Today was the day.
Mark was going to be very busy, so he had tried to sleep as much as he could the previous night to prepare.
He wished he had more time to set the game up and make sure everything went to plan, but with the feds on his ass he would have to take the risk of kidnapping these people without much information.
He went on a coffee run for some of the officers at the department, but the only reason he volunteered was because he needed to get the envelopes from Jill. Around 9am, he pulled into the parking lot of the Homeward Bound Clinic and made his way inside.
The lobby was full of junkies and people that clearly weren't in their right mind. He made his way to the front desk. "Is Jill here?" He asked the receptionist.
She looked up at him. "Not yet Detective. She should be showing up any minute." She smiled at him.
"Okay, thank you."
He decided to sit at a desk in the back of the room. There was a pamphlet sitting on the desk. Curious, he unfolded it and skimmed over it.
Cherish your life.
It brought him back to before Detective Matthews died, when Kerry was found. Rigg had noticed the same saying written in blood on the wall. Amanda had done that. It wasn't planned by John, at least that Mark knew of.
It never sat right with him, what they did to Kerry.
If he had a choice in the matter, he would have let her live. He'd been where she was toward the end; so engulfed in work that it becomes your whole life. But she was a good person. She'd made a mistake with Matthews, but Mark had always judged Eric more because he was married. Plus, he'd seen the way Eric would make the little comments, brush against her intentionally, get her to the point that she wanted him. While in the end, he felt a bit bad for Eric, he was much more deserving then Kerry.
He glanced up and noticed that Jill had walked in. She intervened with a small group to calm down a stressed out woman before noticing him.
He saw her shock and slight annoyance. Jill tilted her head toward her office, indicating to follow her. He did, tossing the pamphlet back on the desk and following close behind.
She unlocked her office and took her purse and coat off, hanging them on her coat rack. "I didn't expect to see you here so soon," she said. Mark closed the door.
"Change in plans. The game begins tonight."
Jill looked at him in confusion as she put her lab coat on. "Why?"
"Because somebody knows about the box that shouldn't."
He hadn't told her specifically who it was the last time they had spoken, so naturally the first question out of her mouth was: "Who?"
Mark's patience had grown thin. "That's not your concern. All you need to know is that from now on, I control all aspects of the game."
"That's not what John wanted," Jill said, fixing her collar.
He looked at her for a moment. After some more thinking, the question of enlisting in her help had gone out the window. It was fine. He didn't trust her much anyway, especially because she was so ready to sell him out to Abby. He didn't care what John wanted. He was the one having to deal with this while John was peacefully laying in a coffin underground.
This was his gig now. And it was almost over.
"Give me the envelopes. And that's not a request," he snapped.
Jill hesitated, then made her way over to her filing cabinets. She grabbed the stack of envelopes and carelessly flung them onto the table between her and Mark. he spread them out, counting five envelopes in total.
"Is that all there is?"
She nodded. "Yes."
"From now on, I work alone," Mark said. He didn't want her finding out about Erickson and Perez being on his tail. He'd gotten what he wanted out of her. Strahm was dead. There was no reason to work together anymore, especially because neither of them wanted to be involved in the first place.
"I know," Jill said. "I'm only carrying out John's final request."
He wasn't sure what that meant, but he immediately retorted with: "Well John's dead. And his work is almost done."
Mark pulled out a black and white picture of a man in his car from envelope 1. "Who's this?"
"Unfinished business."
Mark said nothing before putting the picture back in the envelope. Gathering all of them, he said: "When I'm done, we no longer speak."
Jill didn't respond, annoyance in her expression. Mark was surprised she said nothing of Abby, but he didn't have time to worry about that. He made his way from her office.
He had a lot of work to do.
_________________
Abby heard a knock on the door as she was doing the morning dishes. She turned the water off, dried her hands, then hurried to see who it was.
Jill.
She opened the door, unable to hide her surprise. "Hey Jill. Is everything okay?"
Jill nodded, smiling. "Yes, everything's fine. I just wanted to stop by on my lunch break."
"Oh, well okay," Abby said. "Come on in. Do you want anything to drink? Coffee? Tea?"
Jill did, setting her purse down on the island as Abby closed the door behind her.
"Would tea be too much trouble?" She asked, taking a seat at the island.
"Of course not. I'll turn the water on now."
Jill watched Abby as she filled the tea kettle with sink water and put it on the stove. She turned the burner on, then made her way back over to her friend.
Abby brushed her bangs from her eyes and smiled at Jill, sitting down on the stool next to her.
"How are you doing lately?" Jill asked her.
"I'm okay," Abby replied. "Just been kind of doing my own thing. Mark has been basically MIA for a while." She chuckled, but there was clear pain in her eyes that Jill picked up on.
"Oh really?"
Abby sighed. "Yeah. He says he's busy at work."
Jill nodded. "His job does require a lot of time, but you seem unsure."
Abby picked at her thumbnail as she thought of a response. "I don't want you to tell anyone that I'm talking about this, but I feel like I really need to get it off my chest."
Jill pursed her lips, then pressed her lips together once again, nodding. "What's going on?"
Abby ran a hand through her hair. "Well, I just don't really know what to think. Mark doesn't know this but I met up with Peter Strahm and had a conversation with him. I don't know what you know, but Strahm is a suspect in the case right now. I just have such a hard time thinking its him. He seemed like a really decent guy. But I know you said he was following you? Ugh, I just don't know."
Jill said nothing at first, eyebrows slightly raised in surprise that Abby had met up with Strahm.
"And Mark... I don't know if you and Peter just got in my head... but I'm just really worried that he's not who I think he is."
Abby had begun tearing up, but wiped away her tears before they could fall. "He's always been so great to me, but the more I think about it the more things aren't adding up."
Jill listened, then took a deep breath. "Well, there's a lot of confusion right now. Strahm is missing and once he's found, maybe we'll get some answers." She looked down. "I do know that Mark wouldn't hurt you. He cares about you."
"I know... and I don't want to be the nosy significant other, but I feel like I need to actually start checking in with the department to see if he's at work. He comes home late almost every night and leaves early all the time. Last night he tried to make me feel better, but I'm just having such a hard time believing him."
They sat in silence for a moment.
"Well... I think you should do what you think is best. It's nosy, sure, but when he's being secretive it's understandable. But I don't know." Jill sighed. "I'm sorry for everything."
Abby waved her off. "It's okay."
The kettle had begun to whistle, so Abby quickly got up and took it off the burner. "Chai or..." Abby checked the other box of tea. "Blackberry Citrus?"
"Chai please."
"Okay."
She poured two cups worth of water, then put the tea packets in. She set one of the cups in front of Jill, then sat back down, bobbing the tea packet in the water.
Jill seemed on edge, even sad. Abby blinked. "Is something wrong?"
"Well..." Jill laughed, as if nervous. "There's something I have to do later today that's really stressing me out. It's something I'm not allowed to talk about, but I've never had to do something like this before." She sighed.
"Is it work related?" Abby asked, blowing on her tea as she listened.
"Kind of... it'll be good in the end, but I'm nervous about how it's going to affect other people."
Abby had no idea what Jill was talking about, but she tried her best to give her some advice.
"Well, I can't really help much if I don't know what it is, but is it something you want to do?"
Jill thought to herself, staring off into space for a moment. "Yes."
"How would it hurt people?" She attempted to sip her tea, but it was too hot. She reeled back, but Jill didn't notice as she continued to speak.
"It'll upset them for a bit." Jill looked at her. "But it's not to hurt them. I can't avoid doing it either. Someone else is telling me to do it, but people will most likely be upset with me because I have to... implement it."
"Maybe you could explain that to them?"
"I don't know," Jill said, shrugging her shoulders in defeat. "We'll see."
Abby set her cup down and put her hand on Jill's. "Hey, you'll be alright. And so will I. Eventually things will get better."
Jill nodded. "You're right."
Abby pulled her hand away and smiled softly.
"Sometimes I can't believe John did what he did."
Abby shifted, slightly uncomfortable. She could tell Jill was feeling very emotional. "It really is crazy. I don't want to pry... but did you ever see it coming?"
"No... I didn't." She said, meeting Abby's eyes. "He was a good guy. He was my Mark, if you want to put it that way. He was a bit older than me, but he was so smart and caring and he treated me like a queen. I couldn't help but fall for him."
She wiped away a tear that had fallen.
"You know, it really sucks that he ended up doing those things because now you're the one paying for it."
"Yeah, tell me about it," Jill said, taking a sip of her tea.
Abby sipped her tea as well.
"Sorry, I guess we've both had a lot on our mind lately," Jill said.
Abby nodded. "Yeah, we have."
Jill stayed for a little longer, but had to go back to the clinic.
Abby cleaned up the tea, then decided she wanted to take a nap. She walked into the bathroom, searching for her phone. It had been in there, but as she was walking out, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror.
She had filled out slightly, but still stayed very petite. She was wearing one of Mark's t-shirts, a dark green one that reached mid thigh. She avoided looking in the mirror most of the time because she didn't recognize herself.
Now, as she looked at herself, she recognized herself in the way she looked when she was scared. That was all she had felt for most of her life, and now it was back.
Abby shut the bathroom light off and crawled into bed.
She had a bad feeling about today.
THE DAY OF WILLIAM EASTON'S TEST