Vivian was sure she was going kill Danny, if he wouldn't sit still soon. But then again, she had to concentrate on what was said between Spade and that stranger; so murdering her new co-worker would have to wait. Oh, how she wished she was here with Andy!

Just that moment she heard the man say: "I… I thought, you said, you were… um… fat."

"Well, I feel like I am. Very often, even. I know so many women who look so much better than I do, and all of them are slimmer."

"Miss Trent, you godda be joking… you're skinny!"

Via radio Jack voice mixed into it: "Seems like he's no interest in slender women…"

Vivian could see Danny was a little relieved, but she was disappointed – this wasn't working out the way it was supposed to. She turned towards the younger agent and whispered: "Doesn't mean, he's not gonna try to harm her…"

"I know…"

"But if he doesn't, it's not good for the plan, you know. We'll only have a reason to arrest him if he tries to attack her."

"Miss Trent, I don't know how to help you." The man's voice again. "I mean, you contacted me, said you were fat, ugly, insecure… you wanted my help, but there's hardly anything I can do for you other than to advice you to go home, wash your hair, use some make-up and maybe try contact lenses…"

"This makes me wonder what he does to women and girls who aren't so slender", Vivian said into her radio.

"It scares me to just think about it", was Jack's answer. And then: "Oh, he's leaving. It didn't work out. He's walking towards the door, now." Jack described the man for Vivian and Danny and added: "I want you two to follow him, see, where he goes to. Maybe, we'll find out where he lives, and then I'll try to get warrant to search that place. Or he might lead you to his victims…"

"…if he hasn't already buried them somewhere in the woods", Vivian sighed, feeling sick at the thought.

"What about Sam?" Danny demanded to know.

Vivian was about to say something, but Jack was quicker. "I make sure she'll get home safely. You two concentrate on your job."

Vivan watched as Danny rolled his eyes, mumbling something that sounded like 'oh, great…'.

"What?" Obviously Jack had heard it too.

"Oh… uh… nothing", Danny hurried to reply.

"Ok, here he comes", Vivian said and to keep Jack informed she described everything that was happening. "He's walking towards his car… I think… yes, it's his car. He opens the door… wait, I think he driving down the road in south direction… oh no, he's turned. Danny and I will follow him now, We'll call you."

"Ok."

The followed the car, a rusty old black Ford, for a while. At first Vivian kept her concentration on the job, but as it seemed this would take a while she let her curiosity take over: "For how long have you known eachother?"

"Huh?" Danny seemed surprised.

"You and Spade. For how long have you known eachother?"

"Little over a year."

Vivian nodded. The Ford turned right into a smaller street. As they followed they were now directly behind their suspect's car; the Mercedes they Vivian had kept between her car and the Ford had gone straight ahead, where they'd turned right. Viv knew she'd have to be careful now and she slowed down to keep a big distance to the other vehicle.

But as she went slower so did the Ford, and Viv hit the breaks again. "Seems like we there…"

"So what're we gonna do?" Danny asked, eager.

Much to her displeasure Viv noticed he was getting edgy again. She wouldn't even be surprised he if he was ready to pull his gun. Hoping it was okay not making it worse she reached over without taking her eyes off the road and touched his arm. "Easy, we're not doing anything yet."

"So we're gonna sit here, watch him doing… well… things to that girls and…" He shrugged off her hand.

"Danny, he's sitting in his car. Doing nothing right now, just driving. When he stops, we'll see. Maybe, we'll approach him, talk to him. Or we'll follow him, he may lead us to possible victims; Jack will decide…"

"Possible victims? He's kidnapped Laura, and other girls, why can't we just arrest him, make him spill everything?"

Vivian shook her head, noticing that the car in front of them was speeding up again. "He didn't attack Spade. He was just talking to her that's not illegal. We got nothing on him."

"But Viv, we're the ones with the badge and the gun – surely we can do something…"

"Yes, and we're the ones who could end up losing their jobs so no. For the moment our hands are tied. I admit he seems suspicious though. But we'll have to wait until we know more. Grow up Danny, this isn't a James Bond movie. This is reality."

Danny suddenly grinned. "Well, I don't actually watch those movies… – And what does James Bond have to do with the FBI?"

"Well, it's the only kind of movie I'd associate with… agents – what does it matter anyway?"

Danny grin had become even bigger now. "It's ok I think I'm getting your point. – Oh, watch out, he's turning left."

They drove on for another five minutes in complete silence.

"How did you meet?"

"What, me and Sam?"

"Yeah. I mean you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

Danny shrugged. "It's not a secret. We met at a friend's wedding, a guy I went to college with. He went to high school with her, and since I was just about to start at the FBI and he knew she wanted to do the same as well later he thought we'd get along and placed us next to eachother. Well, we both knew he was trying to pair us off, but what can I say – it worked."

"Seems so…"

They had left the city behind them by now, Viv suddenly realised. She was beginning to wonder. Where the hell were they going? Did the guy know he was being followed and was trying to confuse them? If so, he'd certainly achieved that.

They were driving through a little town, left the main road and where now on a different street that seemed to go straight to nowhere. On both sides of the roads were mostly trees, very few houses. Then there weren't any houses at all anymore just the woods. The Ford slowed down and came to halt… right in middle of nowhere…

TBC