Disclaimer- I do not own Heavy Rain. If I did we'd definitely be enjoying the Chronicles in their entirety right about now. :(

Smaller break this time. And a lot more Jayden. ;) I do want this to be the exception to the rule, but I will need a bit of a break after this to get more work done. We'll see if the next chapter comes together as quickly as this one did!

Recap time!

1. Jayden, Ethan, and Shaun hang out at one of Ethan's architectural sites. A dark figure is spotted, but disappears.

2. Madison calls a few of the numbers on the phone that she found, eventually getting in contact with Alyssa herself. Someone hangs up the phone soon after.

3. Blake and Ash 'chill out' during the press conference, and just so happen to run into Madison. She wisely makes a break for it...

4. ...And runs back to her place, where someone has broken in. *cue dramatic music*

Part 10

Back in one of his early psych classes they brought up the concept of the shadow. Representing repressed qualities in an individual, it could take on a positive or a negative presence, depending entirely on its relationship with the person it originated from.

The appearance changed along with the meaning, leaving it a complex and non-concrete item to pin down. His professor spent many lectures trying to get them to recognize its importance, but to a bunch of college kids this was little more than some subconscious boogeyman.

Shadow figures and manifestations of guilt? It was all another form of mumbo jumbo that they had to learn to interpret through their eyes, and spit it out neatly on the next essay test.

So, he had more than one passing thought on the shadow man he had seen earlier. And while most of them did consist of the term, 'bullshit', a few others did entertain the thought that his guilt had finally decided to take form. As absurd as that sounded it was better than the other that suggested he could be slipping again, letting ARI project items and figures that had no business being there.

Yeah, option two became a lot more attractive in the face of that.

Jayden stopped in front of a set of televisions flashing the latest news headlines, images of Alyssa Jameson trading places with that of two other men, and thought about his own case in DC. Well, not his case. Not any more. He had managed to keep his mind off of it for a little while, but there was only so much coffee to drink and so many streets to wander down.

Matt hadn't called - and neither had Madison for that matter - leaving him out of the loop, albeit unintentionally. It was enough to drive him nuts. But he wouldn't call, not yet. It wasn't any of his business as much as he wanted to dig into it, and he figured that if either of them wanted his opinion, they'd ask about it.

...But maybe it wouldn't hurt if he poked around a little. Madison's photo and the questions it raised tempted him. Was there something special left at that location? Was there something special about the car, aside from the obnoxious plate? With no real knowledge of the area, hunting down shops seemed like a waste of time on his end, especially since Madison already had that covered.

The car on the other hand, was something worth pursuing. He'd filed the type away for later, and now that the future had turned into the present it was time to check that lead out. After grabbing another coffee from the place by the hotel, he went back to his room and pulled out his laptop, popping open at least ten tabs seconds after booting.

Okay, let's go down the line.

Binary plate.

Older model of vehicle, maybe 1960's?

Corvette.

Location also factored into the search, but he had to pin down the make and model first. The clock was ticking, and he didn't want to waste it tooling around on the internet.

So, no, there'll be no keyboard cat tonight. As disappointing as that is, I've only got room for business right now. Business and...one gorgeous 1950's Chevrolet Corvette.

As much as the internet was a gaping maw just lying in wait, it was also incredibly helpful if you knew where to look. Car enthusiasts kept almost extensive records of the models made year after year, so the mystery car was no longer a mystery. With that solved, he switched his focus to the vanity plate. If he could get the place that made it to admit the car had been there...

Then what? You'd go in there flashing your conveniently missing badge? He sat up straight, then fell back in his chair. Great. This must be the part where you start lying about the permissions given to you as a member of the FB-fucking-I.

No, even if he did have it with him he wouldn't be flashing it, but it sure as hell would have made things a lot easier. Being a federal employee wasn't always a picnic, but the general privileges he got to use on the job every day were sorely missed now. He had no choice but to get his hands dirty, but what little he did find, he figured Madison could pull something out of it.

And he'd do almost anything to keep that fearful look from showing up on her face ever again.

His phone rang as he was sorting through the jumbled search results, and Matt's name popped up on the screen. He clicked the third term while answering the phone, his usual greeting already on the tip of his tongue.

"Norman Jayden."

"You've got to do something."

He pulled the phone away from his ear and stared at it for a few seconds. He then put it back. "What?"

"She called me at 2 in the morning to go over notes and theories. I think if I'd told her yes, she would've been at my door in ten to fifteen minutes. Maybe she has the phone bugged. Maybe the apartment's bugged?"

There was a level of desperate that only a select few could pull off, but Matt? Not even on a muggy day in hell. Hearing this tone from him was nothing short of surreal. "You're babbling like a lunatic. Calm down and tell me more about this shadow lady you're apparently being stalked by."

"Sure, sure. I was getting to that, but I'm used to getting more than 4 hours of sleep on a regular basis. Anita Wolinski. Familiar, right?"

"Wait." His brain hit the brakes. "Wolinski?"

"Yeah. The ARI unit tagged the case and decided to throw another agent in since you were out of action. You worked with her, right?"

"Uh..." She pulled the glasses off of his face and shoved a sheet of paper forward. The agreement. "Yeah. Sort of. We were both given the same objective during training and worked our way through it."

"Well, I appreciate her diligence. ...But I don't know how you did it, man."

Tripto, mostly. He bit the inside of his cheek so he wouldn't blurt it out. "We were all in an odd situation, so seeing someone else who wanted to dissect ARI as much as me was" -a relief- "helpful. The amount of paperwork we shoveled through could've wallpapered a small house. And if she's still using it, then she'll definitely have something to add."

Matt laughed. "Oh, she does. There's chemical residue all over the body, and we're actually going to check out our burly friend's address tomorrow. She actually called right before I called you, and I had to convince her to wait until the sun's up."

You would be the only one to pull that off, Jayden thought with a frown.

But ARI did have a way of pushing you to find the answers. It insisted. Anita never had to tell him twice about a location or a new lead. He was already jumping in his car, or pulling up profiles to check. ...So, it was probably for the best that they were never actually assigned to each other on a long term basis. ARI was a balancing act, one that the reps knew well. Pairing off two ARI users was just asking for them to end up the hospital. Or the morgue.

"You need to use it." She held the vial out to him, and he shook his head. "There is a limit. I know, I've been keeping track. But there's a limit on your time spent in ARI as well, and you've broken that twice without remorse. Why object now?"

His head pounded, in need of sweet relief. Cool, blue relief. "I, I don't know."

"You need to keep it together." Wolinski stated, her tone firm but supportive. "We can't complete this task without the other. You know this. You volunteered for this."

"You're preaching to the goddamned choir, already. Of course I did!"

"Then commit to it. Or don't. You can't have both."

"Hey. ...Hey, Norman? Are you still there?"

Jayden loosened his grip on the phone, ignoring the slow pounding in his head that had crept up on him. "Sorry, just got distracted for a minute. What's your plan again?"

"We're going on down there tomorrow to see if we can trace those chemicals to their source, which ideally would be his house, but nothing's ever cut and dry. I'm seeing a bit more legwork before we can officially call this one-hundred percent complete."

"The sooner the better. I don't want this hanging over us, or the families. They need to know that we've done all that we've could to pick this thing apart, and I don't want anything left behind."

"I hear ya." A familiar weariness was there, and he knew that Matt would rather lose sleep than let anything slip by.

Something occurred to him, and as much as he hated to ask he figured he'd give it a shot. "Speaking of scattered details, I'd like you to look something up for me."

"Hm? Like in the database?" He made a tsking noise, one that was dangerously close to what he imagined Madison would do. "Have you even spent a day doing nothing over there?"

"No, because I could've easily spent two weeks back in my apartment sitting around in my underwear. Instead I decided to come here. What do you think?"

"Relax. I'm not trying to harass you. I was just...never mind." Matt sighed, and Jayden let his eyes drift to the floor. "What do you want me to check out?"

"It's a license plate number. One of those vanity ones done in binary. Do you have a pen or pencil nearby?"

"Sure, let me dig one up real quick..." Some noises floated over, some of which he associated with the opening and closing of a drawer, and Matt came back on the line as quickly as he left. "Got it. Hit me."

He plucked the number from where he had filed it away and rattled it off. It wasn't long; it had to be on a license plate after all, but he went though it again one more time just in case. "You could probably run it through a basic search engine, but don't do anything stupid to get the information."

"Don't worry. I think I can pull some strings with the techs, or at least see if I can play them off of each other with a promise to buy drinks later. Small potatoes, big rewards! I hope your friend appreciates this."

"It's a lark, not a favor." Jayden replied, sounding remarkably neutral. "Some people bring books on vacation, I bring case files. If something looks interesting, you look into it."

"Great," Matt grumbled. "Next thing you know, you'll start claiming to be a crime magnet. The new McGruff. I think we call that train-wreck syndrome, Norm."

"A hobby's a hobby."

Matt had to have rolled his eyes at that. "Sure thing, Jayden. Anyway, I'll get right on that after I fix my sleeping problem."

Good man. "Thanks. Good luck with Anita."

"No problem. And you'll be the first to hear about that later."

The minute Matt hung up, he considered giving Madison a call. He wanted to know more about the plate. Hell, he wanted to know more about the photo and the evidence she was gathering, but this wasn't his. As much as he wanted to pry, he had to work with what he had and then wait to see if she offered more.

Tapping his fingers on the desk, he decided to leave the phone alone for now, and pulled up another license plate location.

She could hear him.

Papers were shuffled around on a flat surface, close, but not too close to her. His focus was elsewhere, something that didn't happen too often, but made her grateful when it did.

Alyssa turned her head slowly, lining up the small space in her blindfold with the sound. No face was seen, only a back clad in a non-descript gray shirt. He continued to shift for a few more minutes as she heard paper scrape against paper, but eventually he came to a stop. Both of his hands were placed flat on the table as he leaned forward, something on the surface of the wooden table catching his eye.

He was so still.

Do it. Do. It. Her hands shook as she pulled at the loosening tie around her wrists.

His chair screeched against the floor and she snapped back into the rigid posture she had forced herself to maintain. Even with her muscles screaming, she did not allow herself to relax. Especially when he came in closer, waving something in front of her face. She squeezed her eyes shut, desperate not to give any of her advantages away.

"I think our friend has turned into a little cheat."

She didn't move an inch.

"Do you agree?"

Her hands began to shake.

It was strange, but he was starting to get used to these mornings. Clear skies, bright sunshine, and a temperature brisk enough to remind him that it was winter. In some ways it was a little too close to home, but for once the idea didn't bother him. Figures this city would grow on him like a fungus.

He grabbed coffee from the same place he had stopped by yesterday, deciding after a few minutes to grab one for Madison as well. It wouldn't hurt to see what she had pieced together by now, right?

Sure. Though that does make this one of the shorter periods of time you've gone back on a set of rules set for yourself.

"Loopholes. It's called a loophole," he grumbled. And Ethan did mention wanting to invite her to lunch at some point, so he had another set of answers to work with just in case the work angle went sour. Yeah, he could do this as long as he kept on telling himself that.

He pulled the car onto the road leading to Madison's apartment, and nearly choked on his coffee when he spotted the cop car parked across the street. No one was inside of it, but seeing it that close to where Madison lived, to where he was sure they knew she lived, made him uneasy.

His car crawled down the road, trying to spot any officers walking around and was met with nothing. If there were any of them walking around, they were either inside the building, or wandering around the immediate area. As he slipped into the parking lot, he hoped that they were doing the latter, because he did not need to announce himself to local police force again. Once was more than enough, and that was when they were on the same side.

And any opportunities to dodge Blake were taken without question. He did not need to get the shit beaten out of him as a courtesy gift.

A couple was unlocking the door as he made his way there and he grabbed the door as they went inside. Pulling his scarf up did nothing to hide his appearance, but he did keep a hand on it as he adopted a brisk walk on his way to the elevator. The doors opened and he stepped inside, catching a glimpse of an officer entering the building just as the elevator closed.

Well, that route's a no-go. I'll just have to take the stairs back down. He was relieved that they didn't look familiar to him, but he wouldn't always be this lucky.

He took in a calming breath as the doors opened, and sucked it back in when he saw the group gathered further down the hallway. The group that had two uniformed officers and Carter Blake heading it. Punching the button for the next floor up, he took in the yellow crime scene tape covering Madison's doorway, his mind completely blank. When the doors opened again at the next floor, he stepped out and fumbled for his phone while also trying to find the nearest staircase.

The glowing exit sign at the end of the hallway caught his eye and he headed straight for it. His shaking hands couldn't get her damn number in fast enough, and he nearly dropped it when he held it up to his ear. It rang once, twice, three times, then clicked.

"Hello?"

The two-ton weight on his shoulders fell away instantly. "Madison. Christ, what happened?"

"I-well, good morning to you too! I'd ask what you're talking about, but I have a feeling I'm about to find out." The natural ease that her voice typically carried was gone. In its place was a nervous thing pretending to be something it wasn't, and he knew for a fact now that she was hiding something.

"I'm sure there's a logical reason why your apartment's a goddamn mess, but I don't think now's the time to be cute about it, Ms. Paige."

"I'm not hurt, if that's what you're worried about," she replied. "It was...everything was left like this by the time I got back, so there wasn't a chance that we could've crossed paths."

Jayden pulled open the door to the stairwell and hoped she wouldn't try to drop the call. "Sure, this time. What if there's a next time? What's going on?" She went silent, making the hesitation lining her voice before even more apparent. "Madison. I'm asking because if there's any way that I can help-"

"I can handle this. Remember what I told you before? I've been on worse cases, and this isn't the first time someone's tried to freak me out using scare tactics."

"Were they suspected of kidnapping one of your sources as well?"

"Norman-"

"Discounting threats as scare tactics gets people killed! I've been there, and I've seen what happens when the shit that's been rolling downhill finally hits the bottom. There's stubborn, there's bull-headed, and then there's-"

"Stupid?" she cut in. "Yeah, I probably am. But any messes I make, are mine to take care of. And if something does happen, I'll do what I've always done. Deal with it and move on. ...We probably won't be able to talk for a bit, but don't worry. I'll call you."

She hung up. Jayden's hand ached from its crushing perch on the metal railing, but he took in a deep breath in an attempt to regroup. Then, a thought struck him. Holding back up the phone he had nearly chucked down the stairwell, he called Matt.

He picked up not too long after the first ring. "Matt McGinnis?"

Here goes. "If this is a bad time, I'm sorry and I'll make it up to you later. But I need you to look up something for me, ASAP..."

She didn't go back to any of her regulars.

She might've picked out the new hotel on impulse, and she might've filled out her info on autopilot, but Madison did not want to acknowledge the fear building up in her. ...And she did not want to admit that whoever was after her knew exactly how to get under her skin and fill her with enough doubt to make her cut and run. She would not let that son-of-a-bitch win. Not on her life.

But for a few hours she let herself give in to the urge to hide under the covers with her taser nearby. It didn't help her sleep much, but it did give her nerves some peace. After willingly entering her apartment to scrape together some clothes and files, it was something she desperately needed.

Once the sun had come up, she went down the road to a tiny grocery store to get some food, and decided to dedicate the rest of the day to figuring out what exactly had went down at her place. Her papers had been scattered around, but most of the things that had been strewn about were photographs and old newspaper clippings. Anything related to the OKC and CompuLabs mess had remained in its file on her desk, which didn't sit well with her at all.

She hadn't had any time to check any of the photos in her room, but her clothes were mostly undisturbed, and her jewelry thrown across her bed. It looked like it was supposed to be a typical robbery, but her laptop and television were untouched. The former was even left in front of her door like a crude gift.

That really bothered her, but as she went through her files nothing was missing. She couldn't even check the recent documents for anything strange, because the files listed were ones that she had opened on and off over the last few days. Her 'friend' was quite good at covering his tracks, or at least good enough to throw off a journalist that was alternating between agitated, exhausted, determined, and infuriated.

If only I'd checked. He could've let something slip, taken something he shouldn't have. Now I'll never know with Blake stomping around.

"Dammit!" She slapped her hand on the bed and got up to pace around. They had to have known that she would run. The amount of confidence in such an assumption scared her. With all of the media focus after the Origami Killer and her book, she had quickly learned to ignore or avoid such attention, but this wasn't some reporter like her, or a set of teenagers with something to prove. What it was, though, she had yet to figure out.

"And what are you trying to tell me, exactly?" she asked out loud, picking up one of the photographs sitting on the bed.

The writing on the back matched when she put the messages side by side, but was done in some of the plainest script she had ever seen. The words themselves were hints she supposed, but neither made much sense without a subject to consider.

Wait. Jayden did say something about The Cars, didn't he? The car's almost too obvious of a clue, but maybe that was exactly what it was supposed to be. A clue.

She sat the photograph in front of her as she sat on the bed in front of her laptop, and looked up available Corvette models. It wasn't recent, so someone had to have a collection of them online somewhere...

Three loud knocks echoed in the small room and she went still.

Eying her taser out of the corner of her eye, her fingers began inching towards it. She looked back at the door and waited, her lungs beginning to burn. Two more knocks this time, not as confident as before.

Madison got up and cautiously approached the door, the safety on her taser switched off. All she had to do was stick him with it and hit the button. Easy enough, right? She laid a hand on the door for support and took one look through the peephole. Her jaw dropped.

Standing back, she pulled it open and gaped at one Norman Jayden. The smile he gave her almost looked guilty. "I'm starting to think you have a type."