Title: Chilling Evidence


Author's Name: Katelaine; kek81@rocketmail.com
(Feedback is always welcome, but I just wrote what my
imagination conjured up, so don't flame me for
incosistencies with the show or real life please).

Rating: PG-13 (Language, Sexual Inferences, Violence,
some Graphic Details)

Spoilers: Anything is possible through season 7. 
Sergei isn't an issue in this story. 

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters; I'm not
creative enough to have come up with them.  I'm
intending no infringement upon the show, DPB or any of
the other 'T'PTB.  I'm just playing around with 'my
friends' for entertainment puposes and in no way,
shape or form am I receiving monetary kickbacks from
my actions.

Summary: Harm and Mac are sent to Fort Knox, Kentucky
to investigate human remains found on a base training
field.


26 April 2003

Saturday

0930

Mac & Harm’s House

Historic District, DC

The stereo was turned up loud so that Mac could hear
it in the bathroom where she had been taking her
shower. Clean and dry, she lathered herself with a
lotion that made her skin feel like silk and lightly
smelled of roses. She picked up the pair of panties
she had set out and stepped into them, noticing they
were the ones Harm loved to see her in the most, he
called them her ‘Devil Red’ panties. As she hooked the
matching bra in the front and adjusted the garment,
she caught sight of herself in the full-length mirror
on the bathroom door. She saw the roundness of her
breasts and the feminine curve of her hips; she
laughed and shook her head at herself for indulging as
she did. Most often she forgot she was a woman, always
hidden behind her uniform, which isn’t the most figure
flattering. She was just Mac the Marine most of the
time- that is until Harm would remind her in bed that
she was also Sarah the beautiful woman. She walked out
into the bedroom to get dressed when one of her
favorite songs came on the radio; it was an oldie but
a goodie and she loved every word and rhythm of it.
She picked up the remote and increased the volume and
belted the words along with the singer.

Looking out on the morning rain

I used to feel so uninspired

And when I knew I had to face another day

Lord, it made me feel so tired

Before the day I met you, life was so unkind

But you’re the key to my piece of mind

‘Cause you make me feel, you make me feel, you make me
feel like a natural woman

Harm had just finished his morning run and headed
upstairs to shower. He and Mac had moved into her
house together so they could share the rent and living
expenses; they had separate rooms of course. At the
landing, he heard loud music coming from the direction
of Mac’s bedroom, the door was slightly ajar so he
walked up to it and nudged it open. What he saw
brought a smile to his face and a laugh through his
throat, but he kept quiet so as not to disturb her. He
watched her go through the motions of getting dressed,
but at certain moments she would make little gestures
to emphasize some of the words all the while singing
the song at the top of her lungs, carrying the meaning
of every word with every breath of her being.

When my soul was in the lost and found

You came along to claim it

I didn’t know just what was wrong with me

Till you kiss helped me name it

Now I’m no longer doubtful of what I’m living for

‘Cause if I make you happy I don’t need no more

‘Cause you make me feel, you make me feel, you make me
feel like a natural woman

Oh, baby what you’ve done to me

You make me feel so good inside

And I just want to be close to you

You make me feel so alive

‘Cause you make me feel, you make me feel, you make me
feel like a natural woman

Harm was leaning against the door jam with a grin on
his face. When the song ended he pushed himself
forward, while slowly clapping his hands, he walked
towards Mac with the same grin on his face and an
arched eyebrow.

"Harm!" Mac looked up, pulling her unbuttoned shirt
closed over her chest. "How long have you been there?"

"Long enough" he smiled, settling his hands on the
smooth skin of her hips, his fingers grazing the line
of the waistband of her panties, then dropping his
lips to hers.

"Harm, I was just…" she began with wide eyes

He silenced her with another kiss "If I make you feel
like a Natural Woman, then you ought to know, you make
me feel like a Real Man." He trailed kisses down her
neck and let his hands slide down her arms. "Would you
like to make love to a Real Man, Natural Woman?" he
smiled seductively.

She played along with his game "Oh yes, I’d love to
make love to a Real Man, but do all Real Men smell as
bad as you do?"

Harm’s head snapped up and he looked at her "What?"

"Harm, you’re all sweaty, you stink." She laughed,
shoving him away from her.

"I don’t stink!" He said obstinately "I smell like a
Real Man".

"Well ‘Real Man’" Mac said sarcastically, "You won’t
be getting any Natural Woman until you take a shower.
Off to the head with you" she motioned him towards the
door so that he could take his leave.

Harm pooched out his lower lip in a pout. She just
smiled at him and pointed towards the door.

"Fine, I’ll go. But you won’t know what you’re
missing. All this Real Man scent will be washed down
the drain."

"I’ll see if I can live with myself afterwards." She
said with a smirk.

As Harm was about to leave, the phone rang- the
receiver was on the bedside table nearest to him, so
he answered it. "Rabb"

"Good Morning Commander. I hope I didn’t interrupt
anything."

"No sir Admiral, I was just about to take a shower."

"Well, make it quick. I’m sending you and the Colonel
out on assignment this afternoon."

"On a Saturday sir?"

"Well, I’m not going to tell a four star General that
my team won’t be there until the weekend is over. I
got a call last night from General Artbain of the Fort
Knox base in Kentucky. Apparently some human remains
have been found and he wants the military’s two best
investigators to look into it."

"Uh…Fort Knox is Army sir"

"How very perceptive of you Commander. Yes, I know
it’s Army, but he said he wanted the best
investigators in the military on this case. Who am I
to tell him no when he’s giving *my* people such high
praises."

"Why us sir? The Army has their own JAGs?"

"The General said that his base JAG is pretty green
and hasn’t had any high profile investigation
exposure. He didn’t know what was going on there, but
he doesn’t want whatever it is screwed up by a faulty
investigation. He wants this solved and put down
quickly."

"I understand sir. And we’ll be training the base JAG
as well?"

"No Commander, the General has told the Lieutenant to
stand down from this investigation. Tiner has your
travel info; there wasn’t a hop out of Andrews, so
you’ll be flying commercial into Louisville
International. Oh and Commander, while you’re in the
VOQ, remember you aren’t at home, no double bunking
please, the Army may not be as understanding as I am."

"Uh…yes sir, will do. Good bye."

 

1100 EST

Dulles International Airport

Harm and Mac had checked their bags at the Delta
counter and were making their way toward their gate
when they heard a loud commotion coming from the
farther end of the airport. They looked at each other
with question in their eyes and began to walk more
briskly toward the noise, which was also the same
direction as their departure gate. As they approached
the scene it wasn’t what they expected; there was no
fight going on, there was a large group of kids
running all over the terminal. 

There seemed to be some adults trying to round them up
but not succeeding well. A couple kids had on bright
yellow shirts with green lettering that said Midwest
on them. ‘Maybe they’re a sports team’ Harm thought.
The two officers found empty seats near the loading
door and sat watching the rambunctious youths. There
were kids playing cards in one corner and a few others
reading here and there; the rest were having a ball
talking to friends and running around.

"This should be a fun flight." Harm said flatly

"Harm, they’re just having fun, besides we’re in the
business class section and I thought you were the one
that liked kids".

"I do like kids, just not this many all at once in a
confined area. One, two, maybe even three are great,
especially if they’re my own" he smiled "then I can
order them to be quiet".

"Yeah, I can see that happening. Our kids are going to
have you wrapped around their little fingers-you’ll
give them anything they want, especially our little
girl."

A smile spread across his face as he pictured a dark
haired little girl with deep brown eyes and chubby
little cheeks. He tried to picture curls in her hair,
but that image just wouldn’t come to him. He saw
himself pick her up and swing her onto his shoulders
as she giggled and wrapped her hands under his chin to
hold on. 

["Please Daddy, can I have an ice cream, I’ve been
really good today."

"I know you’ve been good today, your mama told me so;
but she’s cooking dinner and would kill me if I
spoiled your appetite."

"I’ll eat dinner Daddy, I promise. Pleeeeease!"

"Okay, but only a very small one that we can share"

"Yay!" the little girl squealed and clapped her hands
on her daddy’s cheeks.]

"Harm, Harm…hello…you there?" Mac waved her hand in
front of his face to get his attention.

"Uh, yeah, sorry-spaced out for a minute there. Mac?"

"Hmm?"

"Our little girl is going to be beautiful, just like
you" he looked into her eyes and watched them twinkle
as she pondered the image of what their daughter might
look like.

"I can’t wait to find out" she leaned over and kissed
Harm’s lips.


The flight wasn’t long and was fairly smooth. Before
they knew it the plane had touched down in Louisville.
They picked up their luggage and walked outside to the
passenger pick-up area. About four cars down the line
was a camouflaged Humvee with a Corporal standing next
to it.

"Commander Rabb, Colonel Mackenzie, good afternoon."
The man saluted "I’m Corporal Phillip Tillquen and
I’ve been assigned to assist you during your
investigation." The young man took their bags and
placed them in the back. He was about to open the back
seat door for Mac when Harm beat him to it. Mac
climbed in and was surprised to see Harm follow her;
usually he sat up front.

"I’m going to ride in back with the Colonel, Corporal,
so that we can review the case as we drive."

"Yes sir" Tillquen replied. 

1530 EST

VOQ Ft. Knox

"Sir, Ma’am, here is the VOQ. The General said for you
to meet him in his office at 1730. Here are the keys
to your jeep (he pointed to the jeep that was parked
in a nearby space). There is a map of the base in the
glove box, but the Admin. Building is not hard to
find-it’s in the large brick building next to the Mess
hall, which we passed on our way in."

"Thank you Corporal" Mac said taking the keys "I’m
sure we’ll be fine".

"Yes, Ma’am. And here is my cell phone number for you
to reach me if need be" he said handing them a slip of
paper. "I’ll meet you at the General’s office this
evening. Good bye" the young officer saluted.

"Hmm…seems like a good kid" Mac looked to Harm who
began making his way towards their jeep to get the
map.

"Wow, look at the size of this place, it’s huge." Harm
pointed to the map.

"Well, they can’t train people how to drive tanks on a
golf course."

If Harm were a dog his ears would have perked up. "Why
not?" Harm asked in his best dumb sounding voice
(which Mac knew wasn’t really all that hard for him to
pull off) "It would make it so much quicker to get to
the next green. Work and play all at the same time."
He smiled and nodded his head like it was the best
idea he’d ever had.

"Yeeeah" Mac looked at him and gave her best fake
smile while arching her eyebrows. "Sometimes I wonder
why they ever let you anywhere near a 40 million
dollar aircraft."

"Because I’m just *good* like that." He said starting
to strut towards the entrance of their quarters.

"Good like what? Mr. Ego. You happen to have a pin
handy? I need to pop that big head of yours before it
starts to fester."

Harm stopped mid-stride and did a tight about-face. He
leaned down a bit and looked Sarah in the eyes as if
she were a new recruit about to be chewed out. An evil
grin spread across his features as he began to speak
in a low, growl-like tone. "I wouldn’t worry too much
about… what did you call it…my ‘big head’ Colonel. I
think you sufficiently took care of that for me last
night." He then straightened up, reversed his about
face and walked into the VOQ.

"You walked right into that one Mackenzie." Mac shook
her head, picked up her bags and followed Harm into
the building.

1730 EST

General Artbain’s office

"Commander, Colonel, thank you for coming" the General
said after putting the two at ease and seating them in
chairs opposite his desk. "I’m assuming you’ve been
briefed on why you are here?"

"Yes sir" they replied

"Good. I know this is probably strange for you to be
on an Army base, but I’ve heard good things about you
two and I knew that you would objectively investigate
this case. I want this to be taken care of as quickly
and quietly as possible."

After another round of ‘Yes sirs" and the General
telling Harm and Mac that they had his full
cooperation on this case and that he would help in any
way to expedite the investigation, Mac and Harm were
dismissed. They followed Tillquen to the Mess Hall in
order to get some dinner (they skipped the O club so
that they could talk to the Corporal).

"Have you heard anything going around the base
concerning what was discovered?" Harm asked the man as
he drizzled dressing onto his salad.

"Just the usual sir, something was found; rumored
guesses as to what it was: a head, a whole body."

"Just the usual?" Mac looked up at him from cutting
her roast beef. "There has been more than one
occurrence of this?"

"Uh, not to this extent ma’am. Sometimes things are
uncovered, like bones, but they are usually determined
to be animal, not human. Some of the guys just think
that it’s fun to spread rumors around."

"Ah, I see. So something being unearthed isn’t
uncommon?"

"Not really ma’am. Anything can be in the ground. But,
this is the first time something with flesh still
attached has be found" the Corporal said and made a
face that looked slightly green.

"Where is the remain now Corporal?" Harm asked

"It’s still in the ground sir; where it was
discovered."

"It’s still in the ground?" Harm’s eyes almost bugged
out of his head and Mac too looked a bit shocked as
her head snapped up.

"Yes sir. We didn’t want to disturb it until you could
get here. Lots of pictures were taken so that you
could see what it looked like when it was originally
found. The ground is still pretty cold, we figured it
was okay until you arrived."

"Good grief! And I thought Marines were thick
skulled." Harm rested his elbows on the table and
rubbed his temples with his fingertips.

"Well now Charlie Brown" Mac tilted her head to one
side and looked at him "The only time I’ve ever known
Navy to be first on the beach is when they’ve run up
onto a sandbar."

Harm turned his head to look at Mac. He wasn’t quite
sure how to take what she had said…it didn’t quite
qualify as an insult; yet it didn’t qualify as a
compliment either. He honestly didn’t know what it
would qualify as. He shook his head and turned his
attention back to Tillquen, who had been looking
between the two officers, slightly confused.
"Tillquen, can you show us to the site please."

"Yes sir and if you’d like sir, ma’am, most people
call me Tilly, you can as well. I know it sounds a bit
froo froo, but I’m used to it."

1845 EST

It was a cold drive across the base to the tank
training field and crime site. Mac and Harm’s jeep
didn’t have a top and the evening was getting colder
by the minute.

"Remind me to wear gloves tomorrow." Harm said as he
rubbed his hands together.

"Gloves, Hell! I’m wearing BDU’s and long john’s" Mac
shivered.

Tilly pulled back the tarp and showed them the remain.
"Here it is, just like we found it."

"What is it? Are we sure its human?" Harm asked, not
sure of what to make of the vision before him.

"Yes Harm, it’s human" Mac looked up at him from where
she squatted down next to it.

‘It’ was about 23 centimeters long; the diameter at
one end was approximately 8 centimeters, where the
other end was about 5. It was gray in overall color
and the cut edges were dried and brown in color. Two
white bony spots showed on either end. 

"So, do you know what it is?" he asked again.

"It’s a forearm" Mac answered him softly.

"How do you know, it doesn’t look like much of
anything to me."

"Well, anyone with any basic knowledge of human
anatomy would be able to tell, but it’s bigger on one
end than it is the other, and it’s too small to be a
lower leg; forearm is the logical choice."

"Well" Harm began "no matter what it is, we can’t
leave it here any longer or it will decompose more. Do
you know what to do with it?"

"No, but we know someone who does" Mac turned her head
up to look at him again. "Call her Harm".

Harm pulled out his cell and scanned the numbers in
the electronic phone book; finding the one he wanted,
he hit send.

"Lt. Commander Coulter" she answered.

"Hey Teri"

"Harm?"

"The one and only. How are you?

"Not bad. You?"

"Okay"

"Mac?"

"She’s okay too"

"Harm?"

"Yeah?"

"What do you want?"

"Can’t I call a friend to see how she’s doing?"

"Sure you can, but you never do. You only call when
you need something."

"Hmm…guess you have me pegged pretty good."

"I’d like to think so. What’s up?"

"Where are you right now?"

"I’m in Nashville, Tennessee. Why?"

"How soon can you been in Ft. Knox, Kentucky?"

"Uh…matter of hours I guess, if I was driving."

"I need you here Teri."

"What do you have?"

"So far…from what Mac tells me…a human forearm. It’s
been in the same spot since it was discovered
yesterday afternoon."

"Are you telling me that thing is still in the
ground?"

"Yup"

"Crap! What Fiddlehead Nincumpoop is in charge up
there?"

"Well, Mac and I now. We just got here a few hours
ago; they said they didn’t want to move it until we
saw it in context."

With an exasperated sigh, Teri relayed her directives
for the removal procedure. "I’ll be there as soon as I
can Harm."

"Thank you Teri, we owe you."

"You bet your wings you owe me. See you later."

"Bye"

"So?" Mac asked after he hung up.

"She’s on her way. Tilly?"

"Yes sir?"

"I need a clean cooler, 2 large Ziplocks of ice, an
empty large Ziplock, a sterile towel and surgical
gloves. And find out if you have a morgue on the
base."

"Yes sir. I’ll be right back" and he jumped in the
jeep and drove off. 

He returned a short time later with the requested
items. Mac donned the gloves as Harm opened the cooler
and positioned it nearby her. She carefully picked up
the forearm, trying to roll it onto her palm, so as
not to disturb the decaying flesh that might slip off
if she moved it by any other means. Wearing gloves
himself, Harm opened the sterile towel and laid it
over Mac’s hands. With one hand on the outside of the
towel and the other holding the limb, she transferred
the forearm to the cloth with ease and precision. She
rolled the rest of the cloth around and slid it into
the Ziplock and then into the cooler.

"Tilly, did you find out about the morgue?"

"Yes sir, we have one. It’s in the basement of the
base hospital."

"Good. Let’s go."

 

2000 EST

VOQ

Their investigation had stalled for the moment; there
was nothing more they could do until Teri arrived.
They returned to their quarters, showered and changed
into clothes that were much more comfortable than
their uniforms. Harm donned a pair of basketball
shorts and a gray Navy T-shirt and when he answered
the knocking at his door, he found Mac in a pair of
extremely short gym shorts and a black Marines
Sweatshirt.

"Uh Mac? You think you ought to be prancing around the
halls dressed liked that?"

"For one thing, I was not prancing-Marines don’t
prance, two-I walked 5 feet from my door to your door
and three, what’s wrong with how I’m dressed?"

"Uh nothing…It’s just that…uh…well…your shorts
are…well…short."

"Harm, they are typical gym shorts. They are the most
comfortable pair I own, they are fantastic during a
workout and I wear them all the time; you’ve seen them
before, don’t tell me you’ve never noticed them."

"Yeah, I have…but Mac…Here???"

"Don’t but Mac me, Mr. Whiney. You’re just afraid that
some big Army brute is going to ogle your girl. No
worries sailor, let them ogle all they want because
you are the one and only person who gets to see…and
touch what’s underneath." Mac looked up at Harm and
smiled, raised up on her toes, placed her hands on his
chest and kissed his lips lightly.


Placing his hands on top of her hips, just at the
small of her back, he leaned down and rested his
forehead on hers. "Okay, but it doesn’t mean that I
like it."

 

They spent the next hour trying to fit together the
pieces of the puzzle that they were calling an
investigation. After sifting the scant evidence
available through a fine mesh screen, nothing new was
uncovered. Both frustrated, they called it a night. 

Mac sat, resting against the headboard of Harm’s bed.
He on the other hand continued to type on his laptop.
He would type a couple sentences then stop then start
up again. She soon realized that he was instant
messaging someone; it didn’t take her long to realize
he was talking to his mother. She could see from the
bed that he had a slight smile on his face, a peaceful
content smile that he always wore when talking to,
referring to or even thinking about her.

"How’s your mom?" she asked as he waited for the next
message.

He turned in his chair with a bewildered look on his
face. "How did you know I was talking to her?" 

"You were smiling; and you only talk to 3 people
online: your mom, Bud and me. I’m here, so I know it’s
not me, it’s a bit too late to be talking to Bud and I
really hope you don’t smile like that when you talk to
him, so that leaves your mother."

"What are you talking about? I’m always smiling."

"Yeeah, Sir Scowl-a-lot"

Harm started typing again "I’m telling my mom."

"Oh, that’s mature" she mocked.

"What? No, that can’t be…" Harm blurted out dismayed

"What?" 

"She laughed and agreed with you. Heck, she hardly
sees me these days, how would she know if I smiled or
not."

Just then Harm got a new message <"Harm, don’t yell at
me. I’m your mother, I know these things.">

"Geez, I’m being ganged up on by my girlfriend and my
mother who just happens to be on the other side of the
nation. Who would have thought it, they’ve never even
met and they are already conspiring against me."

"Great minds think alike" Mac grinned.

"Good Lord, save me" he breathed and looked towards
the heavens.

Harm tapped the keys again then shut off the computer.
He got up and crawled into bed next to Mac, laying his
head in her lap.

"Hey" she said stroking his hair "I thought you were
talking to your mom"?

"She had to go, she was dragging Frank to another art
exhibition."

"I highly doubt those were her words."

"They weren’t, but they are ones Frank would use."
Harm grinned and laughed. "I am so tired; I think I
may fall asleep right here."

"You want me to leave?" Mac asked beginning to get up.

"No" he wrapped his arm around her hips so that she
couldn’t move. "I don’t ever want you to leave."

"I wasn’t talking about forever, just going back to my
room so that you can sleep."

"I know. I just don’t want you to go yet."

"Okay" she said softly and smiled down at him. She ran
her fingers through his soft, short hair and began to
gently scratch his scalp. It wasn’t long after his
deep, steady breathing told her that he was asleep.
She slid out from under the arm he had draped over her
and slid a pillow under his head.

"Sarah" he moaned "don’t go."

"I have to, you know what the Admiral said. Here" she
took off her sweatshirt and placed it under his arm,
near his head "maybe that’ll get you through the
night."

He brought the shirt up to his face and breathed in
the heavenly fragrance that was purely Sarah. "Not as
much as having you here next to me would" he smiled
"but I guess it’ll have to do. Good night Sarah, I
love you."

"I love you too Harm. See you in the morning."

She grabbed the white undershirt that Harm had worn
under his uniform that day and pulled it on. After
kissing Harm on the cheek, she left the room.

"Mac?" 

At the sound of her name, she turned quickly to see
Teri Coulter coming towards her, luggage in hand.

"Hi Teri. Thank you so much for coming."

"Well, I’m not going to say that there isn’t someplace
I’d rather be right now, but when duty calls…"

"I hear ya there" Mac smiled. "What did we interrupt
for you?"

"My fiancée, Gate, and I were spending our anniversary
weekend in Nashville. He had gotten front row tickets
to the Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood concert. I
love Garth Brooks, you wouldn’t believe how much it
pained me to get in my car and drive here."

"I’m sorry Teri, we had no idea."

"It’s okay Mac, sounds like you have a really
interesting case that needs some serious attention."

Mac scoffed "You wouldn’t believe how much attention
it needs. Harm and I can’t even proceed any further
until you have a chance to look at the evidence. There
just doesn’t seem like there is anything to track
down, like this arm appeared out of no where."

"Believe me, it didn’t appear out of no where. If
there is evidence to find, I’ll find it."

"Thank you" Mac smiled

Both women bid their farewells before entering their
rooms for the night.

 

 

 

27 April 2003

Sunday

0900 EST

Morgue

"Morning you two. I was beginning to wonder if you’d
given up and gone home."

"Morning Teri" Harm yawned "As much as I’d like to
scrap this deal and go home, Mac and I are here for
the duration."

"That’s good to hear" Teri replied as she removed her
surgical gloves "because if you aren’t going to be
here, then I’m going home too. There are much better
things I could be doing this evening."

Harm cocked and eyebrow and looked at Mac, who just
grinned in return.

"Oooookay. So, what do you have for us?"

"Well Harm, the first thing I’m going to say is that I
am a Forensic Pathologist. I deal with pathogens,
disease, blunt force trauma, things that lead to the
death of a person; I use evidence to determine why a
person died the way they did. I need to see more of
the body before I can give you quality information.
There isn’t much for me to work with here."

"But can you tell us anything?" Mac asked

"I can tell you she was female. I thought she was by
the look of the arm, but the DNA test confirmed it.
The arm is of right side orientation. I can also give
you basic measurements and such, but that’s about it
for objective features.

"Is there anything not objective?" Harm tilted his
head as he asked, not knowing if he was asking for
something that didn’t exist.

"Yeah, there are some subjective aspects, at least in
my opinion. After I cleaned up the flesh, I took a
good look at the raw cuts at both ends. Whoever did
this knows how to use a cutting utensil with precision
and skill. Those cuts were made by something very
sharp, almost scalpel like. The cuts were smooth, no
jagged edges where the assailant started and stopped
cutting on more than one occasion. It’s one clean
slice from the beginning of the incision to the end
and it’s like that on both proximal and distal ends."

Mac folded her arms "So, basically you’re telling us
that this person isn’t just your ordinary hacker and
whacker; this guy knows what he’s doing? Almost as if
he was trained to do this?"

"In my professional opinion, yeah" Teri nodded her
head "Another thing that makes me think this, is that
I looked at the ends of the bones where they would
have articulated with the other bones and there are no
instrument nicks on the epiphyses. Usually when
someone cuts up a person they are in such a hurry that
they nick the bones, cutting off little pieces of the
ends. On the evidence that’s in the fridge right now,
there isn’t a cut, slice or scrape on them. This guy
took his time, dissecting each individual piece. He
cut through the ligaments by moving the bones to
expose them and then used just enough pressure to cut
the connective tissue and not even come close to the
ends. That’s a skill that is difficult to pull off
even for some trained professionals." 

"Greaaat" Harm drawled out "now we get to track down a
wacko M.D."

"That’s definitely your area of expertise. As for me,
there is nothing more that I can do for you right now.
You find the rest of her, then we can talk."

"So, what are we supposed to do? How do we go about
finding the rest of her?" Harm blurted out, throwing
his hands up in the air and beginning to walk towards
the counter.

"Slow down Harm, you didn’t let me finish. Like I told
you before, I’m a Forensic Pathologist; I’m not
specialized in your type of evidence. What you need is
a Forensic Anthropologist; they know the skeletal
system like the back of their hands." Teri snickered
at her own little joke "Sorry, you work in a field
like mine and you find humor in the smallest of
things. Like I was saying, a Forensic Anthropologist
knows every nook and cranny of the human skeleton, as
well as the standards used to determine sex, stature,
age and race of bones. If anyone can help you, this
would be the person. And, it just so happens that I
have a very good friend who is one and what’s even
better, she lives 45 minutes from here."

"If you think this is the best course of action Teri,
then let’s do it. Can you call her?"

"Sure Mac, just give me a minute." Teri located her
cell phone in her bag and dialed a number. "Hey Sammi,
it’s me" the phone conversation began and after a few
moments Teri said good bye and hung up.

"She is in the middle of a research project at the
moment, but she will be here by 1330."

"Thank you Teri, you have been so helpful to us."

"Don’t worry about it Harm, you’ll be making it up to
me in time, believe me" she grinned.

Harm returned the smile, though it wasn’t a
characteristic Harm grin, this time it was more of a
‘what have I gotten myself into’ smirk.

 

1325 EST

O Club

"So Teri, tell me about Gate" Mac smiled and leaned in
for details.

"What Gate?" Harm looked up from his plate

Teri looked up at Harm "I think the correct question
is ‘*Who is* Gate’ ". 

"Someone actually named their son ‘Gate’? What were
his parents high on when he was born?"

"There’s the pot calling the kettle black, Harm. I
have no idea why some parents name their sons the
things they do. And for your information his full name
is Gaither Anthony Millhouse; Gaither is an old family
name that died out when his grandparents only bore
daughters."

"Oh" Harm said looking back down to his food like an
admonished child.

"So" Mac began again "where did you meet?"

"Well" Teri’s face lit up "we met at a charity event.
I was there as a friend to the host and he was there
as a contributor. I was bored with the scene inside,
so I stepped out onto the balcony and sat on the
railing. I was looking at pond below when he came up
next to me and sat down on the rail. I’ll never forget
what he said" she laughed. "He put his hands to his
throat like someone was choking him and made a gasping
sound, then he looked at me, smiled and said ‘Every
time I come to one of these things, I think about
killing myself before the night is over.’ I was taken
back by his remark, then I saw him chuckle and knew he
was kidding. Then I looked at him and said ‘If you do,
let me know first so that I can put a scrub gown over
my formal before I do your autopsy’. He looked at me
and tilted his head like a confused puppy, then I told
him my occupation and he laughed and laughed. Don’t
ask me why, I didn’t think what I said was all that
funny; we talked the rest of the night and made plans
to do lunch the following day. The rest, is history."

"Wow, sounds romantic" Mac giggled. "What does he do?"

"He’s a corporate entrepreneur."

"Hmm…sounds interesting."

"Well, he hasn’t done too bad for himself."

"That’s amazing Teri, congratulations, I’m so happy
for you. When is the wedding?"

"May 24"

"What? That’s like 4 weeks from now."

"You’re getting married?" Harm butted in and Mac and
Teri just looked at him.

"Uh, yeah" Teri gave him her ‘where on earth on you
been’ look. "That’s usually what people do when
they’re in love"

"Either keep up with the conversation here buddy or
stay out of it" Mac punched him lightly in the
shoulder. 

"Sorry" he put up his hands in surrender. 

"Didn’t you get your invitations?" Teri inquired of
them both.

"Not that I’m aware of. Harm do you remember seeing a
wedding invitation?"

"Oh, now I have permission to speak?"

"Harm stop" Mac glared "I didn’t say you couldn’t
speak, just to keep up with the conversation."

"When it’s convenient… right. As for the invitation,
no I haven’t seen one, though I haven’t been home much
lately to look through the mail."

Mac blew out an exasperated breath "Sorry Teri, I
don’t think we got ours."

"Hmm, that’s interesting. I wonder why?"

Realization then dawn upon Harm "Did you send one to
my apartment at Union Station?"

"Yeah, and one to Mac in Georgetown. Strange that
neither of you have received them."

Harm smiled "That would be because neither of us live
in those places anymore. After the events of this past
year wrecked both of our places I decided to move in
with Mac so that we could share living expenses.
Sometimes it takes a few weeks to get our mail
forwarded."

"There’s the way to keep our relationship on the D.L.
Harm." Mac looked at him, but smiled sweetly with a
little laugh in her voice.

"I think there is a story behind this that I would
like to hear sometime, maybe in a different location."

"Bless you" Mac smiled

The ladies continued the discussion about Teri’s
wedding and to stay out of trouble Harm just watched
the scene of the room around him. His interest was
piqued when he saw a female Army officer enter through
the heavy oak door. She didn’t compare to his Sarah in
beauty, he wasn’t even attracted to her; she just
intrigued him. From what he could tell, she was about
5’10"; she had short light brown hair that seemed to
have touches of golden blonde and her eyes were dark
brown. What was a bit odd about this officer was that
she was like no other female officer he’d ever seen;
she wasn’t thin, she was plus sized. ‘How in the
world?’ he thought to himself. He watched her remove
her coat and cover and realized she wasn’t overweight,
she was just big. She was big boned, her stature could
rival that of any football linebacker he’d ever seen
and her shoulders were almost as broad as his own
were. Upon further staring, he saw that her calves
were solid, strong muscles and figured the rest of her
was the same way. The lady officer greeted some
friends with a beautiful smile and a firm handshake.
Though Harm did not know this woman, he could tell
just by the sight of her that she had style, grace and
charm.

Teri looked up from where she was talking to Mac and
waved at the lady officer that Harm had just been
gawking at. She walked to their table and hugged Teri
as Harm and Mac stood at attention before the unknown
senior officer in their presence.

"Teri, it’s so good to see you again."

"You too Colonel, it’s been much too long since we’ve
gotten together."

"I agree. We’ll have to find some time while you’re
here to catch up."

"Oh, I think we’ll have plenty of time for that." Teri
smiled "Colonel, I’d like for you to meet some friends
of mine, this is Lieutenant Colonel Sarah Mackenzie
and Commander Harmon Rabb, they’re from the Navy JAG
HQ. Harm, Mac, this is Colonel Samantha Kaley,
otherwise known as my friend Sammi, the Forensic
Anthropologist."

Harm and Mac saluted until the Colonel put them at
ease and they all took their seats.

"Pleased to meet you Colonel" Mac stated "I’m sorry if
we seem a bit surprised, Teri didn’t tell us you were
in the military."

"That’s okay Colonel Mackenzie, Teri and I are so used
to each other that sometimes we forget to tell
outsiders the important information. Let’s make things
a bit easier shall we? Why don’t we drop ranks when
it’s just us; please, call me Sammi."

"Yes ma’am" Mac replied "and you can call me Mac and
this is Harm." Harm smiled and extended his hand to be
firmly shook by Sammi.

"You seem to be of the quiet nature Harm." Sammi said
to him

"Ha!" came a snort from Teri "Wait until you get to
know him."

Harm grinned sheepishly and looked down

"Then I look forward to getting to know you Harm"
Sammi said matter of factly. "So, what did you pull me
off my dig for and why are Navy and Marine JAG
officers investigating on an Army base?"

Harm spoke up this time "Apparently General Artbain
had heard about how well Mac and I work together and
he wanted this investigation done quickly. He called
our CO Friday night and requested us, so here we are.
Seems that a human forearm was found during some tank
training exercises and nobody knows anything about it.
We’ve done preliminary interviews with some of the men
from the exercise, as well as the man who discovered
it. Nothing conclusive came from what they said,
actually, they couldn’t even give us any important
details except as to how it was discovered."

"And all you have is a forearm? Both bones?"

"Yes, the arm is intact, including muscle and
epidermal tissue." Teri added the scientific detail.

"Ooooh" Sammi said intrigued "Sounds like I’m going to
get to have some fun!" she flashed a wide grin that
made her eyes sparkle. She saw Harm’s eyebrows move
closer together and his mouth form a slight frown.
"I’m sorry, that must seem very strange to you. It’s
just that I enjoy being able to use my skills to solve
mysteries like this. First you have to find what you
are looking for, then analyze the evidence. The dead
can’t speak for themselves, but when I study the
evidence, it gives the dead a final voice. Besides,
what other job is there that pays you to dig in the
dirt all day with a little trowel?"

"Ma’am… Sammi, Harm nor I can solve this case without
the assistance you and Teri can offer us. We’re just
thankful that Teri knew someone who was an expert in
this matter. Maybe now we can get a jump in the
investigation."

"I’ll see what I can do Mac. First, I’d like to see
the arm if I may."

"Of Course" Mac smiled "It’s in the Morgue."

"Ugh…the base morgue" Sammi stuck her tongue out "It’s
so old the corpses inside could work its technology.
Luckily, have equipment, will travel" she patted a
large metal toolbox like kit that sat on the floor
next to her. "To the morgue, people" she smiled and
pointed towards the door.

Harm and Mac weren’t quite sure what to make of Sammi;
she seemed a bit too enthralled by the concept of
their morbid investigation. Then again, it takes a
special breed of people to be Naval Aviators, Marines
and lawyers, therefore it must take and even more
special type of person to be able to deal with the
grotesqueness of death on a daily basis.

 

1400 EST

Ft. Knox Morgue

"Wow, nice specimen" Sammi said eyeing the arm that
was lying on the metal table. "I don’t get to see
flesh everyday, but that shouldn’t be a problem; I’ll
have that taken care of in a jiffy. Teri, did you get
any tissue samples?"

"Yeah, I have them in the fridge for the time being.
I’ve already run tox screens, but nothing showed up. I
saved a few more samples though, just in case we need
them for something."

"Great, that means I can get started." She looked to
Harm and Mac "I think I’ve got things under control
here. This is going to take me a while and it’s pretty
boring, so if you have something else to do or want to
go back to your quarters for a bit, this would be a
great time to do it."

Harm couldn’t believe it, he was being dismissed from
the proceedings of his own investigation; this
definitely was not what he was expecting from the only
person who could help further his, well, his and Mac’s
investigation. "Ma’am…Sammi, though Mac and I both
appreciate you offering us some down time, we haven’t
been able to do much with this case so far and we’d
like to be here to witness the proceedings. Besides,
we have never worked with an Anthropologist before and
we’d like to be able to see first had what you do."

"I didn’t mean to insinuate that I was trying to take
over the investigation Harm, I’m sorry. It’s just that
most people can’t stomach what I am about to do, so I
was giving you an easy out with no questions asked.
Besides, like I told you before this part of my work
is really boring and I’ll be in here for a majority of
the afternoon. After I get everything situated I’ll
analyze what I find, but I can guarantee you that it
won’t be much."

"But I thought Teri said that you could fill in the
holes that our investigation is riddled with?"

"I’d like to think that I can Harm, but with what you
have given me so far, I can’t provide you with many
answers. The human forearm provides the least accurate
stature estimations available. When I get done with my
examination I’ll have numbers for you, but they could
be off by almost 5 centimeters either way. What I
honestly need are the weight bearing long bones, the
femur, tibia, fibula, even the humerus would be great.
But this woman isn’t solely made up of this arm Harm,
there is more of her out there and we need to find
her. I’ll make a few calls while I’m here, get us some
help and tomorrow we’ll go in field and see what we
can find. Don’t worry Harm, you’re in Army territory
now and the Infantry is here." 

Sammi smiled a reassuring smile and looked him
straight in the eyes. He knew she was telling the
truth and he relaxed. "So, you really don’t need us,
huh?"

"No, not really. If there is another angle you want to
run with, you have plenty of time to do that right
now."

"Okay" he nodded "Sorry Sammi, I didn’t mean to
accuse…"

"Don’t worry about it Harm."

The three non-Army officers turned and headed for the
door but Harm turned around to see Sammi pull out a
large stockpot.

"Sammi, what is it that most people can’t stomach?"

A grin spread across her face and her eyes twinkled
"That, Commander, would be my specialty soup of the
day."

One of his eyebrows arched up and his mouth was open
like he was going to say something, but he just closed
the door instead.

"I don’t even want to know," he muttered straightening
his shoulders and beginning to walk toward the
elevator.

"You’re the cook of this bunch Harm" Teri said patting
him on his shoulder blade. "You should understand
better than Mac or myself that to de-flesh a bone you
have to boil it first."

"That’s what she’s doing with the stockpot? Ugh! Being
on this side of the investigation makes me very
thankful I didn’t listen to my mother and become a
doctor."

"Welcome to my world Harm." Teri smiled

"Well, I for one am glad you aren’t a doctor" Mac
smiled slightly seductively "because with your bedside
manner I bet you’d kill more patients than you’d
save."

Harm kept walking forward and spoke without turning to
look at Mac "Well…you aren’t dead yet."

"Whoa, red light Commander" Teri said wide eyed, like
those a deer caught in headlights.

"What?" Harm grinned at her "I’ve helped Mac back to
health during many a cold and flu season. She says
that my vegetarian chicken noodle soup is the best
she’s ever had."

"Actually, it’s the only vegetarian chicken noodle
soup I’ve ever had." Mac replied placing an arm around
his back with her hand resting on the curve along his
neck and shoulder.

 

2130 EST

Ft. Knox VOQ

"Wow, do you know how long it’s been since I’ve been
in a VOQ? When I’m out in the field I’m either in a
tent somewhere or they put me up in some hotel. Glad I
don’t have to stay here for this investigation; I get
to go home to my nice queen size bed and my puppy."
Sammi smiled, pulling out a picture of her new pet.
"This is Sheebs, she’s a Norwegian Elkhound."

"Oh she’s adorable Sam, how long have you had her?"
Teri asked gushing over the picture of the black
muzzled puppy with its tongue hanging out.

"I’ve had her about four months. She’s great and I
love her, I just wish that she’d quick chewing on my
landscaping in the yard. It’s driving me up the
walls!" 

"I bet. After Gate and I get married we’re going to
get a dog, but we haven’t decided on what breed yet."

There was a knock at the door and Teri walked over to
answer it.

"Good evening ma’am" the young Petty Officer said "I
have lab results for Colonel Kaley, she said that she
would be here and to bring them when they arrived."

"I’ll take them, thank you Petty Officer." Sammi said
taking the manila envelope from the man, opening it
and reading its contents. "Crap, these results showed
exactly what I expected…nothing."

"What were you looking for?"

"Oh I don’t know, drugs, alcohol, something, anything.
I guess I’ll just have to take to Harm and Mac what
little bit I do have. What rooms are they in?"

"Uh…Harm’s in 304 and Mac is in 305, but I bet that
you will find them both in one or the other’s rooms.
I’ll go with you and show you the way." 

"They are quite the team aren’t they?"

"Well, they have been partners at JAG HQ for a very
long time, something along the lines of seven years
now. They basically know each other inside and out and
are best friends by this point."

"I can see that." Sammi smiled "But be straight with
me here, there is more going on than what meets the
eye isn’t there?"

As the words left her mouth they approached Harm’s
doorway and heard fits of giggles, laughter and a few
shouts. 

"Uh…guess there is no need to answer that question."
Sammi smiled at Teri and knocked on the door, having
it opened a few seconds later.

"Hello Commander, I hope we weren’t interrupting
anything." Sammi cross her arms as if catching him in
the act of fraternization.

"Uh…no ma’am. We were just have a lively discussion
about the capabilities of Marines." Harm said, his
eyes wide at having to come up with an explanation. 

"Yeeeah" Sammi smiled "And I have a sexy tuxedo model
keeping my bed warm at home."

Harm’s eyes opened a bit wider and he stood a bit
straighter in front of the senior officer.

"Oh suck it up Squid" Sammi laughed "Whatever you
having going on with Mac, it looks like a good thing."

Harm breathed a sigh of relief and stepped aside to
let Teri and Sammi in.

"Hi Mac"

"Hi Sammi" Mac blushed along with giving an
embarrassed smile.

"Well, I have the information you wanted, but you’re
probably not going to like what I have to say."

"Let’s hear it then and face the consequences later."
Mac said sitting up against the headboard.

"Well, from my examination of the radius and ulna, I
have given the stature estimation between 4’9" and
5’3". However, I don’t trust this information and will
wait on further confirmation from other bones before I
make the determination; 5’3" is quite short for a
woman in the service. Also, the epiphyses make me
think that she is about 21 or 22."

"What are epiphyses?" Harm inquired.

"You know when you eat chicken and those chewy little
ends come off the leg bone? Those are epiphyses;
they’re places some of the bone grows from as well as
places where bone articulates with other bone."

"Oh, okay."

"Harm, do you even know what she’s referring with the
chicken analogy?"

"Yes!" He glared at Mac "Believe it or not, I have
eaten a chicken leg before."

"Just making sure" she smiled a teasing grin. "He’s
virtually a vegetarian" she told Sammi.

"So, how did these epiphyses tell you the age of the
girl?" Harm asked.

"Well, epiphyses fuse to the bone at a certain age. In
girls, the epiphyses of the bone closer to the head,
or the proximal end of the forearm, unite between ages
15-18, the distal ends unite 2-4 years prior to that.
By the looks of these epiphyses I know that she is
over 18 for certain, but I can only guess that she’s
21 or 22. But, I’ve seen 21-22 year old epiphyseal
fusion and this looks very much like it."

"Okay, so that will be our basis right now, a young
adult female, probably on the shorter end of the
stature category."

"Sounds like a good starting point to me." Sammi
smiled. "By the way, I called my friend at the FBI,
he’s coming down with his team tomorrow to give us a
hand. I hope you don’t mind."

"Not at all" Mac smiled "the more people who know what
they are doing, the better. Then maybe we can catch
the killer and get home."

"Well, I’m basically home here, but I’m all up for
catching the killer." Sammi said in an eager voice.

 

28 April 03

Monday

0815 EST

Harm, Mac, Teri and Sammi were walking from the mess
hall towards their jeeps when Sammi stopped suddenly,
forcing Teri to stop just as abruptly to keep from
running into and spilling coffee on her. Parked next
to her jeep, Sammi saw a dark blue work van with a man
leaning against the grill. The three other officers
followed her gaze and as Sammi began to make her way
towards him, they followed close behind. When she
reached the man he remained leaning against the
vehicle but a brilliant, wide grin spread across his
face and his arctic ice blue eyes took on a playful
glint.

"Good morning Sammi" he said with a slight southern
accent.

"Same to you, Nick" Sammi replied with a smile, nod
and a slow bat of her eyelashes. Thank you for coming
on such short notice."

Nick pushed himself off the van and straightened his
frame to its full 6’7" height. "My pleasure ma’am" he
smiled again and touched the bill of his baseball cap.

"Nick, this is Lieutenant Commander Teri Coulter,
she’s our Forensic Pathologist and this is Lieutenant
Colonel Sarah Mackenzie and Commander Harmon Rabb,
they’re from the Navy JAG corp." Sammi watched Mac and
Teri’s heads tilt back as they looked up at Nick when
shaking his hand. Harm on the other hand took a step
back; he looked at the man evenly, but had to stick
his hand out a bit farther to shake it.

"It’s very nice to meet you all."

"This" Sammi began again "is Special Agent Nick
Grizzardo. He is the team leader of the FBI’s K-9
S&R."

Harm pulled an investigation data packet out of his
briefcase and handed it to Nick "I think you can see
from the evidence packet Nick, that there isn’t a
rescue for your dogs to make here."

"Yes, Commander, I know. These are not Search and
Rescue dogs, they are for search and retrieval,
otherwise known as Cadaver Dogs. They’re trained to
seek decomposing human matter."

"I see, my apologies."

"None needed" he laughed "Had Sammi told you that in
the first place you wouldn’t have said anything."

Harm nodded and Sammi glared at him. "You haven’t even
been here for half an hour and you are already blaming
stuff on me. Sheesh and to think I keep coming back to
you for help."

He smiled down at her. "You just can’t get enough of
me" he teased.

"Whatever" she rolled her eyes.

Nick looked at Mac, then Teri and Harm, then back to
Mac. Harm took a step closer to his Sarah, though he
made it outwardly appear that it was an unconscious
move.

"Colonel" Nick said with a slight chuckle forming "I
don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I think you caught
the wrong transport vessel back to the states. Somehow
or other you got on a boat instead of a plane. Don’t
know about you, but the sailors you’re surrounded by
tipped it off for me."

Mac smiled an open mouth grin and laughed "You know, I
thought something didn’t look right. I’ll have to have
a long talk with my travel agent when I get home. And
don’t bother calling me Colonel, I’m Mac, this is Harm
and that’s Teri."

"Okay, Mac, Harm and Teri" he turned to Sammi "And you
would be?"

"You’re worst nightmare Buddy." She said flatly.

"On that note" Nick looked to the group "I think we
should get to work. Sam, can I ride with you? It’s
pretty cramped in the van."

"Not a problem Nick, but you’ll have to sit in the
back, Teri’s already called shotgun."

"Oh man" he pretended to be dejected

"Suck it up FeeBI. No whining in my jeep."

"Jeez, can’t you come up with a better nickname than
that?"

"Nope, that’s my personal favorite."

"Figures" he shook his head while getting into the
back seat.

 

After they arrived at the crime scene the handlers
took the dogs out of the vans to be exercised before
getting down to work. Sammi began to set up her
equipment, which included a box that unfolded to
become a portable table.

"Wow Sammi" Harm gestured to her paraphernalia "with
as prepared as you are, you ever give thought to
becoming a Marine?"

"Bite your tongue Commander!" she quipped looking up
at him, she then looked at the sky "He didn’t mean it
grandpop, I swear.

Harm cocked an eyebrow

"Harm, I come from a very strong Army background and
my alliances run true and loyal. My grandpop fought in
World War II and Korea and his father was a Doughboy
in the Great War."

"I didn’t mean…I was just…"

"Oh, don’t worry about it" she smiled "I understood
the joke. It’s just fun watching you squirm like
that." Not waiting for his reply she made headway into
the plan for the day. "Okay, first I need to map the
layout so that I can have a reference point." She
retrieved some items from a box and doled them out
"Here Mac" she handed her a compass "and for Harm and
Teri I have two tape measures. I want a 144 square
meter quadrant surrounding the original site. Mac, I
need a due north heading."

Mac walked to the hole where the original discovery
had been made and Harm followed directly on her heels.

"Why do you get to use the compass?"

"Harm? Isn’t that being a bit childish?"

"No, I just want to know why you get to use the
compass and all I get is this tape measure?"

"I’m sure it’s just because I’m a Marine and I have
more experience using a compass."

"I can use a compass! I’m a fighter pilot, I have to
know how to use a compass."

"You also have a RIO in your backseat in case you
screw up."

"But Mac…"

"Hey, you know how to use your compass in the air, I
actually know how to use it on the ground. Give it a
rest will you? It’s just that she knows that I know
what I’m doing with this thing."

"So do I."

"I’m not saying you don’t, Harm. Maybe she just wanted
to hand out the equipment and get started. Maybe I was
just the closest one to her when it was in her hand."

"So you wouldn’t care if I used the compass and you
used the tape measure."

"Not at all, no job is unimportant right now."

"Then give me the compass"

"No."

"Mac, you just said that you didn’t care."

"I know. It’s just that she handed it to me and I want
to use it." She opened the compass and got the heading
"Harm, I need you to walk 6 meters in that direction
(pointing north) and mark it with…"

"This flag" Sammi handed Harm a thin metal rod with a
hot pink plastic flag attached to it.

Harm did as he was told and he and Teri continued to
measure out the quadrant. After they were finished
they were standing in the middle of a perfect square.
Sammi came by and used a GPS device to get the
coordinates of each flag; then she went to her table
and began to draw her map. 

With that completed she called in Nick and his team of
handlers and their dogs. The dogs would sniff the
ground for any trace of human scent or something that
would make them think there was something human
underneath. When they came across something they would
scratch at the area and sit down; the handler would
mark the place with a pink flag, get the GPS
coordinates and call it in to Nick over their radios
and Teri would mark it on her map. 

The search had been going for at least two hours and
it didn’t seem like the end was in site. Harm sat in
the back seat of his and Mac’s jeep checking his email
and looking through files the base Records Office had
lent him. Mac climbed into the front passenger seat
and grabbed a stack of folders when Harm’s cell phone
rang.

"Rabb" Harm answered "Yes Sir, what can I do for you?"
"Is she all right sir?" "No sir, we won’t be needing
one, we have someone in Washington that can do that
for us." "Yes sir, thank you for letting me know."

"Who was that Harm?" Mac asked

"That was Tilly’s CO. The Corporal has been given a
week’s emergency leave. His wife went into premature
labor and there were some complications that arose
along with it."

"Is she all right?"

"The Captain said that she was stable but still
critical."

"And the baby?"

"I don’t know, he didn’t say."

"Is he going to send a replacement assistant?"

"No, I told him we had someone at home that would help
us."

"Bud?"

"The one and only" he smiled dialing Bud’s number.

"Hey Bud, it’s Harm."

"Commander, it’s good to hear from you" a smile spread
across Bud’s round face.

"You too Bud. You up to doing some research for me?"

"You bet sir, I’m back on limited duty."

"Of which I’m quite thankful for."

"Me too sir. So what can I do for you."

"I need a list of missing persons from the Radcliff/
Ft. Knox, Kentucky area where the person is a young
adult female, early twenties and fairly short in
stature, say 5’5" or less. I also need a list of Ft.
Knox UA personnel who fit the same description."

"Anything else sir?" 

"Uh…why don’t you throw in a list of base medical
personnel that would be decently skilled with a
scalpel; basically surgeons, especially ones with a
specialty in orthopedics."

"That it?"

"For right now. Thanks Bud."

"Not a problem sir."

1330 EST

Harm was still sitting in the back of the jeep but was
now picking apart the remainder of his lunch. He was
about to throw something that had no visible
resemblance to any animal he’d ever seen to one of the
dogs when his cell phone rang.

"Commander Rabb"

"Uh…. Is Amy there?"

"Sorry, you’ve got the wrong number"

"You sure? This is the number she gave me."

"Last I checked, my named wasn’t Amy. And, this is a
government issued phone and you aren’t supposed to
have this number, so I suggest you destroy the paper
you have in your hand."

"Oh…yes sir…I’ll do that right now. Sorry to bother
you." And the man hung up

Not five seconds later Harm’s phone rang again.

"No, this is not Amy! I told you that you couldn’t
have this number."

"Sir, I have your number memorized; I could dial it in
my sleep."

"Bud?"

"Yes sir"

"Sorry, I just had a wrong number."

"That’s okay Commander. We’ve been getting a wrong
number at our new house for as long as I’ve been home.
Anyhow, I just wanted to call and make an amendment to
the email I sent you earlier."

"What email would that be Bud?"

"The one you asked for sir, the research on the
possible victim IDs."

"You’ve already finished that? Wow, that was quick."

"Well, let’s just say I didn’t have much to do at the
time. As I was saying, I have an amendment to add."

"Could you tell me what you are amending, I haven’t
checked my mail since I spoke with you."

"Of course sir. Basically it said that there were no
missing persons in the local area fitting the given
description. However, there were 4 female Army
personnel who are UA at this time: Private Megan
Kirkland, Private Lorelai Mangrove, Corporal Amanda
Schulz and Sergeant Susan Bowers. I put the four names
into ‘CompuSpy’ and it gave me information on two of
them. Private Megan Kirkland is living in Houston,
Texas working as a mechanic and Private Lorelai
Mangrove is dead."

"Dead?"

"Yes sir, says here that the she was found on the side
of the road near her hometown. Apparently she had an
allergic reaction to an insect bite which put her into
cardiac arrest."

"Really? Don’t hear about stuff like that happening
every day."

"Honestly sir, there aren’t many things that surprise
me anymore these days."

Harm didn’t know how to respond to that so he just
pretended that he didn’t hear it.

"So, what about the other two women?"

"Corporal Amanda Schulz has been UA for about 2 months
and Sergeant Susan Bowers has been gone for 5 years."

"Five years? Wow, and nobody has heard a thing about
her?"

"No sir, not that I can tell. And about the medical
personnel sir, there are two Orthopedic Surgeons on
staff here now. One has been TAD to the Middle East
since the first of the year, the other just
transferred in last month."

"Okay. Great job Bud. Thanks for your help."

"Anytime sir; just call if you need anything more."

"Will do, thanks again" Harm broke the connection.
"Hey Mac, guess what?"

"What?"

"I think we have an ID."

"You do? And how did you come by that ‘Oh Wise and
Powerful Oz’".

"From Bud"

"Oh…So Bud is the ‘man behind the curtain’."

"I really need to find you a new hobby." Harm smiled
and shook his head. "Anyhow, I asked him to look up UA
personnel who fit our description and he got a couple
hits."

"Then ‘hit’ me Commander."

"Well, there is one woman who has been gone for 5
years, but another that has only been gone 2 months."

"Hmm…sounds like we finally get to take part in this
investigation."

"I’m going to tell Sammi where we are going."

"Where are we going?" Teri walked up to Harm and Mac.

"To the records office" Mac pointed "Lt. Roberts might
have found our victim’s identity."

"Wonderful." Teri smiled "May I go with you? There
really isn’t much else for me to do."

"Sure, doesn’t bother me any." Harm said

Harm, Mac and Teri walked through the field to find
Sammi squatting near a pink flag, GPS device in hand.

"Sammi" Harm began "Mac and I have some leads on the
victim’s identity. We’re going to go to the records
office and do some background research."

"Okay, I’ll call you if I find anything" she called
over her shoulder.

The three officers turned to leave when they heard
Sammi yell.

"Freeze Commander Coulter"

Teri stopped mid step and did an about face, slightly
confused "Colonel Kaley?"

"Where do you think you are going Teri?"

"To the Records Office with Harm and Mac"

"Have you not have excavation training?"

"I took a summer field school as an undergraduate, but
that was over 10 years ago."

"As long as you can work a trowel, you are needed here
more than in the records office."

"Yes ma’am" Teri smiled, glad to be a needed part of
the investigation.

Mac heard the conversation and though she was unaware
of it, the corners of her lips were pulled down in a
slight frown.

"Mac?" Sammi looked at her

"Ma’am?"

"What’s wrong? It looks like your puppy was run over."

"Uh, no ma’am. I was just thinking that if you need
some help excavating, I’m not officially trained, but
I do have archaeological experience. I have dug up my
own Icarasaurus."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I’ll be willing to work with Teri, or one of
the other diggers. I’d like to help."

"That’s fine with me Mac, you can work with Teri. If
the trained person messes up, she can blame it on
you." Sammi smirked

"So, I guess that leaves me to do the paperwork." Harm
looked at everyone

"It’s not like you have a lot to do Harm. You don’t
need all of us there. Then, you can have first glance
and see what you think before bringing it onto the
table." Mac smiled and took some equipment that Sammi
was handing to her. "I’ll talk to you later, okay."

"Okay" Harm pouted "But I’m taking the jeep" and he
drove off.

"And you love him why?" Teri asked over her shoulder
with a knowing smile

"Because he’s my world" Mac said softly as she watched
him until she could no longer see the vehicle.

As Harm rifled through papers, Sammi, Teri, Mac and
the other excavators dug large squares into the
ground. Though Mac and Teri were the least experienced
in the field, they were the first to uncover an
ecofact.

"Teri…I think we found something."

"You can say that again" Teri said wide eyed as she
looked at the rounded blade of a pelvic bone.

"But aren’t we missing something?" Mac looked through
the dirt removed for what she was looking for.

"Like what?" Teri shook her head

"Like flesh? The arm still had flesh attached; this is
dry bone. Just look at it."

"You would be correct in that thought. But let’s keep
digging to see what else we find."

A couple hours later a dirt-brown skeletal remain lay
before them. It was an entire pelvic region, both left
and right blades intact along with a sacrum and two
lumbar vertebrae. Theirs was not the only skeletal
remain found, most other bones uncovered were in
virtually the same condition, except for a few which
had a thin layer of decomposing flesh on it.

2150 EST

Morgue

"This is so weird" Sammi studied the remains on the
metal table before her. "There are only enough bones
here for one person, but they are all in different
stages of decomposition."

Found in the field that day was a bit of surprise to
everyone. Each body section was found in a different
location, but in the same general field. Most of the
bones of two feet were found, along with all four
lower leg bones: two tibias and two fibulas, two
femurs were there, as well as Teri and Mac’s pelvic
discovery. The other forearm was found and the rest of
the arms: the humeri and the hands were not far off.
The axial skeleton was virtually intact minus head and
pelvis. The head was not recovered at all, even after
a thorough search that lasted many hours after the
rest of the remains had been found. Several of the
bones were dry and no flesh adhered to them any
longer. The upper arm bones had some dried muscle
bonded on and the other forearm was a gelatinous
decaying mess.

"Gross!!!" Harm walked in and saw for the first time
what had been unearthed.

"Oh Harm, did we forget to invite you to dinner?"
Sammi asked with a mischievous grin, putting her hand
to her cheek.

‘Urrrummph’ Harm’s stomach grumbled in revolt. "No
problem, I think I left my appetite back in my room."

"Too bad" Sammi pretended to be sorry "And we were
going to have Jell-O for dessert."

Harm looked at the fleshy mess on the table, looked at
Sammi then he put his hand over his mouth and all but
ran out of the room.

"Sammi?" Teri looked at her.

"Sorry" she laughed "He’s just so darn gullible."

Mac smiled and shook her head. "I don’t know why he
has this thing against eating meat; he’s the only all
but vegetarian fighter pilot I know. But, I’m sure
scenes like this aren’t as easy for outside people to
take in as they are for you."

"Actually Mac" Sammi said seriously "I don’t like
seeing this anymore than Harm does. I hate looking at
it and every time I see one I pray that I never have
to see another. However, I’ve learned to deal with it
so that I can do my job. One of my coping devices is
humor…gross and sarcastic humor at that."

"Whatever works. I’m going to go check on Harm."

"Why don’t you all go back to the VOQ. I still have to
analyze what we found. I could be here all night or I
might find a stopping point and start again tomorrow.
Whatever happens, I’ll see you sometime tomorrow."

"Okay Sammi. See you…whenever then." Mac said

"You need any help or want some company, Sam?" Teri
looked at her

"You can stay if you want, the company of a good
friend never hurts." Sammi smiled at her friend "Oh,
and Mac…tell Harm I’m sorry for grossing him out."

"Heck no! I’ve never seen him run for the head like
that. I’ll have that story spread around the office
back in D.C. in no time." Mac flipped her hand down to
put emphasis on her statement of timing.

Mac didn’t see Harm in the hallway, so she went to the
most obvious spot to find him. She knew there was no
other personnel in the basement so she endeavored to
enter the men’s restroom without making her presence
known. She found him sitting on the floor, head leaned
back against the wall; his forearms were resting on
his knees and his hands clasped in between his legs.
She walked over to him and knelt down beside him.

"Hey Harm" she whispered, caressing the side of his
face.

"Hi" he said tiredly "I’m sorry"

"For what?"

"Running out on you like that…literally."

Mac smiled "It’s okay, I understand."

"But I’m an adult Mac, I should be able to handle
things like that. Heck, I’m in the military, I’ve seen
things happen to people that people should never see."

"Well, the mental images that Sammi was giving you
probably didn’t help."

"Ugh" Harm blew out a breath that tasted similar to
something he did not want to repeat "don’t remind me."

Mac wet a paper towel and smoothed it over his baby
soft face. She then took his hands in hers and pulled
him off the floor. Harm swayed a bit, but then found
his bearings.

"Come on Sicko, let’s get you back to your room."

"Are you going to stay with me in said room?"

"Mmmmm…Maybe, for a little while" Mac smiled beginning
to lead him from the bathroom.

"Are you going to stop calling me weird names? I think
you’ve referred to me with at least 4 strange names
since this investigation began."

"Don’t count on it ‘Hurl Master’" she said in a faux
Japanese movie accent and chuckled afterward.

29 April 2003

Tuesday

1040 EST

Morgue

Harm and Mac were late getting to the morgue that
morning. They had decided to take a long, much needed
and deserved run before beginning their professional
day. When they arrived at the cold, dark morgue, they
opened the door to find Sammi and Teri sitting on the
floor leaning against a row of cabinets, fast asleep;
two-ice cold, untouched mugs of coffee sat on either
side of them.

"They never left." Harm said staring at them amazed. 

"There’s some dedication to your job for you." Mac
said, still looking at the sleeping officers.

"Good morning everyone!" Nick boomed as he walked
through the door of the morgue.

"Shhhhh…." Mac hissed at him and waved her hands to
cut off his words.

He looked confusedly at Mac, then saw the sleeping duo
on the floor. "I see she pulled an all nighter again"
he whispered to Mac and Harm.

"She’s done this before?" Mac asked

"Oh yeah. When she gets caught up in an investigation,
she doesn’t like to stop until it’s over. She was like
that in college too."

"You knew her in college?" Harm looked at him

"Yeah, that’s were we met. We were in the same
Skeletal Forensics class. She actually was the one who
got me through the class. It was really difficult for
me at first, so she would help me in lab and show me
what I needed to know. She’s the one who really got me
interested in this type of work. We’ve been friends
ever since." Nick shrugged his shoulders as he
concluded the story; Mac looked at Harm and smiled,
conveying a message that only they understood."

"Why don’t we take these two sleepy heads home to bed.
Sammi has an extra bedroom that Teri can stay in."

"You know where Sammi lives?"

"Yeah, slept on her couch more the last two years than
I have my parents’."

"I didn’t think you lived in Louisville?" Mac looked
up at him

"I don’t, but my brother does. With all his kids
running all over the place, I’d much rather crash with
her for a decent night’s sleep."

"Ah" Mac lifted her head in understanding.

Nick walked over to Sammi and squatted down next to
her. "Come on Sam Sam, wake up for me" he shook her
shoulder a bit.

Sammi slowly pried her eyelids apart. It took her a
few seconds to recognize who was talking to her, when
she did, she smiled and said "Nicky…hi" in a
dream-like voice.

"Hi yourself Sammi-girl" he smiled down at her. "Come
on, I’m taking you home."

"Your place or mine?" she said drifting back off.

"You know that I would never take a lady such as
yourself to a place like mine."

Sammi swallowed a bit and her eyelids fluttered
"That’s right, you’re a pig".

Nick placed both of his arms under Sammi’s shoulders
and easily lifted her to a nearly standing position.
He leaned her against his chest and wrapped his arms
around her back and she dropped her head right over
top of his heart.

Harm was in awe of the ease to which Nick moved Sammi.
Granted, he was a big guy and his biceps were the size
of Harm’s head, but Sammi wasn’t the petite woman that
could easily be maneuvered. After Mac nudged him out
of his thoughts, Harm walked over to Teri and leaned
over her. 


"Hey Teri" he shook her shoulder "wake up, it’s time
to go."

"Not now Gate, I just got to sleep, maybe tomorrow
night" she moaned, rolling her head to the other side.

Harm looked at Mac with wide, surprised eyes. Mac, on
the other hand, covered her mouth to stifle a laugh.
Harm shook Teri awake again, and it wasn’t long before
he had her on her feet as well. Harm and Nick walked
their zombie like colleagues to the car. Nick rode in
the back with Sammi, Teri leaning on her friend and
beginning to snore softly. 

It was a nice drive to Sammi’s house, though it did
take 45 minutes. It was a home Harm was quite envious
of-an old firehouse converted into residential housing
in Old Louisville. The area reminded Harm and Mac of
their own neighborhood-filled with old Victorian
homes. The firehouse was big enough to have been
divided into several housing quarters, but the owner
had been a client of Sammi’s and when he found out she
was looking for a place, he sold it to her dirt cheap.

Nick opened the apartment door with his key and looked
inside to see a major obstacle…stairs.

"Okay, I’m going to have to do this in two trips."
Nick blew out a breath.

"Do what?" Harm inquired

"Carry them upstairs." Nick said flatly, like he’d
done it a million times before.

"You? Carry them?"

"Yeah…unless you want to." Nick smiled.

"No he does not" Mac interjected and Harm glared at
her.

"Harm, how often have you complained about your back
since your crash? I am not going to have you flat on
your back for the rest of this investigation."

"Fine" he stated putting up his hands in defense.
"Sorry about this Nick"

"No problem Harm" he reached in for Sammi and pulled
her out of the car "I do it all the time."

Harm cocked an eyebrow and Nick corrected himself
"With my job- as an agent- with the FBI." Harm then
raised both of his eyebrows and nodded his head in
understanding. It took no time at all for Nick to get
the women upstairs to the bedrooms. Mac went in to
help Teri, though all she did was remove her shoes and
pull the covers over her. Nick did the same for Sammi,
except before leaving her beside, he smoothed back her
and kissed her temple "I love you Sammi-girl".

For several hours Harm and Mac worked on the case.
Both were sitting on the floor with file folders
spread out around them; cell phones were in use and
laptops were up and running. They made a little
progress here and there, but nothing that would tip
the scales in their favor. They contacted both of the
orthopedic surgeons, even the one TAD; neither had
known either woman. 

"You know that just because they said they didn’t know
the women doesn’t mean they didn’t do it. There are
freaks all over this world that do weird stuff to
perfect strangers."

"Yeah" Mac said, trying to understand what Harm was
getting at "but?"

"Well" Harm sighed "I really don’t think either of the
doctors had a hand in it, they don’t seem to fit the
MO."

"And that’s what your gut tells you?"

"Yeah"

"And has your gut ever been wrong?"

"In a few circumstances." He smiled at Sarah

"Really? And when would that be?" she inquired

"Oh…several times, but mainly when I left you to fly.
My gut told me to fly, everything else told me to
stay."

"And you went with your gut."

"And I lost my mind and my world" he looked down at
the floor, then back up at her and touched her cheek.

"No, you never lost it" she looked him straight in the
eyes. "It was misplaced when pulled out of alignment
by a strong gravitational force."

"I hate it when you speak in philosophic terms when I
have no idea what they mean." He laughed.

"All I meant was that you didn’t lose your world, it
was pulled away from you by a strong force that was
hard to resist."

Harm sat motionless for a moment, again not sure how
to react. It was a lovely aroma emanating from the
kitchen that brought him out of his thoughts. He got
up and pulled Mac up after him; they walked to the
kitchen to find Nick buzzing around like a chef in a
restaurant.

"Wow Nick, it smells heavenly in here." Mac took a
long sniff of the air.

"I thought that maybe we could all sit down and have a
good meal tonight. After all of that Mess crap you’ve
been eating for the past few days, I thought you might
enjoy it."

"Enjoy it, we’d love it!" Harm laughed "I thought food
on a carrier was bad, somehow it always tasted of jet
fuel, which I’ve eaten my fair share of. But this Army
crap is just that…Crap."

Nick laughed "Well, I’ve eaten in the Mess before and
if you think that stuff is crap, you should have
tasted the stuff they would serve us in the public
school system when I was growing up. That stuff was
like toxic waste; I’m surprised I don’t have some sort
of cancer by now."

"Don’t you dare say that!" 

They turned to see Sammi standing in the doorway,
freshly showered, wearing jeans and a University of
Tennessee, Knoxville sweatshirt.

"Don’t you ever let me hear you say anything like that
again Nicholas Grizzardo. You are my best friend and I
will not let anything happen to you."

Nick hadn’t ever heard Sammi talk about their
friendship like that before and he was amazed to hear
her say so. But, to keep up appearances he smiled at
Harm and Mac "I think the lady cares".

Harm and Mac exchanged knowing glances again and both
smiled at Nick.

"So what are you doing to my kitchen Nicholas Loren?"

Nick spun around with chopping knife still in hand. "I
wouldn’t be making such remarks to a man with a weapon
in his hand, especially one who’s been trained to use
it the way I have."

"Oh yeah, like that scares me. Two of the military’s
best lawyers are in the room and you threaten to
murder me…yeah…that’ll happen."

Nick put on his best cocky attitude "Maybe I
remembered that the lawyers were in the room and I
knew that if I did anything they would know the exact
story and could get me off on self defense or
something. I trust they are good enough to play a few
tricks in my favor."

"Self defense of what?" Sammi glared at him.

"Defamation of character." He said flatly.

"Geez, whatever. Now, what are you doing to my
kitchen?"

"I’m making dinner, if that’s okay with you."

"Sounds good to me" she smiled "I haven’t had a decent
meal in weeks."

"Uh…is there anything I can help you with, Nick?" Harm
asked, out of courtesy.

"Sure, you want to cut up the…"(beginning to point at
the chicken).

Sammi, whom was standing slightly behind Harm at the
time, shook her head and mouthed the word "No" to
Nick. 

Nick was slightly confused but went along with Sammi
"Uh…sorry, you want to cut up the carrots? They’re in
the fridge, bottom drawer."

"Sure, what style?" Harm took the bag of carrots that
Mac had retrieved from the fridge.

"Style?" Nick looked at him?

"You know…diced, chopped, rounds, sticks, julienne…?"

"Uh…" Nick’s face went blank "rounds are fine with me"
and he handed Harm a knife. With the men busy cooking,
the ladies slipped out unnoticed.

"So, what are you making for our fine dining
pleasure?"

"My world class specialty" Nick cocked a smile
"Chicken and rice".

"Really? Sounds good."

"Well, it’s not gourmet, but it usually turns out
right. Besides, it’s the only thing I make that
usually turns out right."

Harm washed the carrots thoroughly, he never skinned
them, the vitamin loss was too great. Then he
uniformly cut the rounds and placed them in a pot to
boil. "Hey Nick, what are you going to do with the
carrots?"

"I…don’t know. I haven’t thought that far ahead."

"How about I take over the carrots, I’ll sauté them
and see what I can do." Harm smiled, knowing that he
could do anything with a pan of carrots, though he now
wished they were julienned. He scooped all the carrots
out of the lukewarm water and sliced them even
thinner, then he put them in a pan with some olive oil
and a few spices and flavors. Afterwards he set the
pan aside to stay warm, he wasn’t quite finished with
them, but the finishing touch had to be put on later.
Completed with his primary objective, he watched Nick
work with the chicken. He had begun cutting through
the leg and thigh joints to separate the pieces, when
he came across one quarter that wasn’t quite fully
defrosted.

"Frozen meat like this always makes me think of
Cryogenics" Nick looked at Harm.

"Huh?"

"You know, were they freeze you after you die, so that
they can unfreeze you and bring you back to life in
the future."

"Okay…." Harm sort of muttered to himself. "As long as
they don’t cremate me, they can stick me wherever they
want." It was at this time that Mac walked in.

"I’ll see if we have an extra $40 million lying around
when you die; then I’ll have them shove your body in a
Tomcat and drop you in the…" Mac’s hand went to her
mouth. "I am so sorry. Harm, I wasn’t thinking."

"Well, if you are going to drop me somewhere, make
sure it’s in the Arabian Sea…so that I can be where I
made my most heroic flight." He walked to Mac and
placed a kiss on her lips, relieving her of the guilt
she felt about bringing up the subject of the crash.

Nick watched the two interact, though not without a
slight pang of envy. He then turned back to his
chicken and continued to cut. He held the bird in one
hand, cut the flesh down to the bone, then he exposed
the ligaments, cut through them and finished through
the rest of the tissue. Harm and Mac watched from
behind and as if by mental telepathy, both were
thinking the same thoughts.

"Sammi" they both yelled.

"What? What’s wrong?" she came running into the room.

"Watch" Harm pointed to Nick and the chicken. Nick was
a bit confused and a little shaky now that he had an
audience. But he continued to cut the chicken and
Sammi watched through wide, knowing eyes.

"I never would have imagined." She stared at the
movements Nick was making. "Where the heck is Teri, we
need to go back to the morgue."

"Teri’s right here" she spoke of herself in the third
person, having been woken when Harm and Mac screamed
for Sammi.

"Teri, it’s time for you to play a part in this
investigation."

"Finally, I was feeling a bit out of place not being
able to do anything."

"Well, here’s your chance to shine, honey." Sammi
turned her around and pushed her toward the steps,
only stopping long enough to get her uniform coat and
shoes. Harm and Mac scooped up their papers, folders
and equipment without sorting everything out and filed
out after Sammi and Teri. Nick stayed behind, he had
to finish cooking and apparently find something for
Harm to eat because of his apparent chicken phobia. He
would love to hear the story behind that.

1745 EST

Ft. Knox Morgue

"Tell me what you see Teri" Sammi hovered over her.

"I’ll be seeing red if you don’t back off a bit. I
told Harm and I’ll tell you, I don’t deal well when
people hover over me."

"Fine, sorry. So what do you see?"

Teri looked through the microscope again at the cross
section cut of the tissue sample of the original
forearm. "I see cells, connective tissue, this and
that. Nothing really in particular."

"Do you see anything odd about the cells? Do they look
abnormal in any way?" Sammi pushed further.

"Wait, I can’t get that kind of detail on this scope,
I need to the other one, it has better magnification."
She moved across the room and turned on the high
powered microscope, placed the slide underneath and
studied it’s contents. "Whoa! What the…? She was
frozen!"

"Ah, just as I suspected." Sammi turned with a proud
smile on her face.

"You suspected she was frozen?" Mac looked at her.

"Well" Sammi started off "I’ve been racking my brain
trying to figure out how one person could be in so
many stages of decomposition. I knew that each section
had to be put in the ground at different times, that
much was certain. But, how could so many parts of the
body be above ground for so long without someone
smelling it? Freezing was the only answer I could
possibly think of. Then when I saw Nick cutting the
chicken, I knew that I was probably right."

Harm looked at Teri "So how can you tell that she was
frozen?" 

"Come look through the scope." Harm did as he was bid.
"What do you see?"

"Uh…cells, I guess."

"What’s wrong with those cells?"

"Uh…" he continued to look through the scope "they’re
jagged?"

"Exactly, the cell membranes have ruptured; tell tale
sign that the flesh has been frozen. That is the
biggest problem scientists who are experimenting with
Cryogenics are faced with. When the flesh is frozen,
ice crystals form in the cytoplasm. The ice crystals
then puncture the cell membrane, rupturing the cell,
thus killing it. A dead cell cannot produce new cells
that will help support the defrosted body." 

"So what does this tell us?" Mac looked at the
investigative team.

"I know what it tells me" Teri spoke up first. "The
person in the fridge isn’t who you think it is."

"What do you mean?" Harm asked.

"You think the victim is Corporal Amanda Schulz
because she is the one who has been missing for the
least amount of time. Because there was still tissue
on the bones, you automatically thought it was her.
Now that we know our victim was frozen, it sheds new
light on the matter; it also tells me why some of the
bones look as old as they are. Our victim here is
Sergeant Susan Bowers."

"The one that has been missing for five years?" Harm
looked at her surprised.

"Uh huh" Sammi nodded her head.

"Wow, this case gets more and more weird at every
turn." Harm shook his head

"I know" Sammi grinned "isn’t it fascinating?"

Harm shook his head "I think I’d take a good Court
Martial any day."

They all laughed

"So, where could someone store a frozen dismembered
body without anyone ever discovering it?" Mac asked.

"Only place big enough on this base would be the Mess
walk-in freezer. That thing is always stocked and
crowded, I’m sure there is a way that someone could
hide something there without it being noticed." Sammi
added

"Well, we can’t barge in there without a warrant, so
we’ll have to check it tomorrow." Mac stated

"What are you expecting to find when you get there?"
Harm asked

"The head" Sammi smiled.

"You don’t have the head?"

"If we did," Teri added her insight "we wouldn’t be
standing here right now. We would have matched the
teeth to the dental records of the UA personnel."

"Well, at least he left us something to track down"
Harm added with a grin. "Mac, you want to call for the
warrant?"

"Sure thing, but can we do that on our way home? I
know we have a meal waiting for us."

"Marine, first-Carnivore, second" Harm put his arm
around her shoulders and gave her a squeeze. 

1930 EST

Sammi’s Apartment

The officers climbed the stairs to see the table set
with a white linen cloth and nice china setting the
places. The lit candles in the sconces graced light
onto the table and reflected it through the
wineglasses that stood next to each plate. A fire was
flickering in the fireplace and soft music played in
the background. 

"Nick" Sammi said upon seeing him enter the dining
room "I never knew you could throw such an elaborate
dinner party."

"There are many things you do not know about me,
Samantha."

"I know that you changed your clothes. Lookin’ good
FeeBI, black cuffed pants, a blue shirt and socks and
shoes to match. I’m impressed."

"This old stuff? I found it in a duffel I’d forgotten
her once; I decided that if it still fit, I’d wear
it."

"Well, you should wear it more often. Maybe you could
get a date with some unsuspecting long haired blonde."

"Sammi…" he said in a chiding sort of voice "You know
that type isn’t my style."

"Oh, really?" a mischievous smile graced her lips "I
must have forgot."

"Um hm…" he smiled at her. "Okay people, dinner is
served." He laid a plate of chicken and rice in front
of every person…minus the carrots; Harm hadn’t been
there to finish them. He looked at Harm "I tried to
figure out something for you to eat that didn’t have
chicken in it. There honestly isn’t much in this house
that could serve you any better. But, there might be a
hamburger patty in the freezer if you want me to cook
it up for you."

"No, no" Harm laughed "please don’t. I’ll have some of
the chicken, it smells good."

"Really, it won’t take me all that long. Sammi tells
me I make a good burger. I could also throw together a
salad if you rather."

"No Nick, the chicken will be fine, really."

"But…I thought you had a fear of chickens?"

"What? Where in the world did you get that idea from?"

"Sammi. When I was going to tell you to cut the
chicken, she got this freaky look on her face and told
me not to."

"And that’s why I got to cut the carrots?"

"Yeah, it was the first thing I could think of."

Harm was laughing hysterically and Mac wasn’t far
behind. Nick just looked at them. When Harm caught his
breath he said to Nick while still chuckling "I don’t
have a fear of chicken…I just don’t eat a lot of meat.
But, I’d rather eat chicken then I would dead cow…I
let Mac have my portion of that." He went back into a
fit of laughter…"Fear of chickens…." He flapped his
arms like wings and clucked a bit, which threw
everyone but Nick into violent laughter. Then, he
thought about everything and the laughter became
contagious to him as well. He picked up the bottle of
wine from its bucket and began filling the
wineglasses; Mac gracefully declined.

30 April 2003

Wednesday

1030 EST

Ft. Knox Mess Hall

The investigative team arrived at the Mess Hall
between breakfast and lunch times. The stipulation
given with the search warrant was that the
investigation was not to interfere with the eating
schedule. Harm presented the warrant to the person in
charge of the kitchen staff, who just happened to be
the person Mac would need to speak with.

"What’s this?" Master Chief Bryan Beckner asked
unfolding the warrant.

"It is a warrant to search the premises of the Mess
walk-in freezer. This is Colonel Kaley, I’m Commander
Rabb and this is Lieutenant Colonel Mackenzie, she and
myself are with the Naval JAG Corp. These are the
other members of our team Lieutenant Commander Coulter
and FBI agent Grizzardo. We know that you have
business to conduct, so we will try to make this as
brief as possible. Until we are finished though, we
need all Mess employees to stay in the dining area and
Colonel Mackenzie will need to speak with you Chief
Beckner."

"What for? Come on, do you know how long it will take
to make up this time in cooking? If lunch is late, I’m
going to have some pretty pissed off soldiers to face
Commander and it won’t even be my fault."

"If we don’t find anything Chief, you will be on your
way in a matter of minutes. Until then, we ask that
you cooperate with us." With that said, Harm motioned
for the people coming with him to follow to the
kitchen area. Mac stayed behind, along with Nick to
interview the Chief.

"How long have you been working here Chief?" 

"’Bout 6 years now, in the kitchen that is."

"Chief, have you ever seen this woman before?" Mac
held up a picture of Susan Bowers.

Beckner took the photo and studied with unwavering
eyes. "Well Colonel, she looks vaguely familiar, but
people come and go from this place all the time. I’m
not sure if I’ve seen her per se or just someone that
looks like her. I’ll tell you though, if it was her,
it’s been a real long time since she was here; I’d
remember someone that pretty if she’d been around
lately."

"Would you happen to know her name Chief?" 

"I haven’t the foggiest Colonel. Like I said, it’s
been a while since she’s been here."

"So she has been here?" Mac asked him flatly

"I didn’t say that, what I meant was that if she had
been here, it’s been a long time ago."

"Thank you Chief, that will be all for now." Mac saw
Harm and the others walking towards her and Nick-
nothing in hand.

The Chief walked over to where the rest of his crew
were sitting, drinking coffee. Harm turned to them
"You may return to your duties now. Thank you for your
cooperation."

Harm turned to Mac "Not a thing in there. Just your
normal frozen meat, veggies and ice cream. Thing is as
clean as a whistle too."

"What did you expect, Harm, a rat’s nest?"

"Ick…please don’t even mention that. We have to eat
here until the investigation is wrapped up. So, what
did he say?"

"Nothing really. Said he may have seen her, but wasn’t
sure. He didn’t know her name; basically knew a lot
about nothing."

"What does you gut tell you?" Harm looked her in the
eyes.

"He knows more than he is telling." She said back to
him.

"Then let’s find out what he knows." He smiled

"What are you going to do, walk up to him and demand
him to tell us what he knows?"

Harm looked at her and flashed his cocky grin "Of
course. Men just know how to talk to other men."

"Whatever, Jackass." Mac said quietly, shaking her
head.

Harm looked at her in amazement "Well, said Jackass
was just joking and was thinking of just trying to dig
up dirt on the guy."

"Oh, well…sorry then…about the Jackass thing."

"No offense taken." He smiled. "But you will be
punished later" he whispered only for her to hear when
they walked out of the Mess. Mac blushed, but kept on
walking.

Harm was perusing Susan’s personnel file when he
discovered the name of her roommate on base while at
Ft. Knox. Sergeant Erica Blue was currently stationed
at Fort Campbell, Kentucky-a good day’s trip to the
other end of the state. Fort Campbell was home to the
Army’s 101st Airborne Division, Screaming Eagles;
Sergeant Blue was a helicopter pilot there. Harm
pulled out his cell phone and placed a call to obtain
her number, then he phoned her directly.

"Good Afternoon, Sergeant Blue" a pleasant but hurried
sounding voice answered the phone.

"Sergeant Blue, my name is Commander Harmon Rabb, I’m
with the Naval JAG Corp. I’m sorry to bother you, but
I was hoping you could give me some information on a
case I’m working on."

"I’ll do my best Commander, but I honestly don’t know
much about the Navy."

"That’s okay Sergeant, this is an Army matter I’m
calling about. Do you remember Sergeant Susan Bowers?"

"Of course, she was my roommate at Fort Knox. Why,
what have you heard?"

"Well, Sergeant Blue, I’m sorry to have to tell you
this, but she’s dead."

"Dead?" came a restrained but shaky voice.

"Yes, her…(Harm thought for a moment, looking for the
right word) her remains were discovered in one of the
training fields."

"Somehow I always knew she was" she sighed "I just
never wanted to admit it to myself. Thank you for
calling Commander, I’m on my way."

"Wait, we can do this over the phone." Harm hurried in
trying to be heard before she disconnected the line.

"I’ll be there soon, Commander." the Sergeant stated
in a voice with newly found strength, then
disconnected the line.

"What was that all about?" Mac looked at him.

"She’s coming here."

"Really? Wow, that’s quite a drive just to give a
statement."

"I don’t think she’s just giving a statement Mac, I
think she may be leading us to the killer."

"What makes you think that?"

"Gut…and the tone of her voice."

"What did you hear in her voice, Harm?"

"Passion."

1515 EST

Conference Room

Basement of the Base Hospital

The investigative team sat in the large musty room,
comparing notes of evidence each had discovered
recently. A knock on the door went unheeded by the
officers, but Nick heard and rose to answer it.
Standing in the doorway in an Army green flight suit
was Sergeant Erica Blue; her arrival was unexpected
for she was there in half the time it would take to
drive the trip from Fort Campbell to Fort Knox. She
stood at attention, staring straight ahead while no
one but Nick noticed her.

"I may be out of line here, but isn’t it kind of rude
to ignore someone standing in the doorway?" Nick
announced loudly to the others. Four heads popped up
all at once, reminiscent of prairie dogs on predator
watch.

"Sergeant Erica Blue, reporting."

"At ease Sergeant" Sammi gave the order

"That was a quick trip Ms. Blue. I thought you
wouldn’t be here until later." Harm said taking in her
flight suit.

"When I told my CO that I needed emergency leave to
provide evidence in a murder investigation, he let me
take one of the helicopters, sir. It’s a training
bird, so it isn’t used as often as the others, but it
still flies like it’s battle ready."

"Thank you for coming Sergeant." Harm extended his
hand and made introductions around the room.

After some light conversation, Erica felt comfortable
enough with the group to make a small joke. She looked
at all the uniforms from the different branches and
began to chuckle.

"Something wrong Sergeant?" Harm inquired.

"No sir, it’s just that if we only had a ‘Blue Bore’
here then we could have an entire military reunion in
one room.

"Blue Bore, Sergeant?" Mac looked at her.

"Oh, I’m sorry ma’am. I always forget that’s a term I
made up on my own. That’s what some friends and I call
Air Force Pilots, because they just bore holes in the
sky all day."

Harm smiled, hiding a soft chuckle "And what do your
friends and you think of Navy Pilots?" Harm got up,
slipped on his winter blues jacket and headed to get
some coffee, without turning for Erica to see him.

"They’re not bad sir. I say, anyone who can land a
plane a on a speck of a deck in the middle of the
ocean without vertical landing capabilities is alright
in my book."

Harm turned around, leaned against the counter and
smiled at the young woman, who at that very instant
saw the glint of his wings reflecting off his left
pectoralis. "My sentiments exactly."

He looked at Mac, who just shook her head.

"What?" he said to her, raising his hands in question.

Getting down to business, Mac started to question the
young lady. "Sergeant Blue, why did you feel the need
to come here instead of giving your testimony over the
telephone?"

"Dewey was my friend Colonel. She is the closest thing
to a sister that I’ve ever had. I want to know what
happened to her and I want to help catch the ‘Son of a
Bitch’ that did this. I want to kill the bastard with
my own hands; he’ll pay for hurting her, Colonel and I
personally will see to that."

"Calm down Sergeant. We are still a long way from
making any charges against anyone." Mac looked at her
with a commanding Marine glare.

"Then let me clear things up for you. The person you
are looking for is Bryan Beckner, world class loser,
low-life and good for nothing."

"We’ve already spoken with Master Chief Beckner. He
says that he doesn’t remember the woman in the picture
we showed him, which was of Susan." Harm added.

"They promoted him? He hasn’t done shit since the day
I met him and they promoted his sorry ass?"

"We all get promoted if we stay in long enough,
Sergeant." Mac looked at her, giving her a visual
warning again. "So, why do you say that Beckner is the
killer?"

"Because he stalked her, harassed her, tormented her,
did anything he could to annoy her."

"Maybe he was interested in her" Harm added a male
point of view. "Sometimes guys don’t know how to
approach women in more civilized manners."

"I don’t think so sir, he never acted like he was
interested in her. He would say things to her, rude
comments and such. Sometimes he would get her alone
and start arguments with her. I never knew what the
arguments were about, all I know is that they grew up
together, in the same hometown and all. You would
think that would give them a bond, friendship or
something. But she hated him, wanted nothing to do
with him."

"Did he ever hurt her?" 

"I know he did on at least one occasion ma’am. One day
he had been particularly rude and mean; that night,
she snuck out of the room and I followed her, I don’t
know why, I just felt like she may need someone to
watch her back that night. She went to the Mess and
sat down at a table. He brought her some coffee and
they sat and talked a few minutes. I watched all of
this happen from the window outside of the Mess, I
didn’t hear anything, just watched. Soon, he said
something, and then she, then he, then she picked up
her coffee and splashed it on his chest and throat. He
backhanded her across the face. Before he knew it
though, he was on the ground, in a pile of pain."

"How so Sergeant? Susan was a pretty petite woman; she
wouldn’t have been able to over power him."

"Of course she couldn’t over power him, sir, but what
she lacked in size, she made up for in quickness and
agility. Before he knew what hit him, Dewey had
stomped on his foot, then kneed him in the groin and
brought up a right-handed upper cut to his chin. He
hit the floor and she stormed out. I had to run all
the way back so that she wouldn’t discover that I’d
followed her."

"What happened following that?"

"The next day went pretty smoothly for her, she’d even
been given some praise by her CO. That night she
apparently ‘ran away’ and didn’t show up for roll call
the next morning."

"And they conducted an investigation?" Harm asked

"Yeah, but they concluded that she went UA. I tried to
tell them that she wouldn’t do that, but they wouldn’t
listen. Hell, I even showed them her locker and that
all her stuff and pictures were still there, she
wouldn’t leave without them. They told me that she
probably just didn’t want the extra baggage to have to
carry."

"You’re kidding" Harm looked at her

"No sir" she said evenly, almost resentful of the past
events.

"Did you hear anything that night that might have
tipped you off to her leaving or anything otherwise?"

"No sir. Dewey didn’t sleep well, never did as long as
I knew her. She would get up a lot and go sit in the
lobby or whatever. I got used to hearing her shuffle
about in the dark, so much so that I began to sleep
through it. Nothing woke me that night sir."

"When you say Dewey, are we to assume that you mean
Susan, Sergeant?"

"Yes ma’am, I’m sorry about that. Dewey was a nickname
that Susan had had since she was a kid. Something
about a sibling of hers couldn’t say Suzie and it came
out Dewey and it stuck. Everyone called her Dewey,
even her parents."

"Do you know her parents?"

"Yes ma’am Colonel. I talk to them a couple times a
year and send them a Christmas card every holiday. I
was like another daughter to them, if Dewey went home,
I was right there with her. I even got my own room
after her brother moved out."

"And where are her parents now?" Mac continued.

"Paducah, Kentucky. That’s where Dewey grew up, along
with Beckner."

"Sheesh" Harm sort of said to himself "Is everyone in
the Army from Kentucky? Seems like there are Kentucky
ties all over the place."

"I’m not from here sir, I’m from Fargo, North Dakota.
But I can tell you that Kentucky is predominantly Army
territory sir; having Fort Knox and Fort Campbell so
close, it’s hard not to get a large Army population.
People retire and move somewhere near the base; their
kids grow up and follow in the footsteps of their
parents. Pretty plain and simple sir."

1920 CST

Paducah, Kentucky

Home of Richard and Patsy Bowers

The training helicopter Sergeant Blue had been lent by
her CO comfortably held four people. After setting
down at the local Air National Guard, they piled into
a vehicle, held in reserve for guests to the small
station. Erica directed Harm to the home of Susan’s
parents. Upon arriving they each stepped out of the
vehicle, Erica being the last one out. She looked upon
the house took a deep breath and began to walk towards
the door with her head held high. Erica stood in the
front of the group, being the only person the couple
knew and she knocked on the door. An aging man with
graying hair opened the door and took in the group of
people before him. A slightly worried look came over
his face; he pressed his lips together and took a deep
breath.

"Erica honey, what’s going on?"

"Hi Rick" she broke protocol in front of the other
officers and gave him a hug and a small kiss on the
cheek. "May we come in, we need to talk with you and
Patsy".

"Uh, sure hun, of course" Rick stood back to let the
group into his home. "Patsy honey, we have company.
Erica’s here."

Patsy came in from the other room wiping wet hands on
a red apron. When she reached the living room, the
site was more than she expected, it wasn’t just Erica,
it was a small group of military personnel that she
had never seen before. Her faced turned slightly pink
as she began to dust flour from her baking off of her
clothing and skin. "Oh excuse me, I didn’t know we had
multiple guests" she gave a concerned look at her
husband. "Please, all of you, have a seat, make
yourselves at home. I’ll be right back with some Iced
Tea." She turned and quickly walked out of the room;
when she reappeared, she had cleaned up a bit, fixed
her hair as best she could, put on a layer of lipstick
and was carrying a tray laden with glasses full of
tea.

Everyone took their glasses and a sip before getting
down to business. Erica was the first to speak "Rick,
Patsy, as you can probably tell, I’m not here on a
typical drop in visit. These people that I came here
with need to speak to you about something very
important." She began the introductions "These are
lawyers from the Navy Judge Advocate General Corps:
Lieutenant Colonel Sarah Mackenzie-US Marine Corp and
Commander Harmon Rabb-US Navy and this is Lieutenant
Commander Teresa Coulter also from the Navy". She then
handed to floor to Harm and Mac.

"It’s nice to meet you all" Rick said nodding at each
one.

"I’m sorry our meeting couldn’t be on different terms,
Mr. and Mrs. Bowers." Harm began "Unfortunately, we
are here to deliver some bad news."

In fluid stride with Harm, Mac took over the
conversation "We are sorry to have to tell you that
your daughter, Susan, is dead. We have been
investigating her case and we now have a positive
identification." Patsy began to slouch down next to
her husband; he took her hand and squeezed it gently.

"We, along with the entire military and a grateful
nation are sorry for your loss." Harm added.

The two parents clung to each other, not hearing a
word that was being spoken to them. They knew this was
a possibility, but they never wanted to give up hope.
Patsy broke out into sobs and Rick held her to his
chest and rocked her gently, tears rolling down his
own face. The officers remained quiet, trying to give
the grieving parents some time to absorb the
information. Rick then whispered in Patsy’s ear then
looked at Harm "h...How do you know it’s her?"

"Commander Coulter is our forensic pathologist, she
ran DNA samples that matched those the Army took from
Susan."

Rick took in a ragged breath and began rocking Patsy
again. "Where is she now?"

"Her remains are still at Fort Knox, our investigation
into her death is not yet complete."

"You don’t know what happened to her?" Patsy looked at
Harm through a tear stained face.

"We’re getting closer, but we don’t have all the
information we need as of yet." Mac spoke up. "We were
hoping you might be able to help us."

"We don’t know why anyone would want to hurt her,
Colonel. She was a good girl, so smart. She joined the
Army so that she could travel a bit, but she also
loved the Army, she was following in her grandfather’s
footsteps."

"Did she ever tell you about any problems she may have
been having?" Harm asked.

"No" Patsy answered "not that I’m aware of. She always
said that she was enjoying her training and that she
would hopefully be stationed abroad soon."

"She never said anything about someone harassing her,
teasing her or playing jokes…anything like that?" Harm
looked at the now calmer parents.

"No Commander. She never said anything of that nature.
Was someone harassing her?" Rick looked at Erica, who
quickly looked down at the ground. "Erica sweetie,
please, tell us."

Erica looked to Harm for guidance; he took control of
the matter for her.

"Mr. Bowers, we have reason to believe that a Bryan
Beckner may have been upsetting her and may have
something to do with her murder."

Patsy let out another sob after hearing the word
murder…someone had actually murdered her baby girl,
her only baby girl. Rick stood up and walked to the
door, looking out at the clear blue sky.

"Mama, mama…the movie’s over." A brown haired little
girl ran into the living room, stopping short when she
saw it full of people. Patsy got up and went to the
child, "Okay sweetie, why don’t you put in another one
and you can help me make cookies later." The child
nodded her head and ran back into the bedroom.

Patsy went to the door, placed her hand on Rick’s
shoulder and they spoke softly for a few moments. They
returned to the couch and took each other’s hands; it
was Patsy who began to unravel the details.

"That was Hannah, our granddaughter-Susan and Bryan’s
daughter." 

Everyone in the room just looked at her and Rick. 

This was a detail that Erica never even knew, she just
thought that Hanni was a ‘late comer’. "What?" Erica
blurted out, before remembering whom she was in front
of "Oh, excuse me please. I’m so sorry."

"That’s all right Sergeant" Mac said, "I was wondering
that myself."

Patsy took another breath and began again "Hanni
doesn’t know this, so please don’t tell her." The
officers all nodded and Patsy especially looked at
Erica, whom was like an aunt to the child. "Back when
Susan was in high school, she and Bryan were *the*
couple, inseparable. She was homecoming queen- he was
the football star; they spent every waking moment
together, he was in our house more often than he was
in his own. Then one day, Susan found out she was
pregnant. We were all devastated; I guess you could
say it wasn’t what we expected out of her. Then she
told us that she wanted..." Patsy took a deep breath
"that she wanted to have the baby…aborted. I told her
no, it wasn’t right to do that to one of God’s
children. She said that she had the right to do
whatever she wanted, but in the end, I was finally
able to talk her into adoption…letting Rick and I
raise the child as our own. Susan broke it off with
Bryan, she never forgave him for what happened, even
though she knew it was just as much her fault. He was
still in love with her and tried to talk to her, but
she kept pushing him away. Finally, she gave birth to
Hannah and eight months later joined the Army. Of
course people in town realized that I now had an
infant and that I was never pregnant and I told them
that Rick and I adopted her. It wasn’t a lie we did
adopt her. Somehow Bryan found out where Susan was and
followed her there…being lucky enough to be stationed
with her at Fort Knox. He had put two and two together
and realized that Hannah was his baby and had not been
‘taken care of’ like Susan had told him and he wanted
rights with the child. Susan said no and that was the
beginning of the end for them; they argued a lot, and
Susan lost a lot of sleep. Finally, we told Bryan that
he could see the child, but only as a friend of
Susan’s nothing more because Hanni only knew Rick and
I as her mom and dad. Bryan agreed to this, but to
this day, he hasn’t been by to see her. His parents
have stopped by once, but that was all. When Susan
disappeared, we honestly thought she would show up
again; when she didn’t, we didn’t know what to think.
But we never gave up hope."

An eerie quiet fell over the room, Harm and Mac just
looked at each other and Erica sat in her chair,
shocked by the news.

Harm was the first to break the silence "Mr. and Mrs.
Bowers, do you think that Bryan would have been
capable of hurting Susan?"

Rick looked up from where he was holding his wife "I’d
like to think he wouldn’t do that to someone that he
loved, but we all have our limits, Commander."

Mac looked at Harm, they had spoken with the Bowers
enough for the day; it was time for them to leave and
let the parents grieve.

"Mr. and Mrs. Bowers, thank you for your help and
hospitality, we’ll be leaving in a few minutes. But if
you don’t mind, can you tell us where we could find
Mr. Beckner’s parents? We’d like to talk to them."

Rick picked up a piece of paper and wrote something on
it. "They should be at home, the live above their
store. Here’s the address. We don’t go there very
often, as I’m sure you understand, but they do have
fine quality meats."

"Meats?" Mac asked

"Yes, they own Beckner’s Meats and Delicatessen. They
used to just be a butcher shop, but with all the large
chain supermarkets that have popped up, it had to
become a delicatessen as well, to keep business coming
in. But, I will say this, if you want a great cut of
meat, there is no one better to go to than Gus
Beckner, that is unless his son is in town…that boy
has a natural talent for butchery. He is a magician
with a knife, he can get cuts out of a piece of meat
even his father is envious of."

"Really?" Harm looked stunned "Bryan worked in the
butcher shop?"

"Of course, he basically grew up there, watching every
move his father ever made. Like I said, Gus is good,
but Bryan is the best."

"Does Bryan come home very often, that you know of?"
Mac asked?

"Well, I don’t keep tabs on the boy; he’s brought
enough havoc into our family. But Patsy’s best friend
Miriam plays Bridge with Fiona, Bryan’s mother. Miriam
usually tells Patsy all the gossip she hears at Bridge
and that usually includes news of when Bryan comes
home to visit. Seems lately he’s been coming every
three months or so. But, like I said, I don’t keep
tabs on the boy, he can do whatever he wants."

Harm looked at Mac, then turned back to the Bowers
"Mr. and Mrs. Bowers, we are so sorry for the
circumstances that have brought us together today, but
we do thank you so much for talking with us and we
appreciate all that you’ve done. If there is anything
we can do for you, please don’t hesitate to call."

"Thank you Commander, for everything." Rick shook
hands with Harm and Mac and led them towards the door.

Walking towards the car, Mac was thinking over what
she had just heard and began to mutter under her
breath "Natural talent for butchery…you can say that
again."

"Mac, you okay?" Harm asked when opening the car door
for her.

"Yeah, I’m fine, it’s just the choice of words Mr.
Bowers used struck a chord with me. He honestly
doesn’t know how right he is about the Master Chief."

Harm nodded his head, then closed the car door after
she had sat down. ‘A magician with a knife…’ Harm
thought, pictures of the dismembered body flooding his
memory.

Harm asked Sergeant Blue to drive, she knew the area
better, and he and Mac had work to do. He pulled out
his cell phone and dialed Sammi’s number. "Sammi, hi,
it’s Harm. Can you look up some information for me? I
need to know all the dates in which Beckner has taken
leave during the past five years. Yes, I know five
years is a long time, but it’s important. Okay, talk
to you soon, thanks Sammi."

"Wow, Sammi sounds thrilled about that task." Mac
looked at him with a smirk "I could hear her screech
all the way over here."

Harm smiled back "I think she’s just mad that she
didn’t get to ride in the helicopter."

Teri turned around and looked at Harm "You Nincompoop,
if you didn’t outrank me by half a stripe I’d smack
you upside the head."

"You hear that Mac? Teri threatened me with bodily
harm."

"I didn’t hear anything" she shook her head and pulled
out her cell phone. Harm just rolled his eyes.

"Tiner, it’s Colonel Mackenzie. May I speak with the
Admiral please?"

"Lieutenant Singer is in with him now Ma’am. If you’d
like, I can call you back when he’s finished with
her."

"Who cares if Singer is in there. I need to talk to
him NOW Tiner, it is Urgent."

"Uh…yes Ma’am. I’ll let him know you are on the line."

A moment later Mac heard the Admiral’s voice "Go ahead
Colonel". In the background Mac could hear the Admiral
talking to Singer "I will not authorize that trip at
this time Loren; find more evidence to support your
claim then we can talk. That’ll be all. "But Sir, the
evidence I need can only…." "Dismissed Lieutenant."
"Aye Sir".

"Sorry about that Colonel, please continue."

"Sir, I need you to authorize another search warrant.
This is to a civilian place, a butcher shop owned by
the parents of our main suspect."

"What makes you think they have anything to do with
the murder Colonel?"

"I don’t know if the parents have anything to do with
it Sir, but we think Beckner may have been hiding the
body parts in the freezer of his parent’s shop. We
would like to search it to see if the last piece of
our evidence is inside."

"And why would you think he has been hiding the body
there?"

"We have some preliminary testimony that says that
Beckner has been taking leave every three months. That
would be the perfect alibi, take a weekend leave to
visit his parents, pick up the evidence, drive it home
and bury it."

A.J. took a deep breath "Honestly Colonel, your
evidence is rocky at best. But, for the sake of the
investigation, I’m going to see what I can do. Until
it goes through, I want you and the Commander to try
to come up with something that will support the need
of the warrant."

"Aye Sir, thank you." Mac disconnected the line. "The
warrant is in progress" she told Harm "but we need to
find some more evidence to support the need of the
warrant."

"Then look no further, Sammi just called me back. She
said there is definitely a pattern to his leaves from
base. Basically, he’s been taking one weekend off
every three months. Says that a note has been placed
in his jacket that he has an ailing mother that he
goes to see every three months. Best part is, the
weekend after Susan disappeared in 1998, Beckner took
emergency leave to attend the funeral of his ‘best
friend’. After that leave, he stayed pretty much on
base for nearly two years…that is until ‘Mama’ got
sick and he had to go visit her every three months.
Sammi said that the decomposition on the bones could
very well be three month intervals."

"Haha…." Mac smiled "Perfect! I’ll call the Admiral
back."

Thursday

1 May 2003

Doubletree Inn

Paducah, KY

It had been a long day for everyone. They knew that
they wouldn’t be able to get the warrant before
morning, so they decided to bunk down for the night in
a nearby hotel. They rented 2 rooms, one for the girls
and one for Harm. They were lucky enough to receive
connecting rooms and they used Harm’s room as the
workstation for the night. Harm and Mac stayed up
later than either Teri or Erica and it was of no
surprise to Teri when she woke up in the middle of the
night, not seeing Mac next to her in bed. Teri slowly
slid out from beneath the covers and walked through
the open connecting door, Harm was in bed flat on his
back; his laptop next to him and papers scattered
across the comforter of the bed. His arms and legs
sprawled out in every direction, his head was tilted
back on the pillow, his mouth open and he was snoring
softly. Mac was on the other bed, sleeping on her
side, her arms wrapped around the pillow her head was
also resting on. File folders were open and legal pads
full of notes surrounded her sleeping form, some of
the loose papers were now securely pinned underneath
her hips. Teri smiled and shook her head, then made
her way back into her room to use the restroom.

At 0600 CST, Mac was awakened by the sound of her cell
phone ringing. She pushed her eyelids open and felt
around for the small object that had so rudely pulled
her out of a nice dream. Finding it on the bedside
table she flipped it open and tiredly said
"Mackenzie".

"Good morning Colonel. Did I wake you?"

"Uh…It’s all right Sir, we needed to be getting up
anyhow."

"I’m sorry, I forgot about the time difference.
Anyhow, I just wanted to let you know that your
warrant has been issued, you can pick it up today at
the McCracken County Police Department. I’ve also
arranged for you to have some backup when you do your
search."

"Thank you Sir, I really appreciate this."

"Not a problem Colonel, just finish what needs to be
done."

"Aye Sir. Goodbye." And she disconnected the line,
then rolled over in bed to retake her warm position
against her pillow.

"What was all that about?" Harm asked in a deep, husky
sleep filled voice, right before he began to stretch
out his lean, long body, making a sound similar to an
elephant’s trumpet.

Mac snuggled down into her pillow "The Admiral says
that we have our warrant. It’s ready whenever we want
it."

Harm rolled off of his bed and slid into Mac’s,
pushing papers and files out of his way. "Well, you
know… the shop won’t be open until later. We could
sleep in a bit, if you want" he smiled a devilish
smile and crooked an eyebrow.

Mac wrapped one of her arms under his neck, and the
other around his waist, before nuzzling his chest with
her nose, lips and soft kisses. Harm threw his leg
over top of hers and engulfed her small body in his
much larger one. They lay there, doing nothing more
than holding each other and talking softly when Harm’s
cell phone rang.

"Jeez, hasn’t anybody ever heard about sleep? We
aren’t the only ones that do that are we? Did we miss
the memo or something?" Harm laughed softly as he
rolled over onto his back, taking Mac along for the
ride, so that he could reach his phone, which was also
on the bedside table. Unfortunately it was just out of
his grasp and Mac had to reach over for it and hand it
too him.

Harm flipped open the phone "Rabb" he greeted.

"Harm it’s me." 

"Sammi?"

"Yeah, I’ve got something to tell you, it’s really
important."

"Well, go ahead then."

"Beckner took emergency leave this morning. Told his
CO that his mother was nearing death and that he
needed to be with her."

Harm rolled to his side so that he could place Mac
back down on the bed; then got up and started pacing
the room.

"Harm, you’ve got to be careful. He’s murdered one
person, I’m sure he won’t have any problem murdering
anyone who gets in his way. Nick is on his way down
there; he may even be there by now. When he found out
you were getting a warrant, he took a couple of his
men and one of the dogs down. Please Harm, be
careful."

"We will, don’t worry Sammi. Thanks for looking out
for us."

"That’s what I’m here for. I’ll talk to you later."

"Harm what’s wrong?" Mac asked

"The magician is back in town, and his new tricks are
killer."

Mac just looked at him, she knew this wouldn’t end
pretty.

 

Nick and his team were outside the McCracken County
Police Station when Harm and Mac arrived to pick up
the warrant. After explaining to their backup what
they were going to do, the caravan made their way to
Beckner’s.

 

0930 CST

Beckner’s Meats and Delicatessen

The police took their position around the building,
and then Harm, Mac, Teri and Nick entered the store.
Upon first glance, it was a relic of a place, a store
from the throwbacks of time, when one stop shopping
supermarkets had never been heard of. Off to the left
was the meat counter, with several cuts of meat of all
varieties on display. Hanging behind the display case
were several country-cured hams, as well as long
trails of sausage links. Another case was filled with
a plethora of cheeses; many were of the international
variety. There were some tables and chairs for
customers to eat at and a warm fire filled the grate
in the fireplace.

A woman of medium height walked in from the back room
with a genuine smile on her face, but seeing all the
military officers it faded slightly, but she returned
it quickly. "Wow, there’s quite a bunch of you. What
can I do you for?"

"Are you Fiona Beckner?" Harm asked politely

"Yes, I am" the woman answered confusedly

"Mrs. Beckner, I’m…" Harm began but was interrupted by
another voice

"Fiona, Honey. Why don’t you go on back to your shows,
I’ll take care of these customers." The voice belonged
to a man just a bit taller than Fiona; he was round
bellied and his pudgy face was red from exertion.

Fiona looked at her husband, then quickly scurried
away into the back of the store.

"How you people doing today? A little early for lunch
isn’t it? No matter, what can I help you with?"

‘Let’s try this again’ Harm thought, "Hi, I’m looking
for Mr. Beckner."

"That would be me. Is there something I can do for
you?"

"Yes, there is. My name is Commander Rabb and this is
my partner Lieutenant Colonel Mackenzie. We are
investigating a death at Fort Knox that we believe
involves your son and we were hoping to ask you a few
questions."

"Sure thing" Gus stated "Just give me a second to
close the store so that no one will bother us." He
moved to the door and flipped the sign, seeing several
police cars out front, he also turned the lock, but
because he was standing in the line of sight of
everyone, no one saw the action take place. "There we
go, now, why don’t we all have a seat and get
comfortable."

Mac was getting an eerie feeling, something wasn’t
right. After she sat down at the table and pulled her
knees underneath, she placed her hand on Harm’s knee
and squeezed it, digging her nails in just a bit,
enough to let Harm know that she was concerned. Harm
moved to bring his briefcase up to the table and while
doing so, caught Mac’s gaze and he nodded his
acknowledgement of the message.

"Mr. Beckner" Harm began

"Gus, please Commander"

"Okay, Gus. Do you remember Susan Bowers?"

"Oh yes, of course. She was such a sweet girl. She
dated my boy for a while, then they broke up before
they both enlisted in the Army. I heard through the
grapevine in town that her parents haven’t heard from
her in a while. Such a shame, I’m sure Rick and Patsy
are worried sick."

Harm nodded and Mac took up the interview "Do you have
any idea where she may have gone, did she tell
anything to Bryan that you know of?"

"No ma’am, not that I know of, he would have told me
if she had. He really loved her, and she broke his
heart when she broke it off."

"That’s what we were told by her parents, Gus." Harm
added, "We were also told that Susan had Bryan’s baby
and that Bryan was pretty upset when he found out."

Gus took a deep breath "Yeah, that’s true" he said
flatly. Not a lot of people know about that. Fiona and
I went to see the child once, but if we can’t be an
actual part of her life, then what’s the point of
going."

"Was Bryan mad enough about the baby to hurt Susan?
Would there have been a reason for Susan to have been
afraid of him?"

"What? Are you crazy lady, Bryan would never hurt her,
he loved her."

"Then why were they consistently seen in arguments and
fights on base at Fort Knox."

"Hell I don’t know. Lovers quarrels maybe?" Gus was
said defensively

"From what we’ve heard from other people that knew
them, their arguments were nothing about love." Harm
interjected.

"Well then I don’t know what they were about."

"So if you don’t know what the arguments were about,
then you may not know if your son would have wanted to
hurt her?"

Gus stared at Mac, but she didn’t flinch "My son
didn’t kill her."

Mac’s features changed appearances and her voice
became calmer "Who said anything about killing her?"

Gus’ gaze fell down towards the left side of the table
"I…uh…just assumed. You said you were investigating a
death at Fort Knox. I just put two and two together."

"You assumed right" Harm looked at him "she is dead.
And we think your son had something to do with it. All
of our evidence is pointing to him. Is there anything
you can tell us that can help clear him from
suspicion?"

"I…I…I don’t know. I just know that he wouldn’t kill
her. He’s not like that, he wouldn’t kill anyone."

"Gus, come on now. He’s in the Army; he’s been trained
to kill.

"Not women"

"What does being a woman have to do with anything? It
doesn’t matter if the enemy is male or female, the
enemy is the enemy."

"And what would make Susan the enemy?" Gus asked in a
huff.

"She had what he wanted" Mac hissed. "She had his baby
and he wanted to be part of the child’s life. When she
said that he only could as a ‘friend’ to the ‘sister’
of Hannah he became enraged."

"You’re talking pure bullshit lady. You don’t know
what you’re talking about, making up lies so that you
can pin this on my boy. This conversation is over, we
have nothing more to talk about."

"I agree" Harm stated "This conversation is over.
However, we have one more thing we need to do before
we can leave."

"And what would that be?" Gus glowered

Harm pulled the search warrant out of his uniform
breast pocket "We need to search the premises."

"Like hell you will!"

"We have a search warrant, *Gus*" Mac hissed "and if
you don’t want to cooperate we have friends outside
that will help change your mind."

"Fine, go! Do what you want. But you can’t take that
dog in the back, it’s against Health Inspector
policy."

"That’s okay, Mr. Bowers" Nick said behind a
contemptuous grin "The Health Department can make
exceptions for the FBI." He pulled out his badge and
flashed it at Gus, then slid the dog’s collar around
the animal’s neck to reveal a similar badge secured to
it. "Excuse us sir, we have work to do."

Harm walked to the glass door and rapped on it with
his knuckle, bringing to the attention of the police
outside that they were moving in to search the
premises. He then motioned to the others and they
filed into the back rooms of the shop. They
immediately came upon the gigantic freezers. There
were long walls of doors that led into frozen cells of
dead animals. Harm opened one of the doors and stepped
inside, after looking around he quickly stepped out
and looked at Mac. "We need someone to stay out here,
in case one of the door closes after us. I don’t want
to get stuck in here."

"That’s fine, I’ll keep guard out here. I don’t like
being cold anyhow" she smiled.

Meanwhile, out front…

Two police officers tried to pull open the door, so
they could enter and keep an eye on Gus while the
search was underway. Finding the door locked, they
began to knock, calling loudly to the man inside to
let them in. "Come on Gus, open up. It’s just us." The
knocking continued but Gus made no move to unlock the
door, he stood behind the counter, checking his cash
register and then his cutlery. The knocking had
stopped, he knew that they’d be in before long though.
He would have to act quickly.

Harm, Nick and Teri searched through the freezers
quickly; the dog was quite useful for this job, though
the humans used their own senses to inspect the scene.
Finding nothing in the first freezer, they moved on to
the next and the next. The last remaining doors were
coming up quickly and still nothing had been found. 

Mac was standing guard when Gus entered the stock
area. "Ma’am, I need to fill an order, but the meat I
need is in this freezer. If it has already been
checked, can I go get what I need out of *my*
freezer?"

Mac eyed him suspiciously "I guess, go ahead."

Gus smiled and nodded and opened the walk in to
retrieve a veal shank. When he returned, he called to
Mac "Would you like to inspect it, to make sure I’m
not hiding anything?"

Mac walked over to Gus and saw that indeed, he did
have some item of meat in his hands. "That’s fine,
take it." She motioned with a wave of her hand.

Gus smiled and nodded. Just then, the frozen shank
slipped through Gus’ hands and fell onto Mac’s foot.
She bent in pain and Gus took the opportunity to shove
her far into the walk in freezer, where she hit her
head on one of the metal shelves inside. "Why don’t
you chill out, Major Bitch." He said gruffly, slamming
the freezer door. Upon hearing voices in the room, Gus
ran and hid amongst the many tables and cutting
devices that cluttered the area. He watched Harm and
Teri leave one freezer and enter the last one. Nick
wasn’t too far after them; he’d stopped outside to
warm the paws of the dog doing the search. The cold
metal of the freezer was quickly becoming an
unpleasant surface for the creature. 

Back out front again, the police had broken the glass
and unlocked the door. Now they were making their way
inside to the storage and freezer areas.

Gus quietly came up behind Nick. The dog was aware of
his presence, but Nick only thought the dog was in
pain. As Gus neared, Nick felt eyes boring holes into
his back and turned to see who was near him. What he
saw was Gus swinging a knife down and into his body,
he could feel the cold metal slice through his now
burning muscles. He felt blood run down his chest and
watched it as it began to soak through his overalls.
He fell to the floor, eyes closed, mouth open, letting
out a gaspy groan. 

Harm and Teri could hear the dog barking, though not
sure why. But Nick was with him, so it was probably
okay. They continued the search, looking under every
piece of meat, or stack of cheese they could find.
They hadn’t found anything, and there weren’t anymore
freezers to search. They turned around to walk out,
but instead found Gus standing behind them, the door
of the freezer shut.

"Well, lookie here. I’ve got two military officers in
my freezer. You two know the best thing about
freezers? You can’t hear anything that goes on inside
of them. No screaming, no nothing. Funny thing is, I
didn’t know that until I threw your pretty little
Colonel inside of one. Oh wait…yes, I did know that.
I’ve known it for about…five years now. I always knew
the Army didn’t care about UA personnel, look how long
it took to get you out here, and the Army couldn’t
even send some of their own people…Lazy asses. Well,
now that I have you in here, what shall I do with you?
I don’t know…shooting you would be too messy. Blood is
a bitch to try to clean up, it so sticky and
everything…just smears all to hell. Learned that when
we were cutting up Susan. Oh…did I saw Susan? Yes…I
did." Gus’ eyes were flaming with evil and he stomped
on the floor three times. As if a porthole to Satan
had been opened, a very well hidden trap door opened
from the floor.

"Commander, Lt. Commander, it’s so nice of you to join
us." Master Chief Beckner smiled. "I know you were
looking for something, so I decided to make it easy on
you." He held up a frozen, blue colored head by the
hair. It was a female head and resembled the picture
of Susan Bowers; it was in fact, Susan Bowers. You
know dad, I think Dewey’s been awfully lonely down
there all by herself, I’d like to give her some
company, some friends to cheer her up. Dewey, Honey,
would you like some friends?" Beckner asked the head
then shook it by the hair in a nodding fashion, as if
the head was answering. "I thought so Sweetie. Well,
here you go…" he threw the head back down into the
trap down and looked at Teri, she began to take
several steps backwards. "Oh don’t wet your pretty
little panties there, you won’t be next, I’m not ready
for you yet…however…" his sinister glare turned to
Harm. 

Harm readied himself for battle, he didn’t want to
die, but he would protect Teri as best he could.
Beckner circled Harm, Harm always following him, never
turning his back on Beckner; though not turning his
back on the one, left him vulnerable to the other. Gus
came up behind Harm and Teri screamed in warning, but
it was too late. Gus yanked Harm’s arms behind him,
thrusting him to the floor. Harm wriggled and twisted,
turned in every direction to free himself, but Gus’
grip was tighter than a hog tie. He slid Harm’s body
towards the trap door and pushed him down headfirst
into the opening. The loud, hard ‘THUD’ of Harm’s body
hitting the floor below reverberated in Teri’s head.
She tried to scream, but it wouldn’t come out, she was
so cold, yet her muscles were contracting and keeping
her warm. Her head began to swim and the room started
to circle around her and she unconsciously fell to the
floor. 

An evil grin slithered across Bryan Beckner’s face as
he looked to his father. "This will be so much easier
than I originally thought."

"Take your time son, enjoy the fruits of your labor."
Gus was proud of his son, controlling the situation
like the man he had taught him to be.

Bryan moved Teri’s unconscious body into a more
secluded area of the freezer, situated behind several
large boxes and a large side of beef hanging from
hooks attached to the ceiling. "Think I can hang her
like that after I’m done with her?" Bryan gestured.

"Son, you can do whatever you want to do." The father
smiled

"I don’t know, they keep pretty good reigns on you in
Leavenworth." Harm said, coming up behind Gus and
cracking a chop to the back of the man’s neck, just at
the base of the skull. Gus fell to the ground, not a
muscle on his body flinching. 

Bryan looked at his father, then to Harm. "Oh, you’ve
asked for it this time buddy. You’re dead." He pulled
a knife out of his pocket and lunged at Harm. Harm
caught the arm of his attacker and flipped him over,
dislocating Beckner’s shoulder. He then tied Beckner’s
hands with a cinch tie he found inside the freezer.
Harm yanked Beckner up by the arms, and the deranged
man yelped in pain. Harm then pushed Beckner towards
the freezer door and pushed it open, using the
emergency escape handle.

Police officers were just entering the freezer area
and took in the sight before them, one man down and
the lead military officer coming towards them, Bryan
Beckner in custody.

"Get this…Scum out of my sight" Harm hissed and one of
the officers took Beckner by the injured arm and he
let rip a spiel of curse words that defamed every
member of the arresting officer’s family. Several
officers were attending to Nick, so Harm ran in after
Teri. She had woken up and was trying to stand,
unsuccessfully. Harm came to her aid and led her out
of the frozen Hell. The only reason he returned to
that particular chamber was to retrieve the frozen
head of Susan Bowers.

 

Nick had been taken away in an ambulance and Teri was
being checked over by one of the paramedics. Harm
walked to one of the police officers "Have you seen my
partner, Lieutenant Colonel Sarah Mackenzie?"

"No sir, we thought she was somewhere with you?"

"No, she’s not with me. I haven’t seen her since we
went into the first freeeeezer." Harm drawled out the
word, remembering that Gus Beckner has said he’d
thrown her into one of them. "Oh My God!" Harm yelled
"Check the freezers, NOW!"

Every able bodied person scrambled to a freezer.
"She’s in here sir" one of the officers yelled.

Harm ran to the third freezer they had checked that
day…how long ago was he in there? How long has she
been in there? He ran inside to see Mac lying on the
floor, a blood trickle down the front of her shirt and
her skin looking slightly blue. "Sarah, Sarah Baby,
Talk to me. Come on, wake up for me, you have to talk
to me Sarah." He scooped her body into his arms and
ran out into the main area. Several officers came at
him with blankets in tow. Harm held her to his chest,
rocking her gently. He unbuttoned his shirt and held
her to his warm skin. He rubbed her back and her arms
and kept talking to her, keeping his warm breath near
her nose and mouth. Her lips were so blue and her body
so cold and clammy. "No Sarah, don’t do this, don’t
give up on me. You are a stubborn Jarhead, kickass
Marine who doesn’t give up, so don’t even think about
it. Come on Baby Girl, I love you, you know that.
Don’t do this to me now, we have so much ahead of us
and I need you there for all of it. Come on Sarah,
wake up for me now." He rubbed her body more, jostling
her muscles as much he could so that they would create
their own heat. 

If his ear hadn’t been near her lips, he would have
missed it, he wasn’t even sure he’d heard it. He’d
sworn he’d heard her whisper "Love…Baby Girl." 

Harm looked down at her, her eyes were still closed,
but some of her color had returned. "Yes, I love you
Baby Girl. You’ll always be my Baby Girl" Harm smiled
and looked at the people surrounding him, whom just
smiled back down at him. 

"Until we have our own baby girl" Mac whispered
through chattering teeth. 

Harm laughed as tears rolled down his cheeks "We’ll
face that when the time comes."

The stretcher had arrived to take Mac to the hospital,
but Harm wouldn’t let her go. He rode with her on the
stretcher in the ambulance, keeping her warm in his
tight embrace.

3 May 2003

Saturday

Paducah Hospital

‘Oh God’ he thought ‘I feel like I was hit by a
truck.’ All he could hear were the whirrings and beeps
of machines, something was suction cupped over his
nose and mouth and it felt like his hand was very
heavy, he could barely feel it, much less lift it. He
pushed his eyes open and tried to see through the
darkness. Over by the window Harm sat in a very
uncomfortable looking chair- he was fast asleep, his
chin to his chest. His arm was draped over Mac’s
sleeping form and her head was resting on his thigh.
Teri was by the door, leaning shoulder to shoulder
against a man he’d never seen before, but by the way
the two held hands, it was safe to assume that Teri’s
fiancée Gate, had arrived. He finally looked toward
his hand, afraid of what he might see…maybe it wasn’t
there, maybe something happened that he didn’t
remember…maybe…his eyes opened wide when he found
Sammi clutching his heavy hand, her cheek resting upon
it as she dozed from her vigil. She was so beautiful-
her cheeks rosy with the warmth of sleep, but stained
from countless tears she had cried. She was a sight to
behold, yet she looked so sad. He freed a finger and
caressed her cheek.

Sammi felt a sensation on her cheek and she pushed
herself out of her sleep. She lifted her head and
looked up and saw Nick’s beautiful blue eyes. "Nicky?"

He tried to reply, but his throat wouldn’t let him.
Using his left hand he pushed the oxygen mask off his
face and mouthed the word ‘water’.

Sammi quickly scrambled to find some water for him,
because he’d been unconscious the nurses hadn’t filled
his pitcher. She came back with a bottle of water and
a straw, then held the ice cold drink to his lips.

Nick tried to lean forward, but the pain in his chest
pushed him back down. After taking a drink he looked
up at Sammi "Hey Sammi Girl" he whispered hoarsely. 

"Hey yourself Nicky" she chuckled as tears rolled down
her face.

"Hey, what are these for?" he reached up and touched
one of the wet droplets with his index finger.

Sammi pursed her lips, and as she thought of her reply
her chest lurched in a silent sob.

"Hey, Sammi, what’s wrong. Tell me" Nick took her hand
in his and squeezed it.

"You almost died Nicky" she croaked out through tears.
"You were slipping away from me as I sat here and
there was nothing I could do about it."

At her next display of tears Nick tugged on her hand
and brought her face down towards his. He kissed her
forehead and tried to brush the tears away with his
thumb. 

She pulled her chair closer to his head, looked at
him, then rested her forehead on the mattress near his
shoulder and began to cry again.

"Shhhh" he soothed, stroking her hair.

She looked up at him with red eyes, a tear hanging off
the end of her nose "You were dying, right here in
front of me. You were going to die and leave me here
to live without you. I can’t live without you Nick. I
need you here. You are the only thing that makes me
happy. You are the only thing that makes me feel
needed and beautiful and loved. I don’t want to live
if you aren’t here by my side Nicky. I love you so
much and without you…I’d be just as dead as you would
be."

"Oh Sam" he reached over and cupped her face. "No
matter what happens, I will always be with you. You
will never be alone."

"I don’t want to be alone" she creaked through a
strained voice.

"And you won’t be. It’s okay now. I’m okay. Look for
yourself, I’m right here in front of you, talking to
you. I’m touching your face. I have a lot of fight in
me- you know that. Besides, I think you are the only
one with enough power to kill me" Nick gave her a
tilted grin, that brought a chuckle mixed with a sob
to her lips. "I love you too Sammi and I would never
hurt you. I’ll fight down to my last breath to come
always come back to you Sammi; I need you in my life
too."

Sammi smiled and raised herself up to where she was
looking down on Nick, and then she leaned forward and
gently, tentatively touched her lips to his. Nick ran
his hand through her hair and pulled her closer to
him, deepening their first kiss.

When they broke apart, Nick looked up at Sammi "What
time is it?"

"It’s…uh…Sammi looked in every direction for a clock,
but couldn’t find one."

Mac, who still had her head sitting in Harm’s lap and
her eyes closed said "1045 CST".

Sammi laughed and looked at Nick "What she said."

"What day is it? Did I miss it?"

"It’s Saturday" Sammi said in confusion "Did you miss
what?"

"The first Saturday in May? Is it May?"

"Yeah" Sammi replied to the strange questions

"I need a phone, where’s my phone Sam?"

"I…I don’t know Nick, probably with your belongings or
something."

"I need to make a call, can you find me a phone?"

Again, she began to look around the room and laughed
when Harm, chin still to his chest and eyes closed,
outstretched his hand to hand her his cell phone.
Again, Sammi laughed through her tears and handed the
phone to Nick.

He dialed a number and excited began to talk "Matt,
hey man I need you to do me a favor. I won’t be able
to make it to the track; will you place my bet for me?
No, I won’t be able to make it at all. Yes I’m sure,
I’m in the hospital in Paducah. Yeah, I’m fine. Will
you place my bet though? Good, I need a $20 Exacta; I
want Wingsaflutter to Show, Pistol Whipped to Place
and you know the one I want to win. Yes, I still want
that one. Will you place the bet for me? I know it’s a
long shot…more like a never in million years long
shot…yeah, I know. Just do it will you? Thanks man.
I’ll talk to you later." Nick disconnected the call
and smiled at Sammi.

"What the hell was that?" She looked at him.

"You know what today is Sam, it’s Derby Day. I was
calling in my bet."

"You’re in the freaking hospital and you are calling
in bets on horse races? And an Exacta bet at that? You
must have lost a lot of blood. You told me never go
for Exacta unless I know for sure it will happen…which
is hardly ever."

"Well, I’ll face the consequences later." He grinned
at her

"So" Sammi crossed her arms and gave him a smirk "Whom
do you have to Win?"

"Oh, a very beautiful horse" he began " his
musculature is sheer perfection and he’s the most
radiant auburn color."

"That’s great, what’s his name?"

"His name?" 

"Yeah, the one you wouldn’t say to Matt."

"Oh, his name…I can’t remember."

"Hm…you must have hit your head pretty hard when you
hit the floor to not remember the name of the horse
you’re betting on a long shot to win. I’ll just call
Matt and see if he knows." She opened the phone to
redial the number

"Wait, it’s coming to me…give me a minute. Oh…that’s
right. The Horse’ name is Samantha’s Beau." Nick
smiled at her with a grin that spread from ear to ear.

Sammi was dumbfounded and just stood there looking at
him. Then she laughed "What an Ass".

"No" Nick shook his head "He’s a horse, they don’t let
Asses run in the Derby."

Sammi just shook her head; he was even a pain the butt
when he’s lain up in the hospital. "Okay everyone, I
know you’re all awake, open your eyes." Four pairs of
eyes opened and looked at Sammi, all filled with
smiles and laughter.

 

24 May 2003

Saturday

Church of the Epiphany

Harm in his dress whites and Mac in a lovely eggplant
colored silk dress, found seats in the pew behind
Nick; Harm shook his hand and Mac kissed his cheek in
greeting. Music began to fill the air and all in
attendance began to watch the bridal procession. Nick
watched every move as Sammi elegantly walked down the
aisle. As she passed Harm, Mac and Nick, sunlight
glinted off her new diamond engagement ring and it
sparkled for all to see. Nick leaned back to whisper
behind him "I sure am glad that Exacta bet paid off."
He smiled a Cheshire cat grin and Harm just patted him
on the shoulder "Way to go Buddy."

Teri was a stunning bride in a beautiful gown of
champagne color. As she and Gate were reciting their
vows, Harm caught sight of Mac as she looked down at
her left hand and rubbed the spot on her ring finger
where wedding rings would normally sit. He placed his
arm around her back and nuzzled her cheek as he
whispered in her ear "Don’t give up hope yet."

She smiled and leaned her head back into his warm
embrace. "I don’t need hope, I have you. You’ve never
broken a promise to me yet, even unspoken ones."

He gave her shoulders a gentle squeeze, placed her
left hand in his and kissed her temple. From that
moment, though the words were unsaid, they both had
devoted their lives to each other.

 

The End

Watch for the concluding chapter, sometime in the
future.