The Memory Agent & Fool Me Once (18 page)

“Because there
is a leak somewhere, no doubt on your end, and until the leak is plugged, the
witness is safe with my detective.”
 
The captain holds his ground.

“He better
have her in one piece,” one of the feds warns.

*****

In the motel
room Derek most definitely has Jillian in one piece.
 
Naked and in one piece.
 
Jillian and Derek lay in bed, cuddled
and
sleeping,
spent from hours of lovemaking.
 
Derek's eyes open wide as if sensing
something is wrong.

Outside of the
motel room it’s dark and quiet.
 
A
half dozen of
Bosovich's
men approach the motel.

They're
carrying
high powered
rifles and guns, the kind that
could rip a hole the size of an eggplant in someone's gut.
 
All the guns have silencers on them.

The gunmen see
Derek’s jeep parked in front of the door.
 
They open fire on the room.
 
Bullets shatter all the windows in the room.
 
Bullets lacerate the cheaply built walls and doors.

One of the
gunmen kicks the door in and the men enter the dark room. It appears that there
are two lifeless bodies in one of the beds.
 
The men riddle the beds with more bullets.

One of the
gunmen checks the bed, there are no bodies just bunched up pillows and blankets
made to look like bodies.

As the men exit
the room, Derek comes out from his hiding spot.
 
With one gun in each hand, Derek opens fire on the gunmen.
Calm and sure, Derek sharp shoot nails every single bad guy.

But he wasn't
expecting another group of gunmen, who were guarding the entrance to the
motel.
 
These gunmen give chase.

Derek grabs
Jillian, who was hidden away from the room, and they hoof it away from the
motel.
 
The gunmen pursue and it's
a foot chase through the shady neighborhood.

Derek and
Jillian run into a jazz club.
  
The dark and smoky club is packed.
 
Jazz musicians play on the stage.
 
Derek and Jillian hurry through the club.
 
Derek opens the back door and then takes Jillian behind the
stage where Derek can see the band and the entrance.

Derek watches
as a couple of the gunmen enter, their guns concealed.
 
The gunmen look around.
 
They look in back and see that there's
an open back door.
 
They leave
through the back door.

Derek
relaxes.
 
They're safe for
now.
  
He holds Jillian
tight.
 
The sultry music adds to
the combustion.

A sound guy
approaches.
 
Derek takes a
fifty dollar
bill from his wallet and waves it at the sound
guy.
 
“Can I borrow your
phone?”
 
Derek asks the guy.

The guy takes
the fifty and hands his phone to Derek.
 
Derek makes a call.
 
“Hey,
it's Derek.
 
I need your help.”

*****

A Dodge
pick-up pulls up to the front of the jazz club.
 
Derek and Jillian exit the club and hurry into the
jeep.
 
The pick-up drives away.
 
But not before one of
Bosovich's
men, who is casing the area, sees Derek and
Jillian in the pick-up.
 
The gunman
makes note of the license plate number.

Inside the
pick-up truck Jillian and Derek sit in the front seat with Quentin Bale.
 
Quentin, near sixty, is a rugged,
weathered veteran with jagged looks.

“Quentin, this
is Jillian March,” Derek introduces.

“How do,
mam
?”

“Quentin was
my commander in the Gulf War.
 
Taught me how to fight, to shoot. He helped get me the detective job in
Bridgeport,” Derek tells Jillian.

“It’s very nice
to meet you, Quentin,” Jillian smiles.

“I've been
listening in to the scanners.
 
They
found your jeep at the motel and all the dead guys.
 
You're in a world of trouble, Win.”
 
Quentin says, quite fatherly.

“I know. I
just need time to think.
 
There's
something I'm missing.
 
The leak
can't be a fed because they didn't know about the motel.
 
But neither did anyone at the station,”
Derek relates.

“Anyone can be
tracked nowadays,” Quentin offers.

The Dodge
pick-up pulls up to an ocean
cliffside
cabin and
parks.

“My
Shangri-la,” Quentin announces as they hop out of the truck.

Jillian looks
out over the cliff.
 
She can hear
the crashing waves and looks up at the millions of stars in the sky.
 
“Great view,” she admires.

“Lady friends
are putty in my hands when I bring them here,” Quentin boasts with a twinkle.

Derek has no
interest in stars or views.
 
He is
lost in thought.
 
Jillian looks at
him.

“He gets like
this when he's looking for what his gut is trying to tell him,
”
 
Quentin
shares with Jillian.

Derek takes a
seat on the bench in front of the cabin, focused and thinking.

“Would you
like a cup of tea, Jillian?” Quentin asks.

“Yes, thank
you,” she answers.
 
Quentin and
Jillian enter the cabin, leaving Derek alone outside.
 

Inside the
cabin Quentin and Jillian head for the kitchen.
 
Jillian stops to look at a framed photo
hanging on the wall.
 
The
photo is of Quentin with his squad, including a young Derek.
 
Jillian recognizes
Derek immediately
,
her eyes brighten
.

“Yeah, that’s
Derek back when he was green,
”
 
Quentin
points out.

Jillian can’t
take her eyes off of the photo thinking about what a world of experiences Derek
has lived through.
 
Quentin studies
her.

“You’re the
prankster,” he states.
 
Jillian
nods.

“He talked
about you once,” Quentin shares.
 

This comment
gets Jillian’s attention.
 
“He did
?!”

“Last
August.
 
Here at the cabin we were
having an end of summer
cook-out
.
 
He had a few more beers than usual and
opened up.
  
About you.
 
It
blew my mind to hear him mention a woman of interest, he’s always been alone, a
loner.
 
He sure smiled when he told
me about your pranks.
 
For guys
like us who have seen a hell of a lot of death and destruction, smiles don’t
come easy.”

“I love him,
Quentin,” Jillian claims, with heartfelt meaning.

“I know you
do, kid.
 
It’s easy to see,” Quentin
smiles reassuringly.

Outside of the
cabin, Derek is still on the bench lost in thought.
 
What the hell is he missing?
 
Derek recalls the night of the murder. He remembers the cop
telling him how Knox was first on the scene.
 
How did Knox get to the scene so quickly?

Derek rushes
into the cabin.
 
“
Quen
, where's your phone?”
 
Derek calls out.

“My
iphone’s
on the coffee table, Win,” Quentin points.

Derek picks up
the phone and makes a call.
 
“This
is detective Winton.
 
I need you to
check incoming and outgoing phone calls on the night of the congressman’s
murder.
 
Within two hours of the
murder.
 
The phone number I need
checked is 555-637-1398…Yes, I know whose number that is.
 
I need this immediately.
 
I will hold.”

Derek paces as
he waits.
 
He's clearly agitated.

In a different
location, at the very same time, a couple of feds are in the van, listening in
to phone conversations.
 
One fed
picks up a cell-phone and makes a call.
 
“We've got Detective Winton on the phone now talking with a CSI.
 
We'll have his location in one minute.”

In the cabin,
Derek is still pacing and waiting.
 
He stops when the investigator on the other end resumes the call.
 
“Yes, hello, I'm still here.”
 
Derek says into the phone.
 
He listens.
 
“Who? Thank you.”

Derek ends the
call and then on the
iphone
he
google
searches images of Peter Bosovich.
 
Derek brings the phone over to Jillian.
 
He shows her the image of Peter Bosovich.
 
“Is this the man you saw kill
Congressman Reynolds?”

Jillian's eyes
widen.
 
“Yes, that's him.

Quentin looks
out the window.
 
“We've got
company, Win.”

Derek joins
him and as they see a couple of cars barreling down the road toward the
cabin.
 
Quentin jumps into action
and grabs a bunch of guns from his arsenal.

Derek pushes
Jillian to the floor, flips over a piece of furniture to cover her.
 
“Stay down.”
 
He tells her.

Derek and
Quentin break glass from the front windows to get a good shot at the incoming
vehicles.

Quentin takes
a shot at the front tire of the front vehicle causing the driver to lose
control of the car and spin out.
 
The other cars crash into the first car.
 
A dozen gunmen jump out of the cars.

Half the men
engage Quentin and Derek in a gun battle, while the other half of the men try
to surround the house.
 
Quentin and
Derek are clearly out-numbered but they’re putting up one hell of a
gun fight
.

Then a fed
helicopter appears over the cliff.

The feds in
the helicopter see the gun battle and begin shooting at
Bosovich's
men, taking out most of them.

One of
Bosovich's
men, who
has
snuck
around the house, shoots at the gas tank of the helicopter, causing the
helicopter to explode and crash on top of the bad guys' cars.

Everyone
outside of the cabin is dead.
 
It
seems safe.
 
Until the final gunman
sneaks into the cabin from the back takes aim at Jillian’s back and is about to
shoot when Derek sees him.

Derek throws
himself in front of Jillian, taking the bullet.
 
The force of the shot knocks him to the floor where he slams
his head getting knocked out.
 
Jillian screams, “no
!!!!”

Quentin shoots
the bad guy dead.

Jillian
cradles Derek, getting his blood all over her.
 
Quentin checks on Derek.
 
He sees that it's a shoulder wound.
 
“Come on, let's get him to the hospital.”

*****

Quentin and
Jillian wait, impatiently, in the hospital waiting area.
 
Jillian is still covered with Derek's
blood.
 
Captain Harris joins them.

“How is he?”

“He's in
surgery.”

The captain
looks directly at Jillian.
 
“How
are you?”

“I'll be
better when Derek, Detective Winton, is out of surgery,” she responds, shaking
with worry.

Quentin
informs the
captain,“Win
figured out who killed the
congressman.”

“Who?” The
captain asks, desperate to know.

“I
ID’d
the man but before he told us the name the bad guys
showed up,” Jillian tells the captain.

“The info is
on my
iphone
, but my phone got shot up.
 
Win made a call on it, tracking someone’s
phone number,” Quentin shares.

“I’ll look
into,” the captain states with authority.
 
“You should come with me,” he says as he looks at Jillian.