At headquarters that evening, Agent Bryant, Nick and AJ sat around the large table in the debriefing room, talking over a dinner of ham and cheese sandwiches. They'd been analyzing the evidence most of the day after saying good bye to Agent Focque, who had left to catch her plane to take care of her other case. Well.. at least Nick and Bryant had been looking at the evidence. AJ was just eating and listening, though Nick had thought he'd seemed distracted most of the time, despite his insistence that he was paying attention.
"We'll head to Germany to see the crime scene there when Agent Focque gets back," Bryant said, gnawing off a mouthful of his sandwich. He chewed a couple times before he continued, "We should wait for her because she said she hasn't seen it yet, either."
"I was thinkin'," Nick said, putting his sandwich down on a paper plate that sat in front of him.
AJ coughed, "You shouldn't do that... Burning important brain cells there."
Nick squinted his eyes at AJ, then continued, turning to Bryant. "Has anyone checked to see who Lorriane came home with that night?"
Bryant paused, putting his sandwich down, too. "What?"
Nick poked at his sandwich, pulling pieces of the crust off. "Well, she had those crazy ass locks all done up right? And there's no way anyone could've got through that without like breakin' down the door or bustin' up the wall or something, sooo.... whoever killed her, had to have gotten in there because she let them in. So has anyone seen who she came home with that night? Maybe she was partying and the murderer was at the club or whatever and picked her up that way."
Bryant mused, "I thought of that, too, actually, but according to the file the investigators originally assigned this case asked the manager of the hotel and he said that Paris requested nobody film her pent house area. There's a big plant covering the view of the penthouse elevator doors, so you can't see who, if anyone, Lorriane brought up to the room, and there's no cameras from that point on up to the room. They felt it was secure enough since there's only one elevator that goes up there and Paris is the only one who has the key, other than whoever is staying in the room, that is... Supposedly."
Nick shook his head, "No, I know there's a security camera up there somewhere, I know there is." He paused, "At least in the elevator and the little foyer there."
"How do you know that?" Bryant asked, confused by Nick's definitive tone.
Nick's face flushed, "Well.." he'd kind of hoped this wouldn't come up. "Paris got it off her computer when we were staying there... she didn't want it to show up online."
Bryant's eyebrow went up, "Security issue?"
Nick cleared his throat, "Uh, sure."
"Yeah there was some major security issues. On the elevator." AJ supplied with an evil smile, recalling Nick's panicked phone call when rumors hit LiveDaily that the tape had leaked. "But ya'll took care of those issues really well, didn't you?"
Nick glared at AJ, "Shut up."
"Oh. THAT sort of security issue, I see," Bryant laughed, shaking his head knowingly, "Well, isn't that interesting."
"She's like that bug that has sex then eats the partner," Nick said hotly.
"Praying mantis," AJ supported, popping the last bite of his sandwich into his mouth.
Agent Bryant laughed. "Well, okay then. So how do we get the tape, Oh Experienced One?"
Nick paused. "...Paris would know." He hated bringing her back into this again, but... it was in the name of justice, so who was he to obstruct it? He got up and grabbed his cup off the table and filled it with water in a pitcher on a table by the door.
AJ sighed, "She's still waiting for her okay to renovate," he reached over casually and took Nick's sandwich while he wasn't looking. "She called me this morning." He took a bite out of the sandwich.
Nick turned around, returning to the table and sitting down quickly, looking at AJ. "She CALLED you?" he cried, "What? WHEN?"
"When I was in the room with I----" AJ stopped. He'd almost said Ivana. Thank God, he'd caught THAT before he said it. "I... I don't remember her name, actually."
Bryant rolled his eyes, "Oh good God, you two are just full of sexual sins, aren't you?" He leaned back in his seat and rubbed his forehead, then looked up at Nick. "Wait a second. If he was in doing it with some girl... I got you two the same hotel room. Where the hell were you?"
"AJ locked me in a janitor's closet," Nick answered, glaring at AJ again.
"She was hot," AJ offered as though this were a viable excuse.
"In a janitor's closet?" Bryant laughed, "Is that how we get rid of him?"
"It's one of many possible options," AJ answered with a smirk as Nick let out a strange whiney sound.
Bryant sat back with a sigh and began chewing on his sandwich thoughtfully as AJ polished off Nick's sandwich, and Nick realized his was missing. He lifted the plate up and looked under it, as though the sandwich could hide under there, then glanced side to side at the floor and over his shoulder at the table where he'd gotten the water from. He looked puzzled. "Where the hell is my sandwich?" Nick asked, confused. AJ shrugged.
"Well," Agent Bryant said after a moment, pausing to wipe his mouth with a napkin, "I guess we have to give Miss. Hilton a call, then." He tossed the napkin over Nick's head and into the garbage bin on the opposite side of the room like he was Michael Jordan or something.
-----
Luckily, AJ hadn't deleted his incoming calls list just yet and they were able to get Paris's cell phone number from there. Bryant was the one who made the call. Paris's ringback tone was her own song, Stars Are Blind, and Bryant raised his eyebrow. "Self-centered much?" he whispered.
"Hey sexy," Paris answered after a few moments of her song playing.
Bryant blinked in surprise, "Good evening, Miss. Hilton, this is Agent Bryant, FBI-New York."
"Oh hi," she drawled out, "Can I start the rendition yet?"
Agent Bryant responded slowly, afraid she wouldn't want to help them if he didn't okay the renovation. "Well.. I wasn't calling about the renovation just yet," he said, "I actually need some help from you before we can give you the go ahead on that."
Paris sighed. "Okay, anything to get the okay quicker. What do you want?"
"Well.. we need the security tape from the penthouse the night Lorriane was killed. Nick said there was one."
Paris laughed, "Oh he did, did he? That's hott." She paused, "Yeah. I can get the tapes... They're on my computer, though. Is Nick's email still the same?"
Bryant covered the mouthpiece, "Nick, what's your email address?" Nick started to reply, but before he could, there was a banging sound, followed by Paris's high pitched scream, and the phone dropped to the floor. "Paris???" Bryant asked, his hand flying up to cover Nick's mouth to silence him. "Paris???" His adrenaline spiked. "Miss. Hilton?" But no answer came, all he could hear was muffled speaking, but nothing was loud or clear enough so that he could understand it. "PARIS?" Then he heard a gun shot, followed a few moments later by shattering glass. "PARIS??????????"
A moment passed in silence on the other end of the line. AJ and Nick both wore concerned faces, staring at Agent Bryant with widened eyes. Bryant's heart raced. What had he just witnessed over the phone? But then Paris's voice came over the phone, thick with emotion and warbled with pain. "Help me," she pleaded.
"Where are you?" Bryant asked hurriedly, "I'll call the emergency team."
"London," she cried, "Hurry, please, I'm so scared." She started sobbing.
Bryant covered the mouth piece of the phone, "Nick, go tell Raquel to call the London emergency unit and the FBI-UK and get them to the penthouse of the Hilton."
Nick turned and quickly ran out of the room. AJ's face was pale. "Is she okay?" He hated the girl, but not so much he wanted to see her die.
Agent Bryant didn't answer AJ, though, instead, he turned away and returned to talking to Paris. "Where did he shoot you?"
"In my hotel room," Paris replied through her tears.
Bryant took a deep breath, reminding himself she was hurt... and blonde. "No, I mean, where in your body did he shoot you?"
"Oh." Pause. "My leg."
Well, Bryant thought, at least it's not a deadly shot. The attacker wasn't trying to kill her. "Nick's calling the emergency team," he said, then he paused and thought for a moment. "Paris, what did the attacker look like?"
"All white," Paris said, "Like a ghost or something. And he had a mask on. One like that guy in that movie... The plastic guy."
"Darth Vadar?" Bryant asked.
"Yes, yes," Paris sobbed, "Yes! And then he went out the window."
Bryant felt bad pressing her while she was in pain, but he needed the information. Only injuring a victim was a highly unusual thing for the Masquerade Murderer. Every other person had been brutally slaughtered. "Did he say anything?" Bryant asked.
Paris moaned in pain, then said, her voice sharp and gaspy, "He said to .. to back off, and next time he'd have better aim and I'd be sorry if I didn't."
"What?" Bryant was confused by the cryptic message, "What's that supposed to mean?"
"I don't know, I don't know," Paris sobbed.
Nick burst into the room, "They're almost there," he told Bryant.
"Paris," Bryant told her, "Nick said the emergency team is almost there. When they get there, you tell the EMTs to save the bullet, okay?"
"I'm scared," Paris confessed, crying.
"I know," Bryant answered, "But if you want me to solve this case, I need the bullet."
Paris sniffled, "Okay."
Bryant paused. "Paris... didn't you have the door locked?"
"Yeah," Paris answered.
Bryant bit his lip, "How did he get in, Paris?"
Paris paused. "I... I.. I don't know."
Saving the Day for Blondes 2: The Amazing Story of How Nick Apprehended The Infamous Masquerade Murderer Without ANY Caffeine In His Body! by Pengi
