Chapter Four: Wrong Place, Wrong Time

27 Hours Missing:

As it turned out, the Birches were at the Bruckners' house, attempting to comfort the distressed Mr. and Mrs. Bruckner. The team sat on one side of the living room as the two couples sat on the other side on the couch. Danny and Martin had taken Heather aside into another room.

"What's going on?" Mr. Bruckner asked as he looked from Samantha to Jack to Vivian. "Have you found anything about Natalie?"

"Last night at 10:05, Natalie made a withdrawal of two thousand dollars from her bank account," Jack said. "Do you have any idea what that was about?"

The Bruckners looked at one another and then back at Jack in disbelief. "No… Oh, my God, does that mean that she was planning on leaving? Has she run away?"

"Under other circumstances, we would have considered it," Samantha said. "But then our Agent Taylor discovered this picture from the surveillance camera from the ATM where she made the withdrawal."

She pushed the picture across the coffee table to the Bruckners. Mrs. Bruckner took the picture in her hands and gasped. She looked up at her husband whose eyes were locked onto the gun in the picture.

"Someone's holding a gun to my daughter…" he said faintly. "Who the hell is that?"

"Judging by the note that Natalie flashed the camera, his name is Cody. Do you know who Cody is?"

"Cody… Cody is Heather's boyfriend," Mrs. Bruckner replied softly.

"Boyfriend?" Mrs. Birch spoke for the first time that the agents had shown up. "Heather doesn't have a boyfriend."

There was a stony silence in the room as the mothers looked at each other.

"Natalie's been telling me about Cody for the past week," Mrs. Bruckner explained. "She told me that he was bad news. He was into the drug and alcohol scene, and that she was worried that Cody was going to try to drag Heather into it again."

"And you two had no idea about him?" Jack asked, looking at the Birches.

They simply shook their heads, looking very shocked. "I… I didn't even know Heather liked anyone…"

"It appears that sometimes when Heather said that she was going out with Natalie, she was really meeting this Cody at the Sonic that the girls sometimes go to."

"Oh, my God…" Mrs. Birch said quietly. "But… why… what is he doing with a gun to Natalie?"

"I'm thinking that Natalie saw something that she shouldn't have. Something illegal that either Cody or both Cody and Heather were doing. Probably drugs. We'll find out after we take her down to the FBI offices and polygraph her."

"You think… you really think that Natalie's best friend and this… this… boy would do something to her?" Mrs. Bruckner asked, looking terrified.

"He's got a gun, and Heather lied to us earlier," Jack said. He turned and knocked on the door where Danny and Martin had taken Heather. "Come on, guys. Let's take her back to the office."

---

"I didn't do anything." Heather said stubbornly as Danny and Jack sat with her in the interrogation room.

"So, you have no idea where this picture came from?" Danny asked, pushing the picture towards her.

Heather looked at it for a few seconds, and then back at the two men. "No."

"You have no idea why your name and your boyfriend's name are on that piece of paper?"

"No."

"And you have no idea who that girl, who looks remarkably like you, is in the background?"

"It's not me."

"And you have no idea why your boyfriend has a gun pointed at your best friend's back?"

"No."

Alright, well let me tell you why," Jack said, eyeing the girl with dislike. "I think that you and Natalie went to Sonic last night, and then Cody showed up. I think that Natalie really did not like Cody, and that she was scared that he was going to drag you down into drugs once again. And she'd lose you again."

"That's bullshit. Cody would never—"

"I am not done," Jack said, raising his voice. "I also think that Cody dealt drugs. I think that you drove to Cody's house that night, and I think Natalie saw Cody's big stash of drugs, and then threatened to tell somebody."

"That's not true—" Heather tried to interrupt, but Danny could see the fear in her eyes.

"I think that Cody then threatened Natalie that he would kill her if she did tell. Then I think that you, in some twisted heroic act, begged Cody not to kill your dear best friend, but just to take some of her money."

"No… no…" Heather said, but a tear had already rolled down her face.

"I think you drove to the ATM, where this picture was taken. Natalie knew she was in trouble and so she flashed the camera this message, knowing that if she didn't make it back home, someone would see the message after such a large amount was taken out of her account. Then you and Cody spilt the cash. You didn't have any other reason to keep Natalie around, and so you killed her."

"No!" Heather yelled through her tears. "I didn't kill her!"

"Then Cody did."

"No! He didn't, I swear!"

"Then where is she?" Danny asked dangerously, speaking for the first time since they came into the room.

"I… I don't know."

"Where's Cody?"

"I don't know…"

"What happened after you went to Sonic?"

"Cody… Cody came by about ten minutes after we got there. Natalie never liked Cody, so I didn't tell him he was coming… but I had to see him because he said that he had something for me. A present."

"Drugs?" Danny asked, glaring at the girl.

Heather glanced up at Danny, but didn't say anything. She just continued on with her story.

"So we all got in his car and drove to his house. I promised Natalie that it would take five minutes and she should just stay in the car…"

"Come on. It's just five minutes," Heather said earnestly, looking at her frightened best friend in the back seat. "He just wants to give me a present."

"What kind of present?" Natalie asked accusingly.

"Nothing for you to worry about," Heather smiled, though the smile didn't reach her eyes. Natalie's eyes fell on Cody who was standing right behind Heather. He had always given Natalie the creeps, and she would have never gotten in the car if she had known that they were going to his house. They had said that they were going to just look inside his car. "Just stay here," Heather said. "I'll be right back."

Heather closed the door to the car and walked with Cody, arm in arm.

Five minutes turned to ten minutes which turned to fifteen minutes. Finally, Natalie got sick of waiting for Heather and got out of the car. She walked carefully up to the front door and knocked.

No one answered.

She knocked again, but no one answered. Now very scared, Natalie walked back to the car when she heard something from inside the garage. She turned back around and walked to the side door.

Opening it slowly, she saw Cody and Heather standing by a table, looking at about a dozen small packages wrapped in clear plastic. She heard them talking in low voices.

"… Come on," Cody said. "Just take two of them."

"Fine," Heather said, reaching out and taking two of the packets of drugs. "And I don't owe you anything?"

Cody smiled his sick, spine-chilling smile and put his arm around Heather's shoulders. "Don't worry about it, baby." He kissed her on the cheek. "Besides I've got at least three times this many coming in from one of my friends next week. I'm in total business. I'm never out."

Heather chuckled as she held the drugs in her hands, and then she lifted her gaze up to the side door and saw Natalie staring back at her with wide eyes.

"What?" Cody asked, following Heather's gaze. Then he also saw Natalie.

"What the hell? I thought I told you to wait in the car, bitch!" Cody yelled, advancing on Natalie. She remained still, either too frightened or too angry to move.

"You said he didn't do drugs anymore," Natalie shouted at Heather. "Now he's got you into it again! I told you! God damn it, Heather, now we're back to square one!"

"Hey, you shut up!" Cody yelled at Natalie. "You know what we're going to do? We're just going to pretend that this night never happened."

"I don't think so," Natalie said in a deadly whisper, turning her eyes to Cody's dark, nearly black eyes.

"Oh, well, I do," Cody said, reaching into his jacket pocket and drawing out a gun, pointing it at Natalie's forehead.

"Cody!" Heather screamed. "Don't! Don't do it!"

"And why the hell not, Heather? She's seen everything, she knows everything. You told me yourself that you were sick of having this bitch hanging around you all the time, trying to tell you what to do."

Heather caught Natalie's expression as he said this. She looked beyond hurt.

"Well, fine, but Cody, why don't we just take some of her money instead. She's loaded, really. She worked all summer. Just take that, and let her go."

"Yeah, how much do you have?" Cody asked, turning to Natalie.

"A little over two thousand," Natalie whispered.

"Then let's get in the damn car, and get it. But you," he said to Natalie. "You are to never repeat what you saw here. You understand?"

Natalie's eyes left Cody's face and looked at Heather. She looked pained and scared, but most of all she looked greedy. Natalie simply nodded her head.

"You gave up your best friend to your boyfriend and extortion?" Danny repeated as if he couldn't believe it.

"I was trying to not get her killed!" Heather shouted back at him. "I saved her."

"Saved her?" Jack shouted loudly at her. "You may have well just gotten her killed, and I am not going to hesitate prosecuting you for accessory to kidnapping and murder. But I may be able to get a window in your cell if you tell me where she is now."

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know? Where did you take her after the ATM? After 10:05 last night?"

"Cody dropped me back off at the Sonic. It was closed, but my car was still there. He said that he was going to drop Natalie off at home next."

"And you believed him?"

"He had a gun! I couldn't really say no!"

"Exactly! He had a gun! You left an innocent girl in the hands of a drug-infested thug with a gun."

"I didn't have a choice! He would have shot me!"

"Maybe you should choose your company more carefully next time," Jack said harshly. "Natalie was a better friend than you ever deserve, and you deserted her."

"I didn't think it'd ever turn out this far… I didn't think—"

"You didn't think. It's a little too late for you to start thinking, Heather," Danny said with narrowed eyes and fists clenched. A good, innocent girl was out there, probably dead, because of this… girl in front of him. "But here's what we're going to do. We're going to bring you upstairs to one of our techs. And we're going to connect your cell phone to one of our tracking devices. And then you are going to call Cody."

"I can't do that—"

"Oh, you can and you will," Jack said. "Let's go."

---

Ten minutes later, Jack, Danny, Vivian, and Heather were sitting in one of the rooms with Heather's cell phone connected to the tracking device.

"Go on. Call him," Danny said, handing her the phone.

"What do I say?" Heather asked, timidly. Ever since she had been caught, she had lost her ridiculously annoying attitude.

"Keep him talking. Gain his trust, and then ask him where Natalie is."

"What if he doesn't tell me?"

"As long as you keep him talking, we'll get a lock on his location. Now call him."

Heather took from one agent to the next and then dialed the number. Danny, Jack, and Vivian put the earphones to their ears as they listened to the phone ringing.

Then there was a male voice.

"Yeah?"

"Cody… it's me. It's Heather."

"Oh, hey, babe," he said casually. "What's going on?"

"Umm… nothing much… but, uh, Natalie didn't come home last night."

"So?"

"Cody, what did you to with her?"

"I didn't do anything to her."

"Cody, please tell me. I really miss her."

"That's bullshit," Cody laughed. "You don't miss her. You're just feeling guilty for stealing her money."

"Just tell me, please."

"Look, I don't have her. And I didn't hurt her, alright? But she's not going to tell anyone."

"We've got a lock on him," the tech said, looking up at the agents.

Danny glanced over at the screen. "4958 Main Street. There are a bunch of abandoned warehouses up there. Drug gang hangouts."

"Tell him your parents are walking up to you and hang up," Jack instructed Heather. "Vivian, grab Martin and Sam. We're going to give Mr. Cody a visit."

A/N: Another chapter. Hoorah! Ok, well, you guys know what to do. Review are amazingly appreciated. They make my day. I really like the next chapter. It makes me happy. So review in order to see it. I'm also about 14 or 15 chapters into another story that I started (not even kidding you) about a week ago. The inspiration just didn't die. I've never written a story that fast. It's pretty much amazing. I've got... maybe six of seven more chapters to add to it, and then I'll be posting it on here. It's a Danny/OC one, and it's, if I do say so myself, pretty good. Anyways, so please review! Thanks to those you have!