Sam pulled her hair back from her face with her hands and glanced at the wall clock. It was nearly five in the afternoon but she felt as though she had been there forever, staring at the board in front of her and cursing the lack of clues as to where this Annabel had gone to, and where Chelsea had followed.

She drummed her fingertips on the table as her partner, Kevin, tucked into a sandwich and flicked through the file resting on his raised legs.

Forensics had called up everything they had discovered, but it still told no more about the whereabouts of the fugitives, and it did nothing but strengthen Sam’s determination to find them out.

“Why don’t you go home now Kevin.” She said as her partner finished the sandwich and the file and threw both empty packet and papers on his desk with a sigh.

He shook his head. “No I’m needed here.”

She smiled gently. “Kev there’s nothing else to do now. We’ve followed every lead, had officers up and down the country out searching, we’ve manned phones, made appeals, sent out posters and papers and still nothing. No one has seen or heard anything. I think we can cope without one of the two partners being here for one evening.”

Kevin smiled ruefully. He felt sorry for Sam. She didn’t have anyone to share her life with, and he had a wife and kids waiting for him at home.

“If you’re sure Sam?” he asked.

She nodded her answer and he dragged his coat off the back of his chair and swept around to her desk, kissing her cheek quickly and embarrassedly before heading out of the door.

No sooner than he left than a young officer bounded into the evidence room and leapt upon Sam in a frenzy.

“Anonymous phone call ma’am,” she said. “It’s something we thought you might want to hear.”

Sam cocked her head in query as she stood up from her desk.

The officer looked urgent. “It’s about the Price case.”

Sam needed to hear no more and leapt out of the room and down into the call station before the officer had chance to catch her up. When she did Sam ordered her to find Kevin and went about listening to the recording of what was a faint woman’s voice on the other end.

“What’s she saying?” asked a breathless voice behind her as Sam listened intently into the headphones.

“Michael is safe but she doesn’t know for how long. He’s in a disused gas station half an hour from the city.”

Kevin nodded and motioned for Sam. “Well let’s get moving then!” he said. Motioning to another officer he gave orders for back up units and an armed response unit to meet them at the location and then followed his already hurrying partner out to their car.

*************************************************************************************************************

John looked eagerly at the officer in the doorway as his radio blasted instructions into the silent room, and Eric stood up as he heard Michael’s name mentioned.

“What’s going on?” asked John of the officer.

“They’ve got a lead and they’re going to check it out.” He said noncommittally.

Graham sniggered. “It’s more than that,” he said and the officer eyed him suspiciously. “They said there was an anonymous tip-off that Michael was housed in a disused gas station about forty minutes from the city.”

The officers’ mouth twitched but he gave nothing else away as he glared at Graham.

“Well we have to go too!” John cried and stood up from his chair and accompanied Eric in pulling on his coat.

“Sir, you are not allowed to leave this building. I have strict instructions not to let you go.” The officer blocked the doorway and John squared up to him, ready to fight his way through.

“But Michael’s our friend! We need to go to him.” Said Eric pleadingly.

The officer maintained a quiet obstruction and stared at John as his face began to taint a funny shade of red.

“What the hell are we supposed to do now?” asked Eric as he slumped back onto the sofa and clenched his fists.

John followed suit and caught Graham’s eye. He had been sat there the entire time smiling to himself and John cut through his scheming like a knife.

“What are you smirking at?” he asked obstinately and Graham leant forward and motioned for John and Eric to do the same.

“I, my dear fellows, have a cunning plan…”

*************************************************************************************************************

Alison leapt off the plane and pulled her struggling partner with her, hurriedly collecting their meagre luggage before grabbing a taxi. After an afternoon of searching Hollywood and scouring the airports they had found something the police hadn’t considered and were hot on the trail of their very own fugitive.

Terry hauled the bags out of the taxi and sat on them, panting a little.

“Alison do you have to rush so?”

She nodded and looked about her, before rooting in her handbag and picking out the booking information she needed for the hotel in front of them. Helping Terry up and offering to help carry the bags, she quickly made her way inside and, after registering them both, began her subtle enquiries of the concierge.

“I’m wondering if you have any messages for me, because I have a close friend staying here at the hotel and we are due to meet up.”

The concierge looked about him but came to the conclusion that nothing was left, and, after a brief questioning, gave up the number of the room in which Alison’s friend was supposedly residing in.

With a smile at her husband and a swing of her hand luggage they were escorted to their room, directing two floors below the one of the friend.

“How did you manage to find all this out Alison? You haven’t told me a word of anything since we boarded the plane, and everything here is so rushed and out of sync that I don’t know whether you’ve finally gone mad or there is any sense in this behaviour at all?”

Terry threw himself flat on the bed with a sigh as the porter left them and shut the door.

Alison went quickly to her case and took out a sensible pair of shoes, some jeans and a clean top. “I found out some leads about Chelsea,” she said as she removed her clothes and began putting on her new ones, “and they lead to here.”

“And the leads are?” Terry asked from his muffled position on the bed.

“Well firstly I rang around all the airports and ports and asked if anyone had booked with them by either the name Chelsea Marsh or Chelsea Garrett. Neither of them came up. But then I tried the heliports, because I know there are at least three or four around here, and none of them had any Chelsea Garrett on them. But they had a Chelsea Marsh.”

Terry lifted his head from the pillow. “Chelsea took a helicopter to Las Vegas?”

Alison nodded triumphantly. “She took it the day Michael disappeared. She must have seen something and followed Annabel’s route directly here. And when I called around the hotels in Las Vegas they didn’t have a Chelsea Marsh, but they did have a Chelsea Garrett. The police won’t look for Garrett because everything is in Chelsea’s maiden name. They haven’t even tried. So here were are and she is two floors above us.”

“Michael’s guardian angel.” Terry breathed as he sat up in his bed. “Let’s go and get her!”

Alison shook her head. “She isn’t in her room, but at least now we know to keep an eye out for her! I hope so much that she’s ok. I miss her so.”

Terry nodded and then looked at his wife. “We’d better catch up with the guys and find out exactly what’s going on. I have the address of the hotel the police are holding them in, let’s go and check them out!”

**********************************************************************************************************

Graham fell on the floor and started to moan and Eric rushed to him, calling for the officer to help him at once. John looked on in astonishment as his fellow Python began to foam at the mouth and convulse.

The officer ran into the room with no hesitation at this sight and, without knowing he was being slowly trapped, turned to call his fellow officer down the hall.

He didn’t get much further than that as John stuffed a flannel in his mouth and pushed him to the ground, using the officers own handcuffs to contain him and strap him to the four post bed.

The other officer, at the sound of his fellow officer’s call, came charging in and was swiftly felled by Graham’s arm as he ran into the room.

Graham dusted his hands and Eric pulled the choking cop to the bed and tied him to it as well. With this done the three of them shut and locked the door, and began to creep down the corridor when a voice cried out “Stop!” and they each felt a sense of frustration at having gotten so far and yet not far enough to help their friend.

It wasn’t until Eric felt the hand on his shoulder and smelt something so familiar to him that he relaxed and turned and almost floored Terry Jones with his fists.

“We thought we were done for you bastard.” He said.

Alison smiled bemusedly at the lads before John ordered them all out and into Terry’s hire car as swiftly as possible. When questioned about where they were going Terry was told everything would be explained on the journey, and was told, in no uncertain terms to put his foot down.

*********************************************************************************************************

Annabel knew something was wrong as the truck approached the gas station. Something about the place seemed to suggest interference, and she pulled the car over before actually entering the junction she needed to take to get to it. No one would question her. She was just a traveller, lost. She could blag her way out of anything. She had before.

But now the hairs on the back of her neck were prickling upwards and she felt a cold stab of rage pump blood faster through her veins. Yet nothing on the forecourt moved, and she could see no real sign of anything at all. It had taken her so much longer than she had expected to get the stuff she needed, and it had taken her even longer to barter a decent price. In the end, with knives at her throat she had acquiesced and given them the money they wanted, and in return received the goods she required so desperately.

Without thinking she fixed a syringe with the concoction and held it at her side as she drove the truck to its resting place behind the trees.

The light was fading and it was almost dusk. Long shadows were playing along the dust as the wind died down and the deep blue of early evening swam its way towards her, infusing the sky with an array of purples and disturbing the yellows, oranges and reds of the sunset.

Annabel held the syringe at her side and, making as little noise as possible, grabbed hold of the crowbar she had returned to the truck and crept towards the door of the station. It was ajar, much more open than she had left it, and she cursed herself for having left the bag of serum in the hotel room. If she had brought it she would never have needed to go out at all.

She could hear nothing, not even the wind, and she had half expected Michael to be awake and making some sort of noise on her return, but even he was silent.

She crept closer, ever closer to the door, knowing that someone, or something, had gotten inside. She prayed it wasn’t a wild animal. If it was it had probably gone in to scavenge and eaten Michael, and that would be terribly unfortunate and most upsetting at this stage in the game plan. She was so nearly free of it all, so near to getting Michael away from everyone, so that she could have him to herself that she could taste victory on her lips.

She licked them absentmindedly as she entered the gloom of the building and swung herself around, squinting into the gloom of the room.

Michael was passed out on the counter, just as she had left him, but nothing else was to be found.

She dropped the crowbar and stopped grasping the syringe as tightly, and continued into the building towards her patient, sleeping soundly as ever.

It was at that moment that she became aware of something resting on Michael’s chest. She scrambled towards it, picking it up and looking at it in bewilderment. It was a note, and at first she couldn’t make out what it said it was so faint, but the words soon sprang out at her.

“Don’t look behind you,” Annabel said out loud and scoffed and felt rage spread across her entire body. “What the…?”

Annabel span around and didn’t even see the iron piping come down on her head and didn’t even feel the pain of it as she went flying across the room and onto the floor beside the pile of things she had found.

But she got up again all the same and saw with rage who it was who had attacked her.

“You…” she said and picked up the crow bar that had lain scattered on the floor beside her. She didn’t know where the syringe had gone but it didn’t matter now. She had to get rid of this intruder before it she caused too much damage.

“I’m gonna kill you.” She said pointedly and the intruder laughed.

“I’ve been following you all this time Annabel. Didn’t you realise? Or are you too stupid to realise what’s been going on?”

Annabel felt fury bubble inside her. “I’m not the stupid one, you are. I’m not the one who let the love of my life run off with another woman. I’m not the one who ran away from him, or let him go, or pushed him away. He loves me now.”

The intruder laughed. “You think you have his love? Ask him who he loves Annabel and I’ll put bets on whether it’s you or not. Odds are that I’ll make a tidy profit on betting that he doesn’t. You don’t know him at all.”

Annabel lunged forward with the crowbar and took a swing at her co-warrior, hissing as she did so with such venom and anger.

“If you know him so well, why did he propose to me? Why did he marry me?”

“He didn’t have much choice did he? You’ve been plugging him with all of this stuff.” The intruder motioned towards the bag of serum and syringes at her feet. “What is it Annabel? If he won’t do what you say you’ll force him?”

Annabel sneered and grimaced at her assailant and lunged again with the crowbar. “Michael chose to be with me. He chose me over you. Why do you think he didn’t come running after you when you got chucked out of the theatre?”

“Because he didn’t know that it was you behind my being removed. I waited for you Annabel. I knew you were planning something, and when I heard Alison was missing I knew you had done something. So I watched and I waited and when I hid myself at the party and saw you plying him with drinks and drinks and then pretending he had proposed I knew your plan and how you’d achieve it. When I saw you putting Michael in your car and driving off I knew exactly what you were up to. I knew you were going to Las Vegas. How else would you get to marry him so quickly?”

Annabel smiled. “It was a beautiful wedding, you should’ve been there.”

The intruder smiled sarcastically. “Believe me I missed it by moments, but you’re an elusive one and I lost you for a time, until I spotted you, the regular super star in a mini-mart. You behaved like you owned Las Vegas, and I knew the only person stupid enough to dress up like a super star when really she’s a fugitive was you.”

Annabel lunged again and had the element of surprise as her ally and struck the intruder on her arm, causing her to call out in pain.

“I am not stupid,” Annabel cried through gritted teeth and lunged again, jerking and poking her assailant and knocking her to the floor with each blow.

There was blood all over both of them as they fought with each other. The wounds on the intruder were deep but not serious, and she protected herself well as Annabel continued to bludgeon her with the crowbar. But the loss of blood pouring from her wounds was growing and she could feel herself getting weaker, and, after a particularly forceful attack on Annabel’s part, she felt herself slipping into the dark.

Annabel stood over her and knew she was triumphant. She looked down at her intruder and then put her face into hers.

“You shouldn’t have tried to fight me Chelsea,” she said as she raised the crowbar above her head, “You know I always win.” She was about to bring it down when with a swiping action Chelsea used the last ounce of her strength to stab the syringe into Annabel’s leg and push it down.

Annabel looked confused.

Chelsea smiled up at her. “Plan B,” she said simply and watched as Annabel’s eyelids began to flutter and she slumped onto her knees and then fell forward onto the bloody floor.