Chapter Three: Message from the Camera

23 Hours Missing:

Back at the office, everyone debriefed everyone else on what they had learned. After about twenty minutes of sharing information, Jack assigned them to their duties.

"Martin and Vivian, I want you two to the Sonic that Heather and Natalie were at last night and check their alibi. Danny, I want you to check the phone records from both her cell phone and the house phone. She also had a debit card. Check those charges. Sam, you and I are going downstairs to check out Trisha Weaver. Let's find this girl before something really bad happens."

With that, the team spilt up into their separate missions. Danny pushed off from the bullpen table and glided back to his desk on his rolling chair, picking up his phone once he got into reach. Martin and Vivian took off down the hall to the elevators, while Sam and Jack turned the other way to the interrogation room.

---

"Have you seen her before?" Martin asked one of the Sonic waiters. The waiter took the picture of Natalie, looked at it for a few moments and then handed it back to him.

"Sure. She comes down here every so often with one of her friends. Always gets a chocolate shake."

"Is this her friend?" Vivian handed him a picture of Heather. The waiter recognized her immediately.

"Oh, sure. She's much louder, this one is. And she comes down here without the other one. With others. Boys usually."

"Anything unusual happen with the people she brings down here?" Martin asked. "Any sign of violence or argument?"

The waiter shook his head. "Never. It always seems like they're on a date or something. They're holding hands, kissing on each other. This one—" he pointed at the picture of Heather again. "She's very forward."

"How so?" Vivian asked.

"Never caring that they're making out—and really making out—right in public. And the guys aren't any better."

"Was it usually the same guy that she came with?" Martin asked.

"Uh, sometimes. There was this one kid that she came down here almost as often as that girl."

"Can you describe him?"

He took a moment to think about it. "About the same height as the girls. Maybe a little taller. Short, dark hair. Always wearing those black shirts with some band on it."

"And you never caught his name?"

He shook his head. "Never caught the girls' either. Too many people come here."

"And what time did they come down here last night?" Martin asked.

"Well, the girls came down here around 9:15. Ordered their drinks—the chocolate shake again. And then he came about five minutes afterwards."

Vivian's head snapped up. "Wait, what?"

"I said he came about five minutes after the girls did. They talked for awhile. I will say that that one girl, Natalie? She didn't seem to like that boy at all."

"So, the boy. He was there last night?"

"Yeah, saw him come and sit with them."

"I guess Heather forgot to tell us about him," Martin said dryly.

"Did he ever show up any other times that the two of them were here?"

"Yeah, a few times. He started coming with both of them about a week ago."

Martin and Vivian exchanged glances before thanking the waiter for his help and walking towards the car.

"I bet you anything that this guy, he's who the argument was over that Kevin overheard," Martin said firmly.

"I'm with you on that," Vivian nodded. "Let's go back and visit Heather and her parents."

---

A nervous-looking young brunette sat in the chair on one side of the table as Jack and Samantha entered the room.

"Trisha Weaver?" Jack asked as he sat down in the chair across from her. Samantha stood behind him with her arms crossed.

"Yes?" she squeaked rather than answered.

"Do you know Natalie Bruckner?"

She nodded, looking from Samantha to Jack. "I heard she was missing. What's happened?"

"We were hoping that you could give us some information about that."

Looking stunned, Trisha just sat there. "Um. Ok. I'm not sure how much help I'll—"

"You dated Kevin Greening, is that correct?"

Trisha looked more confused than ever. "Yes… but we broke up a few months ago."

"Who broke up with whom?"

Trisha blushed. "He did."

"And… how'd you feel?"

"Well, how you have you felt?" she answered bitterly. "We'd been going out for ten months, and then he just breaks it off."

"And you have no idea why?"

"No. Well, he said he needed space, or something stupid like that."

There was a pause as Jack evaluated her answer. "What's Natalie's relationship like with Kevin?"

Trisha's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean by relationship?"

"I mean, how do they get along? Are there troubles between them or anything like that?"

"He likes her," she said simply, looking into her lap. "A lot."

"Kevin told you this?"

Trisha nodded.

"Are you jealous?" Samantha asked.

"A little bit," she admitted with a small, embarrassed smile. "I can't help it."

"Where were you last night?"

"At home. With my brother. We were watching some show, I don't even remember what."

"Ok," Jack said with a sigh of disappointment that another lead was eliminated. "Well thank you, Trisha."

"I helped?"

"You helped eliminate yourself from being a suspect. Although, we will have to check your alibi."

Trisha looked shocked. "I was a suspect?"

"Everyone's a suspect," Samantha said as she was walking out the door. "Don't take it personally."

---

Danny's eyes scanned the newly faxed debit card charges. He hadn't found anything remotely interesting in either the house or her personal phone records, and now wished Jack had assigned him to go with him to question Trisha Weaver instead of watching his desk.

"Tuesday afternoon… $23.45 on Fiskes Guide to Colleges… Wednesday morning, $4.50 on a blueberry muffin from Starbucks. I think we've got a criminal on our hands now…" Danny sighed as he flipped the page.

And then—

"A withdrawal of $2000?" Danny repeated aloud, wondering if it was a misprint. "That… that's not normal."

He picked up his phone and dialed the bank where the ATM had been stationed next to.

"Yeah, this is Agent Taylor with the FBI. Do you think you could fax me over a picture from the surveillance camera from the ATM right outside your bank at…" Danny checked the debit card statements. "10:05 last night? Yeah. Great, thanks."

As he hung up the phone, Danny tried to think of any possible reason why a girl with such a good reputation would need two thousand dollars in cash right before she disappears.

It was a few minutes before the fax started ringing. Danny pushed himself over to the machine and waited impatiently as the picture was printed. As the fax spit out the picture from the camera, Danny's eyes went wide and let out a low whistle.

---

Jack's phone rang as he and Samantha walked back to the bullpen to cross Trisha Weaver off their list of suspects. The ID flashed "Fitzgerald."

"Go ahead, Martin," he answered.

"Ok, so get this," Martin said excitedly from the other line. "A guy around the same age as the girls was at Sonic last night with them. The waiter said that he had seen him several times before usually just with Heather, but occasionally with both her and Natalie."

"Who is he?"

"We're not sure, but we're going to the Birches' to figure it out. What about Trisha Weaver?"

"I don't think she did it, but we've got to run her alibi just in case."

"And Danny?"

"We're going to talk to him right—"

"Jack! Jack!"

"Actually, it looks like Danny's coming to us… Go to the Birches and see what you can dig up about this guy."

Just as he hung up, Danny came skidding around the corner, a piece of paper in his hand. He hadn't looked so excited about something for a long time.

"Jack! Ok, so last night at 10:05, someone made a two thousand dollar cash withdrawal from Natalie's account with her debit card."

"That's a lot of money for a sixteen year old."

"A sixteen year old with access to drugs," Jack added grimly. "So, what do you think?"

"Well, I got this surveillance shot from the camera at the ATM. Jack, look at it."

Jack took the piece of paper out of Danny's hand and looked at it. His eyebrows shot up as he showed it to Samantha.

"She's in trouble."

"Deep trouble."

"Let's make another call to the Bruckners," Jack said quickly. "Danny, you too."

Danny reclaimed his well-found prize as Jack handed him back the picture. He glanced down at it again, and saw Natalie Bruckner looking up, straight at the ATM camera. Behind her were two people, one boy and one girl. The other girl had short, light hair and a tight black shirt. The boy also had on a black shirt, but it was what he was holding that made them all nervous. Even in the grainy resolution of the picture, it was clear that he was holding a gun against the middle of Natalie's back. But that wasn't the only attention-grabbing thing about the photo. Apparently Natalie knew that someone was going to be looking for her, because she was holding piece of paper so that the camera could see it in her hand and it had something written on it in marker.

"It's Heather and Cody. Help me."

A/N: Ok, so finally the plot thickens a bit more. Thank you for the wonderful reviews. They make my day. I can't really think of anything else to add… except to keep reviewing. Oh, and if you haven't figured out my favorite character yet, you should by now. And everyone pretty much got it right off. Am I just that obvious? Answer: yes.