Chapter 20

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Jack and Victor stopped talking and turned to look at Sam. Victor took a step towards her and asked, "What do you mean you know?"

"I think I might know." Sam replied, suddenly feeling incredibly self conscious.

"What do you think you might know?" Jack asked.

"I heard him use the phrase, 'come out smelling like a rose' before. He told me about spending time at his uncle's cabin where there was an outhouse. His aunt Bonnie used to hang flowers from the ceiling of the outhouse and his uncle Roger would say, 'they had the only outhouse where no matter how deep the shit you would always came out smelling like a rose.' I think he was telling us he was near water and maybe in a cabin or shed…." Sam trailed off suddenly realizing that she probably should have thought it through further before sharing.

Victor considered what she said and then added, "Well, based on Mac's findings we do know he was near water but it still doesn't help us narrow down his location."

"Actually it might." Mac interjected as the three of them turned to look at him. "My cousin Walt works for the Parks and Recreation and he told me that when they are doing construction or maintenance on tunnels, aqueducts, etc. they set up small trailers or sheds to hold supplies."

Jack studied Mac for a beat before turning to Sam and Victor, "We can get a list of the locations where they are working and look into it." He looked pointedly at Sam and said, "When Danny and Viv get back the three of you start looking into potential areas and also check to see if Jake Miller has any connection to a cabin. Check Parks and Rec employee records, too." He looked back at Victor and said, "In the meantime, I think we should continue preparing for the ransom drop."

Victor nodded and said, "I'll go call my banker and check on his progress. Agent Spade, I'm glad that you could figure out what Martin was trying to tell us. It's good that Martin has someone who knows him so well and he can count on." He gave her a sad smile before he turned and walked out of the room. As she watched him walk away she couldn't help but think he seemed disappointed that he wasn't the one who figured it out.

"Jack, do you want me to hang out here?" Mac rolled his chair back and stood up. "Viv called and asked me to go check out Jake Miller's computer at his apartment. I told her I'd leave as soon as I finished up here."

Sam glanced at Mac and smiled. She knew that he and Martin got along really well. At heart Martin was a bit of a computer nerd and liked keeping up on the newest technology so he and Mac would often hang out and talk about the latest advances in the field.

"Call her and have someone bring the computer here. I want you to keep working on that phone call and see if you can find out anything that could be useful." Jack directed and Mac nodded his head as he reached for the phone.

"I'll just go get a list of places to start looking." Sam commented to Jack as he moved to the door.

Jack eyed her carefully before replying, "Good. I really hope your guess is right." He exited and walked to his office. He didn't say the words but Sam knew what he meant: if Martin's hint wasn't about being held captive in a cabin or shed than maybe all he was trying to tell them was that he was in deep shit.

Sam walked back to the bullpen and started researching possible places Martin could be held. She glanced at the clock on her computer screen and saw that it was a little after two in the morning. Her headache was still lingering so she reached into her desk drawer and pulled out a bottle of Excedrin. She downed the pills with the last of her cold coffee and put her elbows on her desk as she rubbed her temples. She opened her eyes and saw that the computer program was still conducting its search so she stood up and went off in search of a fresh cup of coffee in the break room.

Coffee mug in hand she entered the break room and found Elizabeth Fitzgerald sitting at one of the tables looking at the pictures from the email video. She looked up and gave Sam a smile.

"Hello." Sam greeted as she walked over to the coffee machine to fill her cup with the hot brown liquid.

"Hello." Beth put down the photo she was holding. "I cannot seem to stop looking at these, thinking I can make some connection or find some clue. I think it makes me feel like I am not entirely useless."

Sam poured cream into her coffee and said, "It's good. You never know, you might remember some detail that could be very important."

Beth glanced at Sam, "Victor told me that you might have figured out what Martin was trying to tell us. That's good, you're quite clever. I can see why Martin is so fond of you."

Sam was unsure if Beth meant as co-workers or about their relationship so she decided to answer equally vague and replied, "I'm fond of him, too."

Beth nodded solemnly and said, "It's a shame things didn't work out between you and Martin but it's good to know that you are still friends."

"Yeah, it is." Sam waved her hand in the direction of the bullpen and stepped back. "I better get back to work."

"Yes, of course." Beth replied.

Sam gave her a small forced smile and hurried out of the room. She was not expecting the word, 'friend' to feel like a punch to the gut. It felt as painful as being called the 'ex-girlfriend.' As she headed down the hall her stomach turned as she realized that she spent so much time keeping her relationship with Martin a secret in order to avoid being labeled the office slut that she never took the time to consider what the other labels she would get as a result or how she would like them a lot less.

She was walking back down the hall when the elevator doors slid open and Danny and Viv exited. He was carrying a CPU while Viv was holding a medium cardboard box.

"Hey." Danny as he shifted the CPU in his arms to get a better grip.

"Is that the stuff from Jake Miller's apartment?" Sam asked as she got into step alongside them.

"Yeah, I'm just going to take it over to Mac for him to analyze." Danny said as he continued further down the hall to the tech room.

Sam and Viv headed into the bullpen and each updated the other on what they learned. It felt like definite progress was being made. Sam glanced at her computer and saw that so far not hits had been found so she opened up the box and started looking through the contents.

She found a big stack of folders and said, "Are these the surveillance photos of Martin that Danny mentioned?"

Viv stopped and looked at Sam as she said, "Yeah, but they aren't just of Martin."

Sam eyed her as she opened up the folder. She flipped through the photos and realized what Viv meant. There were so many photos of her and Martin that were taken without their knowledge. It was creepy to see her and Martin living their life only to now know that someone was watching them without their knowledge. She stopped at a photo of her and Martin as they walked down the sidewalk. It had been one of the days near the end of their relationship when all they did was fight. She didn't want to argue with him but she felt increasingly defensive and self-conscious around him and it manifested itself in her being increasingly irritable.

"So what do you want to do tonight?" Sam asked as they headed to her apartment. He had to park his car two blocks away but fortunately it was a warm spring night so the walk was actually quite nice. They walked side by side not touching since Martin had tried to hold her hand and she pretended to busy herself by trying to find her house keys.

"I don't know, maybe we could go out to dinner?" Martin offered trying to sound casual but Sam knew that what he was really hinting at: now that everyone on the team knew about them he wanted to start venturing out more and officially go public.

Sam tilted her head as if considering when she turned to him and said, "I'm kind of tired. How about we just order in?"

Out of the corner of her eye she could see Martin's jaw clench before he said, "It's never going to be the right time for you is it?"

"Martin, it's not that, I'm tired." Sam replied as they neared her front stoop.

"Yeah, I can know how exhausting a long day of doing paperwork can be." Martin replied angrily. He stopped and said, "Sam, what is it? I thought it would be easier for us now that everyone at work now knows about us but instead it's just gotten worse. You want to hide even more now."

"Martin, that's not true. Can't I just be tired?" She pulled out her keys as they moved up the steps to her front door. She put the key in the lock and moved inside but Martin didn't follow. "Are you coming in or not?"

He looked at her with narrowed eyes and said, "You know, since you're so tired I think I'll just go home. Let you get some rest." And then he turned around and went down the steps.

"Martin….." Sam began but he was halfway down the sidewalk and if did hear her he chose to ignore it. It drove her crazy when he ran away from her like some petulant child who didn't get his way so she refused to chase after him and slammed her door shut.

Sam looked at the photo and sighed. She flipped to the next photograph and there was a picture of Martin as he walked away from her and down the steps. He looked so sad and it squeezed Sam's heart to see his disappointment in her, in them. She suddenly felt very guilty and closed the folder unable to look at the documented evidence of her relationship falling apart. She put the folder on the table and walked back to her computer with renewed vigor. She was going to find Martin and let him know just what he means to her.