Chapter Nine: Black Jack

Jack had paperwork spread over his desk in front of him but though his eyes skimmed the pages he wasn't exactly reading the words. His mind was in another place. Still thinking about the case but now more focused on Martin. Something was going on that he wasn't entirely able to figure out. He had this overwhelming feeling that his subordinate was keeping vital evidence from him and that angered him. How many years had he been working with Martin? How many cases had they seen go wrong because they didn't have all the information they needed? He closed his eyes as he let out a deep sigh. After all that they'd been through, including the run-ins with Victor Fitzgerald, Jack thought that he could rely on Martin to come to him with every problem he had. If Martin could confess to having an addiction to pain medication then why couldn't he tell Jack what was going on this time around? Maybe he would actually have to ask about it.

Looking back over his shoulder he was able to see the desk, their main working area. The girls were busily trying to do their job, taking and making calls, tracking things down on the net but Martin was nowhere in sight. That angered Jack a little. More than anything it made him worried. As long as he'd known Martin the younger man made a point of showing up for work on time and putting all of himself into getting the job done. Even when he was high on pain medication. The younger Fitzgerald had this drive to prove to his father that he was good at what he did, that he could pull out of his shadow and that he didn't need his influence to get the job done. The latter is what made Jack respect him more than the others. Here was this young agent whose father happened to be one of the FBI directs but instead of using his father's position Martin tried to do what he could with the power their team had, no pulled strings from his father. How many guys would do the same thing? How many guys had Jack seen that actually used their father's or grandfather's position to further their own career? Martin happened to be cut from a different cloth.

So why did he seem to be deeply bothered by the disappearance of a second-rate lawyer? Were they friends? Did they even know each other or was there something else, like a feeling of guilt or…?

All morning he had been pouring over records on Danny Taylor trying to figure out what the guy might mean to Martin. All he'd accomplished was making himself feel like a walking dictionary on the missing lawyer. Born Danny Alvarez he had changed his name sometime after the death of his parents; both tragically lost in a car accident when he was just a young boy. He and his brother Rafi both were placed in foster care. From the few things that Jack had been able to get on those year it looked like Danny hadn't exactly had the best of times. He changed his last name to Taylor so that he could outrun his past but the memories drove him to drink. Everything that Jack read said that the lawyer was a recovering alcoholic. Maybe that was the connection with Martin. Could they have met in a supporters group? He would have to keep digging. There were grey areas that left him with questions, like what prompted the troubled young man to become a lawyer and what event drove him to seek help for his alcoholism? Why did he still have contact with a brother who was into drugs and a small time criminal? These were questions that his papers couldn't answer for him.

But maybe Martin could.

He was beginning to think that the angle of a support group might be the way to go. But how could he know for sure when Martin was clearly keeping something from him? He could always try to find the group that Martin attend and see if maybe he could get a roster of names from the person in charge. That would be no easy task but perhaps it would garner him the information that he wanted. He was thinking of searching Martin's desk for any mention of the group when there was a knock at his door. He looked up to see Sam standing there. He beckoned her in.

"Do we finally have a break in the case?"

"I stumbled across an accident report from a few years back," she said, glancing down at the piece of paper in her hand. "Seems our lawyer got into an accident the day he was supposed to take the bar. Cops called to the scene said he was drunk, they could smell the alcohol on him. He was able to reschedule the test for a few months later and passed."

Jack took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Okay. Does it say what group he went to for support?"

"Um," she read over the printout for a few seconds. "I see mention of an Abuse Supporters Anonymous. That's where the judge sent him but…"

"How does a man with a history of alcohol abuse end up passing the bar?"

"The judge said he showed promise, that he would make a great lawyer if he could just kick the habit," she told him. "And from his records, he could be making the big bucks. He's good enough to be a state attorney."

"So why isn't he? That money would give him a life that he's not used to," Jack mused. "He would finally have made it. Why stick to low key cases and an office in a rundown building?"

"You'll have to ask him when we find him," she said. "This little paper doesn't tell me everything."

He sighed, folding the arms of his glasses and slipping them into his pocket. "Would you like to go with me to this support group? Maybe we can find a clue. And tell Vivian to track down Martin. He's late for work."

--

The two of them headed into the non-descript building an hour later. On the way out Sam had told Vivian that she needed to locate their missing co-worker but so far there hadn't been any success. Sam kept it to herself that she was afraid something bad had happened to him. She'd noticed the change in him over the last few days, ever since they'd been given the case of the missing lawyer. For some reason this was affecting Martin in a different way, not like the other cases. This case and his reaction reminded her of the time he called her when his aunt went missing. There was an emotion attachment here. But what? Could Jack be onto something about the support group? Did they meet here in this gray and drab building to become friends? That led her down a road of confusion. If Taylor was Martin's friend then why not bust his ass to help solve the case? Unless of course he had something to do with it…

She shook her head to rid her mind of that thought. Martin was a stand-up guy. He would never hurt someone to further his own gains.

Lost in thought she'd neglected to notice that her boss was deep in conversation with someone who looked to be in-charge of things. She tried to immerse herself in the conversation but couldn't focus. As she looked around the place she could picture Martin coming here once to twice a week so that he could keep himself away from the pain killers. She was so impressed with him for breaking the habit. That showed he had strength, courage. So where was he when someone needed him?

"Thank you," Jack's voice broke through her muddled thoughts. She forced herself to focus, to concentrate on her job. Her boss turned to her. "Here's the list of people in the same group as Mr. Taylor. See any familiar names?"

Sam glanced over the page. Near the end of the list she found a name that jumped off the page. "Martin. So they know each other. You know, I was just thinking. If Taylor is Martin's friend then why is Martin not here trying to locate him?"

"That's one question I would like to ask him."

"Something's not right here…is it?"

Jack started to shake his head but on second thought he just shrugged. He had no way of knowing what sort of things transpired between Martin and the lawyer. But he would. Once he could get his hands on Martin. At that moment his phone rang. He handed the slip of paper over to Sam and dug the ringing device out of his pocket. Flipping it open he said, "Malone." He listened in silence as Vivian told him that she'd finally found Martin.