Chapter Six

Luis led Delinda back into the conference room. Once she was in there, Ed looked at her, his voice was quiet, "Where were you?"

Holding up the bright green plastic bottle, she explained, "I got thirsty."

Deline nodded as he stood up and went over to hug his daughter tightly, "Nobody blames you for this, Delinda." Pulling back, he lifted her face up, forcing her to look at him. Repeating himself, he said firmly, "Nobody blames you for this."

She nodded quietly as a tear fell, "Okay."

Giving his daughter a quiet smile, Ed leaned in and kissed her cheek and hugged her again. As Delinda broke away from him, she walked over and took Sam's hand. The two women looked at each other and finally Delinda stepped forward and hugged her friend. "We'll find her," she said quietly. "We are going to find her and she's going to be perfect."

Sam hugged her back and nodded, "I hope so," she said quietly as she sighed.

Nodding quietly as she stepped back, Delinda looked around, "Is there anything I can do?"

Perez shook his head quietly, "At this point we are still canvassing the school, I suggest the three of you go home and wait for somebody to contact you."

"And what is it you suggest we do?" Sam snapped, "Sit with our thumbs up our asses while you guys get together and form search groups? My daughter is missing, Luis. She's missing. And you want us to go home while you canvas an elementary school? No, I'm sorry, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to get out there, and if I have to cover every square inch of this state by myself to find her, I will!"

Luis sighed quietly, "Sam, that wasn't what I meant. I just was saying that right now, my guys need to know you are in case we need to contact you."

"Sam," Ed's voice was gravelly as he looked at her. Holding his hand out, he said quietly, "Come on, honey, let me take you home. We can wait by the phone. She'll probably be home by this time tomorrow anyway."

The woman turned and looked at him. Slowly, she nodded her head, "Yeah," she said softly, "fine, let's go." Accepting his hand, Ed led her out of the room.

As she watched them go, Delinda ran a hand through her hair. Turning to look at the detective, she said, "Please find her."

Luis nodded, "We'll do everything we can, Delinda, you guys have my word on that. Now go on, go be with your dad."

The eldest Deline daughter nodded as she grabbed her purse and left. Once he was alone, Detective Perez walked out into the station house. Looking at the various people assembled, he announced, "I need to build a task force. We've got a seven year old little girl missing and she's the daughter of a good friend. Who is on board with me?"

The woman yawned as she woke up and found the that the girl next to her was still sound asleep. Frowning, she immediately grabbed her cell phone and placed a call. Within moments, the person on the other end had answered. "It's me," she said, "the girl's still sleeping, she hasn't woken up once." Looking at the girl, the woman continued, "No, I gave her the exact dosage, I measured it out precisely." Sighing softly, she thought she saw something, "Wait a second," she said quietly as she watched the girl squirm in her seat, "I think she's waking up now." The woman sighed deeply as she ran a hand through her curly ebony hair, "I know, I know, I just panicked. We can't afford for something to happen to her, she's our insurance policy." The woman chuckled softly as her coal black eyes took on a devious glint, "I know, I can't wait to see you too. I'd better go, she's waking up." Ending the call, she dropped the cellular into her black suede Prada bag.

Looking at the girl, she gave her a soft smile, "Hello, sweetheart."

Jasmine woke up and looked at the woman, softly, "I know you..."

"Alright, that's it," Danny declared, "I'm calling Ed."

"Man, would you just chill?" Mike asked. "The chick's fine, okay? She's enjoying her roll."

"Mike, Ed hasn't checked in since he got that call from Delinda. He didn't say a word about what happened, just grabbed his phone and left." Danny looked at his friend, "Doesn't that strike you somewhat as peculiar?"

"I don't know," Mike admitted, "I mean, yeah, I guess, but if something were going down, Ed would call us."

"How would you know?" The ex-Marine inquired.

"Because he's Ed," The African American man stated, "and Ed almost always keeps us in the loop."

"Yeah," Danny began, "'almost'."

"Danny," Mike sighed in annoyance, "if you are that worried about the man, call him on his cell phone."

The ex-Marine looked at his friend for half of a second before reaching for the black phone that was resting on the desk. Holding the receiver to his ear, McCoy dialed the number to Ed's cell phone and waited.

Ed descended down the staircase after making sure that Sam was sleeping in the bedroom. Hearing his cell phone ring from within his coat pocket, he grabbed it and fished the instrument out.

"Deline."

"Ed," Danny said, his voice filled with relief. "Thank god, we were beginning to think that you were lying face down in a ditch somewhere."

The former CIA agent visibly flinched at the metaphor. "Danny," he said softly, "it's not a good time to be making jokes like that,"

The former Marine sat down in a chair, his voice was soft and business-like, "What's going on, Ed?"

Ed sighed deeply as he walked into the kitchen, "Jasmine's missing. No, scratch that, she's been kidnapped."

"What?" Danny exclaimed jumping to his feet. His outburst caused the likes of Mike, Mitch and Sarasvati to look at him curiously.

"Where are you? Do you need me to help you guys search for her? Have the police been involved yet?"

"Danny," he sighed, "just stay there, okay? I'm at home right now, Sam and I just got back from Metro, Luis is all over this. I'd go looking for her myself, but I don't want to leave Sam alone, I want to stay by her."

"Ed," Danny began, "this is you and Sam. You can't expect me to just sit on my hands and do nothing. Please, tell me what I can do?"

Ed sighed deeply as he eyed an unopened bottle of wine. Deciding not to cloud his judgment with alcohol, he turned his back to the vice. "Just pray, man, that's all any of us can do. In the meantime, I want you and Mike to momentarily bump up on the job scale. I have some meetings scheduled with Steve Wynn this week and I can't blow them off, also I had a meeting with Brunson scheduled next Tuesday that can't be blown off either. Personnel has my schedule, I need you to take the meetings for me. Just explain to Gavin and Steve that there's an emergency in my family and I'm going to stay close to home."

"Right," Danny nodded, "Don't worry, Ed, I'm all over it."

"Good," he said, "Also, spread the word amongst the other hosts that Sam is going to be gone as well, so any clients that she was supposed to manage will have to be divvied up among them."

The ex-Marine nodded again as he wrote down the instructions that were begin given to him, "Got it. I'll also hunt Gunther down and tell him that Delinda's going to be gone for a while too since I'm sure that she's going to want to stick by your side during this thing."

"Yeah," Ed nodded. "I'm counting on you here, Danny. I can't have my head at home and be worrying about what's going on in my casino."

"Ed, don't worry," Danny assured. "I'll talk to Mike, fill him in on what's going on. We can handle things. You just stay with Delinda and Sam, and give me updates, okay? I'm worried about this too."

"Don't worry," Deline said, "I'll call you every few days or so and let you know what's going on. If you need to get into my office, use the master key from personnel. I'll call Trish and let her know that it's okay to give it to you and Mike, but, Danny, only you and Mike, okay? I don't want a bunch of people rifling through my things."

"Don't worry," the other man said, "Mike and I will try to avoid going in there."

"Okay," Ed said as he sighed deeply, trying to remember anything else that he should tell Danny. "The notes for the Steve Wynn meeting are in the blue folder in my credenza, the notes for the Brunson meeting are in a red folder, they are both labeled too in case you forget."

"Got it," Danny said, writing it down.

"Thanks, Danny, I appreciate this."

"Don't mention it, Ed, I'll talk to you in a few days. Kiss Sam and Delinda's cheeks for me and tell them I'll talk to them later on."

Ed nodded as he smiled faintly, "Yeah, I will, thanks, kid."

Danny hung up with a heavy sigh. "Oh man,"

Mike looked at him, "What's going on?"

Looking around, Danny decided he didn't want to get into it in front of everybody. "Come on," he said softly as he headed into a conference room. Once the door was shut, the former Marine looked at his friend, "Jasmine's been kidnapped. I don't know the details, Ed didn't give any, and, quite frankly, judging by how he was acting on the phone, he didn't appear to be ready to volunteer the information."

"Damn," Mike said as he sat down in a chair, stunned. Looking up at his friend, he asked, "How's Sam?"

"A nervous wreck. I guess they just got back from Metro or something," Danny answered, sitting down himself, and loosening his tie.

"What does Ed need us to do?"

The brown haired man looked at the note he wrote himself, "He needs me to take over as acting President till he gets back. He had some meetings scheduled next week that need to be done, so I'm going to call Trish and get his schedule, I guess you need to do my job too, which really isn't all that different from yours." He glanced up to see Mike nodding. "I'm sorry, Mike, I really wish I could get you another guy up here."

"Hey," Mike said, waving his hand, "It's cool, don't worry. I'll talk to Doug and see if we can't borrow some of the guys from Mystique for a bit."

"Yeah," Danny nodded, "Speaking of Mystique, Delinda's going to be gone for a while too, so I need to talk to Gunther and let him know."

Knowing the frustration that Danny got whenever he had to deal with Gunther, Mike said, "I'll handle G, he and I have an understanding."

"Thanks," he said as he laughed lightly. "I guess that's it. Um, for now, I guess if anybody asks about Ed, we tell them that he's taking some personal staff time. I seriously doubt that Ed or Sam want the whole hotel to know about this."

Mike nodded as he stood up, "Yeah, good point."

"Okay, I'm going to find Mary, see if she can't get the hosts together. I need to tell them that they need to take on Sam's clients for a few days," Danny said.

"Where's Sam going?"

Both men turned around to find Nessa standing in the doorway. Figuring she needed to know what was going on, Danny reached for her hand and brought her in. Taking a deep breath, he began, "Look, this can't leave the room, okay?"

The English woman looked at the man before her, "Danny, what's going on?"

Danny put his hands on her shoulders, "Jasmine was kidnapped. Ed and Sam just got back from Metro."

"Oh my god," Nessa said as a hand shot up to her mouth. "Where's Ed?" She demanded looking between both men, "Is he at home?"

"Yeah," Mike said softly.

"I just finished my shift, I don't go back on till tomorrow night. I'm going over there to see if I can do anything," Nessa declared.

"Ness," Danny said, "Give Sam and Ed our best, okay?"

The woman nodded as she kissed Danny's cheek and left.