A/N: Due to the absence of M who has done a great job proofreading the last chapter, you'll have to put up with my spelling and grammar again. ~~ denotes a flashback. Thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed so far.
Jack Malone's apartment, New York City
November 24, 5.45 a.m.
Maria had already been in bed when he had come home the night before. He had found a note on the kitchen table saying that she had a migraine and that he should drive the girls to school in the morning. Sadly, he noted to himself that he had come to the point of preferring no conversation over the forcibly civilized exchanges that they normally had. Indeed, when he got up in the morning, Maria was still asleep. He himself was fighting fatigue as the series of long nights were starting to take their toll. However, he was wide awake when he collected the morning paper from the mailbox and found a plain manila envelope along with it. What really alarmed him was how the envelope with addressed. There was no stamp, or street, only Jack Malone, FBI Agent, printed on the envelope. He looked around, but the hallway of the apartment building was deserted. He went back up to the apartment, set aside the newspaper and turned his attention to the envelope. He doubted that forensics would be able to find any prints on this note, as none had been on the last anonymous note he had received since they had gotten started on the case, but as a precaution he still donned a pair of latex gloves before opening the letter.
Inside was a single page of white paper and several photographs. He first read the letter. Like the two previous ones, he had found on his car, it contained a single sentence, printed in black.
We are watching you.
This was what the message said this time. No concrete instructions or demand, just like before. That was why he had trouble taking this serious. There was no apparent agenda, somebody was just playing a joke or trying to rattle his cage. The photographs depicted the agents at various places during their investigation in the last few days. The parking lot of club Aragon, in front of Diane's apartment building and several others. All pictures appeared to have been taken from a distance.
~~~~~~~
It was always hard to out aside the work for the day, especially when they had made little progress. They had spent most of the day cutting through red tape and reading their way through court records and social service files. Necessary work, but it had not really gotten them closer to unravelling the mystery. They were still in the dark as to what kind of situation they were dealing with. Normally, he developed a feeling for it, but this time, it wasn't that easy. Everyone had painted a different picture of Diane: a drug addict, a struggling single mom, a disturbed, depressed woman, an irresponsible young woman you preferred going clubbing to looking after her children. Who was Diane Dyson really? To him as a father to concept of abandoning one's own children like that seemed preposterous, but his work had taught him that there was no limit to the cruelties that people would inflict on one another. One of the worst kinds of cruelties could be difference. In this case indifference had killed two children. What would have been going on in the mind of a mother who did something like that? Drugs, the dark despair of mental illness, or foul play. Maybe she had intended to come back home that night, but had met someone who had changed her plans.
He reminded himself that he was now off work. Time to leave the case behind in the office building. He had just turned his thoughts toward the upcoming evening when his eye caught a white object under his Upon closer inspection he saw that it was a folded piece of white paper. He come closer, immediately on alert. His hand reached for his gun without him even thinking about it. This was a secure parking garage. He instinctively looked around, but he couldn't see anyone. He pulled out handkerchief to pick up the folded piece of paper. He unfolded it.
*Be careful where you're going. You don't want to put your agents in danger.*
That was all. Printed in black ink. Assuming that this was related to their current case and he couldn't see any other possibility, there must be something they were missing. No one had seemingly cared about Diane being missing, but still they must have stepped on someone's toes enough to provoke such a reaction, The threat was generic and blank, but the fact that someone had gotten into the parking garage to put it there did something to accredit the source danger. He turned, taking the letter back up the stairs to the forensic lab. He doubted that there would be anything on the letter, but it was worth a shot.
~~~~~
This time around it was more serious. Whoever was doing this wasn't going to stop and they knew a lot. They knew what car he was driving, who he was working with and most gravely of all, where he lived. An uneasy feeling started to take hold of him. Maybe he had made the wrong choices regarding this. Maybe this had not been connected the Diane's case after all. They had now found her body and they odd of them ever solving the case were low and besides the main focus was now on Lydia's disappearance. He quickly put the envelope in his briefcase. He realized what he had promised Maria, but this was more important now. He quickly woke up Maria and told her that something had come up and that he needed to get to work as soon as possible. She gave him one of her resigned looks but said nothing.
FBI Missing Persons Unit, New York City
November 24, 7.45 a.m.
Danny was in early. The briefing was going to start until eight but he needed to run something by Jack before. Something he had discovered when he had been looking into Liam Kendall's property had struck him as very odd and he had decided that it would be best to discuss things with Jack before doing anything else. Danny was surprised to find the door to Jack's office open, but Jack not inside. He was just about to leave when something caught his eyes. At first he thought it were the crime scene photos from Diane that they had been waiting for. But the pictures on jack's desk weren't scene photographs. Those were pictures of the team working. He recognized him and Samantha walking across what looked like a nightly parking lot. Club Aragon maybe. He had thought that they were being followed that night, but had of course dismissed it as an odd feeling. Now he realized that that may have very well been the case. But who and what was Jack doing with the pictures? Was there some weird internal investigation going on? There was no way to tell, but he made a mental note, to be doubly attentive. Who knew, Jack might bring up the subject during this morning's briefing. For the moment, he wasn't going to mention it.
Jack had made use to his early arrival at the office. He had dropped off the letter at the forensics lab and had asked the technicians to compare it to the two earlier notes. Now, he was running later for the briefing. By the time he entered the conference room, the team was already assembled.
Danny was the only one who had not lost his cheerfulness and good mood yet. His colleagues were all looking rather grimly as they sat around the conference table.
"Good news, we've managed to contact Lydia's mother, she flew over last night. She's waiting for us now."
"Very good." Jack replied, still preoccupied with what he had found earlier. "Martin, have you found anything on the church angle?"
"Possibly yes. I called up several churched. At St. Aldate's church centre, they think they know a woman fitting Lydia's description. Also, the times their Bible studies class meets correlate with times when Lydia told her husband she was going to pottery class at the community college."
"Martin, you and Samantha can go down to St. Aldate's and check out the lead. Danny and Vivian, you talk to Lydia's mother. Maybe you can found out more about how things in Lydia's marriage were going." Jack grabbed a file from the table and headed out. He had something else to tend to.
Lydia's mother was a woman in her fifties. She wore simple, yet expensive clothes. It was clear that she was a wealthy woman. Her face was stoic, if she had been crying, her make-up hid it well. Vivian and Danny introduced themselves, then sat down.
"Mrs. Kramer, we want to ask you a few question about your daughter."
"That's what the police told me. They also said that she had been to see me a few days ago and now she's missing."
"Yes, we're currently looking for your daughter and grand-daughter. Do you have any idea why your daughter wanted to see you?"
"No, I don't. I spoke to her on the phone about two weeks ago, everything was going okay, at least that's what she told me. But we haven't been that close."
"What happened between you?"
"Nothing happened, we just lead very different lives. Lydia was very attached to her father. He died two years ago. While I was almost glad that my marriage was finally over, she never really got over his death." Mrs. Kramer said coolly.
"When did Lydia marry Warren?"
"Three years ago maybe. Right after she was divorced. Far too early. I'm surprised that they're still together."
"If you say that, does that mean that he was unfaithful?"
"I don't know. Not that I would be surprised about it. But she never said anything, not to me at least. But, now that she had inherited her father's money, Warren has good reason not to leave her." She said somewhat cynically. "I'm still saying that she should have stayed with her first husband."
"Can you give us the name of her first husband?"
"Markus Feldman. He married Lydia right after high-school. Everything was fine, but she always wanted kids and he didn't. At least that was what she told me, but I don't believe that was the real reason what they separated. But before you ask, I haven't seen Markus again since then. I think he moved back to Europe."
It was clear that they weren't going to learn anymore about Lydia's relationship to her husband. Danny decided to pursue a different avenue.
"Do you know a woman named Diane Durkin, she's a friend of your daughter?"
"Yes, of course I know her."
Danny and Vivian shared a look, that was the answer neither of the had excepted.
"Can you tell us more about her?" Vivian pressed on.
"Lydia brought her along when she visited me a couple of times. I didn't really approve of her, but Lydia seems to really care about her. I even saw her give Diane money. She said it was to help Diane out of her family."
"Did she ever tell you how they met?"
"Mhhm, I think they met when Lydia did research for some sort of story. She used to think that she was a journalist, but that's thankfully over now that she has Sina."
"What was that story about?"
"How should I know. If you want to know ask that newspaper that occasionally printed her work: the Double-Spin, some fancy weekly magazine. But why are you asking me all that. You're treating this like Lydia is some kind of criminal?"
The question left both Vivian and Danny momentarily speechless.
"We're just trying to find your daughter and return her home safely. That's what we do."
"What makes you think she didn't just leave her husband, I frankly don't understand why she didn't do that long ago." Mrs. Kramer grabbed her handbag and got ready to leave.
"Mrs Kramer, we found blood in your daughter's house. We think she might have fallen victim to a crime. Just a week ago, her friend Diane was murder. The crimes might just be connected. But we can't do anything if those around Lydia refuse to work with us." Vivian raised her voice. She could hardly believe how a mother could be so cold when her daughter might have been kidnapped or worse. Society condemned people like Diane Durkin for neglecting there children, but mothers like Mrs Kramer were no better with their complete lack of interest. Money and social standing were all that set them apart. But in the eyes of society that seemed to be all that it took.
"I'm sure you're doing what you can. I'll be staying in the city for a few days myself" Mrs. Kramer said coldly and left.
St. Aldate's parish centre, New York City
November 24, 8.30 a.m.
"Wow, impressive, the churches apparently still have money." Martin commented when they finally stood in front of the modern parish centre tucked away behind a church.
"They hide it well." Sam was referring to the fact that it had taken them almost twenty minutes to find the address as the centre could not been seen from the street. To access it one had to walk across the church garden.
They had hardly stepped into the spacious and surprisingly modern lobby of the parish centre when they were already greeted by a young man.
"Hello, what can I do for you?"
"I'm Agent Spade with the FBI, we're here to see Robert White."
"Yes, that's me. " he beamed at them. "WE spoke on the phone. I think the woman you described might have been here a few times."
"That's her." Martin handed him the picture.
"Yes, Lydia that's her name. She came here quite regularly. Expect last week. Did something happen to her?"
"We're not sure yet, she's missing. Is there anything you can tell us about her?
"She's new to our group, but has been a great . Her probing questions were quite challenging and her enthusiasm was wonderful. She's new to the faith but very eager to learn more."
"How long ago did she join our group?"
"Maybe eight or nine months ago. But the secretary can tell you for sure. "
"Did participate in any other activities in your church?"
"No, just the group and she used our library quite often. As I said, she was very enthusiastic. And she even introduced a friend to our group. Diane, I think, was her name. They came together for every meeting. I think, Lydia was driving from something I overheard."
"Did they get along well?"
"Yes, as far as I know. They seemed like best friends to me." he shrugged
"Is there any incident, or anything else you recall? An Interest in a particular topic, bible passage?"
"No, not as far as I can tell. But maybe looking at her library borrowing records might help you, I personally don't know which books she checked out, but the secretary can help you with that as well. You can find her office right down the corridor to your left."
"Thank you. On last question: did Lydia or Diane ever mention how they found religion?"
"You don't find religion, Agent Fitzgerald. The Lord calls all of us to him. " Martin raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.
"If you recall anything else that might be helpful, pleas let us know."
"I will. I'll also pray for her safe return."
They went back to the reception where the secretary seemed to be already waiting for them. They showed their badges and stated the reason for their visit. As before, they were met with friendliness and compliance.
"Of course, we'll do whatever we can to help you in your investigation. This is a list of all our members who participate regularly in groups."
"Can you get as a list of any books Diane Durkin or Lydia Hutchinson have taken out of the library?"
"Sure. Diane Durkin didn't take out any books. Lydia used the library on a regular basis. I'm going to print out a list of titles for you."
"Do you mind if we go up and have a look at some of the books she was reading?"
"Not at all. Just go up the stairs at the end of the corridor and you'll get the to library."
They followed the directions of the secretary and soon found themselves in a spacious room filled with bookshelf's. Overhead windows created a light and open atmosphere in the room. It was a pleasant place to read and study. The peaceful impression in here contradicted so much of what they had encountered so far on this case: the squalid apartment building where Diane had lived, the abandoned roadside, the blood spatter in Lydia's home.
Like the rest of the centre, the library looked very well kept and modern. The furniture couldn't be more than a few years old.
"Definitely no budget problems here." Martin noted after looking at the compzrter terminals. "I wonder how the finance themselves"
"Donations maybe But their revenue declarations should be able to tell us more." Samantha got out her cell phone. "I'm going to request the documents." She explained to Martin and left the room so that she wasn't disturbing the few readers who were already in the library at this early hour.
Martin strolled along the shelves, scanning book backs. There were several translations of the bible, commentaries, glossaries, books on contemporary issues, books on saints and religious leaders. Nothing leapt up at him. Like all the previous angles they had examined on this case, there was no evidence of any connection to the disappearance of Lydia or the murder of Diane and her children.
He felt a tap on his shoulder and whirled around. It was Samantha. She was motioning for him to follow her outside.
"What was that about?" he asked her.
"The car. The one that was reported stolen from the parking lot of club Aragon the night of Diane's murder. When we were still onto the ex-husband, I asked NYPD to notify me, if they ever found the car. If found I last night, burnt out at a condemned building site in Harlem. It's been torched, probably dosed with gasoline and them lit up."
"You still want to pursue this?"
"Might as well. I'm getting a copy of the forensics report. We're still missing the car and the driver who hit Diane Durkin. It wasn't Lydia's car." Sam elaborated.
"What do you think?" Martin asked.
"Nothing. I don't think we're right on this Christian cult angle. Everyone was helpful, I don't think there is anything going on there. The groups has open meeting, they even gave us a list of their regular members. Doesn't seem to me like they were hiding anything.
"Yeah, you're probably right. Still I just don't see why they both kept it a secret from everyone else. Diane didn't mention it to her mother, Lydia kept it from her husband and her mother. I can't help thinking that there was more going on than just a simple friendship."
"If there was, we don't know. So far we have no evidence that they were involved in something criminal. Even the money we found with Diane has been explained."
"There is still the traces of GHB we found on the money." Samantha considered.
FBI Missing Persons Unit, New York City
November 24, 9 a.m.
"Jack, I think we have might have a break. Forensics just called. The found matching finger prints both at the Hutchinson's apartment and at Diane Durkin's house. No match with any prints of their families or known friends. Database? Still running them. Dr. Kirkland from Id paged me. I'm going there right now. Did he say what this was about? Jack asked. It was unusual that they were paged over a simple fingerprints.
"No, but I guess we are about to find our. " Danny made his way towards to elevator, Jack followed him.
"You know this whole, I just can't see the big picture. It's like we are missing something. Something g that has to do with whatever Lydia was researching."
"Probably, and she probably paid Diana for something related to that story she was working on. Other than that there is no suspect, Everyone in their families who has a motive has an alibi."
"Yes, we are out of suspect. Hopefully the print will give us a new name."
The print lab was located in what seemed like an underground maze to the initiated. Even after having gotten directions at the receptions, Jack and Danny took several wrong turns before they finally arrived at Dr. Kirkland's office. he was already waiting for them.
"Agent Taylor, Agent Malone." he greeted them, having read their ID tags. "I take it you got lost in your way?"
"We managed. What did you want to see us about?"
"As I told agent Taylor the print from both scenes are a match, when the technician ran them through the computer, as it is standard procedure, she got a match and printed it out." he paused.
"Who does the print match?" Jack grew impatient as Dr. Kirkland seemed to be enjoying his little story. He probably didn't get a lot of visitors to the lab.
"I'm getting there. Then she ran the same print again, by mistake, as it was filed twice for ID. A result of both NYPD and you meddling in that case. When she ran it the second time, the computer found a different match. When she compared the report she noticed that the two prints were the same and immediately called me."
"You are sure that it was the same print that she ran."
"She's positive on it. The computer log shows that she ran both and we've compared the prints several times, they identical. We of course went back to the database to double check. Your print matches two people, which you know is impossible."
"So there was a computer glitch?" Danny couldn't believe it. Mistakes like that were the last thing they needed on a case.
"That is near impossible. There is no know history of a mistake with the database. And even if it was corrupted someone then getting two different sets of results would be highly unlikely. We alerted of course the IT specialists to examine the system for any security breaches. But that will take some time."
Danny and Jack were silent, unsure how to react, This was taking an entirely different course from what they had expected. At this moment, they got their glimpse that they might be unto something much bigger than they had previously expected. Jack felt uneasy.
"Until you do find out what went wrong, we need the results both of them." Jack ordered.
"With the questionable legal basis, I'm not sure."
Jack interrupted him: "A six year old girl and her mother are missing. Legal matters are for the court to decided. We need those names." He didn't raise his voice, but his tone was deadly.
"All right, but you won't be able to get a warrant based on those result. As I said it is the first time this has happened."
"We'll worry about that. Thanks you." Danny tried to get himself and Jack out of the room, before ugly scenes ensued. Jack had been short fused all day and this latest development wasn't going to help with that.
"We are running out of time on the Lydia Durkin case. She and her daughter have been missing for thirty-six hours. We managed to track down a print from her house to an address in North Carolina. The print belongs to Markus Feldman, Lydia's first husband. We have been unable to contact him and according to Lydia's mother he might be living in Europe at the moment. Martin and Danny, I want you to follow up on that lead. Fly out there and find out where Mr Feldman was during the last two weeks and where he could be now. Samantha, go over Diane Hutchins disappearance again, maybe we missed something. I know it's a long shot, but I believe that those two cases are connected. Find out about the time Lydia was still married to Markus Feldman, Diane may have met him at some point. If that is the case I want to know about it. Vivian you're with me checking out another lead into Liam Kendall."
None of the team said anything. It was unlike Jack to give orders without giving them all the details, normally he worked as part of the team, rarely pulling rank on any of them. This attitude was new and part of it was certainly due to the stress that this case had put him under. Although the case was getting to all of them, Jack seemed to be especially affected by it. It was starting to affect the atmosphere in the office.
Jack could feel that he wasn't alone in the room. He thought it was Samantha, but when he looked up, he saw Danny standing at the other end of the conference table. He wore an expression of barely contained anger. He didn't wait for him to say anything before he spoke.
"I can't believe you didn't mention to what happened with the prints. How are we supposed to investigate when you don't give us all the information. Ever since this case got started you've been holding out. I don't know what you're up to, but there is something you're not telling us."
"That's not true." Jack replied calmly.
"Okay, if that's you're saying. Listen, I don't care what you and Samantha do on your on time, if you think that's what I'm asking about. But if it is something with some connection to this case, we have to know about it. I can't work on this case if you're keeping me in the dark like that. Think about it." Danny turned away and walked out.
Jack signed. He had never seen Danny like this. Normally, Danny had a grip on himself. The only times when he had seen him loose it was on cases involving excess cruelty towards children. Danny had been holding up very well on this case. But after the case and after having been shot at, he might just be overreacting as a consequence. Jack decided to take care of Danny later. He knew that he was walking a thin line. But it was the only option. The minute the computer error had popped up, a bell had gone off inside his head. Maybe he was being paranoid, but there were too many oddities. Them getting the case in the first place, no one talking at club, the threats he had been getting ever since the case started. Something told him that this was organized, not by a single person. The potential implications were huge. The fewer people who knew about it the better for the moment. The decision hadn't been easy. He was putting lives in danger either way. But without proof or even tangible evidence, there was nothing he could do really to get out of this situation.
When he returned to the main office, Danny's jacket was gone from the rack. He had clearly gone home for the day. He had been out of line, even if he had had a point, that must have been obvious even to him. Jack had no choice but to go on. Liam Kendall was the one connection they had between the murder of one woman and the disappearance of another. Samantha was sitting at her desk, but when she noticed him, she got up.
"Jack, can I have a word with you?"
"Sure." Jack didn't look forward to this. After his confrontation with Danny just minutes ago, this was the last thing he wanted. He started to fear that maybe he was about to make a huge mistake.
"I'm back in the field. But all you do is assign me to do office jobs. I know that those have to be done, but there are plenty of people who can run those checks. Let me go to North Carolina."
"Samantha, I just think that it might be too early. What if things get difficult there?"
"I'm trained to handle difficult situation. It's what I do. At least what I used to do" She added the last part in a small voice.
This had been coming for a few days now. He knew that Sam wasn't happy with how he had been treating her on this case. After the confrontation with Danny he had to assign someone else to Martin anyways.
"All right. You're going with Martin." he said in a resigned tone. He was drained and felt like it was all going over his head. He should be in charge and should know what was going on, but he just felt lost and exhausted. The case didn't make any sense, someone was threatening them or playing a joke on them and things with Maria were at an all time low. It was all falling apart around him. Tired, he got himself a cup of coffee to at least chase away the physical fatigue. Whether it would uplift his spirits was another matter. When he came back in Vivian was already waiting for him.
"What's up with Danny? I saw him leave, he didn't look good." Vivian asked, apparently not having witnessed the exchange with Samantha.
"He wasn't feeling well, he's gone home." Jack lied, not even feeling very bad about it. His own cold bloodedness surprised him.
Vivian gave him a look, but let it pass. "I looked through property records. Liam Kendall might never had held a job or paid taxes, but he own several properties around town. Aside from the cottage, he has an apartment in Brooklyn. I found out about it when I checked with city gas and water companies.."
"He might still live there. I say we pay him a visit. Have social services contacted him because of his brother?"
"No, they didn't have his address. It's not registered in any city directory and he doesn't seem to have a phone."
"I'm going down there to check it out." Jack said.
"I'm with you."
