This chapter begins with the time frame after Jax left Brenda’s cottage and the following events from HIS point of view, and then will pick up with the action at Brenda’s cottage with Mac.

Warning: Rated PG for possibly strong language and mild violence

Jax shifted uncomfortably in the driver’s seat of the old car. He glanced down at the dials every once in a while to make sure the thing wasn’t overheating. {D*mn. I’ve got to convince Sean to give V a raise so she can buy a decent car. This thing is the pits.}

For the first few miles after he left Brenda’s cottage, his hands were still trembling on the steering wheel. When he was finally able to relax a little, images began to flood his mind as he drove. He remembered kissing Brenda the first time, when the old couple had driven up. Even with that brief touch, he knew that there was some special connection between the two of them. He thought back to their horseback ride and her face when she came to get him in the woods. He thought of the times they had made love, and his hands gripped the steering wheel as he began to remember the wonderful oblivion he had felt in the aftermath.

Finally shaking his head, he turned on the car radio, pleased to hear that the results of the pathology report weren’t in yet. He had gotten Taggert’s address out of Brenda’s phone book, and wanted to pay the detective a visit before he headed out to Montauk. Jax had no idea where Kavanaugh had stashed the evidence in the cabin, and if he could just get Taggert to clear him, it would save him a lot of time and trouble.

Jax drove to the part of town where Taggert lived, and parked the car about a block away. He carefully made his way to the apartment building, stopping when he noticed an unmarked police car parked in the front. It wasn’t Taggert’s car, but Jax wasn’t sure whose it was.

He checked the mailboxes in the lobby and then went up the stairs to the fourth floor where Taggert’s loft was. As soon as he turned the corner from the staircase, he heard voices. He took the pistol from his waistband and held it ready as he peered around the corner.

There was nobody in the hallway, but the door to Taggert’s loft was open. Jax could still hear the voices, and he crept silently down closer to the doorway.

"Mac doesn’t like the demands you’ve been making lately," a voice said. Jax recognized it as belonging to Alex Garcia, another one of Port Charles’ finest that was on the take from the mob.

"You know as well as I do that Jax probably isn’t dead," Taggert’s whine replied. "And without my testimony that he killed Kavanaugh, Mac’s got squat. I think I’ve been reasonable with Mac, considering my value to his plan."

Jax crept closer, and peeked around the doorway to see Taggert and Garcia nose to nose in the living room. "Yeah, well Mac doesn’t think your testimony is worth quite that much. You’ve still got a lot to learn about police work before you deserve that promotion, testimony or no testimony."

Taggert walked around Garcia and stroked his chin thoughtfully. "You know, I REALLY want that promotion. I’ve been thinkin’ about it so much that my memory has been fading lately. I’ve been beginning to think that I’m not so sure about what I really saw that night in the street between Jax and Kavanaugh."

Suddenly, Jax heard a scuffle and a loud thud. He heard a pistol being cocked and then a surprised gasp. "Now you listen to me, you piece of crud," Garcia’s voice snarled. "You’ll testify that you saw exactly what Mac told you that you saw. Unless you want your career to come to an abrupt ending." Jax quietly looked around the door, and then crept into the doorway. Garcia had pinned Taggert to the floor and was holding a gun to his chin. Taggert looked petrified.

Walking on cat feet, Jax crept into the apartment and placed his pistol against Garcia’s temple. "I think that Taggert’s memory loss is commendable, Garcia. Why don’t you let the man stand up and talk?"

"Jax!" Garcia snarled. "I knew you weren’t dead! I told Mac it was a set-up!"

Jax urged Garcia to his feet with the weapon. He reached around to take Garcia’s weapon out of his hand, but Garcia beat him to the punch and dropped it to the floor. Jax swore softly, and Garcia smiled and reluctantly raised his hands. "Well, who should know better than you and Mac about set-ups, right?" Jax hissed. "Now, I think Officer Taggert here and I should take a nice trip to see some people I know at Internal Affairs and we can straighten out this whole mess." Taggert got to his feet quickly.

"Thanks, Jax," he said. "You seem to turn up just at all the right moments."

Suddenly, Garcia’s body tensed. "He certainly does," he laughed, and caught Jax off-guard by whipping around and punching him in the stomach. Jax doubled over with pain, and Garcia seized the opportunity to knock the weapon out of Jax’s hand.

Jax recovered from Garcia’s punch and launched himself at Garcia while Taggert tried to inch his way toward the open door. Jax and Garcia grappled for a few minutes, and then Jax pulled back and hit Garcia across the chin with a hard right. As Garcia went down, Jax looked quickly for his pistol.

"You won’t get away with this, you cop-killer," Garcia growled, and started to rise to his feet again. Jax, unable to locate his pistol, jumped toward the window and launched himself through onto the fire escape, shattering glass as he did. Garcia hesitated just a moment, which was enough time for Jax to regain his balance and quickly begin descending the ladder.

Garcia looked around for his weapon, found it, and ran to the window. He held it in both hands and aimed, but Jax was obscured by the rungs of the ladder. Just as he had a fairly clear shot, Garcia heard the sound of a window opening on a floor below and a woman stuck her head out just as Jax went by. She screamed, and Jax looked at her, smiled, and continued going.

Garcia cursed loudly as he saw Jax head for the back street behind the building. The woman was still screaming and Garcia didn’t dare call attention to himself by firing at the fleeing man. "D*mnit!" he said, turning back to see Taggert trying to sneak out the door. "Hold it there, Taggert!"

Taggert froze and turned slowly to see Garcia aiming his weapon at his chest. "Garcia, I was only kidding," Taggert pleaded. "I’ll do anything Mac wants!"

"That’s good," Garcia smiled. He scanned the room quickly and was delighted to spy Jax’s police pistol underneath an overstuffed chair. He bent down, took out his handkerchief, and grabbed Jax’s pistol and aimed it at Taggert. Garcia put his own pistol down, never taking his eyes off Taggert, and cocked Jax’s weapon. "I’m really glad you want to cooperate so much with the commissioner, Tags," he said sarcastically. "Because right now, Mac wants you to die."

#~#~#~#

As he got to the Gremlin, Jax stopped for just a second to double over and try to catch his breath. There was little doubt in his mind that Taggert was dead. He had heard the sound of the pistol report as he ran down the street, and he knew that if Garcia found his weapon, he would now be the target of a new frame-up.

As he got in the car and took a deep breath, he heard the distant wail of police sirens. He ground the engine to life and quickly took back streets to get on the highway. {Montauk. Now, it’s your only hope.}

#~#~#~#

Several hours after that, Mac Scorpio was standing in Brenda’s living room, holding up Jax’s blood-stained shirt. "So, exactly who does this shirt belong to, Miss Barrett? And would you care to tell us how this interesting stain got on it?"

{D*MN! Why did I have to go and hide it so deeply in the hamper?! What do I say now? Do I try to make up a story, or do I just deny everything like Blue said?} Brenda hesitated, and then took the plunge. "It’s my grandfather’s," she said defensively. "He was staying with me for a while and he hurt himself out in the barn." She tried to look brave, but she was a quivering mass of jelly on the inside.

Mac looked sarcastic. "Ohh, your grandfather. Would this be the grandfather that Cliff and Mary Wagner said they heard when they were here yesterday?"

"You questioned them?" Brenda asked, indignant that the sweet old people would have had to suffer his questioning on her account.

Mac nodded. "Yep. They also said that you had been in the store several times lately, buying a lot of extra food and medical supplies. I suppose that was because this elderly gentleman was staying with you."

Brenda felt proud of herself. "Yes. That’s exactly right." She was amazed at how easy this undercover stuff was once you got used to it.

Mac’s face turned stone cold. "Brenda, we checked your files. Your grandparents all died when you were a young girl. Even your father is dead." He smiled at her as he saw her face drop. "Now, why don’t we sit down on the couch over there and you can tell me again who this shirt belongs to." He extended his hand towards her couch, and Brenda was grateful because her knees were beginning to shake as he destroyed her alibi.

"What does it matter who it belongs to?" she replied defiantly. "Actually, it’s mine. I wear it because it’s old and big and when I work in the stable I don’t want to wear something good that could get ruined." Pleased with her new fairy tale, she went on. "And the blood stain is a perfect example. I was working in the stable and I ran into some old pitchforks and hurt myself. I just didn’t want Sonny to know because he worries so much about me, and if he found out I got hurt, he would never want me living out here alone again."

Mac sat in a chair and stared at the shirt. "Pitchfork, huh?" He nodded, and then looked up at the trooper who had found the shirt. He handed the shirt to him. "Why don’t we send this to the lab? Then when the blood is analyzed, we’ll have no doubt it’s yours because the blood type will be an exact match for yours, right? I mean, it certainly couldn’t happen to match Jasper Jacks’s blood type, could it?"

Brenda folded her hands in her lap to hide her nervousness. She looked around quickly. "Come on now, Miss Barrett. I’m no rookie just out of the academy. Why don’t you cut the crap and just tell me about Jasper Jacks and where he is now."

"I TOLD you, Commissioner. I don’t know any Jasper Jacks. And I think this asking questions stuff is getting a little old now. Isn’t this what they call harassment? And aren’t I entitled to a lawyer or something?"

Mac looked annoyed. "It isn’t harassment to just ask you some questions, Miss Barrett. And unless I decide to arrest you, you wouldn’t be needing that lawyer." He looked down into his pocket for his notebook. "Of course," he added, looking up maliciously, "I CAN arrest you if that’s what you want. In fact, I probably WILL be doing just that, since I believe that you’ve been harboring a fugitive out here, and now by stalling me, you’re obstructing justice. Care to add to your list of crimes?"

Brenda was beginning to feel very uncomfortable and doubt her abilities to protect Jax for very long. As Mac made notes in his small spiral book, she shifted on the couch. "Anderson!" Mac suddenly barked. "Go out to the car and get me the file on Jax." Mac looked back to Brenda. "I’m sure you’ve been keeping up with the current events around here regarding our fugitive. I just wanted to show you some information I’ve got that might round out your picture of him a little."

Brenda looked around to try to make Mac think she was bored, when in fact she was beginning to get very scared. "Look, Miss Barrett," he finally said in a low voice, "why don’t we stop kidding around here. We’ve got information from your friends the Wagners that says you’ve been buying extra groceries and medical supplies. Jason Morgan’s motorcycle was stolen from in front of your house a few days ago, and Jasper Jacks was spotted on that same motorcycle moments before he was shot near Cooper’s Ravine. We have horse tracks leading out of Cooper’s Ravine, and you own a horse. We also have information from the Wagners that you had a male house guest as recently as yesterday." He looked at her with a withering gaze. "Why don’t you just save us both a lot of time and tell me how long you were hiding Jasper Jacks and where he’s gone now."

"I already told you," Brenda said emphatically, "I don’t know any man named Jasper Jacks. I don’t have any information to give you."

Mac slapped his hands against his thighs in frustration just as the trooper re-appeared in Brenda’s doorway with a large file. "Thanks, Anderson," Mac said, and the trooper disappeared again into her kitchen to look for incriminating evidence.

Mac began to leaf through the file. "Have you ever seen somebody who died from a bullet wound, Miss Barrett?" Mac asked condescendingly.

"I’ve seen bullet wounds," Brenda answered with nonchalance. {Yeah – you have. As of three days ago.}

"Yes, I don’t doubt that," Mac said grimly. "But I mean have you ever seen pictures of someone who DIED from those wounds?" He again looked through his file and pulled out a glossy 8 by 10 black and white photo. "Like….this one, for example," Mac said, throwing the picture on the coffee table in front of her.

Brenda looked at the picture briefly, caught her breath, and then looked away. "Not too pretty, is it Miss Barrett?" Mac asked in glee. "Especially when the wounds are head wounds. Messes up the whole composition of the picture – isn’t that the term you models use for things like that?"

Brenda nodded silently, but Mac went on. "The man in that photo is – or I should say, used to be – Officer Tom Kavanaugh." Brenda looked back at Mac and her face lost color. Mac smiled. "That’s right – Jax’s former partner. That’s what Jasper Jacks did to his partner." Brenda’s eyes began to well with tears. "This is what he looked like after your buddy Jax pumped all the bullets in his pistol into his brain."

"He’s NOT my buddy!" Brenda protested, but Mac would not relent.

Mac continued to look through the file. "Yep. Bullets in the head sure can mess up your hairdo, that’s for sure. Although, a bullet in the chest can do a lot of damage, and cause a more painful and slow death. Did you know that?" He pulled out another picture. "Now, this gentleman was shot in the chest. Care to take a look?"

Brenda turned her head away, but Mac came to sit next to her on the couch. "Does all of this have a point, Commissioner? I thought your fugitive was only accused of killing his partner."

"Ahhh, but we’re only now discovering the extent of his crimes, Miss Barrett. The gentleman in this picture was not directly killed by Mr. Jacks, but by one of his associates in the mob." Brenda swung around to look at Mac.

"What do you mean, in the mob?" She was about to protest that Jax wasn’t in the mob, but caught herself before she made the blunder. "I thought all your precious Mr. Jacks was wanted for was the murder of his partner," she said cynically.

Mac shook his head and pulled out more photos. "Did Jax tell you he was in the WSB, Miss Barrett?" He spread the photos on the table. They showed Jax shaking hands with men Brenda recognized from the weekends she had spent with Sonny at the "meetings" Jax told her were for mob leaders. Another picture showed Jax receiving a large bundle of cash from one of the men. Still other pictures showed Jax with leggy blondes and buxom redheads draped over his arm, sharing drinks and laughing.

"I assume this all has a point?" Brenda said in a shaky voice.

"Jax was in the WSB, but he apparently got a little sidetracked in his vendetta against the mob. They apparently were able to talk him into joining their ranks. He enjoyed a lot of the perks associated with being a part of the organization." He pulled the pictures of Jax and the women out so that Brenda could see them better.

Mac leaned in closer to her. "Did you and Jax make love, Miss Barrett?" She gasped, and he caught it and went for it like a shark drawn to blood in the water. "Did he tell you he loved you?" Mac leaned back a little and pretended disappointment. "It’s a shame we’re not at the station. I’ve got some great audio tapes of Jax and his women. I wonder if he used the same lines on you that he used on them."

Brenda’s head was beginning to swim. {He said he loved me. He said he never felt this way about any other woman. So there must have been other women….} She shook her head to try to rid it of the images of Jax and other women. She rose from the couch. "Why don’t you just stop, Commissioner? This is harassment, and I’m sure it’s not legal, whether I’m under arrest or not. I want you to leave my house, right now. I don’t have anything to tell you." Brenda’s chest was heaving with the effort to try to keep her emotions under control.

Brenda was relieved at that moment when a trooper came in the front door from outside. "Commissioner, you’ve got a call on your cell phone. I think you’d better take it."

"I’m kind of busy right now," Mac said in annoyance to the trooper.

"It’s Garcia," the trooper said quietly. "He says it’s urgent."

Mac inhaled when he heard the name. He went over to the trooper and Brenda sat back down on the couch, exhaling a long breath and trying not to look at the gruesome pictures still spread on her coffee table.

"This is Scorpio," Mac said tersely. He was standing on the landing just inside Brenda’s front door.

"Mac, it’s Alex," Garcia’s voice came back. "Taggert’s dead."

Mac swore softly and looked over at Brenda, who still seemed to be in a daze. He turned to face in the other direction so that Brenda couldn’t hear his side of the conversation. "What the hell happened, Garcia?" he growled. "You were only supposed to scare the guy a little, not kill him."

"I know," Garcia replied, "but lady luck smiled on us today. Guess who just happened to show up as I was trying to convince Taggert to regain his memory. Jasper Jacks."

Mac looked up and his eyes began to sparkle. "Go on."

Garcia was a little reluctant. He wasn’t sure if Mac would be pleased with all the news. "We had a little scuffle, and Jax lost his weapon in the process. Taggert was shot and killed with Jax’s weapon."

Mac smiled. "And you have the perpetrator in custody?"

"No," Garcia answered softly. He heard Mac’s expletive. "He got away before we had a chance to apprehend him." At Mac’s indrawn breath, Garcia went on quickly. "I didn’t want to take the chance of arresting him myself since I would have to explain why I was at the scene. Meanwhile, we have Jax’s prints on the pistol, the ballistics report will show conclusively that the bullets in Taggert came from Jax’s weapon, and we have a civilian witness who saw Jax going down the fire escape and can place him at the scene of the crime."

Garcia could almost hear Mac’s smile through the telephone. "This is getting better."

"We don’t have to worry about a witness who could back out anymore or have a sudden memory loss – or try to blackmail you in the process. And now we have another perfect reason to go with our "shoot to kill" order," Garcia explained.

Mac nodded into the phone. "You’re right, Alex. You’ve done good work on this case. Put out another APB and get back to me when you’ve got any news. I’ll be here for a while yet." Mac ended the call and turned around to face Brenda with a triumphant smile on his lips.

Although Brenda had sighed in disappointment at the news that he wouldn’t be leaving soon, she was happy that the news wasn’t about Jax being captured. When she saw Mac’s sneer, her heart sank. "Good news?" she asked innocently.

"Not really," he replied, sitting down beside her again. "Officer Taggert is dead."

Brenda gasped loudly. "Taggert? Wasn’t he the witness who saw Ja…I mean, Jasper Jacks, kill his partner?"

Mac nodded slowly. "Jax was really sloppy on this one, though. He left his pistol at the scene, and we’re almost certain that when the ballistics report comes back, it will show that Taggert died from a bullet from Jax’s weapon."

"You’re framing him again!" Brenda finally cried, the stress taking its toll on her. "You’re setting him up to take the rap for this murder, too!"

"Miss Barrett," Mac said gently, "we have a citizen who saw Jasper Jacks on the fire escape of Taggert’s building at the time of the murder. How can "arrange" that unless we’ve got a secret twin of his?" As his words sank in and Brenda’s eyes began to mist over, Mac moved in for the kill. "He lied to you, didn’t he? He told you that he didn’t kill Kavanaugh. How many more people are you going to let him kill before you tell me where he is, Miss Barrett?"

Brenda got up from the couch and was breathing heavily, trying to compose herself. Mac was relentless. "We’re issuing another "shoot-to-kill" order immediately." Brenda whirled around at the words and put her hand to her mouth. Mac was gathering his pictures calmly and putting them back in his file. "Jax is a strong man," he said, almost to himself. "I wonder how many bullets it will take to really take him down." Brenda’s tears began to flow in earnest at his tactic. "I mean, our officers won’t be close enough to just put one through his head and make it quick and painless. And you know he won’t surrender without a fight."

He looked directly into Brenda’s eyes, which were obscured with tears. "Do you think maybe four bullets might be enough to kill him, Miss Barrett? I mean, you nursed him back to health, so you know that one little bullet hardly phased him. Maybe if it’s five, or six…." He deliberately let the sentence dangle, almost salivating at being this close to victory.

"STOP IT!" Brenda screamed, putting her hands over her ears. "You can’t do this! You can’t talk to me this way!"

She was almost incoherent, crying and shaking. Mac got up and went to stand next to her. "How about this, Miss Barrett? I’ll make a deal with you. You tell me where he is, and I’ll put out an order that my men are NOT to hurt him. I’ll rescind the "shoot-to-kill" order."

Brenda looked up at him through her tears. She knew how stubborn Jax was. She also knew how strong he was, even recovering from a bullet wound just days before. The mental image of him – staggering through a hail of bullets – kept playing in front of her eyes. "You…you won’t let them hurt him?"

"I’ll tell them not to hurt him."

"You’ll tell them not to shoot him on sight?" she asked in a small voice.

{I love it when a plan comes together!!} "I’ll tell them not to shoot – just to take him alive," Mac answered in a fatherly voice. "I’m the only one who can help him at this point, Miss Barrett." He decided to nail the door shut with one more argument. "Actually, YOU’RE the only who can save his life at this point."

Brenda wrung her hands and paced across the living room. She couldn’t shake the thought of Jax, running through a virtual firing squad. And the evidence against him for Taggert’s death was damning. And then there were the pictures Mac had shown her. Life in the WSB wasn’t exactly for the faint-of-heart, she knew. Most of the agents were – what did they say about James Bond – licensed to kill? But then she closed her eyes and remembered his tender, passionate lovemaking, and the way he had cleansed the cuts on her hands. How could he be a murderer? It had to be a frame-up. But that wouldn’t stop the troopers from shooting first and asking questions later.

"You promise you’ll tell them to take him alive?" Brenda finally asked in a shaky voice.

Mac had to use all of his strength not to jump and down for joy. "Absolutely."

Brenda took a deep breath and then closed her eyes as she spoke. "He’s gone to Montauk."

"Montauk? What’s there?" Mac asked, trying to hide his glee.

Brenda began to shake as she spoke the words, realizing that she was possibly doing the wrong thing. "His partner had a cabin there – some kind of vacation cabin, I think. Jax went there because he thought the evidence he needed was there." Brenda looked at Mac as he was scribbling furiously in his notebook and motioned for her to go on. "I don’t know where exactly it is – just in Montauk."

Mac nodded. "And how is he getting there?"

Brenda decided not to reveal everything she knew about Jax’s allies, just in case he needed them later. "All I know is he took an old car he got from a friend. I think it was green. It was a really old car, dating back to the late ’70’s." Mac looked at her again, and she got angry. "I don’t know how he got it, OK? I just know that’s what was here the morning he left."

Mac nodded again and then rose from the couch to take out his cell phone and dial furiously. "Garcia! This is Mac. I’ve gotten the information on where Jax is headed. Call the state police and tell them to find out where Kavanaugh had a cabin in Montauk. That’s where Jax is. Order out the SWAT team and issue another APB statewide." He looked back over at Brenda. "And Garcia – issue another shoot-on-sight order. Tell them to take him down, no matter what the cost."

Brenda’s eyes shot fire when she heard him. Just as two troopers entered the living room again, she launched herself at Mac and almost knocked the phone out of his hands. "YOU LIED TO ME! YOU SAID YOU WOULDN’T HURT HIM!"

"TAKE HER!" Mac ordered the troopers, and Brenda quickly found herself restrained by the arms between the two officers. She continued to struggle and cry.

"YOU STINKING BASTARD! YOU LIED TO ME! YOU TRICKED ME!" She hissed at Mac and continued to writhe in their arms until Mac was finished with his phone call.

He turned to look at Brenda seriously and nodded at one of the troopers. Brenda felt her arms being pulled behind her and then felt the cold metal of handcuffs being placed on her wrists.

"Brenda Barrett, I’m placing you under arrest for aiding and abetting Jasper Jacks to escape from justice. I’m also charging you with obstruction of justice in the investigation of the crimes of Jasper Jacks," Mac said in a clipped monotone.

"THIS IS A CROCK!" Brenda cried. "You told me we had a deal! You didn’t tell me I would be arrested."

Mac looked supremely bored. "We’ll discuss it all when we get downtown and you can sign your statement." He looked at the one trooper. "Anderson, read her the Miranda warning." With that, Mac strolled out of the cottage, whistling a happy tune.

Brenda didn’t hear anything the trooper was saying to her. She would have sunk to her knees if the other trooper hadn’t been holding her by the arm. She had just condemned the man she loved to death.

To be continued….