Disclaimer: The usual...
Jake and Alex had been going over every available street map for several hours. They had come up with several possibilities, which Cody and Monica had checked, but nothing had come of it. Frank was in his office, following up on other possible leads. Last night he had received a call from the person believed to have arranged Joey's kidnaping. The Caller hadn't identified himself and Frank had wasted no time in calling his team back to the nest to continue working. And work they had, well into the early morning hours. They all had fallen asleep at their desks, only to awaken three hours later when Cody's computer had started to beep. The search of Karl's computer was done. There was no more information to be had from it.
The case had gone public from the moment Joey had been kidnaped. People that had been in the park with Rachel and Joey Ryan that day had notified the media. Karl and Joey's pictures had been going up at every news broadcast, as well as a few personal details about Joey. The clothes he had been wearing when he was abducted, things he liked to do. All in the hope that someone would have the information that they needed.
At this point it was hard to determine if the media attention was more of a help or a hindrance. So many people had been calling. Some wanted to know if there was a reward, others had erroneous information. But some had information that was actually useful. It was this information that was passed on to Donovan and his team. Information that Monica would use to piece together with what they already had so the team could move forward with the case.
"Ah! My eyes are falling out of my head." Cody was rubbing his eyes and pushed his chair away from his computer.
"I know, but there's not much time left. Tomorrow is the fourth day. By the time we get to him he could be dehydrated, starving. And that's if he was left supplies." Alex said. Jake looked at Alex, stood up and walked towards Cody.
"Come on Cody. We'll take five then get back to work." Cody nodded and followed Jake to the kitchen. Alex stood up and stretched while Monica leaned back in her chair and looked at her.
"We're all tense and working to our limits to solve this thing. He just needs a moment." Alex thought for a moment then sighed.
"I just don't tolerate failure well and we're almost out of time-if we're not already too late."
"We need to keep believing that we'll get to him in time." Frank said as he came down the stairs. "There's a woman at the station who claims she saw Karl with a boy a couple of days ago. I'm going down there to talk to her. All of you are doing excellent work on this case." frank smiled at them as he left.
Frank walked into the station and looked around until he spotted police chief Jim Aderes. He and his force had been working closely with Frank and his team. It was Jim's force that had been screening the information from callers that had ended up going to Frank's team. Frank walked towards him silently wishing that this would be the break he needed.
"Frank glad you could make it. We're leaving interviewing her to you." Jim greeted.
"Thanks Jim. What's her name?" Frank asked.
"Aileen O'Brien. She's a roommate of one of Karl's neighbors. She was out when your team interviewed people from the neighborhood. Her roommate was the one your team interviewed and she had had no idea about what her roommate had seen. Aileen claims to have been home the day Joey was kidnaped and saw Karl with a kid." Frank and Jim had been walking while Jim relayed the details from Aileen's phone call to them. They stopped in front of a door and Frank entered.
Inside the interrogation room sat a woman, a police officer was in a corner off to her left. Her blond hair fell past her shoulder blades. Her green eyes regarded him calmly. Frank wouldn't have out her age to be passed twenty-four. He took a seat opposite her and started.
"My name's Frank Donovan. I work for the justice department and am working on Joey Ryan's case. You're Aileen O'Brien?" He asked, she nodded.
"I'm told you were home the day that Joey Ryan was kidnaped. Can you tell me what you saw?" Frank asked.
"I had an assignment due for class the next day. I wasn't even close to being finished so I stayed home to work on it. I was taking a break and was by the window having a smoke. I saw my neighbor pull up to his place. He had a kid with him. I didn't think anything of it, after all it could've been his son, or nephew or something. So I left it. But then the news put his picture up and said that he had kidnaped a kid. I didn't watch long enough to see the kid's picture because I got a phone call. I talked to my roommate-she was here before he moved in. She said he didn't have any family so I thought I'd tell the police what I saw." Aileen reached for the drink in front of her and took a sip while Frank signaled that something be brought to him. An officer approached with a couple of photos of Karl and Joey.
"So this the neighbor you saw?" Frank asked while placing the picture before her. She nodded.
"And is this the child he had with him?" He asked.
She took a moment to look at the photo, then shook her head.
"No. The kid with him had dark hair. It was shorter than that as well."
Frank had done as he said and had had Rachel and Jack Ryan moved to another location. It was a small house in the middle of nowhere. The only neighbors being the trees and wildlife about. Guards walked around the house, keeping the area secure.
The drive up to the house had been tense. Jack had tried, many times, to engage his wife in conversation. She had only looked at him then turned to continue staring out the window. Jack had finally given up and settled for the silence for the duration of the drive.
However, now that they were at the house and trying to settle in Jack was determined to talk to his wife. Rachel was moving around their room, her fury barely contained as she threw her clothes in the dresser. Jack sat on the bed, watching his wife and waiting for any sign that her anger was lessening. Seeing none he plunged ahead.
"We have to talk sometime you know." She turned to him.
"It doesn't have to be now." She said.
"Tonight, tomorrow it's sill not going to change anything." he replied.
"No of course not. Our son will still be gone. I will still be married to a man i don't know and I still wont be able to trust you." Rachel was going to walk away from him but instead turned back.
"You know what makes me angry?" She asked, jack just looked at her. "I asked you directly if there was anything I should know about you. You looked me in the eyes and said 'no'. I can understand you not wanting to tell me in the beginning. After all we were married after knowing each other for three months. But we've been married for almost eight years now. Don't you think I deserved to know" She asked. He went and stood in front of her.
"Yes. I was wrong to keep this from you. You and Joey are everything and I didn't want to risk that. I didn't know how to go about telling you at first. And then part of me figured that if I didn't talk about it then I could pretend it never happened; or that maybe it would stay in my past. But I was wrong. I need you Rachel and Joey needs us. I'll never be able to make this up to you but I can promise you that I'm going to try." jack pulled his wife to him. She tensed at first but after a moment returned the embrace.