Tom got himself a cup of coffee, and sipped it slowly as he watched the screen. There was nothing happening and he nearly drifted off again; he was feeling so tired. He should have taken a nap while Judy and Harry were on duty, but it had seemed too early, and Doug had insisted on playing cards. Now as they were coming into the early hours of the morning, the day's excursions were catching up on him.

Suddenly Doug's voice came over the walkie-talkie. Through the static, Tom heard the muffled message; "Man, get out here!"

At the sound of fear in his partner's voice, Tom felt wide awake. He leapt up from the table and raced to the door. He was in such a hurry he forgot to grab a flashlight, but there was no time to go back for it; Doug was in trouble. He ran down the corridor, barely able to see where he was going, and nearly fell down the stairs, only just managing to grab hold of the banister and steady himself.

He took a second to compose; he would not be any help to Doug with two broken legs. He bombed down the steps, gripping the banister as he went; it seemed to take forever to reach the bottom.

The door to the street stood open, and Tom raced outside into the rain, bracing himself for what he might see.

All he saw was Doug, standing with his back towards the building, alone on the dark street.

"Doug?" Tom called over the sound of rainfall.

Doug did not hear him, and Tom was suddenly filled with anxiety. For a moment he was afraid of Doug, and it took every effort not to run back inside, and up to the apartment.

"Doug?" Tom called again, louder this time.

"What?" Doug said, spinning round to face his partner.

"You okay?" Tom said, using his fingers to rake the wet hair back off his forehead. "What happened?"

"I thought I saw something," Doug replied. "But I guess I made a mistake."

"Come in, out of the rain," Tom told him.

Once they were back inside and the door was firmly shut, he asked Doug; "Did you find those guys?"

"No," Doug replied, "they must have heard me coming and run for it. Probably just trying to get out of the rain."

Tom noticed that Doug was now looking past him, over his shoulder, his face twisted in surprised. Tom spun around to see a figure standing at the bottom of the stairs, hidden in deep shadow.

"Hey."

Tom let out a sigh of relief, as he recognised the voice as Harry's.

Doug said; "You scared the hell out of me, man."

"What's going on? I woke up and you guys were gone," Harry said; his voice thick with sleep.

"Sorry," Tom replied. "I must have woken you when I came racing down stairs for," he looked at Doug, "a mistake."

"I thought I saw something!" Doug protested.

"Like what?" Harry asked.

Doug shifted uncomfortable under their glaze, and said finally, "A movement in the trees."

"Of course you saw a movement in the trees," Tom replied hotly. "I don't know if you've noticed, but there's a raging storm out there! Look at me, I'm soaked!"

"Sorry," Doug replied, bounding up the stairs, two at a time. Harry gave a small chuckle and went after him.

Tom let out a sigh and followed on; "There were some guys out there," he admitted.

"Trick-or-treaters," Doug added, and then reaching the top of the stairs he shouted out; "Hey!"

"I didn't leave that like that," Tom heard Harry say, and pushing passed him, he saw the door to the apartment was wide open.

As he went inside and scanned the room, Tom felt his breath catch in his throat; Judy was gone.