Disclaimer: Forgot to say before chapter one, but I don't own Lie to Me.

Chapter Two

Ria Torres walked towards work, sipping her coffee as she went. They were in the middle of an interesting research project and she was looking forward to processing the new information they had just received. She was finally getting to grips with the science and Lightman, when he wasn't being a dick, was a pretty good teacher. A few months ago, she'd been thinking about quitting, fed up with Lightman's destructive behaviour towards everything but recently things had been different. He was still ferocious with suspects, taking them out of their comfort zones and forcing the truth out of them but his behaviour towards his staff had been a lot better. Ria wasn't privy to the inner workings of Cal Lightman's mind but she knew that the only two people who he truly cared about were his daughter and Gillian Foster and she was prepared to bet that one or both of them had laid down the law. In this case, she was pretty sure that it was Gillian Foster. When she first started working for the Lightman Group, Ria had assumed that Gillian was just there to provide comfort for the bereaved and give Lightman someone to leer at but she had soon realised how wrong she was. Doctor Foster was a brilliant psychologist with a talent for getting traumatised victims to open up and an uncanny ability to hear the changes in people's voices when they lied. Over time, Ria had come to like and respect the older woman, finding her calm competence gave her a sense of security that she'd never had before. Gillian ran the financial side of the business, insisting that they take some boring well-paid jobs not just interesting ones so that they all got paid every month. She also insisted on certain standards of professional behaviour and when Lightman transgressed them too far or too often she would quietly call him on it. In theory she had as much chance of getting him to behave as a kitten had of controlling a grizzly bear, but in practice her gentle non-confrontational approach was very effective. Helped, of course, by the fact that Lightman adored Foster. Very few people realised how he felt but Ria was a natural at reading people and it had only taken a couple of glimpses of his unguarded face when he looked at Doctor Foster for Ria to know how he felt. She was less certain about how Doctor Foster felt because she automatically guarded herself at work; working with human lie detectors tended to make you do that.

Ria's thought processes derailed as she took in the scene in front of the office. A police officer was dusting Doctor Foster's car for prints and Anna was standing in front of a police car crying. White-faced, Ria pushed through the crowd, ignoring a police officer who tried to stop her and ran over to Anna and said,

'What's happened?'

Anna gulped and said,

'Doctor Foster's been kidnapped.'

'When?'

'Half an hour ago. If only I'd been earlier, maybe I could have stopped them.'

'Them? Who?'

Ria's voice was harsh and she felt a pang of guilt but she needed the details.

'There were three of them, wearing masks. They just grabbed her and drove off.'

'Then there was nothing you could have done.'

Anna dissolved into tears again and Ria turned away in search of more information. Stunned she realised that Lightman was sat huddled in the back seat of the police car, staring straight ahead, doing nothing. Going over to him she said,

'Who's taken her? What do they want?'

Cal Lightman looked blankly at her for a moment, then said,

'I don't know.'

'Well, shouldn't we find out?'

Lightman looked vaguely at her and she found herself feeling angry with him. She knew it was unfair, but one of the only people she trusted in the world had been kidnapped and the man who always fixed everything was staring vacantly into space. Pushing her face into his, she shouted,

'Get the fuck up and find out!'

Cal reacted automatically to the aggression and leapt to his feet, adrenaline rushing through his system. Invading Ria's personal space, he yelled,

'You don't tell me what to do! If I wanted some piss-ignorant idiot ordering me around I'd have stayed at the Pentagon.'

Ria backed off as he barged past her and stormed over to one of the detectives, saying,

'Oi, you! Have you called the FBI yet?'

'We're processing the scene at the moment.'

Cal grabbed the man's arm and pulled him round to face him,

'Doctor Foster worked for the Pentagon for years. You need to call the FBI now!'

The man blinked nervously and nodded, going over to his sergeant and talking urgently to him. A few seconds later, the sergeant came over to Cal and said,

'Do you know what Doctor Foster did at the Pentagon, Sir?'

'Yes.'

'And what was that?'

'Classified.'

The sergeant looked frustrated and Cal sympathised. Hoping to speed things up, he said,

'You call the feds, I'll call the Pentagon. I know who needs to know.'

The sergeant nodded and Cal said,

'Send my staff a copy of the security tapes and we'll see what we can find.'

'I can't do that, Sir. It's evidence.'

I know it's evidence, you plonker. That's why I need to see it. I'll get far more from that tape than any of you uneducated louts.'

'That may be true but you're too close to this Doctor Lightman. I can't let you be involved in the investigation.'

Cal glared at the detective but he refused to back down. With a frustrated growl, Cal turned on his heel, saying,

'Torres, Anna, office now!'

The sergeant watched Cal rush off, knowing exactly what he was going to do, and turned to his team saying,

'Anyone who gives any information about the case to Doctor Lightman will spend the next twenty years on traffic duty, is that clear?'

Cal waited until they were safely inside the doors of the Lightman Group before saying,

'Torres, with me. Anna, as soon as Loker gets in, tell him to get those security tapes.'

'Yes, Doctor Lightman,' said Anna.

Ria followed Cal into his office. He sat behind his desk and said,

'We're going to have to go through all of the cases that Foster's worked on and check that none of the psychos she helped put away have got out but first I need you to get hold of that reptile from the local TV channel.'

Ria looked questioningly at Cal and he continued,

'You know, that woman who's always pestering me for interviews and a shag.'

'I don't think she's ever said that she wants to have sex with you, but I know who you mean.'

'Tell it's her lucky day. I'm going to give her an exclusive interview.'

'Is that a good idea?'

'Eye witnesses start to forget what they've seen after an hour. We need to get anyone who saw anything to call the police straight away.'

Ria nodded slowly. The FBI would probably be furious but their standard protocol was based on kidnapping for ransom and it was highly unlikely that Gillian had been kidnapped for money. Revenge was almost certainly the motive so they needed to find her quickly.

The SUV stopped and the men on either side of Gillian got out. One of them pulled on her arm and she obediently climbed out, making no attempt to remove the bag over her head. She was led down some steps into a building and then along several corridors. Gillian concentrated fiercely so that she would know the way out if she got a chance to try to escape. After a few minutes, they stopped and the bag was removed. Before she had blinked her eyes clear, she heard a door shut and lock. Looking round, she found herself in a small room. There was a window with a grill over it and a door in one corner. Opening the door, she found herself in a small bathroom, containing a toilet and sink. Going to the window she looked out and found herself gazing on a familiar scene. She smiled slightly as she realised that memorising the way out had hardly been necessary, she knew where she was. Unfortunately, that information was not as useful as it might have been and Gillian felt her heart sink as she realised how clever her kidnappers had been to bring her here.