Chapter 3 - Out of the Past
Six Hours Missing
"Did you get anything from the boyfriend?" Agent Martin Fitzgerald sidled up next to Danny as they were walking down the hallway to the offices of the F.B.I. Missing Persons Division.
"Not really. Just a rich frat punk from N.Y.U." Danny and Martin turned the corner into their unit's office and Danny noticed the case board. Maggie's beautiful young face, a mirror image of her sister, smiled back at him. "I don't think he even really cared about her. He was just using her to get his term papers written." He looked down at his desk and said, "He had a pretty good set-up going. He didn't want to do his own work so he found a smart, young girl who was easy on the eyes. He charmed her and flattered her with the attention of a college guy, then got her to do his work for him. Apparently, Maggie wasn't his only source for the papers...girls all over the city were writing for him.He had quite an operation going...selling the papers to his frat buddies and earning a little beer money."
"His folks must be so proud." Martin remarked. Walking around to his own desk, Martin was quiet for a moment before asking, "Did you really tell Stacie Callahan that you would find her sister if it's the last thing you did?"
"Lay off, Martin." Danny was not in the mood for his nonsense.
"I'm just saying...you can't make promises like that. You know that better than I do." Martin moved back over to Danny's desk and lowered his voice. "We have no idea what happened to this girl. Right now we don't know if she's dead or alive, a runaway or a kidnap victim. We have barely scratched the surface on this case."
"I know. I just..." Danny shook his head, mentally kicking himself for that lapse in judgement. He had to remain professional and keep his emotions out of this one.
"Just how high is your level of personal involvement in this case?" Martin asked as Danny glared at him. He quickly backtracked and said, "Viv told me that you and Stacie were engaged."
"It's ancient history, Martin."
"Really?" Martin's tone told Danny that he didn't believe that for a second.
"I don't want to talk about it." Danny sat down at his computer and clicked to bring up the missing persons database. He could feel Martin's eyes on his back and muttered, "But we're going to talk about it anyway, aren't we?"
Martin grinned as Danny turned back around to face him and said, "I don't see how you're going to avoid it. Everyone's curious. Especially about why we've never heard of her."
Danny sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Because it really is ancient history. Ten years ago...practically another lifetime. She was at N.Y.U. and I was a rookie field agent who liked to hang out at the bar where she worked." A smile came to Danny's lips as he recalled his pursuit of Stacie. "I was relentless. I went in there all the time, sat in her section, and tried to impress her with stories about the F.B.I. She was less than impressed, but I did manage to get under her skin."
"Wore her down, huh?" Martin grinned as Danny nodded.
"She finally went out with me out of sheer frustration. Then I worked the old charm and she didn't stand a chance. I proposed on our third date. But, she didn't accept until about a year later." Danny grinned again and continued. "I asked her to marry me everyday for that whole year. It became like a joke. Until one day she just looked at me and said yes. It was so casual, I almost missed it."
"So what happened?"
"She got accepted to Harvard Medical school. I was quickly rising up the ranks here in the New York offices and didn't want to transfer to Boston. We tried the long distance thing for awhile, but it was impossible. Med school consumed her, the Bureau consumed me. We never saw each other. I went up there to see her at Christmas and things were different." Danny looked back over at the picture of Maggie on the board, a defense mechanism to keep Martin from seeing what was really going on inside of him. "We couldn't connect anymore. It was almost forced. We spent a weekend at her uncle's place on the Vineyard a few months later and we just knew it was over." Danny straightened up and looked back at Martin, clearing the emotion out of his voice. "So we moved on. I heard she came back to New York to do her residency, but we never hooked up again once she was back in town. She met some firefighter and got married."
"He died on 9/11, right?"
"Yeah. Mike Callahan from Engine 33, I think. I don't know if they ever recovered his body." Danny said quietly. "The last time I saw her was at the memorial for her dad and step-mom."
"Did you ever meet Maggie?" Martin wondered out loud.
"Not at the memorial. There were so many people there and I didn't stay long. Stacie was just trying to hold it together. I had never seen her like that. She was always so in control and together. It's one of the things I loved most about her. Her strength. But that day, you could just tell that she was only seconds away from losing it and there wasn't anything I could do to help. I felt the same way this afternoon..." Danny's voice trailed off again as he looked out the windows of the office building. Realizing he hadn't answered Martin's question, Danny pulled himself together and said, "I met Maggie when I went home with Stacie for Christmas one year. She couldn't have been more than six. Cute kid. We sang Christmas songs around the tree and she wanted me to help her pick out cookies to leave for Santa before I gave her a piggyback ride up to bed." Danny smiled a sad smile and said, "I helped their dad put together a Barbie Dream House and a bicycle for her later that night. It was probably the best Christmas I ever had."
This was the most emotion Danny had displayed in the few years they had known each other and while Martin was glad his friend finally felt comfortable enough to confide in him, he was also worried. "Are you going to be able to handle this, Danny?" he asked.
Indignant, Danny said flatly, "I told you it was ancient history."
"It doesn't sound all that ancient to me..."
Martin was cut off by Jack opening the door to his office and calling out, "We got something on the boyfriend. You guys are going to want to see this."