Disclaimer: I own nothing associated with "Without a Trace". I make no profit from this.
A/N: Thanks again to everyone who has reviewed and given their support and advice, particularly those of you who've now done it twice – Mariel, Malinche, Semele, makemyday – it's becoming a real pleasure to hear from you. And to answer your question Tiantian, judging by the way the second chapter went, and where I know this story is headed, it is going to be fairly long. I am planning on picking up the pace as I get going - so, please, just bear with me!
Chapter Three
Wednesday 26th January. 9am
Security Station, Redding, Phillips and Hurst
Danny Taylor looked around impatiently, searching for the aging security guard he'd spoken with on the telephone earlier that morning. He finally attracted the attention of a much burlier, and decidedly younger, employee, who rubbed a hand over his bald head before donning his maroon cap and stepping out of the booth.
"Hi." Danny flashed a comradely grin as he flicked open his ID. "I'm Agent Taylor, with the FBI. I'm gonna need to ask you a few questions."
The young guard looked slightly ill at ease. But Danny wasn't certain that his discomfort around law enforcement had anything to do with the reason, on this occasion, why law enforcement was actually present. Assuming that this was more than likely the case, the agent cut to the chase.
"Look, it's cool man." He glanced at the name tag on the guard's jacket. "Sean. You're not in any kind of trouble, as far as I'm concerned. It's just that there's a lawyer from upstairs missing, and I need to take a look around. I spoke to your boss earlier."
At this revelation, the kid's relief was palpable. "Oh, right. You're the guy that called Bill."
Bill, that was his name. Danny smiled congenially. "That's right. Do you think you could get him down here?"
Glad to be temporarily off the hook, Sean grabbed the telephone off the wall next to him. Danny listened discreetly to the one-sided conversation.
"Yo, Bill…. Yeah, the FBI dude's down here… Yeah…. No…. No…. Fine." With that he hung up the phone and grimaced apologetically at Danny.
"Sorry. He's just… um… taking care of something. He'll be through in a minute, okay?"
Noticing the young man edging away from him back to the safety of the booth, Danny kept his tone casual.
"So, Sean, do you know Adam Walker?"
The guard stopped, a look of confusion temporarily crossing his face. "Huh?"
Danny sensed he wasn't going make much progress here, but there was nothing else he could do until the kid's boss arrived. He may just stumble across something of use. "Adam Walker… lawyer… Monday… missing?"
"Oh," Sean mused. "Sorry, no-one told me his name."
"So, you don't have much to do with the people upstairs, then?"
Sean's expression became unreadable, but his tone was resigned. "Hundreds of them, four of us. They're never gonna remember our names, why the hell should I remember theirs?"
If those words had been spoken with anything other than total apathy, Danny might have been tempted to read more into his statement. However, it seemed fairly certain that Sean's languid bark was infinitely worse than his bite. The likelihood that he would have expended energy causing a nameless lawyer to disappear was negligible at best.
"Besides, I wasn't even here on Monday. Day off." He clarified. "You can check it on the board." He pointed to a pin-board hanging precariously in front of an over-stuffed bookcase in their makeshift office.
It's a good job they hide the guards out of sight, thought Danny idly, as he surveyed Sean. For all the money that seems to be floating around this place, you'd expect bellhops, not bouncers.
Still hoping he might pick up anything that would help their case, he tried another tack.
"This must be a pretty dull place to work, hey? Watching over a bunch of rich lawyers."
Sean regarded him warily, considering whether acting pally with a Fed was in his best interest or not. After a moment, he sighed, his tone flat. "I've had worse jobs. Though it's pretty dead round here most of the time, and when something does happen it's not like…"
Just as Danny's curiosity was finally piqued, they were sharply interrupted by the cracking of the booth door against the marble column concealing it. The young guard used this momentary distraction to slip back to safety, and the agent was greeted by a flustered looking older man, sporting an unkempt moustache and a questionable comb-over. Inwardly cursing the break, Danny smiled and extended his hand. "Bill, I assume?"
When Danny felt the man's hand grasp his, it was clammy and rather shaky. He found himself looking past the guard in the direction from which he'd appeared. At the back of the booth was another door that the agent had failed to notice, most probably as it had been obscured by the reticent, but bulky form of Sean. Beyond this door he could just about make out a metal gate which he assumed was the access to a service elevator. Bill caught the direction of his gaze and indicated toward the office, his left hand absently pulling his shirt collar away from his skin. Danny noted that a thin glaze of perspiration lined his forehead.
Whilst attempting to discern the reason for the guard's obvious discomfort, Danny adopted his most innocent manner. "So, you said on the phone that you know Adam Walker?"
As the two men entered the booth, Sean looked up. With a wave of his hand, Bill signalled to his young employee. Sensing that his boss was waiting for him to make himself scarce, the kid happily complied and scurried to safety through the gate behind him. Again Danny took note.
Now they were alone, Bill turned to face the agent.
"Yeah, sure I know Adam. He must've worked upstairs for ten years now. Even brought his wife and kid around a few times. That kind of thing stands out in this place. Always had a cheerful word when he saw me. Nice guy," he mused. "Not many of 'em stay here that long. They must like him."
Still unsure exactly what it was this guy seemed to be hiding, Danny sensed that it might be best to just keep him talking. "Take it you're quite the old-timer around here, then?" He grinned.
With that comment, Bill smiled almost proudly. "Twenty-five years next month."
"So, you know this place pretty well?"
"I'm head of security. You can't get much past me."
Danny groaned, inwardly. This wasn't going anywhere. "You saw Adam on Monday evening?"
"Yeah, like I told you when you called. Around six forty-five."
"And you didn't notice anything unusual? He didn't seem anxious, or upset about anything?"
"Not that I can recall. Same as always, you know. Are we finished? I really need to get back to work."
Wow, this guy's a bad liar. "Sure." Danny smiled a little too sincerely. "Oh, just one more thing. I'm gonna need to take a look at your security footage from Monday night."
The guard flinched visibly, as, for a split second, his expression froze.
Danny watched him closely. "Look, you can help me out and make this easy. But, if you don't wanna do that, I can be back here in thirty minutes with a nice shiny warrant and an unpleasant attitude."
The forced smile became more of a grimace as Bill exhaled his response. "Of course."
With what seemed like an inordinate amount of effort for such a small task, the guard turned and headed toward the door through which Sean had exited earlier. Without waiting for an invitation, Danny followed.
The metal gate, as he had correctly assumed, was indeed an old freight elevator. But instead, Bill led the agent up a narrow flight of stairs. By the time they reached the first floor landing, the guard was wheezing slightly. Danny watched as he took a moment to compose himself before pushing open the door on his left, marked Authorized Personnel Only.
The room Danny found himself in was dimly lit and slightly musty – a world away from the grandeur of the floor below. Barely larger than a prison cell, on the back wall, suspended perilously from the ceiling, hung two television monitors, which had clearly seen better days. The two side walls were taken up by narrow shelves accommodating hundreds of analogue videotapes.
Despite being amused that a money making machine such as Redding, Phillips and Hurst still used such an antiquated security system, Agent Taylor had the sinking feeling that this wasn't going to be quite the straight-forward task he had assumed.
Observing his expression, Bill gruffly explained. "Never really had much trouble 'round here. There's a guard on duty all night, and an alarm system. No point wasting money on fancy cameras when we don't need 'em."
Danny smiled to himself. Jack's theory was close to the mark, except it would appear that the good folks at the top, didn't much care what their clients did inside the building either. "Do you at least have footage of the foyer? I know I saw a camera on the door when I came in."
Bill waved abstractedly in the direction of the shelves containing the tapes. "Knock yourself out." His voice sounded hoarse. "It's there… somewhere."
With that comment he turned abruptly and was out the door before his interrogator had time to object.
This time omitting an audible sigh, Danny turned his attention to the first shelf, silently cursing himself for the act of consideration toward Jack and Samantha that had led him here.
When he looked more closely, a slight sense of relief washed over him. The system may be old, but there was some semblance of order. Each tape was marked with a ninety-minute time slot, and wooden dividers separated individual dates. Realising that he was seeing the oldest tapes, he crossed the room to check out the last shelf. Letting his finger trace the sides of the cassette jackets he muttered to himself.
"Monday three thirty 'til five, Monday five 'til six-thirty, Monday…" He quickly scanned the rest of the shelf before pulling out his cell phone.
"Jack, it's Danny."
9.30am
Danny smiled grimly as he responded to Jack's question.
"… It seems that a lawyer is not the only thing they're missing around here."
Jack's voice came back as a low rumble. "Yeah, it seems like there's a couple of things in this place that they'd rather we didn't know about. What've you got?"
Danny sighed. "It's more what I haven't got. Our security guard couldn't have looked more uncomfortable if he'd tried. For a minute I actually thought he was gonna have a heart attack right in front of me. And I'm beginning to understand why. It would appear that the security tape for the time Adam allegedly disappeared has also mysteriously vanished."
Although he couldn't see it, Danny swore he could actually hear Jack running his hand through his hair. There was a pause.
"Have you asked the guard about it yet?"
"Not yet. For a guy who looked like he was gonna drop at any moment, man, was he out of that door quick."
This time he heard Jack scoff. "Okay. Well, go find him and see what his story is. And while you're at it, ask him what he knows about the lawsuit that's going on 'round here." There was a quick beat. "You know CPR, right?"
Danny laughed. "I'm hoping I'll break him before it comes to that."
With that comment he snapped his phone shut and grabbed the remaining tapes from Monday's recording. Shrugging his shoulders, he headed back down the stairs.
When he reached the door back into the office, he stopped and quietly watched for a moment. Bill was on the telephone, twirling the cord nervously between his fingers as he nodded incessantly. Unaware that he was being observed, the guard pulled something out of his pocket and quickly shoved it into a box file lying open on the desk. Danny raised his eyebrows and smiled in disbelief before pushing open the door.
The sound of the agent's entrance startled Bill as he spun guiltily around in his chair. Danny again plastered a grin on his face and reached over, grabbing the file. The guard weakly attempted to stop him but was a fraction too late. His expression filled with dread, he watched as Danny slowly opened the box, purposefully extending the moment for all it was worth. Reaching inside, the agent gasped in mock surprise as he pulled out its content. Holding it up to examine the spoils, his smile spread as he confirmed the object in his hand – a neatly labelled videotape. He looked back at Bill, his expression now one of exasperation.
"Look man, let me give you some advice. The next time you try to hide something from a Federal Agent – which, by the way, is not a very smart thing to do – you may wanna check that they're not standing behind you whilst you do it!"
Bill stuttered, but chose to remain silent as Danny continued, his tone even.
"Okay, this is gonna play like this… I don't believe that you personally had anything to do with the disappearance of Adam Walker. But, I do know that you're holding out on me. Now, I'm guessing that whatever it is you're hiding, I'm gonna find out, the minute I watch this tape. The question is, do you wanna do yourself a favour, and just tell me what you know. Or, are you gonna keep protecting who ever it is that you think you're helping? 'Cause I'm guessing, that whoever it is, they're not gonna be quite so protective when it comes to you."
Bill pressed his lips together tightly, put his face was ashen. Danny went for the jugular. Lightening his tone, he made sure that he was staring right at the guard.
"Oh, and while you're at it, you may as well just go ahead and tell me everything you know about this lawsuit."
The guard blanched, as his resistance visibly caved. He forced himself to raise his eyes.
"No-one was supposed to find out…"
TBC
A/N: Sorry for the exposition heavy chapter, but it was a necessary evil, I'm afraid. There is more character stuff on the way shortly, promise. It also didn't help that my temperamental laptop just had another meltdown on me and I've had to re-write half of this! So, there may be a few more grammatical issues than normal. Will try and get the next chapter written and posted in a couple of days, time permitting. ;)
