Part 10
The Hart Remembers – Part Ten
“So Jennifer Hart we meet again” the man said with a sneer “only this time it I who has the advantage over you. There is no one to save you this time”
Jennifer’s heart rate went up a couple of notches. She knew she was in big trouble.
Jennifer swallowed down her fear. “Nick Rhodes… Aren’t you meant to be in jail?” she said in a cracked voice.
“Oh no my dear, I have done my time and I’m out on parole for good behavior, didn’t you know?”
Jennifer shook her head because speaking was becoming difficult. She felt like she was going to pass out. She knew she was visibly shaking and tried in vain to control it. If Rhodes knew how scared she was of him he would have more power over her. She took a few deep breaths in an attempt to get control of herself. It helped but only a little.
“Sit down, Mrs Hart” Rhodes said in a stern voice. It took a moment for Jennifer to realize what he had said by then Rhodes had indicated to his big goon to help her and she found herself shoved down into a chair in front of a battered desk.
Just then there was a commotion at the door and another man entered quickly.
“Ah Sanchez, do you have what I wanted?”
The new arrival smiled evilly and said “Yes sir”
At that moment Adro came forward and spoke up in a nasty tone which told Jennifer he didn’t much like the new comer. “What’s he doing here, isn’t he supposed to be in New York?”
“Settle down Adro. I had Sanchez do a little job for me. You were otherwise engaged with Mrs Hart. He’s going right back to New York after he has put together a little package for me” Rhodes said which placated Adro a little and he stepped back behind Jennifer once again.
“Now Sanchez you got what I wanted, where are they?”
Jennifer looked over at the man Sanchez and saw that he was holding something in his hand. As he passed the objects over to Rhodes her heart seized in her chest as she realized what he had was her discs, the ones with all of the incriminating evidence on them. She felt the panic rising again as she knew that he had been in her house. She hoped that Jonathan and Max were ok.
“Did anyone see you?”
“No boss, there was no one home. I was in and out in about 5 minutes” Sanchez answered quickly “of course, they are going to know someone has been there, I couldn’t find the discs without making a bit of mess” he smiled evilly once again.
Jennifer relaxed a little; at least no one had been hurt. What would Jonathan do when he got home a realized what had happened? Would he be able to work out what was going on and save her in time? She really feared for her life now, her situation was very dire and she couldn’t see herself getting out of this alive. She felt saddened by the knowledge that she probably wouldn’t see Jonathan or little Max again. She just hoped that they knew how much she loved them both.
“Sanchez, go and shift Mrs Harts car out of the way. Make sure that it can’t be seen”
“Yes sir” he said and then looked at Jennifer expectantly. He held out his hand and she wasn’t sure what he wanted and looked up at him blankly.
“Keys!” he bellowed out and she jumped, terrified. When she didn’t respond immediately he grabbed her by the hair and tugged sharply “give me your keys, bitch or I’ll get them myself and I assure you that you will not enjoy that” he spat at her. Nick Rhodes laughed loudly at this.
“I assure you that he means what he says Mrs. Hart, you would be advised not to piss him off”
With a shaking hand Jennifer pulled her keys from her pocket and Sanchez snatched them from her as he flung her head away releasing her hair. She rubbed at her sore head. The man Sanchez left the room, presumably to move her car and to take care of the package that Rhodes wanted him to put together.
Jennifer hung her head and because she was very close to tears she tried to go to a nicer place in her mind, she thought about all of the wonderful things that she and Jonathan had done in their lives together and about how much love they have for each other and how lucky they had been.
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Maria knew as soon as she and Max entered the house that something wasn’t right. Freeway Junior came running at them yelping loudly and the place was a mess, furniture had been upended and cushions ripped open. She quickly ushered Max and Freeway out the door and into the car as she wasn’t sure whether the intruder was still inside or not.
Once they were outside and parked up the road a bit Maria called the police on her cell phone. After that she dialled Jonathan’s number at work and asked his secretary to be put through.
Jonathan came on the line and sounded a bit harried “Hello, Maria is everything alright?”
“Oh, Mr H no it isn’t, I think that the house has been burgled. Max and I came home and the place has been ransacked. I have called the police but they aren’t here yet.”
“You’re not still in the house are you? If you are, get out now”
“No, it’s ok we are in the car just up the road. I am going to wait for the police to get here”
“Good, good. I am coming home right now” Jonathan said and then he hung up and quickly grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair and raced out of his office. All the while thinking what the hell is going on now. Could this be related to the information that Jennifer had? As he was racing for the elevator he pulled out his cell phone and put in a call to Herschel Grey. It was time to call in the troops.
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Jessica Clark was very worried about her father, Senator Andrew Clark. He hadn’t been himself for quite a long time now, actually not since her mother died about a year and a half ago. Something was definitely up with him and Jessica was determined to find out what it was, today!
She could hear him having a heated discussion on the phone with someone. She couldn’t make out what was being said but her father was very agitated. She crept closer to the study door in the hopes that she might hear what he was saying. She just caught the end of the conversation in time to hear her father say that he would be there shortly. Wherever there was, so Jessica decided that today she would follow him and find out once and for all what was going on. She quickly disappeared as her father came out of his study.
Her father called out to her “Jessica are you around here somewhere?”
“Yes dad” she said as she wandered out of the kitchen making it look like that’s where she had been all the time.
“I’m going out for a while, I have a meeting. Don’t worry if I’m not back in time for dinner, I’ll get something for myself when I get in” he said with a weak smile, clearly he was stressed about something but trying not to alarm her.
She kept her voice even as she answered him “Ok, dad. You take care now won’t you?”
“Yes, love, I will. You need to stop worrying about me, I’m fine” he said with another weak smile “I’ll see you later, ok?”
With that he grabbed his keys and hurried out the door. Jessica wasted no time in grabbing her own keys so that she could follow him.
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As Jonathan arrived home he could see that the police had arrived. He was feeling very anxious and really needed to see Jennifer, he hoped she was home by now. As he entered the house he could see several policemen milling about doing various investigative tasks. Herschel hadn’t arrived yet it seemed.
He saw Maria hovering in the living room watching the activity. “Hi, Maria where’s Jennifer and Max.” he asked her in his most soothing voice as she looked very tense.
“Oh Mr. H thank goodness you’re here. Max is in his room, the second floor wasn’t ransacked, it was only in here and the office. I don’t know where Mrs. H is I haven’t seen her since this morning. I am getting worried about her; I hope she wasn’t here when this happened. The police have been asking me all sorts of questions” she said as tears began welling up in her eyes.
Jonathan felt the panic rise inside of him. What if Jennifer had been here, where was she now. His chest felt tight and his breathing was becoming rapid. He needed to calm down and stop imagining the worst but somehow he knew that Jennifer was in trouble. He was sure it had something to do with those discs.
“Why don’t you go and make yourself a nice cup of tea, Maria?” Jonathan said to try and calm the older lady and in the process hopefully calm himself a bit.
“That’s a good idea” she agreed and started towards the kitchen. At that moment Herschel arrived and came directly over to Jonathan who was very relieved to see him.
“Hi Herschel thanks for coming so quickly”
“No problem Jonathan, what’s happening?”
“I don’t know, I haven’t spoken to anyone yet”
“Ok, let me see if I can find out what they know” Herschel said and moved off towards the man in charge of the investigation. It looked like the two of them knew each other quite well. Jonathan went back to having his panic attack as his uneasiness about where Jennifer was kicked up a notch.
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Senator Andrew Clark felt sick. He didn’t know how he had ended up in this position. After his wife, Mary, died he had lost the plot. He hadn’t cared whether he lived or died. More and more he found himself at the racecourse. Betting on the horses was the only thing that made him feel better. Of course, he usually lost. At first, it was only small amounts, but then the addiction got a hold of him and he started betting bigger and bigger amounts.
And now he was in deep with the mob. In deep with Nick Rhodes in particular, who had called this morning and demanded to see him. Andrew wasn’t sure what he wanted this time but it couldn’t be anything good. And why did Rhodes want to see him at such an out of the way place. Surely he couldn’t be planning to kill him could he?
Andrew shivered. He had real misgivings about this but he had no choice. If he didn’t show up Rhodes would definitely have him killed so he had to go through with this.
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Jonathan was standing back just watching the police do their job, trying to stay out of the way and stay calm at the same time. No easy feat, he thought. He felt like he was wired with nervous energy and found it almost impossible to stay still.
Just then Maria rushed out of the kitchen holding a small piece of paper in her hand.
“Mr H, I found this note from Mrs H on the counter” she said breathlessly.
Jonathan took the note from her and read it. Jennifer had marked the time down on the note that she was leaving the house, 9.30 am. He looked at his watch and his face paled as he realized that Jennifer had written this note about eight hours ago.
He rushed over to where Herschel was in conversation with the lead officer and showed him the note.
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Jessica had been following her father for about half an hour and she was more confused than ever about what was happening here. She just hoped her father wasn’t involved in anything illegal but she felt that was probably a futile hope.
Her father turned up into Carbon Canyon road. Where is he going, she wondered. This wasn’t really a populated area, it was more industrial, with lots of warehouses and that type of thing.
She fell back a bit further because the traffic along here wasn’t as dense and she didn’t want him to see her. After about 5 minutes she saw him making a right turn into the yard of a warehouse. She slowed down and stopped just after the gate, parking her car among some bushes on the side of the road. She doubled back and crept carefully into the yard of the warehouse. She hid behind some bushes just inside the gate to get her bearings.
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Jennifer had been in her own little world and had completely zoned out on what was going on around her. She jumped when the door opened and another man entered.
She looked up then and was startled as she recognized the new visitor. It was Senator Andrew Clark, she would know him anywhere even though they had never met.
He looked very nervous and she guessed that his involvement in all of this was not voluntary. She was sure Rhodes had something on him so that he could manipulate him.
“Ah, there you are Andrew, I was getting worried that you weren’t coming” Rhodes said in his smoothest voice.
Clark looked like he was going to be sick and he was sweating profusely.
“I… ah…. well, you said you needed to see me so I got here a quick as I could” the Senator squeaked out.
“Yes, yes, very well, you are here now, so all is good” Rhodes said soothingly “why don’t you take a seat?”
The Senator looked around for a chair and seemed to see Jennifer for the first time. He looked even more nervous but said nothing as he slid into a chair and wished the floor would open up and swallow him.
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After a quick recognisance of the place Jessica sprinted across the yard to the side of the building. So far so good, she thought. She slipped quietly around to the back of the building and saw a metal staircase leading to the roof. Perfect. She could get up on the roof and see if there was any way of seeing what was going on inside. She crept up the staircase as quiet as a mouse. When she reached the roof she realized that there were several skylights embed in the roof, what luck. She looked carefully through each of them until she found the one directly above the room her father was in.
He wasn’t alone there were two other men there and a woman sitting in the chair. As she watched she could tell the woman wasn’t there voluntarily. Jessica thought that she looked familiar. Had she met her somewhere before? Maybe at one of her fathers gatherings. As she kept an eye on things below she tried to place the woman.
Then it hit her. The woman was Jennifer Hart. She remembered all the media attention around her when she was nearly killed a year or so ago. What was going on here, and how was her father involved?
Jessica had a very bad feeling about this.
Authors Note: I apologize for any geographical errors in this part. I don’t live in LA or the US for that matter so I may appear ignorant.