Forgot my disclaimer in my previous entry. Whoops! I own nothing, not even a degree in Psychology. (HaH anyone?) Spoilers: Still doing whatever is current.

A/N: I am desperately sorry it took so long to update, but the whole traveling and visiting the States kind of got in the way. So this story will be a little crazy for a bit, please bear with me. Enjoy!

25 hours missing

"Okay, so let's lay this out. We have Jacob who works at Mason Bank as a security guard, a job his brother-in-law got for him. Eric Kingston, a lawyer for the bank, also went missing yesterday, sometime after he got off work. Kingston is unmarried and a reported work-a-holic. They don't have any apparent connections, nor do they even come across each other," said Rebecca as she sat at the conference table with the four agents.

"Not that we know of. I am still checking out the surveillance tapes," said Martin cautiously.

"Somehow, these two men have to be linked. I don't care where you live; two men who work at the same company don't mysteriously disappear on the same day," said Rebecca.

"I just picked up a copy of the newspaper that was in the sister's apartment, but I haven't found anything yet that could have spurned him on," said Samantha as she glanced from Rebecca to the board.

"That's great but do we really know if that had anything to do with it?" asked Rebecca.

"The sister said his response to the paper was unusual. He is normally a pretty laid back guy," said Sam, almost anticipating Rebecca's question.

"Yeah, well stranger things have happened. Right now, we have to run this with NYPD, because Kingston is under their jurisdiction. Vivian, seeing as you are familiar with the unit we'll be working with, I'd love if you'd speak with them and get us more information on Kingston."

"Got it. I'll drop by as soon as I'm finished. You want the basic history and any other material that could link them right?"

"Read my mind anytime you like, Viv. Just make sure he isn't a dirty banker and that his clients are happy. "

"Of course," Vivian returned with a knowing smile.

"Martin, I understand that Jacob's computer had nothing for us to go on?"

"Not that we've found. He has a couple of emails with the boy from his marriage. Apparently, they were very close."

"Jacob's sister said that he'd been married for eight years, I'd say that was long enough to form a bond," said Danny.

"Was there anything unusual about the emails or were they pretty typical?" asked Vivian.

"Kid was having problems in school, and he didn't like his mom's new boyfriend, nothing unusual for a kid his age," said Martin.

"Anything else on his hard drive?"

"Nope, we checked the hard drive and back ups, nothing. He doesn't even download music. The guy is squeaky clean."

"He sure is. He's almost too good. There has to be something that set this guy off," said Sam as she tapped her pen on the table. "All I can think of is the newspaper, but I haven't found anything that could do that."

"The original was too hard to make out?"

"I think his sister had a little run in with some finger paints or something," said Danny mockingly.

"He has no hobbies?" asked Rebecca.

"Nope, not except for painting," said Danny. Simultaneously both he and Samantha looked up. "Maybe something," he stated.

"was in the painting," Sam finished. "Did she say if he'd started another piece or not?"

"I don't believe so, but it couldn't hurt to check."

"Great, I want you to follow through with the paintings and see what else you can dig up," said Rebecca as she surveyed the table. "Okay here's the deal. Martin, finish up with the surveillance tapes; Vivian, if anything, you will be our P.D. liaison; Sa-"

"Are you sure you don't want Sam to work with the P.D.? She's done it so well in the pas-" choked out Danny as Samantha elbowed him hard in the ribs.

"He's just kidding, I think Vivian would be perfect, what with her brother in the department and all," said Samantha quickly as she eyed Danny dangerously.

"Right," said Rebecca, trying to ignore their foolish behavior. "Anyway, Sam and Danny follow up on the paintings, and see what else you can get from the newspaper."

"Sure," said Samantha as she gathered her files and followed Danny over to his desk.

Martin blinked rapidly. His eyes were going blurry from viewing the tapes and his butt was suffering from the lack of blood flow to that region. He had tapes from the past two weeks, and during that time, he'd seen nothing that was unusual. During Jacob Bradley's shifts, he and the other guard operated the front desk while another guard did rounds. Every thirty minutes they would switch and give the other guy a break. Normally the last person left the bank around 21:30 to 22:00, but it was never Eric Kingston. He was steadily growing tired of this monotonous work. Only two tapes left and he'd be free to fill his empty, grumbling stomach.

Just then, Danny walked by devouring a fully loaded hot dog. He stopped dead in his tracks when he realized who was in the room. He turned around, and walked in with an air of nonchalance and took a seat next to Martin, whose eyes were fixated on the hot dog before him.

"How's it coming A/V boy?"

"Ha ha. I have two tapes left and then I can move on to something useful."

"You don't really think she's going to let you out, do you?"

"What are you talking about?" said Martin, feigning ignorance.

"C'mon. After everything that's been going on, it's not like she's going to trust you out in the field," said Danny through a mouthful of relish and hot dog. "Maybe Jack, but Rebecca? No, she's too straight-laced for that."

"First, I don't know what you're talking about and second, could you get out of here with that? You're smelling up the room and I don't want you to get anything on my notes," he said as he tried to push aside his blank clip board.

"Sure, I have to run with Sam over to the apartment again anyway. Don't be bitter because you weren't allowed on a lunch break," said Danny as he shoved the last of the hotdog in his mouth and headed out the door.

"I'm not bitter," Martin called after him. Lunch break? That was hours ago. No wonder he was hungry.

"Hey, why haven't you two left yet?" asked Vivian as she walked to her desk.

"We haven't been able to get in touch with the sister and we don't want to make a trip all the way over there just to wait until she gets back," said Samantha as she stood leaning over the table, perusing the paper for some shred of a lead.

"Still, couldn't Danny be doing something useful?" said Vivian as she glanced over to Danny who was leaning back into his chair, throwing a small football towards the ceiling.

"Hey, I am waiting for one of the guards to call me back. He worked both days and nights, so I figured someone who'd seen both Kingston and Bradley could be of some use to us.

"How about you, what happened with P.D.?" asked Sam as she glanced up at the agent before her.

"Just as lovely as ever," said Vivian with a trace of sarcasm. "Kingston is an executive at the bank, earning well over six figures a year. He lives on Park Avenue, and from what I saw in his apartment, he is barely there. He walks some twenty odd blocks to work at 5:45 in the morning, and leaves on average around 8:00 at night. Somehow, he manages to fit running into his schedule, because apparently he is a marathon runner."

"Wow, his life is just as exciting as Bradley's," said Danny. "I still don't see a connection."

"Wait, it gets better," said Vivian. "You know how we thought Bradley worked six nights a week? He only works five. While I was checking out Kingston's office, I went downstairs and spoke with the security manager and he showed me the monthly schedule and surprise, our boy only pulls in 40 hours."

"But his sister said that he worked six nights a week," said Sam.

"So maybe our model citizen isn't so perfect," said Danny. He almost fell out of his chair in surprise when his phone rang.

"Either she has no idea or she wasn't being completely up front with us. I think I am going to go get a warrant to search their apartment."

"Why?" asked Rebecca as she walked up to the table.

Samantha flinched slightly. For Jack's sake, they were all trying to follow protocol, and to be honest, she didn't find Rebecca all that disagreeable, but it was difficult trying to get work done while keeping Rebecca up to date on everything.

"Well, uh, Viv, just got back," she motioned with her hands, "and she learned that Bradley has only been working five nights a week for the past," she paused, waiting for Vivian to take over.

"For the entire time he's had his job. If at any time, Kingston would see Bradley as he was coming in for work, but from what Martin has noted, no interaction was shown."

"Excellent. What's Danny up to?" Rebecca motioned towards Danny who was wrapping up his phone call.

"He is speaking with one of the guards who worked nights with Bradley," said Sam quickly.

"And you haven't been to the apartment yet?"

"As soon as he's finished and I have secured a warrant we'll take off," said Sam.

"Okay, great. Vivian, you and I are going to take a trip."

"What? Where?"

"To see his ex wife."

"But she lives in Maine."

"On the contrary, she lives in Connecticut as of three months ago; all that's left in Maine is a dilapidated beach house."

"Okay, let me call my husband to make sure he picks Reggie up from basketball practice tonight."

"So, we'll call you once we find out anything on Bradley," said Samantha as she stood next to the agent. She frowned because she found she was looking up to the woman. Rebecca's heels were and inch shorter than hers were. Before her mind wondered off on some odd inferiority issue, she brought herself back to reality. She didn't know why, but as much as she wanted to dislike the agent before her, there was something in her eyes that made Sam feel comfortable around her.

"Or Kingston," said Rebecca. "The P.D. should be faxing his record over to us within the hour."

"Got it."

"Oh and when Martin comes back, get him to go over Kingston's accounts and find out what Bradley has been doing on Saturdays. We still need to find that final connection between our two guys," she said as she looked the blonde agent directly in the eyes. She always found that it helped to be very precise and direct with her agents, it helped to secure their trust.

"Where'd they go?" asked Danny as soon as he'd hung up his phone.

"Well, while you were chatting up some guy from the Bronx, they decided to take a road trip to Connecticut."

"Are you serious? It's almost quitting time and Viv is off with her long lost partner? Interesting."

"Yeah, well, 'Damn the man, save the empire.' What'd you dig up," said Samantha as she leaned against the table, her arms crossed.

"Well, Bradley was very quiet, but he'd sometimes meet the 'guys' before work at a local bar and watch a basketball game or two. He always showed up early to work, and was normally the last to leave during shift change. What's interesting is that when they did their rounds, some floors they just scanned, others they were assigned to keep closer watch on. The floor that Kingston worked on came under Bradley's watch."

"Fascinating. So what."

"It just so happens, that every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Bradley's last round coincided with the same time Kingston arrived at work and marched dutifully to his office."

"Ooo, great work. Listen, I've gotten a warrant for the entire apartment now, so we need to head on over."

"Okay," he said as he swung his jacket on. "Where's Martin?"

"He's still in the A/V room."

"I'm gonna go see if he's gotten anything before we take off."

"Fine," she said as she tried to get her files in order.

As she was putting her jacket on Vivian's phone rang. She figured it was the P.D. with news on Kingston so she walked over and picked up the receiver.

"Agent Johnson's phone, Agent Spade speaking," she said professionally.

"Hey where's Viv? Her phone's not on," said a gruff voice on the other line.

"Excuse me?" Sam asked with her brows furrowed in confusion.

"Sam, it's me Jack. I need to speak with Viv, is she nearby?"

"No, she's going to Connecticut, but where are you? Are you really in D.C.?"

"Yeah. Just tell Viv to call me when she gets in, tell her it doesn't matter the time."

Samantha's voice grew hushed, "Jack are you okay?"

"Oh, I'm fine. Listen I've got to go, give her the message for me?"

"You got it."

"Thanks. Be good."

She looked at the receiver after he hung up, wondering if she'd really just had that conversation.

"Who was that?" asked Danny as he glanced at Samantha quickly.

She thought quickly as to whether or not she should share that she'd been in contact with their boss. Deciding against it, she looked up at Danny and shrugged.

"No idea, I think he dialed the wrong extension."

"Why are we going to visit the ex?" asked Vivian as she glanced in the side mirror.

"Well, their split was amicable, but he gave up the house, all accounts, their boat and his BMW to her."

"Wait, he had all that and now he is a security guard? Something isn't working here."

"Yeah, no kidding. They never had a prenuptial agreement, but somehow, she got everything out of him. His records show that he went to community college, and finished up at a barely accredited school. He majored in business. When they met, she already had her own practice in Maine. Yet when they split, a lot of the stuff was his, or at least purchased by him."

"She moved to Connecticut after the divorce?" asked Vivian.

"No, actually, she's had this house for two years. What's odd is that the house is under the name Mark O'Connor. We need to know who he is."

"Well, does she have anything to do with Kingston then?"

"That's what were about to find out. Her secretary said that Mrs. Bradley, now going by her former name of Carver, will not accept phone calls. Hence the reason for our fun road trip," she quickly sped past a sedan chugging along at a mere 65 mph.

"I see the west didn't make you a soft driver."

"Are you kidding? All that sunscreen and wheat grass can make a person go insane. Anyway, there's traffic no matter where you go these days. Especially in San Diego. It's become so overbuilt, what with all the new subdivisions and suburbs and what not."

"Sounds like you love it there."

"Of course I do. I wouldn't trade my hard-earned, hard-to-get beach front property for the convenience of living in the city."

"Good," said Vivian, hoping her tone didn't betray the subtle suspicion creeping into the back of her mind.

"What did Martin say?" said Sam as steered the car into the continuous traffic that kept the city at a standstill.

"He kind of mumbled something about blindness and stabbing me in my sleep. I just told him to man the phones and to be ready for the fax."

"Did he say anything about Kingston's accounts?"

"No. He did say that Kingston was in charge of a bank expansion,"

"Wait, woah, wait. I think I know what it was that set Bradley off. Go to the business section. I think the fourth or fifth page should have something about that circled."

"What the 'Mason Bank Set to Open Fifth Branch' article?" asked Danny.

"Yeah, wasn't it moving to Maine?" asked Sam as she turned a corner and waited for a street cleaner to move a little farther to the right.

"You know what's odd, is that all the other branches are in New York. Even the staff writer made a comment about it. You'd think that the bank would spread to neighboring states then move out further."

"So, if Kingston was behind all of this, then why was Bradley upset?" asked Sam.

"I guess we're going to have to figure that out," said Sam as she parked the car and they approached Jennifer Kidd's apartment.

"Long time, no see," said Jennifer dourly as she opened the door. She wore overalls that appeared to have suffered the length of her career as an artist.

"I already gave that other agent Jacob's computer. There isn't much else in his room."

"Actually, we have a warrant for anything in this apartment," said Sam as she held up the piece of paper in her hand.

Samantha registered a look of surprise on the woman's face.

"Whatever, just don't touch that one," she motioned to the painting leaning against the far wall of her foyer. "It's drying."

"Before we begin our search, I was wondering if you were aware that Jacob only worked five nights a week," said Sam as Danny stood at her side.

"What do you mean? Jacob's been working six nights a week since he got the job."

"Does he always come home right after work?"

"No, on Saturday mornings, after he gets off work, he heads to the Boys and Girls Club two blocks away. He is a basketball coach for the U-12 boys team and they normally have games on Saturdays. He stays away all day and just goes to work after the last game."

"Did they ever have practice?" asked Danny.

"Not that I know of, but I've never asked. Yes, my brother and I are close, be we are close on a different level than other people. We don't really talk about what's going on in our lives. We just are what we are."

Sam looked at Danny out of the corner of her eye. Unlike this morning, Jennifer seemed much more unstable, and noticeably different. She strongly doubted if the woman was telling the truth.

"Okay, so you have no idea what your brother does in his free time, he has no friends, and he stays at home all day."

"No, he's back up at one and out of here by two. He's never brought anyone by my house, and the only other friend I know he has is a mutual friend."

"Does this friend have a name?" asked Danny as he leaned over a barely begun watercolor.

"Yeah, Hector Torres."

"Hector?" asked Samantha. "He has a thing for hands and he's about this tall," she motioned to slightly above her height.

"Talks fast and moves even faster," said Jennifer.

"He lives two doors down from me," said Samantha. "I went to get my mail one day and he latched on to my wrist begging to sketch my hand."

"Yeah he's a great guy. Very sweet."

"No kidding," said Samantha genuinely. She glanced over at Danny who was examining a piece closely.

"So the ones with the red thumbprint are all your brother's." stated Danny.

"Yes. Most of his are the watercolors though. He likes the softer effect."

"Are all of them of the beach?" asked Samantha.

"Why don't you tell me? The majority of his collection is right there," she pointed to a clump of canvas stacked eight deep against the wall. Like I told you, I'm the one that paints."

"I was just wondering if there were anymore that we didn't know about."

"Nope."

"Does your brother have anything to do with Eric Kingston?"

Danny turned to see what Jennifer's response was. He was hoping she'd know more than what she was giving them.

"Not that I know of, but like I said, we don't really get into each other's lives. I've never even met his ex-wife. My brother left when he was sixteen, and kept in contact with me, but I didn't meet up with him again until about two years ago."

"Any reason for his sudden departure?"

"He hated New York."

"Then why is he back?"

"He had no where else to go. Look my brother showed up on my doorstep right after his divorce papers went through. He said that he had nowhere else to go. He was broke, what was I supposed to do? Turn him away? My husband got him a job, and now he stays with me. Or he did stay with me."

"You have no idea what he's done for the past decade and you just let him waltz back into your life?" asked Samantha.

"He supported me financially when I had nothing. I had a debt to repay."

The tension between the two women brought Danny from his analysis of Jacob's work and he looked at Jennifer.

"He must have had some good memories here," he pointed at the painting. "He really loved her didn't he?"

"So he says," said Jennifer, not missing a beat. She threw her rag against the wall and walked out of the room.

Samantha looked at Danny and sighed.

"We keep walking around in circles."

"I think he's in Maine, at the beach house," said Danny assuredly.

"Why, because he paints it all the time?"

Danny's finger traced along a small window with a dark, solitary figure looking out. "No," he said as he glanced back at her. "Because that's where he left his heart."

"Yeah, it's Martin." Martin sat back against his chair warily as he spoke into his cell phone.

"Kingston has no suspicious deposits into his account. If he has any others, we can't trace it," he responded. "His credit cards are dormant as is his savings account."

"I've already gotten the fax from the P.D. I can't do much with it, because they are still withholding much of their information," he paused waiting for a response. "Yes I understand with him missing this case became more important, it's just that we all have our priorities and I think the police department is being a bit selfish. They won't even hand over Kingston's phone records. I guess if they didn't find anything on them we'd have the records already."

"Fine. Uh, he has a few big name clients. He handled many of the large transactions for the bank. Yeah, he was hired right out of college. He's been there for almost ten years."

"No I haven't gotten anything more on Bradley either. I need to run with the security tapes again? Why?" His voice betrayed his frustration. He could not stare at that screen any longer.

"Okay, I got it. Only the week of November 2-8. Is there anything I should be looking for here?"

"Is there a reason why Kingston wouldn't be at work?" he scanned his pile of tapes as he listened.

"He's out of town for a week. So what, he earned it, right?"

"Oh, well that is a little strange. Okay, wait. If he went there, he drove because there are no charges on his credit card for a flight. And he must have a car because there isn't anything as far as rentals go either."

"So he does have a car. But why was it still in his apartment's garage?"

"That just adds more to the fact that Bradley and Kingston's disappearances are related."

"Yeah I pulled it up," he said as he looked over Bradley's work schedule. "Jacob Bradley only took that Friday off work, and it was a scheduled off day for him."

"Did you get what you needed from the ex-wife?"

"She got everything because he's a nice guy? Well, she is a divorce lawyer. Yeah I'm not buying it either. Did she tell you where the beach house is?"

"Good, yeah that's where Danny and Samantha think Bradley headed."

"No, they just called; they are headed back here with everything they confiscated from the apartment. Oh, and Sam found that Kingston was in charge of an expansion in Maine, she figures that's what made Bradley act out of the ordinary. All we need to know is what Kingston's expansion had to do with Bradley flipping out."

"Yeah, I'll verify if the tapes are accurate or not. Okay Viv, see you in the morning."

Martin closed his phone and looked at the tapes before him. He pushed away from the table, and walked to the dry erase board and grabbed the black marker. On opposite ends of the board were Bradley and Kingston. In the middle of the board, he carefully printed 'Maine???' and finished making any additions he'd learned from his previous conversations to both victims.

"Okay," he said aloud to himself. "Two men, linked in some way, disappear on the same day, and apparently head to the same place, in the same vehicle."

Several theories ran through his head. Maybe it was over Bradley's ex- wife. Nevertheless, how would Kingston and his ex ever have come across each other? It could be about money, admittedly, they both worked at a bank where several affluent clients employed its services. What on earth did Maine have to do with anything? Escaping to the beach house would be an obvious move

He figured the beach house was a dead end as he headed into the A/V lab to watch the tapes again. Watching two separate tapes on different monitors should get the process done a little quicker.

Twenty minutes into his surveillance marathon, he got another phone call.

"Fitzgerald. Yes, Agent Johnson told me you'd call if you found anything," he paused as the officer on the other line cut him off.

"Really? And you are sure about this? Thank you very much." He smiled to himself as he ended the call. Dead-end no more! He pushed speed dial and received Vivian's voice on the other line.

"Yeah Viv, you might want to take a U-turn and ask the ex-wife why her husband was also Mark O'Connor. Yes, I just got the call. Jacob Bradley isn't as boring as we thought. Apparently, the police want him in two counties on one count of murder in one, drug trafficking and involuntary manslaughter in the other. No, not as Jacob Bradley, but as Mark O'Connor. Yeah, I'm already on it."

He loosened his tie and rolled up his sleeves before he got back on the phone. It was going to be a long night.

A/N Okay, that was a whole lot of confusion for very little excitement. I must say, this chapter was very difficult to write, but hopefully it didn't show. This story does have an actual purpose, I promise. It is just that it may take a while to get there.