A/N - Thank you for the reviews. They really help me to stay focused on this. Case files are a pain to write! But it is much easier with Mariel as by beta! Thanks, Mariel.
Monday, January 25, 2003
5 p.m. Riker's Island – 70 Hours Missing
"You know I had no idea that Danny had a brother," Martin said as he and Jack stepped off the ferry onto Riker's Island.
"I was the only one that knew. Viv didn't even know. Danny asked me not to tell anyone. He said that part of his life was over."
"So what did his brother do?"
"Currently, he's serving a sentence for robbery and aggravated assault. He served time previously for possession with intent."
"Do you know how long it's been since Danny has seen him?" Martin asked after they flashed their badges to the guard.
"I have no idea. He made it pretty clear that his family history was off limits. I guess we'll find out soon enough," Jack said, as they were lead into a small interview room.
Minutes later, the door opened and a guard guided Rafael Alvarez into the room and led him to a seat across from where Martin and Jack were already seated. Jack took a moment to size the man up. Rafael was tall like Danny, but probably outweighed him by at least thirty pounds. His arms were painted with prison tattoos, but he had dark eyes that hid a vault of secrets, just like Danny.
"You can take his cuffs off," Jack said to the guard.
"You sure?"
"I'm sure," Jack replied, not taking his eyes off Danny's brother. Rafael returned the stare and registered surprise as the guard removed the cuffs.
"What's this about?" Rafael asked after the guard left the room. "What the hell do the Feds want with me? I haven't done anything wrong. I'm up for parole next year. I'm not doing anything to screw it up. I swear."
"You haven't done anything wrong. We just…we just have some questions for you. I'm Special Agent Malone and this is Special Agent Fitzgerald," Jack explained, motioning to Martin.
"Questions? What questions?"
Martin chimed in. "We work with your brother."
"My brother? Danny? Danny's a Fed?" he replied, voice full of surprise.
"He's been a federal agent for six years," Jack responded.
Rafael smiled widely. "Son of a bitch. It's just…we were never big fans of law enforcement. So what's this about? Why are you here?"
"When is the last time you saw or heard from Danny?" Jack asked.
Rafael smirked. "Are you serious? It's been years, at least ten years. How old is he now?"
"Thirty," Jack replied.
"Thirty," he repeated to himself, shaking his head. "The last time I saw him he was a sixteen year old kid, living in some group home in Queens."
"So you haven't heard from him recently at all," Martin asked.
"No way. He told me back then that he couldn't see me anymore. He was going to live with some foster family so that he could attend a better high school. In order to live with the foster family, he had to cut me off completely."
"Hey, little brother!" Raffi called out as he watched Danny walk out of the group home.
"What do you want, Raffi?" Danny asked as he stopped and crossed his arms.
"Just wanted to see you, man. It's been a long time," he replied in an easygoing tone. "Hey, I'm freezing my ass off out here. You think we could go inside and get some grub?"
Sighing, Danny shook his head. "You aren't allowed in there. The last time I snuck you in, they said they'd kick me out if I did it again."
"Those bastards. I'm your brother."
At that, Danny almost laughed. "I think it had something to do with them finding a used needle in one of the bathrooms or it could have been that you shook down my roommate for $20."
"Danny…come on. That wasn't my—"
"Shut up, Raffi. I don't want to hear it anymore. I can't keep doing this," Danny said as he took a wad of bills from his pocket.
"What's that?" Raffi asked his heart beating faster at the thought of the drugs he could score with that money.
"It's all the money I've saved from my after-school job. Here," Danny said, shoving the money into Raffi's hand. "I know you'll probably use it to get high, but if you care at all – you'll use it to get a good meal and maybe buy some clothes so you can find a job."
"Why are you giving me this?"
"Because we're not going to see each other for a while. I'm going to a new foster home next week."
"We can still see each other—"
"No. We can't. This is my last shot, Raffi. If I don't make it work with these people and stay in a good school, then—"
"You may end up like me."
Danny didn't disagree.
"That must have been difficult for you," Jack responded.
"Agent Malone, I was so high at the time – I barely remember it. I hardly ever saw Danny back then, and when I did, I just shook him down for money or food. At first, he always tried to help me, but eventually, he got sick of it. I was a lost cause."
"Do you know anything about his foster families or people he was acquainted with back then?"
"Why? I want to know what this is about."
"He's missing," Martin replied.
"Missing? He was kidnapped or something?"
"We don't know what happened. No one has seen or heard from him in almost three days," Martin explained.
As Raffi took in the statement, he looked from Martin to Jack and then back to Martin again. Shaking his head, he replied, "Christ, I hope nothing bad has happened to him."
"We hope not, too. That's why we are here. We're trying to find out as much about him as possible."
"I thought you said you worked with him? Don't you already know all of this stuff?" Rafael asked in a frustrated tone.
"I didn't know you existed until today," Martin replied.
A hint of surprise and hurt registered in Raffi's eyes.
Jack explained. "I knew about you from Danny's file, but nothing else. I know that he changed his name—"
"Changed his name? His name isn't Alvarez anymore?"
"No. His name is Danny Taylor."
"Taylor? Why would he…" but Rafael didn't finish the question.
"So what can you tell us about his history, his foster families, anything that could give us some insight into his past?" Jacked asked.
After taking a deep breath, Rafael exhaled slowly and then answered. "I don't know much. But I'll tell you everything I can remember. Our parents died when I was seventeen. Danny was eleven. Our father, mean son of a bitch that he was, had burned a lot of bridges while he was alive, so we didn't have much family interested in taking us in. At first, social services let us stay with our grandmother, but she was practically senile. I was caught up with a bad group of people back then, and I got Danny mixed up in it as well. When he was twelve, I started sending him on runs. He was this innocent, wide-eyed looking kid – so no one would expect he'd be trouble. I made the mistake of sending him on a run to this customer that I'd had trouble with before. I was so strung out back then, that I didn't even think about putting Danny in danger."
"What happened?" Martin asked, but part of him was certain he didn't want to hear what Rafael was going to say next.
"This guy found out that Danny was my little brother, so he wanted to send me a message."
"What did he do?" Jack asked.
"He almost beat Danny to death, shanked him in the gut and threw him out of a car in front of our house. He went to the hospital, but I couldn't visit him. They would have arrested me on the spot. I took off, and that's when social services came in and took Danny into custody."
Martin could barely speak. When he'd first heard that Danny had a brother, he wondered how Danny could have possibly abandoned and disowned his own flesh and blood. But now he understood. Rafael had abandoned Danny long before, when he'd allowed him to be in that type of danger.
Jack had trouble responding as well. He'd known that Danny had come from a tough life, but he'd had no idea to what extent.
"Did he go to a foster home?" Jack finally asked.
"You could say that. He went to several of them. From what I remember, he became an angry little kid after—"
"Who could blame him?" Martin interrupted in a contemptuous tone.
"I don't disagree. After he went through all that, he started running with the wrong crowd. So he just kind of got tossed around from different group homes and foster homes for the next year or so. But then, thankfully, he got busted for shoplifting. That helped him get back on track."
"How so?" Jack asked.
"They could have sent him to Juvie. If he'd been sent to Juvie, believe me, he wouldn't be traveling in your circles today. But instead, they put him in a church after-school program. The priest there was famous for turning troubled kids around. And that's what he did for Danny. He got him off the street and got him focused on school. When I tried to see Danny, Father Orlando cut me off. He told me if I came near Danny that he would make my life a living hell. So I stayed away."
"How did you and Danny get to New York?" Jack asked. "Did you come here together?
"Eventually, Danny was placed in another foster home when he was about 14. He'd turned things around pretty quickly. He was studying hard and doing well in school. We saw each other occasionally, but I kept my distance for the most part. And then I got into a lot of trouble. I had some bad people looking for me. So I decided to skip town. Before I left, I wanted to tell Danny goodbye, so I went to his foster home. When I told him I was leaving, he begged me to take him with me."
"Why? Why would he still trust you after all that had happened?" Martin asked.
"He never told me the truth, but I think something was happening to him in that foster home. When he asked me to take him with me, there was this look in his eyes – like he wouldn't make it if he had to stay in that place."
"Who was he living with?" Jack asked.
"Some career foster mother. She had about five kids living with her. She was supposed to be really great, but Danny didn't like it there. When I finally agreed to take him, he literally broke down and threw his arms around me. We don't do that in our family. We learned never to cry, so when he broke down like that – I knew that things must have been pretty awful for him."
"What happened when you got to New York?"
"Danny tried to help me stay clean. He found us this room to rent in the Bronx. He got us both jobs at this Korean grocery store. And somehow he enrolled himself in school. He was determined to make it work. He desperately didn't want to go back into the system. But I let him down. I started using again and got arrested. When I got put away, Social Services found out Danny was on his own. So they sent him to a group home. I'll always remember the look in his eyes when they took me away. He was terrified."
"Do you know anything about the foster families he lived with here?"
"Not really. He never visited me when I was inside the first time. When I got out, I found him in a group home, but that's when he told me he couldn't associate with me anymore. I never saw him again."
"What about you?" Jack asked. "Do you have any enemies? Anyone who might go after Danny to get to you?"
"Danny Alvarez? Maybe. Danny Taylor? No way. I didn't even know he'd changed his name. How could anyone else? And I've been inside so long that I doubt any of my old enemies care anymore."
"Well, we appreciate your cooperation, Mr. Alvarez," Jack said as he and Martin rose from their chairs.
Looking up at them with slightly desperate eyes, Raffi replied, "You'll tell me, right? You'll tell when you've found him? All this time, I just imagined that Danny was having a good life somewhere."
"He has had a good life," Jack answered.
"But now I know he's in trouble. So just please let me know when you find him. I just want to know he is okay," Rafael pleaded, his eyes filling with tears.
Feeling suddenly sorry for the helpless man, Martin responded in a comforting tone. "We'll let you know," he promised.
XXX
Martin and Jack rode back to Manhattan in silence—both stunned by what Rafael had told them.
"Did you have any idea?" Martin finally asked.
Shaking his head, Jack responded. "I only knew his parents died and that he grew up in the system. I had no idea about the other stuff."
"No wonder he turned to alcohol. I'd want to try to forget all of that, too."
Jack nodded in response before changing the subject. "What's unfortunate is that after learning all of that, we really still don't have a solid lead. I doubt he is even in touch with anyone from when he was a teenager."
"You want me to call Social Services? Maybe I can find out who he lived with last, and we can go from there?"
"Yeah. That's probably a good idea. I don't know how much they can tell you, but it's worth a shot. In the meantime, we should probably meet back at office and see if we can piece together what we have so far."
XXX
8 p.m – FBI Office – 73 Hours Missing
"She seems to really care about him," Sam said as she relayed her conversation with Emily to Jack, Vivian and Martin as they sat around the conference table. "It sounded to me as though she wanted to get serious and he was pushing her away. Maybe Martin's right, maybe Danny just skipped town for a while to get away from this so-called 'needy chic'," Sam said with an air of disdain for Danny's possible behavior.
"He wouldn't leave town without telling us, Sam. Especially over something like that," Vivian countered.
"And Dr. Phelps account isn't matching with Danny's AA sponsor. According to Mr. Weatherly, Danny was the one who had a problem with the casualness of their relationship."
"Come on, Jack. This is Danny," Samantha said. "How many serious relationships has he had since you've known him? I can't think of one. And this girl really seemed to genuinely care about him."
Clearing his throat, Martin looked at Sam in exasperation. "That's not the impression I got. I thought she looked nervous and agitated."
"She was panicked and worried, Martin," Sam corrected. "I spent an hour with her. She doesn't know where Danny is."
"Well, either Danny was lying to his sponsor—"Jack started.
"Which I doubt," Viv interrupted him.
"Or, Dr. Phelps isn't being as forthcoming as you might think," he continued, glancing at Samantha. "Where is she now?"
"She had to get to the hospital for her shift," Samantha answered.
"Okay, you and I are going to talk to her again at the hospital," Jack said as he rose from the table. "What did you find out from Social Services, Martin?"
"Uh, I was able to track down Danny's last foster mother, Sharon Taylor," Martin responded with a knowing glance around the table. "She's on her way in. But they don't have any other records on Danny."
"Vivian, you interview Sharon Taylor. See if she can help us at all. Martin, I want you to double-check all the recent and old cases we've had. Maybe we missed something. I'm thinking you should track down Goren Davitz. Danny pissed him off during the Eve Cleary case. I know he's going on trial for trafficking, but he's out on bail so maybe…"
"Got it, Jack," Martin said as he rose from the table.
Before walking out with Samantha, Jack paused and took a deep breath. "Listen, I just want you guys to know that I appreciate your professionalism. It's tough…it's tough to stay focused considering how much we all care for Danny, but you guys are doing a hell of a job. I know Danny will appreciate it when we find him."
Viv smiled slightly. "He'll turn up soon – safe and sound," she reassured.
"Yeah," Jack responded as he and Samantha continued to walk away.
