Chapter Eight - Looks Can Be Deceiving

F.B.I. Missing Person Unit Offices - Just over Twenty Four Hours Missing

"Natalie said she heard kids outside the basement. She thinks there may be a school in the area." Danny headed over to where Ty and Viv were still configuring scenarios on the computer database.

"Okay," Ty said, the ideas already forming in his head as his fingers flew over the keyboard, "we can use that. Let's overlap the crypto and Jack Pine foliage map we got before with all outdoor school playgrounds in those areas." Another map came up onto the screen, but before they could examine the results, Ty was off and running on the keyboard again. "Then, taking into account the auditory range of kids at play, we can most likely eliminate all houses outside of a quarter mile radius."

The final map showed up on the screen, highlighting the remaining neighborhoods. "Which leaves us with two neighborhoods." Danny said, reading the screen. "One in Yonkers, One in Brooklyn. Still a 50/50 split."

"But we're getting closer." Viv said, laying a hand on his sagging shoulder.

"Hang on, Maggie." he whispered more to himself than to Viv and Ty, "Just keep holding on. We're coming."

"Danny, we need you in here for a minute."

Danny looked up to see Jack calling him from the door of his office. When he reached Jack's office, he noticed saw that Jack and Martin were not alone in there. "Agent Taylor, this is Gloria LeMarque. She is a nurse at Cornell Medical Center."

"We met this morning, Ms. LeMarque. I'm Danny Taylor." Danny reached out to shake the woman's hand. He remembered her being quite full of life when they had met earlier that day, but now her face was somber, her eyes were red, and she looked as if she had been crying. Danny didn't like the looks of this. "How can we help you?"

"She's here to help us, Danny." Jack picked a brown mailing envelope up off his desk. He hesitated before handing it over to Danny. "Stacie Callahan received this a little while ago. It was delivered to her at the hospital, but no one seems to know by whom."

Danny had a skeptical look on his face as he took the envelope from Jack and opened it. Jack, Martin, and Gloria's eyes followed his every movement. From the envelope, Danny removed a photograph that caused the bile to rise up in his throat and the blood to boil in his veins. It was a picture of Maggie, eyes wide open and lying in a pool of blood, with bruising all over her body that suggested she had been beaten to death. Danny closed his eyes.

"It's staged, Danny."

Danny's eyes flew open as he looked at Martin. "I contacted some of the parents of the girls who Natalie identified as being held in the basement with her. Each of the parents had given up the search for their daughter, convinced that she was dead."

"Because they all received a photo like that in the mail." Jack finished for him. "But if the girls were really dead, Bobby Harris and Claudia Reynolds wouldn't have a business. It's staged, Danny, to keep the police from looking for them."

Danny threw the horrid picture down on the desk and looked at Gloria. "Where is Stacie?"

Gloria shook her head. "I don't know. When she recovered from the shock of seeing that picture, she ran out of the hospital." Gloria looked pleadingly up at the agents. "I've known that girl for over six years now. And the rage I saw in her eyes tonight was unlike anything I've ever seen. For the first time since I've met her, I'm afraid for her. Maggie going missing was the last straw..."

"Life has finally thrown her the one thing she can't handle. Losing the only person she has left." Danny finished for her and Gloria nodded.

"She doesn't know it's staged, Danny." Jack said, his tone deadly serious. "Is she...?"

"Yes." Danny nodded, knowing what he was asking before he even had to say the words. "Stacie is taking things into her own hands. She hasn't gone off somewhere to grieve. She's going after Bobby Harris." The group could hear Gloria's swift intake of breath as Danny said the words.

"Then we have to find them both first. Before she does something stupid."

"Stacie's smart, Jack. And now she's..." Danny began, but was cut off by Sam throwing open the door to Jack's office.

"Jack, we just got a call from the police precinct in Greenwich Village. Some guys at a frat house called in a 911 about a woman holding one of their brothers at gunpoint."

"Damn it!" Jack pounded on his desk as Danny simultaneously pounded his fist against the wall.