The law office was thankfully a small one. Rachel hoped they didn't have quite as many clients as the bamk. Jarod went back to the hotel to check out and find another place not quite so close to Miss Parker. If they could run into them on the streets of a big city like New Orleans, they figured they better stop tempting fate and get out of the same hotel.

"Agent Burke?" a man asked.

"Yes" she said as she stood.

"I'm Matthew Kurgis, how may I help you?"

"I'd like to talk to you about Kimberly Serrano, I'm working on her case."

"Of course, anything I can do to help!" He led Rachel to his office.

"Mr. Kurgis, I'd like a list of the cases that this law firm handeled for the lsat month." He began shaking his head no.

"Mr. Kurgis, I'm not asking for any privilaged information, the actual cases are a matter of public record, I just want names so I can cut out unnecessary research."

He excused himself, and went to the office next to his. He stood at the desk of the other partner, apparently explaining what Rachel wanted. The other man looked over at her then nodded at Kurgis.

"Sorry to keep you waiting Agent Burke," he said coming back into his office. "we'll get you those names."

________________________________________________

Jarod checked out of the hotel and grabbed a cab.

"Where to?" the cabbie asked.

"I need a hotel or an apartment here in the Quarter."

"My sister has a house for rent on Royal St., the person living there is moving out today."

"Take me there" Jarod said.

The cabbie pulled away from the Omni and took a left turn up Chartres St. then another left one block over to Royal. Pulled the cab over, turned the cab off and got out telling Jarod to leave the bags, and locked the door.

The cabbie opened the door to the house. "You here Eloise?"

An older lady came around the corner. "Quit you yellin' Leroy, you gonna wake the dead!"

"He's interested in renting the house" he said pointing at Jarod.

She put her hand out to shake his hand. "Eloise Mayfair."

"I'm Jarod."

"Well Jarod, this house goes for $1850.00 a month, and I require a years lease."

"I would only need it for a few weeks, but I will make it worth your while to break you rule>"

"What you doin' here for a few weeks? A job?"

"Yes ma'am. I'm with the Federal Bureau of Investigations"

"F.B.I.?" she paused. "Well I guedd I can make an exception for the government!"

"Thank you" he said. "Has the other tenant moved out?"

"Yes, he got out early, left yesterday".

Jarod looked around. "Glad to see it comes furniished." he said

"Just gonna be you in here?"

"No ma'am, I have a partner."

"O.K. then, how much worth my while you gonna make this?"

Jarod handed her 5 crisp 1000 dollar bills.

"Son, it ain't safe to walk around here with thet kind os money in your wallet, you get knocked in your head if the wrong person sees that!!"

"Yes ma'am" Jarod said.

She told him that she hadn't cleaned the house yet, but he assured her it was fine.

Leroy got the bags out of the cab. Jarod gave him his fare and a nice tip. After they left, Jarod called Rachel on her cell. "Burke".

"I got us a place" he told her.

"What hotel?" she asked.

"Grab a cab to 1427 Royal St." was all he said, then hung up the phone.

______________________________________________________________________

PART SEVEN

July 1st

Jarod got up at around 3am. He couldn't sleep. He and Rachel had been sifting thruogh the huge stack of bank clients and the smaller stack of 200 law clients. But had decided to call it a night at around 10 and go to bed early. Especially since Jarod was paying more attention to Rachel's body instead of hsi stack of papers.

He began looking through the unread stack from the bank. Halfway through the leftover stack, Jarod came across a loan request for $50,000.00, stating the need as attorney fees. The name on the application was Reginald Baxter, and the person who turned him down was Cook.

Jarod began looking throught the law office names. He came across a Baxter, but the first name was Allan.

He went to his laptop. He did a background check on Reginald, that came up clean. Allan Baxter, however, brought up a long arrest record ranging from petty theft to armed robbery. The last entry showed that he'd been recently convicted of drug trafficking. He got 10 years with no chance of parole.

Jarod wished it was morning so he could go to the court house and check the public records. He looked at the clock and sighed when he saw that it was only 4am. He shut off the lights, deciding to go back to bed. He pulled off his jeans, pulled back the covers and got in to bed. Rachel immediately turned over and snuggled up onto his chest. He kissed the top of her head and shut his eyes hoping for sleep.

In the morning he showed Rachel his findings and they set off to the court house early.

The cleark returned after a few minutes with he requested file. Rachel and Jarod took a seat at a table and began reading the case.

Allan Baxter had been arrested for drug trafficking when he was pulled over for speeding. He claimed, once the large quanity of herion was found, that all he was guilty of was stealing a car. The automobile was not reported stolen, and it was registered to a person who had sold it a few months rarlier. The name on the bill of sale simply did not exist and the title and new car tags had never been applied for.

"Baxter's attorney was a public defender, not Serrano, Kurgis and Hart." Jarod said.

"The case only lasted one day, and the just came back with a guilty verdict after only 45 minutes of deliberation." he had continued.

"Reginald Baxter was turned down for a loan by Cook, apparently wanting the money for his brothers attorney fees...they tried to get representation through Serrano, Kurgis and Hart, but was turned down because they couldn't pay. Attorney's only have to do so much pro bono work per year" Rachel summarized.

"We need to find out for sure that Seranno turned them down" Jarod said. Rachel shook her head no.

"They refused to give me anything except names."

"I could hack into their system" Jarod said smiling.

They made copise of the court papers and returned the file to the cleark.

It took Jarod several hours to work around the security of their system at the law office, but when he did he found out their theroy was correct. He downloaded the proof to disk.

"Jarod did you see this?' Rachel asked as she got of of the sofa.

"Guess who the foreman of the jury was?"

"Veronica Matenopolis?" he asked.

"Yes"

"Let's go get him" Jarod said getting up out of the chair.

________________________________________

They arrived at the address on the bank application. The house was an older style home, well kept, but not in the best part of town. Jarod banged ont the door. Afew minutes later the door opened slightly, the chain on the other side preventing it from opening all the was. The man on the other side was just average. Average looks, height and build, not the spetacular monster they had imagined. Rachel held up her badge and said, "Reginald Baxter I'm Agent Burke-" He tried to slam the door closed, but Jarod stuck his against the door and forced it back open breaking the chain. Rachel drew her gun and followed Jarod through the door. She pointed into the livingroom and went that way as Jarod walked down the hallway with his gun drawn.

Jarod heard the wooden floor creal behind him and spun around, but was hit against the side or his head with something hard. Rachel heard the scuffle and turned back down the hall, she saw Jarod lying on the floor. She bent down to make sure he was still bresthing, noticing that his gun was gone. She cautiously walked forward. She turned a corner, heading into the kitchen. Baxter stepped from beside the refrigerator and wacked Rachel in the back of her head with Jarod's gun.

Jarod woke up, wincing from in pain from the blow to his head. He looked around.

"RACHEL????" he yelled. He did a quick run through of the house, panic setting in when he couldn't find her. Jarod dialed his cell. "I need to speak to with Sergeant Cole".

"Cole." she said.

"This is Jarod Embry, I need you to meat me at my house at 1427 Royal St." he didn't wait for a reply, haninging up the phone and heading back to the house.

Jarod showed all of their findings to Cole. She seemed a little pissed at first, someone else solving her case. But she was concerned for Rachel safety.

"Where would he take her?" she asked.

"I don't know" Jarod answered. Cole had put out an APB on Baxter noting that he had abducted an federal agent.

"What else do you know about him? Does he have any other relatives in town?"

"Yes, he has a sister in Chalmette."

"It's a place to start Cole said.

The drive took less than 20 minutes but it seemed like an eternity to Jarod.

They pulled up to the house.

"That's Baxter's car" Cole said picking up her raido to call in for backup. Before she could say anything, Jarod was out of the car.

"Shit!!' she said, then made her report and got tut of the car.

Jarod was about to kick the door in when Cole came up behind him. "Hold on hot shot" she said getting down on one knee picking the lock. They entered the house and immediately heard a voice talking upstairs. They proceeded quietly, Jarod leaned toward a door nodding to Cole that they had the correct room.

Jarod quietly opened the door and saw a man leaning over Rachel pressing a knife to her cheek. She was gagged and tied to a chair.

"You're just another bitch with to much power, I'll have to teach you a lesson like those other whores!"

Jarod lunged at the man, both falling to the floor. He wrestled the knife out of his hand and punched him in the face. Baxter reached up and started choking Jarod. Cole raised her gun and ordered him to stop, when he refused to listen, she fired her gun wounding him in the shoulder. The force of the blast knocked him off of Jarod.

Cole went to cuff Baxter as Jarod freed Rachel.

"Are you alright?" he asked. Taking her into his arms.

Rachel sobbed quietly against his chest. "I'm ok" she said after she pulled herself together. Jarod led her out of the house insisting she let the paramedics check her over.

When they stepped onto the porch, he saw Miss Parker getting out of a cab. Rachel looked up reconizing Sydney as he too got out. Jarod looked down at Rachel with concern.

"GO!" she said. Jarod waited.

"Jarod, I'm fine, now go before they see you!"

He leaned down and kissed her, and stroked the side of he face. He turned. leaving her alone on the porch, and went back through the house to sneak out the back door.

Miss Parker was talking to an officer who pointed at Rachel. When she got to her, she showed her a photo of Jarod. "Have you seen this man?"

"No, never seen him before in my life" Rachel said walking around her down the stairs. She looked up at Sydney as she passed him, he gave her a quick wink. Miss Parker threw her hands up in the air and yelled "NOT AGAIN!!!!"

_______________________________________________

Rachel was sitting on the sofa in the house that Jarod had rented. Tears steraming down her face as she clutched a small card that said 'Until I see you again. love,Jarod' She opened the small gift wrapped box that accompanied the card. It was a gold chain. Hanging form i was a heart, insrcibed on the front was Rachel, on the back it said 'I love you, Jarod'.

"I love you too, Jarod".

__________________________________________________

Blue cove, DE July 2nd

Sydney's phone rang. "Hello?"

"Thank you for your help in New Orleans, Sydney."

"You're welcome, Jarod. I'm glad you got away safely."

"Why'd you do it?"

"I have many sins to make up for, most of them, to you."

"Be careful Sydney...I couldn't stand it if...." he paused. "Just be careful". Jarod hung up.

As Sydney hung up his phone he said, "Be careful, my son".

________________________________________________

Somewhere over Arizona

Jarod leaned his head back against the airplane seat. A tear ran down his cheek as he thoght of Rachel.

"I'll miss you." He said outloud as he turned to look out the window.

THE END