"Damn it!" Francie swore as she reached for the phone. She'd promised herself she wasn't going to do this, but it was almost 11 o'clock, Will was almost an hour late, and he hadn't called. So now she was calling him. She'd been looking forward to going out tonight ever since Wednesday when Will had asked her about checking out a new club over the weekend.
As she listened to the incessant ringing, she imagined how many different ways she could get even with him. Smiling at the thought, she was jarred back to reality when Will's voice came booming out of the receiver.
"Hey, this is Will. Please leave a message."
"Leave a message. Damn straight I'll leave a message," Francie muttered as she waited for the beep. When it finally sounded, she spoke again. "Will, this is Francie. You remember me, right? I'm the one you were supposed to go to a club with tonight. It's now 11 and you aren't here. Call me. And you'd better have a damn good reason for standing me up."
Slamming the phone down made her feel marginally better, but only for a moment. Then she went back to stewing over how pathetic her life was that she was sitting at home on a Saturday night when she was supposed to be out with a friend. Deciding this situation need to be resolved with a glass of wine, she went to the kitchen and poured a glass, returning to the living room with the bottle and glass in hand.
She settled back on the couch and turned on the tv, hoping to find something that would amuse her until Will finally decided to show. Forty-five minutes and two rather large servings of wine later, she turned it off. She stood, stretching, before she walked slowly to the door. Opening it, she stared out at the quiet street.
Going back inside after a few minutes, she went to the phone, trying his home again before calling his cell. When it went straight to voicemail, she really began to worry. Something had to be wrong. He just wasn't the type of person who didn't show up. As a last ditch attempt to find him, she called the paper.
********
Abby dragged herself back to her desk. The party had been a little more raucous than she'd anticipated and she was feeling it already. Whoever said the society columnists had it easy had never been to a party thrown by a celebrity.
Thank God, she was off until Thursday, she thought as she situated herself at her desk, booted up the computer, and idly checked her messages while she waited. When she finally saw the desktop appear on her monitor, she opened up the file she needed and began to type her column.
She liked coming in late at night to do her columns. She liked the peace and quiet. She liked being left to herself to do her work her way. There was always the chance that some copy editor would call her for clarification on something, but that didn't happen too often.
She was halfway through her report when she realized the phone was ringing. She toyed with not picking it up for a moment, but then decided that if she didn't, whoever it was would just keep calling back.
"Los Angeles Register. This is Abby, how may I help you?"
"Will Tippin's desk please."
"I'm sorry, Will's not here. Is there something I might be able to help you with?" Abby heard the woman's frustrated sigh and wondered what stupid thing Will had done now.
"Um, yeah, maybe. My name is Francie Calfo. I'm a friend of Will's. We were supposed to do something, and he just hasn't shown up. It's not like him, and so I thought that maybe he might be there redoing a story or something."
"Well, he's not here now, but that doesn't mean he hasn't been here. I just got in to file my column, so it's possible that he was here. And knowing Will, it's also possible that he'll be back. Do you want to leave a number where he can reach you if he does?"
"No, he already has the number. Just please have him call Francie if you see him, ok?"
"Sure thing," Abby replied distantly as she continued to write up her article. "Is there anything else that I might be able to help with?"
"No. Just have Will call me if you see him. Thanks."
Abby jotted Francie's message on a post-it and put it aside for the moment. When she went home, she'd put it on his computer. But for now, she just went back to her article, not even thinking about what Will had given her just days before.
********
Francie replaced the receiver gently. Glancing at the clock, she wasn't happy to see it was now twelve-thirty. She walked back into the living room and started turning off the lights. As late as it was, even if he did show up, there wouldn't be any point in going out now. Besides, she was tired.
When the living room was completely dark, she cast one final glance at the front door before shaking her head and turning towards her room wondering once more where he could possibly be.
********
Eric Weiss hated staying late, especially if it was because of reports. Seemed to him that ever since he'd covered for Vaughn about Denpasar, he'd been pulling a lot more late nights and had a lot more paperwork to do.
Putting his signature on the final report, he straightened his desk and prepared to leave. As he slid back into his suit jacket, the phone started ringing. Shaking his head in disgust, he reached over the desk and grabbed the receiver. "Weiss."
"Weiss, it's Markham. We've got a problem."
Eric groaned. What could possibly be wrong now? "What's up?"
"Edwards and I just got here to relieve Johansson and Parker."
"Yeah, so?"
"The safe house has been compromised. Johansson and Parker are down."
Shit. Not tonight. Running a hand through his hair, Weiss allowed the information to sink in. "What about Tippin?"
"He's not here."
Shit, shit, shit! Eric took a deep breath. "Ok, I'll call Vaughn. We'll be there ASAP. Keep looking for Tippin."
Hanging up, Eric immediately picked the phone back up and called Vaughn. After four rings he got the machine. He waited for the tone and then started screaming into the receiver. "Come on, Mike, pick up the damn phone. I know you're there. I mean it's not like you have a life or anything. Damn it Mike! MIKE!!!!!"
"Jesus. What the hell is wrong with you and why are you calling me at," there was a momentary pause as Vaughn fumbled around for his alarm, "one-fifteen in the morning?"
"You need to get to the safe house. Now."
Vaughn was immediately awake. "Why?"
"Markham just called. There's been some sort of problem."
"What sort of problem?"
"Tippin's missing."
"Shit, Syd went over to see him tonight. I arranged it. Were there signs of a struggle?"
"I'm not sure, Markham didn't really go into much detail, but we need to get there like now."
Vaughn was already out of bed and fishing around for clothes. "I'll meet you there."
Only after hanging up, did Weiss remember having sent Zoe over with the new tapes. Pulling his cell out as he left his office, he called Markham back. Unlike Vaughn, Markham picked up on the first ring.
"Markham."
"Hey, it's Weiss. Can you tell me, are there some blank audio tapes there?"
He could hear Markham moving things around in the background. "Ten of them?"
Weiss breathed a sigh of relief. She'd already been and gone. "Yeah, that's them."
"Yeah, they're here. Why?"
"We need to call Zoe Pierson and find out what time she left. She might be able to give us a time frame for what happened."
"What does she have to do with this?"
"I asked her to take the tapes over," Weiss explained as he reached the elevator.
"Ok, give me her number and I'll call her. When you get here, I'll let you know what I've found out."
Weiss gave Markham the number as the elevator arrived. "Ok, I'm leaving now. If Vaughn gets there before I do, tell him I'm on my way."
"Sure thing."
Weiss turned off his phone and slipped it in his pocket as he entered the elevator. Pressing the button for the basement level, he waited impatiently as the car slowly descended. When it finally reached the desired floor, he was out of the car before the doors had completely opened. Running to where he'd parked, he opened the door and slid quickly behind the wheel. Starting the engine, he pulled out of the space as he closed the door, tearing out of the garage on his way to the safe house.
********
Vaughn arrived at the safe house around one forty-five. Getting out of the car, he was almost up the walk when Weiss pulled up. Stopping where he was, he waited until Weiss joined him before entering the house.
Walking down the hall, they went into the surveillance area where they found Tony Markham and Paul Edwards pulling sheets over two bodies. Vaughn watched the scene before him, praying that Syd hadn't been there when this had happened.
"Mike, Eric," Markham stated as he stood back up.
"Tony. Hey Paul. What happened?" Weiss asked.
"Looks like whoever it was didn't want witnesses."
"What do you mean?" Vaughn asked.
Markham looked over at Vaughn. "Whoever did this used a tazer and then poisoned them. They were gone when we got here."
Vaughn leaned back against the wall. "What about Tippin? Do we know what happened to him?"
"Can't say. I mean he's gone, but other than that, we haven't found any signs of a struggle or any blood. We were just getting ready to look at the video feed when you two came in."
"Well, let's look at it then," Vaughn grumbled.
The four men gathered around the monitor and waited for the tape to rewind. Pressing play all four were shocked to find nothing on the tape but snow.
"Damn it! Where the fuck's the picture?" Weiss exclaimed. What the hell was happening? A safe house had been compromised, two agents were dead, and the man they'd been protecting was gone. Now the video surveillance looked like it had been erased. It just didn't make any sense. Glancing back at Markham he asked if anyone had called Devlin yet.
"Yeah, Paul did. He's on his way. As for what happened to the tape, I don't know. Maybe they ran a magnet over the machine."
"What about the audio?" Vaughn asked nervously.
"Give me a minute and I'll check," Edwards answered. After a moment, he looked back at Vaughn. "Hey Mike, which one do you want to listen to?"
"What do you mean, which one?"
"I mean which one--the one that's in the recorder or this one?" he asked as he grabbed a cassette labeled Tippin 1 up off the desk.
Vaughn looked over at Weiss and then back at Edwards. "Tippin was only here for what? Ten hours max? And there are already 2 tapes?"
"Yup."
Vaughn ran his hand through his disheveled hair, causing it to stand even more on end than normal. "Shit. Just do the one in the recorder I guess," Vaughn replied as he fished around in his coat for his phone. As much as he wasn't looking forward to being the one to call the man, Jack Bristow needed to know what was going on.
While Paul was busy checking the audio tape, Weiss pulled Markham to the side. "Did you call Zoe?"
"Yeah, but I just got her machine. Maybe she stopped off someplace on the way home. Or maybe she was already asleep."
"She has a phone by her bed. If she was home, she'd have picked up."
"She probably just stopped off somewhere. We'll try again in a bit," Markham stated, ignoring Weiss's comment.
Eric was getting a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. He remembered how stressed she'd looked when she'd popped into his office a few hours earlier. She'd told him she was going straight home after dropping the tapes off and asked if he might be stopping by when he finished.
When he'd looked up at her, she'd been smiling that sexy little smile of hers and he hadn't been able to resist her request. Especially after hearing her rant about what an ass Haladki had been all day. Maybe she'd just turned the phone off so when he got there, they wouldn't be disturbed. That's all it is, he reasoned. She just turned the ringer off. She's fine. Zoe's home and waiting for me to get there. Right, keep telling yourself that, Eric. Maybe one of these times you might believe it.
"Got something." Edwards reported finally.
Vaughn held up his hand, asking them silently to wait while he finished his conversation. A moment later, he turned off the phone and moved back to the table with the others.
Eric nudged him gently. "How is Jack this evening?"
"Not happy to hear from me."
Weiss was about to say something when they were finally rewarded with the sound of voices. Sydney and Will's to be exact.
At first Vaughn didn't really pay much attention, just hearing her voice was enough to calm him for the moment. That calm was quickly shattered when he heard Will's declaration about loving Sydney for just being Sydney.
Looking back at Eric, Vaughn found his friend staring at him, silently asking if he'd known about this. When Vaughn just shrugged his shoulders, Eric returned his focus to the table, both men realizing they hadn't heard Sydney's response.
"Is that it?" Vaughn asked, trying unsuccessfully to control his voice.
"Seems to be a problem with the tape," Edwards reported. "Give me a sec." After fiddling with the machine for a couple of seconds, the sound returned. "Here we go," Edwards stated as he turned the sound back up.
Weiss leaned over to Vaughn, whispering, "Did you hear her say anything?"
Vaughn just shook his head as he listened to Sydney inform Will about the agents behind the glass and letting him know that if he needed something they were there to help. Then he heard her leave.
The four men continued to listen to the tape, but upon hearing Will's request for something to eat, Vaughn had Edwards turn it off.
"Now I see why they needed the extra tapes," Weiss stated jokingly.
"Guess it's a good thing he doesn't write like he talks. He'd bore people before they got through the first paragraph," Markham chimed in.
"You know, as funny as this might seem, he is missing and for all we know, he could be dead. So why don't we just shut up and try to piece together what happened," Vaughn snapped.
Vaughn stepped back from the table, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Listen, I'm sorry, but this is serious. And yeah, Tippin might talk a lot, but we were supposed to protect him. And we haven't. Now we have to find him and joking about how he never shuts up isn't going to help."
Glancing back at Edwards, he tossed him two of the blank tapes. "I need copies of both of these. Can you do that for me now?"
Edwards just nodded, immediately preparing to duplicate the tapes.
Twenty minutes later, the tapes were done and Vaughn prepared himself to go meet Jack. It wasn't something he was looking forward to. "Weiss, can I talk to you a minute?"
Weiss nodded and followed Vaughn into the hall. "What's up?"
"I need to get to the warehouse. Jack's probably already there and he was not happy that I called him. If I make him wait much longer..."
"I hear ya." Grabbing a clipboard, Eric gave it a cursory glance before turning back to his friend. "You know, I think I'm going to go over and see if Zoe can tell me what time she left. Maybe that way we can figure out how much of a head start they have."
"What about Devlin?"
"Edwards and Markham are here. They can fill him in. Besides, I just kind of want to go see her. Make sure she's ok, you know?" he replied quietly.
"Yeah, I know. I never would have figured you two."
"Why not?" Weiss asked, somewhat put off by what he thought Vaughn was implying.
"I didn't mean it like that. I mean she's just so quiet and you're so..." Vaughn was at a loss on how to finish that statement.
"I'm so what?"
"I don't know. You, I guess."
"Should I be offended?" Weiss asked, his tone humorous.
"No."
"Ok."
As he searched his pocket for his keys, Vaughn realized that Weiss had been holding the sign-in log. "Hey, you said something about seeing what time Zoe left, right?"
"Yeah, what about it?"
"Why don't you just look on the log?"
Weiss rolled his eyes. Way to go, Eric, he thought as he picked up the clipboard he'd just been holding. Checking the pages, he found what he was looking for. And then prayed he'd read it wrong.
Weiss dropped the log and started tearing through the house, leaving a very confused Vaughn in his wake. As he opened each door and flipped on lights, he shouted for her, drawing the attention of Edwards and Markham as well.
"Weiss, what the hell is wrong with you?" Vaughn shouted.
"Zoe signed in at 9:45. She signed out at 10. She should have been here no later than 8:30," he answered frantically.
Vaughn grabbed his friend, only to be cast aside like a rag doll. "Eric, stop. She's not in here. Edwards and Markham have been all over this place. She's not here."
"Mike, something's wrong. She asked me to stop over when I got done. Markham said she didn't answer her phone. She knew I was coming over. If she was there, she would have answered."
He was rambling and he knew it. But it didn't matter. He felt himself being pushed against the wall, surprised when he figured out it was Vaughn who was doing the pushing.
"Damn it, Eric! She's not in here."
Weiss took a deep breath, trying to calm himself and failing. He knew something was wrong. He knew it and no matter what Vaughn said, nothing but Zoe standing in front of him would change his mind. Shaking himself from his friend's grasp, he headed for the front door.
"Where are you going?" Vaughn demanded, watching as Weiss stormed off.
"I'm going to find her."
Vaughn caught up with him once he was outside. "Do you want some help?"
"No," he replied, his voice now devoid of all emotion except fear. "You need to go meet Jack. I'll call you when I find her."
"Eric?"
"What?"
"She'll be ok," Vaughn stated, trying to remain positive. "You will find her." He'd never seen Weiss like that and it scared him. Unfortunately, he could identify with his panic. He'd been through that less than a half hour before because of Sydney.
"I know. I think I'm just going to look around a little bit more."
Vaughn nodded and watched as Weiss turned back towards the house. He was almost at his car when he heard Weiss scream. Turning quickly, he ran to his friend who was slowly moving behind the hedge at the corner of the house. "Eric?"
Vaughn watched helplessly as Weiss dropped to his knees next to the wall. Going around the other side, he saw what had drawn Weiss over to that spot. He stood there for what seemed an eternity as the scene burned itself forever in his mind.
Weiss looked up at Vaughn as he cradled Zoe's lifeless body in his arms. "Mike?"
Vaughn knelt down beside him, watching as Weiss gently brushed a strand of hair from Zoe's face. "What?" he asked quietly.
"I found her," Weiss whispered as he looked back down at Zoe, pulling her closer. "But she's not ok."
********