Chapter 10
It took them almost an hour to make their way to the Wal-Mart out in Queens. All they knew was that police had found something that had a link to their missing person's case. Neal sat, fidgeting, unable to concentrate as Peter navigated the bridge in rush hour traffic.
'And you're sure it's not a... a body' Neal said, barely keeping his wits about him
'No, Neal, there's no body just some sort of evidence they want us to see' answered Peter, trying to sound reassuring
The police officer he had spoken to had not wanted to give any details over the phone requesting that Peter make his way there as soon as possible. The interminable drive ended as Peter finally pulled into the parking lot of the Marigold Shopping Mall. He had barely slowed down to park when Neal jumped out of the car sprinting to the store entrance with Peter following close behind.
The men were directed to the back of the store where they could see a police parameter had been set up to keep customers from going past the hallway leading to the washrooms. Neal and Peter exchanged puzzled looks as they made their way to the police officer who was obviously in charge of the scene.
'Peter Burke, FBI and this is my partner, Neal Caffrey' said Peter, extending his hand
'Sergeant Brady' said the man
'We're not sure this is anything but considering the sensitive nature of the case, we thought you should take a look' he continued as he led the two men into the ladies washroom.
'One of the employees came in to clean at about three o'clock this afternoon and he found this' said the man pointing to the large mirror that covered the whole back wall of the room.
Neal's eyes widened in shock as he took in the sight of Hope's name scribbled on the bottom of the mirror, the only part she could likely reach with her short stature. She had written her full name and he recognized her familiar handwriting along with her tell-tale backwards E. Underneath her name was the word 'park' and the number '38'.
'It might just be someone who saw the name on the news and is playing a practical joke...' said the police officer
Peter looked at Neal who was standing there with his mouth open, totally flabbergasted
'No. It's her. It's definitely her' Neal said, staring ahead, mesmerized
'You sure?' asked Peter
Neal nodded. 'The 'E'; it's a running gag with Hope. She called it her 'trainmark'. Neal smiled, a very small smile as he thought of the conversation he'd had with his daughter just a few days before.
Peter looked at him puzzled.
Neal just shook his head. 'Never mind. She was here, Peter. And she's trying to tell us something – I'm just not sure what'
'Can we talk to the staff who found this, please?' asked Peter who was instantly led away to an office nearby
The manager of the store, a short, stocky man who went by the name of 'Chuck' sat behind a desk and a young, red haired kid was seated nearby against the back wall of the office when the duo entered.
Neal and Peter remained standing, too pumped to sit as Peter began his questioning.
'What's your name?' he asked the young man
'Todd Winston' said the young man, meekly
'And you're the one who found the washroom like that?' Peter asked
'Yeah. I have to go in every hour and check the cleanliness of the washrooms' answered Todd, nervously
'How did you know to call the police?' asked Peter
'Well, it's been on the news all week. Everybody knows that name – and when I saw it, I thought it was somebody's idea of a sick joke. But then, I got to thinking about that little girl and I thought I should at least report it before I cleaned it up'
Peter turned to the store manager who was just sitting there, overwhelmed by the events that had overtaken his usually quiet suburban store.
'You have cameras in the store?' he asked
'Yeah, sure. A couple of dozen at least' the man answered
'We need to see all the footage from this afternoon. Is there somewhere we can set up?' asked Peter, totally focussed now on the task at hand
'Sure, we have a TV in the staff lunch room' he said, standing to direct them
The footage was fuzzy at times, but with some detective work Neal and Peter were able to piece together a probable sequence of events. At around two thirty, they saw Keller arriving pulling Hope along with him. They could be seen meandering through the aisles for about five minutes or so, finally making their way to aisle 18 where it became more difficult to ascertain exactly what went on. The camera angle was all wrong and they saw a second man's feet enter the aisle and at some point, Hope's feet disappeared from the frame for about two minutes. They saw Keller and Hope re-emerge with something in her hands and observed them making their way to the back of the store where the washrooms were located. Keller could be seen putting his head through the partially opened bathroom door then letting Hope in. Of course, there was no footage of what had happened in the washroom. Finally, they saw the twosome leaving the store at 2:48 after going through cash 13 with their purchase which appeared to be a box of cereal.
It was strangely reassuring for Neal to see that Hope was okay, still in one piece, acting very much like Hope always behaved and yet it made him incredibly sad not to be able to reach into the monitor and grab her to bring her to safety.
He thought of Sara, waiting at home, and he picked up the phone to give her a quick progress report.
'Tell me it's not bad news, Neal' said Sara, her voice shaking as she answered the phone
'No, no. It's okay. Sara, Hope was here at the store today. We have footage of her and of Keller. We think he was making his exchange' Neal explained, slightly out of breath
Sara gasped.
'How did she look?' she asked, finally
'Fine, we can see her going down an aisle and leaving with a box of cereal. We're still going over all the footage and I'll call you as soon as I know more. Sara, don't worry – we'll piece this together and make some sense of it, okay. Just hang in there. Love you' he added, just before hanging up
Todd Winston was visibly shaken up. He hadn't figured on being part of anything this dramatic and he wondered if he could have done anything else to help the little girl. He stood in the washroom with Neal and Peter, re-enacting exactly what had happened when he'd come in at three o'clock that afternoon.
'Was there anything else you noticed when you came in?' asked Neal 'Anything that was left behind?'
He thought of how smart Hope had been in leaving that drawing behind and he wondered if she might have tried to do the same thing again.
'No. Well, yeah. There was some stolen merchandise on the counter but I just threw it out' Todd said finally
'What kind of stolen merchandise?' asked Peter, suddenly interested
'I don't know, some pet monitor or something' said Todd vaguely. 'The package had been opened and it was sitting on the counter when I came in'
'Where did you put it?' asked Neal
'Right here' said Todd, reaching into the garbage bin right by the sinks
He shoved his hand through the litter, bypassing the many paper towels that were thrown in the receptacle and pulled out the small package as Peter and Neal took in the sight of it.
'And this was on the counter when you came in at three o'clock?' asked Peter
'Yeah' said the young man
'And it hadn't been there before?' asked Neal
'No' came the answer
Neal looked at Peter.
'No, it can't be' Neal said, under his breath as he began to examine the item
'You think Hope left this behind?' asked Peter staring at his best friend
'It's just too much of a coincidence. Peter, Hope found my anklet on the weekend and we had a talk about my past... Anyway, she was asking questions about the logistics of it – you know, how it worked, how you knew where to find me'
'And you told her I could monitor you with your tracker?'
'Yeah. She wanted to understand; you know Hope, she's so curious'
The men continued to study the small opened package. It was called a 'Child and pet monitor' and one of the two pieces, the tracker was gone leaving behind the monitor. The men looked at each other wondering if they dared to hope that the child had taken the tracking portion with her.
'Neal, I know she's smart but...' Peter began
'If we hadn't just talked about it a few days ago, I might agree, but Peter...' Neal let his voice trail
Photographs of the scene were taken and Peter and Neal left shortly after 6:30 to study the evidence and make sense of it all.
Because of the sensitive nature of the discovery, Todd and the store manager were warned not to discuss particulars with anyone. The last thing they wanted was to have things leaked to the press. A headline like this would alert Keller to what Hope had been up to and put her in further danger.
The Harvard crew was still busy with the analysis of the various site photographs when Neal and Peter returned to the Caffrey home. Sara, relieved to see Neal, buried herself in his arms, holding on for what seemed like minutes before she was finally able to regain her composure and get down to the business of discussing what had happened. She had missed him and she didn't want him to wander away from her like he had the night before.
Diana and Jones sat with Peter, Neal and Sara and began discussing the day's events. They studied the packaging and the monitor itself – it had come with instructions that Hope had certainly not had time to read. It was a stroke of luck as it was that she had taken the tracking portion of the contraption, if indeed she had, but Sara and Neal were convinced that was exactly what had happened. The bad news was that the tracking device only extended to 600 feet – not much of a radius. That meant that they would have to be in close range in order to get a signal. The monitor beeped when it came within 600 feet of the tracker and it got progressively louder as the distance was bridged between the two parts of the apparatus.
They began to discuss strategy - driving around the areas that had been identified, hoping Hope's tracker had been activated. They still had a half dozen possible locations and that would take some time. Then, there was the fact that the tracker had to be activated by a tiny button on the back – they hoped that their daughter had figured that out.
'So there was the word 'park' on the mirror' said Jones as he studied the photographs from the scene
'Yeah, do you suppose that she's telling us she's near a park?' asked Diana
'I guess we need to have a look to see if any of these locations are close to a park' said Peter
'And what about the '38'?' asked Sara 'That could mean anything – an address maybe?'
'Possible. Whatever it is, it means something to Hope' said Neal, trying to get into his daughter's head.
'She didn't have much time to do all this and she must have been terrified that Keller would come in to the washroom and discover what she was doing' he added, becoming worried
Neal's phone vibrated indicating an incoming text and he and Peter exchanged looks as Neal reached for it on the table.
'Stay tuned for a meet tomorrow' it read
WCWCWC
Hope sat surrounded by the mess she had made of the now familiar room she was locked in. Keller had told her that she had to deal with things the way they were and that she would have to spend the night on the floor since she had destroyed her room. Hope didn't care. She sat with a large bowl of Captain Crunch and milk and smiled as she enjoyed the sensation of the cereal taking the edge off her hunger. She hoped that her dad and her Uncle Peter had gotten the message she'd left. If so, they would find her soon because of her trusty tracker. Uncle Peter always found her dad, he'd said, and now he would find her.
She took the blanket and spread it out on the floor then made her way to her coat taking the coveted item in her hand. She could see the little red light flashing indicating it was activated and she pressed it deep into her palm as she rolled her coat up to make it into a pillow. Then she lay on the blanket, her hand clutching her lifeline and she put her head down on her make-shift pillow and went to sleep.
TBC