Shuttered Truth

Dónal

Fionn was a fucking hero. I'd no idea how he'd traced the live feed but he had and now we were flying to Norway to bring our girl home. I froze the last scene of the live feed and my heart broke a little. It was clear from Lee's face that she hadn't wanted to kill Niamh but she'd been left with no choice. No-one would blame her for what she'd done except perhaps she would.

Thirty minutes had passed since she'd last spoken to us and I wished we could communicate back with her but it was a one-way link. She obviously believed we were watching and listening.

Her head bobbed and she jumped slightly as sleep tried to take her. She scrubbed her face and then slid off the bed and padded to the far side of the room. There was a tap and sink and she splashed water on her face.

She wandered around the room opening drawers and presses but they all appeared to be empty. When she settled back on the bed she shivered.

"It's getting cold and I can't find anything that looks like heating controls. There are no sheets or blankets or anything I can use. The guys' clothes are covered in..." she dry wretched a few times and then scrambled for the sink where she vomited up what little was in her stomach. She rinsed her mouth with the water and washed out the sink.

How I wished we were there to comfort her. Would she let us be there for her afterward? We didn't want to lose her but all of this trauma might take its toll.

When about ten minutes later her teeth were chattering she must have decided movement was better than sitting still. She knelt up on the mattress and began to swing her arms in wide circles. She was still naked and it was strange to watch her and not be aroused by the strength that was now in her muscles from training with Pavel. She was beautiful, even in her distressed state but my body understood that there was nothing sexual about what I was watching.

She lay on her belly on the mattress and began doing push ups. After a few different exercises and movements she rested and when she began to get cold she went through the routine again.

We'd passed the location to the local Norwegian police but it was a remote site although fully equipped with electricity and broadband and the like. They'd estimated it would take an hour to reach her and so within the next ten minutes or so, someone would turn up.

The seatbelt sign blinked on and the Captain of the private plane informed us we'd be coming into land soon. We were all glued to watching Lee and hadn't spoken for the entire trip.

An offroad vehicle was waiting with a police escort and the five of us piled into it. Michael and Pavel had been granted special permission as part of the international agency cooperation and they'd insisted we were essential to be there also.

The signal for the feed came and went as we travelled but we were only on the road when Leona reacted to sounds outside the room she was in. She ran to the door and began to bang on it and call out.

"Miss Roach, this is Sergeant Haugen of the Norwegian police. Are you ok?"

"I'm in Norway?" she asked and he chuckled a little.

"Yes. Can you open the door?"

"It needs a code and a biometric thumb scan," Lee explained.

"I know it may sound stupid but since this is a rented property the code may be all zeros or number from one to whatever," he suggested and she laughed.

"Shit, I never thought of that."

She worked at the keypad and the system beeped and moved onto the biometric element.

"It was one to eight."

"We can wait for our technician to arrive and dismantle the system," Haugen suggested.

"No, it's ok. I can get the thumb print."

"Do you think they all had access to the door?" Haugen asked and she thought for a moment.

"Yes."

She turned from the door and looked around. Her expression was controlled but her hands shook. She took a deep breath.

"She'll be the easiest to move, I think. I'll use the mattress."

She crossed the room and began shoving the mattress towards Niamh's body.

"You may hear sounds from the body but it will just be gases escaping, ok?" Haugen advised.

Leona rolled Niamh on to the mattress and then dragged it over to the door. She scanned her left hand thumb first and it didn't accept it so then she switched to the right. The door beeped.

The door opened only a crack and a red blanket appeared.

Leona smiled, stepped around Niamh and took it. She wrapped herself in it.

"I'm decent now..." she joked and the door opened fully.

The police officer gestured for her to step out of the room but she backed away.

"I don't want to go where they can't see me..." she whispered and he paused.

"You mean the Vincenzi brothers?"

"Yes, they're connected to this live feed," she motioned to the cameras.

"They're on their way here now," he held up a finger and pulled out his radio. He spoke in rapid Norwegian and the radio squawked to life in the car we were in.

On screen I watched him hold the radio mic up to Leona as she stared into the camera.

"Hello, are you there?"

The driver handed his radio mic to Ryan.

"Leona, it's Ryan...we're all here sweetheart. We're not far away now."

"We need her to leave the scene so we can begin forensic exams," Haugen explained.

"It's ok, honey. Go with the officer, let them do their jobs. You did great," Ryan replied and she blinked at the camera. So strong and yet so vulnerable.

We continued to watch as she allowed the officer to guide her out of the room and for a few minutes as the crime scene guys moved in. Then the feed went black.

I gazed out the window at the passing landscape but could only see Leona's anxious expression.

Another thirty minutes passed and we finally arrived into the local town.

"They've taken her to the local medical clinic where the doctor can check her over and then she'll be taken back to the police station where she can give a statement. You won't be able to see her until all that is concluded so I would suggest you check into the local hotel and I'll contact you when they're ready to release her," Michael explained when we'd all climbed out of the car in the middle of town.

"Will they let you sit in?" Fionn asked and Michael nodded.

"Yes, they're ready to co-operate fully. One of the victims, although killed in Germany was from Norway so they're interested in solving that case."

"You'll take care of her, right?" I asked and Pavel assured me they would. It was strange to think that he wasn't our employee any longer and had no real loyalty to us but I still trusted him.

They headed towards the police station and I looked up and down the street. There was a small café to our right.

"We need to eat," I said and gestured to it.

"I'm not hungry," Ryan replied and looked as if he was going to follow them to the station.

"Ry...leave them to do their jobs. We can be there for her afterwards, right?"

He frowned at me but turned back.

An hour later it was getting more a more difficult to keep Ryan in his seat.

"How long does it take to get her statement. It's all in the footage, what more do they need?"

"Why don't we find that hotel and check in. We can get a drink, maybe?" Fionn suggested but I knew he too wanted to go and be with her. It was what I wanted too but I often found that I had to be voice of reason for the three of us. It wasn't a role I always liked.

We all jumped when Ryan's phone rang. He put it on speaker.

"Hey, it's Pavel. Go and check into the hotel. You won't see her until tomorrow."

"Why not?" I asked.

"They have to follow their procedure and they can't release her until the evidence collected supports her account. That's going to run into tomorrow so they'll hold her until then."

"Hold her? You mean like in a cell, like a criminal? She's the victim Pavel," I hissed into the phone and gained some concerned stares from the other customers. I gestured to the guys to leave the café and we stepped outside.

"Look her account says she shot Niamh. They've found GSR on her hands so they have to check that her version matches what they find at the scene. It's a formality."

"This is bullshit, Pavel," I shouted and began moving towards the jail, "she can't be fucking locked up overnight after what she's been through. She was locked into that room with corpses for hours..."

Pavel must have seen us approaching through the window of the station as he appeared at the front door and hung up.

"Let us speak to whoever's in charge," Ryan demanded and Pavel shook his head.

"You're not going to be allowed to see her and besides she's ok about the overnight thing."

"Yeah until she has nightmares and no-one's there to console her..." I tried to shoulder past Pavel but he blocked me.

"Calm the fuck down, Dónal or they'll arrest you for breaching the peace."

He pushed me back and I moved to go for him but Ryan caught my arm and spun me away.

"Jesus, D, you're supposed to be the calm one," Ryan grumbled.

"Can't we just see her for a few minutes?" Fionn asked.

"No...look it isn't only because of protocol. She doesn't want to see you..."

"What? Fuck no," I exclaimed and Pavel shrugged.

"When I asked, that's what she said."

I stared at the ground trying to understand. She'd wanted to stay connected to us in the room, via the feed, why would she turn away from us now?

"Make sure she knows that we're here, waiting for her," Ryan told Pavel as he turned away. I fell into step beside him but it took all my willpower to leave her there alone.

The next morning we dragged Pavel out of his bed and were at the police station by 8am. Pavel went to speak to the Inspector who was running things.

"So, where is she?" we asked as he emerged. He was frowning.

"Just remember I'm only the messenger, ok?"

"Fuck Pavel, spit it out..." I was quickly going into a full panic here.

"She's already left. She asked to be put on a flight first thing this morning."

"So she's gone home? Without us?"

Pavel shook his head. It wasn't a flight to Ireland but they won't tell me where she went.

Fionn immediately pulled out his phone but Pavel placed a hand on his wrist.

"She asked them to tell you not to try to find her for a little while. She needs space to process things, she said."

"I guess she doesn't trust us to help her," Ryan said quietly, "Can't say I blame her. Look she's alive, that's the most important thing. If she can't forgive us for deceiving her then we'll have to accept that, but she's alive, safe and the serial killer is dead."

He strode away from us back towards the hotel.

"So that's it...it's over," Fionn stated.

What the fuck did we do now? We'd upended our lives to track and stop Callie's killer and we'd done it but what now? And without Leona? I wasn't sure I knew what to do without her. We'd had plans for the club, even if they were partly pretend and she'd been part of them. When I looked back on our lives before Callie had died they seemed empty, pointless. The chase to find the killer had given us purpose, keeping Leona safe gave us purpose so what was our purpose now?