Chapter 36:

Jack had informed the team about the destruction of Elizabeth's evidence and the reaction had been like he had expected it. Desperation and disbelief had made it's way into everybody's mind, as they knew there was nothing they could do about it any more. The evidence was gone and they wouldn't get it back.

He had asked them to keep up hope and keep on searching for Elizabeth none the less. They couldn't just give up on her, especially not now, not as she was the only one right now who had full knowledge of her evidence. She was still a believable witness, even without that evidence and they needed to get her back.

He had assigned Martin to have a look into the whereabouts of Cristobal Adamén and Francesco de Vierra during the course of that last night, the night the evidence had been destroyed. Martin came over to Jack's office about half an hour later and the look on his face told Jack that there hadn't been much of anything he had been able to encounter – at least nothing positive.

„Any luck?"

„They are under surveillance 24/7, but there hasn't been any sign of foul play so far. They are simply just sitting in that hotel room they have gotten themselves and no one of them has left the room for the past two days... They know it, Jack – they know we are out there, looking for them, waiting for them to make a mistake.

Jack was very well aware of that fact – it was what had caused his frustration in first place. He really had hoped for some progress, some glimpse of hope after all, but he knew it had been pretty pointless. These men had managed to escape for the past twenty five years, they were too smart to have themselves caught this time.

„So they have been there for the whole last night?"

„Yes. Whoever is responsible for the destruction of that evidence, it wasn't them."

Jack didn't believe in that conclusion and the tone in Martin's voice, the sarcasm dripping from it, told him that neither did the other agent. But Jack couldn't help the urgent need to announce the words out loud.

„Of course they were – they just didn't do it themselves – they are too clever for that. Probably hired someone to do it."

„Phone records of the hotel show no incoming or outgoing calls for the past three days other then the lawyer and they didn't have any visitors."

„As I said, they are way too smart to get caught."

They both were aware of the fact that they wouldn't be able to find a connection between the two Chileans and the destruction of the evidence that had been kept here. As there hadn't been any evidence left in the storage room – forensics had confirmed it by now – there wouldn't be any evidence on the participation of the two men.

Martin however took the chance to refer to another angle of reviewing this case – a decisive angle in this case and actually the most frustrating one of all of them, because it was another one of those things they couldn't do anything about.

„She must have had a copy of that evidence – somewhere. I mean she must have thought about the possibility of something happening to her. What would she have done then?"

Jack deeply wished to be able to give an encouraging – a positive – answer to this. But he couldn't. He had experienced Elizabeth, her deep dedication and her difficulty with trusting people. She even had difficulties trusting a federal agency – she wouldn't have trusted anyone else then.

Martin referring to the Chileans, to what had most probably happened to Elizabeth actually was something Jack didn't wanna talk about. Of course there was still a chance that something different, something way more harmless had happened to Elizabeth and Martin had – intentionally – put his question that way, but that didn't make it much easier thinking about it and answering to it.

„She never would have told them and they probably never would have found it, that's what she would have done. You have seen how precautious she was when she was here, she didn't even wanna hand me her file over. She had been that extremely careful because something happening to her hadn't been an option. Believe me – she didn't have a copy of that evidence."

„But – I'm sorry to say it – that's stupid. We have to deal with the aftereffects right now and she would have been forced to, too. She would no longer have been able to catch them."

Martin's agitation – his anger about the outcome of events – was completely understandable. This wasn't fair, it wasn't just and if they had acted differently – for example forcing Elizabeth to take the protection offered to her – this would have ended differently. But they wouldn't find out about that...

„She wouldn't have been either way. If the evidence had been found she would have vanished alongside with it..."

„Which she did."

Jack wasn't willing to give in to Martin's interruption. He knew about the consequences of both Elizabeth's disappearance and the destruction of the evidence, but he really didn't wanna talk about it right now, although Martin obviously wished to. He went on with his statement.

„Anyways – it's the whole point of her working methods. She didn't have any copies because she didn't wanna endanger anyone else. That's why she tried to find the Chileans on her own first and it's why she blames herself for what happened to Danny. She endangered someone else because of her work..."

Silence emerged between them after Jack had referred to their fallen co-worker. It was difficult to react to it, no one of them really knew what to make of the events that had led to this whole investigation and neither of them was very much eager to be confronted with the condition Danny was in right now and even less did they want to be confronted with the consequences of it.

„There must be some other chance to get these guys, some more evidence or someone else who can testify against them."

„Right now I could only think of one other person to do that and he's in no condition to testify."