Hi all, Ah reviews, the happiest part of my days…you guys are the best! I know I said it before, but honestly, thanks so much to everyone…pealee, i'm glad people arent totally confused! As for Martin, he may be in for a rough time I'm afraid….

Chapter 8

July 2004

"Patrick Jameson?" Jack held out his badge to the man standing behind a half open door. "Jack Malone, FBI."

The door closed and Jack could hear various bolts and chains being maneuvered until eventually the door opened enough to allow him to step into the hall of the 3rd floor Queens apartment.

"It's about Michael isn't it? That boy has been nothing but trouble since the day he was born; I swear to God sometimes I wish he weren't my own." Mr. Jameson's voice was rattley, and the cloud of smoke that Jack walked into in the living room was some clue as to why. His voice still had faint traces of the man's Irish accent. He was about 70, Jack guessed, and had at one time been tall, although he was bent over so much now that it was hardly obvious anymore. The older man sat down heavily on an armchair and indicated another to Jack.

"So what's he done now, huh? It must be pretty bad to get the FBI involved. I swear to you, I did my best for that boy, after his mother passed on, Lord have mercy on her….."

"Mr. Jameson" Jack intervened. "I'm not here about your son Michael, it's about Stan.

"What about him?" Patrick Jameson's voice changed and became almost defensive. "He was in prison, last I heard. Best place for him too, disgracing the family like that. Broke his mother's heart he did. That's what carried her off you know, all the reporters outside asking questions about how she could raise her son to become a kidnapper and saying that we all knew where that boy was all along, but sure how could we? He never came home all that time, we weren't to know…"

Again Jack had to cut across the man. "Mr. Jameson, your son was released almost three months ago. We believe he might be involved in the disappearance of an FBI officer.

"Well I can't help you. As far as I'm concerned the boy might as well be dead. I want nothing to do with him, and I told him as much when he went insi…." At this point however, the man started coughing, a loud wheezy cough that could only be brought about by years of smoking. Jack watched as he stood up, still coughing and walked over to a nearby table on which there stood an open bottle of whiskey.

"Care for some?" he motioned towards Jack.

"Bit early in the day for me." Jack noted the large tumbler full that the man poured himself, almost a quarter of the bottle.

"When you get to my age, sure what else have you, I only have the two sons and neither of them are worth much, my wife's dead. Sure what else can I do Mr. Malone?. The man was almost challenging Jack.

Jack sighed inwardly, cursing this man and his wasted journey. "So you can't give me any information on where your son might be? And he hasn't tried to contact you at all?"

The man shook his head before gulping down the tumbler full of whiskey and pouring another.

"Told you, didn't I? I don't know and I don't care." Now if that's all you came for you know where the door is."

Jack stood up and started towards the hall, before pausing. He stood for a moment and then spoke. "The missing FBI agent, his name is Martin Fitzgerald."

He paused again and waited. After what seemed an eternity Jameson spoke.

"Marty….you mean the boy?"

Jack turned and looked directly at Patrick Jameson. "Not a boy anymore, but yes. We believe that Stan blames Agent Fitzgerald or his father for what happened and is planning to use Martin somehow. We have no idea where they might be though and we are running out of time. If you could help us at all Mr. Jameson………. Please" he added.

"I liked the boy. I saw him on the T.V …after….when they found him. He never cried, not once. Plucky kid you know…" I was sorry about his mother; she looked like a beautiful lady."

Again there was a momentary silence. The old man was obviously thinking…deciding. Jack just stood, waiting.

Patrick Jameson sighed heavily before continuing. "One of the neighbors told me that she saw Stan a couple of weeks back. He was staying with a guy called Jim something or other...his parents have a launderette over on 5th and Harper.

"Thank you." Jack had his phone to his ear before he was through the front door. "Danny? You and Sam meet me at a launderette in Queens, 5th and Harper"

&&&&&&&&&&

The apartment over the launderette was a mess. "Either they were robbed, or there's been one hell of an argument here." Danny Taylor picked his way across the strewn furniture, broken glass and assorted other rubble. They all had their guns drawn, but the cold silence of the apartment indicated that no-one was home."

"What did the girlfriend say?" Jack asked as be began rooting through some papers on the floor.

"Ex-girlfriend" Sam replied. "Not a lot to be honest. Apparently she stopped visiting Stan more than ten years ago and has nothing more to do with him. I believe her too. She's married now with a child."

"We have a body!" Danny called out and Jack and Sam both made their way into the bedroom where Danny was kneeling beside a man of about 30 who was lying on the floor. He checked for breathing and then for a pulse. "He's alive."

As Sam called for assistance the man started to stir.

"Easy, Jim, right?" The man nodded. "Jim you're ok; there's an ambulance on its way." Danny grabbed a towel from the floor and pressed it on a nasty gash on the man's forehead. "What happened?"

With Danny's assistance the man, 'Jim' or so they presumed, pulled himself up until he was leaning against the end of the bed.

"I dunno, he just went crazy" The man began, "He disappeared for a couple of days and then came back yesterday and said he'd taken some cop. I tried to stop him, told him he'd be back in the slammer for good, but he wouldn't listen, I tried to take the gun off him and he just lost it, he went for me."

"Stan Jameson, is that who you are talking about?" Danny knew the answer but had to ask the question nonetheless.

"Yeah, yeah, Stan. He's been crashing here since he got out. I thought he was ok, you know, he got a job, he even started seeing some girl, he was getting it together. Then last weekend he saw the father of that kid on the news… Victor something or other……and its like he snapped or something."

'Victor something or other………' So it was true. Jameson had Martin. What had been up to this point a 'maybe' suddenly became a definite. Danny looked at Jack,

"If you knew this last week, then why didn't you tell someone back then….why……" Danny began, his voice rising as worry and realization took hold.

"Taylor, go check for that ambulance." Jack's voice was firm. "NOW" he continued checking any protest that Danny might have made.

Danny stood up and glared at his superior before storming out of the bedroom. Jack sighed quietly before turning his attention to the by now nervous man before him.

"He didn't tell me anything, honest I swear." Jim began. "I thought he was just blowing off steam, you know. I didn't think he'd do anything crazy like that. I don't know where he'd go."

"You said he had a girlfriend" Sam asked having finished searching the bedroom. "Do you know who she is?"

She was just finishing scribbling down the name and discription when the paramedics arrived they were ushered out of the room.

Back on the street Danny was pacing up and down the sidewalk. "Would you stop" Jack chastised him, "You're making me dizzy, what the hell is wrong with you anyway?"

"I…….nothin, it doesn't matter. What next?" was Danny's reply. But his eyes were troubled.

Jack knew what was wrong with him, the same thing that was wrong with them all, but no-one was going to admit. Guilt. A strange, possibly misplaced guilt. After all they had done nothing wrong. Martin should have told them, should have said he was in danger. It wasn't their place to pry and anyway, the man was like a closed book at time.

But then, no-one really asked either.

"Sam can you meet up with Viv, see what she found out, and then find out everything you can about Stan's time inside, the friends he had, what he did, who he contacted outside, visitors, you name it. Danny, you and I are going to see this girl.

Sam was turning to leave when Jack spoke again. "I spoke to Mrs Fitzgerald earlier."

He wasn't going to tell them, but he thought it would help, let them know what they were up against.

"She told me that Martin never spoke about what happened, exept to a psychiatrist, and even then very little. She married Victor just over a year after it happened. So far as she can tell Victor just tried to erase every trace of the event, he refused to speak about it and refused to speak about Martin's mother also. It seems that he thought he could bury it and everything would be forgotten." Jack paused briefly before continuing "He also sought to ensure that Stan Jameson remined in prison for the longest time possible, challenging every parole hearing and creating as much red tape as he could."

"So in other words Jameson has a reason to be pissed" Danny looked at Jack. "Well done Victor".

"Yeah, well he had his reasons." Was all Jack replied as he sat into the driver seat of his car. "Let's just get on with it."