A big thank you to all who have reviewed my last couple of chapters, it's been a huge help in writing this chapter.

I don't own Shannon (again, sob), I own my OC and her family.

Hope you enjoy this chapter, it took me ages to write.

"Because it's the safest place we could find for her"

The silence in the room was deafening as the four men stood observing each other, everyone wanting answers but nobody wanting to be the first to speak. Realising that the officer wasn't about to offer up any more information anytime soon, Matt finally found his voice.

"What do you mean by 'we'? You're obviously more than just a local cop investigating a burglary, you lied to us this morning"

"Technically I didn't lie to anybody, I was there looking into the burglary and the house was unoccupied by the time my team and I arrived, however, I did omit certain details"

Morgan paused and eyed the men across the room; Matt and Jeff were leaning against the desk, a look of concentration on their faces. Shannon, however, was sat perched on the edge of a chair, head in hands; he hadn't looked at Morgan since Matt had spoken. Morgan knew without even having to ask that Danielle had been lying during their earlier conversation, she did have someone left to leave behind, and that someone was broken now. Taking steps forward across the room, Morgan crouched down as he reached Shannon, placing his hand on Shannon's shoulder; Morgan took a deep breath before beginning to explain the situation.

"You seem to have worked most of this story out already, but allow me to fill in the blanks for you. Then let's see if we can't find a way to help between the four of us"

Shannon, dog tags and photos in hand, raised his head so his eyes were level with Morgan's.

"I need a drink, you talk, and I'll pour"

The men moved through to the staff room and took a seat; Shannon placed a drink in front of them before taking his own. Morgan reached into his pocket and produced a newspaper clipping, the same one they had just been reading.

"Like it says in the article, Danielle, or H as you know her, is the only surviving member of her family. Nine months ago nearly she watched as her family were brutally tortured and murdered one by one, her mother, father, sister, brother-in-law, brother ,husband and her...her son, she only survived by 'playing dead' as it were. It seems a simple case of tragedy doesn't it? There's much more to it than that gentleman, what I'm about to tell you is extremely private and confidential, but I don't have the option not to anymore, you may be the link between finding her alive or not"

Morgan surveyed the faces before continuing.

"But before I continue, do any of you have anything you need to tell me, anything that might be relevant?"

At that point, Jeff and Matt turned to face Shannon, returning their gaze Shannon attempted to swallow the lump in his throat before unburdening himself. Shannon relayed the events of the night before the BBQ in as much detail as he could remember; he didn't want to leave anything out just in case... well just in case. Finishing up, Shannon finally looked up at Morgan, shame and guilt swimming in his green eyes.

"I'm so sorry, if I had phoned the police, I could have prevented this, I could have helped. Because of my stupidity she could be… she could be..."

Shannon words trailed off, he was unable to utter that last word. Morgan shook his head.

"It's not your fault Shannon, phoning the police wouldn't have changed a damn thing"

"What? How can you say that? If I had phoned then..."

Morgan cut Shannon off before he could continue.

"We knew, about everything you've just told us, we knew because Danielle phoned us as soon as you left that night"

Seeing the look of confusion on the three faces, Morgan pressed on.

"Danielle used to be in the British military, hence the dog tags; she was a damn fine soldier, very highly decorated. In fact she was one of the best we had, so when she left the military after doctors discovered she had epilepsy, we asked her to join us in MI5. She accepted straight away, her father was military, her grandfathers before that, it was, no it is, in her blood and she's damn good at what she does"

Morgan paused, making sure he had everyone's attention and that they understood what he was revealing. All three men stared at him, eyes wide and mouths gaping, confident they did, he continued.

"Two years ago, after many years of surveillance, we finally had the chance to put away the people responsible for one of the biggest drug operations in England. We had a team of six put together as the ones to take them down, Danielle was one of those six. To cut a long story short, the arrests got messy, it didn't quite work out as planned, somehow these guys had gotten wind that we were on to them, our guy on the inside was exposed and his life was on the line. Danielle had the choice to save her partner and expose herself or to walk away and save herself…"

Morgan smiled to himself and chuckled.

"In typical Danielle style she took the first option, but as she tried to get them both out of the building they were shot at, her partner was shot in the leg and fell, by the time Danielle realised he wasn't running with her one of the drug runners had a gun to his head. She did what she had to do, she shot the drug runner and saved her partner, most of the gang were caught and we thought it was over"

Jeff, intrigued, finally found his voice.

"So, if the gang were caught then it didn't matter that she had exposed herself right? So why run away?"

"Most of the gang Jeff, not all, that's where the problem lies. We were after 24 people that day, sixteen were caught, seven fled and one died, the 'gang leader' as such, was one of those who escaped, but not until after he'd witnessed his baby brother being shot dead and seeing the face of the person who shot him"

Shannon's voice was almost a whisper as he looked at Morgan.

"And those seven people tracked her down and took out her family one by one as a revenge attack, somehow she survives and now they are after her… but how do they know she is still alive if she played dead?"

"Danielle was called to testify at court after two of the men who killed her family were caught, Danielle wanted justice for her family so she made a decision, she testified against them, knowing that as soon as she walked out of that court her life as she knew it would be no more. We placed her into witness protection, changed her name, her appearance, everything and moved her countries. She was already a qualified tattooist before joining the military and we found your advert for staff, it just fit perfectly, Whispering Pines is a small place"

"So how the hell did they find her?"

"That's what we have been trying to figure out. After Danielle phoned that night, we arranged to have her picked up over the weekend, we wanted to take her Saturday but she wanted one last day here, I'm going to assume it was to spend it with you guys seen as you all seem to be so worried about her, especially you..."

Morgan nodded toward Shannon.

"So, we agreed on 03:30 this morning, hence the resignation letter, but by the time we got to her house, well you know as much as we do on that. But I got a phone call from a colleague before I came here; it seems they may have seen her on your website"

"So what can we do now? Somebody must know something; neighbours must have seen something right?"

"All we know is that a neighbour reported a commotion around 02:50 this morning, they remember looking out of the window in time to see a black people carrier drive off, the number plate is being traced as we speak and we have patrols out looking for sightings of the vehicle…. But nothing as of yet so at the moment all we can do is..."

Morgan was interrupted by the sound of a mobile bleeping, Shannon looked at the counter where his mobile lay, retrieving it he read the message, 'You have one new voice message', dialling voice mail, Shannon froze as he listened to the words.

"Shan, if you get this, I need your h-help...call the police and ask for Morgan, tell him…tell him to track down all buildings around where the freight train line runs through…please Shan…please cause I don't think I have long…oh st, no don't, don't touch me…SHANNON HELP ME!!…"

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