Operation: Endgame (17 page)

She took a deep breath. “The torture room seems to be in an actual building. It appears to be made from some sort of cinderblock. There’s very little to the room. They strap Chris down to a chair which has anchors in the floor around it so they can chain him. There’s a fireplace and above it is a symbol. There are three men who’re there regularly and then a fourth that’s only there sometimes. The fourth seems to be the leader of the group, but he always has his face hidden so I can never see him.”

“Cass, you know the dreams aren’t real, right?” She gave a short nod, but her eyes were pleading with him to give her something more to go on than his word. She did have a connection to Chris through the twin thing they had going, which was obviously where her dreams came from, but he didn’t know about telling her more. If he told her the circumstances of how Chris died, which were highly classified, would it help or just make the nightmares that much more real in her mind? “Cass, how much do you know about the circumstances around Chris’ death?”

Her eyes looked haunted. “Not much. They wouldn’t tell me anything. They kept saying it was all classified.” She looked at him questioningly. “You know more, don’t you?”

“Yes, but if I tell you this, you cannot tell a single other soul.” She nodded, but he continued with his warning. “I mean it Cassie. Everything about this is highly classified. Top Secret security clearance only. If I tell you, and it gets out I told you, I could go to jail.”

“I promise, I won’t tell a soul.” But now Cassie was beginning to wonder if she really wanted to know all the facts around Chris’ death. Would it help or hurt more to know how her twin had lived his last few hours? But she needed to know the truth for Chris. She needed to be able to put him to rest properly in her mind. He wouldn’t want her living like this where her imagination relived his supposed torture every night. That’s not what he would want to leave her with. He would want her to remember the fun times they had together instead.

Jake had been waiting and watching her. When she gave another nod, he continued on, “Chris was flying in Columbia doing air support for some Ranger activity in the area having to do with the drug cartels. It’s hard to know what exactly happened, but somehow some of the guerillas in the area managed to hit his jet, we think it was with a rocket propelled grenade, and he crashed. We had communications with him after he crash landed…”

Cassie interrupted, “Wait, you were there?”

“Yes, we were working in the same theater. At the time, I wasn’t working the communications system so I didn’t realize the downed jet was Chris.” Jake sat up straighter and clenched his jaw. “He was alive after he crashed, hurt, but alive, so the PJ’s were sent in to recover him. It was my team, but by the time we geared up to deploy, fog had moved into the area where he was located and we couldn’t go in. His communications dropped off two hours after he crashed, but it was a total of eighteen hours before the team could get in there to him. By that point, the drug cartel had already had their fun with him and left us his body as a gift.” He lifted his eyes to hers and the pain within them was chilling. “They had tortured him to the point where there was nothing left to identify. His teeth were gone and they’d burned the body. They finally identified him from his uniform which had been left at his feet. They used the DNA from it to make his id.” Jake reached over and took hold of her ice-cold hands. “I think your dreams are probably a connection from your link to him. They have to be the remnants of your connection and the torture you felt through that connection. Your psyche is just interpreting those and molds the dreams to give you some hope, when I promise you Cassie, there isn’t any. Chris is most definitely dead. I saw him. I was there. You need to accept that so the dreams will stop.”

“You think I don’t realize that?” Cassie’s eyes flashed in anger and frustration at the same time they started to fill with tears again. “It’s my subconscious. I have no control over how my brain works. Believe me, I’ve tried to change it, but the nightmares just keep on.” She continued on using a voice which was so hoarse with emotion it was almost a whisper, “and they’re just so real. He feels so real. My soul won’t let him go, no matter what my mind says.”

One tear dropped over her eyelash and tracked down her cheek and Jake couldn’t stand it any longer. He pulled her over to where he was sitting on the couch and tucked her into his chest and enveloped her in his arms. “We’re going to get you through this, Cass.” He kissed her lightly on top of her head. “Together, we can get through anything.”

Jake held her close on the couch until she finally relaxed and fell back asleep. As he sat there, he thought about what Cassie had said. She was focused too much on how Chris died and he needed to refocus her on the happy times they had with Chris. He also needed to get this stalker issue taken care of. There was no doubt in his mind the stress from the stalker situation factored a lot into the stress leading to Cassie’s nightmares.

After their restless night, Jake and Cassie were late heading over to the campus on Wednesday morning. Today, that was okay. The schedule for the day was different because it was time for finals. Cassie didn’t need to be into her office until about an hour and a half later than normal. They were both feeling bleary-eyed so they made a quick run by The Mocha Mermaid on the way over. Ricky was there, but didn’t seem in the mood to mess with them. He gave Cassie a quick smile, Jake a ferocious frown, but didn’t say much besides the normal morning niceties which were required from their coffee server.

When they got into her office, Cassie was surprised to find her door closed and locked. “That’s odd. Derek should’ve been here by now. He always beats me here by a couple of hours and I know he planned on being in early this morning.”

As she dug into her purse to find her office key, Jake got that itchy feeling on the back of his neck that told him something was wrong. He glanced up and down the hall quickly, but couldn’t see anything out of place which would account for the feeling. Just as Cassie reached up to unlock the door, Jake took the keys from her hand. “Let me.” Cassie gave him an odd look, but relinquished the keys to him and went to stand behind him as he opened the door.

Jake slowly opened the door and after his first glance, pulled out the Glock he’d bought the day before. Cassie gasped when she saw him draw out the gun, but her eyes opened even wider when she caught the first glimpse of her office. It had been completely and utterly trashed. There were papers shredded and scattered everywhere. Both desks were overturned. Her books were mutilated and destroyed. Absolutely everything in the room seemed to have been touched by the mass destruction.

As Cassie, came into the room and started to reach to pick up one of her antique military texts, Jake grabbed her arm and said, “Don’t touch anything. There may be fingerprints.”

Cassie turned in a slow tight circle and felt her anger growing. Then her eyes fell on the picture of the three of them, Jake Chris and Cassie, which had always sat on her desk. Someone had taken a knife to the photo and shredded it. This was not a random attack. This was personal. She had kept her head in the sand about this stalker, hoping he would simply stop, but that was obviously not going to happen. It was time for her to get mad and take care of this guy. She needed to start living her life again. The helpless feeling that had plagued Cassie for the last six months suddenly disappeared and, in its place, Cassie felt a deep burning anger. She may not have been able to control what happened to Chris, but she absolutely could control everything else going on with her life. This was going to end. She yanked her cell phone out of her purse.

“Detective, this is Cassie Robertson. Someone vandalized my office at Tech.” She listened for a bit then continued, “It’s pretty trashed and I have no doubt my friend is responsible. You need to catch this guy before me. If I catch him, I’m going to rip his balls from his body with my bare hands.”

Jake had turned towards her when she started talking, and visibly winced when she finished her tirade with the Detective. He gave a light chuckle as she slammed her phone shut, so then she turned on him. “You think this is funny?” She swept an arm arcing across the mess before them, looking even angrier than when she talked to Brian.

“No ma’am. I don’t think this is funny at all.” He glanced around the destroyed room and had his own angry look. “I was thinking about poor Brian at the other end of the phone call and feeling sorry for his shriveling ‘nads. I like it when your feisty side comes out to play. Just don’t alienate the good guys.” He gave her a little smile. It was good to see some of the Cassie he grew up with was still in there and ready to come out fighting.

Cassie nodded her acquiescence, but then she caught another glimpse of the gun that was still in Jake’s hand, “I’m thinking maybe I need to get one of those for myself.”

Jake glanced down at his gun and then tucked it back into the back of his waistband. He cocked his head at Cassie, taking in her right arm which was still in a sling to protect her broken clavicle. “Unfortunately, I don’t think you can do anything to shoot right now with your bum shoulder.”

“You don’t remember much from our childhood do you? I’m almost as efficient with my left arm as I am with my right. I bet with some practice, I could shoot just as well with my left arm, but I need a pistol.”

Jake gave a nod. “Okay, after we finish up here today, I can take you by the gun shop and we can get you a gun.”

They were both standing there surveying the damage while they waited for Brian to arrive, when War walked by the door and glanced in at them, but instead saw the destruction behind them. “What the hell? Cassandra, what happened here?”

Cassie sighed and looked at her watch. “Nothing to worry about War. It’s just my friendly little admirer leaving me a gift. Listen, have you seen Derek this morning? He’s usually here by now and with this mess, I’m starting to get worried that he’s not here.”

War gave her a sharp look, but shook his head, looking concerned at the mess in Cassie’s office. “I stayed late last night and he was still here when I left, but I haven’t seen him this morning.”

Cassie looked confused. “Late? I thought he left when we did last night.” She looked questioningly at Jake.

Jake shrugged, “That’s what I thought too. He definitely acted like he was leaving. When we left, he was gathering up his papers and putting them in his briefcase.” Jake looked at War. “What time were you here last night? We left around 4:30- 5:00. Are you sure it was Derek in here, or is it possible the guy you saw was the guy who did this?”

War looked at the room. “No, I talked to him so I know it was Derek and it was late, like around 10:30. I was working on grading my 3
^rd
year students’ term papers.”

Jake asked, “What were you two talking about?”

War ducked his head and wouldn’t look at Cassie. “We were discussing the situation with Cassandra and the fact she was hurt over the weekend. We’re both worried about her and her safety.”

“Is that all you talked about?”

War clenched his jaw, but simply said, “Yes.”

“Are you sure?”

“Are you calling me a liar?”

“No, it just seems like maybe you have more to tell.” Jake watched War closely.

“Well, there isn’t.” War looked down at his watch. “I have to get to class. Cassandra, I’m sorry about all of this. Call me if there’s anything I can do to help, okay?” War took off down the hall and Jake watched his retreating back and wondered what he was hiding.

Jake looked over at Cassie who was dialing on her cell phone again, “Come on Derek, answer.” She slammed the cell phone shut again. “Dammit. He isn’t answering. What if he was here when this guy came to do this?” She looked worriedly at Jake hoping for his reassurance.

“We’ll find him after we talk to Brian. He should be here soon.” Jake looked at his watch. “What time is your class today?”

“Oh damn.” Cassie looked at her watch. “It’s in forty-five minutes and the finals are somewhere in that mess.” Cassie looked down the hall where War had headed. “Can you wait here for the detective? I need to go print 150 new copies or there are going to be a whole bunch of students without credit for this class because I can’t give them their final exam.”

“No, you aren’t going anywhere alone right now.”

“Jake, don’t be ridiculous. It’s broad daylight and there are people all over the place. Nothing’s going to happen to me here.”

“I don’t care. War isn’t telling us everything and just the fact this guy got in here sometime last night means you aren’t safe, regardless of what you may think. Do you have any post-it notes in your briefcase so I can leave a note for Brian?”

“Leave me a note about what?” The detective asked as he walked up behind them, and then gave a low whistle when he saw the destruction in her office. “Our boy’s been busy hasn’t he? Can you tell if anything’s missing?”

Cassie shook her head. “There’s no way to tell. We haven’t touched anything and without digging through the piles, I have no idea what’s in there and what isn’t.”

“Okay, I have a forensics team on their way over to check for evidence, so it’ll be a few hours before I can let you in there and we can check for missing items.”

At the sound of running footsteps coming down the hall, they all turned and saw Derek coming at them looking much more disheveled than normal. He was gasping to catch his breath as he drew up to a stop in front of them. “Cassie, I’m so sorry I’m late. I overslept.”