Disclaimer: I own nothing associated with "Without a Trace". I make no money from this!

A/N: Just when you're waiting for one chapter, two come along at once…

Chapter Nine

Office of the New York Branch of the FBI, Manhattan.

3.45pm

By the time Jack and Samantha made it back to the bullpen, Vivian had also returned and was at her desk flicking through her case notes. She looked up as the two agents entered. There was something subtle about their posture that she hadn't noticed in a while and she found herself wishing that she hadn't seen it today. When she turned her attention back to her desk, she realised that she wasn't the only one observing.

Jack followed Sam to her desk, lingering a moment longer than he normally would, before muttering something and heading toward his office. Whatever he had mumbled made Samantha smile, and she was still smiling when another agent approached her.

"Hey. Did you and Jack get anything interesting?"

"Oh, hey Martin. Not really. Well, interesting, but not really that useful."

The young agent tried to catch her eye, but she was already searching in her coat pocket for her notebook. As if she felt him avert his eyes, she looked back up.

"Heard you and Danny may be onto something though?"

He smiled, as if the act alone would force the same reaction from Samantha. When it didn't, his expression became concerned.

"Are you okay, Sam?"

"Huh?"

Martin couldn't tell what she was thinking, but the direction of her blank stare was causing the return of a nagging sensation that over the last few months he had persuaded himself to cast aside. Putting away the doubts which were again beginning to push forward into his conscious thoughts, he persevered.

"It's just that you seem distracted. Did something happen with… I mean, I know Jack's not been in the greatest of moods recently…"

At this Samantha jerked her eyes back up, inadvertently meeting his in the process.

"No." She noted guiltily that the sharpness of her response had almost caused Martin to wince. "Sorry." She lightened her tone. "I guess, today's just been kind of frustrating… with the case, I mean."

She could sense Martin still watching her. The look on his face told her that he was unconvinced by her proclamation but was choosing not to push the matter; at least not for the moment. At the ease with which she discerned this, a fresh wave of guilt washed over her. Why did he make things so damn easy on her? Why was he so… available?

He again tried to meet her eyes. "We'll talk later, okay?"

She attempted another smile, but was gratefully interrupted by Danny marching over to them waving a piece of paper in Martin's face.

"I got it. We were right."

As Sam looked on, her focus now back, Jack re-emerged from his office and the five of them began to take their usual seats at the conference table.

As he slipped into his chair, Jack couldn't help but sneak yet another look at the blonde on his left – something he'd been doing, albeit more surreptitiously, since he'd been sitting at his desk a few minutes earlier. His eyes darkened slightly as his closing words before the drive back to the office echoed in his head. He was now acutely aware that he was not the only one observing Sam's reactions. Shrugging off the thought and forcing his attention back to the task at hand, he glanced around the table before beginning.

"So, how are we getting on? Danny? Martin? Viv?"

Perhaps out of habit, it was Vivian who spoke up first, her gentle but matter-of-fact tone reverberating around the room. "Well, there's been no ransom demand, and it seems unlikely there will be one. The Walkers are wealthy but not filthy rich, and from talking to their neighbours, it seems doubtful that anyone would have a real personal grudge against the family. I also checked the morgues and hospitals, there was nothing."

Jack raised his head in her direction. "Did the wife's alibi check out?"

"Seems fairly tight." Viv nodded. "Several neighbours said that they saw Laura's colleague drop her home just before ten like she said. Her son was with another neighbour, sleeping. She took him home which was when she discovered Adam wasn't there. The neighbour came in with her and when Laura still couldn't get hold of Adam, she was actually the one to suggest calling the police. She said Laura was pretty worried."

"Did you find out who the colleague was?" Jack was scribbling a couple of notes.

"Yeah, I called the hospital to confirm. It seems Laura regularly carpools with a couple of co-workers who live in her neighbourhood. The one who drove that particular night was a Dr. Hasler. He's married, lives a couple of streets over from the Walkers and is a family acquaintance."

Jack looked up again. "Is there any chance he's more than that?"

Vivian shook her head. "No, I asked around. Another colleague of theirs, a female doctor, an Alice Zhou, was in the car with them Monday night, as she is most nights. Although she didn't sound too convinced that Dr. Hasler isn't involved with someone on their staff, she was positive that it isn't Laura Walker."

"Does that fit with your impression of Laura Walker?"

Vivian paused and took a moment to look at Jack. She hadn't seen him this intense and focused over what was turning out to be a fairly hopeless case in quite a while. She briefly found herself wondering yet again about the source of this sudden energy, but remembering the words that had passed between her and her old friend the last time this subject had been raised, she turned her attention back to his question.

"She definitely seems genuine. She was fairly distraught and seems to have no idea where her husband could be. When I suggested another woman, she actually seemed hopeful."

At this Jack raised his eyebrows. "Well, there's a new one. Is there any indication that that's the situation?"

This time it was Danny who spoke up, indicating the sheets of highlighted paper in front of him. "It's funny you should mention that."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Danny paused, as if waiting for everyone's full attention. When he felt all eyes on him, he grinned and looked at Jack.

"Well, first off I'm hoping there'll be some sort of new reality show, I don't know, 'When Good Lawyers Go Bad', or something, 'cause there's money to be made off that security tape." Jack's brow furrowed questioningly as Danny exchanged glances with Martin and continued. "Those guys really got into it on Monday. That wasn't a scuffle, more like a full blown fist fight." He looked across the table again.

Martin nodded in confirmation, smiling. "Yeah. It's amazing that it was only a bystander who ended up in the hospital."

Jack seemed to be losing patience. "Well, was Adam on that tape?"

Danny shook his head. "No, but that's the interesting part, at least from our point of view. He wasn't on that tape, but he was on the one before. He didn't use his swipe card, but the camera caught him leaving the building at six fourteen."

"So, he left before the fight broke out?" Jack was thinking aloud.

Danny nodded again. "Yep. He was with a bunch of other employees, although no-one seemed to be paying much attention to him. I almost didn't notice him myself."

"So, the guard wasn't lying?" Sam interceded. "He really did see Adam leave that night."

The other agent's grin grew wider. "I think the truth unintentionally slipped out. He was so busy lying to me about everything else, he just didn't notice."

Jack was deep in thought once again. "So we now have an actual time of disappearance?" His mind was rapidly bringing together the day's information. "Anything else we should know about?"

Danny and Martin looked at each other again. This time Danny let his colleague take the lead.

"Well, when Danny was checking the tapes I went through Adam Walker's credit card purchases and emails. It seems that this might not be a case for us after all."

There was a tone in his voice that made Samantha look at him curiously.

He continued. "First I went through his phone records, home and office but nothing unusual showed up. The only calls the guy makes which aren't work related are to his wife. But then I went over his financial records and it appears that the first thing Adam did when he arrived at his office on Monday morning was to purchase a plane ticket on his personal credit card to Boston. His flight was leaving at nine thirty that evening, open return."

Jack sighed. "So we've been chasing our tails all day, and you're saying he left voluntarily?"

Sensing an unusual hostility in his bosses' remark, Danny intervened keeping his voice light. "Well, that's a good thing right?"

Martin seemed unwilling to sit quietly. "Yeah, no harm, no foul… Unless, of course, you're the guy's wife and child."

There was an awkward silence until Viv spoke up. "Is there anything other than the plane ticket to suggest that's the case?"

Danny replied again. "I went through Adam's cell phone records and something did come up. He made a call at 8.17 Monday night to a cell in the Boston area."

"That's two hours after he left his office." Samantha was also absorbing the new information. "How long was the call?"

"Four minutes, give or take," came Danny's immediate response. "Too long for voicemail. I tracked the number and it's registered to a Miss Jennifer Antidormi with an address in Boston's North End."

"Did you try the number the call was made to?" Vivian was also pensive.

"Out of area. But we did go back and pull up Adam's email account. Although we couldn't access the emails themselves – the tech guys are still working on it – there were a number of deleted messages to one J. Antidormi." Danny laughed. "Sounds to me like they've really headed to the hills." He noticed that Jack was still frowning. "What do you reckon, boss? Sordid affair?"

The jocular remark received varied but subtle reactions from everyone else around the table, as they seemed lost in their own thoughts. Danny looked around a little puzzled by the silence his comment had provoked. Jack was the first to speak.

"I think we'd be being premature if we jumped to that conclusion and simply gave up on the investigation."

Martin looked sceptical. For a reason she had yet to put voice to, Samantha prayed he'd keep his opinions to himself, but to no avail.

"Are you sure?" Martin questioned. He looked for a second as if he'd stop there, but instead he took a moment to compose his thoughts and continued. "I mean, it ties in with the emails, the phone call and the plane ticket. Even if it's not an affair, it doesn't suggest that he went anywhere against his will. We all thought it when the call came in. Isn't that why we don't normally take cases like these?"

His tone wasn't accusatory, but the other members of the team found themselves holding their breath waiting for Jack's response. When it came it was with a strange calmness, almost as if the newest agent had never spoken.

"All right. Danny, Martin, I want you in Boston tomorrow morning to check out the recipient of our mystery phone call. You can catch a flight there later tonight. I'll clear it with VanDoren."

"Er, Jack?"

The older agent looked up as Danny had spoken. He raised an eyebrow but his face remained passive. Viv also gave him a questioning glance whilst Samantha became noticeably pre-occupied with her case notes.

Jack was fully aware of the looks he was now receiving from his team, and even more acutely aware of the one who was refusing to look in his direction. If he questioned his motives deeply enough, he would be forced to admit that maybe he wasn't acting particularly fairly or treating this all that rationally. This thought triggered another memory of an earlier conversation that day and he found himself suppressing a smile. To hell with it. He was the boss, and even if there was no proof of any wrong doing, their missing person was still missing. If his agents found him in Boston, great, case closed. So what if they wasted a couple of hundred bucks of federal money on plane tickets in the process? It was wasted on much more frivolous things everyday.

He stopped, waiting for the next person to second guess him but an awkward yet respectful silence had fallen across the group. Samantha looked up slowly and their eyes met for a second. He got the unnerving impression that whatever it was she was seeking out in his face, she had found. Her focus returned to the table.

"Okay then. So tomorrow, Samantha and I will go back to Adam's office and check we haven't missed anything. Vivian can go back and see if Laura Walker knows anything about Jennifer Antidormi, and you two," he nodded in Danny's direction, "will be getting out of the city. Until we can ascertain that Adam Walker is alive and well, this case will remain open." His voice was his usual business-as-normal tenor, but he seemed to be having difficulty making eye contact. "Anything else?"

When no-one spoke, he abruptly pushed his seat away from the table and headed back into the safety of his office.

Danny looked around at his colleagues, hoping to find someone to share a 'what the hell's got into him' moment of amusement with, but no-one seemed willing to oblige. He watched as Viv seemed to be surveying Samantha out of the corner of her eye. The blonde agent in turn looked across at Martin who was now staring at his own notes, his face unusually closed.

Shaking his head a little Danny stood and made his way back to his own desk.

Following suit, Vivian also rose, turning her back on the others to fill in the timeline gaps on the white board behind her.

Alone at the conference table, the remaining two agents finally met each others gaze, but continued to sit in silence.

In his office, Jack watched the scene from his couch. Running his hand through his hair, he suddenly felt exhausted.

TBC

A/N: Wasn't too sure when I started this story, how far into the whole J/S/M triangle/melodrama I was going to dip, as I was somewhat optimistically, it would seem, hoping that TPTB would have the issue if not resolved, at least raised by the time I got this far! Alas, the whole thing is moving a little slow for my liking and to stay in canon I'm going to have to at least touch on it. So, more J/S angst to come. Hope nobody minds!