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Valentine
Chapter
Eleven – Little Girl Lost
Warrick
had never been as terrified for the safety of another human being as he was at
that moment. Holding her victim directly in front of herself so that police
snipers had no clear shot, Lana had dragged the girl to the far side of the
overturned car. She was unhinged, cornered with no escape plan. Warrick
couldn’t think of anything more dangerous.
J.D.
on the other hand seemed to become more lethargic by the minute. He was
obviously in a lot of pain from the cracked ribs and whatever other injuries he
had suffered in the crash. His gun-holding arm was getting more unsteady by the
moment but he, like Lana, had moved his hostage to the far side of the car,
still aiming his gun at the young man’s chest.
‘We
want another car!’ Lana screamed for the third time. ‘We wanna get out of here
with no one following us. Then we’ll let them go.’
‘Can’t
do that, Lana,’ Brass responded. ‘Let’s be reasonable about this. Let them go,
then we’ll talk.’
‘Go
fuck yourself, Pig!’ she screamed back at him. ‘I let them go, I got nothing.
You do what I say or they die.’
‘Then
you really will have nothing, Lana,’ Brass told her. ‘You kill them right here,
right now? You’re looking at the death penalty. Let them go, I’ll talk to the
judge for you.’
‘And
get us what?’ she yelled back. ‘A life sentence instead? Go to hell!’
‘Lana?’
J.D. sounded scared. Brass couldn’t tell if it was because of the treat of the
death penalty or because he was terrified of his girlfriend.
‘Shut
up, J.D! I’m handling this.’
‘Baby?
I’m hurt,’ he said, in an almost whiny voice. ‘We should just let them go.’
The
look she gave her lover would have sent the bravest man cowering. ‘You said you
loved me!’
‘I
do.’
‘You
said you’d do anything for me!’
‘I
would. But…’
‘There
should be no fucking buts!’ she screamed. ‘You give yourself up now and I’ll
kill you myself!’
J.D.
stopped talking.
‘J.D.?
You need medical attention,’ Brass said. ‘I promise I’ll have the two of you
looked after if you give this up now. You have my word.’
‘Don’t
you fucking listen to him, J.D!’
---
Sara
screeched to a halt directly behind Brass’s car. Before Grissom could even
unbuckle his seat belt, she was out of the car and running towards the police.
‘Sara!
Wait!’
Warrick
caught her in his arms before she could go any further.
‘Sara?
What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ he asked her, shocked at her
behaviour. ‘You can’t go over there. The police are handling it.’
Still
Sara fought to shake off Warrick’s grip. ‘I’m the only one who read her diary,
Warrick,’ she insisted. ‘I know what she’s capable of. She’s going to…’
Grissom
had finally caught up, and Warrick relinquished his grip on Sara as Grissom
took her by the shoulders and turned her to face him.
‘Sara?
What the hell’s going on?’ he asked firmly. ‘You can’t just go charging into a
police stand-off like that.’
‘I
need to talk to her,’ she insisted. ‘I’ll stay back. I promise.’ Shrugging him
off before he could reply, she moved over to where Brass was standing.
The
police captain looked at her with confusion. ‘Sara? You guys need to stay back
until this is resolved.’
Sara
didn’t move. ‘Let me talk to her. Please.’
‘Sara,
you’re not trained.’
‘Please.’
Brass
took in the look of resolve on Sara’s face and let out a long breath. ‘I’m
sorry kid. I know you want to help, but…’
Sara
nodded and turned towards the horrific scene that was unfolding before her. She
could see the look of terror on the two victims’ faces. A thin ribbon of blood
trickled down the girl’s neck as the knife dug into her skin. Her eyes pleaded
to anyone, everyone, for help. And Sara knew she couldn’t stand there and do
nothing. Training be damned.
‘Lana?’
Sara called out, her mouth dry with fear. ‘Can we talk?’
‘Sara,’
Brass hissed at her. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Who
are you? Another cop?’ Lana answered back, squinting up at the newcomer.
‘No.
No, I’m not a cop,’ Sara told her, ignoring Brass completely. ‘My name is Sara.
I’m from the Crime Lab. I’m a criminalist.’
‘Sara…’
Brass hissed again. Still she wouldn’t look at him. He knew better than to
cause a scene with her in the middle of a hostage situation. Any sign of
weakness among the cops would do nothing other than worsen the situation with
Lana and J.D. Helplessly, he turned to look at Grissom, who was regarding Sara,
wide-eyed and fearful.
Lana
was incredulous. ‘What the hell do I have to say to a criminalist? You going to get me out of here any faster?’
Brass
cut a glance at Sara again. ‘Don’t make this worse. Please,’ he murmured to
her. Finally acknowledging him, she answered with the tiniest of nods.
‘I
hope so, Lana. That’s what we all want. To get you all out of this situation.’
Sara was putting all her effort into keeping her voice soothing. Calming. To
avoid stressing Lana any further. ‘Lana, I was at your apartment earlier. I saw
your diary.’
Incredulity
turned to fury. ‘You had no right!’
‘I
know it was personal, Lana. And I’m sorry. But when a crime’s been committed,
sometimes we have to look through people’s personal things.’
‘So
I guess you think you know me now,
right?’ Lana called out to Sara, sarcasm dripping from her words. ‘You understand me now, right?!’
Sara
shook her head. ‘I would never be so conceited to say that, Lana,’ she replied.
‘But it did open my eyes to what you’ve gone through in your life. It made me
want to talk to you. To try and help.’
Lana
laughed. A hard, bitter, mirthless laugh that made Sara’s blood run cold. ‘So,
what, Sara? You wanna be friends with me?’
‘Lana,
I know you’ve suffered,’ Sara tried again. ‘I know what you went through in
care. How lost you felt. How alone. I know you felt ‘caged’ when you were
there.’
‘I
felt caged my whole damn life, lady,’ Lana spat back. ‘Until this last year or
so. With J.D. Now, I’m free.’
‘You’re
not free, Lana,’ Sara replied. ‘You won’t be until you let go of your past.’
‘You
don’t know shit about my past!’ Lana
yelled. ‘You probably grew up with a silver spoon. Two parents. Happy families.
All that shit. You don’t know anything about my life! You didn’t live it!’
‘My
life was far from perfect, Lana,’ Sara told her. ‘I spent time in care, too. I
know how lonely it gets. How unwanted it can make you feel. How you’ll look for
anything, anyone to make you feel like you belong.’
‘You
don’t know shit, lady,’ Lana repeated.
‘I
know how this is going to go down if you don’t let those two kids go,’ Sara
told her. ‘It’ll be the death penalty, Lana. You’re barely 18. There doesn’t
need to be anymore death.’
Behind
her, Grissom’s eyes bored into Sara’s back. Sara
in care? She had never said anything. His mind ran through every
conversation they had conducted about their pasts and realised that, besides
her academic career, he didn’t know a damn thing about her before she came to
Movement
by the overturned car snapped his attention to the here and now. J.D. was looking
increasingly unsteady on his feet, and had lurched forward, steadying himself
on his car only just in time to keep from falling down.
‘Lana?
I think I’m hurt bad,’ he told his lover.
She
tore her angry eyes away from Sara and looked at him. ‘You’ll be okay, baby.
You’ll be okay.’
‘No.
I won’t,’ he insisted. ‘We won’t. You
heard what she said. What that cop said. We’ll get the death penalty if we
don’t give it up now.’
‘We’re
not giving up, J.D!’ she yelled at him, like an angry mother berating her
child. ‘I’m not going to prison. They can kill me if they want to. I don’t
care. We can die together. But they’re not gonna lock me up!’
‘Lana,
please baby.’
‘No,
J.D. It’ll be… romantic,’ she told him, wide-eyed and almost wistful as she
looked at him. ‘We’ll die together. Then we’ll be together. Forever.’
‘Lana,
listen to him!’ Sara called, willing the girl out of her fantasy world. Lana
paid her no mind.
‘Lana,
I can’t do this anymore!’ J.D. yelled at her. He flung his gun out from behind
the car. ‘I’m giving myself up. You can do whatever the hell you want.’
‘Don’t
you fucking dare, J.D!’ she screamed back, tightening her hold on the girl.
‘You said you’d do anything for me!’
All
of the police bristled, the aims of the police marksmen sharpening, reading
themselves to take Lana down before she could slit the throat of her captive.
‘You
stupid little bitch!’ J.D. spat back. ‘This isn’t one of your dumb movies. I’m
not going to die for you!’
He
put his hands above his head, signalling to the cops that he was ready to come
quietly. Lana, however, was not.
‘NO!’
she screamed as if her entire world had just imploded. The police held their
ground, not going in for J.D. in case that provoked Lana further.
An
icy finger of terror ran through Sara as she recalled Lana’s diary. She had
wanted her victims to be willing to die for their lovers. She believed that was
the proof of true love. J.D.’s words were bound to have serious implications on
the girl’s already fragmented psyche. This stand-off was only going to end
badly.
‘Lana!’
she called out, her voice crackling with fear.
The
girl stood there and, for a split second, Sara saw the lost and frighten child
beneath the murderer she had become. Then it was gone, and Lana looked
completely detached from this world.
Almost
in slow motion, she grabbed the girl she held closer to herself, the blade of
her knife biting further into her neck.
‘NO!’
Sara yelled.
With
all her might, Lana shoved Lucy Bell away from her. The girl collapsed in the
desert sand, sobbing with fear. Lana raised the knife.
Without
thinking, Sara dashed forward, avoiding Brass’s grasping hands. At full speed,
she ran for Lana. She thought she called out. She wasn’t sure.
Lana
turned the blade of the butcher’s knife towards herself, and buried in her
chest right up to the hilt.
Right
through her heart.
Sara
couldn’t be sure, but she thought there were tears in her eyes as she caught Lana’s
collapsing body and lowered her to the ground. She placed her hand round the
knife, uselessly trying to stem the flow of blood. It was already too late.
She
looked into Lana’s dead eyes and wept. For all the teenagers left dead by
Lana’s hand. For their families who would now be denied justice. For the loss
of innocence that this child had suffered too soon in life. For the fact that
she was powerless to stop any of it.
It
wasn’t her job to save the day. She was just the clean-up crew.
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