Once Upon A Time ~ Book 1

Chapter 62 - Regina's Payoff

Sidney sat in the sherif's station, listening to Regina's phone calls.
"Miss. Ginger, I really don't have time for more complaints about working conditions. The air temperature is not one of my areas."
Emma walked into the station and sat down next to him.
"Scintillating. Find anything good yet?" said Emma.
"Yeah, better than good. She made this call a little over an hour ago." said Sidney.
He press a button on the scintillator.
"I'll meet you tonight at Access Road 23 with the rest of your payment. Yes, it's be in cash. And I don't need to remind you that no one can know about this. Yes, I know it has to be tonight."
He pressed another button to stop the record of Regina's voice.
Emma smiled. "Who was on the other end?"
"You bugged the office, not the phone."
"Well, we're just gonna have to find out."
"Yeah."
"A payoff in the woods? That's promising."
"A payoff using stolen city funds."
"Let's go find out who she's meeting."

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Emma drove the sherif's car, Sidney in the passenger seat. Ahead of her was Regina's car.
Emma and Sidney looked at one another as they followed her along the outskirts of the town.
Regina then took a turn in the road, and they followed.
Emma then put her foot of the breaks to slow down, but nothing happened. She steped on them again with more force, but the care kept going.
"Emma?" said Sidney, inquringly.
She kept pushing down on the breaks. "It won't stop!"
They couldn't do anything, they were going to crash, Emma kept trying but then they crashed straight into the sign reading Road 23 Road 4.
The sign went flying into the trees and the car hovered over a ditch.
Sidney breathed deeply.
"Are you okay?" asked Emma.
"Yeah. You?"
"Yeah." she breathed.
Emma and Sidney got out of the car. Emma went around to the front, by the ditch, ger torch in her hand.
"We're going to miss that hand-off." said Emma.
"Emma." said Sidney by the front of the tyre.
"What?" she walked towards him.
"You know that bug you planted? I think Regina found it. Someone's been tampering with the brakes......... She's on to us."
Emma stared at Sidney, rage in her eyes.

Emma walked through the wood quickly, guided by her flashlight.
"Wait!" called Sidney.
"The bitch tryed to have me killed. I'm finding her." said Emma.
"Let's be cautious. We need to think clearly." said Sidney walking after her.
"To hell with caution. I'm gonna find out what she's doing and why she's out here."
"She was meeting me." said Mr. Gold's voice from near by.
They both turned to look at Mr. Gold who stood by the shadows of the trees, a briefcase in his hand.
"What are you doing here with her?" asked Emma.
"Just a little business transaction."
"What's in the briefcase?" asked Sidney.
"Everything comes at a price. Land is no different."
"That's why you're meeting her out here?" said Emma. "Regina bought your land?"
"The very ground you're standing on." he walked closer to them.
"What does she want it for?"
"You know, in business, I find it's best not to ask too many questions. Hurts the bottom line. The question is, Emma, why are you standing out here in the middle of the night with Mr. Glass?" he looked at Sidney.
"You don't know what Regina did to me. You don't know what she did to her son. We can't just sit idly by."
"Of course you can......... Be careful. Emotional entanglements can lead us down very dangerous paths." he said walking between them and away through the forest.

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The Genie stood in the palace garden, next to the apple tree. He took a knife and cut a beautiful red apple from the tree. He the cut a bit of it and put it to his mouth but he hesitated.
"I was beginning to worry you wouldn't cone." he said.
"You were expecting the Queen?" said Regina's father, holding a wooden box and looking around nervously then walking towards him.
"Who are you? What have you done to her?" he held up the knife.
"The King has locked her away in her chambers. My daughter is a prisoner in her own Kingdom."
"You are the Queen's father?"
"Please, take this to her." he held up the wooden box. "The palace gaurds won't allow me onto her chambers. They know I'd die for her."
The Genie took the box.
"But you........ The King trusts you......... He doesn't know th at you have my daughter's heart. The gaurds will allow you in. Give her this box."
"Wait, I don't understand. What is in it?"
"This is the only thing that can free her from this wretched life." he placed the silver key for the box on the lid. "If you truly car for my daughter, I know you'll do whatever it takes to set her free."
The Queen's father then walked away.
The Genie picked up the key and gazed at it. The handle of the key was a skull.

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Emma drove her yellow car to the Town Hall, Sidney with her. She pulled in and they both got out.
"What are we doing here?" Sidney asked, standing by the car.
Emma stopped in her tracks. "We know she bought land from Gold, we don't know why. I'm willing to bet it's for personal reasons, but we have to know for sure. We need documents that officially link her to that land." she walked towards the Hall.
"So you want to break into her office?" he followed her. "It's locked and she's got a state of the art security system and alarm."
"If we don't show this town who Regina really is, who will?"
"Do you think you cab crack her code?"
"Yep."
Emma walked to the back door and smashed the glass window with her gloved fist.
The alarms went wild inside the Hall.
"Emma!" said Sidney.
Emma broke a little more if the glass. "Who does the alarm system alert? The police. I'm the police." she put her arm through the whole she had created in the glass and opened the door from the inside. "Two minutes for her to get a call from the alarm company........." she stepped over the glass and Sidney followed her inside. "..........one minute to get her coat and keys, three minutes for her to drive here. We got maybe six minutes.

They walked into Regina's office. Sidney ran to her desk and opened her laptop. Emma stuck her hard desk recovery utility into the computer and on the screen came up a document reading land, sold, Gold, property. Emma clicked into the file and a list of files came up on the screen.
"I just uncovered every file that references the track of land she bought from Gold."
She clicked on all of them and from the printer near by came a load of documents and sketches. Emma ran to the printer and shone her flashlight on the paper.
"Nice!"
She then ruoted through the draws beneath the printer. She pulled out a load of skull keys on a giant key ring and examilained them.
"What the hell do these open?" Emma said.
"I don't know." said Sidney at the laptop.
She put the keys back in the draw and searched some others.
"What are you doing?" he walked towards her and taking the documents from the printer.
"Looking for Henry's book." she said routing around the room.
"We didn't come here for Henry. We came here for the files......." he started.
"No, you didn't come here for Henry. Me, that's the only reason I'm here."
Suddenly the lights in the office came on. Sidney slipped the documents into his coat as Regina walked into the room.
Emma shone her flashlight in her direction and she put her hands in from of her face, blinded by the light.
"What are you doing?" said Regina, turning off the alarm system by putting in a code.
"I heard the alarm so I'm checking it out, cause.....I'm sherif." said Emma.
"Well, that was an awfully quick response time." she walked towards them.
"You told me to do my job and I'm doing it."
"And you brought him?" she glared at Sidney.
"Oh, well, he saw it while he was on a walk. So he's a witness."
"And what did you see, Sidney?"
"Some kids with a........"
"Rock." sais Emma.
"A rock."
"Did they take anything?" she looked around the office to see if there was anything missing.
"I don't know, I'd have to do a thorough sweep to find out." said Emma.
"It appears to me it's all just a prank." she said turning to them.
"You sure you don't want me to take the place apart?"
"Sherif, your services are not wanted nor needed."
"Okay....... Well, you know where to find me." she glanced at Sidney then walked from the room and Sidney followed.