Mind (the) Game

by Kelly Shade

  Hunt nodded but he wasn’t happy at all, he knew Jane was delaying the talk on purpose.

  Blake went in the Homicide office. Ian, Nick and Victoria were there, only Ryan was missing.

  “Morning!” Valdez and Lee said together.

  “Morning!” replied Jane and turned to Ian “Excited about the wedding tonight?”

  “More like terrified!” Valdez said nervously.

  “Why are you here? Shouldn’t you, I don’t know, be doing wedding stuff?” Jane laughed.

  “No, I preferred to work. Alice and her mother are driving me crazy with all the preparations- flowers, DJs and what not… They didn’t let me do anything.” Ian explained and smiled “I’m not complaining!”

  “Okay then.” Jane put her bag on her desk and explained the current situation with Mr. and Mrs. Shelton.

  “Are you sure?” asked Victoria Evans but after Ian, Nick and Jane looked at her coldly she pretended she haven’t asked and fixed her skirt nervously. Blake found it funny and laughed, Victoria felt even more embarrassed, offered to bring them coffee and hurried to the kitchen area.

  “Is she any good? And what’s with the suit and the hair style?” Blake asked quietly.

  “She is a good cop, Jane, don’t be hard on her.” Started Ian “Evans is just strict, organized… And she doesn’t come to the field with us, she is almost always on office duty.” Valdez glanced at her flawless desk and added “I had to hire someone. You were missing and I didn’t really have much of a choice.”

  “Yeah, and Victoria is trying to be a team player.” Ryan said from the door. He just showed up.

  Jane ignored him and turned to Nick who was unusually quiet. “Lee, do you wanna join me?”

  “Where are we going?” he asked.

  “To see Amanda’s body. Don’t forget, we have to act fast!” Jane clapped several times and headed to the door.

  “Why?” asked Gray.

  “Valdez will fill you in.” Jane answered coldly without looking at him.

  Blake opened the office door and almost bumped to Victoria who carried four coffees.

  “Here.” Evans gave Jane and Nick a cup and rolled her eyes at Ryan “You are making your own!”

  “Come on…” complained Gray but he headed to the kitchen.

  Jane and Nick, with coffees in their hands, hurried down to the morgue where Barbara Bradley was waiting for them, especially for Jane. Barbara hasn’t seen Blake since she came back and naturally she had many questions. Jane had to explain kindly, that at this moment she had no time for that.

  “Okay, Jane, but I’m not letting you off the hook. I have to know what happened, you have no idea what rumors are going around!” Bradley agreed and removed the sheet from Amanda’s corpse with another question “Why did you need to see her, isn’t the case closed?”

  “Not exactly.” Jane said, put her cup on the nearby table and reached for a pair of silicon gloves “Can I?”

  “Yep, help yourself.” Barbara waved at the body and spoke slowly. “What do you expect to see, Blake, I’ve examined every inch of the body, the cause of death is a blunt force trauma to the head, it wasn’t an attempted murder for sure.”

  “Yeah, I know. Did you find a mark or, umm, something weird on her skin?” Blake asked while cautiously checking every part of the woman’s body.

  Bradley made a grimace and said thoughtfully “Now that you mention it, I did,” and lifted the woman’s arm. On her armpit she had a little spot with several lines as if it was some sort of a figure.

  “What’s that?” asked Nick who also had bend under the victim to see better.

  “I think this is our evidence.” Jane concluded and turned to Barbara “Can you tell when this happened?”

  “Yeah, this mark was caused by pressure, applied with a metal, approximately fifteen minutes before death.” Bradley said confused. “Why is this important?”

  “Because Mr. Shelton has the ring which caused that and this is our way to prove he was the one who pushed her.” Jane explained and headed to the door, Nick after her.

  “Well, it’s good enough for the murder of Amanda but what about the mother? How are we going to prove that?” Lee had to run next to Jane.

  “Gray will have to restore some of the recordings Mrs. Shelton made while spying to her husband.” Blake said and drank the rest of the coffee. She wanted to deal with the case faster because of Ian. Jane wanted him to be able to go home earlier and to prepare for his big day and she knew that if the case wasn’t closed he wouldn’t do it.

  Lee and Blake went back in the office and before Jane could explain the situation, she felt lightheaded and needed to sit for a while. Maybe because she almost ran on the way back or because she hasn’t fully recovered, but she felt weak and dizzy. Blake sat in her chair and took several deep breaths. Ryan noticed that and went to her with worried expression on his face.

  “How are you?” he asked.

  “Like you care.” Jane lifted her eyebrows and with great effort stood up and pretended nothing is wrong. Gray turned his back and went to his desk in silence.

  “Gray!” Jane raised her voice a little “We need you to restore the deleted recordings from Mrs. Shelton’s hidden cameras.”

  Ryan looked at her astonished that she dared to ask for a favor.

  “Can you, please? For the groom!” Ian joined and glanced at Jane icily.

  Ryan smiled at Valdez and took the evidence box from Nick’s desk. Everyone waited in silence. The only sound was the nervous clicking from Jane’s pen. She hoped that George Shelton said or did something on that tape that will prove his wife’s innocence.

  “Got it.” Ryan said after half an hour. “He really wanted these files gone.”

  “But nobody can hide anything from Ryan Gray!” Nick teased and Victoria laughed.

  “Shut up and watch!” Ryan said with a smile and moved aside so everyone could see the screen.

  The team surrounded Gray’s desk, ready to see the deleted files. There were only several minutes erased from the original video, but they made all the needed difference.

  The first file they saw ended with Mr. Shelton going to bed but this one was a little bit different. After George pretended to go to sleep he went out of his room from the window and apparently he went into Amanda’s room. The time was matching the time of the woman’s death.

  After a while he came back from the window again and Mrs. Shelton was waiting for him there. They argued but in a minute or so they both calmed down, George offered wine and his wife agreed. On the second file Mary Shelton swallowed the first sip of her red wine and almost immediately collapsed. Her husband grabbed her and carried her to, what looked like, her room.

  “I think it’s time to call Fort Worth PD.” Said Ian excitedly, went to his desk, took the phone and dialed the FWPD chief’s number.

  Everyone waited for him to finish the conversation in silence.

  “Nancy can come back to the States, right?” Jane asked.

  “Yeah, Agnes Downer is a free woman so is her sister Mary Shelton. If they find Nancy, they will offer compensation and public apology for the mistake.” Ian chirped.

  “When the charges are officially dropped, give them these coordinates.” Said Jane happily, wrote Nancy’s location on a piece of paper and handed it to Valdez.

  “You care about her a lot, huh?” asked Nick with a note of ‘I knew you’re not that cold-hearted’.

  “Yes, I do. She saved my life, I owe her.” Answered Blake and turned to Ian “Valdez, it’s time for you to go! Come on, the ranch is an hour drive from here!”

  “Yeah, I’m going. But I’m taking my best man with me.” Smiled Valdez. “Come on, Lee, you’re driving.” He added and threw his car keys to Nick.

  They went out leaving Jane, Ryan and Victoria alone.

  Blake sat in her chair, lifted her legs on the desk and stared through the window. She could feel Victoria’s gaze but she didn’t care. Of course, the new girl was hoping to bec
ome friends with the one other woman in the team, but Jane didn’t intent to become close with her. There was something in Evans that Jane couldn’t quite accept. All that seriousness around her, the stiff gestures and body language, the formal clothes. Blake didn’t like straight arrows, she always thought of them as a lost cause.

  Ryan went to Jane, pushed her feet off the desk and sit on the same spot they were. Blake looked at him with surprise for a second then she fixed her eyes on the tree outside the window she was looking at before. Ryan stared at her for some time, but he gathered courage and spoke quietly so Victoria couldn’t hear.

  “I want us to stop this.”

  Blake looked up at him as if she couldn’t understand what he was saying.

  “I don’t want to be like this. I am really sorry for my behavior.” Ryan continued “Please, let’s talk this through!”

  Jane didn’t move and didn’t say a thing. She was very disappointed, she was hurt, even though she didn’t want to admit it to herself, she was. When Blake came back she expected Ryan to be thrilled to see her, that he missed her, Jane thought he would be happy she was back.

  “Please!” Ryan begged “Jane?”

  “Yeah, okay.” Blake answered firmly.

  “Do you want to go somewhere else?” Gray whispered.

  Jane nodded, took her bag and headed to the exit. Ryan was right after her, he stopped to say “See ya at the wedding!” to Victoria.

  Jane and Ryan went to the parking together in silence. When Blake was in front of her car she said “Go dress up for the wedding and meet me at my place. I’ll be ready too and we will split a taxi to the ranch, okay?”

  “Okay!” Ryan lightened up a bit.

  Blake drove to the motel fast. She parked and went in the small room. The dress she bought for Ian’s wedding was laying on the bed waiting for Jane. She took a shower, fixed her hair and put makeup on as fast as she could. She knew Ryan will be at her place soon enough and she had to be ready. Jane put on the long black satin dress with side split and high heel sandals just in time. Gray knocked on the door several times. Jane opened and Ryan whispered “Wow!” when he saw her. Gray also looked very nice in his dark navy, almost black suit. His charming smile was completing his appearance, Jane realized that it was the first time he smiled since she was back.

  “Looking good.” She mumbled and reached for her purse and the wedding present.

  “What do you have for them?” Ryan said with his usual friendly tone.

  “A week in Hawaii in five-star hotel with SPA and all attractions included.” Answered Jane and shook the small purple box with white bow. “And you?”

  Ryan showed his present which was a little bit bigger, nicely wrapped silver box with golden ornaments.

  “Two wine glasses with engraved wishes, an old wine and a giraffe. It’s not that special as yours.” Said Ryan a bit ashamed.

  “Are you kidding me, it sounds perfect!” Jane congratulated him but a question popped “Why is the giraffe?”

  “Alice is pregnant.” Ryan said “You didn’t know?”

  “Well, I didn’t even know her name was Alice.” Blake sighed.

  “Alice Morgan. From tonight on- Alice Valdez.” Ryan explained “I’m happy for Ian, he is getting married with a kid on the way, it’s everyone’s dream.” Gray said dreamily while waiting for Jane to lock the door and call a taxi.

  Blake didn’t say anything. Of course, she was happy for Ian but she also knew why Ryan said all of this, he wanted to make her say she wanted family too.

  “Can we clear things out, Jane?” Ryan asked, she nodded and he continued “When you disappeared, I searched for you, I saw you got a ticket for Chile and I wanted to find where exactly you went. But I couldn’t activate your phone’s GPS or to trace any kind of credit card activity or whatever, so I asked Hunt to call the CIA for help. He did it, he didn’t want to call them, but he did. They laughed at us, so we had to search on our own. I was watching the satellites all night, hoping to see you somewhere but there was nothing.” Ryan breathed out “When we received the message, we called the CIA right away. This time they took us seriously. Finally, I was able to track your phone, I guess it was disassembled before and you assembled it when you sent the message.” Ryan glanced at Jane questioningly, she confirmed this was exactly what she did and he continued “Anyway, we went there with the CIA. There was a house in the middle of nowhere but Morse wasn’t in it. The CIA said they will take it from there. Teams went in the house to gather evidence. We asked for information but they said it was classified and sent us packing. There was no trace of you for two more days and then there was a ticket to LA under your name. I went to your room on the day you supposed to be home and the lights were on. I decided to wait for you to come in the Station or to call me but you didn’t.” Ryan took a deep breath “I thought you didn’t want to deal with us, with me, any more. I got angry, Jane!”

  The taxi parked in front of them and Ryan opened the door for Jane. She sat on the back seat, he sat next to her. They gave the address to the cabby and they were on their way to the ranch where the wedding was. Jane didn’t want to keep talking on the subject and she decided to finish it once and for all.

  “I hope now you know what happened.” She said quietly “When I came back I thought of calling you and the team but I was disappointed of all of you. I almost died, I was alone there, I thought you didn’t care… That’s why I didn’t come right away.” Jane finished and shook from the memories.

  Ryan took her hand and whispered “We all care about you, I care more than you think!”

  Jane nodded and moved her hand away from his.

  “Now we cleared it out. I hope we are okay!” Blake said firmly.

  “Yes.” Ryan understood that she didn’t want to listen to apologies.

  The ride to the ranch was almost over. The cab came to a stop in front of a slightly opened double metal gates covered with lianas, a signboard with beautifully written ‘Welcome’ was hanging on the right gate. Jane and Ryan went in, Blake first, she kindly refused Ryan’s hand, and hurried through the gates.

  The ocean breeze mixed with the floral aroma, the little path and the small palm trees on the way to the wonderfully decorated garden were the perfect welcome to the outdoor wedding.

  Jane and Ryan took a glass of champagne each from the hostess at the entrance and joined the other guests in the garden. The ceremony was going to start any minute now and each of the hundred people which were invited started to search for a place to sit. The rows of white chairs covered with lilac coating were all occupied with excited people who were looking from the altar to the aisle waiting for the groom and bride to appear.

  Ryan found Connor Hunt and Victoria Evans and waved Jane to sit with them. She went to the second row and sat between Ryan and Victoria who was nervously looking around and fixing her short yellowish dress.

  Ian, dressed with very stylish black tuxedo, went to the beautiful arc altar with light pink flowers and shook hands with the wedding officiant. Next to him, his best man Nick was smiling widely at the guests and waved to Jane, Ryan, Connor and Victoria when he spotted them.

  Moments later a soft tune started and at the end of the aisle stood Alice accompanied by her mother. They started walking slowly to the alter, followed by two sweet little girls who were holding the bride’s beautiful long white dress. The bride was a beautiful woman with curled dark hair, round face with big dark eyes, white skin, charming smile and great figure. Her mother was almost identical to her, she was like the older version of Alice.

  Jane felt uncomfortable when she saw how many people around her were with wide smiles on their faces and tears of joy in their eyes, including Ryan, Connor and Victoria. Somehow Blake still didn’t get why was all the fuss around weddings, why were so many people invited and why everything was so fancy and pompous. She glanced to her right where there was the huge two story ranch house and noticed a man, maybe from the staff, watching the ceremony from the window.
For a moment she thought he was looking at her but she shook off the feeling and drank the champagne left in her glass. Blake turned to the happy couple again and realized that Ian and Alice were almost married, the point when they had to say ‘Yes!’ to each other was a minute later.

  Everyone clapped and went to congratulate Ian and Alice Valdez. Blake also joint the others and after many heartwarming wishes to the couple they all went in the house to celebrate.

  The place was decorated with flowers and balloons, there were tables ready for the guests, and a huge dancefloor in the middle.

  The party was getting louder very quickly, the bottles of alcohol on the tables were emptied fast and replaced with new once. Victoria and Nick were dancing, Connor was listening to the stories of ‘the old days’ of Ian’s father, everyone looked like they have a great time.

  Blake drank her fifth glass of whiskey and decided to get some fresh air and went out on the big terrace. She took one of the cigars she prepared for the team. Jane didn’t have the chance to gather them and she preferred not to miss on the expensive cigar she bought. Blake lit it up, leaned on the terrace railing, and stared at the beautiful night sky.

  “Hey, may I?” Ryan put his hand on her shoulder.

  Blake didn’t hear him coming, but how could she, the music was so loud she couldn’t hear her own thoughts.

  “Yeah, you want?” Jane got another cigar from her purse and offered it to Ryan.

  He took it and lit it up.

  “You look stunning by the way.” Ryan lisped and leaned on the rail next to Jane.

  Blake smiled “You look good too.”

  Ryan wanted to say something but it looked like he didn’t quite have the courage yet. Jane stared at him, just to make him more uncomfortable, and noticed that Ryan made an effort to stand straight.

  “Are you drunk?” Jane laughed.

  “Maybe. A little.” Admitted Gray and looked down. “Look, Jane, I wanted to…”

  A loud noise interrupted Ryan. Victoria was giggling and dragging Nick out on the terrace without realizing Jane and Ryan were there. Evans and Lee both had trouble walking in a straight line. Blake and Ryan looked at each other and covered their mouth to resist the urge to laugh. At the moment Victoria pushed Nick against the wall and kissed him passionately, Jane waved her hand at Ryan and whispered “It’s time for us to go.” Gray, still quietly laughing, took Jane’s hand and went in after her.