Without a Trace

I do not own or purport to own the characters or the show Without a Trace. This is purely a work of fiction for my own personal enjoyment.

Chapter One: Meeting Adelaide

Martin, Samantha, Vivian, Danny, Elena and Jack were all gathered around the whiteboard looking at there latest missing person.

"Ok her name is Giarny Thomas, 26 was last seen by her housemate at 8 o'clock yesterday morning. She was dressed for work but never made it there" Martin stated reading off his notebook

"Boyfriend?" Elena asked

"Nope, not according to the housemate. Went to work during the week, went out Friday nights and visited parent's on weekends. No known enemies, everyone we spoke to this morning said that she was a lovely, fairly quiet person" Danny recollected from memory.

"I just spoke to her work and she hasn't turned up this morning either. She's now been missing for 24 hours" Jack said

"Martin i want you to run down her bank accounts, credit cards, phone calls etc. Danny and Viv, i want you to talk to her parents and Sam and Elena, go to where she works and see what you can find, I will be in my office if you need me" once Jack finished giving orders he walked back towards his office leaving all the agents to go there separate ways.

Martin was getting increasingly frustrated at having to go through pages and pages of credit card statements which so far had only showed him that she had a weakness for shoes, like most woman, and her favourite restaurant seemed to be Baracov's. He threw his pen down when he heard a very familar voice from behind him, a voice he hadn't heard in about 2 years but nethertheless remembered it like he heard it everyday

"Martin, you know the pen did nothing to you right?"

Martin turned and was met by the sight of her, those familar crystal blue eyes, hair that was now red but used to be dark blonde, the same skinny tall toned body which was accentuated by fitted black suit pants and matching white shirt, and as always that infectous perfect smile.

He got up and they walked towards each other. She saw the surprise clearly etched on his face and in his eyes. He could always be read so easily. He looked as handsome and gorgeous as ever. Even though he was now 35, he still had that young boyish look and charm about him.

"Addy, Oh my god, this is a surprise, i haven't seen you in about 2 years" he said while hugging her and in the process kissing her on the cheek. She returned the kiss and wrapped an arm around his waist.

She smiled, as they released each other but Martin still kept a hand on her upper arm "I know, I haven't been back to the east coast since then. How are you, you look great?" she said stepping back a little to admire him

He smiled "Yeah i am good..." before he could finish they were interrupted by a voice behind them

"Huh hum. Sorry i hope i am not interrupting anything" Jack said

The unfamilar woman smiled at him and extended her hand "No sorry, I am Special Agent Adelaide Mathews with Fugitive Recovery. I believe that your office is investigating the disappearance of Giarny Thomas?"

"I am Special Agent Jack Malone, and yeah we are. What interest does Fugitive Recovery have in her?" he said shaking the offered hand and noticing now that she had turned around the badge and gun clipped onto her belt.

"A Victor Yuchenso was out on bail but when they went to arrest him he seems to have disappeared, your missing person is the key witness in the case against him. There was an armed robbery at a convenience store and the clerk was killed. She was a customer that positively identified him. I got intel this morning that he has been sighted in New York. I have been trying to contact her for the past day with no luck. When i flew in this morning, i got word that missing person's had her case" Adelaide explained

"Think this guy has done something to her?" Danny asked walking into the bullpen with Vivian by his side and Sam and Elena following. They had seen the strange woman and Martin hug and had just walked in to hear her explain about Victor Yuchenso.

Martin did the introductions "Danny Taylor, Elena Delgado, Vivian Johnson and Samantha Spade, the other members of our team, this is Special Agent Adelaide Mathews from Fugitive Recovery" she smiled at them

"Nice to meet you all, and to answer your question Agent Taylor, Yes i think that he is. Initially Giarny didn't come forward so the evidence was fairly circumstantial hence why he got bail, but she came forward about 2 weeks ago willing to ID him and he's been in the wind ever since. Word on the street is that he is the leader of the Green Arrows, and they are notorious for their killing spree's. This woman is the only one that is capable of locking him up for a long time and he will do anything to prevent that"

"Ad, do you think that he knew where she was? Why wasn't she in protective custody?" Martin asked

The rest of the agents noted the casual use of her nickname, especially Sam who hadn't even heard of Martin mention an Adelaide before.

"The only people who knew that she had come forward was the investigating detective and the District Attorney's office. He fled before they could even arrest him so i think he has a contact in the department some where. The bureau offered her protective custody but she refused saying that she was alright and seemingly with only a few people knowing she was the witness, she should have been. According to the lead Detective, when he went missing they tried to get her to reconsider but she wouldn't."

"What else do you have on this guy?" Vivian asked her

"I have been tracking him for the past two weeks. I think he must of only found out who she was in the last day or so because, the information i have is that he went in hiding before he surfaced in Miami 3 days ago before i followed him here to New York. I hope i am wrong and he doesn't have her because if he does, she'll be dead already" she said quite bluntly and methodically. It was sad but the truth. She had generally gotten used to it. She had seen it happen a number of times.

Samantha shook her head "Well lets just call the morgue shall we?" she said a little annoyed at the lack of emotion in the agent's voice. Martin looked at Samantha after that very bitchy and sarcastic remark. He agreed with Addy and knew that she wasn' trying to be uncaring but rather just telling the truth. Yes, she might have sounded disattached but with her job she had to maintain a certain level of disassociation.

"Agent Spade, i don't mean to sound uncaring or like a defeatist heartless bitch, but there is no need for him to keep her alive, I sincerly hope that i am wrong but this week alone he has put a bullet in my partner's shoulder in a shoot-out in Miami. He doesn't care about authority or the consequences of his actions other than his own self-interest and i am definetly not saying that we shouldn't be looking for her because there are always exceptions to everything and i really hope that i am wrong and she's gone away for the week to get a tan in Hawaii"

They all nodded "So Agent Malone" she continued "I propose that we work together and pool our resources and information"

He nodded in agreeance "I think that would be a very good idea. I think there is a very good chance that finding one will find the other. So let's see what we have so far" Jack said indicating to the whiteboard and to his team.

They all made their way to sit around the table. Adelaide sat at the round table next to Jack before Martin joined her sitting on the other side and placed a cup in front of her. She looked up at the movement and smiled to see it was Martin, "Thanks Martin" she took a sip of the liquid and smiled further "You haven't forgot" she exclaimed to him smiling, he smiled back "tea with three and a half sugars with no milk because your lactose intolerant" he said resighting from memory and seeing the burger in front of him, she laughed "i am amazed that you are not 300 pounds by now, Marty" he took a bite "arhmmm...the best food in the world" he said before offering it to her rubbing his stomach to illustrate his point further, "your poor mother must be horrified. If i remember correctly it was always a three course gourmet meal", he nodded "still is last time i was there" but nethertheless she took a bite and handed it back to him. The exchange was watched quite closely and intently by Danny and Sam who were sitting on the other side of the table across from them. Danny was intrigued by way they knew each other. They obviously must be or must have been close by the way they seemed to know a lot about each other and how comfortable they were with each other. He vowed to find out by the end of the day. Sam on the other hand was feeling very jealous, although she wouldn't admit it to herself.

Elena started speaking first "her collegues said that she was quite and tended to be a loner. Did her work as an assistant accountant really well and seemed pleasant and sweet to everyone. No-one noticed anything out of the ordinary. She's only been here in New York for 4 months"

Danny started speaking "parent's said same thing and even though her mum said they were close, she didn't notice any weird behaviour although last weekend she didn't turn up for Sunday dinner like usual and when her mum rang her about it she heard shouting in the background and the phone went dead. When her mum rang back, Giarnny said that it was nothing and that she was fine but wouldn't be able to visit them next weekend either"

Martin added to that "well her phone records show that like clockwork she called her mother and best friend at the same time every night, she has about $8000 in her savings account, and there's no abnormal credit charges. They mostly consist of clothes, shoes and dinner and drinks on Friday nights, and grocery shopping every Wednesday. No crazy charges like $6000 for cutlery" he said pointedly looking at Adelaide. She rolled her eyes at Martin's insinuation.
"Has there been any calls to or from Miami?" Adelaide asked

Martin scanned the phone records "Um, yeah there was one phone call from Miami day before last. It went for 5 minutes."

"To threaten her maybe?" Vivian asked

Adelaide shook her head "I doubt he would have rang to threaten her. That would give her time to leave the state or country. Maybe someone rang to warn her? Does she have any friends or connections in Miami?"

"We had no reason to ask about that before" Danny stated

They all nodded "Does Victor having any ties to New York?" Jack asked

Adelaide nodded "he has one known cousin living in the Bronx. He's got a record as long as my arm, robbery, assault. I would like to start there."

Jack nodded "Take Danny with you. Martin find out who rang her. Viv go back to the parents and ask about Miami, same with you Sam and Elena, about the housemate. See if they no anything about her witnessing the shooting as well."

They all nodded. Danny spoke first when he came and stood next to her "So Adelaide, looks like you have to make do with me" Martin laughed "Go easy on him Addy." Adelaide laughed "I will bring him back in one piece, can't gaurantee anything beyond that, you know me Marty" "That's what I am worried about Bubs" he said touching her shoulder before walking back towards his desk. Danny chuckled at the exchange, 'Coming Bubs" he asked cheekily to her. She rolled her eyes "I am going to kill Martin".