Laws of Motion – Book 4

Written by: Ms. Maggs/Edited by: KJT

Chapter 14

Tuesday, December 14, 2005

Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa – Atlantic City, NJ

Ken Blake's Room

6:12 pm (EST)

"I've been waiting for your call for hours," Ken snapped when he answered his cell phone. "What's the status?"

"I delivered the package, but his wife opened it."

"What?!" Ken stopped pacing the room. "How is that possible when you were supposed to have a visual before making the delivery?"

"I'm sorry, I was unexpectedly cut short on time during the delivery and from everything I had seen prior to…the wife never…I'm sorry."

"God dammit, Carlos!" Ken screamed into the phone, "We don't work like this!"

"I know, I know, and in ten years, I've never been sloppy, it seemed like such a sure thing. One chance in a billion that she'd…"

"Shut up and let me think for a minute."

"You need to know there's one more problem…your daughter decided to go to work instead of Mexico."

Carrie Blake's Office

4:19 pm

"Carrie…" The DA rapped on the open door. "I need to talk to you."

"I was actually just packing up for the day," Carrie replied while powering down her laptop. "As you can imagine, the Stokes family…"

"Internal Affairs is in my office," he cut in, "they'd like to speak with you."

Exhausted from the day's events, she dropped into her chair. "Nick didn't blow up that car."

"I know he didn't, but we know how this works. They want to know who did."

LVPD – Crime Lab

Gil's Office

4:25 pm

"Grissom," the Master Criminalist gruffly answered his cell.

"It's Jim."

"I'm just packing up," Gil snapped, annoyed that he, Sara and Nick had all been placed on paid suspension per IAB.

"You know how I'm not supposed to tell you anything?"

"Yeah?"

"Pretend I'm not telling you this," Jim said, before sharing, "Guess what was just found in the trunk of Lissa's car at the brake repair shop?"

"Mike's dead body?" Gil replied, praying his friend would say yes.

"Wouldn't that be fun? No, the mechanic found car bomb supplies and Internet how-to guides to making car bombs. He called the police and the word is…all evidence points to Lissa Rodgers being the bomber."

"That's…" Gil dropped into his chair.

"Interesting isn't it?"

"The woman was stupid, but…" Gil paused, "sorry, no disrespect to the deceased, what I mean is, she was stupid, but not stupid enough to wire her husband's car and then forget and blow herself up."

"The plot thickens though…Mike Rodgers took out an insurance policy on Lissa, but because of his history of dead wives, the insurance company put a two-year waiting period clause that he acknowledged and signed."

"So he's not going to collect a dime from her death?"

"Nope, but Mrs. Rodgers was able to insure her husband for two million dollars and no waiting period."

Gil rubbed his temples and recapped, "So it looks like Lissa had motive, opportunity and the tools to explode the car."

"Exactly, but instead of her husband starting the engine, she did. So, she was either incredibly stupid, desperately suicidal, or…"

"She was being framed for her husband's death and didn't know it."

"My money's on that one," Brass confirmed. "What if Mike was going to fake his own death and didn't expect the wife to use his SUV that day?"

"But she had a key, Jim. That's a pretty big risk and we know that Mike likes to be in control."

Ensenada, Mexico

5:41 pm

"Okay, we're all set, Becks." Mike handed over a ticket. "You're taking a bus to San Diego and your car will be waiting for you at the terminal. The keys will be locked inside, but you said you have a spare in your wallet, so…"

"A bus?!" The millionaire shrieked, "I've never been on a public bus in my life." She lowered her voice to a whisper, "And not to sound like a snob, but…some of these people look very dirty."

"Then find your own way back to San Diego, bitch, but I'm done babysitting you."

"Babysitting?! You kidnapped me!"

"Uh, no I didn't." Mike reminded her, "You sought me out at a crime scene, then we went for a joy ride. During the joy ride I found out there had been an attempt on my life and I panicked. I drove toward the border, but you didn't want to take your Ferrari into Mexico, so we switched to an SUV. Soon after that, you got on my nerves, and I said thanks for the good time, but I'm going to hide out on my own until my wife's killer is brought to justice and it's safe for me to return to Vegas. I said adios, and was nice enough to buy you a bus ticket to San Diego."

"That's not going to be my story," Becca snipped while snatching the bus ticket.

"Yeah, but you're nuts and no one takes you seriously." Mike shooed her off. "Buh bye."

As her captor drove off, Becca reached into her wallet for a hundred dollar bill. "Hola," she greeted a woman holding a baby. After flashing a warm smile she asked in Spanish, "I'll give you one hundred American dollars to use your phone."

LVPD

5:59 pm

Sitting at his desk waiting for a call back from his father, Tony continued run all of Becca and Mike's credit cards, hoping to see activity while knowing he wouldn't.

"Tony!" Vega shouted from his desk. "I just hung up with my cousin, he works border patrol at the Tijuana checkpoint. His boss is unofficially faxing Becca's photo to all checkpoints."

"I owe you…" Tony held up his index finger and flipped open his phone. "Vartann."

"Tony!"

"Becca?!" He jumped from his seat, sending his desk chair crashing to the floor.

"I love you! I love you! I love you! Are you mad at me?! I don't want to sleep with Nick, Mike made me say something to…"

"Honey!" Tony's heart pounded in his chest. "Where are you? Are you okay? Is Rodgers with you?"

"I'm in a filthy smelly bus terminal in Ensenada! I paid a woman a hundred bucks to use her cell phone, because Mike snatched the battery out of mine."

"Did he hurt you, Becks?" With Vega at his side, Tony frantically rattled off questions, "Where is Rodgers? Did you sneak away to make this call or…"

"No, he dropped me off here."

"So, you're safe." His knees weak, Vartann sat on the edge of his desk.

"No, I'm not safe! I'm in a bus terminal in Ensenada!" Becca shrieked. "Men are leering at me and robbers are eyeing up my diamonds! I can't believe Mike left me here!"

"Ensenada?" Vega confirmed while grabbing his cell phone. "Tell her not to leave the building. My cousin is less than an hour away, I'll get him to her."

"Stay put, honey," Tony instructed, near tears. "A cousin of a guy I work with is gonna come for you and take you across the border. He works border patrol. Promise me you won't get on a bus or leave the building."

"I promise," Becca cried, the trauma catching up with her.

"Good, okay." Tony breathed deep. "Now…tell me everything you remember about Rodgers. What he was wearing and driving, what direction did he go in, and did he give any indication of where he was going? Because we need to find him, Becca. He's a murder suspect."

I know this was an extraordinarily short chapter, but I needed to get to a breaking point and felt this was a good one. Ken ordered the hit and Becca is safe. The story will pick up from there, but I need to wait until after the season finale of CSI. I've been significantly changing the story toward a different direction for reasons I won't say, but it's proven very hard to do that in a WIP format.

On top of that, many people (even close friends) have told me that they've stopped reading angsty fic until they know the outcome of this season's drama. Many others have told me they refuse to read the story until the Mike part is done (they've said they'll wait for me to finish all the drama and then catch up). I suspected that was the case because comments have dwindled and hits to the chapters have fallen off dramatically.

I don't blame anyone for this move, I feel the same way right now…I want to tell a happier story. I'm enjoying writing Where You Are for that reason. And I have to believe it's true when I'm getting more happy/positive comments for a chapter of Where in 1 hour than for the last 3 chapters of LoM combined. That's a sign of where people are focused right now.

So, knowing all that, I think it's smart for me to pull the story together, wait until the CSI season stress is over, and then post the revised LoM story in quick succession. I hope those who are still reading and have been dedicated in supporting the story, understand this move and will read it when it's done. I know this is the right decision. I don't want to rush or ruin the end of a story I've been building for so long just because I feel pressured to end the drama and write happiness.

Thanks so much,
Maggs