i could not wait to post the next chapter. I am a little bit obsessed with this story right now. This chapter starts tying back into the actual episode. Please enjoy.
Mac checked his phone. Jack saw all color drain from his friend's face. "He has her." Mac's tone was grim. "Look." Mac handed the phone to the other agent. Jack took the phone and read the screen.
"Sugar and spice and everything nice. Is that what little girls are made of? Lets' find out." The message was signed, "William Shakespeare."
Jack read the message several times looking for something, anything that he could use. "I'm not a genius like you, Mac," Jack started, "but I do know that Shakespeare didn't write that."
Mac was staring at the s screen on his phone as if he could pull his sister through it and into safety. "Mac?" Jack prompted, putting his hand on the other man's shoulder.
Mac started at the contact, but he tore his eyes from his phone. "Sorry, what?"
Jack hauled up the younger man and forced eye contact. "Mac. Buddy. I get it. But I need you to focus. I need that super brain of yours firing on all cylinders." Mac stared into his friend's eyes for a moment more. He wanted to argue. Wanted to yell, to punch something, but none of that would help Cory. He drew a deep breath and nodded.
"You're right," he said slowly. "No. This is definitely not Shakespeare." He stopped and thought. "It's clearly a message to me. He wants me to find him." A pause. "I just don't know...". Mac looked up, his eyes blazing. He was focused now on the solution; on getting his sister back. "Unless...," Mac dialed his phone.
"Riley? Hi." He listened for a minute, his face growing stark. "No. She's not here...yeah...yeah...I think he does have her." Mac took a deep breath. "Riley...I need you to see if you can track a text message. It came in on my phone at 7:12 am. Its probably from a burner phone, but anything you can find. Also...and this is going to sound really weird...see if you can find something on William Shakespeare." Mac waited for a minute, "Yeah – not that one. That's the name we got to work with."
_Mac and Jack drove back to Phoenix. Mac was silent most of the way, staring ahead and chewing his lip. Jack tried to engage him in conversation several times, but he was clearly not paying attention and after the fourth attempt, Jack stopped.
Riley was waiting for them in the large conference room at Phoenix...and so was Thornton. She walked up to Mac immediately, putting a hand on his shoulder. "We'll get her back," she said quietly, but with full authority. "I promise." Mac looked at his boss and just nodded.
Riley cleared her throat. "Ok. Here's what I have." She looked at Mac a little guiltily. "Its not much." She projected on to the screen. "You're right – that text did come from a burner phone so tracing it is impossible. I could however figure out where and when it was activated." A new image came up on the screen. "This drugstore, in Northridge. Luckily it looks like this place had a little problem with robberies. The owner put in a security camera and look at what I found."
The team stared as the man they knew only as Suspect 218 walked in. He did not look right or left or even at the camera, but they saw enough to be sure that it was the same man. "This was taken about 6:30 this morning," Riley said. "I tried to see if I could get more...to see where he went, but this is all I could get."
"This is more than we had," Mac said. "Thank you."
"Ok. Riley said. "Now about a search for Shakespeare." Thornton, raised a perfectly groomed eyebrow, but said nothing.
"We know that he was in California at least starting this morning and probably can limit his location to Los Angeles and the surrounding areas." Everybody nodded. "I basically set up a very broad query for any type of mention of the name...credit cards, telephone call, and text...anything that is attached to a name." Riley typed furiously and a scroll of names appeared on the screen. A few more buttons pressed and the list was reduced to one person. "This is William Shakespeare," Riley said with just a hint of smirk. "But I'm pretty sure its not the one you are looking for."
She responded to the inquiring glances. "Look. This guy is seventy-five years old and lives in a nursing home in Camarillo. The guy we say could not be more than 35 or 40 tops."
"Expand the search," Thornton ordered. "Try various short forms of the name. Try 'Wm', 'Will', 'Bill'.
Riley nodded and several more names appeared on the screen. None of them could have been the illusive Suspect 218.
Mac was staring at the screen. "Hold on," he mumbled, pulling his phone out and looking at it intently. "Son of a Bitch," he swore under his breath; something so unusual that everybody stared at him. "Look," Mac said, showing the phone to Riley. "Look at how he wrote the name. I missed it the first time thinking it was just a typo. But its not. Its part of the message."
Riley nodded and typed a new search entry, "William Shake S. Peare." She repeated with the various variations on William.
"There." Jack was the first to see the name. "Bill Shake S. Peare." Mac clapped Jack on the back.
"Where is he, Riley?"
"This was at a rental car place in El Segundo, she said. At about 4 am this morning."
Jack nodded. "All cars now have trackers. Riley, can you get in and see where the car is right now." Riley was nodding even as her fingers were already flying across her keyboard.
"I found the car. Scholl Canyon Landfill. Its about 20 miles from here."
"OK," Mac said turning to door. "Lets go."
"No." The word was said quietly but with great authority and Mac turned to look at Thornton who had also risen. "This is a trap. You know that. I can't let you walk into that trap, Mac. Not even for this."
"This is my sister we're talking about. You can't expect me to just sit by."
"I expect you to obey orders," was the curt reply.
Jack stepped in, "Woah. Woah...how about you give us a couple of minutes." His eyes raked the room indicating that he wanted privacy, "alone."
After everybody had filed out, Mac turned on Jack, blue eyes blazing. "If you think that I am just going to sit here and wait while my sister and…," he paused for a moment searching for the right word, "...the rest of my family are in danger you...".
Jack cut him off, "That's exactly what I expect you to do. This guy is gunning for you. We'd all be crazy to let you expose yourself..especially when he had had the time to set up everything and wait for you. Nope. Not going to happen." Jack took a deep breath and put his hands on the other man's shoulders, "I get it. I do. I swear to you, I will get her back. But I can only do that if I don't have to worry about you."
Mac looked intently at his friend and Jack stared back unflinchingly until Mac gave just the slightest of nods.
With that, Jack rested his hand on Mac's shoulder for just a moment and then, without another word, walked out to meet the rest of the team.
I don't know about you, but I am thinking that Mac is not going to keep his promise to Jack and because of that there may be hell to pay. Please let me know what you think. Since this is more or less straight from the show, I hope the characters seem genuine. Thank you for taking the time to read and hopefully review - I love to know what you think.