Chapter 16:
"Jack, we found something!"
It was Vivian again, who had good news for him. Expectantly he looked into her sparkling face – that had to be really good news.
"Brooks. While checking the phone bill of his elder sister, we found some conspicuities. Shortly after his release from the rehabilitation-center, some phone-calls were held to New Orleans from her place. We checked the number – it's a detective, a private detective. "
Jack most likely wanted to fall into her arms. After all the backstrokes of the past few hours, this was a really good piece of information. They had a clue, a clue to Brooks, to his connection to another person. The person that probably had taken the pictures of Andrea and now was searching for her habitation. They had something they could start with again. Something to get the investigation going again and finally find Danny and Andrea.
"Who is this detective?"
"Laurence Bellet, 46 years old, studied law and – according to FBI files – worked as a lawyer for the Mafia for years. He quit four years ago and has a good working bureau as a private detective in downtown New Orleans. He has been and still is involved in a lot of not really legal, slightly criminal jobs, but they never got to arrest him for any of it – they couldn't prove his participation. The bureau in New Orleans believes he is still working for the Mafia. Concerning his detective work, he isn't that much prissy. He has no qualms to blackmail people, to threaten them or to let them be injured by third people he hires, to get the information he needs. And of course - due to his years of work for the Mafia – he has good contacts. He earns a lot of money with his job – around 150.000 $ a year and he doesn't overwork himself for that."
Jack frowned and looked at Vivian, this didn't sound good or constructive at all. It only proved his suspicion that maybe they wouldn't find Danny and Andrea before Brooks did.
"How did such a guy get into contact with Brooks? He can't even pay him."
Vivian also had an answer to this question.
"He doesn't have to. I went through the old year books of Brook's high school. He and Bellet know each other, they went to school together. Maybe Bellet owes his old friend a favor." Jack nodded slowly, he seemed to be deeply in thought.
"Yes, maybe..."
"I talked to the department in New Orleans. Bellet is under constant observation..."
That she didn't go on wasn't a good sign in Jack's mind.
"Is there any hint of a contact between Brooks and Bellet apart from the phone call?"
Vivian gave him a resigning look. He knew the answer before she told him. "No, but we're getting a tape of his call as soon as possible. Bellet seems to have found a way to operate out of FBI observation. He seems to know about it. But in any case, he had contact with Brooks, the bureau in New Orleans told me, that Bellet is working with a bunch of helpers right now, so he himself won't get into the vision of FBI interrogation. One of them probably has talked to Brooks by Bellet's order. Unfortunately the capacities of the department down there aren´t that big, so they could observe all of Bellets' helpers. But they try to find out who of them has been talking to Brooks. Maybe we're lucky."
Jack still was deeply lost in thought, he didn't share her bit of confidence.
"Good luck alone won't help us."
He stated and Vivian gave him an intense look.
"I know that, but what are we supposed to do instead?"
Jack hesitated for a moment and breathed in deeply.
"We need to find out about Danny's and Andrea's residence in another way."
He said vaguely. She didn't like his answer to be so uncertain.
"How? Except for Brooks, we don't have any more clues."
"I thought about it. There aren't many places Danny can take Andrea to. Where – due to her psychological constitution - she won't be afraid. Something she has at least a vague memory of and that's not connected to the violation. We just have to use the system of disqualification."
Vivian gave him a skeptic gaze.
"Jack, I don't like asking you this, but do you believe you know enough about Danny and his family to make out such a place?"
He didn't even seem hurt.
"No, probably not, but we have ways and possibilities to find out none the less."
"So you wanna try to find them through Andrea's files at youth welfare office?"
She tried to understand Jack's thoughts. But he just shook his head slowly. He still seemed deeply in thought.
"No. I think we have to dig deeper, deeper in the past. Andrea's files are too easy to get. It would've been the first thing Brooks and Bellet would've thought of. Danny never would've risked that. He knew how far Brooks was willing to go, how close he had already been to Andrea. It needed to be a place hard to find, hard to detect. I think we need to concentrate on the time before Andrea got into contact with youth farewell office and foster families, before the files. Before she received a new family, a new last name, the last name of her foster family, before Danny took the last name of his foster family." Vivian's skeptic was still there. "That's more than 15 years ago, Jack. 15 years! You know how difficult it is to even find some useful information if the events happened that long ago? And even if there are – where do you wanna start? What do you really know about this time, how much has Danny told you about it?"
Jack didn't look at her – he knew she was right.
"To be honest with you, it's not that much that I know. It doesn't exceed the fact, that his parents died in a car accident."
The skeptic in her eyes mixed with disbelief.
"That's not enough, Jack! You don't even know when or where exactly it happened. You don't even have a family name!"
She hesitated for a moment.
"And you don't want to. You don't want to dig so deep in his past, his private life. You don't wanna step to close."
It was a statement and he didn't disagree to it.
"But you have no choice!"
He suddenly heard a third person announce. Someone, he hadn't want to hear their quarrel, their discussion. He looked up immediately – it was Sam. She stood in the doorway with her arms crossed before her chest and an angry, almost furious expression on her face and stared at him intensively.
She had seen how Vivian entered Jack's office and closed the door behind her from her desk. She already knew what Vivian had found out, she had heard her conversation with the bureau in New Orleans. It wasn't much and not very encouraging, but it was a start. She was interested to see Jack's reaction, if he would share Vivian's confidence. She doubted it, but she observed their conversation none the less. His reaction was like she had expected it and she was about to turn back to her desk, when she saw Vivian's exited hand movement into Jack's direction.
Sam frowned. Why were they arguing? There was nothing about Vivian's investigation results that justified a discussion. She took a closer look and realized the argumentation getting more intense. She asked herself what was going on in there, what made the two act like this, just because of a simple call Vivian had made. Because of such simple information. Obviously the two had completely different opinions and Sam believed she had a right to know why they were arguing. After all they were all working together in this case. The memory of Jack being so thoughtful, how he seemed to argue with himself and her feeling that he was holding something back on them, came back to her mind. Without clearly thinking about it, she rose from her desk and went to the closed door of Jack's office. She didn't even take a second to think about this to be indiscreet or wrong of her. She softly opened the door and could hear Vivian's accuse to Jack.
"You don't want to dig so deep in his past, his private life. You don't wanna step to close."
She immediately knew this was about Danny. Her wish to force Jack to leave his feelings and his honor behind to finally achieve some progress, to find Danny, to protect him got the upper hand in her and made her say what she did. Jack looked at her in disbelief, he didn't react to her. At least for a while, but finally he nodded slowly and barely visible.
"Alright."
He said quietly, kept silent again and repeated his words finally.
"Alright, I think I know someone who can help us. I want you to go on with the investigation still focusing on Brooks and this guy Bellet. I'll see what I can do to make out Danny's and Andrea's habitation. I'll inform you as soon as I get any new information."
He noticed, Sam's reproachful look lay on him.
"I promise..."
"Jack, we found something!"
It was Vivian again, who had good news for him. Expectantly he looked into her sparkling face – that had to be really good news.
"Brooks. While checking the phone bill of his elder sister, we found some conspicuities. Shortly after his release from the rehabilitation-center, some phone-calls were held to New Orleans from her place. We checked the number – it's a detective, a private detective. "
Jack most likely wanted to fall into her arms. After all the backstrokes of the past few hours, this was a really good piece of information. They had a clue, a clue to Brooks, to his connection to another person. The person that probably had taken the pictures of Andrea and now was searching for her habitation. They had something they could start with again. Something to get the investigation going again and finally find Danny and Andrea.
"Who is this detective?"
"Laurence Bellet, 46 years old, studied law and – according to FBI files – worked as a lawyer for the Mafia for years. He quit four years ago and has a good working bureau as a private detective in downtown New Orleans. He has been and still is involved in a lot of not really legal, slightly criminal jobs, but they never got to arrest him for any of it – they couldn't prove his participation. The bureau in New Orleans believes he is still working for the Mafia. Concerning his detective work, he isn't that much prissy. He has no qualms to blackmail people, to threaten them or to let them be injured by third people he hires, to get the information he needs. And of course - due to his years of work for the Mafia – he has good contacts. He earns a lot of money with his job – around 150.000 $ a year and he doesn't overwork himself for that."
Jack frowned and looked at Vivian, this didn't sound good or constructive at all. It only proved his suspicion that maybe they wouldn't find Danny and Andrea before Brooks did.
"How did such a guy get into contact with Brooks? He can't even pay him."
Vivian also had an answer to this question.
"He doesn't have to. I went through the old year books of Brook's high school. He and Bellet know each other, they went to school together. Maybe Bellet owes his old friend a favor." Jack nodded slowly, he seemed to be deeply in thought.
"Yes, maybe..."
"I talked to the department in New Orleans. Bellet is under constant observation..."
That she didn't go on wasn't a good sign in Jack's mind.
"Is there any hint of a contact between Brooks and Bellet apart from the phone call?"
Vivian gave him a resigning look. He knew the answer before she told him. "No, but we're getting a tape of his call as soon as possible. Bellet seems to have found a way to operate out of FBI observation. He seems to know about it. But in any case, he had contact with Brooks, the bureau in New Orleans told me, that Bellet is working with a bunch of helpers right now, so he himself won't get into the vision of FBI interrogation. One of them probably has talked to Brooks by Bellet's order. Unfortunately the capacities of the department down there aren´t that big, so they could observe all of Bellets' helpers. But they try to find out who of them has been talking to Brooks. Maybe we're lucky."
Jack still was deeply lost in thought, he didn't share her bit of confidence.
"Good luck alone won't help us."
He stated and Vivian gave him an intense look.
"I know that, but what are we supposed to do instead?"
Jack hesitated for a moment and breathed in deeply.
"We need to find out about Danny's and Andrea's residence in another way."
He said vaguely. She didn't like his answer to be so uncertain.
"How? Except for Brooks, we don't have any more clues."
"I thought about it. There aren't many places Danny can take Andrea to. Where – due to her psychological constitution - she won't be afraid. Something she has at least a vague memory of and that's not connected to the violation. We just have to use the system of disqualification."
Vivian gave him a skeptic gaze.
"Jack, I don't like asking you this, but do you believe you know enough about Danny and his family to make out such a place?"
He didn't even seem hurt.
"No, probably not, but we have ways and possibilities to find out none the less."
"So you wanna try to find them through Andrea's files at youth welfare office?"
She tried to understand Jack's thoughts. But he just shook his head slowly. He still seemed deeply in thought.
"No. I think we have to dig deeper, deeper in the past. Andrea's files are too easy to get. It would've been the first thing Brooks and Bellet would've thought of. Danny never would've risked that. He knew how far Brooks was willing to go, how close he had already been to Andrea. It needed to be a place hard to find, hard to detect. I think we need to concentrate on the time before Andrea got into contact with youth farewell office and foster families, before the files. Before she received a new family, a new last name, the last name of her foster family, before Danny took the last name of his foster family." Vivian's skeptic was still there. "That's more than 15 years ago, Jack. 15 years! You know how difficult it is to even find some useful information if the events happened that long ago? And even if there are – where do you wanna start? What do you really know about this time, how much has Danny told you about it?"
Jack didn't look at her – he knew she was right.
"To be honest with you, it's not that much that I know. It doesn't exceed the fact, that his parents died in a car accident."
The skeptic in her eyes mixed with disbelief.
"That's not enough, Jack! You don't even know when or where exactly it happened. You don't even have a family name!"
She hesitated for a moment.
"And you don't want to. You don't want to dig so deep in his past, his private life. You don't wanna step to close."
It was a statement and he didn't disagree to it.
"But you have no choice!"
He suddenly heard a third person announce. Someone, he hadn't want to hear their quarrel, their discussion. He looked up immediately – it was Sam. She stood in the doorway with her arms crossed before her chest and an angry, almost furious expression on her face and stared at him intensively.
She had seen how Vivian entered Jack's office and closed the door behind her from her desk. She already knew what Vivian had found out, she had heard her conversation with the bureau in New Orleans. It wasn't much and not very encouraging, but it was a start. She was interested to see Jack's reaction, if he would share Vivian's confidence. She doubted it, but she observed their conversation none the less. His reaction was like she had expected it and she was about to turn back to her desk, when she saw Vivian's exited hand movement into Jack's direction.
Sam frowned. Why were they arguing? There was nothing about Vivian's investigation results that justified a discussion. She took a closer look and realized the argumentation getting more intense. She asked herself what was going on in there, what made the two act like this, just because of a simple call Vivian had made. Because of such simple information. Obviously the two had completely different opinions and Sam believed she had a right to know why they were arguing. After all they were all working together in this case. The memory of Jack being so thoughtful, how he seemed to argue with himself and her feeling that he was holding something back on them, came back to her mind. Without clearly thinking about it, she rose from her desk and went to the closed door of Jack's office. She didn't even take a second to think about this to be indiscreet or wrong of her. She softly opened the door and could hear Vivian's accuse to Jack.
"You don't want to dig so deep in his past, his private life. You don't wanna step to close."
She immediately knew this was about Danny. Her wish to force Jack to leave his feelings and his honor behind to finally achieve some progress, to find Danny, to protect him got the upper hand in her and made her say what she did. Jack looked at her in disbelief, he didn't react to her. At least for a while, but finally he nodded slowly and barely visible.
"Alright."
He said quietly, kept silent again and repeated his words finally.
"Alright, I think I know someone who can help us. I want you to go on with the investigation still focusing on Brooks and this guy Bellet. I'll see what I can do to make out Danny's and Andrea's habitation. I'll inform you as soon as I get any new information."
He noticed, Sam's reproachful look lay on him.
"I promise..."