.
1 p.m.
Madeline stared at her eldest son's two best friends, her blue eyes narrowed as she listened to Fiona explain that they believed Michael's burn notice had been revoked and that he had left. Her hands shook as she pulled a cigarette from the packet and eventually got it to her mouth and then lit up.
"Why wouldn't he tell us?" Madeline asked. With the cigarette lit, she had sat down. Looking from Fiona to Sam and back again.
"It's what he does." Fiona replied her bitter tone drawing a frown from Sam.
"That's unfair Fi, we don't know what his orders were." He tried to soften the blow for Madeline.
"Are you sure that's what happened? It was definitely his job? Not that he's back in prison?" She wanted reassurance, she like everyone else thought he had changed. He had appeared to of given up on getting his old life back. Still with Michael it was always hard to tell what he was thinking.
"As sure as we can be. We're still trying to find out for sure. It's our best guess at the moment. You know he would of told you if he could." Fiona snorted at this last part. He glared at her, was he the only one trying to let Madeline down lightly.
"Huh, he never did before, so why should he start now. Two years," Madeline's voice rose as she stabbed the air with her cigarette. "It was two years before he even sent a card last time." She was becoming angry, now over the initial shock. "Told me and Nate he had to go to D.C and would be back in a day or so." The cigarette was ground out in the ashtray and another one pulled from the packet.
"Did he take the car? The Charger?" Madeline asked, through a fresh cloud of smoke, when Sam shook his head. "Can you bring it round here. I'd like to have it somewhere safe." She was dismissing them.
"Sure thing Maddy." He said kindly. "We'll go now." He felt uncomfortable having to deal with these two women that his best friend had just abandoned. In his long career it struck him that he had done more or less the same thing on several occasions and until now he hadn't seen the consequences. Still would it of killed Mike to give him a heads up.
Fiona drove him back to the loft but refused to go back inside. He guessed she probably had her own way of dealing with things. Ways that involved large amounts of explosives or violence. He had noticed on the drive over how her fingers kept flexing around the steering wheel like she was practicing for wrapping them around somebody's neck. It was that and the eerie silence that made him glad to get out of the car.
Heading up the steps to the loft, Sam realized he would have to see Oleg in the next couple of days and then find out what Madeline wanted done with the rest of Michaels belongings. Once inside he picked up the car keys and left. It was only after he drove out of the gates and went back to lock them, two things struck him. One, Michael's cell phone lying on the ground, it would have been out of sight under the car. Two, the chain that normally kept the gates locked was wrapped through one of the bars but the padlock was missing.
Switching the Chargers engine off he went and retrieved the cell phone. The battery was flat, so he changed out the sim card into his own phone. The last call to the phone had been from Madeline's cell. He tried the number and it went to voice mail. He dialled up the house number and Madeline answered immediately.
"Michael!" Sam felt horrible, forgetting it would show on her caller ID as Michaels phone.
"Sorry Maddy it's just me I found one of Michaels old phones was just checking the call log. Say did you call him last night off your cell?"
"No I've mislaid it." She admitted. "why?"
"It might be nothing. Say you've not mislaid anything else have you? Or noticed any strange cars or people watching the house?"
" God no Sam, what's going on?" Now she was worried.
"Honest Maddy I don't know, I promise when I know something I'll call, ok.?"
"You better." She let the threat hang in the air. Then slammed the phone down.
.
2.30 p.m
He rung Fiona. "Get back to the loft I've just found Mike's phone. Someone called him off his mom's cell, I think they may of used it to either force him to go with them or to grab him, we need to go over the whole place again."
After tearing the loft to pieces they headed outside. The padlock had been attacked by bolt croppers, they found it amongst the rubbish from the night club. Moving further afield a search of the local dumpsters revealed three black bin liner's filled with most of Michael's belongings. This started Fiona cursing. Somebody good enough to take Michael down without a fight was somebody that wasn't going to be easy to find or fight. She reached for her phone, she had calls to make.
Sam was happier, while he couldn't get any information on Michael Westen ex-spy. He could get help finding out what vehicles had been in the area throughout the night. The call log on Michael's phone gave the time of the last call as just after five. Which narrowed things down even more. Things were looking up.
"It might of taken us a while Mikey but we're on our way. Hang on in there."