In the smoke filled two story club Jarod slowly, with intent, scans the club seen with all the noise and dancing and the conversations going. This pretend was going so well he thought, having a mental lapse and remembering a few nights ago. He had just discovered the great taste of sour Patch kids, thinking why would a candy company want to shape their image in the shape of a child and make it very sour? well at least it made since to name them so, laughing at the thought of how they candy had made his face twitch when he first put it in his mouth. All of a sudden two sweepers came rushing in the candy shop, luckily he saw their movement from outside and got a jump on them by running out the back door. Looking around he saw a huge metal dumpster near the exit he shoved with all that was in him knowing that if he could stop them now he could easily escape. Just as the sweepers ran into the door he was able to knock over the dumpster and the sweepers ran head first into the now blocked door and crushed each other into it. Jarod smirked as he vanished into the dark night. A sudden back beat from the dance hall music brought him back to the present. Will the owner of the club was making his way through the thick crowds towards him yelling at him about something.

"Hey Jarod get your mind on your work and give me a shot of Jack with a Coors chaser!" Jarod had to smile at the comment of a chaser, he thought this guy has no idea what a real chase is, his own chaser, Miss Parker, had been after him since he broke out of the Center.

"Right away Will, your the Boss!" as he grabbed the bottle and a can to complete the request. Will slammed the drink and gulped the good size drink from the beer.

"Ha, Jarod you don't know what you're missing!" still yelling over the roar of the music and all the noise. Jarod just tilted his head and cocked him a sideways smile and whispered to Will as he moved away

"Oh I know and it ain't worth that much." As Will moved back out on to the dance floor to as he called it "work his magic." Jarod slowly pulled out his red notebook and glanced at the newspaper headline he had cut out that brought him here.

"Women Drank herself to death, found in local forest." He slowly paged through the notebook putting the pieces together that had given him his suspect. Soon the person responsible would pay for their crime he would make sure of it.

As he watched Will move around with the women in the club he began thinking of what Will was doing.It was immorally wrong and he would make sure he would fell the same way the women that he took advantage of did. Will was a coward at heart, Jarod knew that's why he would have to go so low as to drug the women he was with. By slipping a little bit of the drug into their drink that he served them he was able to take advantage of any of the single women he wanted. Yet the last girl he drugged had a reaction to it and a vomited all over before her heart gave out and had stopped beating. Will couldn't seem to face his problem so he took the body into the woods with some empty liquor bottles and left her there so if anyone found her it would look like it was only a personal problem that had drove to death.

*****

The Center - Blue Cove Delaware

Miss Parker calmly walked into the sim lab where the source of her search was found, Sydney was there testing a pair of growing twins.

"How can I help you Miss Parker?" Sydney asked in that smooth gentle voice of his.

"Sweepers made contact with Jarod. Broots, you, and I are on the next flight out to Seattle, We leave in less than in hour be ready." she stated. As she looked on the as the sim continued and she could actually start to feel her freedom coming. This time she would get that boy wonder of theirs. It was only a matter of when and her moment was due. As she turned to leave Sydney and his experiment behind when one of the twins jumped out in front of her. Startled a bit, she simply replied

"Sydney get your Mr. potato head out of my way, before his brother becomes an only child." the twin just stood their and said

"So much pain. Why do you hate your own twin so much? You are living with your sadden loss."

She was disgusted with his remark, she had every right to hate her brother, I mean he's a killer and mentally unhinged. Nobody could fault her for that. Yet some how she had a spot in her that understood why he was the way he was, plus he is family and she was stuck with that fact no matter what had happen with them in the past. But with the other remark about living with sadden loss, it had been years since her Mother's death and yet she lived with the fact she couldn't get past that day.

It was still crystal clear in her mind her Mother's body lying there on the floor by the door of the elevator. Sometimes she thought she heard her mother's voice coming from somewhere in the Center, but then she could never find the source of that voice which always haunted her. She ponder all of these inner demons on her walk through the Center on her way back to her office. Waiting there by her door swaying side to side was Broots

"MMiss PParker" he stammered as she approached her doorway and entered in with Broots following her in talking about the technical approach to catching Jarod

"Get to the point!" Miss Parker stated loudly.

"A lead for Jarod leads to Paris, France a credit card was used in his name to check into a hotel room. According to log he will be there for the next week and is currently online in his room.

"Jarod is leading us on another wild goose chase with that lead Miss Parker thought. Yet she would have to send somebody to check it out. Well maybe brother will come in handy after all she smirked.

"I'll send Mr. Lyle to France to check it out, but we will still be going to Seattle." stated Miss Parker.

*****

Seattle

Jarod worked out how to set his plan in motion, Early the next day Jarod had sent a message to Will to come to the club because of problems they had with a fight which broke out last night at the club. Will entered his empty club and saw only Jarod working at the bar cleaning off the shot glasses.

"Here you go sir, a shot of Jack with a Coors chaser." Jarod smiled as

Will downed the shot and took a sip of his beer "so you wanted to talk about that fight or what." Will had started to slur his words out as he looked to Jarod.

"Well I was wondering," Jarod smiled "How did it feel when you killed that girl and left her in the woods!" screamed Jarod his statement filled with rage that he could only compare to the time when his brother had been killed, and he had held him in hs arms until he didn't breath anymore.

Will stumbled backwards slurring all his words as he spoke "Wwwhat ddoo yyou mmmean?" he started to feel a little light headed as the world started to spin around him.

"How does it feel to have the roles reversed? Yea, not that much fun, not being able to control yourself not being able to defend yourself from any kind of an attack total and completely vurnable." stressed Jarod with the final words. Will slowly slumped over in a chair as he passed out from the effects of the drug Jarod had given him in his drink. Time for step two Jarod thought as he moved in to pick up Will.

When she got into her room that the Center had setup for them while in Seattle, Miss Parker found that three red roses were on her pillow along with a note. She gingerly walked over to them, knowing that no one knew she was here, with the exception of Sydney and Broots also knowing that neither one of them would have placed these here.

She slowly at down next to them pondering about who sent them, she grabbed the note and read

"Miss Parker the sign of three roses simply states the phrase of I Love You. Catch me if you can Jarod."

She sat there stunned, was he just playing one of his sick mind games on her again or was he actually falling for her? Starting to reminisce about the candy heart that he had given to her and to be honest with herself, she had wondered what it would be like to kiss him again now that they were adults. She felt warm and content about that thought as she laid down on her bed next to the roses to tried and sleep off the jet jag.

Soon she was in a field filled with wild flowers in a long white lacy sun dress smiling and soaking up the warm summer rays of light, she felt a rush of warm breath on her ear as she laid there. A small soft whisper came to her senses a pair of loving arms wrapped themselves around her body and held her in a tight embrace.

"I love you." the voice whispered to her, she was content just to stay in his arms forever, but slowly she turned around to give him an answer to his statement. When she turned around though the first thing she saw was his eyes. Deep pools of emotion that flowed toward her and through her like clear glass.

Suddenly she realized who this man was, it was Jarod, the man she cared so deeply for, it was him. Struck with the sudden pain in her heart of relaxing that she had to bring him in, or she would never be free from the Center.

Miss Parker awoke from her dream with sadness in her heart about the dream or was it a nightmare that she didn't know. What she did know was that she was still in her clothes that she had left Blue Cove in. She had drifted off to sleep for hours and had little time before her meeting in the lobby with Sydney and Broots.

Man this was starting to get to her now she was even dreaming of him, Jarod never seemed to stop entering her mind and it was getting a little unsettling for her. Never before had she let emotions run her life, yet somehow she couldn't stop thinking of Jarod. She made her way to the bathroom to shower and grab a change of clothes which now only had in hour to do this in. as the hot water pulsed through her body and she relaxed to the rhythm of the shower Miss Parker smiled at the thought of her and Jarod as a couple really who was she kidding they would be at each other throats all the time, yet if she wanted to be free from the Center she would have to bring him down and back to Blue Cove before her life could start over again. with that in mind she stepped out of the warm shower to dress and get a little something to eat before meeting Broots and Sydney.

Will awoke with one major hangover it felt as though his head had swelled to three times its normal size. He tried to put his hands on his forehead but found that he was tied up and couldn't move what so ever. Panic started to grip him in the recesses of his mind as his memory started to come back to him, Jarod that slime he would pay for drugging him just wait till I give my hands on him he thought. Suddenly a deep dark voice yelled

"So how does it feel? what is it like knowing you're going to die and there is a thing you can do about it. You're helpless, you can't defend yourself just like Beth felt when you left her drugged helpless in the woods!" Will was in shock how did he know? he thought he was so careful with that certain mistake he made. He confessed

"Jarod how was I suppose to know she would have a reaction to the drug I slipped her? I didn't mean for it to happen that way, I just knew that it would kill my business and I couldn't let that happen after all the work I did!!"

Jarod knelt down next to Will who was now quivering in fear of his life "Boo!" was all Jarod said as he got up and retrieved the video of his whole confession, "It shouldn't take the police to long to find you, just hope for your sake it's before the bears come out, I hear they are pretty vicious."

Jarod smiled as he walked away as Will screamed at him for leaving him out there.

When Jarod got back to his car he heard the faint noise of the police sirens coming to pick up Will. Maybe he would stick around for the weekend after the club was a great place to be, to soak up on the atmosphere of it all. The loud crowds and interaction with everyone he always seemed to find himself in the mist of the chaos around him.

As he drove away he thought of all he had done since he escaped from the Center and his mind seemed to always go back to his own chaser, Miss Parker, he wondered what she had thought of his gift he had left in her room. He himself wasn't sure why he had written what he had, but it seemed to be the correct thing do at the time, and the only way he could express his bottled emotions.

***

Broots seemed right at home with the club seen. All the questions they had asked people had lead them to this hole in the wall of a night club.

"I guess bartending was he way of expressing his loss of control about the way he feels." Sydney stated "Really and I thought it was just the weather."

Miss Parker sneered. She was still amazed of the way they managed to pack in all these people into one spot as small as this. Suddenly out of the corner of her eye she saw him. There Jarod was just dancing away, the way his body moved in one with the music the sway he did with his hips was enough that Miss Parker looked at him a total different light that a boy wonder gone astray.

"How do you what to do this?" asked Broots bringing her out of her trance on Jarod's hips.

The song had ended and Jarod looked up and straight into her eyes. She felt as through he looked right into her soul. Suddenly he was gone, she noticed him dart up the stairs to the second level of the club.

"Damn! come on he's not getting away that easy!" Miss Parker yelled as she took off after him hot in pursuit. Jarod's heart had skipped a beat when he had seen Miss Parker she looked so lovely all the time but tonight she was even more striking than normal. He knew why she was there although his heart didn't want to he ran up the stairs. His heart was racing now as he looked for a way out. He had made his way through the crowd up stairs and gone up all the way on to the roof, hopefully this act would give him enough time to come up with a plan of escape, but time wouldn't last to long just as long as the crowd was still dancing he had the best chance.

Miss Parker burst up the stairs and to a sudden stop at the top to scan the room for her prey. Broots came up and didn't see her and plowed right into her and forced her out onto the dance floor. She glared at him and yelled to scan the floor and she would check up on the rooftop. Jarod ran to the edge of the building where there was a small alley. It was about a good seven to eight foot jump but will a good running start he could make it, he backed up to give himself enough of a running start. Just then Miss Parker kicked the door open to the roof hatch and saw Jarod through the pouring rain backing up and starting to run towards the edge of the building.

Oh no you don't she thought you're not getting away with that as she drew her gun out and started to run after Jarod. Jarod knew it was do or die and with Miss Parker on his heels he flung himself over the edge of the building diving head first over the ledge on the other side of the alley. He ducked and rolled with impact of the fall, he quickly got up and started running again.

Miss Parker saw Jarod jump off the building and land on the other side, what the heck if he can do it so can I she thought and never slowed down running after him just as she sprung over the edge she felt her ankle make a wet snap. Her body slammed into the wet concrete side of the ledge on the other building and knocked the wind right out of her. As she hung there half of the edge holding on for dear life she thought how this was all her fault, trying to live up to her father's wishes.

Suddenly and ever so slowly her hands slipped a little further as she grabbed harder squeezing the life out of her hands. Panic slowly started to creep into the back of her mind, but she ignored it she had to hold on.

Jarod turned around to wave and smile at Miss Parker for once again getting away from her trap, but she wasn't there then suddenly he saw through the wet rain what looked like her hands grasping to the edge of the building with all there might.

She tried to jump it too Jarod realized as he rushed toward the edge.

Miss Parker looked down and saw the ground two stories below and her gun that she had dropped when she had hit the wall. Soon she would be joining her gun there on the ground next to it, only a matter of time before she fell to her own death she thought.

Just as her grip failed her she felt the strong hand of someone grab her wrist. She looked up through the stream of rain and straight into the warm eyes of Jarod the panic she had started to feel sudden dwelled into nothing. As he slowly pulled her to the safety of the rooftop, he was soon able to grab her waist and yank her up the rest of the way to safety.

He pulled her to her feet and a tender moment passed as they looked deep into each others eyes. As if by one mind they both roughly kissed a deep wet and meaningful kiss. soon they both realized what had just happen and broke a part their longingful embrace.

Miss Parker fell on her now swollen ankle. As Jarod let her go and started to flee the rooftop. Miss Parker sat there amazed at what happen between them. At the moment she could honestly say she was the happiest and felt the warmest even though she was drenched to the bone. In his arms she had felt safe nobody had ever done that for her except her Mother.

Snapping her out of her thoughts she heard Sydney yelling to her asking if she was OK. Boy she though was she ever OK she smiled inwardly and waved a limp hand to signal Syd that she was going to be fine.

Jarod ran down the stairs of the building hailed a cab to take him to his apartment to get his DSA and leave for his next pretend, yet some how his mind was on Miss Parker the entire time. what if he returned to the Center? would he be able to see her more? No, he decided this is the way it had to be, him running and her chasing.

Why were feelings the hardest thing to understand the both thought, but then with out feelings what kind of person would they become? That kiss had changed them, yet neither knew how much it really would effect them.

To Be Continued...

As the sun sizzled on the horizon, Jarod started to close up his tower. Swinging the broad boards down with a slap over the windows, Jarod thought about what had happen a week ago. Wow, it had been a week, but it felt like a lifetime since that kiss on the rooftop. During this week there wasn’t a moment that his mind didn’t wander back to that point in time, their soaking wet kiss caught up in the heat of the moment. He tried to convince himself that this was the case, but he knew of his feelings, and they never lied to him, at least not yet. As he made his way down the ramp from his lifeguard tower he made one last scan across the beach and water that he was in charge of during this shift. Seeing that all was safe, he made his way back to his beach house where he was staying on this pretend. Glancing out at the pinkish red sunset, he dreamed of a time he could sit and enjoy the romantic scene being played out with her in his arms. He smiled at the thought of that and hoped it would come to pass.

****

Out of nowhere, a chair came whizzing through the air, and Broots swiftly moved out of the way as it broke into pieces at his feet. "M-miss P-parker, why are you so angry?" She just let out a rush of air in response, and sat down in the living area of the hotel in France where they had followed a lead from Lyle on Jarod’s whereabouts. All they came up came up with, however, was another dead end. The only lead they had, if you could even call it that, was a little souvenir bottle of beach sand and a note saying, "Surfs up! Ride the wave!" Jarod was playing with them again.

"Broots, have that sand analyzed to see if we can come up with some idea of where it came from; maybe we’ll get lucky." She knew it was a long shot, but it was all they had to go on. Plus, her severely sprained ankle forced her to wear a brace, and it made standing even harder than in those stiletto heels she owned. As she sat there, Broots and Sydney both gave her a concerned look.

"What?!" she screamed, getting angry at the looks she was invoking. "We’re just concerned for you after that near death experience in Seattle." Sydney stated.

Miss Parker almost laughed out loud. Not at the fact that Sydney and Broots cared about her--she knew by now who her real friends were, and she knew they would stand up for her no matter what. Hell, they had been against the T-board together and came out all right. No, what she thought was funny was that they had no idea that her barely successful rooftop jump didn’t even faze her a bit. Jarod, only Jarod, was on her mind. She still hadn’t come to grips with what had happen. She half hoped that it had been only just a dream. But what a dream it could have been! Her mood brightened at the thought of that night.
Sydney was still concerned about Miss Parker. Her mental health was never what he would consider stable. She was strong at most times, but when she did seem to get depressed, she shut out everybody. Slowly he had been able to get her to open up to him, and it gave him great pleasure and joy when she confided in him.

Broots made the comment, "Isn’t Paris the city of love?" Miss Parker glanced at him and sneered,

"No, it’s the city of lights." It seemed like everything reminded her of Jarod. She wondered how she would personally connect with him after her experience on that wet rooftop. "Well there’s nothing else we can do here. Let’s go," she stated firmly.

****

Jarod sat in his beach house looking over his DSA’s, the only history of his life as he knew it. Looking through the sims he performed as a child and all the damage that they had done to the world, he felt himself slipping back into a creature of habit. No matter how many times he scolded himself, he always thought he should have known what the Centre would do with the information his sims provided. He knew he couldn’t change the past, and it did him no good to dwell on it. What was done was done. All he could do was try to correct the things he could, and change the outcome to a brighter one.

With that in mind, he took out his red notebook and once again glanced over the headlines that brought him here. "Lifeguard and Victim Die, Cause of Faulty Equipment." Another article read, " Lt. Reece reports they need better crafts to perform up to the standard that are required by their jobs." "Well," Lt. Jarod thought, "Why would you say you need new crafts when the current ones are only two years old?"

The next day, Jarod followed Reece to a cozy little restaurant on the beach. As Reece met with a few people in suits, Jarod took some digital pictures of them, downloaded them into his laptop, and did a search. The men turned out to be the board of directors of Yamaha Watercraft Inc. The scene started to come together.

The Lt. breaks the current equipment, and the VP’s supply the replacement so that Lt. looks good for the low replacement costs. Meanwhile, the VP’s make a killing in the market by driving out the competitors. Greed: the worst king of motivation. Two people had died just so these few people could get more money than what they deserved.

Jarod glanced at his watch; it was almost time for duty. Sure enough, the Lt. got up, shook hands, and started to head back to headquarters. When the Lt. drove up to the equipment garage Jarod was just heading out to the beach. "Hey! Wait a minute Jarod!" he called. "I need those insurance papers filled out, just in case the equipment fails again. We need to have our butts covered." Lt. Reece smiled as he handed over the paperwork to be signed.

"Of course sir, no problem. I wouldn’t want to end up like the last guard." Jarod continued, "Although the county should pony up the dough for new crafts since that last accident was in the papers." The Lt. started to look a little uneasy. Jarod handed over all the signed paperwork saying, "Well, I wouldn’t want to be late my second day on the job." He then walked off toward his tower.

***

Home sweet home. Miss Parker almost laughed out loud at that idea. This place hadn’t been a home since her Mother passed away. Now it was merely a place to get away from the Centre. Her phone rang just as she was about to pick it up. Sydney told her that they might have a lead on Jarod, and she should get to the Centre quickly. She hung up the phone, took one last look around the house thinking "No rest for the weary," and went off to pick up another trail of Jarod’s.

When she got there, Broots and Sydney were at the computer. "Miss Parker, the sand you gave me to analyze . . .well, it came up with only three different matches." She would never understand why Broots had a way of talking but never really saying anything she wanted to hear.

"Well?" she prompted.

"Well, that’s the weird thing: they all come from California. And with the amount of glass shards and small amounts of litter, I’d say it came from L.A., San Francisco, or further south like San Diego." Broots finished.

"Okay then. California, here we come," Miss Parker stated as she lit a cigarette and hissed smoke out at Broots. "We’ll split up. Syd, you take San Fran, Broots, you got the City of Angels, and I’ll go to San Diego. Let’s leave tomorrow, and then you guys can meet me in a week in San Diego." She turned briskly around and started for her office to prepare for her mission. Just as she was about to reach her office she heard it, the squeak squeak of Dr. Rainie’s pet oxygen tank.

He stopped her and wheezed, "the Centre doesn’t think you’re moving fast enough in the pursuit of Jarod. To that end I’m assigning my own sweeper, Roy, to aid you in your current task of tracking Jarod in California."

"Thanks, but no thanks. You know I don’t play nicely with others," she said through clenched teeth.

"You have no choice in the matter. The Tower wants results, and it’s my job to see that they get what they want." Looking at Dr. Rainie, Miss Parker decided that he seemed more and more sickly each time he took a breath.

"Fine! We leave tomorrow. Make sure you’re ready!" She nodded toward Roy as she finished her cigarette, then brushed past them both and briskly entered her office.

****

Jarod pulled back the head and pulled a candy out with his teeth. As the sugary piece dissolved in his mouth, he thought about all the little things he missed growing up. Things like Pez. As he ate another, he resolved to make up for the time he lost while growing up in the Centre.

The sun was warm as he sat in his tower looking over the multitudes of sunbathers and swimmers.

"Hi Jarod." A voice pulled him from his trance.

"Why hello there, are you enjoying the beach today?" he asked the young woman. The woman smiled and put down her beach blanket in front of his tower. Jarod couldn’t help but notice the skimpy string bikini that the woman wore. Her sun bleached hair seemed to glisten with the sunlight. "It’s much more enjoyable now that you’re on the job." she flirted. Jarod gave her a warm smile and said, "Thanks."

"Do you think you could rub my back with sun tan lotion so I don’t burn?"

Jarod hopped off his chair and strode down the planks to help her. "Aren’t you the one who told the reporters about the two people who drowned out here?" Jarod asked as he rubbed her back. He noticed that her body tensed up at the question.

"She was a good friend of mine. She shouldn’t have gone swimming when the waves were that high, but that’s the kind of girl she was, always pushing the envelope, taking risks to the maximum. I saw her go under and ran to the lifeguard on duty. He ran to his Seadoo and drove out with no regard for his own safety, pulled her up on the craft, and then when it looked like he tried to come back in, that’s when it happened." The blonde woman started to sob softly and Jarod felt extreme sorrow for what she had gone through.

"All I could do was watch as the Seadoo started to smoke! Suddenly it just went up and there was nothing left but a small fire on the water."

"It must be hard to come back to this beach," Jarod said somberly.

"I come here because this is where she loved to be the most. Just sitting here in the sun reminds me of all the fun times we shared together."

Jarod smiled. "There you go, all greased up for another day in the sun." As he made his way back up the ramp he knew what he was going to do. When his shift ended, he started to prepare.

First, he gained access to the quads and made a couple of changes to them. Then he ran a virus through the computer duty roster so he and the Lt. had the same shift together the next day. The "eye for an eye" justice that the Lt. deserved, was well on its way to completion.

***

As the plane touched down at the San Diego airport, Miss Parker thought about what to do about her new sweeper. She planned to give him a horrible assignment just to spite Raines, maybe even have him search all the dumpsites along the beach.

"Where to, Miss Parker?" Roy asked.

"Take a wild guess, Siefree. The hotel - I want to sleep off this jet lag." As she made her way to the limo that waited for them she thought of the perfect place to start her search. What was common with the beach and lifeguards? And with the connections she had at the Centre she would find out if they knew of Jarod. When they got to the hotel, the manager was already waiting for them at the entrance.

"Hello and welcome. We are so glad you are staying with us. Everything is just as your companion requested." Miss Parker gave him an evil look but said nothing.

"We don’t usually get requests like yours. He paid us in advance, so here you go - room 202," said the man, handing over the keys to the room.

She was too tired to inquire about what the man was babbling about and lazily made her way over to the elevators. She slid the key into place and turned the handle to go into her room. When she turned on the light, she silently cursed.

"Jarod!" she thought as she looked around the room. The whole place was done in a pineapple motif with a surf board standing in the corner and the beach boys song playing "California Girls" on the radio. Oh, Jarod was going to pay for this! This is the most hideous decor she had ever seen. She dropped her bags and went to the phone and called the manager.

"What do you mean there are no more rooms!" Miss Parker yelled on the phone at the manager.

"Well at least get someone to turn off the stupid radio!"

"I’m sorry, Jarod said to wire the radio into the light switch so that whenever the lights were on the radio would play the songs that he selected," the manager stammered. "There’s nothing we can do about it for at least a day."

Miss Parker slammed down the phone on the receiver. She turned off the lights, changed into her sleeping garments and went to sleep.

***

"Well, Lt. it looks like it’s just you and me today," said Jarod with a smile. The Lt. and Jarod climbed aboard their quads and took off on patrol. As they were cruising down the beach and the Lt. was checking out the scenery of all the scantly clad women in the sun, they got a radio call that a sun bather had gotten to close to the edge of a cliff and slipped over. Jarod and the Lt. were the closest units, so they radio in that they were on their way and sped up to the cliffs. As they were nearing the edge, Jarod let off the throttle and slowed down. The Lt. made the same move, but the throttle stuck and the quad raced full speed for the edge. The Lt. jumped off just as the quad went over the cliff face. Lt. Reece slid off and fell down the cliff face about 5 or 6 feet and hung to the face. "Jarod! Help me!" he screamed.

Jarod peeked over the edge of the cliff "Hi ya, how’s it hanging?" a small smile curved the corners of his mouth. "Come on Jarod throw me a rope!" The panic was starting to set in, Jarod could hear it in his voice.

"Well, ok. Wait…on second thought, if you were to fall to your death it would be blamed on vehicle failure and the station would get brad new quads. What do you think?"

"I think you’re crazy! Now pull me up!" screamed the Lt.

"You think it’s a bad idea? Well, what do you think the guard felt like when he tried to use a Seadoo that was broken! Think about that! You killed a good lifeguard and a young woman just so you could line your pockets and look good doing it," said Jarod forcefully.

"Yes, yes - I did. I didn’t think anyone would die. I didn’t mean for it to happen that way. Now pull me up!" the Lt. yelled.

"Well you see I’m not really a lifeguard, but I’m sure if you hang around long enough somebody will find you. So bye bye."

Jarod smiled and stood up slowly walking away with Lt. Reece screaming in the background.
"I got it all on tape Jarod, I’m sure they will both have some peace now." Jarod smiled at her and gave her a sweet kiss on the cheek.

"Now you remember to put on plenty of sunblock when you lay by the tower cause I won’t be around to do it for you any more." Jarod teased.

"When should I throw him a rope?" she asked as Jarod turned to leave.

"The Police should be here in about five to ten minutes so I’d let him dangle for another minute or so."

***

Well, this was the address that lifeguard headquarters gave them on Jarod’s location. Miss Parker kept her gun raised and slowly entered the house with Roy close behind. The place was neat, not clean, just that everything had a place, unlike her hotel room. She remembered that after taking her shower she had forgotten about the lights and turned them on to get a change of clothes out when "Hotel California" came blaring on the radio. She still had that Eagles song stuck in her head, even now as they searched through the house. It sure seemed as though they were a step behind in finding Jarod’s lair, but then she saw that the DSA’s were still here and she knew Jarod would never leave those behind.

"Roy don’t touch anything, and stay out of sight. Jarod will be back and when he comes - we’ll grab him. I’ll check out back. You stay put," she said firmly. As she made her way to the back sliding door she scanned the wooded area and saw a small dirt path that lead away from the direct view of the house. She followed it to where it stopped, over-looking a sharp rock face that ended at the beach far down below.

"The view isn’t half as beautiful as you," a dark rich voice softly said behind her. With lightening fast reflexes, Miss Parker swiveled on her back heel and turned the gun on the person who was behind her. She came face to face with Jarod. He still only had his lifeguard suit on, and as she looked at his golden tan muscular body all that came to her lips was "Jarod". His name rolled off her tongue like dew on a morning flower.

"I’m not going anywhere, yet," came his reply. He slowly reached up and took the barrel of her gun and pointed it to the ground. "Come see this amazing sunset; there’s nothing like it from this view," Jarod said softly as he moved next to her and put his arm around her waist. Together they watched as the sunset melted into the ocean.

"If you listen close enough you can hear the water sizzle," Jarod whispered into her ear. She laid her head down on his broad shoulders and said softly "Jarod, I have to bring you in. It’s my job, the Centre doesn’t approve of me ever getting involved with you. I mean, if there wasn’t the Centre…who knows where this could lead."

A soft crack of a twig brought them both back out of their trance on the sunset. "Oh crap!" thought Miss Parker, "I forgot about Roy. I should have known he couldn’t follow instructions."

"Freeze! Both of you," said Roy as he came toward them. "Move and I’ll shoot! In fact, Miss Parker, since you’re in league with him I am authorized to shoot you," said Roy with a wicked smiled as he turned his on her.

"NO!" yelled Jarod, as he shoved Miss Parker out of the way. Roy squeezed the trigger and a shot rang out. Miss Parker rolled with the shove that Jarod gave her and kicked Roy’s legs out from under him. She felt some warm liquid running over her waist, she looked to see where she had been hit. Jarod tumbled into Roy as Miss Parker had kicked him and Roy went down like a sack of potatoes, but slipped off the side of the cliff and continued to tumble and fall until he was out of sight. Jarod got up and stumbled to the house while Miss Parker was still in a bit of shock. Miss Parker couldn’t find the entry wound of the bullet.There was blood all over her mid section, but she couldn’t find where it was coming from which meant…Jarod had been hit!

Jarod limped over to his DSA’s and grabbed them as he headed out to the front where Miss Parker had her black lincoln parked he got in and drove off his leg was really starting to hurt and he felt a little light headed from losing so much blood, he knew of a hospital close by that he could go to and have his leg looked it. Miss Parker grabbed her gun and looked to see where Roy had fallen to, as she peered over she saw his body down the cliff towards the bottom, she had no idea if he was alive or not, but raced to the house just to see Jarod escaping in her car. She called the local branch of the Centre and they sent sweepers and cleaners to her location with in minutes.

"Get Broots here, I’m going to go clean up. Roy is at the bottom of the cliff," she informed the group when they got there.

Hours later, Broots came in and said, "Marcy General treated a gunshot victim to the leg about an hour ago, but he disappeared before the police were able to question him."

Miss Parker grinned at this news. "At least he’s still alive and running again," she thought.

"As for where he went next, I don’t have a clue yet. There was nothing in his red note book except a story about a lifeguard," Broots finished telling her.

"Well there’s nothing more we can do here, so come on, Broots, let’s get back to the Centre," Miss Parker stated.

Her phone rang as Broots left to get ready "What?!" she stated in her normal tone.

"Well, you seem to be just fine," Jarod’s smug tone of voice said over the line.

"Should I call you gimp now?" she sneered back.

"Well, it looks like we’re back to the game of cat and mouse, aren’t we?" Jarod said slyly.

"Meow, I’m sharpening my claws right now." stated Miss Parker.

"Who ever said you were the cat? Well, got to go, don’t want to be late for my new job, do I now?" Jarod said.

"And what might that be?" Miss Parker asked.

"I never got to play cowboys and Indians when I was little. So maybe I’ll take some time in the Wild Wild West, Yee-Ha!"

There was only a click of the line being hung up after Jarod’s last statement.

Was he going to go rope cattle? "One never knew with Jarod, but," she thought, "it’s a lead she had to follow".

"Come on Broots I’m sick of all this surf and sand. Let’s move!"

Miss Parker stood out side of the beach house and waited for the helicopter that would bring them to the airport that would lead them to Blue Cove.