The Memory Agent & Fool Me Once (16 page)

The feds car
pulls up to a safe house in a quiet neighborhood way outside of the city and
parks in the driveway behind another fed car.
  
The two feds get out of the car and escort Jillian
into the house.

Inside the
safe house Jillian and her two escorts join two other feds.
 
One of the feds already in the house is
Christopher.
 
Christopher is
Jillian's age, and extremely
good looking
.
 
He'd be the leading guy in any other
girl's life, but not in Jillian's.

Christopher’s
eyes widen with interest as soon as he sees the lovely Jillian.
 
He stands up and approaches her.
 
“Hello.”

“Hi,” Jillian
answers politely.

“I'm
Christopher.
 
You have nothing to
worry about Miss March.
 
And you
certainly could be Miss March.”

“Not an
original line, Christopher.”
 
The
three other feds share a smile off of Jillian’s quip.

“We’ll take
good care of you,” Christopher promises.

“I had good
care at the police station,” Jillian says missing Derek.

“Miss March,
we're going to need you to look through some photographs to see if you can
identify Congressman
Reynold's
killer,” one of the
feds instructs.

“What was the
Congressman into?” Jillian wants to know.

“What wasn't
he into?” Christopher laughs.

One of the
feds shoots a “shut the
ef
up” look at Christopher as
he professionally responds to Jillian’s question.
 
“We're not at liberty to discuss the Congressman's
extra-curricular activities.”

Outside of the safe house Knox's car parks down the street.
 
He gets out of the car and looks
around.
 
He texts
the information to Bosovich.

In the port
warehouse Bosovich receives Knox’s text.
 
Bosovich addresses his gunmen.
 
“The witness is under the protective custody of the feds at 114
Whitfield Road.
 
I want six guns
there tonight.
 
Leave no witnesses
alive.
 
Use silencers.”

It’s now
evening.
 
Inside the safe house
Jillian sits at a table looking through binders of photographs.
 
Empty pizza boxes are piled on the
table.
 

Christopher
finishes up a slice of pizza and takes a swig of soda.

Jillian closes
a binder.
 
“I don't see him.”

“Are you sure
you got a good look at him?
 
It was
dark,” Christopher asks.

“Yes, I got a
good look at him.
 
I'll never
forget his face,
”
 
Jillian
says as she touches the watch.

“What's with
the watch?
 
You keep touching
it.
 
Does it have special
meaning?”
 
Christopher inquires.

“Yes it does,”
Jillian smiles as she thinks about Derek.

Christopher
waits for Jillian to elaborate.
 
She doesn't.

“Well, anyway,
we've got a couple of more binders to go through,” Christopher tells her.

“Can I finish
this in the morning, I'm pretty tired.”

“Sure.
 
I'll show you to your room.”

“I'm good
thanks,” Jillian stands up.
 
“Good
night.”

“Sweet
dreams,”
Christopher
offers as Jillian heads upstairs.

One of the
feds teases Christopher.
 
“I'd give
it a rest,
probie
.
 
It's been eight hours and she hasn't warmed up to your
charms.”

“She will,
”
 
Christopher
boasts.

Upstairs,
Jillian enters her room.
 
She looks
out the window hoping that Derek might be
there
watching.
 
She doesn’t see him, or
anyone.
 
She lies down on the bed
and touches the watch.

Outside of the
safe house, hidden down the street, a jeep is parked.

Inside the
jeep Derek drinks from a large cup of coffee while keeping his eye on the
house.
 
Having gone over
twenty-four hours with no sleep, he's pretty exhausted.
 
He dozes off.

A couple of
hours later, in the middle of the night,
Bosovich's
six men quietly approach the house.
 
One of the men has no trouble taking out the fed guarding the house,
shooting him in the back with his silencer.

Inside Derek’s
jeep, Derek instinctively snaps awake - just in time to see the dark figures
moving near the house.
 
He radios
for backup.
 
“I need backup at 114
Whitfield Road now!”

He hustles out
of the jeep,
unholsters
his gun and runs towards the
house.

At the house,
Bosovich's
men enter.
 
The one fed downstairs manages to radio for help and take out two of
Bosovich's
men.
 
Four men are left.
 
They
kill the fed.

The four men
head for the stairs.

Upstairs,
Christopher rushes into Jillian’s room.
 
He wakes her up.

“What's going
on?” She asks groggily.

“You need to
hide.
 
Quick!”
 
He shoves her under the bed.
 
The remaining fed gun battles with
Bosovich’s
men, killing one of them before he gets
killed.
  
There are three
gunmen left.

Christopher
holds the men back from the bedroom area, engaging in a gun battle.

Derek rushes
into the house.
 
He dashes up the
stairs but is surprised by one of
Bosovich's
men.
Derek easily disarms the man, but the man knocks Derek's gun from his
hand.
 
Derek and the man engage in
a fist battle.

Upstairs,
Christopher is forced back into the bedroom by the onslaught of
gun fire
.
 
Christopher manages to kill one of the two gunmen.
 
But the second gunman gets the better
of him and shoots Christopher dead.
 

Jillian sees
his body fall to the floor, his dead face facing hers.
 
She holds her mouth to keep quiet.

Back by the
stairs, Derek snaps the bad guy’s neck and drops the limp body on the floor.

In Jillian’s
room, the one remaining gunman looks around.
 
He looks under the bed, sees Jillian, is about to shoot her
when Derek enters the room and shoots the gunman dead.

“Jillian,” Derek
calls out.

Jillian crawls
out from under the bed and runs to Derek grabbing him in an embrace.
 
“Thank God you're here!”
 

He hugs her
tight to calm her shaking.
 
“It's
okay.
 
You’re okay.”
 
And she feels it, feeling secure in his
broad embrace, finding comfort and safety.

Derek looks at
the dead bodies and makes a judgment call.
 
“Let's get you out of here.
 
You're staying in my protective custody from now on.”
 
Jillian is relieved to hear this.

Outside of the
safe house Derek and Jillian hurry to his jeep and get in.
 
Derek drives down the street, turning
the corner just as more feds and cops arrive.

Inside Derek’s
jeep Jillian is up front in the passenger seat.
 
She looks at Derek, noticing that he’s pretty banged
up.
 
“Are you okay?”
 
She asks sincerely concerned.

“I've been in
worse fights,” he shrugs.
 

Derek makes a
call on his cell-phone, “Captain Harris, I’ve got Jillian March.”

Back in
Captain Harris’ office, Captain Harris talks on the phone with Derek.
 
“What the hell is going on, Derek?
 
I just got word that four feds and six
perps
are dead.”

Derek, in the
jeep, continues the phone conversation.
 
“The witness would be dead if I hadn't shown up.
 
There's got to be a leak somewhere.”

“Probably on
the fed side, no one in our station knew where she was going,” Captain Harris
responds. “Where are you now?
 
Where's the witness?”

“She's safe
and with me,” Derek tells the captain in their phone call.
 
“And she's staying with me.”

“This is the
feds case, Derek,” the captain warns.

“And look how
well they've handled it,” Derek quips.
 
“If the leak is with the feds, she can’t go back with them.”

“You need to
bring her in,” the captain orders.

“Once we get
the leak and identify the murderer.
 
Until then, she's in my care.
 
I need you to back me on this, captain.
 
Please.”

“This could
cost you your badge.”

“Worth it to
keep a witness safe.”

“To keep
that
witness safe you mean.”

“What’s that
supposed to mean?”
 
Derek asks
defensively.

“The only
times I’ve ever seen you smile, Winton, was last year on April first and this
year on April first.”

Derek hangs up
on the captain, ending the call.
 

Inside the
police station Knox has been watching the captain talk on the phone.
 
When he sees the captain end the call
in frustration, he approaches the captain’s office.

“What's going
on?”
 
Knox asks the captain.

“The feds
protecting the witness are all dead.”

“And the
witness?”

“Winton has
her.
 
She's safe.”

“That pussy
sure has nine lives,” Knox quips.

“What the hell
are you doing here so late, Knox?”
 
The captain asks.

“Following up
on a lead in my drug case,
”
 
Knox
snips.

Knox turns his
back on the captain
mouthing
"fuck me" as he
walks away.
 
Knox sends a text
message to Bosovich.
 
“The
cunt
is still alive.”

Inside the
warehouse Bosovich receives the text from Knox.
 
Like a madman he violently hurls his phone at one of his
men; the phone nails the guy in the face breaking his nose and breaking the
phone.

Bosovich
composes himself as he instructs the man he just hit in the face. “Go get me a
new phone. Now!”

*****

Outside of a
mom and pop motel in the middle of nowhere, Derek’s jeep pulls up and parks in
the back next to the farthest room away from the street.

Derek and
Jillian enter the room.
 
There are
two beds in the room.
 
Derek double
bolt locks the door.
 
He checks the
windows to make sure they're
secure
and locked and
closes the curtains.

“I bet you're
pretty beat,” he says to Jillian, becoming completely aware that he’s alone
with her in a bedroom.
 

“Me?
 
I've gotten some sleep in the last
twenty-four hours.
 
How about
you?”
 
She asks concerned because
he looks exhausted.

“Sleep's
overrated,” Derek quips.

“Are you
married to your job, detective?”

“Let's just
say I'm dedicated to it.”

“I'm still
alive thanks to that dedication,” Jillian responds, with a great deal of
emotion and gratitude in her voice.
 
“Your dad would be very proud.”

Derek
appreciates her comments with a warm smile.
 
There’s an awkward moment between them as their eyes
lock.
 
The desire is there for both
of them, ready to erupt, but Derek has to keep things professional, he can’t
afford to let his guard down.
 
“We
both better get some sleep,” he begrudgingly suggests.
 

Jillian
understands
,
she crawls under the covers on one of the
beds.
 
“Good night, detective.”