As James examined the book his mind wandered back to Julie.
"Why weren't you supposed to tell me our cases were linked?" asked James.
"Honestly, we thought you were a suspect. I don't mean for that to sound offensive Tom. It's just that ... I know you were close to Julie at one time," said Summers as she collected the crime scene photos and replaced them in the file.
"She was my first," said James as he stared blankly away from her. His expression then quickly changed to one of question. "Wait, how do you know that Julie and I were close?"
"From the items we collected from her home in Los Angeles."
James' detective mode took over as he tried to push away his emotions from being the victim. Losing a teenage crush was one thing, but losing your first love was another. He had to force himself to take control and not lose sight of the fact there was a serial killer walking the streets of San Francisco.
"What sort of things?" James inquired.
"You name it and it pertained to you," said Summers as she located a list of items from the file on Julie Jackson.
"Can you be a little more specific?"
Glancing at the list, Summers began to rattle off several of the items, none in any particular order. "I wouldn't know where to begin, but she had photos, newspaper clippings about cases you worked on. Oh and the diaries she had written about you, they go back as far as 1969."
James was stunned. He was astonished that Julie had been so interested in him that she would follow his life and career. "Anything else?"
"Anything else? Isn't it clear she worshipped you? Under different circumstances I would say this borders on stalking."
"There has to be a reason, Agent Summers. Yes I admit we were in love at one time, but that was a very long time ago. And if she truly was interested in me, why didn't she attempt to contact me? It's not like she didn't know where look."
Summers nodded in agreement. "That's true, but perhaps she had a reason for keeping her distance."
"What possible reason would she have? I'm not married, I've got no kids. It's not like there was anyone in the way."
"Yes for you, there was nothing in the way, but maybe she felt there was something or someone keeping her from you."
The comment caused James to seriously pause. He wondered if someone had been keeping her from contacting him, who could it be? And why? James felt for a moment he had the answer, then it slipped away from him as Summers broke his concentration with her next question.
"Just exactly when was the last time you can absolutely say you saw Julie Jackson, Inspector James?"
"That sounds like the kind of question you ask a suspect, Special Agent Summers," said James with an indignant tone.
"It's the same question you would be asking me if the situation were reversed."
"It was at her mother's funeral," said James.
"You were still in a relationship then?"
"No, we had broken up long before then. Her mom and dad divorced around the time we were both 17. Her mother had become a drunk and her dad just couldn't put up with it anymore, so he moved away to Hollywood. Julie, felt obligated to stay and look after her mom."
"What happened?"
"Her mother's drinking had become all consuming and Julie had to drop out of school. She worked two jobs just to pay her mother's bills. We began to see each other less and less. She really didn't have anytime for a boyfriend anymore and I understood, but I still couldn't help but feel abandoned. I made several attempts to do things for Julie that would help her stay positive. In the end it only seemed to annoy her. Eventually she got sick of her mother's constant abuse and moved to Hollywood to be with her dad."
"She just left you without a word?"
"No, she was very honest and upfront with me about her decision to leave San Francisco. She said she couldn't stay and watch her mother drink herself to death. As much as she loved me, she said she needed a new life in another place."
"And this new life didn't include you," added Summers.
"Exactly, so she decided to kill our relationship and bury it along with her past."
Summers raised an eyebrow. "Kill? That's an odd way to describe the end of your relationship with Julie."
"Odd or not. It's how I feel about it. Felt about it," James said decisively.
Gathering her notes and photos, Summers placed them back into the case file. She could tell James was still bitter about not being given the chance to share a life with Julie Jackson. "It may be none of my business Inspector James, but for what it's worth I can tell you she regretted letting you go. She regretted it for the rest of her life."
The comment hung stale in the air, catching James off guard.
"How can you know that?" he asked with a tone of pain in his voice.
"I'm a woman, and a woman just knows. But if you want a more defined answer, then the obvious should be apparent to you. She kept diaries about you, followed your career. I think it's safe to say Tom, she never stopped being in love with you, and you with her," said Summers as she attempted to show him she was sympathetic to the situation. "At least that's my two cents worth."
James nodded in agreement.
"You're right," he said wiping a tear from his eye. He pulled his wallet from his inside jacket pocket and removed a worn out faded photograph of Julie and himself taken shortly after they began dating. Warming to her sympathy, James shared the photo with her.
"This was us back in December 1969. Our first Christmas as a couple." Summers took the photo and looked at their stolen moment, frozen in time.
"Thank God for Polaroid's, huh?" she said trying to lighten the mood. She handed it back to James and watched him look deep into his past.
"I want to get whoever did this to her. Can you help me catch them?" asked James not looking up.
"Yes, I can. And I will," assured Summers.
"What do you need from me?"
"I need you to go to Hollywood with me and visit Julie's home."
"There is no way I can go. In case you haven't noticed, Ashton, I'm in the middle of a series of murders that belong in a Stephen King novel."
"I won't disagree with you there. But I'm FBI and our cases are linked, I'll get my director to speak with your captain to get you cleared for a couple of days."
"This whole thing is insane, but maybe you're right. Maybe the key to all of this begins with Julie," said James. Then he remembered a hitch in the plan—Summers wasn't supposed to inform him about why she was there.
"None of that matters now. The writing on Kirkland's wall makes it clear that the two cases are connected. Listen Tom, I'm going to contact my director now and tell her I'm taking charge of your case so our office can secure Kirkland's home for evidence."
James readily agreed as he turned and looked back at the home of his best friend. Summers stepped away to call her director. James once again looked at the evidence files Summers had on Mabel Normand, Taylor and Julie. He couldn't bring himself to look at the Black Dahlia photos. The thought of someone doing such horrendous things to Julie turned his stomach and tore at his emotions. Instead he tried to focus on the book that was found by the store manager. As he looked at the spine of the book he noticed the author's name for the first time—Aleister Crowley. He felt as if he knew the name, but wasn't sure why.
James' attention was broken by the arrival of a plain looking sedan pulling into the driveway. Two men dressed in business attire stepped from the car. Summers completed her phone call and met with the men. She spoke briefly to them and they nodded in agreement at whatever instructions she had given them.
"Okay, Tom, let's go. I've got you complete clearance by the Bureau. We are taking over the case all the way back to Amanda Carlyle. We need to get back to your department and my director will meet us there. She'll smooth over any bumps you might have with your captain and inform her we need you in Hollywood for the next several days."
James and Summers climbed into his car and began to drive back to the station.
"Under normal circumstances, I would have fought this every step of the way. But actually I'm relieved to let someone else take the lead. So you said you need me to go to Julie's home, haven't the police already searched it?"
"When your name came up and I discovered you were a detective I knew I was going to have to interview you. So I had the place secured and no one else has been allowed to do a search without me present. Getting you to search it with me was imperative," said Summers as she rolled down the window letting the cool breeze billow through her hair.
"Why?" asked James.
"If I miss anything, any detail, I'm sure you will catch it. No one knows Julie better than you do, Tom."
"Don't be so sure, I haven't seen her in over 13 years and we were only together for five."
"But you were in love with her. And that never goes away."
James sighed as he stopped at the red light. His face was showing a slight agitation at the agent's confidence in his dedication to a faded love.
"You act as if by my going there with you I'm going to find some secret message she left for me to help solve her murder."
"I'm counting on it," said Summers when suddenly her face was sprayed with hundreds of beads of broken glass. The small diamond-shaped shards flew across from the driver's side window pelting her chest, arms and face. James gripped the steering wheel tightly as he tried to control the car while it spun in a half circle. The passenger side slammed into a parked car on the side of the road. Dazed, Summers, looked across at James who was shaking the bits of glass from his hair when she saw the grill of Hummer H2 coming directly at his side of the car.
"Tom LOOK OUT!" she screamed as the grill smashed into his door, sending more glass her way. The chrome grill looked like the teeth of a giant sized predator. The driver's side door began to buckle from its hinge. The heat from the roaring engine felt like a blast of angry, hot breath. James tried to gather his wits as he heard Summers screaming, but it sounded foreign to him. It was then he realized it wasn't Summers at all but the driver of H2. Looking to his left James saw two women glaring down at him with sinister smiles. Both girls were spattered with blood, cuts and bruises. The driver was wearing a black tank top. A wisp of brunette hair covered her right eye. For a moment he could have swore she winked at him as she gritted her teeth and gripped her own steering wheel. The passenger was dressed in a white shirt that that was sprayed with blood and exposed a bare left shoulder. Looking at the two of them, James would have believed he was suffering from double vision. Had it not been for the different colored shirts and hairstyles the two girls were wearing, he would not be able to tell them apart.
The driver screamed at him and then turned to the passenger and screamed at her. James couldn't understand what was being said, but whatever it was he knew he was in serious trouble as the girl in white raised an automatic weapon from her lap and pointed it directly at him. The girl in black revved the engine of the H2 and it lurched forward pushing his car into the parked car again, locking it into place.
"GET DOWN TOM!" screamed Summers as she fired a series of shots from her gun. The gunfire was earsplitting as James moved out of the way. The shots passed through the now non-existent drivers side window and cracked the windshield of the H2.
"GO!" commanded Summers. James didn't wait. He slammed his foot on the accelerator. White smoke and shrieks of metal screamed as he tried to free his car. A sudden barrage of loud pops echoed as a succession of holes began to appear in the hood of his car. Summers raised herself through her window and took aim at the females opposite of her in the H2. She fired another several shots, which caused the H2 to back up enough for James to get free. Summers locked eyes with the two girls.
"Oh Jesus, Devonia and Tarista Baranova," she said as she recognized the sisters.
Tarista raised her feet up and kicked them into the cracked windshield forcing it to split and bend. Summers knew she only had seconds before the shooting would resume. Summers ducked back down inside and reloaded her automatic. The sudden sound of machine gun fire erupted blasting glass in all directions from the hood of the Hummer.
"Call for backup!" shouted James.
Summers reached for the radio and saw it had been shot up in the initial volley of bullets from Tarista's M-4 assault rifle. It was useless.
"It's no good Tom, get us out of here before they hit us again."
James pressed his foot all the way to the floor, causing the car to screech as metal ground against metal causing sparks to fly between them and the parked car. Within moments they were free and driving. James was heavily disoriented and completely uncertain of which direction he was driving.
"What the hell just happened?" shouted James.
"Give me your gun and drive!" commanded Summers as she looked out the back window. She saw the H2 spin its wheels and start to give chase. She knew the Crown Victoria was no match for the Hummer. The only hope they had would be to either out drive or out run them.
"Whatever you do Tom, don't stop!"
Summers slid the bolt on her automatic and leaned out her window again taking two quick shots at the H2. Devonia accelerated the Hummer and quickly caught up with the Crown Victoria. Her black leather boots glistened as she gunned the foot pedal causing it to ram the Crown Victoria each time she pressed down. This gave James and Summers the feeling they were being kicked. James pushed the Crown Victoria hard as he watched the Hummer fill the review mirror. Dodging the on coming traffic, James was forced to slam on his breaks. This gave Devonia the chance she needed to catch James and Summers. He looked into the rearview mirror again and cringed seeing the Hummer approaching fast.
"Ashton, get back inside!" shouted James as he punched the gas again and swerved the Crown Victoria around the right side of the car that had been blocking his escape. Devonia drove the Hummer across the lanes of traffic knocking the smaller cars out of her path as if they were toys on a kitchen floor. Now she had the Hummer directly along side of the Crown Victoria. She slammed the H2 against the side of the Crown Victoria. James and Summers felt the bucking of the attack. The only thing he could do at this point was to try and fight back with his own car. James swerved the car into the side of the Hummer. Both cars bucked and sparked in the middle of downtown traffic. Tarista looked down at James with her M-4 pointed directly at him and slowly licked her lips suggestively.
James knew there was no way he could win this fight. It was only a matter of time before the Hummer crushed them or Tarista shot him dead. He had to think fast. Looking ahead, he realized the car was approaching Leavenworth from Green. This was his chance. James slammed on the breaks and then took a hard left onto Leavenworth darting behind the Hummer and drove north trying to put as much distance between himself and their attackers as possible. Devonia slid the H2 on Leavenworth putting the black and chrome behemoth up on two wheels.
"Come on you bitch—flip!" cheered James hoping the chase would end as abruptly as it started. His grin faded as he watched the H2 land hard back on all four wheels. James then had to focus on his own stretch of road. He pushed the engine bringing the speed up to 75 as he cut in and out of traffic shooting past the intersections of Union and then Filbert.
"They just turned left back at Filbert," said Summers as she watched intently through the back window.
"I've got three choices here, stay on Leavenworth, take a right on Greenwich or left at Lombard," said James.
"It's your city, and you just passed Greenwich," she said.
"Someone wants one of us dead pretty bad to take this kind of risk," said James as he quickly decided to take a left onto Lombard Street. Summers immediately recognized the crazy twisting street from dozens of movies. James navigated the narrow road expertly as he drove the Crown Victoria in the opposite direction the way one street had been intended for.
Both James and Summers kept a look out for the Hummer as the Crown Victoria climbed the steep hill leading them to Hyde Street where James hit the brakes.
Devonia punched the accelerator to the floor as she saw the damaged Crown Victoria appear at the top of the hill. Tarista gripped the trigger of the M-4 automatic. Her eyebrows narrowed as she lowered her eye to the scope and placed the stock against her blood-covered petite, bare shoulder and took aim.
James and Summers looked at one another as they tried to decide which way to go when what sounded like a spray of gravel began knocking against the side of the car.
Summers looked up as she saw the H2 coming at them full force.
"Brace yourself!" she screamed as the Hummer slammed into the nose of the Crown Victoria causing it to lift up and land back down on the hood of the Hummer. Devonia gripped the gear with a bloodied hand. She locked the gear down into four-wheel drive and pushed the accelerator, causing the rear tires to spin dirt into the air. James and Summers could feel the Crown Victoria rising higher.
"Oh my god, Tom they are trying to turn us over on our top," said Summers.
Tarista screamed curses at the two of them in a language James recognized, but didn't understand. Summers reached across the front seat and slammed her foot on top of James's foot trying to keep their leverage by driving into the Hummer. Both vehicles ground into one another as their rear wheels spun. The H2 had the advantage as its front two wheels gave it more traction. Suddenly the Hummer pulled away and the front of the Crown Victoria landed hard nose to nose with the black beast. The engine died as James and Summers found themselves staring face to face with Devonia and Tarista. Both sisters turned to one another and smiled as Tarista removed the clip from the M-4 and found a replacement. Before she slid the clip into the gun she seductively licked the top bullet running her tongue down the length of it stopping only long enough to look up and blow a kiss at James. For the first time James got a good look at both of them. He stared silently at them as they stared at him. Summers looked back and forth between James and the girls, in the distance she could hear approaching sirens.
"You know them, don't you?" she asked.
James nodded he did as Summers slowly passed him back his gun.
"Just say when," she whispered to him as she watched Devonia stare her down while revving the engine of the Hummer. Tarista bashed out the remaining glass of the windshield with the stock of the M-4. Sirens closed in as the four watched each other intently. Devonia reached up and pressed a button that caused the sunroof to slide away as Tarista chambered the magazine.
"You take the tires and I'll try to hit the engine block," said James as he clicked off the safety of his gun.
"You got it," replied Summers.
"Ready?" he asked.
"Let's do it."
James raised his gun and began firing directly into the grill of the H2 sending sparks in all direction off the chrome front. Devonia punched it and the Hummer went into reverse to James's surprise. Before Summers could lock on to the tires, Devonia had the vehicle back into drive and coming at them with all the force the Hummer had. James quickly put the car into neutral as the H2 slammed into the nose of the Crown Victoria sending the car reeling backwards down Lombard Street.
"Hang on!" shouted James as he tried to get control of the car. The Hummer slammed into the Crown Victoria again batting it around like a cat toying with its prey. Tarista rose up and appeared through the sunroof aimlessly firing the machine gun back and forth, spraying bullets across the body of the Crown Victoria. Relentlessly the Hummer rammed them, twisting and pushing the car sideways down Lombard till the front hood of the car clipped another parked car and rolled up on its side, leaving the bottom of the car exposed to the H2.
Constant popping and holes exploded all around James and Summers as Tarista emptied the M-4 into what was left of the Crown Victoria. The shooting suddenly stopped but the revving of the Hummer's engine was loud and clear. James tried to twist himself from behind the wheel. He could hear the sound of the Hummer pulling away, which meant Devonia was about to ram them again.
James suddenly heard a siren blare past him kicking dirt into the air and then another.
"Ashton, we gotta get out of here!" he called but there was no answer. James looked down and saw Summers was unconscious. It was then he smelled the gasoline. He fumbled with his seatbelt to get free. As he clicked it open, he dropped from the drivers seat and landed on top of Summers. He checked her pulse and, to his relief, she wasn't dead. He was startled by two officers reaching through the missing windshield.
"Hurry I don't know how long we can keep the Hummer off of you," said one of the cops.
"Get her first, the fuel line is leaking," said James.
The two officers quickly pulled Summers free of the Crown Victoria. James made no effort to hesitate, quickly climbing out as the two officers carried Summers to the safest spot they could find. Looking back up the hill, James could see two cruisers attempting to keep the Hummer busy while he and Summers escaped. More cruisers came and more shots were fired. James couldn't tell now if they were the police or if it was Tarista shooting. He then heard Summers voice call his name. "Where's Tom?"
"I'm right here," he said as he came to her side. Summers looked up at him. "What happened?" she asked.
"RUN!" someone shouted at James, Summers and the officers when the H2 slammed into what was left of the Crown Victoria sending it the rest of the way down Lombard and into the intersection of Leavenworth where an oncoming semi slammed into the wreckage. A fireball shot into the air sending debris in all directions. Incredibly, the Hummer remained on all four wheels. The windows were shattered, the doors scraped by road rash. Officers converged on the Hummer surrounding it with their guns drawn. The driver's door creaked loud as Devonia stepped down defiantly. Tarista pushed open her door and also stepped out. Like Devonia she showed complete defiance as the two of them slowly raised their hands in the air and in unison they turned their heads directly at James and smiled.
"Where do you know them from?" asked Summers.
James swallowed hard, "From Hell."