DISCLAIMER: Quite simple: I do not own them.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The timeline for this story is mid season 3.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
Angels In Chains Again
By Tashe Dangerous Eyes
Chapter 8
Lester Wolf observed the picture in front of him, contemplating its meaning with cruel detachment for he only saw the lucrative side of it, dismissing completely the sound of shattering lives around him. He had grown deaf to it a long time ago. The young men were sprawled around the small warehouse submerged in their own worlds and oblivious to reality. Calmer now than their initial reaction to the drug they had been given, they rested, quietly murmuring to all and to no one about their individual fantasies. Lester was having a fantasy of his own, one in which he became very powerful and very rich with each foolish soul that would acquire the drug from him so they could build their own world to escape their miserable lives.
"I think they got it right this time, eh, Mr. Wolf?" Tony said enthusiastically, already imagining the large sums of money that would soon fill his pockets. "And this Sunday, when they deliver the rest we can start distribution immediately. These guys," He pointed behind him with his thumb not even looking at them. "…they know the territory already and the clientele. We'll make profits in no time."
"But can they be trusted?" Lester asked from his chair, taking another draft from his cigarette.
"The trip they are taking right now is your insurance. Once they are hooked on the stuff there will be nothing they wouldn't do for another shot. Not to mention we need the propaganda."
"This one will be a success, a drug that takes away your inhibitions and heightens your capacity to feel pleasure, with just a hint of hallucinogens. It's beautiful. With the cost of making it so low and the high price of novelty, I'll make a fortune."
The light blue plastic case rested on top of a rusty desk and its opened lid showed that there was one shot left. Tony reached inside taking it and examined the clear yellowish liquid inside the syringe. "Don't you mean we'll make a fortune, Mr. Wolf?" Lester merely nodded, as if agreeing out loud would trap him in an unbreakable promise. Tony took the syringe and inserted it in his arm emptying its content and readied himself for sensations never before experienced by him. Lester shook his head again, but this time it was to show his disapproval. Tony saw his gesture.
"Just this time, to see what I'm missing."
"That's the difference between you and me, Tony. I don't need to know, and that's why I'm the boss."
"Whatever you say." Tony acquiesced already starting to feel the effects of the drug.
Bosley lost count of how many times he had changed his sitting position after hours of surveillance, trying to keep his legs' circulation going. His car phone rang and he picked it up welcoming the distraction. "Hello, Charlie."
"Bosley, how is the stakeout going, anything yet?"
"That's a definitive yes. When I first arrived I went to the warehouse and it was empty so I went inside. Aside for some old chairs, a desk and a couple of sofas the place is completely empty. It seems to be just a meeting point. Then I heard a couple of cars being parked outside and I hardly had time to exit the warehouse through a back door before I was caught." Bosley explained his near miss without taking his eyes off of the warehouse.
"Who was it, Bosley?"
"It was Tony, Charlie, along with six young men. I returned to my car and took a couple of shots of Tony's car in front of the warehouse with my camera. But that's not all. About ten minutes later Lester Wolf showed up. I took several pictures of him too."
"Did they bring anything with them? Any bags or something that would indicate they are there to deal drugs?"
"Not that I could see."
"All right, Bosley, you stay put in case anything else happens. In the meantime I'll contact our client to give him a status report and also to ask him if he can help with something that I have in mind. Call me as soon as you have something new."
"You got it, Charlie." Hanging up Bosley noticed that the shade he had parked under was starting to abandon him, as did his breakfast, but he didn't dare think about his comfort knowing his colleagues were going through much worse.
Kelly entered the prison's kitchen less than enthusiastic. Why does it always have to be the kitchen? She thought remembering her onions pilling days when they had to work undercover at a military training camp. She made her way to Janet who was trying to organize all the discarded food trays, with dirty plates and utensils, so she could start washing them. "Need any help with that?" Janet turned around to face her, momentarily surprised with the offer.
"You are a Good Samaritan."
"Actually, I pulled kitchen duty. Believe me, if it were up to me I wouldn't come near here not even to eat." It hadn't been easy, but somehow Kelly managed to go back to her 'buddy buddy' attitude towards Janet, putting behind her Janet's misguided comments about Sabrina.
"I don't have any problems believing that. What about your cousin?"
"Laundry. She was even less happy."
"I don't have a problem believing that either. Just think how the toilet scrubber feels and you'll feel much better. Here, take those trays and bring them to the big sink." Kelly did as told; making faces of disgust since the food smelled worse cold than it did hot. Janet stared at her, like realizing something for the first time.
"You are staring. Did I get any of this stuff on my face?" Kelly asked Janet when she felt scrutinized.
"No, your face is fine. In fact, is perfect." She didn't know why she had let the last comment escape her mouth, but she happened to believed it true. "You remind me of Sandy." At the mention of Sandy's name Kelly decided to forget about the remark that sounded suspiciously like a compliment or even a come on.
"Who's Sandy?"
"Nobody, forget it." The door threatened with being closed faster than it had been opened and Kelly had to think fast to keep that from happening.
"Usually, when someone has that look in their eyes when mentioning someone's name, it means that that someone is far from being a 'nobody'. Who is she?" Kelly's voice was both soft and inviting.
"She was my cellmate and my friend."
"Was?" Janet didn't answer; she just went to get more dishes. "Is she free now?" Kelly knew the truth, which made her acting difficult because it made her feel like she was perversely toying with the other woman.
"She is free of this damn inferno, of these puppeteers and their farce, but she didn't leave through the gate." Janet saw the other woman's confusion and added, "She's dead. Murdered."
Kelly again had to fake her reaction but she didn't her condolences. "I'm sorry to hear that, and I'm sorry for your loss." Janet didn't say anything and Kelly suspected that she was not over Sandy's death yet. "How was she killed, and what did you mean by 'these puppeteers and their farce'?"
"It will take you a while, but soon you will learn that in this prison things are not as you might expect."
"Like before, when the guards couldn't care less about an inmate being beat up by three other inmates?" Kelly offered as a way of example, still upset about what had happened, but not showing it.
"You're catching up." Janet was starting to see how smart the other woman was. "The problem is that in here if you know too little, that can cost you a lot, but if you know too much, it could cost you your life." Kelly noticed that Janet was speaking almost in a hush even though they were alone, like there was no place they could be safe and no one who could be trusted.
"Is that what happened to Sandy? She knew too much? Janet, do you know who murdered her?"
"Hey! Get the Warden's lunch ready." Kelly and Janet both jumped when Miranda, the prison guard, barked her orders at them. Janet spotted the tray of food that was always specially prepared for the Warden and went to check it out.
"This is quite cold, it has to be reheated." Janet told Miranda and then nodded at Kelly who proceeded to do the task.
"He just came in. Just get it ready as soon as possible. I'll be back in five minutes." Janet gave Miranda's back a two finger military salute as the guard walked away. She then went to inspect Kelly's progress, but when she saw what Kelly was doing she ran to her in a state of panic.
"Elizabeth, turn it off!" Janet didn't wait for Kelly to react to her demands and shoved her out of the way turning all the stove buttons off, and getting the pans off of it. Then, she pulled Kelly farther away still.
"What? What's happening?" Kelly asked not understanding what she did wrong.
"You almost kill us both, that's what's happening. That stove is very old, the gas line too. When they remodeled this place the old stove still worked so they left it, but now that gas line regulator's valve is defective and it can't be opened. If we do, the kitchen fills with gas very rapidly. All you need then is a spark and the whole kitchen goes off." Janet grabbed Kelly's face to make her look in the direction of the other stoves that also operated with gas and the gas cylinders that were in one corner. "And I mean the whole kitchen. Not to mention the basement where the gas tank for that old thing is." Kelly looked at Janet wide eyed understanding completely.
"Sorry. But Janet, why don't they fix it?"
"Like I said, the gas tank for that stove is in the basement. I have a strong feeling they don't want anybody to go down there, and it is not like we need it fixed." She pointed to the other stoves to make her point. Kelly thought about what she was just told and made a mental note to tell Kris who was the one that could go close enough to the basement to investigate thanks to her laundry duties.
"I guess we won't chance turning on any of the other stoves to reheat the Warden's lunch." Before Janet could answer Miranda came back to the kitchen. Without saying a word Janet served the lunch and gave it to the guard wondering why her watch was in such a hurry. Kelly looked at Janet amused. "I guess that answers that."
"Yep. Let's finish with these dishes." Janet told Kelly who hoped they could also finish their prior conversation.
Bosley's car had become too hot for him to be in it, so he decided to follow the ever retreating shade to a spot inconspicuous enough from where he could continue his surveillance. All of a sudden Lester came out of the warehouse rushing to his car and looking around like a common thief. He didn't notice Bosley, or the fact that he was being photographed. Bosley waited, expecting Tony and the other men to also leave the condemned looking building at which point he needed to decide what to do. Lester was gone, so he couldn't follow him, but the idea of having to tail Tony again was not appealing to him.
Twenty minutes went by and nobody else came out of the building so Bosley decided to venture a peek. But two steps he had taken when yet another car parked in front of the warehouse. Boy, this place gets more people than the cafeteria on the corner. Bosley readied his camera for the new arrival and was surprised to see that it was a woman. Between his surprise and her quick step he couldn't take the snapshot so he took one of her license plate instead.
After just a minute, the woman came out of the warehouse in pretty much the same fashion as Lester had done before, but still no one else followed her outside. Bosley did manage to take her picture this time and saw as she speeded away. Putting his camera back in is car Bosley crossed the street and went to the back door that had been his salvation earlier. He opened it slowly and silently, concentrating on listening for any noises coming from the inside, but there were none. What he saw sent an almost paralyzing shock to his spine and he felt his blood rushing to his feet, leaving him with ghost-like features.
Charles Townsend picked up the phone after the first ring but didn't have a chance to say hello when Bosley started talking. "Charlie, Lester is gone, and then some woman showed up but the others are still inside. When I saw no movement I went to check it out and…" Bosley trailed off, the impact of what he had seen was still quite fresh.
"What are they doing, Bosley?" Charlie could hear the agitation in Bosley's voice.
"They're dead, Charlie. They are all dead."
"What? How?" Charlie asked, getting a little agitated himself.
"By the look of things I'd say it was drugs, there were syringes all over the place. It was horrible. There was blood coming out of their eyes, noses and ears, and some white stuff out of their mouths…But I don't think it was an overdose. Why would they want to kill those men?"
"I also don't believe Tony would allow himself to be a victim of his own ploy." Charlie added.
"Maybe they were trying some new drug but ended up having the wrong effect. There was a light blue plastic case that has a serial number on it. I took it to run the number, it may help us find out where the drugs are coming from, because if they were trying them that means they are not the ones producing them." Bosley reasoned.
"We are going to have to let the police discover what's inside that warehouse on their own. If we get them involve now we risk jeopardizing the Angels' investigation. Head back here with the photos and the plastic case and I'll follow up on that. I have another assignment for you."
"I'm on my way." Bosley got in his car and drove away looking at the warehouse reflected on his rearview mirror. While he was sitting outside, seven people had lost their lives and there had been nothing he could do to stop it. He thought of the three friends they called Angels and prayed that he wouldn't be late for them when it counted.
Sabrina read the name on the door and groaned audibly. She was sure it was not a coincidence that the job assigned to her was to clean the main offices, one of which was Becker's, the very office she was now in front of. The only positive was that she was also in a good position to do some detective work, and the Warden's office was the next door over. So in an ironic way, she was lucky to be so unlucky. Sabrina knocked on the closed door as she had been instructed to do and waited. "Come on in." Becker's voice ordered. Sabrina took a deep breath before letting herself in.
"I'm here to clean your office." Becker just looked at her. Her face was serene and didn't demonstrate the traits of the night before. Neither the lust nor the fury she had unleashed on Sabrina. Green eyes continued contemplating the brunette without a discernible purpose, traveling over her body downwards and back up again.
Sabrina was growing quite uncomfortable with the situation. Not wanting to have a new confrontation with the guard she chose to end the stare contest between them. She grabbed a broom and started to sweep the floor still feeling the eyes of the other woman on her. Becker got up from her chair and went to stand right behind Sabrina. "I need you to clean the tops of the file cabinets, my desk and chair, the window, my sofa…You know, be thorough." The instructions were given in a non demanding way. Sabrina looked around the room and saw that the place was not that dirty to begin with, but she had no choice.
"Right." The redhead went to lean against the door and very discretely snaked her hand to the door knob locking it. "I've been meaning to talk to you about something, Lisa, about last night. I'd like to apologize for what I said. I sometimes lose my temper." Her tone was very casual, but Sabrina could smell the deceit from a mile away. Becker walked from the door to the edge of her desk and Sabrina straightened her posture in alertness. "That was not how I wanted things to start between us."
"There is no us. I just want to serve my sentence without any trouble." Sabrina kept her tone neutral still trying to avoid a confrontation.
"But that is exactly what I'm referring to. After your trial, if you're found guilty, you'll be here for a very long time and I can make your time here easier. You just don't know the benefits of having me on your side." Sabrina ignored the redhead's eerie sincerity and went back to work. "I'm going to help you understand." Sabrina saw out of the corner of her eye as Becker sat back down on her chair and started to read through a file but she didn't trust her apparent retreat.
After a long while of sweeping, moping and furniture cleaning, Sabrina was almost done. She was now concentrating on cleaning the glass window that faced the prison's yard. From there she could see the basketball court and was reminded of the altercation she had with Rita, and of Renee and how she had told her to go see her the next day so she could decide what her place would be. Sabrina wondered what that meant exactly and what would entail to ensure that she ended up in the place she needed to be. Kelly became her next thought when she remembered her face in the crowd. Two days had gone by since she last spoke to her or heard her voice. Two days since she had been told that she was loved but robbed of the opportunity to say it back. She was literally living hours of desperation because she knew Kelly thought that her silence meant rejection when the reality was that she loved Kelly so much that her heart didn't fit inside her chest anymore and her body trembled with the passion she so longed to share. But she hadn't been able to tell Kelly the truth and in its stead misinterpretation reigned, like a perfect lie that could end it all before it could have the chance to even begin.
Still lost in her reverie, Sabrina was barely starting to register the soft romantic music that permeated the office when Becker grabbed her hand, stopping the side to side motion on the glass window that she was absently doing. "Are you tired, Kitten?" Sabrina tried to free her hand and move away from Becker who was slightly pressing her body against her back, but the redhead halted her actions. "Easy now, take it easy." The guard's lips were close to Sabrina's ear and they spoke softly, like trying to calm down a temperamental child. Becker let go of Sabrina's hand and took the cloth from it throwing it away.
"Listen, I-" Sabrina tried again but she was immediately hushed. Becker tested the softness of Sabrina's hair running her fingertips through the straight locks, and then brought both of her hands up to the brunette's shoulders, massaging them sensually as she breathed Sabrina in.
At the other side of Becker's closed door an ear was flattened against its surface. The music had lured the scarred woman who was now trying to make out the words being spoken inside the office; words that once were only for her.
It was an impossible situation that her colleagues and she hadn't planned for and Sabrina needed to make a decision about the best course of action. If she reacted the way she wanted to and repelled the other woman's advances, she risked becoming the target of a worse kind of harassment, punishment, or even solitary confinement, and that was definitely going to interfere with her job. On the other hand, going along with her demented idea of loving companionship was not something Sabrina wanted to explore either. There was just no telling how far things could go before they had a chance to solve the case. All of a sudden Becker turned Sabrina around and caressed her face with the back of her right hand. "People like you and me, we don't belong here, but since we are here, shouldn't we stick together?" Becker's hand traveled down Sabrina's throat, slowly making its way to the valley of her breasts and debating whether or not to go beyond the barrier Sabrina's shirt button presented. "Shouldn't we take care of each other? I want to take care of you, and I ask for so little in return." Sabrina was about to let her know her answer with a little crippling of the wandering hand when Becker's next words made her change her mind. "I'm willing to take things at your pace, Kitten."
I'm gonna make sure your 'kitten' loses each one of her nine lives. Rita thought, clenching her fists until her knuckles turned white, and she left, unable to stand Becker's betrayal anymore.
If Sabrina had learned something from her time at the police academy it was the beauty of reverse psychology. Becker had given the solution to her inner debate when she declared her willingness to relent some of her power. It would still require some sacrifice on her part, Sabrina knew, but she doubted the investigation was going to last long enough for things to escalate to the ultimate consequence. When Becker's green eyes and right thumb concentrated on her lips, Sabrina braced herself for the first imminent sacrifice. "You are so beautiful, Lisa." The tall redhead reached for Sabrina's waist softly pulling the slender body to her and then started to slowly close the distance between Sabrina's lips and her own. Her other hand went to Sabrina's neck holding her in place as soft, warm lips descended upon Sabrina's with firm determination. The kiss was not harsh and demanding, but it wasn't shy either since Becker's control over her desire was not absolute. Too soon the unresponsive lips she was kissing became insufficient and the tip of Becker's tongue started to seek entrance so she could tenderly explore Sabrina's mouth.
The kiss was interrupted by a knock on the door and Sabrina was relieved she hadn't been the one to stop it, giving the impression she hadn't been truthful in her acceptance of their deal. "Who is it?" Becker asked through clenched teeth still holding Sabrina in her arms.
"It's Miranda. The Warden wants to see you in his office right away."
"I'll be right there." Becker finally let go of Sabrina reluctantly. "You are precious, Kitten." She said caressing Sabrina's cheek again, then she turned around and left the office.
As soon as Becker exited the office Sabrina cleaned her mouth with her sleeve, walking to the door and locking it again. She went straight to the desk drawers and looked through them as thoroughly and as fast as she could. She didn't know how long the woman that had become her own personal nightmare would be gone and with every passing second the risk of being caught grew greater.
There was a big, red envelope in the big drawer and Sabrina opened it. It was full of photographs. They were headshots of young, beautiful women, with their hair and makeup done, but not in an extravagant way. Sabrina had seen only a few photos when she noticed that they were all wearing the same thing; a cerulean blue silk blouse. She was reaching the last of the photos when she recognized a couple of faces. They were the missing women Bosley had shown them back at the office when they were discussing the case. She knew she had found another piece of the puzzle, she just didn't know what it meant yet. A warning in the form of a tingling sensation running along her spine let her know that her time was running out. Sabrina replaced the photos and the envelope to their place, and then she gathered all the cleaning tools and left. Now she just needed to find a way to share the information she had discovered with Kelly and Kris.