Chapter two

Jillian woke up the next morning with a mind numbing headache and fuzzy memories. She turned over to see the time on her old fashioned radio alarm clock and nearly jumped in fright when she saw that she was nearly an hour late for her job.

Jillian scrambled out of her bed, rushed through her daily toilet related rituals and threw on some random clothes before she rushed off to the small kitchen in her one bedroom studio apartment to make herself some breakfast and more importantly some coffee.

On the way to her kitchen she noticed that the little red light on her answering machine was blinking so she picked up the wireless handle of her phone wedged it between her shoulder and her right ear so that she could listen to her messages while turning on the coffee machine and pouring out some cereal.

The first message was a check up call from one of her colleagues, a sweet old man named Jeff who should have retired long ago but was unable to because all of his savings and his retirement plan had been wiped clean by a crooked investment banker, something that was quite common here in Andromeda city.

"Congrats kiddo, you finally grew a spine and decided to ditch work for once eh? Well , don't sweat it. The Anderson case has stalled and there is nothing major going on today so we can hold down the fort without you. Take the day off kiddo, might be good for your health, maybe find yourself a man...."

The second message wasn't as upbeat.

"Are you okay kiddo? We are hearing some shit from the cops and things are getting ugly out there. The Macalisters and the Manellis have started a war. The story from the cops is that Bruce Macalister is already dead, his head smashed to pieces. His father has completely lost it and has declared open season on anybody related to the Manellis. He has put up a bounty for each and every member of the Manelli family. We've heard that there are some casualties from the Manelli's side already. I've also heard that the cops that were supposed to be protecting you were taking bribes from Joseph Manelli's men. I'm a little worried Jill, please call me back when you get this."

The third message was not from Jeff, it was from the police.

"Ms Reed, this is Detective Edward Briggs from Andromeda P.D. We would like you to come to the station as soon as possible to answer some questions regarding the disappearance of the two officers assigned to protect you yesterday. You are not under arrest, hell you aren't even a suspect at this point but your cooperation during the investigation would be greatly appreciated. We are a little swamped right now so we can't really investigate this case properly right now but please make time to come to the station the moment it is convenient for you."

Jillian was so shocked when she heard the messages that she forgot to pay attention to the amount of milk she was putting in her cereal and she accidentally let it overflow out of the bowl and onto the kitchen counter. She tried to remember what had happened the previous day but all she got for her trouble was a head splitting headache and fuzzy images of being clobbered by the butt of a gun. She also remembered the faces of two offices begging for their lives before their heads were blown off by a shotgun.

Jillian wasn't sure what had happened but she was sure that she had witnessed the death of the two officers so she abandoned her breakfast, grabbed her sweater and the keys to her mini cooper before leaving her apartment and heading for the police station.