Disclaimer and Notes in Chapter 1

Jack Malone had been looking forward to spending a nice, quiet weekend with his family. But then, early on Saturday morning, he had gotten a call, notifying him, that there was a case requiring his immediate attention A child was missing.  A 7-year-old boy he who had been over at the classmate's house had not come home to previous evening. The parents at first called all his friends but then when it was after midnight, they had called police. NYPD had turned over the case to the FBI. Since they were already one agent short off the usual full team as Samantha was at the FBI seminar in Quantico, Jack had to come in, even though he had already worked the last weekend. Now he was standing in the living room of the small urban apartment and witnessing another family facing a tragedy.  The boy's mother of women not even thirty was sitting on the couch crying, the father had his arm around her, on silent grief on his face.  Jack had seen too many scenes just like that. Sometimes, he and his team could help, but there were just as many cases, in which despite their best efforts, there was nothing they could do.

"I dropped him off at his classmate's house.  He was wearing a red sweater and blue jeans." The father, Victor Polonyi explained, before he had even been asked. As an NYPD officer he had dealt with enough cases like this. He knew the procedure. But he also knew how slim the chances of recovering his son were. "He was supposed to get back before seven and because it is only two blocks so we thought it was OK for him to walk from his consummate times before. "

"Why did you drop him off in the afternoon when he was allowed to walk home alone?"

"I was all my way to the station", the father explained "The classmates name is Julian Barnett. His father, Tom Barnett is a colleague of mine, but we have known each other since high school."  

"Tell me about Julian, what is he like?"

"Oh God." the father buried his face in his hands, as if only now fully realizing that his son was missing.

"He's a sweet boy." his wife answered in a small voice. "He loves school, but even more sports. He wants to become a basketball player."

"Does he have many friends?"

"He gets along with the other kids in his class and there are three boys in the neighborhood that he plays with a lot. Julian is his best friend. They go to school together."

"Yes, they always play together Friday after school. I suppose it is possible that someone knew that. He has been allowed to walk home by himself since his seventh birthday three weeks ago." the father was now talking like a police officer. Jack knew exactly how hard it was to draw the line between home and the office. What Officer Polonyi said was right, habits were they best friends of stalkers. The way things were shaping up, Connie might have very well not just run of. Those cases were always among the hardest.

"Have there been any problems at work lately? Is there anyone with a grudge against you?"

"Nothing specific. You know how it is Agent Malone, there are always people angry because you put someone away, but I can't think of anyone specifically right now."

Jack knew he was right. He admired the father's composure, he wasn't sure he would react equally well if something happened to one of his daughter. Thinking back to the incident last year when his daughters had been threatened, still scared him. It made him realize in what potential danger he put the people he loved.

"That would be all for the moment. If you don't have a new lead by tomorrow we are going to involve the media. Do you have a recent photo of your son?"

"Yes." Rina Polonyi got up and got a framed picture from the shelf. "This was taken on his birthday three weeks ago. He was so happy…" Rina broke into sobs again. Her husband got up to comfort her.

"We'll let you know as soon as we have any information. We are doing everything we can." Jack tried to reassure them, even though he knew it was futile.

"Do you have children, Agent Malone?" Victor asked him.

"Yes, two daughters. I can only imagine what you're going through." Jack said and meant it. It hurt him that there wasn't more he could do. The only help he could offer lay in doing his job as well as he could.

Outside he met up with Vivian, Danny and Martin who had been talking to the neighbors. None of them had found out anything new. No one had seen Connie the evening he disappeared.

"Danny and I will finish up here. We still have a block to go to the classmate's house." Martin announced.

"Good, Vivian can you talk to the classmate, Julian Barnett. Try to find out what happened yesterday. Maybe they just got in a fight or something. Has NYPD talked to the parents yet?"

"Briefly, but they said they'd leave it to us. I called, but neither of them are home. An aunt is staying with Julian. His parents are at work. I'll have them over at the office this evening."

When he returned to his office almost 45 minutes later he found a note on his desk, telling him that he had received a call while he had been away, telling him to call back a certain number. He dialed the number, curious as to what was going on. He figured that it was probably related to their current case, although then they would probably have called his cell phone.

"Okay, thank you for notifying me. I'll call you back once I find out more." he finally managed to say and hung. He immediately dialed again, this time the number of Samantha's cell phone. No luck, an electronic voice informed him that the number he was trying to reach was unavailable at the time. This worried him. It was not like Samantha to ever turn her phone off. What now? Should he be doing something or simply wait for the matter to resolve itself.  Samantha was an adult woman and she had mentioned repeatedly that she didn't want to go to the seminar. Still it was unlike her just not to show up without informing anyone. At least she would have called Quantico to inform that that she could not make it. Jack only know realized that he had gotten up and started to pace up and down his office. He was torn between his concern for Samantha and fear of overreacting because of the feelings he still harbored for her. But right now, there was nothing he could do about Connie Polonyi's case. The financial checks would take their time, especially on a weekend and it would be some time until the others would be back. He knew it was unprofessional, but his instinct told him that he was doing the right thing by making sure that Samantha was all right. After all, it would take him less than two hours before he was back at the office, he reasoned with himself, as he was already on his way to the car.

He knew the way to the apartment building by heart. It had been a while since he had last been there, but the fond memory was still present in his mind. They had spent good times at her apartment. With him having a family, there had never been any question as to whose place it would be for the evening or sometimes, if they were lucky, even the night. The affair might be over, but his feelings weren't. In fact he hated to think of his relationship with Samantha as an affair, even though that was what it had been. But calling it an affair gave it the label of something immoral, temporary. It diminished his feelings something which at heart he didn't want.

When he arrived at the building he showed the doorman his FBI badge and then went upstairs. As he had feared, nobody answered the door. Just to be sure, he tried her cell phone again. As before he got no answer. He returned to the lobby where the doorman was on duty. Hopefully, he remembered when he had last seen Samantha. He did indeed.

"She said she was going to be out of town all week. When she left Saturday morning, she had a big gym bag with her."  The doorman told him.

"Have you seen her since then?"

"No, and I have been here all week-end. But as she said, she wouldn't be back before the next week-end."

Jack didn't like what he was hearing. More and more, it looked like something was wrong here.

"How did she seem when she left?" Jack asked.

"Like she always seems." the doorman shrugged.

"Thank you for your help" Jack said and left. Next on his checklist of was her parking garage two blocks from her apartment. As he had already expected her car wasn't there. It made sense; she had left with a bag and headed to her car. This was consistent for heading to the FBI seminar in Quantico. He could not shake the impression that she had left the city but hadn't arrived in Quantico. Something was wrong here.  He decided to make a few more phone calls from the office to find out whether she had been on her fight before he actually made a case out of it.  Reporting her missing could be seen by the wrong people as another proof of their alleged against rules relationship. Returning to the office, he found Vivian waiting for him. She gave him a sharp look and handed him a file.

"We have been checking known paedophiles in the area. One of them missed a meeting with his parole officer on Friday. Martin and Danny are checking him our right now. Where have you been?"

"I needed to check something out and it took longer than expected." He offered a half through. Then, forcing himself to show interest in the case, he asked.

"Did you turn up anything else?"

"We're nowhere. None of our background checks revealed anything of Interest financial records are okay. We're now looking into his friends and classmates and the police is still canvassing the neighborhood. If we don't find anything until noon, we're going to go to the media. Someone might have seen something."

"Okay, widen the search radius of the area."

"Already did. There is a grandmother out in Brooklyn, but we haven't been able to reach her on the phone. I was going to go there now. Are you coming?" Vivian looked at him, sensing that something was off. "Is everything all right? Maria and the kids okay?"

"Yes, yes, they are fine." He replied absentmindedly. He was glad that Vivian had put him back on track. A boy had disappeared and that was where his focus was supposed to be. Checking with the airline would have to wait until he got back to the office.

tbc