Kate's alarm on her cell rang out it's cheery tune of birds tweeting, dogs barking and ducks quacking.
She rubbed her eyes and rolled over to shut it off.
"Stupid animal sounds" she groaned. Luckily she got a bit of a lie in this morning, they didn't have to be in till ten. Although it was quarter to nine now and she still felt fairly tired. She ignored the feeling and padded her way to the fridge to find something to eat. There was a small note left on the kitchen unit.
Went shopping yesterday.
Stuff will be delivered at five.
Please be here to let delivery men in.
See you in a few days
Mickey x x
She made a mental note in her mind 'Be home by five'. Then she turned and opened the fridge. She fancied some cereal. Pulled out a carton of milk. Opened a few cupboards found a box of Captain crunch, her favourite cereal. Michelle knew Kate's favourite foods, and always brought them for her when she shopped. She lifted the flap on the box and opened the plastic bag inside. Then opened a few more cupboards. When she realised, no bowls, which meant no spoons either. Well not until five o'clock tonight anyway. She sighed an unhappy sigh and popped the box back in cupboard and took a swig from the carton before putting it back in the fridge, normally she used a glass but under these circumstances an exception was to be made. Then she turned back for her bedroom and got changed from her very fashionable cardboard boxes.
It was eleven thirty and everyone was sitting at their desks filling in paperwork, everyone except for Jack and Danny. Jack they all knew was probably still at the hospital. He had called Vivian earlier this morning and informed her he would be in a little later in the day. Danny however no one had any idea where he was. He was never normally late according to the other that worked their. Kate was just finishing her account on what had happened the previous night when she heard some one singing coming from the other side of the floor. All four of them looked up to see a very happy Danny Taylor walking out from the lift and making his way towards them.
He walked into the bullpen singing his heart out.
"There she was just a walking down the street, singing ooo a diddy, diddy dum diddy do." Then he did the actions for the next line "Clapping her hands and stomping her feet, singing ooo a diddy, diddy dum diddy do."
The he leant over to Martin desk "She looked good" he nodded his head happily and sung the next line slightly quieter "she looked good" Then he skipped over to Vivian's desk and leant in front of her "She looked fine" then he did the next line slightly quieter again "She looked fine" Then he stood up straight and pointed over to Kate "She looked good" Then pointed to Sam "She looked fine" Then he shook his hips back and front for the next line which weren't the actual words but they could see why he used them "and I really made her mine" then he winked and sunk into his chair as happy as could be.
The four just sat there looking at him before Kate finally spoke.
"So I take it last night went well?"
"Oooooo yeahhhh. If you know what I mean" he replied with a wink.
"Danny. I think the whole floor know what you mean" Sam said sarcastically
Danny sat up from his chair to see other people on the floor still looking at him. He just shrugged his shoulders. Then he looked over to Kate
"And you. You are my little star. I think you'll it in really well here" he said
She just replied to that comment with a small smile.
Jack was standing behind Danny "Do you now?"
Danny turned round to see Jack towering above him. His smile faded slightly but he couldn't remove it from his face. "Hi Jack I was just saying… that erm I think that Caitlin will fit in well here because of her… her…"
Jack folded his arms and tilted his head to the side waiting for an answer. He was tired after spending the whole night awake with his daughter at the hospital.
"Her… spirit" Danny finally found a word. Granted not a very good one, but still.
"Her spirit?" Jack asked, he already knew what Danny was talking about. He heard his conversation from the lift but wanted to see what Danny could come up with.
Danny just nodded his head "It's a very happy spirit" Danny slowed down when talking realising how stupid he was sounding right now, then turned back to his desk and pulled out some paperwork.
Jack walked over to the big whiteboard which had been wiped clear the night before by Martin. Jack had been given a new case as soon as he walked through the door downstairs.
He put a photo of a small boy, no more then four years old, at the top and wrote his name by it. 'Thomas Jenner'.
"Alright we're going down to Lenny's play barn. It's a kids play place, has loads of ball pits, slides, stuff like that. Thomas Jenner went missing there exactly one hour ago. As soon as the parents realised they couldn't find him they informed one of the workers who instantly locked down the place. No one has been let out yet. They're waiting for us now. Get your jackets on, we'll take three cars down, Sam you're with me, Martin take Caitlin, Viv you've got Danny. Get down there as fast as you can, every second you waster means there's a second less we have to save him." With that Jack finished and headed out followed by the rest of the team.
Twenty minutes later three cars pulled up outside a little building. It stood on a little plot by itself. A brick building covered in kids posters, cartoon characters. At the top was a massive bright red sign with the yellow words on the front saying 'Lenny's play barn'. Then at the side was a little picture of a wooden barn and a chicken.
Kate wondered why there was chicken but she didn't bother asking her workmates yet, they had a job to do. They got to the front door, where an officer checked the i.d's and then they were let into a large play area. Full of bright lights, parents holding their kids close to them, children crying, screaming. They were scared and weren't quite sure what was going on. Jack called out a few words but the noise from everyone else was so loud nobody took any attention. After another two tries Danny stood on a table and whistled using his two fingers. All the sudden the room fell silent, Jack joined so everybody could see him.
"My name is Agent Jack Malone, I'm from the F.B.I Missing Persons Unit, and these people here are part of my team. As I'm sure you're all aware of a young boy has gone missing from this 'play barn'. In order for us to do our work and find him again my agents and I are going to need your full co-operation through out the procedures we have to carry out. I also have a forensics team here who will be taking your fingerprints to check you have nothing to do with this. After your fingerprints have been taken you will then be briefly questioned by one of the agents. After this you may then go home. However if you do not co-operate you will be slowing down the process and preventing others from leaving, also if we feel the need we will take you back down town with us for interrogation. Any questions?" he called out.
The room was still silent.
"Okay good. Now if every body could form an orderly queue in front of this table we will begin. Note to parents, please keep all your children by your side and do NOT let them out of your sight!"
With that said all the customers pushed their way to get to the front of the queue wanting to be the first to get out and go home. Jack walked back over to his team leaving the forensics team to set up and get started Cindy was there too. She was part of the forensics team and got called in. She sat at her table and set up her laptop on one of the two tables, the other had another forensic scientist on it ready to do the same job as Cindy herself.
Then she set up her scanner to take the prints from the person to the computer and she was ready for her first person. She looked over to Martin who looked deep in thought when he was disturbed by Jack walking over to his team ready to inform them on what they needed to do. Martin looked up from the ground and noticed Cindy looking at him. She blushed rosy red and smiled. He sent her a small smile back then looked at Jack. Cindy was a quiet girl, the kind you'd expect to work in a science lab. She had had a crush on Martin since he first day he turned up, but it was only recently she was sure that he liked her too. She took one last glance at the agent then turned round to call her first person over.
"Alright I want this case done quickly and properly. Do exactly as I say. I want this case do by the book you understand. I'm not letting another sick bastard back out into the world due to some technicality, we work hard, and we find this kid and send the sick son of a bitch to rot in prison. Firstly Vivian and Danny, you'll be questioning the parents after they have their prints done, anyone suspicious take them to one side and ask more questions. Any ones who's background doesn't check out do the same thing."
They both nodded and made their way to sit with the forensic scientists. "Kate you will be going to the back and check the surveillance cameras. Find out where they are and try and see what happened to the kid from the parent's statement."
She turned and headed for the back room.
"Sam I want you to call the local news, e-mail them a picture of the kid and give them the necessary information, tell them any useful information given will be rewarded"
"Okay" she replied then headed back to the car for some equipment.
"Martin you'll be questioning the staff, try and find if they remember any one suspicious things like that."
"Alright, what about you?" he asked
"I'll be taking a look around the premises, see if there were any other ways out that the kidnapper could of used"
Martin just nodded in reply and went off to start on his first employee.
Danny sat there with his fourth person, halfway through his conversation
"Let me get this straight you came to a kids play house without a kid?" he asked not understanding the logic
"That's right" the man replied
"You wanna tell me why?"
"My wife and I split nine months ago, and now I'm only allowed the kids once a fortnight so I thought I'd come and check out the place, see if it's any good. I don't wanna waste the one day I have with my kids if this place is crap do I?" he asked rhetorically
Danny turned to look at Cindy "Check him out"
She spent the next few minutes tapping away at her laptop and then the background information on this guy popped up.
"Mark Kyle, divorced, two kids, no previous convictions. He's clean" she concluded.
"Alright, you're free to go."
Mark Kyle stood from the table and walked out from the play barn, Danny looked down the line of the waiting parents. He sighed to himself, still god knows how many more to go.
Vivian sat at the table next to Danny with her forensic scientist. With her second person, this one wasn't of any interest to her but she seemed to take forever to get any sentences.
The woman had a stutter, Vivian knew it wasn't the woman's fault but this was an important investigation and every minute counted, however on the other hand Viv couldn't give up and send her home in case she saw anything important.
"So you didn't see any one at all go near this boy?" Vivian asked
"Erm… N…nn….nnn..nnoo. I don't thi..think so"
Vivian looked at the kids she had with her, their eyes were bright red and puffy. She leaned over to the computer and saw that her finger prints brought up nothing interesting.
"Okay, thank you for your time. You may go now. However if you do remember anything however big or small give me a call" Viv passed the woman a card who took it, picked up her youngest and left with the other two she had with her.
"Next" Viv called hoping that the next would be more helpful.
Kate sat at the desk in the back room with a guy wearing a bright multi-coloured chequered shirt and bright red pants, brown messy hair, in his late twenties with pretty bad acne. He smiled at her, she looked up from reading and noticed this, she briefly smiled back before looking back down at the statements from the parents. She scanned them looking for important.
"Okay so the mother said she saw the kid climb up to the slide at the back, but he never came down. Which means that's where he was probably taken. This was about ten thirty five. Have we got a camera showing that area of the play barn at that time." She asked
The guy was still starring at her
"If you could get your eyes of my chest and more on this case that would be great"
He snapped out of his gaze "Err, yeh sure sorry. There's a camera round the back which should give us the glimpse of the slide if I'm right" He clicked to a few different camera's, typed in a time frame and up popped a screen showing what happened round by the slide at ten thirty five. A few kids climbed up the slide, then slid down, followed by a few more, then a few more then a boy who caught her attention.
"Freeze that" She said, he did as he was told and she studied the face "That's Thomas Jenner, okay carry it on"
He clicked another button and the video continued, Thomas climbed up the stairs got ready to go down the slide then stopped. A man in a dark hooded sweater walked up behind him and offered out his hand. Thomas turned round said a few words then took the man's hand. The man picked him up turned away from the camera and headed down a corridor. Moments later a red alarm flashed throughout the camera's.
"Alright so the alarm sounded only minutes after the kid was taken. Where's that hallway lead to?"
"It leads into the corridor outside here along with five or six other rooms."
"Is there an exit out through one of those rooms?"
"Two, a delivery room where the trucks unload the food, drinks, toys stuff like that, and another one the staff use to enter or exit the building"
"What do you need to get through the door?"
"Erm… either a key or code number"
"And only the staff know this right?"
"Right"
"You got any more camera's covering those doors?"
"We got one outside the staff door, but not the loading one"
"Can you play that for me please around the same time"
A minute past after the kid was taken then the hooded man walked out from the door, still with Thomas in his arms. A large black SUV pulled up, the kid was shoved in, the window was wind down, the hooded man talked to the person in the drivers seat for a few seconds then the SUV drove off. Then Kate saw something she hadn't expected. The hooded man took his hood down, turned around, rubbed his head, heard the alarm, panicked and ran.
"Did I just see that right?" Kate asked not believing how easy it was to find who snatched the child.
He re-winded it and played it again for her.
"I'm gonna need this tape"
"Sure" he stopped the tape, pressed eject and the tape popped out. He handed it to her.
"Thank you, do you mind showing the door he used to get out?"
His smile widened and she shone her all his teeth, like he couldn't believe his luck, which kind of freaked her out a little.
He took her further down the corridor into a changing room where she found Jack studying the door, the one the kidnapper used to escape from.
"Jack, this is the door the kidnapper used to escape with, he snatched the kid from the slide and exited this way, where he handed the child to some one else in a Black SUV."
He looked intrigued "You get the license number?"
"No, I was going to take it back to the office get it check out with better equipment. But then the guy that took Thomas took his hood down revealing his face"
"So the person that took him was just a pawn for some one else?"
"Looks that way"
"Good" He walked over to the door and opened it, it opened perfectly first time.
Kate frowned and turned to look at the employee "I thought you said you needed a key or code to use it"
"Yeh you do, only to get in though"
She closed her eyes "So any one can get out, which means some one only had to use the front door, they could pay their way in, take the kid and do a runner before anyone noticed, he'd have no problem getting out of here"
Jack thought for a moment "Kate get your tape back to the office, take Danny with you to check out the face and bring who ever that is for questioning, see what he tells you then get started on the SUV."
"But Danny's still doing the parent interview" Kate replied
"Fine then, Martin should be finished by now take him"
"Okay" she nodded and left.
Jack closed his eyes and sat on one of the wooden benches going down the room. He sank his head into his hands and sighed. He had a case to work on, a pile of paperwork waiting for him at his desk which wasn't getting any smaller and a little girl waiting for him at the hospital. His eyes were heavy and tired, he needed to do all three as soon as possible. But first he had to deal with some one else's problem and find this young boy. Then he would be able to deal with the other two.
Kate walked out into the main play area and saw a long line still waiting for Danny and Vivian. She quickly scanned the room and saw no sight of Martin. She walked up behind
Danny and brought her head down to his shoulder.
"Hey sorry to interrupt" She said gently
He looked relieved for a few seconds away from this chaos. "Yeh what's up?"
"I need some one to come back to the office with me and find the kidnapper, but I can't
find Martin you know where he is?"
"I'll come back with you" He pleaded
She let out a small laugh "I'd really like that but Jack said you'd have to finish with your long line of parents first, and I don't think I can wait that long"
He laid back into his seat where the perfectly happy face he had on this morning had completely disappeared. "Yeh, Martin's round the corner talking to the chicken"
Kate stood up and frowned a bit "Chicken?" She said to herself
She walked round to the other side of the till and saw Martin talking to a large yellow chicken. She walked up to them and stood by Martin, briefly observing the chicken. A man in a chicken costume, had taken the head off which he was still holding in his hands.
"What's up?" Martin asked turning from the chicken man.
"How long will you be?" She asked seeming keen to be else where
"Couple of minutes why?"
"Great, hurry up. Jack says your taking a trip back to the office with me" She shone him a little smile then went and sat at a table waiting for him to finished.
He raised his eyebrows as he walked off, then turned back to talk to his chicken.
A few moments passed and the chicken had told Martin all he had. Then he took his head and walked off. Martin finished scribbling something in his pad and walked over to Kate who was watching his every move.
Their eyes meet and she squinted a little as if she was searching for some kind of little detail.
"What you doing?" He asked curiously
"Just thinking" she replied tearing her eyes away from his.
She stood from the table and headed through the doors and towards Martin's car.
"So what you got on your little tape Valentine?"
"I have the face of the guy who took him, and the car of which Tom was put into after being taken. What you got?" She knew he wouldn't have anything better then that
"I got a phone number" He replied starting up the engine
"You know some how I don't think that counts" she replied sarcastically.
He ignored the comment and they headed for the office.
"Alright thanks" Sam put the phone down to the last news station she needed to call and
went in a search of Jack to see if he wanted her for anything else.
She checked the rooms in the back when she opened the door to the changing room. She stopped when she saw him sitting the way he was when Kate left him, he heart sunk when she saw him this way. She quietly walked over and sat by his side. He raised his head for a moment, when he realised it was Sam his face seemed to brighten slightly.
"Hi" he said gently.
She wasn't really sure what to do, given their past and him telling her it was over between them not long ago. She gently placed her hand on his back.
"Are you okay?" she asked looking deep into his eyes.
He nodded "Just got a lot to do"
"Can I help you with any of it?" she really wanted to help him in any way she could.
"No, not unless you can solve this case, do all my paper work and fix my daughter's leg?" he asked still looking deep into his eyes.
They sent goose pimples down her back. She closed her eyes to knock the feeling back, to try and focus on the conversation.
"I could probably give it a try if you really wanted" she said lifting the mood.
He smiled "No matter what, you always make me feel better, how do you do that?"
Hearing him say this brought a smile to her face "It's what I'm here to do" She gently stroked his face. He went to lean in for a kiss or something like that when his cell phone rung and interrupted the moment. He quickly pulled away and stood up, opened his cell.
Sam sighed and left the room to let him deal with his call.
"Daddy?" the little voice on the other end said
"Hey sweetie, it's me"
"When will you be coming back Daddy, I miss you" she asked
"I'll be there as soon as I can"
"You promise?"
"I promise"
"Will you bring Mr. Snuggles for me?"
He smiled hearing her ask for her little stuffed bear "I will do anything for you, you're my little angel remember"
"Daddy, I love you"
"I love you too, I'll be there soon"
He clapped his phone together and rubbed his forehead.
Sam leant against the other side of the door listening to every word, deep down inside she loved Jack, she knew his kids would always come first, but she just hoped, just prayed that he felt something for her, no matter how small, just something.
