Willow dejectedly set down the list Tara had compiled, rubbing the back of her neck. “The only female agent who worked with both Buffy and Spike before our suspect was transferred moved to Texas a year ago. The number of agents gets a little bigger if we’re looking at a period of time after the transfer. Four of those are still in the Baltimore area. Unfortunately, one of agents is currently on maternity leave, one now works for the Baltimore PD, and the other two are sitting in this room.”
“What if it wasn’t someone from work after all? For all we know, it could be this guy’s girlfriend or something,” Anya pointed out, disappointed that they had hit yet another brick wall.
Willow frowned as she mentally reviewed her phone conversation with Buffy. “I don’t think so. She was pretty sure that it was someone from the FBI, and she hasn’t been wrong yet.”
Tara held out the phone. “Best thing do to is call her. Maybe she can fill in some details for us.”
Willow dialed and promptly hung up when Buffy’s voicemail picked up. “It’s going straight to voicemail. With Dawn out of town she never turns her phone off.”
“She could just have a bad signal,” Xander suggested. “Let’s not go jumping to conclusions and race over there. Drusilla gets skittish real easy.” He stood up and reached for his coat, responding to the inquiring glances, “I’m tired of all this waiting and doing nothing. I’ll head back to the office and see if the lab’s found anything out. While I’m there I’ll pull this guy’s phone records and see who he’s called recently.”
Anya jumped to her feet and hurried to follow Xander. “I’ll go with you and talk to Jack. Hopefully he can give us a little more insight into who we’re dealing with.”
Xander flung open the door and stopped abruptly. “Harmony!”
“Jack’s ditzy assistant?” Willow shook her head in disagreement. “Nice guess, but I don’t think so, Xan.”
Xander stepped backwards and gestured towards the open doorway. “No, she’s here. With Jack,” he clarified. He and Anya led the two visitors back into the living room.
Willow and Tara scrambled to their feet to greet their boss. Willow glanced down at her laptop and quickly closed the case in an effort to hide her hacking exploits from her superior.
“Xander and I were just coming to see you, sir. There’s been another breakthrough. Buffy found a box of pictures and deduced that our killer’s got an accomplice here in Baltimore,” Anya resumed her position on the couch and handed Jack the list of female suspects.
Tara watched in fascination as Harmony gulped and licked her lips nervously. She slowly moved forward and studied the apprehensive blonde. “It’s you, isn’t it?”
If possible, Harmony paled even more and shrunk back. Jack turned to smile at Tara. “That’s why I’m here. I caught her trying to steal the lab reports off my desk. She told me everything.”
“What exactly was your part in all this, Harmony?” Willow queried, pen poised over her legal pad.
Harmony shifted uncomfortably before speaking. “Forrest overheard Spike turn me down for a date and took me out to dinner. He told me that once Buffy was out of the way, Spike would be mine. Of course we couldn’t get rid of her right away, though, because my Blondie Bear would’ve gotten too curious,” she started.
“Blondie Bear?” Xander mouthed across the room to Willow, who just shrugged her shoulders.
“At first it was just easy stuff like taking pictures and listening to Buffy’s phone calls. After the transfer, he had me give him weekly updates. I sent him my invitation to Spike’s retirement party. It’s not like I had a date or anything anyway. I found out where they kept the evidence from the Moore case and took all of it. You have no idea how gross it was. There was still blood on one of the knives. Forrest wanted me to plant Spike’s fingerprints in the evidence but I couldn’t do that to my platinum baby,” she continued, her voice gaining strength. “When I told him about Buffy’s possible promotion, he was furious. He taught me how to forge the paperwork to get him transferred back here. Once the promotion went through, he came up with the plan to ruin her life. The rest you know.”
“You could have just called us about her. What brings you all the way here?” Xander asked, sensing there was more Jack was hiding.
The senior agent sighed and ran a hand over his balding head. “He didn’t come in to work today. I had them send two plainclothes officers by his apartment and it was empty. We’ve tried calling his cell but there’s been no answer. We tried to get the phone company to track his location but they can’t when the phone’s off.”
Tara slapped a hand over her mouth as her mind began working in overdrive. “Oh my God, S-spike and B-b-buffy,” she stammered.
Jack looked around the room curiously, as if just noticing their absence. “Where are Devereaux and Summers?”
“They went to Drusilla Moore’s house to see if they could get any information from her. We figure the two of them are involved somehow,” Anya responded.
Harmony lifted her head, her red-rimmed eyes hesitantly meeting Jack’s. “Drusilla’s not here anymore. After Buffy went to see her, she disappeared. Forrest was really, really mad when he found out.”
Upon seeing the alarmed expressions on the faces of his best agents, Jack quickly took command, setting up a team to surround the Moore house. No one was to make a move until Jack and the rest of the team arrived.
Anya volunteered to ride with Jack and Harmony while Xander drove Tara and Willow to where their friends were being held. After making sure that Jack was following, Xander glanced over at the worried women beside him and smiled encouragingly. “They’ll be all right. It’s Spike and Buffy, they always come out all right.”
Buffy blinked twice and slowly lifted her aching head. A quick mental inventory showed that the only injury she’d suffered was the one to the back of the neck. It took a moment for the room to stop spinning long enough for her to get a good look at her surroundings. A huddle in the far corner of the room instantly caught her attention.
“Spike,” she whispered hoarsely. There was no movement from the body in the corner. She tested the bonds that kept her hands tied behind her back, discouraged that there was no slack at all. She bit back a curse as a bright light flooded the room.
“So nice of you to join us Agent Summers,” a deep, menacing voice resonated from somewhere behind Buffy.
“Give it up Gates, I know you’re the one behind all this,” Buffy called out, not bothering to hide her frustration. Her head was throbbing, her shoulders were beginning to ache and she was worried about her partner.
Special Agent Forrest Gates slowly circled Buffy’s chair, his face void of emotion. “Somehow I knew you’d be the one to figure it out, Summers. You always were too observant for your own good.”
“And you’re too damn egotistical for everyone else’s,” Buffy retorted angrily. “The others know it’s you, too. When we don’t show back up, they’re going to come looking for us. Game’s over.”
Alarm momentarily flashed across Forrest’s face. “I still have enough time to kill you.” He stopped walking and turned to face his blonde captive. “How does it feel to know that your family’s dead because of you?”
Buffy closed her eyes to hold back the impending flood of tears. She bit her lip, hardened her resolve, and stared at the agent. “They did not die because of me. They died because you’re crazy.”
“See, that’s where you’re wrong, Summers. They died because I had to ruin your life the way you ruined mine,” Forrest corrected.
“I saved that little girl’s life,” Buffy insisted. Her eyes strayed to where her fallen partner was starting to show signs of life.
Following her gaze, Forrest pulled out a stun gun and shocked Spike back into unconsciousness. “Because of you, I was reassigned to a field office in the middle of nowhere. I had to leave behind my family all because some overconfident little girl thought she’d brown nose her way to the top. Because of you, I wasn’t here to take care of my mother when she got sick. Because of you, I didn’t get the promotion that would have paid for her health care. Because of you, she died alone in a third-rate nursing home.”
Buffy tore her eyes away from Spike to glare at the killer. “Don’t blame me for your mistakes, buddy. You were the one overlooking evidence and ruining the investigation. I wanted to make sure no one died because of your carelessness. It’s not my fault you’re incompetent.”
“Incompetent?” Forrest’s eyes widened slightly. “Do you have any idea how much planning went into this? It was a work of pure genius.”
Buffy sighed in irritation. “Is this the part where you tell me what your genius plan? Why don’t you just shoot me already?” She watched in horror as Forrest reached into a dark duffel bag and extracted a long handled hunting knife. Her throat constricted when she recognized the slightly curved upswept blade that Drusilla had used to stab her years before.
Forrest grinned maliciously as he examined the blood stained blade. “Look familiar, Summers? I know bullets would be neater, but this just screams poetic justice. It was the beginning of the end for you and Devereaux, wasn’t it?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Buffy bluffed. She quietly tried to work her sweaty wrists through the knots of the rope. She gasped in pain when the coarse rope cut through the delicate skin of her wrists.
Forrest, so intent on the knife and the memories behind it, missed Buffy’s gasp. “When Devereaux chose Dru over you. Chose to let that murdering whore go rather than help his loyal partner out. That had to hurt, didn’t it? I bet it hurt almost as much as knowing that one of your fellow agents sold you out.”
“I didn’t sell you out,” Buffy stated through clenched teeth. “You were a disgrace to the FBI. I did what any self-respecting agent would do.” She could hear the distinct wail of swiftly approaching sirens and let herself relax slightly. A quick glance up at Forrest indicated that he’d heard the sirens as well.
“Forrest Gates, come out of the house with your hands up,” Jack instructed through a loud speaker.
Buffy smirked slightly. “Time’s up.”
“All it takes is one second,” Forrest smiled, slowly moving towards his prisoner.
Buffy struggled harder with the bonds. The thick rope was coated with her blood and sweat. “You’ll never make it out of here alive.” Jack repeated his command and Buffy could have sworn she heard the sounds of faint footsteps.
Forrest seemed unaffected by her assertion. “There’s sewer access in the basement. While they’re still trying to wake up sleeping beauty over there I’ll be long gone.” He smiled menacingly before finishing. “And then, when everyone’s standing around mourning their fallen hero, I’ll take care of your pretty little sister, too.”
“Stay away from Dawn,” Buffy snarled, surging to her feet. She began frantically trying to work her hands free.
“Sit down, Summers,” Forrest ordered. When Buffy did not do as instructed, he set down the knife and picked up his bureau issued revolver. The gun was aimed at Spike’s still back. “I said sit down.”
Buffy’s stomach twisted at the gunshot that reverberated through the small room filling her nose with the acrid stench of gunpowder. She didn’t dare look at her partner for fear of what she might see. After one last tug, her right hand slipped out of the knot. She quickly divested herself of the rope and gauged the distance to where the knife was laying on the floor.
“Agent Gates, put the gun down,” Xander instructed from the doorway, his own gun drawn. There were five agents visible behind him.
Forrest swung the gun towards Xander, his finger on the trigger. Buffy lunged forward knocking the rouge agent off balance. There was a brief struggle as the two battled for control of the weapon. Willow slowly crept across the room, unnoticed, to check on Spike.
There was a muffled pop of a gunshot followed by another shot and the struggled ceased abruptly. Xander, Tara, and Anya rushed forward to lift Buffy off Forrest. A red stain was blossoming across the murderer’s chest. Tara kicked the gun out of his grasp and checked his pulse. “He’s dead,” she confirmed gravely.
“Yours or his?” Xander gestured to the blood soaking through Buffy’s shirt. His concern grew when she sagged against him.
“His, I think,” she mumbled weakly, her energy rapidly dissipating. “Why’s it so cold in here?” She rolled her head up to stare at Xander with glazed, unseeing eyes.
“We need a medic, NOW!” Xander shouted towards the front of the house. Afraid of causing her any more harm, he gently set her on the ground. The blonde’s eyes were closed, her breathing shallow.
Having heard the call for an ambulance, Jack rushed into the room. He stood in the doorway and quickly assessed the situation. Willow was attending to an unconscious Spike while Xander and Anna hovered over a deathly pale Buffy; Tara stood beside Forrest’s lifeless body. Once the shock wore off, he raced forward and knelt beside Buffy. Sighing in relief when he got a faint pulse he turned to Willow, who nodded to indicate that Spike was alive. He stood and turned to Xander, his brow wrinkled in curiosity. “What the hell happened here?”
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