Mind (the) Game

by Kelly Shade

  “It’s okay, I understand.” Blake said calmly and walked towards the door.

  Valdez made several steps after her but Ryan stopped him.

  “I’ll do it.” Gray whispered, took Jane’s forearm gently and together they walked out of the office.

  People on the hallway started turning their heads to see what was happening. Everyone was whispering something to one another, all eyes were on Jane and Ryan. Gray picked up the pace. He wanted to get away from all the curious looks.

  Gray and Blake were in front of the holding cell. Another policeman opened it for Jane and when she walked in, he locked it. Ryan told the guard to leave them alone and when he walked away Gray turned to Jane with a serious expression.

  “Jane, did you kill him?” he asked firmly.

  “No. I didn’t. But you don’t believe me.” Blake turned her back on him.

  “Jane, look at me, please!” Ryan begged.

  “Why? You don’t trust me anyway!” Blake looked at him with her eyes narrowed.

  “Jane,” Ryan started again.

  “What, Ryan? You think I’m a killer. Okay!” Jane cut, rubbed her eyes and continued calmly “Ask yourself, why would I kill William? What was my motive? And when? I was in the fucking hospital when he was killed!”

  “Well,” stuttered Ryan “I don’t know, but…”

  “But what Ryan? You think I’m a killer?” shouted Jane.

  “No, I just,” Gray murmured “I… You shot Burris with no remorse… I haven’t told anyone but I haven’t forgot it, Jane!” he looked up.

  “Burris was a serial killer, Ryan! He deserved what he got!” Jane said angrily.

  “He deserved to die in jail.” Ryan said. “You shot him while he was down, Jane…” he whispered. Jane noticed that Ryan didn’t want to believe Jane was a murder but he had his doubts and that was tearing him apart from the inside.

  Blake looked at Ryan with disappointment, walked to the rollaway bed and sat down.

  “Jane, please!” Gray said desperately.

  Blake didn’t say anything, she just leaned back against the wall, put her feet up on the bed and closed her eyes indicating that she doesn’t want to deal with him anymore.

  Ryan stood there several more minutes begging her to talk to him but he admitted defeat and walked away.

  Blake was now alone in the cold, dark cell, thinking. She wanted to keep calm but she couldn’t. Jane was furious, confused, disappointed. All kinds of mixed feeling were raging in her head.

  Blake was sitting in that grey, depressing cell leaving her freedom to the mercy of her team. What if they decide she was the killer? What if they give up on her? What if Jane was right about Victoria Evans?

  “What if she is setting me up?” Jane murmured to herself.

  That thought made her stand up and shout at the guards “Call Ryan Gray! Now!”

  Blake walked back and forth in the small cell, waiting for Ryan to come back. What if he doesn’t want to deal with her? Jane had to try to persuade him to believe her. She had no one else she could trust on that. Blake was getting more and more nervous with every second that passed.

  “What is it, Blake? I am about to miss my flight!” Ryan said anxiously.

  Jane looked at him and remembered what Ian had told her earlier. Ryan had planned a trip with agent Barlow.

  Blake couldn’t believe her ears, he was going away leaving her in the cell, not caring what will happen to her. Jane looked at him sadly and instead of sharing her thoughts, she said “I wanted to say goodbye. Have fun!”

  Gray froze. He stayed silently in front of the cell, looking at Jane’s back. Ryan opened and closed his mouth several times but didn’t say a word. Maybe he didn’t realize it before, but now he knew what he was about to do.

  “What did you want to tell me, Jane?” he finally spoke with a quiet, uncertain voice.

  Jane walked towards him, and even though the bars were separating them, she looked as if she would reach through them and kill him. Jane was betrayed and her whole demeanor was showing the hate and anger she felt.

  “Nothing. It was nothing. Go to your girlfriend and leave me alone!” she said quietly.

  “I’m not going. I’m sorry for,” Ryan hesitated “everything. Please, Jane, talk to me!”

  “Why should I?” Jane felt that the anger was prevailing and she could hardly control her emotions.

  “I wanna help you get out of here! If you know something about the case, please Jane, talk to me!” Ryan said with his hands shaking the bars.

  “I’ll figure it out!” Jane cut “You don’t believe me, and you definitely don’t care. Leave! I regret that I called you, I shouldn’t have!”

  “Jane, stop!” Ryan got angry “I do care and you know it! But what was I supposed to do? You don’t want us to be together, you are fucking around and you act like nothing’s wrong with that!” Ryan took a deep breath “I love you and I always will but I can’t wait for you forever! I can’t continue with that freaking game we are playing for almost two years!” he lowered his voice “I like Stacy and she likes me, and for now that’s enough.”

  Blake listened silently. Every word he said was as if he was stabbing her with a dagger through her heart. Until that moment, Jane didn’t know how much she cared about Ryan, how much she needed him to wait for her. Now he wanted to go on with his life, now he was trying to forget about his feelings. He preferred Stacy Barlow, he wanted a normal relationship and Jane knew she couldn’t give him that.

  “Okay, then. I understand. You were my partner and I thought you would want to stay here until the truth is revealed and I’m out. I was mistaken.” Jane spoke calmly, looking in his eyes, determined that they had no future together, determined that that door is closed forever. “And that’s okay. Go have fun, I’m not going anywhere!” she made a gesture to the cell and smiled with effort.

  Ryan maybe wanted her to get angry or to provoke jealousy, maybe he wasn’t going anywhere but he wanted to see her reaction if she thought he was. Whatever he wanted, Ryan was now disappointed of the outcome and his expression was showing it. Gray turned around and walked away.

  When Jane could no longer hear his steps, she collapsed in the bed, staring at the grey wall. Tears started falling down. Jane could feel the hot drops on her cheeks but she couldn’t stop them. Ryan hurt her but she alone was the reason for that.

  Blake had to think of a plan how to get out of this situation. She wiped the tears and came back to her senses with a lot of effort. Jane had to forget about Ryan and to focus on the problem. She had to push the feelings deep down and to become herself again. The one thing that drove her all of these years was hate. And she had to focus on that now.

  ◆◆◆

  Gray went back to the office where the team was waiting. In reality, Ryan wasn’t going on the vacation with agent Barrow and they had a big fight about it. Ryan told Jane he was about to catch a plane just to see if she would care but the reaction she had destroyed him.

  Gray couldn’t leave the case, he couldn’t leave Jane. Not until she was free, not until they had the real killer, not ever.

  Ian followed Gray to his desk with mourn expression on his face.

  “What do we do now?” Valdez asked quietly.

  “Check the alibi.” Ryan said.

  “About that,” Nick said slowly and with apologetic expression “me and Victoria did some digging and,” he took a deep breath “there is no way to say if Jane was in the hospital or not.”

  “How’s that possible?” Valdez turned to Nick.

  “Well, the tapes from the hospital shows only that there is someone under the sheets but it is not certain if its Jane.” Nick explained.

  “That’s good, isn’t it?” Ryan said with hope.

  “Not exactly.” Evans joined the conversation. “There is a black thin figure exiting the room through the window. It is the same person who killed William.”

  “But why would she?” Valdez was confused.

&nb
sp; “I don’t know, Ian, but it seems like she did it.” Nick said with sadness.

  “How can you say that? This is Jane we’re talking about!” Ryan yelled.

  Nick was speechless. No one wanted Jane to be guilty but everything was pointing at her. All of the evidence was showing, that Jane murdered William and there was no way out of that.

  Hunt entered the office with a grim face. He collapsed in Jane’s chair and started speaking.

  “I have some bad news.” He sighted, everyone stared at him “I investigated William Spencer’s murder on my own and I have found many disturbing things and connections between our victim and Jane.”

  “We know they were in one school. That doesn’t mean anything!” Ryan interrupted with irritation.

  “I’m not talking about that!” Hunt glanced at Ryan in a sign to shut up and after Gray focused on his laptop again, Hunt continued “William Spencer was, indeed, a classmate of Jane. But this doesn’t matter in that case, the thing that matters is that Williams was paid to keep shut about a murder he witnessed in Japeri, Brazil.”

  “How did you find that?” Ryan asked.

  “The same way Jane found about it.” Hunt said and nodded for confirmation when he saw the disbelief in their eyes “Oh, yes, Jane investigated. She was at Higgin’s apartment and she hypnotized him and the maid into thinking that she was a blond Swedish journalist. I watched the tapes from Higgins’ security cameras, she was there a couple of days ago.” Hunt rubbed his eyes and continued with effort “Today she contacted the owner of the motel William was just to make sure she haven’t made a mistake. Jane found out about a murder of a woman in Brazil when she went there to search Morse’s residence. It turned out that William witnessed how one of Morse’s guards killed a woman who probably was about to expose Morse’s location. Later, William was contacted by Morse himself and paid to keep quiet.” Hunt explained calmly “And this is motive for Jane. We found the smoking gun, fingerprints. To me, it looks like Jane did it.” Hunt finished with a sight.

  “Maybe Jane tried to persuade the victim to tell her the truth but he refused. Maybe she didn’t want to kill him but she got angry and it just happened.” Victoria said.

  Ryan looked at her with all the hate he could demonstrate. Then he focused on the laptop for some time but soon he jumped up. He made a gesture to Hunt to follow him and they walked out of the office.

  Ryan headed to the kitchen area, Hunt after him.

  “Do you really believe that Jane is a killer?” Ryan asked while preparing three coffees.

  “No, but as a chief I can’t let my personal beliefs interfere with an investigation.” Hunt said firmly.

  “But all the things you said?” Ryan asked with confusion.

  “Are true.” Hunt answered “But I think that if Blake killed someone we would never find about it. And the evidence is too obvious. Jane is way too smart to leave fingerprints or, it the matter of fact, any kind of trail behind.” Hunt concluded.

  “What should we do then?” Ryan asked, gave one cup to Hunt, took the other two and headed to the holding cells.

  They went down to see Jane sitting on the bed, staring at the wall with empty eyes. For some time she didn’t realize that Hunt and Ryan were talking to her but when Hunt yelled “Jane!” for the third time she turned to them.

  “Hey!” she said tiredly. She looked as if she had given up.

  “Blake, I want you to be honest with me!” Hunt started, Ryan gave her the coffee he prepared for her. Jane took it and somehow she felt good that Ryan came back again after the fight they had.

  “Tell me everything in details, and I mean everything!” Hunt continued “I know you didn’t kill that man but I can’t keep you out of jail if I don’t have proof!”

  Blake took a deep breath and started talking. She told Hunt about the drugs and her suspicions that Evans was drugging her, she shared all the info she got from Vitor, she confessed she broke in to William’s house to take the video tapes. Finally Jane admitted she hypnotized Higgins and his maid and when Connor heard that he stopped her with a worried expression.

  “I saw you there but the tapes were from two days ago, not from today!” he said worryingly.

  “I can check if someone messed with the recordings!” Ryan offered.

  “Yeah, that would be good,” Hunt confirmed “but I also want you to check the videos from the hospital, maybe someone tampered with them too.”

  “If somebody changed even a millisecond of these videos, I will find it!” Ryan said with a determined face.

  They kept talking and discussing the possibilities and didn’t hear when Kyle joined them. He was with a furious expression on his face. Collins looked at Ryan as if he wanted to beat him up and then he turned to Jane.

  “Jane, let me help!” he said “I heard some of your conversation and even if I didn’t I am sure you are not a killer.”

  “This is none of your business, Collins!” Ryan growled at him.

  “I want to get my girlfriend out of here so don’t tell me it is not my business!” Kyle snarled back.

  Hunt couldn’t hide his surprise after that statement but he managed to avoid any comments and stick to the point.

  “We need all the help we can get and if Blake trusts Collins, he is in!” Hunt ordered.

  Hunt managed to keep Jane in the holding cell for the next two days but that wasn’t enough for their investigation. The team couldn’t find nothing substantial, all the evidence was pointing at Blake. At the end of the second day Nick and Victoria were sure that Jane was the killer. The more they searched, the more connections between Blake and Spencer were popping up, and instead of clearing her name, the team found enough for a strong case against her. Hunt couldn’t ask his people to hide evidence, he had to be objective. Ryan, on the other hand, kept Jane’s secrets and till the late night on Monday, he was still fighting to keep her in the LAPD. Kyle was doing things on his own, he didn’t like the Homicide team and the feelings were mutual. Collins spent more time with Blake than any of the others, he listened to her guesses and traced each of them as far as he could. But no matter what they did, Jane had to be charged and transferred to central booking. She was going to be trialed and most probably convicted in murder and her chances to prove she was innocent were less than one percent.

  On Tuesday morning Jane had to be transferred. Blake waited in the holding cell, pacing around nervously, thinking. What she had to do? Kyle and Ryan were visiting so often that Jane had no time to come up with a plan. She couldn’t sleep and she couldn’t eat but at least she felt way better than she used to. Despite of the grave situation, her head was clear, her brain as sharp as it was before, and her determination to find the truth was stronger than ever.

  Blake was walking in a circle, with her hands crossed in front of her chest. She had to decide if she would let them take her to jail. Blake was in a dilemma - should she run and keep running for the rest of her life or should she let Ryan, Kyle and Hunt do their job and fight for her freedom.

  The minutes were passing fast and the time for Jane to be transferred was coming. Blake wasn’t sure what she should do when the policemen come and take her. She was weighing the pros and cons of all the scenarios in her head. If she stays, there was no guarantee, that her colleagues would be able to find the truth. If she goes to jail, Blake was certain that sooner or later somebody will try to kill her there. But what if she escapes? That would be a concrete evidence of her guilt. If she escapes, her case would be assigned to another team and Ryan, Ian, Nick, Victoria, Hunt and Kyle will be investigated as if they are her accomplices. Maybe she would cost them their jobs and good names, or worse.

  The decision was hard to make, and time was running out. Soon enough two policemen accompanied by Hunt came to Jane’s cell. They were about to take her and she still had no clue what to do.

  While filling in the transfer documents and clearing the details with Hunt, the policemen were glancing at Blake with satisfied expressions. Blake no
ticed something was off about these two. Maybe they were planning to kill her before she gets to her cell in central booking, before she even gets to a court room. The decision was making itself, Jane had to run in order to save her life, she had to risk everything, she had to take her chances as a wanted criminal.

  Hunt was about to sign the last document and Jane could see how difficult it was for him. Blake saw, that his hand was twitching and even though his grey eyes were steady and cold, his look serious and stern as usual, Blake could feel there was a great battle inside him. Jane knew that Hunt didn’t want to let her go. Maybe he was also feeling the vibe of the two cops, maybe he also thought that this may be the last time he sees Jane alive.

  One of the policemen looked at Jane with his cold dark eyes and curved his mouth into an ugly smile, showing a missing tooth on the right side. He was not very tall and muscular but his hands were showing that he did a lot for his forty-ish years. Blake noticed a lot of scars on his forearms and on the matte skin of his wrinkled face.

  The other cop was bigger, a little plump, and younger than the first. His cheeks were red and his eyes were small, pig-like, his lips thin. He was tapping on the bars impatiently and avoiding Jane’s look. It was evident that he was anxious and scared of what he has to do. “That’s the weak link,” thought Jane “he is probably new.”

  Hunt signed the documents and the guard unlocked the cell door. Blake handed her hands and Hunt, with apologetic expression, gently put cuff on her wrists and stepped back with a silent “Sorry!”

  The policemen walked on both sides of Jane, the short one grabbed her forearm rudely and dragged her to move faster. Blake looked with sadness at the hallway that she walked so many times. Maybe that was the last time she was seeing it, maybe this was the last time seeing Hunt, maybe it was the last time in the LAPD Station.

  Blake walked slowly despite that the guard was pushing her to hurry. She wanted to memorize every detail in that place, just in case she can’t come back again. Blake couldn’t believe she didn’t want to come here at first, she was so angry at Ryan when he admitted he was a cop. The memory seemed as if happened ages ago. Jane had spent many nights at the Station and many more days, some were fantastic, some nauseating, but all worth it. Here, in that building, Jane had found friends, a team, a place she felt she belonged. Blake haven’t yet stepped out, but she felt nostalgic, lonely.