Disclaimer: still not mine: (

……………………

Danny and Martin were sitting at the conference table.

"I don't understand," said Danny. "Jack told us that they argued, but he didn't tell us that they ended up throwing stuff. Why not? It's hardly something he's gonna forget."

"I could be," said Martin. "Technically, he didn't tell us about the argument. He told us what it was about. And he only told us that after Viv pushed him. Then she accused him of hitting Maria."

"What are you saying? That it's Viv's fault that he didn't tell us."

"No. What I'm saying is, at that point, going into detail about the argument was probably the last thing on his mind. He would have been more concerned that somebody, particularly a close friend and colleague, thought he would hit his wife."

"What about when she got the key off him? He knew all four of us would be going into his apartment. Why didn't he tell us then?"

"He was in one hell of an emotional state. He was hardly gonna say 'By the way, the place is a mess'. He threw a chair through his door, for god's sake. He's obviously not in his normal frame of mind. We've had people too emotional to tell us every little detail before."

Viv returned from the coffee machine and sat down at her desk.

"But it's not really a little detail," continued Danny. "It's a pretty big detail. The apartment was trashed."

"It's a big detail to us. But to Jack, whose wife dumped their kids and then disappeared, it's a little detail."

"I thought you two were out of the bickering phase," Viv said.

"We're not bickering," said Danny. "We're debating."

The phone on Viv's desk rang.

"Agent Johnson."

Danny and Martin watched her silently.

"Okay, thanks. I'll send someone down."

She put the receiver down and turned back to them. "Danny, there's a guy down stairs who says he saw Maria abandon the car."

"I'm on it," said Danny as he left he table and headed down stairs.

……………………

Samantha walked into the office carrying a videotape.

"There is a bank across from where Maria left the car," said Sam. "Which has a security camera that picked up the entire thing."

"You watched it yet?" asked Martin.

"No, I was just going to. You coming?"

"Yeah."

In the dark of the tech room, Samantha put the video into the machine. She and Martin watched in silence.

Maria's car sped up the road and swerved round in front of another car forcing to come to a stop. She got out and went round to the front passenger side of the other car. She argued with the unseen driver of the other car as it tried to drive away. She climbed into the passenger seat just before the driver took off at speed.

They watched the footage twice more before Martin used one of the computers to enhance the licence plate on the other car.

Sam read the number and quickly walked to her desk.

She looked it up on her computer to see who the car was registered to.

Her fears were confirmed.

……………………