His ears rang and his side hurt like hell. That was Greg's first coherent thought as his bruised brain awakened. Through the blurriness that he called his vision, he saw Jolie slumped in the passenger seat. Without thinking, he jerked his right arm towards her to see if she was all right, but stopped short as a burst of pain shot up his body.

"Jolie," he whispered. Her head turned slightly to the side and he exhaled in relief. His brain then switched to calling for help. The crash must have alerted someone, but his rational thinking had not kicked in yet. Greg attempted to move his body so he could grab the radio. His left arm did not send as much pain blasting through his body as his right arm, so he stretched towards the radio. His fingertips brushed the communication device that earlier had sat by his side, ever faithful, but now it seemed to stare at him mockingly. His head throbbed and he closed his eyes for a moment before forcing them open again. Falling asleep again would be the only thing worse than getting knocked out in the first place. He could faintly hear cars honking and he was 57% sure someone was yelling.

Then he felt someone right beside his head. A few shards of glass rained down on his torso. He could feel their breath on his neck, and he kept his eyes open at the floor. Gun, gun where's the- there! His left arm was lying on his stomach, but he was sure moving would attract the strange person's attention. Finally, he felt the hot breath move away and he jerked towards the gun. His body, held back by the seatbelt, didn't budge. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the man moving in front of the windshield toward the other side of the car. His eyes widened and he forced his right arm to stretch. The pain shot up his arm once again, and it felt as if a burning knife had just sliced through his entire arm. Greg was partially surprised that he didn't see blood dripping down his arm.

His fingers traced the gun's edges, but couldn't get a grip. The seatbelt refused to budge. The strange man had gotten to Jolie's side and attempted to open the door. Neither Jolie nor the door budged. Greg thanked whoever was listening in his mind and continued to reach for the gun. Somehow, Jolie's window had remained mostly intact, probably because the car had rammed into the driver's side. Greg had no idea how he was alive, and then he tried to move his leg.

That was his first mistake, as it caused him more pain than it would seem for a woman giving birth. His second was screaming in pain. The man looked up and saw Greg's face upturned in a grimace of pain. A moment later, Greg's brown eyes met the man's green eyes; they were flashing from all of the adrenaline.

Greg forced himself up on his side and tried to reach the radio again, but stopped when he saw that the man was holding a gun to Jolie's head.

"You move and she dies." Greg thought it was funny that the man wasn't wearing a mask. Then the realization dawned on him that the man didn't expect him to survive.

With this thought rolling through his head, Greg lurched forward and grabbed the thing that was closest to him. He felt a cold handle fit into his hand, and he leaned back and pulled the trigger before the stranger could react.

A blast of heat exploded onto the gun as it jerked back into Greg's hand. His arm instantly fell to his side, throbbing more painfully than ever. As he stared at the floor of the bar, certain that this was where he would die, or at least pass out, from the torrential pain, he felt a hand cradling his cheek. Greg slowly moved his head up to see Jolie looking down at him with all the love in the world. Her eyes shone, and their brilliance took Greg's glance away from the cuts on her face.

The police sirens brought his mind back to pain, and he gritted his teeth and dropped his head. Jolie wrapped her arms around him, careful not to aggravate his arm. She didn't dare look at what was on the pavement behind her.

Greg heard someone calling his name, and felt a gentle hand on the back of his neck. The scent of lemons wafted into his nose.

"Sara," he breathed.

"Greg, you're going to be alright. C'mon, let's get you out of here so Jolie can leave as well." Considering Greg could only move the left side of his body without feeling immense agony, the process of extracting him from the car was a painful one. Jolie had ended the experience with a broken ankle and a concussion. As soon as she was out of the car, she said a prayer thanking whoever it was that had allowed their car to be immobile when the crash had occurred, and that because it was an intersection, the other car had not been going as quickly as it could have been.

Catherine walked around to the other side of the demolished car, but had to do a double-take. Lying in his own blood before her feet, a bullet hole beside his nose was Roger Simm.

"Nick, you're in charge until I get back." Her eyes were wide and unblinking.

"Cath, where're you going?" Nick turned to his colleague with a raised eyebrow.

"I've got a hunch."

The office was quiet when Catherine entered it. It was a nice change from the pale-faced secretary that kept telling Catherine that "Mr. Simm was out at the moment, but he'll be back shortly." It was almost like she was a record player, parroting back everything that Roger had most likely told her to say.

"Ms…" Catherine had squinted at the receptionist's name tag. "Ms. Carlson, Mr. Simm is dead. He isn't going to be back at all." She had walked past the secretary whose jaw had fallen all the way to the floor.

The office was sparkling clean, the exact same as when she had last been here. Except this time, there was no unctuous man sitting behind the grand, mahogany desk. She hurriedly put on her latex gloves and opened the top drawer in the desk. Empty. The one beneath it contained nothing but some pencils and a few pieces of paper.

There's no way Robert could have killed Mickey…and why had Roger been trying to shoot Greg and Jolie? Unless she'd guessed that Robert wasn't guilty…and had gone to confront Roger about it…

Catherine let out a sigh and stretched her back while looking around the room. As her eyes passed a bookcase, she did a double take. Something was between Dream Psychology and A Magician's Guide to Hypnotism. The blonde walked up to the bookcase, and stuck her hand into the dark space. What came out was most definitely not a book. At first glance, it looked like a simple board game. Catherine's eyes widened as she opened the box.

Papers were strewn about inside with what seemed to be nonsense scribbled on them. As she rifled through them, her eyes grew larger and larger. One piece of paper had some legible handwriting, and Catherine was able to make out that Shaggy had written his name on the top. Then there was nothing but a mess of lines until she came to the word "kill." Catherine hurriedly put the box down on the table and took out more papers. At the bottom of the pile, she found a gold watch that wasn't ticking. Next to it, a piece of paper had handwriting that was completely different from the other ones.

My dearest Clara,

Hypnotism had failed, but do not fret. I can easily clean up the oaf's mess. If the idiot wasn't paying me good money, I'd have dropped his case long ago. When he burned the house down I thought that he was finally becoming more understanding. After all, I'd convinced him that if he killed all the men in Jolie's life, she would go running into his arms. but evidently, I was severely mistaken. With Michaels out of the way, I shall be the one to inherit his life insurance. No one has found out that he is my half-brother, and I am entitled to two million dollars. Killing is a terrible sin, but I hope that you will forgive me. With that money, we will both be able to retire comfortably, and we will be able to cure you of your cancer. I am sure of it. We will be happy together, my dear.

I love you dearly.

Roger

I am so sorry this story has taken so long. When I first began, I had so many ideas about where it could go, but then I grew lazy and my muse kinda left me. I do hope this chapter was not too terrible, and thank you very much for sticking with me through my first chapter fic. I hope my next one shall not be as bad nor have such long hiatuses between chapters. And I hope you all had a very happy New Year!