Chapter 28
A paramedic was just leaving when Tara and Jack arrived at Sue's apartment building. Several units of the DCPD as well as FBI agents were canvassing the streets and neighboring apartments. They hoped to find someone who may have seen or heard something. So far, there'd been nothing.
Entering the apartment, Tara quickly spotted Lucy staring glassy-eyed out the window. Making her way through the agents, officers and ERT personnel inside, Tara touched Lucy on her shoulder to get her attention. Lucy turned and struggled to hold herself together as she saw the concern and worry mirrored in Tara's eyes. Putting her arms around her friend, Tara pulled her into a comforting embrace.
From just inside the door, Jack watched the exchanged between the two women. He wanted to offer his reassurance too, but he had work to do. Checking with the DCPD officer at the door, Jack was directed to the FBI agent who'd taken charge of the scene.
The pretty, young agent was sitting on the sofa with Bobby who had a bag of ice pressed to the growing welt on the back of his head. She was trying hard to get a statement from him. However, from his animated conversation with the petite agent, Jack could see he was struggling with his own frustration of not being out with the others looking.
"Agent Hudson." The petite woman practically snapped to attention when she saw Jack approach.
"Agent Peters," Jack acknowledged. "What have we got?"
Carrie Peters had just transferred from a Kentucky field office. Garrett had asked for her to be assigned to the team temporarily to help out with the Montega case. At 27, she was still fairly green in the DC area, but the team had found her extremely competent in the short time they'd work together.
Today, her designated duty had been to watch a 10 year old witness over at a fellow agent's house. Now, here she was leading the investigation of the disappearance of an FBI employee.
"Unknown assailants, two possibly more, broke in surprising Agent Manning and Ms. Thomas," Carrie started professionally. "Upon knock out Manning and locking Ms. Thomas' dog…uh.." she looked at her notebook, "Levi, in the bathroom, the assailants appear to have taken Ms. Thomas."
"ERT?" Jack looked at her questioningly.
"When Mrs. Gans and I arrived, Agent Manning was just inside the door so his scuffle would have been limited to the short hallway there and the entrance." Waving her hand around, Carrie indicated several other spots in the room. "It appears by the looks of things Ms. Thomas put up quite a struggle so I have ERT sweeping the place to see what they can find."
"Good," Jack nodded impressed with her leadership in the situation. "What about witnesses?"
"Nothing so far," Carrie shook her head. "Teams are out canvassing the block and I've put alerts out to law enforcement with Ms. Thomas' description."
Before he could ask, she assured him, "Mrs. Gans and the children are across the hall with another agent, and Agents Leland and Gans are with the teams interviewing the neighbors."
She hesitated slightly, but confidently said, "Agent Gans assigned me lead until you arrived since I was already here."
"Good work. Continue with what you're doing," Jack responded, somewhat disappointed she'd taken care of everything he could have done. "Report to me immediately if you hear anything."
"Yes, sir," she responded. With a brief nod in Bobby's direction, she moved off to confer with one of the DCPD officers in the room.
"You okay?" Jack asked looking down at his friend.
"No, I'm not okay," the Aussie bellowed, causing several stares in his direction from the others in the room. Lowering his voice a bit, he continued in frustration, "I let my guard down, Sparky. This is all my fault."