Author's Note: Hello, hello, my readers, and welcome back to The Many Adventures of Iron Dad and Spider Son! We are back with PART 6of the Kidnapped Arc! We check back in with May, Pepper, Happy, and the police as they continue to work on the case and try to find Tony and Peter! However, they will find a few surprises! Let's dive in! BUT before we get to that…REVIEW REPLIES!
Radiant Arabian Nights: Thank you so much, friend! Lol, not to worry, the next part is here! Hope you continue to enjoy it!
Sillysammijo: Alas, it was not easy! We'll have to see if Peter and Tony can think of something else.
Wandamarie: Glad you're loving it! You're welcome! Thank you for reading!
Disclaimer: I do NOT own anything related to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Kidnapped! Part 6 (March 27, 2016)
The investigation into Tony Stark and Peter Parker's kidnapping continued well into the night and the early morning. The FBI became involved given that Tony Stark was an Avenger and a famous billionaire, which helped Harrison and his officers move things along in interviewing Tony's former employees and enemies. Unfortunately, none of the interviews went anywhere as they all had alibis and therefore were no longer considered suspects. However, there was one suspect they hadn't interviewed yet...Justin Hammer…the man who was responsible for the disastrous Stark Expo incident. He was currently at Seagate Penitentiary as prisoner, so Chief Harrison sent his colleague Detective Dodds to accompany Agent Powell from the FBI on the drive to the prison early that morning to talk to Hammer.
"I have a feeling we won't find much," Dodds said as Agent Powell drove them to the prison. "The guy has been locked up for 7 years. How could he possibly operate a kidnapping from Seagate?"
Agent Powell shook her head. "I get what you mean, detective," she said as she drove her car on the highway. Her GPS was directing them to the very prison Justin Hammer was sent to after the Stark Expo incident. "Though, Hammer is the only one left on Potts' list, and he is a politician. He could have connections. We need to at least rule him out."
Dodds sighed and nodded knowing that the FBI agent was right. "Fair point," he said. "Hopefully, he can give us something useful. My chief was saying it was a dead end for Stark's former employees. Maybe it's the good old process of elimination."
"Well, we still shouldn't get out hopes up," Powell replied. "We won't know until we question him."
Dodds nodded before they continued the rest of the drive in silence. Soon enough, they reached Seagate Penitentiary as the building loomed on the horizon, but the detective and the agent weren't intimidated. To them, it was just a prison, and all they were focused on was getting to the bottom of this case…to find out who was responsible for kidnapping Tony Stark and his intern.
(line break)
As soon as they parked the car, the detective and FBI agent walked to the prison and through the main entrance doors. The receptionist looked up with a small but friendly smile.
"Can I help you two?" he asked as he watched them walking over to his desk.
"Yes, as a matter of fact," Dodds said as he and Powell flashed their respective badges. "I'm Detective Dodds of the NYPD." He gestured to Powell. "This is Agent Powell from the FBI. We need to talk to one of your prisoners."
"Of course, w-what's this about?" the receptionist asked.
"We're investigating the kidnapping of Tony Stark and his intern Peter Parker," Powell replied.
"Oh yes, I heard about that," the receptionist said. "That's awful. I mean, I don't know how we could help you, but who would you like to speak to?"
"The ever-popular Justin Hammer," Dodds replied with a smirk.
"Okay," the receptionist said typing the name of the prisoner into the computer, "I'll just need you both to sign in, and then I'll give you some badges—" He stopped when he saw the computer screen once he pressed "Enter." "That's strange."
Dodds and Powell furrowed their eyebrows together and looked at each other before looking back at the receptionist.
"What is it?" Powell asked suspiciously.
"This says that Justin Hammer…is not here anymore," the receptionist replied.
"W-What do you mean 'not here?'" Dodds replied. "Did he escape? Is he dead?"
"No, he…he made parole," the receptionist replied. "He's out on parole…It says here he has been since November 2016."
Dodds and Powell widened their eyes and looked at each other yet again and then back at the receptionist.
"Can you call down your Warden?" Powell asked. "And Dodds, can you call your Chief?"
"On it," Dodds said as he quickly took out his phone and dialed Chief Harrison's number while the receptionist called the Warden asking him to come down.
Chief Harrison, Pepper, and Happy all jumped slightly when the chief's phone vibrated in his pocket. Both Pepper and Happy held their breaths as the chief pulled his phone out seeing that it was…
"It's Detective Dodds," he said aloud before answering. "This is Harrison."
"Chief, we got a problem," Dodds said without any greeting. "I'm at Seagate with Powell, and…Hammer's not here."
"What?" Harrison asked completely shocked. He could see Pepper and Happy tensing up out of the corner of his eye.
"We're waiting for the Warden to come down," Dodds explained, "but the receptionist just looked him up on the computer. He said the son of a bitch got out on parole in November. Did Ms. Potts and Mr. Hogan just forget to tell us that?"
"Alright, see what the Warden has to say," Harrison replied, "and then call me back. I'll talk to Pepper and Happy."
"Will do," Dodds said before they hung up the phone.
"What's going on, Chief?" Pepper asked eagerly. "Did your detective talk to Hammer?"
"Uh no, he didn't," Harrison replied. "Apparently, the receptionist looked him up and said that Hammer is out on…parole. He's been out since November."
"What?" Pepper and Happy said in unison with widened eyes.
"Did you know about this?" Harrison asked raising an eyebrow. There was no way they could've known. Pepper provided him the address to the prison. She clearly thought that Tony's enemy was still a prisoner, so how was it that Hammer was possibly out and about?
"Of course, we didn't know," Pepper said incredulously. "I would've given you the address he was living at. Why would we lie about that?"
"Alright, alright," Harrison said holding his hands up to calm Pepper down, "let's not get riled up just yet. I'm sure we'll get this cleared up any minute now. It's possible the receptionist entered the wrong name into the system. They called the Warden, so we'll see what happens. If Hammer is out, we'll track them down and find out why you and Tony didn't get the memo if he was."
"Okay," Pepper said nodding with small sigh of relief.
Dodds paced back and forth in front of the FBI agent Powell while the receptionist continued to enter Justin Hammer's name into the system. The Warden was on his way down to the lobby, but both the detective and the agent couldn't help but feel anxious about the whereabouts of this prisoner. How was it that someone with almost the same amount of fame as Tony Stark managed to get out of prison without the media pouncing on it? It didn't make sense. Did he manage to escape? Was it all a misunderstanding and he was still in prison? Would a prison go so far as to protect its prisoners? Something about this wasn't right.
After about 20 minutes, both Powell and Dodds jumped as a door opened, and sure enough, it was the Warden himself.
"Hank, what did you call me all the way down here for?" he asked as he eyed Powell and Dodds.
"Well, sir," the receptionist replied, "this is FBI Agent Powell and Detective Dodds from the NYPD. They're here to talk to one of the prisoners, Justin Hammer."
"We're investigating Tony Stark and Peter Parker's kidnapping," Dodds added, "and we just wanted to talk to Hammer since he and Stark were rivals. However, Hank said that Hammer is not here."
"Yeah, he's not," the Warden replied. "He was released on parole for good behavior in November."
"Any chance we could see records about that?" Powell asked raising an eyebrow. The Warden himself was now backing up Hank's story. It sounded like this was for real.
"Yeah, sure," the Warden said shrugging, "they're in my office. Come on up."
They followed the Warden back up to his office, where he unlocked a file cabinet and after some searching pulled out a manila folder with the name "Justin Hammer" on the tab. Powell and Dodds gladly took it, and sure enough, they found Hammer's parole paperwork—on the hearing and why he was released.
"So, he was released in November, you said?" Powell asked after reading through the paperwork.
"That he was," the Warden replied. "The guy was bat-shit crazy but never once caused problems while he was in here. I think he even had a boyfriend or something. Anyway, he was maintaining good behavior, and he showed remorse for what happened at that Expo. So, the board deemed him safe to be among society again."
"Does he have a parole officer?" Dodds asked warily. Something still didn't feel right about this…
"I don't know the details," the Warden replied. "Last I heard, they had a hard time finding one, so Hammer convinced them that he had no problem waiting for one."
"Okay, so here's another question," Powell suddenly asked again, "it says here that Tony Stark and Pepper Potts were not present for the hearing, but Chief Harrison said that Ms. Potts had no knowledge of it."
"Which would mean Stark didn't either," Dodds added.
"Well, that's very odd," the Warden replied, "because we did reach out to them a month before the hearing via email. It's protocol that victims are notified when their perps could be released and that they are invited to the hearing. Mr. Stark was notified, but we never got an answer back."
Dodds and Powell looked at the Warden and then at each other before looking back at the Warden. "Can we see this email?" they asked in unison.
The Chief's cell phone rang yet again, and he wasted no time in answering once he saw that it was Dodds.
"What have you got, Dodds?" he asked.
"The Warden confirmed it," Dodds replied. "Hammer was released in November for good behavior. As far as they know, he never got a parole officer because they're trying to find one."
"Okay, so that proves he's out of jail for sure," Harrison replied. "Any reason as to why Stark and Ms. Potts were never notified?"
"Well, that's the thing, Chief," Dodds began carefully. "They were notified. An email went out to Stark a month before the hearing. I'm currently reading an email from the prison that went out on the Warden's computer right now, but it doesn't look like Stark even answered."
"When did the email go out?" Harrison said as he switched to speaker so that Pepper and Happy could hear.
"October 17," Dodds replied.
"Ms. Potts, do you have access to Mr. Stark's email?" Harrison asked.
"Yes, I do," Pepper said as she stood up and ran to the office with Happy and Harrison in tow. The CEO wasted no time in opening Tony's computer and then his email, and then she typed something in the search bar. Sure enough, an email popped up. Pepper let out a shaky breath as she saw that the email…was still unread and that it was from October 17, 2016. "I found it…H-He…He did get the notification, but he…probably didn't see it. It was marked unread…and it says that it was in his spam folder."
"Which means he never answered it or…forwarded it to you," Happy said with widened eyes.
"And in turn, the Parole Board assumed no answer meant Stark had no objections," Harrison added. "Hence why he's not in prison." He then turned back to his phone. "Dodds, you and Powell go back to the precinct. We need to find Justin Hammer."
"You got it," he replied. "We'll see you in a bit."
With that said, both the chief and the detective hung up.
"God damnit, Tony," Pepper whispered under her breath.
"Let's not jump to conclusions yet, Ms. Potts," Harrison said holding up a hand to calm the CEO down. "We know that Hammer is out, but that doesn't prove he had anything to do with kidnapping Tony and Peter."
"So, how can you prove it?" Happy asked.
"I'm going to have my detectives look for where he lives," he said as he led them out of the office. "We'll go talk to him and search his place."
Pepper nodded. "Is there anything you need us to do?" she asked.
"Call Mrs. Parker and let her know," Harrison replied as he made his way out of the penthouse. "I'll call as soon as we know more."
"Okay, thank you, Chief," Pepper said as she and Happy walked him to the elevator.
"You're welcome," Harrison replied. "Don't worry, if this guy is guilty, we'll send him back to prison."
"We have no doubts about it," Happy replied with a small smile.
As soon as the Chief disappeared behind the elevator doors, Pepper grabbed her phone and called May.
"Hey, Pepper," May said answering the phone, "have you heard from Harrison yet? He said that he was heading over to the Tower today."
"Yeah, he just left," Pepper replied. "That's actually the reason I'm calling you. One of his detectives called. They may have found a lead."
"What?" May breathed.
"They went to see Justin Hammer—the guy from the Stark Expo—in prison," Pepper replied, "but he got out on parole. They're going to investigate him now. There's no evidence yet, but I can feel it. We're getting close."
"I hope you're right," May said with tears in her eyes and as her heart pounded. "I'm just praying Tony and Peter can hold on for a little longer."
"Me too."
The Chief could feel it in his bones that they were getting close. Whether Hammer was guilty or not, it was one step closer to getting Peter and Tony back. The past two days, there had been no ransom calls, and the other suspects had alibis that all checked out, but…with Hammer, it felt different. His detectives found that the former politician bought a penthouse in New York City, which was odd considering that was not where he originally lived before he was arrested. His bank records indicated he also bought a piece of land in upstate New York, which intrigued the NYPD chief more. They also found large sums of money transferred to several undisclosed bank accounts, and that was enough to convince the Chief to dig deeper. While they couldn't just barge onto this piece of land without talking to Hammer, the ADA thankfully gave them a search warrant for Hammer's place, and they went to confront him.
He and Dodds led several of their fellow officers to the top floor of an apartment building in Manhattan, where Hammer's penthouse was located.
Knock! Knock!
"Justin Hammer," Dodds began as he knocked on the door, "NYPD! Open up! We need to talk to you!"
No answer, which confused the officers, so Dodds knocked on the door again.
"Mr. Hammer," Dodds said, "open up. We need to talk to you."
There was no answer yet again as Dodds and Harrison looked at each other with great confusion. That was two times they knocked on the door, and there was no answer from Hammer. They knew what they had to do. Dodds turned to an officer, who was carrying a battering ram and nodded.
His fellow officer nodded and stepped forward and swung it against the doorknob knocking it out of place. The officer then banged on it again knocking the knob off the door thus opening it. The door swung open as Harrison and Dodds led the charge inside the large penthouse. They all spread out searching every nook and cranny in Hammer's home. It wasn't as big as Tony's, but one could tell that someone like Justin Hammer lived there.
"Clear!" an officer said in the kitchen.
"Clear!" another said in the living room.
"Clear!" another in the bedroom.
"Clear!" another from the balcony.
Dodds and Harrison waited with bated breath for one more officer to report back on what she found. So far, Hammer was nowhere to be found, which piqued the detective and Chief's curiosity and suspicions even more. A man on parole wouldn't just vanish.
"Got something in the office!" the last officer shouted.
Dodds and Harrison wasted no time in running into Hammer's office, where they found the officer. However, she wasn't looking at them. Rather she was looking at a bulletin board, and when Dodds and Harrison walked closer…they stopped. Their eyes widened. On the bulletin board, there were pictures…of Tony and Peter clearly taken from a distance while they were in public. On top of that, there was a picture of an old, gray building in the middle of the woods…in upstate New York. There were also several post-it notes regarding whether Peter and Tony were related and the location of the building.
"We might not have found Hammer," Dodds said, "but…this is certainly strong evidence."
"Let's get CSU in here," the Chief replied as he took out his phone, "and then we'll find out where this building is. I think our search warrant is about to become an arrest warrant." With that, he called Pepper's number. "Ms. Potts," he said as soon as Pepper answered, "I'm going to need you to get in touch with Col. Rhodes and Mrs. Parker. We may have just found our kidnapping mastermind."
Author's Note: Annnnnnnnnnnnd that's all for now, boys and girls! Things are starting to heat up now! Everything will come together next in…PART 7…THE FINAL PART OF THE KIDNAPPING ARC! That's right! Part 7 will be the last one, and I'm so excited for you guys to see how it all unfolds! Until then, don't forget to leave a review! Thanks, guys!