Chapter 12: Caught
Sutherland Psychiatric Clinic, near McPherson Square
Monday, 14 June
3:00 PM
Evan Graham's voice slid into her consciousness like a blade. "So much for protective custody," he whispered as he dropped the phone onto its cradle. "I guess the FBI isn't all it's cracked up to be after all."
So close… we were so close, Myles… oh, you were right… Elizabeth felt her knees give out, and she gripped the edge of her desk, refusing to give him the satisfaction of seeing her faint. Her fingers brushed a button on the underside of her desk. The recorder, she thought. If all else fails, at least there will be some evidence he was here. She pushed the button, turning on the digital recording unit she used for patient sessions. Then she tried to think of a way to let someone know it was on.
"So silent, Dr, Dillingham?" Graham stepped around and grabbed her chin roughly. She met the blue eyes with a defiant gaze of her own, and felt his hand tighten on her face. "You should have thought of that when you chose not to keep your mouth shut eight years ago," he hissed menacingly.
She didn't move, since the gun was still trained on her. But her own voice was filled with a bit of anger. "If you'd chosen not to slaughter your wife, we wouldn't be here at all, would we?"
His hand dropped to her throat, and suddenly it was much harder to breathe. But the movement caused something to shift on her wrist, and she remembered she was wearing a silver bracelet Myles had given her last Valentine's Day. Her hands had landed close enough together that she could undo the delicate clasp without Graham noticing. A second later, the herringbone chain dropped to the floor without a sound.
Elizabeth refused to drop her gaze, or to indicate that the blood was now pounding in her ears. His voice in her ear was perversely soft, and she was so very glad he wasn't a baritone. "What I did was between my wife and I, within the marital relationship. You and the rest had no right to interfere."
She couldn't stop a snort of disgust from escaping, and she felt his hand tighten. She could barely get the words out. "You need to go back… and read the rules of marriage again," she choked.
A truly evil smile spread across his features, and he released his grip on her throat and grasped her arm, nestling the gun against her ribs. "Well, my lovely shrink," he whispered again, "we'll have plenty of time for you to enlighten me. Let's go." — 3:04
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Between the Hoover Building and the clinic
3:00 p.m.
"Can't you make this thing go any faster?" Myles leaned up toward the driver's seat.
Bobby glanced in the rear-view mirror. "Only if you don't want to get there in one piece, mate. It's only a couple more blocks."
Jack turned around in the front passenger seat to look at Myles. It took a split-second to evaluate what he was seeing. Then he spoke, putting enough authority and power into his voice to break through the emotional storm he saw brewing.
"Myles."
Blue-grey eyes met his.
"You have between here and the clinic to get a grip, or I will put the cuffs on you myself and lock you in this car. I don't want to have to worry about you blowing this guy away in a fit of anger."
The blond agent looked at him for a moment, then nodded, taking a deep breath. A movement later, Jack was looking at a handgun being held out to him, barrel down. He met his friend's gaze again, and nodded soberly as he took the firearm.
"All right. D, what's SOG got?"
Dimitrius was just hanging up his cell phone. "They haven't got a clue, Jack. There's been no one in or out of that building since 2 p.m. And everyone else checks out – each one that's gone in has come out."
"How's that possible?" Bobby was incredulous.
"I don't know," was the older agent's reply. "But apparently Even Graham has covered all his bases." He noticed a wince from the younger man next to him, and laid a hand on Myles' shoulder. "We'll find her, Myles. She was wearing that pin you gave her, right?"
Myles nodded. "Yes. I saw it on her blazer this morning. Her last appointment… we were so close…" He glanced at his colleagues, then made an effort to get control of his emotions. "Sorry. It's just been a feeling that was eating at me ever since this morning."
3:05— They pulled up at the clinic, and Bobby and Dimitrius immediately headed into the building. Jack gave Myles one last penetrating gaze. "We'll wait and see what they find first."
It only took a minute before D's voice came over the radio. "The clinic's pretty much deserted, Jack," he said. "Looks like Liz and Amy were the last ones here."
"Yeah, well, Amy didn't leave," Bobby added tensely. She's right here by her desk with a bullet in her heart. Probably died instantly."
Jack listened, then turned to Myles, who didn't have his radio. "Amy's dead," he said, watching the reaction. "Shot through the heart."
The blond agent had to take an extra breath before he could speak. "Elizabeth?"
"Hang on." Jack listened again as D's voice sounded in his ear.
"There's no one here, Jack. However he got in, he must have taken her out the same way. Nothing looks disturbed at a first glance."
"All right. Stay there for a minute." He looked up at Myles. "She's not there. I think it's safe to assume he's taken her somewhere else." Jack turned away for a moment at the pain he read in his friend's eyes. "We could use your help, just for a minute."
"How? I can't…"
Jack looked at him straight-on again. "D says it looks like nothing's been disturbed. We could use someone who knows Elizabeth and her office setup pretty well. We're under the gun here, so to speak. The sooner we figure out where he's taken her, the sooner she'll be back in your arms."
3:08— Myles walked into her office, trying to clear his head enough to be of some use to them. He looked around, mentally reviewing the last time he'd been here. Something definitely felt different, but he couldn't place what. His eyes swept the room, then focused on the tan carpet. A slight glitter by her desk caught his eye, and he reached for Jack's arm. "There, on the floor by the right corner of her desk. Something shiny."
Dimitrius was closest, and he knelt down to retrieve a delicate chain. "Silver bracelet," he stated.
Myles nodded. "I gave it to her for Valentine's Day. But the clasp is fairly secure; it wouldn't have just fallen off…"
"It's still intact," D observed. "Which means Graham didn't rip it off her arm."
Suddenly Myles remembered something. "D, look just under the edge of her desk."
The older agent did so. "A button for something. And a green LED lit up."
"Bobby, open up that closet right there." The blond agent's voice held a trace of excitement.
The Aussie drew back the bi-fold doors to reveal a compact computer station. There was a program running that looked a bit like a CD player. "A recording device of some sort?"
Myles nodded. "She uses it for her patient sessions, so she can review them later. She must have been close enough to the button to activate it, then slipped the bracelet off her wrist so we'd figure it out."
"Smart lady," D said with a faint smile. "It may also give us some evidence against him." He turned off the recorder, then restarted it. They listened intently as the conversation replayed. Several heads shook in amazement at Elizabeth's responses to Graham.
"She's got nerve, I'll say that for her," Jack commented.
"She's running on anger right now," Myles replied softly. "It's the only defense she has. If she can stay angry enough at him, he can't get into her head as much."
They heard the sound of handcuffs being clicked around wrists, and then a shuffle, as if someone had been pushed. Fading footsteps, then silence… until Dimitrius' and Bobby's voices faded in about a minute later.
3:14— "He hasn't got that much of a head start," Bobby said.
"Yeah, but where? How'd they get out with no trace?" Jack was scanning the room again, and noticed a door on the back wall of the office. "Myles, what's that lead to?"
"It's a direct access to the parking structure below," the Harvard grad answered, glancing over.
Bobby walked over and slowly turned the knob, then pushed the door open with his gun. "It's quiet."
"Bobby, look." D knelt down again. This time he picked up a small ring, nestled in the corner of the doorsill. He looked up at Myles, who nodded. D chuckled. "She's good. You sure you can't talk her into switching careers?"
"Never thought I'd be happy to see a woman who has a thing for jewelry," Bobby quipped.
A shade of a smile crossed Myles' face. "It makes for very little agonizing over what to get for a gift."
"Let's go, guys," Jack said. "Maybe we can catch him before he gets too far."
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3:13— Elizabeth had never been so glad that she was a "jewelry hound." The several delicate rings she favored on her hands had become indispensable in the past few minutes. The last one slipped from her finger as Graham dragged her over to a steel door in the underground parking area for the physicians in the complex. She could barely make out "WDC Utility" stamped on the door.
"Inside," he said roughly, swinging the door open. She stumbled into the dark tunnel, almost losing her balance. He had cuffed her hands in front of her before practically shoving her down the stairs of the private entrance in her office that led directly to the parking area.
"Now." His hand clamped on her arm again, the gun bruised her ribs, and his voice hissed in her ear. "We're going for a little walk. And there's no point in trying to make a break for it. There are only two exits in the space we're covering: your clinic and my car. And I just locked the one we came through. It has to be unlocked from the outside, by the way, unless you have a special key, which I have and I really don't think you want to go searching for." The gun caressed her cheek briefly. "As much fun as that might be. So you're going to behave yourself, or it will just add to all I have planned for you later. Do you understand?"
She nodded, cringing at the feel of his cheek against her hair, trying to keep in her head that his comments were simply meant to frighten her.
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3:15— As they worked their way down the stairs, Jack was on his phone. "Tara, activate that tracker in Elizabeth's pin."
There was a second's silence, then her voice, strained. "It's not working, Jack. I can't pull it up."
"What?" Heads turned at his voice, but he ignored them. "Is it the program or the tracker that's the problem?"
"It'll take me a few minutes to determine that. But I can type faster if I'm not carrying on a conversation at the same time."
"Hand the phone to Lucy, then. I'm not hanging up." Jack turned to the other three agents, who had all stopped on the stairwell. Myles' face in particular made the shorter agent wish he didn't have to tell them. "Tara can't activate the tracking device. She's trying to find the problem now."
"You think Graham figured out what it was?" Bobby asked.
"I'm not going to stop to speculate now," came the tense reply. "Let's go. Keep your eyes out for any more of Liz's trail-markers."—3:19
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3:23— They walked in dark silence for about ten minutes; then she saw a light ahead.
"Here's our stop," he whispered gleefully. He suddenly spun her around, pinning her against the access ladder with his body. The gun caressed her cheek again, and she turned her face away in disgust. "Now, now, my lovely captive," he murmured. "There's no need to shy away. I have no intention of doing anything until we're someplace I know we won't be disturbed."
The fact that her bound hands rested about six inches below his belt-line made Elizabeth want to retch, but it also gave her an idea. In as quick a movement as she could, she twisted her hands until she could dig her nails savagely into the sensitive area between his legs. Let it be enough, dear Lord, PLEASE…
Graham yelped and jumped back, but she hadn't had the correct angle to do any actual damage, so she followed up with a kick to the same area that missed but caught his knee. He went down, hard, and the gun spun out of his hand. Elizabeth sprinted back toward the other access door, but a deafening roar stopped her short and a spark lit the wall not a foot from her.
Graham's hand grabbed her arm before she could recover from the sound of the gunshot. He slammed her up against the steel wall with enough force that her head spun for a moment. "Perhaps you haven't quite grasped the order of things here," he hissed. "I'd forgotten you were one of these independent types. I guess we need an early lesson."
3:25— His fist flashed out as he backhanded her, hard, right at her cheekbone. Elizabeth forced herself not to cry out, even as pain shot clear back to her spine. She faced him defiantly, letting the anger flow through her and keep her strong.
He grabbed her arm again, pulling her close but staying behind her this time. "That was a very unwise move," he growled fiercely, dragging her back to the access hatch. Suddenly they heard voices from the other end of the tunnel. Graham grabbed her hair and yanked back, hard. "One word, one sound out of you and I will start firing down that tunnel. And I don't much care whether I hit your lover or one of his buddies. Up the ladder. Now."
3:27— Still a little dizzy, Elizabeth meekly climbed the access ladder. Once they were out of the tunnel, Graham pushed her over toward a nearby car. He reached into the passenger seat and pulled out a zipper bag containing a white cloth. "I think we'll just make sure you don't pull anything else like that," he said, snapping the bag off the cloth. In a lightning movement, he pressed the cloth over her nose and mouth, holding her tightly as she struggled.
Her last coherent thought before the darkness took her was, Oh, Myles, I'm so sorry…
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3:23— The last ring was gold, looking so very much like a wedding band that Myles had to shut his eyes. So close, he thought. We were so damn close to being safe.
They'd found the ring next to a utility tunnel entrance. A single scrape on the concrete floor indicated the door had been opened recently. Just as they approached it, there was the faint but distinct sound of a gunshot echoing from inside the tunnel.
"Bobby…" Jack's voice was tense as he watched Myles' reaction.
Bobby already had his lock-picks out, working on the door. "On it, mate."
"That explains how he got in," Dimitrius commented. "He probably had this planned out before we ever realized Elizabeth was the target. He could start from two miles away, and nobody would ever connect it up."
"Bet he made a special key like the ones the utility company has," the Aussie added. "These doors aren't made to be locked from the inside by accident; too many chances of kids wandering in while they're working on the lines. Workers go out another hatch, lock it behind them; the kid would be stuck."
3:26— After what seemed like an eternity, but by Jack's watch was three minutes, the door swung open. There was an indistinct sound from far down the tunnel. Bobby and D each pulled a flashlight out of their pockets and went in, fast but cautious. Before they heard any more voices, there was a muffled clanging, like a hatch being closed.
Myles started to follow, but Jack held him back. "We're staying right here," the dark-haired agent said. "No chances, unarmed or not."
The blond agent nodded, holding his breath. For a split-second, he could have sworn he heard Elizabeth's voice: Oh, Myles, I'm so sorry… But he brushed it off as just worry.
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3:28— Evan Graham gazed at the still form lying in the trunk of his car. Too late, G-man. I heard you all… you waited too long, left her too accessible… now she's mine, and I will make sure you will have evidence of all that transpired… but too late to do anything but mourn. How deep is she in your heart, I wonder?
He slammed the trunk shut, then reached back into the passenger window and retrieved a small envelope. He flung it down into the utility tunnel, then replaced the cover, got into his car, and drove away. —3: 30
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3:31— About five minutes later, D's voice echoed over the radio. "It's clear. There's no one here, but we found where they exited."
Jack and Myles followed his voice at a dead sprint.
3:34— He stared at the envelope. Special Agent Myles Leland III, it read in an ornate script. Evan Graham had apparently put his computer to good use. Myles' hands were shaking as he slipped on a pair of gloves and took the note from Bobby. Only the fact that there'd been no blood found at all had him still functioning. The rest was becoming a blur.
"No." Dimitrius retrieved the note from him. "Myles, you know full well it's not a ransom note. He's just trying to run you through his maze some more. Don't let him. Leave it be."
"I have to know." The baritone voice was barely a whisper.
"Not here." After a long moment, D saw a slight nod, and slipped the note into an evidence bag.
Jack had gone up the access ladder to check out the area above. Now he called to the rest of them, and they climbed back up into daylight.
They looked all around, but the area was a narrow alley; there was no sign of a car, no sound of one pulling out. They were too late.
"We didn't miss by much," Bobby remarked, picking up a white cloth on the ground. He sniffed at it gingerly. "Chloroform. And this stuff evaporates quick. I'd say we missed them by about two minutes."
Myles was leaned up against a wall, his eyes closed, trying just to stay out of their way and on his feet. "Two minutes," he whispered. "Oh, sweetheart… two minutes."
Dimitrius came over and placed a hand on Myles' shoulder. "We did everything we could, Myles. You did everything you could. We'll find her. It'll be okay."
The taller agent shook his head. "I should have insisted she stayed home today, all this time we've been messing with her schedule. I should have insisted… should have let you all handle it…"
"She'd have hated you for it, and you know it," D answered. "She chose to put her patients' well-being first. I thought that's part of why you fell in love with her in the first place."
Jack walked over. "Myles, standing here playing 'if only I'd' isn't going to help. Tara's still trying to work the bugs out of the tracking program. Let's go back to the office and see what else we can do."
"I can't go with you. Garrett will hang us both. Maybe I should just go home."
Jack shook his head. "No way, for two reasons. One: no one should have to face something like this alone. And two: I'd still prefer to keep an eye on you. Nothing personal."
Myles nodded. "I understand perfectly. And thank you. To the office it is, then."
"Yeah," Bobby agreed, "maybe all that electronic gremlin needs is a swift kick in the CPU."
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