Disclaimers and all that fun stuff in chapter one.
A/N: So much thanks for the kind reviews; you guys are so awesome!
*
Looking at Dylan Bradshaw was like looking at a male carbon copy of Margo Reed.
He sat hunched over in the small office of his restaurant, his wife's hands resting reassuringly on his shoulders, and his face, though covered with a day's worth of stubble, was the same as the bluntly angled, tanned one that hung captured in a photograph on the whiteboard in the FBI office. Bloodshot green eyes raised from the floor to meet the gazes of Martin and Danny, and it was almost like the missing woman staring back at them.
"Do you have any information?" He asked in a raw voice. "Do you know where my sister is?"
"That's why we're here," Danny told him, glancing around the office. Small certificates and awards hung in modest frames on the walls, and the place generally appeared neatly kept. "Simon Reed told us you and Margo are close."
"He's right," Dylan Bradshaw replied quietly. "We are."
"What can you tell us about her disappearance?" Martin watched Dylan carefully, but the man seemed to be in a state of distraught dazedness. When he didn't answer, a fairly composed Jillian Bradshaw took over.
"Simon called here yesterday evening," she explained. "He asked if Margo had come by or called, but we hadn't seen her all day."
"You were both here yesterday?"
Both Jillian and Dylan nodded. "Around nine Simon called again, and told us she still hadn't come home. That's when we left," Dylan managed.
"And you have no idea what might have happened to your sister?" Danny asked after making a few notes.
Dylan shook his head. "No. She would never have run away, I know that much. Something happened to her."
Something happened to her..
Martin mused, "Funny, Simon Reed said the same thing."
Dylan Bradshaw glared at the agent. "Because it's true."
"How do you know, Dylan?" Danny arched an eyebrow at the other man.
This time the glare was from both Dylan and Jillian.
"I just told you. Margo would never just up and leave. I know her and she wouldn't. So if she didn't run off, which she didn't, something had to've happened to her." His mouth was set in a hard line, but the beginnings of tears gathered in his bloodshot eyes.
Martin glanced at Danny, who gave an almost imperceptible nod.
"Video footage from the parking lot at St. John's shows Margo being approached by a well-built man, Dylan, and walking out with him." Martin stopped to see the effect his words were having on Dylan Bradshaw.
Anger flushed his cheeks. "So why aren't you out looking for him? Dammit, if he does anything to her.." Dylan trailed off and his head fell into his hands. He rubbed his eyes before returning a pleading gaze to the agents. "What do you want from me?"
"Hey, Dylan. We want to know who this guy is, okay? Can you help us with that?"
"New York is full of well-built men, Agent Taylor," he replied in a strained voice. "I have no idea which one is responsible for my sister's disappearance. I wish I did." His face darkened with his final words.
"There's no one you can think of? Someone your sister may have been seeing, possibly, or someone from the past?"
"Someone she may have been seeing?" Dylan spat back, and there was a desperate tone to his words. "Margo wasn't seeing anyone. She would never do that to Simon or Colleen."
"What about her past?" Martin asked smoothly.
Dylan gave a short laugh. "Her past is my past. No. Margo doesn't have any enemies, past or present. No one has any reason to hurt her."
Danny studied Dylan and Jillian Bradshaw closely before giving a brisk nod. "I think we're finished here. Agent Fitzgerald?"
"I guess we are. Please call us if you think of anything," Martin replied, directing his words to both of the Bradshaws. "We'll be in touch with any information."
Danny and Martin made their way through the small but bustling restaurant, and out the glass doors.
"Hiding something?" Martin muttered once they were in the parking lot.
Danny stopped at the car and glanced back to the brick building.
Something..
"Oh yeah."
*
"I can't believe this is happening." Julie Bradshaw rubbed the moisture from her cheeks and raised entreating eyes to Vivian. "When Simon called yesterday..oh God.."
Vivian waited patiently in the Bradshaw living room while Robert Bradshaw whispered a few words to his wife, and when she appeared as composed as she was going to get, the agent continued.
"Can you tell me what happened yesterday? Did you speak to or see Margo at all?"
Robert replied, "Margo, no. Simon called and said he would come by to pick Colleen up after work, and he did, around five forty-five. The next we heard from him was at eight thirty, and he wanted to know the same thing you're asking, if we'd seen or talked to Margo."
"The last time we talked to Margo was a few days ago," Julie added, compulsively tearing at the tissue her husband had given her.
"Mr. and Mrs. Bradshaw, surveillance of the St. John's parking lot shows your daughter being approached by and leaving with a well-built man. Do you have any idea who that might be?"
Julie Bradshaw's face dropped back into her hands, and Robert put a comforting arm around her shoulders. " 'A well-built man'?" He repeated with a helpless shrug. "I don't know, Agent Johnson. We're close with Margo, but we certainly aren't aware of everyone she's acquainted with."
Vivian nodded in understanding. "Of course not. Can you think of anywhere Margo may have gone, maybe, if she wanted to get away?"
Julie offered a tight smile. "Get away from what? She loves her job. She loves Simon and Colleen. If there's something for Margo to run away from, I don't know what it is."
Robert Bradshaw picked up his wife's hand, meeting Vivian's steady gaze. "Something is very wrong here," he said quietly. "My daughter would never leave her husband and her child, Agent Johnson."
"We're doing everything we can," Vivian told him, though she wasn't sure why his words warranted her assurance.
Heavy silence was her only response.
*
Samantha waited for Ellen Monroe to finish her wide-eyed inspection of the interview room before she began her questioning.
"You had an appointment at St. John's Hospital yesterday afternoon, correct?" Samantha established, and the older woman nodded.
"Yes, I needed a new prescription." Worry clouded her features. "That's..that's not a crime, is it? See, I have this--"
"It's not a crime," Samantha assured her. "You haven't done anything wrong. Mrs. Monroe, have you ever seen this woman?" Samantha passed a photo of Margo Reed across the bare table.
She pulled a pair of glasses out of her purse and studied it intently before raising her eyes in surprise. "Yes," Ellen answered. "I saw her yesterday in the parking lot." She leaned closer to Samantha, lowering her voice to a conspiring tone, as if she and Samantha weren't the only two in the room. "I remember because I thought she might be having an affair."
"Why did you think that?" Samantha asked mildly.
"She left the lot with a man, and she didn't even look at him when he approached her." A frown now creased the older woman's face. "You know, maybe she ended the affair and this man wasn't happy about it. He snuck up from behind her and I found that very odd." Her voice dropped to a whisper again. "People don't always want things to end, you know." A beat of silence. "Why are you asking about this woman, anyway?"
"She's missing," Samantha informed Ellen, who shook her head.
"How terrible."
"Yeah, it is," Samantha answered. "Mrs. Monroe, can you tell me what the man looked like?"
"Well, let's see." She frowned in concentration. "I couldn't see his face well, but he was tall. Taller than her, and muscular." A regretful smile. "I really couldn't see much."
"That's okay. Thank you for your help."
Ellen Monroe nodded, and looked around the room once more before slipping out the door.
*
"Yeah. Yeah, I saw her yesterday. At the, uh, hospital. I had an appointment for my knee." Benjamin McClennan slid the photograph back across the table to Jack. "She was in the parking lot when I left."
"What else did you see, Ben?" Jack leaned against the wall and regarded the younger man mildly.
Ben shrugged. "She walked out with some guy. That's it."
"Any idea what this guy looked like?"
"Nah. He had a Knicks cap on. Leather jacket, maybe?"
"Let me get this straight," Jack said, pushing off the wall and taking a seat across from Benjamin McClennan. "You remember he was wearing a Knicks cap, but nothing else?"
A stony glare from Ben. "Hey, I'm from Chicago. I hate the Knicks."
"Well, you're in New York now, Benny. C'mon, I want anything you can think of about this guy."
"I told you, I don't remember. I could barely see his face, anyway."
Jack gave a heavy sigh. "What'd you notice about them together?"
Benjamin shrugged. "They didn't look happy, I remember that."
"Oh yeah? Why's that?"
"Hell, they weren't even looking at each other. Kinda weird."
"Got anything else for me, Ben?" Jack watched him closely.
"Nope. I left right after I saw them."
"Okay. That's enough for now, but this woman?" Jack touched the picture that stared up at them from the table. "She's missing, and if you can think of anything else, you give me a call."
Ben nodded a little uncertainly, and avoided Jack's eyes as he headed for the door.
*
"Hey."
Samantha met Jack in the hall outside of their final interview room, and they stopped just before heading inside.
"I got nothing. Witness says she couldn't see the guy's face because of the baseball cap he was wearing," Samantha told him.
Jack glanced into the room before replying. "Same here. Although I did receive one gemstone of information," he said wryly.
Samantha looked at him curiously. "What's that?"
"It was a Knicks cap."
An exaggerated eye roll from the blonde agent. "Yeah, there's the case cracker."
*
"I had an appointment for my back," James Larkin told Jack and Samantha, resting forward on the table. He stopped speaking, watching them curiously. "I'm not sure why I'm here."
In response, Jack slid the photograph of Margo Reed across the table. "That woman is missing," he told the other man. "She was also in the parking lot at the same time as you yesterday."
A raised eyebrow from James Larkin. "So..?"
"So did you see her, or anything suspicious in the lot after your appointment?" Samantha cut in sharply.
"Oh." He studied the picture more closely. "Yeah, now that I'm looking at this, I do remember seeing her. She was with some guy," he told them.
"What'd the guy look like?" Jack asked.
James Larkin frowned. "Ah, tall, kind of built..I don't know, I didn't get a good look at him."
"Of course not," Samantha muttered in frustration, and James shrugged.
"Hey, I wasn't really paying much attention to them. I didn't know she was going to go missing."
Jack raked a hand through his hair. "It's okay. Look, can you think of anything else about them?"
The other man shook his head. "I'm sorry." He looked at the picture again. "I wish I could help you out."
The agents were silent, and James looked back and forth between them before speaking again. "Can I go now? I'm sorry, just, this chair is hell for my back."
"Yeah, you can go. Call us if you think of anything," Jack told him.
"Jesus," Samantha breathed when he had left. "Since when are eye-witnesses so damn useless?"
Jack leaned back to meet her frustrated gaze, and shook his head slightly, glancing at Margo's photograph. "They all saw her and dismissed her."
Or fabricated stories about her, Samantha added silently before meeting the eyes of the woman in the picture herself.
Anywhere..
TBC...
