A/N: just... enjoy... Cate x
48 hours missing
"How do you keep so cool?"
"It's my job."
"Yeah… but still… by now I'd have completely lost it."
"Someone needs to keep it together. If we all fell apart no-one would get found."
"It's just so hard, Jack, knowing that she's out there, with some… sicko. I can't keep doing this."
"You have to, Jess. Without you, we might never save her.
"I'm no hero, Jack. I can't save her… I can't even save myself. If this was one of your girls… could you be so cool?" she looked at him and then looked at her hands.
"I'd take myself out of the investigation."
"Jack…"
"Yeah, you're right; that would never happen."
"I'm no hero, Jack."
"You think that now. But you will be, I promise."
Jack sat beside her on his office sofa and took her hand, "I promise."
"Jack, this is like looking for a needle in a haystack." Martin threw the sheets of paper on the desk, "They could be anywhere. New York is a huge city; with way too many warehouses."
Jack rubbed his face and leant forward.
"Short of searching every warehouse-"
"If it comes to it, then that's what we'll do." Jack cut him short, "Needle in a haystack… she's the needle… maybe it's time we stop looking for the needle and find the haystack."
"And what if they aren't in the city," Danny chimed in, "What if he's taken her into the outer suburbs."
"He won't," Jess replied, "He likes to keep them close to their homes… it's another torture method; so close and yet so far. And, as you said, New York is a huge city; people can 'disappear' if they want to."
"Hating this guy more and more…" Martin murmured.
"Jack, just because I was kept in a warehouse, doesn't necessarily mean Lizzy will be." Jess stood up, "They could be anywhere; a boathouse, a flat, the subway… if there was a basement in the Embassy he'd probably have taken her there!" She leant back against the desk and rubbed her temples.
"Is there?" Vivian asked.
"No, the basement in the Embassy is MI5s base."
"Okay, the kidnapper; so we know it's not the janitor," Jack looked at her, "You're sure?"
"I'm positive; that's not our guy."
"So where is he?" Viv leant back against the desk, her arms folded.
Jess looked up at Ernie's photograph, pinned to the board next to Lizzy's. She lifted the notes from the interview and scanned them. "Jack," she said very quietly, her eyes still skimming the page, "What if he never left?"
"What?"
"The school's Principal said that he clocked out at seven, but no-one saw it," Jess looked at the agent, "What if he never left?"
"But you were sure that he isn't the kidnapper." Jack tried to understand what the British agent was getting at.
"Yeah… but maybe he didn't sign himself out. Maybe someone else did. Or maybe he did and just before he left, he was stopped."
"I still don't understand."
"Jack…" she leant over the desk, "is there a basement in Kennedy High School?"
