Lack of posting

Sorry about the other lack of posting this week, and next, but I was unable to finish my story for this week or next. Not enough time. I will be back on the 30th/31st, hopefully with something new to read.

The Phone, part 4

The shopping was uneventful, and when they got back, Winters was waiting for them. She had dressed up nice, in a very nice dress. She had let her long blond hair down, and it flowed beautifully. Forget coed, she could pull model if she tried. They spent a bit of time doing their makeup and hair, getting prettied up for a night out.

"Alright, here is the plan." Winters had a look of focus on her, in utter contrast to her dress. It was almost comical, but for the serious set to her face. "I've got a wire, and it is hooked up to a radio. We're only going to order non-alcoholic drinks, and hopefully stay sober enough to pull this off. We'll go to a different place tonight then last. We're going to hang out and hope they show. Do whatever you would normally do on a night out, and act a bit tipsy. If anyone asks, I'm a friend from out of town. We'll say Vegas. Real names, and call me Jess. Sara and Kati, you're with me. The rest of you girls can stay here or go home, though it'll probably be best to stay here. Any questions?"

Kati put up a hand, then pulled it down once she realized how silly it was. "When does the cavalry arrive?"

"Good question. They'll come in if they hear the targets, or one of us says 'I've never had a chocolate shake like that before.' You girls can say it too, in case they some how take me down. Remember, no alcohol, just act tipsy. We'll head out at about 10. Any other questions?" A moment of silence, and a few head shakes indicated it was done. "Alright. You've got about an hour to kill. You girls might want to get dressed. I've disabled the cameras in here, and the viewing room is locked, so you should probably do it here."

A little over an hour later, they were walking into the Eternal Summer bar, another tiki lounge style place, with the masks and the fake straw roof and everything. They were there for about an hour, with Sara playing pool and winning a few bucks, and Kati dancing her brains out on the floor. Winters sat at the bar and flirted with anyone who looked male, and quickly collected a stack of phone numbers. Finally, around 11:30, Jack came in. He was dressed in his usual blue jeans and t-shirt. And Ben, the stalker-boy, was with him. They walked in, and both spotted their targets.

Winters was on the ball, and made the call for backup quickly. She started to move towards where Sara was, as Kati was fairly insulated, and also fairly alert, on the dance floor. Sara spotted Winters moving towards her, and made the connection. "Sorry boys, this game is over. Enjoy the cash, I've got to go." With that she headed toward the bathroom.

She and Winters had the same idea, getting to the door pretty much at the same time. They moved in, and backed up. "Somehow, I don't think he'll respect the women's room. He'll be in here in a moment," Winters said.

"No, I don't think so. Remember, last night I hid out in one of these. Worked pretty well, too."

The door swung open, and there was Jack. "I'm wise to your tricks, this time. No escaping out the window. I've even got one of my boys in the alley. And who's your little friend, here? She's so cute. I think someone here will want her for some fun. Ain't that right, boys?"

There was silence behind him, where he obviously expected a yell, so he turned in a panic. Just in time to see an officer with a taser reaching for him, and then all went black. Kati came running off the floor to where they were standing, and ran in to Sara. A huge hug was in store for her. And one for winters.

Winters called to one of the swat boys, "Check the alley. He said he had a man there. And get these guys in cuffs, and get them back to the station. I assume you guys tracked them on entry, right?"

"Yeah detective. We saw him go in, and we made all his guys. They're all here and tased, so I think we got them all. Good work men."

"Good work indeed." Winters then turned back to Sara and Kati. "You girls did good too. Thanks so much. And you can keep the dresses. I'll have an officer take you back to the station, and you and your friends can go home."

"Alright" said Sara. "I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight."

They both went to the parking lot, where an officer gave them a quick lift to the station. They went in and found Heather and Alexis playing gin, while Leslie was asleep on a small cot.

"You girls look like jailbirds, y'know," Sara called out as they entered the room. "But enough about that, let's get home and get some good rest."

They woke Leslie, headed out, and piled back in the car. They dropped by Kati's place, and she got out and headed for the door. She went in and straight to bed. That had been a tiring day for her, to say the least. But she knew one thing for sure: it had been a good day. She helped a friend in need, helped the police bring in a bad guy, and just felt good about it overall. There were still questions, but all that could wait. She had solved the hard problem, what happened to Sara. The rest would come, in time, as needed. But for now, that was enough. She thought these things, then felt the calming embrace of slumber.

The Phone, part 3

The trip to Emily's house was uneventful, and fairly quiet. Alexis let Kati think, interrupting her only occasionally to ask about something unusual they passed, trying to jog her memory.

Once they got there, Emily answered the door. She looked like a mess, her hair had a plastic fork sticking out of it. Her clothes were wrinkled, and had a few spots on them that looked like they were probably beer from the previous night. She seemed like she had just woken up. "Hey Kati. What's up?"

Kati was still a bit distracted, so Alexis spoke up instead. "We're trying to find out if something odd happened to Kati last night. She doesn't remember much after she left, and we think someone put something in one of her drinks."

"Shhh. Not so loud. I have the biggest hangover ever. Hold on, let me go get Jen. She was our designated sober for the night, she is most likely to know what happened."

Emily ran upstairs, and a few minutes later, Jen came down. Jen was a smaller girl, and she was obviously pretty wired. She was wearing a loose t-shirt and jeans, and had a bouncy step. She was carrying a coffee cup, and had on her usual red framed glasses. She looked very stereotypically nerdy, but outside of that was pretty non-unique.

"Hey Kati. Feeling alright this morning?"

"Yeah, I'm OK. Not too bad, at least. Though there is a slight problem with my memory of last night."

"Yeah, Emily mentioned that. So is there anything I can do to help?"

"One thing. Was there someone hanging around me a lot, or someone really weird at the party you didn't recognize?"

"Now that you mention it.... there was this one guy. I'd never seen him before. He kept offering to bring you drinks, kept trying to hang around you. I thought he was just a really bad crush, but a little before you left, he just vanished. I did get one picture of him, in spite of his efforts to always be looking the other way. Let me go print it out for you."

She ran back upstairs with the same amount of energy she ran down with, leaving her coffee on a table by foot of the stairs. Kati cleared a space on one of the couches, throwing all the cups into the garbage bag, then sat down, still unsure what to make of last night, especially with the new information.

Jen came running back down the stairs again, and handed the picture to Kati. Looking hard at it, she realized this was the guy she had seen that morning on campus, the guy who was kinda stalker. How could she have forgotten? Even with all the drinks. Still, it answered some questions, while raising several more.

"Thanks, Jen. If you think of anything else odd from last night, let me know. I still have a lot of unanswered questions."

"No problem, Kati. And I'll let you know if I think of anything else."

So Kati and Alexis headed back to the house. They got back just as Heather and Leslie were returning as well. They all headed inside, and proceeded to swap stories. Heather and Leslie had visited the station and the church, and they learned a few things. For one, Sara had made it to the church. She had left a few photos with the guy running the shelter, and an address, so they could try and find her. She had apparently taken a cab there last night. As for the police, they said they were aware that Jack was back in town, and that they had been told a few days ago. He was apparently back up to his old tricks of stalking coeds, but this time he had found a few accomplices. They weren't sure where he was, but they wanted to know, and were offering a reward.

Kati went over the things she had learned during her visit to Emily's, and let them know about the stalker. She figured he might be one of Jack's net gang, and they might be able to use that to their advantage.

But for now, they had to find Sara. Taking Heather's car, as it was the largest, they all headed over to the address they had been given. They knew it immediately. It was a sorority house for Chi Omega, before that drug bust last year. Man, was that a weird story. Now it was empty, while the sorority fought the charges and tried to keep the house. But Sara had managed to keep a key, since it was an illegal copy anyway, and apparently thought it would be a good place to hide out.

They pulled in to the driveway, and headed up to the door. Sara was waiting there, and she opened it when she saw them. "Oh thank God. I'm so happy to see you guys. I thought you wouldn't figure it out and I would have to try one of the neighbors. But you made it. Can we go now?" Her green dress was a bit rumpled, and her makeup was smeared. She had no footwear, she probably abandoned it in the escape. Her purse was spilled on the floor right inside the door.

"Yeah, let's get out of here," said Kati. Sara scooped up her mess into her purse, then turned to face the group. She hugged them each in turn, starting with Kati, and then headed for the car. They all piled in and started back towards the house.

"So," Sara started, "I think we have to do something. Jack and his posse are gonna be trouble real soon. They're not gonna like that I got away last night, and they sure aren't gonna let me get away tonight."

"Well, we could go to the police" offered Heather. "They want to get Jack put away. They might be able to help us with this, and we might be able to help them."

"Alright, lets give that a shot. The worst that could happen is they tell us to go away."

They turned to go downtown again, to the police station, and that's when Heather spotted the car behind them. It was following a ways back, but it is hard to follow someone and not get spotted on a street like this. It was a small car, with sporty lines, but there was no way to identify it at this distance. She called it out for the others to know, and they tried to form a plan. Everyone started throwing ideas out at once.

Kati cut them all off. "Stop! The best way to deal with this is the simplest. Head for the McDonald's over there. I'll trade you spots, then we'll have us a nice drive, yeah?"

Heather thought for a moment, then made the turn. Once they pulled into the lot, she and Kati both hopped out of the drivers side. Making a quick swap, they were back in the car and moving before their tail had caught up to them. Kati hit the gas, taking off out of the lot with a burst of speed across two lanes of traffic, and back the way they had come. Cornering quickly, she made the car groan from the stress. It was not made for this kind of driving, but she found the sweet spot for it fast enough. Once she had that, it was easy. Lefts and rights, illegal (and stupid) turns, and she quickly lost him. And fortunately enough, was near the police station. Rounding the last corner, she made it into the lot, then pulled around behind the building, where the car couldn't be seen from the street.

They all got out and ran for the backdoor, getting there quickly enough. The officer at the desk greeted them as they ran through the door.

"Whoa there, why the rush? Where's the fire?"

Alexis led the answer. We're on the run from a wanted Jerk, who is currently trying to do who knows what with us. We need to talk to an officer about a stalker named Jack. Now, if that can be arranged."

The officer checked her computer. "Yeah, the officer'll be right down. In the meantime, the lot you parked in is for official vehicles only. You'll need to move your car."

Alexis wasn't sure what to say to that, and Kati could read the expression on her face about that. Before Alexis could cause any trouble, she spoke up. "Sorry officer, but I think it's best we leave it there. He had someone tailing us, but I lost him. If we put it out front, the tail will knew we've been here, which could get him on the run. If it stays hidden, we might get an advantage."

The desk officer thought for a second, then let it go. "I think that might be doable."

As he was speaking, two officers came down the hall. They were dressed in plainclothes, so Kati assumed they were detectives. The taller one was a man, a bit older, with a touch of gray to his hair. He looked well built, like he used to be on the football team. The shorter one was a younger woman. She didn't look much older then the college girls, and she was beautiful. She had a killer figure, and could probably pull of "sexy coed" without too much effort. The older gentleman spoke first.

"Hi girls, I'm Detective Craig Sholes. This is my partner, Detective Jessica Winters. We're assigned to the Jack case. The officer said you had some information."

Alexis started the talking again. "Yeah, but this could take a while. Why don't we go sit somewhere?"

They walked down the hallway to a little conference room, where there was some hot coffee waiting, and they all sat down. Kati and Sara proceeded to run through the story, showing the cops the picture of the stalker boy, and trying to explain it in a way that made some kind of sense. After getting through the story in as much detail as they could, they fell silent. The two detectives were quiet for a minute before Detective Winters spoke up.

"That is quite a story. And shows a lot of creativity and resourcefulness. Certainly more then I could have managed on either front, I think, with so little prep time. I just have one question. Why did you have all the numbers in your phone?"

Sara let out a deep sigh. "That.... is quite another story. I put those together for a code project with a friend from high school. She has a bit of.... well, paranoia, but she liked me. So I took the numbers when she gave them to me, and I still get coded messages from her from time to time, so I keep them around. Never thought I'd need them myself."

They sat for another moment. Finally, Winters spoke up again. "I hate to impose on you girls, especially after all that information, but do you think we could.... well... use you as bait? At least Sara and Kati, who seem to have stalkers in this."

Sara spoke up quickly. "Absolutely, if you get this creep off the streets, I'll gladly play bait."

Kati didn't hesitate a moment either. "Me too. I just want this to be done."

"Great," Winters said. "We're going to go come up with a plan. As for the rest of you, these two need some 'night on the town' clothes. Think you can get them something from home? Or walk them to a store right here and get it, on us? We'll send a plainclothes officer with you, just in case. She's pretty good, so just act like you know her." She looked through her pocket, and pulled out a credit card. "Here, buy some nice dresses and shoes. Try and match the purses you already have. And pick shoes you could run in, just in case. Just don't go crazy."