O.K. - I'm finally revealing some secrets in this chapter! But the big secret is yet to come! Stay tuned...

Chapter Twelve - Confessions of a Mafia Princess

F.B.I. Headquarters, Missing Persons Division - Sixty Eight Hours Missing

"Try not to fall asleep at your desk when Jack is watching, hmm?"

Danny picked his head up off his desk and blinked twice as Martin's face came into focus. He was getting too much enjoyment out of Danny's misery. "Just so you know, I blame you." Danny mumbled.

Martin held his hands up in mock surrender. "I didn't tell you to go home with Angie."

"Actually," Danny said, rubbing his eyes. "I believe you thought it was a fabulous idea when her friend brought it up. And you are the reason we were there in the first place."

"Reason you were where?" Sam asked, coming up to Danny's desk with some files for him to go over. Looking at his face, she said, "You look like hell."

Martin laughed as Danny shook his head. "I didn't get much sleep last night." He said, glaring at Martin.

"Am I missing something here?" Sam asked, looking back and forth between the two men.

"Could be. You and Viv have been gone mostly all day. Where have you been?" Danny asked, changing the subject and thumbing through the files she had laid on his desk.

"Running into dead ends." Sam said, rubbing her temples. "Guys, I don't know how we are going to work this Caruso case with what we have now. There is no way to talk to anyone without tipping off Tony and Joey Caruso. We're going to have to raise the heat under Angie Sullivan."

"Or not." Martin said, looking past Sam to the entrance to the bullpen. Mike and Angie Sullivan, accompanied by Eddie Caruso's kids, were walking through the double glass doors.

Danny stood up, but hung back when Jack greeted the pair outside his office. He called Vivian over and she spent a few moments talking to Angie, who was visibly upset. Vivian led Angie and the kids back out into the hallway as Jack approached the agents with Mike Sullivan at his side.

"I believe you three are already acquainted with Detective Mike Sullivan." Jack told them, gesturing to Mike. "He and his cousin are here to shed some light on our case."

"What brought about the change of heart?" Martin asked, eyeing Danny. Danny remained stone faced as he watched what was unfolding.

"Joey Caruso paid Angie a visit last night. And about two hours ago, Theresa Caruso was shot." Mike said. "Angie is freaked. I met her at the hospital and all she could think about was getting to Little Eddie and Rose. Once we got them, she said she wanted to come here."

"How's Theresa doing?" Samantha asked.

"She was still in surgery when we left. She lost a lot of blood and the bullet tore apart her insides. Angie couldn't get any more information without revealing who she was, so we're going to try and call the precinct in a few hours. See if I can talk to any of the cops on the scene."

"What did Joey Caruso have to say?" Jack asked, watching Martin watch Danny. Something was up.

Mike shook his head and said, "He told Angie that they didn't know where Eddie was. She believes him, but..."

"You're not so sure." Jack finished for him. "Why did he contact her?"

Mike shrugged. "Angie keeps saying something about wanting to make sure she was still following the rules. I'll let her tell you about it."

The group turned to look at where Vivian had re-entered the bullpen with Angie. Danny and Angie made it a point not to make eye contact, but he could tell she was shaken.

"I set Little Ed up with some toys in the lounge and Margie is watching over them while we talk." Vivian said, putting her hand on Angie's arm. "They should be just fine."

Angie looked like she wasn't so sure, but smiled her thanks at Vivian anyway. Casting one short look at Danny, she let Jack and Sam lead her into the interrogation room. At first Jack was hesitant about letting Mike come, but realized that Angie would be more comfortable with him in there. Martin, Vivian, and Danny took their places outside the two way mirror and watched the scene with keen interest.

"I want you to know," Jack began, "that you will be granted full immunity for anything..."

Angie shook her head. "I haven't done anything wrong. I mean, illegal or anything. I just..." Angie fumbled with her words and looked to Mike, who covered her hand with his own. "I don't have anywhere else to go."

"It's time to stop running, Ms. Sullivan. Let us help you find out what happened to your brother." Jack said, gently.

Angie laughed a dry, little laugh and looked from Jack over to Sam. "You people keep saying that. That you're going to help me. But the Caruso crime family has been in business for generations and keeps growing in size and power. The F.B.I has done nothing to stop them. Why should I believe that is going to change now?"

Jack looked away with no answers for her as Mike said, "Ang, they're just trying to help..."

But Angie continued despite her cousin's protests. Angie Sullivan didn't handle fear well and reacted by lashing out like a cat backed up against the wall. "If my sister-in-law hadn't come to you for help, you probably wouldn't even know that Eddie was missing. Or care. You would have chalked him up to being just another dead gangster."

"Your brother lived a dangerous life, Dr. Sullivan. And he knew the risks." Sam jumped in. "As of right now, he is a suspect in more than five unsolved homicides."

"I know what he is!" Angie spat out, glaring at Samantha. "And I know what he was. It's not about any of that."

"What is it about?" Jack wanted to know.

Angie lowered her voice and focused her attention back on Jack. "He's my brother. Before he was anything else, he was just my brother. And I loved him. So, when we got together it was easy to forget who he'd become and only remember who he was. I never asked about his business, and he never wanted me to. He just wanted to hear stories from the hospital and my life. We accepted each other for what we were, no demands made." Angie looked down at her hands and Danny could tell through the window that she was trying not to cry. "We have been through too much to try to force change on each other. We know that the path not taken is always the ideal road. He simply took the road that seemed right at the moment."

"Angie," Jack said, gently, "I know that he's your brother. But in the world we live in here in the F.B.I., he stands for everything we fight against every day. Trying to convince us of his inherent goodness..."

"He's not like the rest of them." Angie said, letting go of Mike's hand and looking up at Jack. "He didn't want to be the cold hearted killer that he became. I know he didn't. But he never had a choice. And that's my fault."

Jack and Sam exchanged the same look inside the interrogation room that Martin and Danny did on the other side of the window. Danny shrugged as he heard Jack say, "What do you mean?"

"You are all working from the assumption that I somehow escaped from my family and all that they stood for. But that's not what happened." Angie said, looking pointedly at Sam. "They let me go."

"In exchange for what?" Jack asked quietly.

Angie met his stare head on and in a calm voice said, "My brother's soul." Without batting an eyelash or dropping Jack's gaze, Angie continued, "You don't just leave the Caruso family, Agent Malone, unless you are in a body bag. Because the things I saw there, the things I knew, were unspeakable. I wanted out of that house so badly that I could barely breathe. I was dying inside. And after my mother died, I knew I couldn't stay any longer."

"But leaving wasn't so easy, was it?"

"There were things I knew that they never wanted told. But my parents were both dead and my Uncle Frank was my legal guardian. The Caruso's had no power to keep me there. They had to let me go. So they used the only thing they had to buy my silence...Eddie's life. In order for me to be able to leave, Eddie had to stay and learn all they had to teach him. He had to take my father's place in the organization." Angie paused, taking a sip of the water that they had put down in front of her. "And he did. He learned well. And became the monster they always wanted him to be. And that way, if I ever told anyone, Eddie would be taken down with them."

"Tactics of terror." Martin said, shaking his head.

"They terrified her." Danny whispered, watching Angie's face closely through the glass. He wanted to be there to offer her support, but he knew that wasn't possible. So he remained rooted to his spot.

"What about the rules?" Jack asked.

Angie looked down at the table, and said, "They told me that severing the ties meant severing all ties...even with Eddie. I couldn't contact any of them ever again. I thought I could handle that, but I missed him so much. I knew that to break the rules meant risking Eddie's life and I couldn't do that. Then one day, he showed up at school. And it was so good to see him. And we've been meeting in secret ever since." Angie finally looked over at Mike, shame written all over her face. The tears were beginning to form in her eyes as she told him, "I should never have let him do that for me. Things could have been different, I know that now. We could have chosen to just stay at the compound until we were of legal age and then Eddie could have made his own choices about what he wanted to do. He had less than a year before he was eighteen. But I was so scared and I couldn't wait three more years. All I could think of was getting out of there." She clutched Mike's hand and whispered, " I had a chance to save myself and I ran. I'm sorry that I was so selfish."

"No," Mike said, shaking his head. "Don't you dare apologize, Ang." Mike put his finger under Angie's chin and tipped her face up to look at his. Gently, he told her, "He had a mind of his own. He saw a chance to protect you and he did what he had to do. I don't know much about what happened, but I do know Eddie. And I'm pretty sure that if he had it to do over again, he would do it all again in a heartbeat."

"I left him there, Mikey." Angie said, the tears beginning to fall down her cheeks. "To live a life that he could never be proud of. It's my fault. All of it. He did the things he did so that I could have a normal life and they would leave me alone. Everything he's done, every life that he's taken...it's all my fault."

"You were fifteen..." Mike began, but was interrupted by Jack

"And you were scared." Jack said, quietly. "Anyone who was in your situation would have done the same thing. And I'm sure that anyone who loved you would do the same thing your brother did. He did what he felt he had to do to save you."

Sensing some understanding in Jack's tone, Angie looked back at him and said quietly, "He's not what you think." Jack nodded and Angie wiped away her tears before continuing, "He was getting out. He told me the last time we saw each other. He'd finally had enough. He couldn't even look at himself in the mirror anymore. And he wasn't going to do to his children what our parents had done to us. He wasn't going to let them know the things we know."

"No child should ever know what you must know." Sam said, echoing Danny's thoughts exactly.

"How?" Jack asked. "How was he planning to get out?"

"I don't know." Angie shook her head. "He wouldn't tell me. But something must have happened. Because he never would have done anything without Theresa and the kids.

"Something must have gone terribly wrong." Danny said to Martin, never taking his eyes off of Angie in the interrogation room. "Because now he's missing and his wife is in the hospital with a bullet in her belly."

"Angie," Jack was saying, "telling us what you have been keeping inside can't hurt Eddie now. It may even be able to help find out what happened to him. Please, tell us what happened in that house."

They were in there for over an hour as Angie recounted for them things that no child should ever have knowledge of, conversations no little girl should ever have overheard. She recalled names of people the agents knew would turn up in their files as dead or missing. Locations of mob burial sites. Memories, that if they could be substantiated, could bring down the Caruso family.

As they were nearing the end, Mike Sullivan excused himself to go get a drink. Once out in the hallway, he pounded his fist against the office wall so hard that the furniture shook. "That never should have happened. We should have known. They should have never gone back to that house." He said angrily. "No one should ever have had to live that way. Especially not her." Turning to face Danny, Martin and Vivian they could see that tough supercop Mike Sullivan had tears in his eyes. "We couldn't even help them." He whispered. "We never knew."

Vivian followed Mike down the hall, trying to console him. Danny and Martin looked at each other and said nothing. There was nothing to say. The situation was so far beyond what they had expected.

Jack came out into the viewing room and looked back through the window at Sam and Angie, who were still talking. "Girl talk." He said with a smile on his face that told them that none of this was funny. "Did you get all that?"

Martin and Danny nodded simultaneously as Martin said, "Intense, huh?"

"There's more." Jack said simply. "There's something she's still not telling us."

"I don't know, Jack." Martin said, while Danny remained silent as he watched Angie through the glass. "You heard her. How much more could there possibly be?"

"Something. Something big." Jack said, looking at Danny. "Find out what."