goes directly to Officer Douglas, Mr. Wentz. Is that understood? Not Kirsh."

The man nods reluctantly.

Two minutes later Kirsh is back in her car, driving home. She knows that Pete is plagued by self-blame. He told her if he had only read the letter earlier, this could have been prevented.

This could've only be prevented if Douglas had been more on guard, if the stalker hadn't managed to get past him. It was his job to make sure she didn't get anywhere near Pete. If the young man had read the letter earlier, he might have tried to lose Douglas but he never would have managed to do so. The detective wouldn't have gone willingly and also, there is no way in hell that the bassist can stay alone at his place. He needs to be protected.

"But he needs to be protected by someone who is actually capable of doing it," Kirsh grunts to herself as she parks the car in front of her home. She hardly ever talks to herself out loud but a lot of things are out of control these days.





Five days after Moe reappeared and two days after the dog was murdered, Kirsh is approaching the information desk of the hospital on the ward that the model is put up.

"Hi, excuse me. Can you tell me which room Ms. Sommer is in? I was told she's on this ward," she addresses a nurse behind a computer screen.

"Are you family?"

"Well," she pulls out her police badge, "I'm part of the family that helps to keep America a safe place."

The nurse is not incredibly impressed. Frankly, Kirsh is already sorry she used such a crude line on her. Also, what did she mean by 'KEEP America a safe place'?

"I haven't seen you checking on her before," the woman in white responds. "Are you working on her case, too? You know, we can't just let every officer waltz into her room. She needs peace and quiet."

The detective puts on her fake friendliest face, "I understand. It won't be long. I've just been sent to check up on her."

Another lame statement. Even I wouldn't buy it.

"We have orders to call Officer Maxwell once she wakes up. I don't see why you need to go and see her. She's still out cold... But I think I can make an exception with you. I like to see women in responsible positions. Put men back in their place."

Kirsh gives her a co-conspiratory grin. The freaking bullshit I have to deal with to help Wentz...

"But make it quick. A psychologist who claimed he was sent by the police is with her right now too," the female in white adds and gives the officer the respective number.

When the woman enters Moe's room she finds her lying peacefully on crisp clean sheets, carefully tucked in under a crisp clean blanket. She is breathing autonomously but there's a tube that supplies her with liquid nourishment through the nose.

Dr. Morley is standing at her side, the look on his face makes it clear that he didn't expect Kirsh to show up here.

"Dr. Morley," the woman is equally surprised but slightly more prepared since the nurse pointed out the visitor to her.

"Officer Kirsh, nice to see you again. You see, Mr. Wentz called me today and wouldn't calm down until I promised him I would go and look after his girlfriend. He sounded very distressed. I usually make a point of keeping out of this kind of business but I couldn't this time..."

The detective nods. Pete also called her yesterday but she told him she couldn't just casually take a peek at Moranne. If Maxwell found out she would have to face the consequences. A day later she changed her mind and headed for the hospital.

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell Supterintendent Maxwell about me showing up here," she says.

"Of course not. I must admit that my visit is not very professional either," the doctor replies.

The two of them contemplate the unconsious Moe for a few minutes in silence.

"Well, I suppose I can go now. She seems alright to me, considering that she's in a coma," Kirsh mentions.

"Yes, I will be on my way too," the other visitor says.

"What do you think? Will she wake up soon?"

The psychologist frowns, "I really can't say. From what I was able to gather the doctors are not even sure what caused her coma. She's not in a critical state yet but foretelling when she will wake up is-"

"Oh my God!" Kirsh cries out. "Did she just mumble something?"

The two of them listen intently but can't make out any sounds whatsoever. A moment later Moe opens her eyes slowly.





Half an hour later Kirsh is still waiting on the aisle, waiting for Dr. Morley to come out of the room and tell her wants going on. Due to his profession he managed to be allowed to stay in the room while one of the hospital's doctors and two nurses catered to the freshly awoken kidnapper victim.

The door opens and the psychologist steps outside.

"So?" the officer asks impatiently.

"She's fine," the man tells her. "Let's get out of here and I'll tell you everything over a cup of coffee. Your colleagues will be here any minute now."

When the woman is on her way back to Fey and Brian - the latter of the two will give her a heartfelt severe lecture about her action of sticking her nose in this business again - she knows that Phebe has succeeded in putting Moe under such pressure that she won't describe the stalker's looks. Contrary to Kirsh's belief that the young woman would immediately call for Pete to come and see her, the model insisted that he be kept far away from her. She didn't want anything to do with him anymore.

"You tell him we're through. I am breaking up with him," she told Dr. Morley who she knew from Pete's accounts of his regular visits to the psychologist.

Moe didn't lose one single syllable about what happened while she was with Phebe.

This is what the stalker must have meant by Moe having to tell Pete something important. She made her break with him. Probably threatened to come back for the young model if she didn't obey the maniac's wish and/ or give her identity away to the police.

I have no idea how to tell Wentz. This will be the final straw for him.