Back upstairs the atmosphere was icy cold. Conversation was kept to a minimum as everyone was content to do their own work and reluctant to share their thoughts. Surreptitiously, Vivian stood in her office, twiddling the phone chord around her finger while speaking in little more that a whisper. 'I need permission to take two officers in for questioning.....yes, yes, you did hear me right. Agents Malone and Taylor.....yes I know that this is unusual.......and yes, it is necessary. You do know that it is one of ours who is missing don't you? Thank you.'
Vivian exhaled deeply as she rested the phone back down in its cradle. She had done it - she had betrayed her friends to save a friend. Needing a moment to take in the situation, she leaned backwards in her chair and stared up at the whitewashed ceiling above. However, she only allowed herself a matter of seconds as the thought suddenly came to her that with every second that she was sitting there, it was potentially an extra second that Sam would be living through hell. That was if she was living at all.
With as much confidence as she could muster, Vivian strode out of her office and clearly looked over at Martin so that her signal could not be misinterpreted. The timing was as close to perfect as they could have hoped for as Jack was not going to be returning from a meeting in Washington for at least an hour or two. Danny was typing away furiously at his computer, obviously infuriated by the lack of success he was having at what he was doing.
Martin and Vivian walked together over to where he was working and Martin gently put a hand on his shoulder causing his colleague to turn around in alarm. He knew immediately that something was wrong and that even this unthinkable situation was becoming one heck of a lot worse. 'Danny' Vivian spoke gently but with firm authority in her voice, 'we need to take you in for questioning about Sam's disappearance.'
Danny stared at his friend in disbelief. To say that this was an unexpected set of events would have been an understatement and all he could do was look at Vivian with his mouth almost hanging wide open. Martin was cringing behind him but Vivian's resolve remained firm as she took Danny by the arm and led him into the interview room for questioning.
Martin stood in the far corner of the room, allowing Vivian to take control of the situation. To him, her professionalism was unbelievable as she seemed able to forget who she was questioning and why she was doing so. However, in reality her insides were churning up and it was all that she could do to stop herself from running out of the room and handing in her resignation.
'So Danny, where were you on the night of Tuesday 3rd June this year?' she asked.
'I worked late here.' He spoke slowly, trying to contain his anger, but at the same time spitting out his words. 'I needed to finish the paperwork of the Simon Marshall case and didn't leave the office until, I don't know, about ten.'
He knew what was coming next. It was going to be the usual lot of 'Can anyone confirm this? Where did you go afterwards? When did you last see Samantha Spade?' and so, before Vivian could even open her mouth again he gave the relevant information.
'There was no-one else actually in the office but Frank downstairs saw me leave and I'm sure that it's on the CCTV footage. I went straight home afterwards and ordered a pizza takeaway so I'm sure that the pizza delivery boy can confirm that I was at home at about eleven. And I last saw Sam at the same time as you did when she left the office earlier that evening. Satisfied?'
Vivian was completely taken aback and was on the brink of kicking herself for not checking a possible alibi before bringing Danny in for questioning. It was taking her a few seconds to regain her composure and, sensing this, Martin stepped in. 'Yeah, that's fine' he said. 'Sorry we had to put you through that. It's just procedure, that's all. Nothing personal.'
Danny was raging. 'You thought that I'd kidnapped Sam, didn't you?' he spat. 'Her disappearance is getting to me as much as it is you two. I would never kidnap one of my friends. Get real! I thought you two were two of the best but now I'm starting to wonder. Seriously though, why did you suspect me of all people?'
Danny's words were almost too much for his colleagues to bear. They had messed up, and didn't they know it. The least that they could do would be to offer an explanation as the first step towards reconciliation.
'We think that it's an inside job' explained Martin. 'It's the only explanation for us having no leads. On top of that there was, well....' He paused for an instant as he considered how to phrase his next point. 'There was stuff going on between Sam and myself. We thought, well, I don't know what we thought.'
Danny gave a wry smile at his flustered friend which warmed up the atmosphere in the room considerably. 'Have you got any other suspects then, other than me, whom you would like to share?' He did, of course, expect an answer in the negative and was startled when Vivian and Martin seemed to be communicating through eye-contact.
'What aren't you telling me?' he asked nervously, his face turning a deathly pale as he turned his eyes from Vivian to Martin and then back to Vivian. 'Who else do you suspect? You have to tell me, we are a team, remember.'
Martin shrugged his shoulders, implying that Vivian should tell all. 'We do have one other suspect,' she said, speaking slowly to ensure that she herself understood what she was saying. She paused for an instant as Danny's attentive gaze was fixed on her eyes. 'It's Jack.'