Capter 1

March 18th 1982

FBI Office NY

"Victor Fitzgerald" he answered on the phone, "Mmmm… yes, I'll be there, thanks" , he took his coat and the gun from his drawer and headed to the parking lot.

He drove by the streets, lost in his thoughts, the case ghad gone really wrong, he found the place he'd written in his notepad. It wasn't difficult to find the house, police cars were parked just in front. He parked his car in front of the house and climbed off, he walked to the house entrance and showed his badge. An officer let him in and pointed to the detectives in charge of the investigation, they looked very busy, but Victor went straight to talk to them.

"Detective…" he started

The younger of both men looked up and said "Maloe, Jack" offering his hand

Victor took the hand and answered "I'm special agent Victor Fitzgerald, I was sent here to cooperate with you, we've been looking for this man since a week now. You found him, now we work together from now on until we get all the facts"

Jack didn't like the man's attitude, he seemed to be too confident, he didn't want somebody to fight over the case's ownership, and this… Fitzgerald had taken his leadership for granted since the first second they met, just because he was an FBI!

"Look Fitzgerald… this is our case, a murder case now, what are you up to?" he said in an angry voice

Victor had seen it coming, but this was a case he'd been after since the first murder a month ago, he'd lower his head and try to behave with Malone and his partner, or somebody up there enough would take him out of the case, that was what his SAC had said to him, so he used his best nice and friendly voice and said

"Yes, I'm sorry Malone, you're right" then he smiled and added "the name is Victor. What do you want to know?"

The change produced an instant grin in Malone, he was still considered a rookie for everyone in the force, except for his partner, his mentor Frank Finnelay, but he wasn't that green, he could recognize some behavioural signs, and he knew Fitzgerald was struggling to keep himself tied, he kind of liked that self control in the other man, give him credit for that, so he smiled back and said

"I'm done here, I have all I need, we can have a coffee and talk about the case, what do you think?"

Victor relaxed, this was going to be an interesting case, working with this Malone wouldn't be that difficult after all. He was used to work alone, this will be a first.

They headed outside and Jack said "I'll talk to Frank, let him know we're going for a coffee"

Victor saw him talking to the other man pointing at him, and then coming back.

"So you're gonna take me for the ride, he has the car today" Jack said nodding to his partner.

"No problem, look, it's late, is there any problem for you to come to my home and have the coffee there? Maybe my wife still has some dinner for us" he offered

"If it isn't any problem for you…"

So they headed to Victor's, it was almost 8:00 PM and it was cold, a home made food wouldn't be a bad idea for Jack. Victor parked his car in front of the house. It was a big house and Jack wondered how much money did the FBI agents earn for their job.

Victor took his keys and opened the door. Instantly three kids appeared from nowhere running and jumping to him. Jack looked at them while Victor kissed the girls, a little boy was waiting in line behind them. Victor raised his head and said "Hello Martin" extending his hand to the boy.

"Hello sir" answered him a little dissapointed, like he'd been for a moment waiting for the kiss and embrace his sisters had received a moment ago, but the change in his face was so fast that Jack knew this wasn't something new to the kid.

"This is detective Malone, Martin"

Martin looked up and shook hands with Jack "Nice to meet you sir" he said very politely

To anyone else this would have been an amazingly well educated kid, but Jack saw the cold treatment between the father and his son, he'd lived himself in the same hell, with his own father being a cop, and he didn't like that at all, so he waved the boys hair, Victor had gone to see his wife so he talked to the boy very kindly.

"So Martin, how old are you?"

"I'm six sir" said the boy taking his distance while talking, he was obviously very shy.

"And, how's school?"

Martin looked down and whispered "it's OK…"

"Is there any problem?" Jack doubted that a six year old kid would have any problem at school.

"No, but…" and he looked where his father had gone some moments ago.

Jack got the whole idea of the situation now, remembering again his own father talking to him about school and having good scores and those kind of things, but he also remembered that conversation being him a teenager, not a six year old kid. He could picture the whole scene now. This Victor with the FBI badge, was pressing really hard the kid as if he was already an agent himself.

"Don't worry Martin, I'm sure you're doing real great at school"

The boy lightened his face and asked "Do you want to see my books and homework?"

"Yeah, of course!"

In a minute he was sitting on the sofa looking at Martin scripting practice and drawings. He could see the boy was really thorough for the details in his drawings, and his handwriting was clear an smooth.

"You're an excellent student Martin, this work… never seen anything like that in a kid your age"

Martin smiled wide, but his smile faded when he saw Victor coming. He closed his books in a sudden movement and was about to stand when Jack held his arm and kept him from leaving.

Victor put the tray with the coffee over the table and sat on the sofa in front of them. He looked puzzle to Jack when Jack gave him Martin's books.

"I was looking at your kid's homework Victor, very impressive" he looked sideway, where Martin was, to watch his reaction, he was again trying to get out.

"Yes, just a little…" started Victor

"A little what?" amazingly to Jack, he reacted protective of the boy against his father

"Well, he doesn't work enough at home, he just want to waste his time playing, that's all"

Then Jack opened the book to show the hard work the kid was doing to make everything perfect in there. Victor looked at the book and he fingered the pages one by one. It was like he was looking at that book for the first time, he complained about the boy not working hard enough, but then he'd never seen his work.

Victor opened his mouth and closed it again, not havin any words to say. Then his wife called Martin to have his bath. He gathered his books and ran out.

"Great kid you have there" said Jack "you can consider yourself very lucky"

"Yes, thanks" he said "I know". Then, without a second thought he went back to business, he didn't like Jack had taken the time to see Martin's work, just being at home less than ten minutes. He, himself had never had that time, always running, never realized it was less than ten minutes what he needed to have for his boy. He will do it in the future, or he will try…

"back to the case… " he cut off his emotions now, it was easier this way "we had the first kidnapping around a month ago, then it turned to be murder, the name of the victim was William Jackson. Four days after the kidnapping we found him in an alley, stabbed in the leg bleed to death. A note writen on his bare chest with his own blood, a message for us. They never got a ransom call…"

"If it wasn't for money, what is it for?"

"I guess it's just for fun" said Victor "the victim had been beaten during his captivity, What is it with this last man you found tonight?"

"Jack looked at his notepad "It's about the same, the bloodie message now says you'll never get me this time. The victims's name is…"

"Yes, Zack Myers, he's married too and had two kids"

"Do you have anything else from him? We have to link them somehow, to find if there's a connection"

"I didn't know about this other case" said Jack "but I'll start looking at the files if you want"

"Yes, fine, here's what I have from Jackson, if you agree, we could work on that tomorrow" offered Victor.

"I… " started Jack, but he was cut by a running kid with his hair all wet coming from upstairs.

"Mom says I have to ay goodnight!"

Victor glared at the kid and he froze in his place "sorry sir" he said looking at the floor.

"Well, goodnight Martin" said Victor to him coldly

Jack saw the boy's hesitation while he decided how to greet him, so he left the sofa and kneeled in front of Martin to be at his height, then he kissed the boy on his now red cheek and said "Thanks Martin, goodnight, and keep that hard work at school, huh?"

"Yes Jack, Thanks!" he then turnd around and went upstairs.

Jack looked at Victor and said again, more to himself than to Victor "Grest kid! You should be proud…"

Victor's only answer was "I think dinner is ready, but not work talk in there"

"You don't eat with your kids?" he asked in amusement

"No, too much noise" was the cold answer.

"Oh, right" nodded Jack