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chapter fifty-six

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scared of the things that people say
knowing my confidence might fade
i feel the world's weight, upon my breaking back
i see uncertainty, and the visible crack
-Amanda Ghost, "Silver Lining"

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January 24, 2004
New York City
7:00 am

"Sam?"

She groaned and rolled over as she heard Martin call out her name as he came out of the bathroom. "Don't want to," she said, feeling the bed dip and rise accordingly as Martin sat down beside her. "Too tired."

"Sorry," he said softly, "But your phone is ringing."

She groaned again and sat up, throwing her legs over the side of the bed as she sat beside Martin. She squinted and rubbed her eyes and said, "If it's work, tell them I don't want to go. Everyone is just going to have to stay missing today."

Martin cocked an eyebrow and handed her the phone. "Good morning," he laughed, and he kissed her on the forehead as she answered.

"Spade," she uttered, clearing her throat.

She waited for the voice on the other end. "Sam, good. We've got one," Jack's voice answered.

"Okay," she said, searching the night stand for a notepad and a pen. Finding one, she continued, "Go ahead."

"Brian Owen, 38 years old. The ex-wife called it in; he didn't show yesterday to pick up their daughter for the weekend," Jack sighed.

"Delinquent dad? Is that really something that's going to need all our manpower over the weekend?" she asked, her tone skeptical and her voice still heavy with sleep.

"Ex-wife is worried sick: he's not returning her calls or answering any pages. She says he's not like that, that he's never even a minute late for a pickup."

"They all say that," Sam rolled her eyes. "It still doesn't sound like any of our business."

"We have to check it out," Jack answered definitively. "I need you to meet Danny and Naomi at the Parkside Hotel where the ex-wife thinks he was working a job two nights ago. Look for signs of foul play."

Sam inhaled sharply and frowned. She had been at the Parkside Hotel two nights ago, having dinner in their five star restaurant with Martin and the Adairs. "The Parkside?" she stuttered, and she felt Martin's eyes watching her intently. Maybe their missing person had been right there, and she hadn't even known.

"Yeah, I'll give you the address," Jack replied.

"No, no," Sam chewed hesitantly on her bottom lip. "I know where it is."

"Okay, good." She could hear the confusion in Jack's voice as he considered her words. "Then should I have Naomi pick you up?"

"It's probably not in the interests of time to do that; I'm coming in from Westchester County."

"Right, of course," he said, and she could sense the sarcastic tone in his voice. "As far as we know, the last place he was seen was at the hotel, so let me know if you see anything that indicates foul play. Viv's got the subpoena for the phone records so she's going to meet me at his place to see if we can get a better idea of where he might have gone if he ran."

"Alright," she said, scribbling a few basic details down on her notepad. "I'll head on in and give you a call if we find anything."

She flipped the phone shut and felt Martin's hand run along her back. "What's going on at the Parkside?" he asked.

"I'm not sure," she said with a shrug of her shoulders, trying to play off the sinking feeling in her gut, as though something was about to go horribly wrong. "38 years old, didn't show to pick up his daughter last night. He was working at the Parkside on Thursday night and that was the last place anyone saw him, so I'm meeting Danny and Naomi there to check it out."

"Oh," he said. She saw a small pout cross his face and could hear the hint of disappointment in his voice. To be honest, she was disappointed too; she had been getting used to getting to see him more often. But she had switched call last weekend in order to go with him to Chicago with him for Alex and Natalie's Christening, so she couldn't really complain about getting called in this weekend when it seemed like everyone was going to be involved in the case anyway.

"Why don't you go hang out with Jamie and your sister, I'm sure the girls would love to see you," she suggested, reluctantly leaving the warm confines of the bed behind and shuffling over to the closet where several of her work suits had taken up residence. She took a blouse and jacket off of the hanger and stuck her head out of the closet and said, "I'm not even sure it's going to turn out to be anything, it may just be a delinquent dad who decided he didn't want to show. In which case I shouldn't be longer than a couple of hours while we sort it out."

"Oh-kay," he said with a dramatic sigh, and looked up at her and grinned.

She shook her head in bemusement and laughed with him.

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8:30 am

The cab driver pulled right up to the curb and she opened the door and jumped out, quickly opening her purse and thrusting several bills at the driver. She took a few deep breaths to shake herself of the irritation of coming in to work in the morning's bumper-to-bumper traffic. She squinted in the bright morning sunlight that crept over the tall buildings, and pulled her sunglasses down over her eyes to shield them.

Looking up, she quickly scanned the sidewalk and saw Danny chatting with a doorman, dressed clearly in the red and gold hotel uniform. Danny met her eyes, motioned for the doorman to wait for a second and turned to walk up to her.

"How nice of you to join us," Danny proclaimed with a sarcastic grin.

She shrugged and smiled at her friend as she replied, "Cross-town traffic was unreal." She looked behind him and motioned to the doorman. "What do we have so far?"

"Brian Owen, 38 years old, last seen here with about eight other paparazzi..."

"You've got to be kidding me!" she interrupted with a frown.

"What do you mean?" Danny shifted his weight and looked at her curiously.

"I was here Thursday night having dinner at Jeanne's; we didn't realize that Randall Corey was going to be right here and the paparazzi would be here waiting for them..."

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"So, Samantha," Nancy Adair set her wine glass down on the table and turned her fork over on her plate signaling that she had finished with her dessert, "Martin mentioned that you got to see your family when you both went to Chicago last weekend. That must have been nice; are you from around there?"

Sam looked down at her plate quietly for a moment before looking up at the woman who had grown up on Fifth Avenue and met her husband when they were both students at Andover. "I grew up in Kenosha; it's just a few hours away in Wisconsin. My sister lives in Ohio now, she's an English professor, but my mom is still in Kenosha."

She smiled to herself, realizing how proud she felt of her mother and her sister for everything they had accomplished in their lives. Lindsey had joined her and her mother in Chicago and they spent one evening out picking out bridesmaids' dresses for Betsy's upcoming wedding and chatting and catching up while Martin spent a quiet evening in with his family after the Christening crowds had dispersed. The old wounds were beginning to heal, and she felt a tremendous sense of peace at having her mother and sister back in her life. Being at odds with them had been a source of tension deep within her that she didn't even realize had been affecting her so immensely until it resolved on its own.

Colin Adair looked up as though he was going to add something to the conversation, but they all turned suddenly as they heard a loud crash as fine china and glass hit the floor and shattered into tiny pieces. Someone had shoved a waiter and knocked him off balance, and he had toppled over onto the floor taking a tray full of food with him.

The guilty party shamelessly began to snap photos, the flash going off with each click of the camera. Sam looked around, scanning to see what he could have been so anxious to get pictures of until it suddenly dawned on her that the camera was pointed directly at them, that he was pushing the waiter out of the way so that he could get through the door and into the private room where they were dining.

Hotel security quickly was on the scene, forcefully escorting the paparazzi out of the restaurant and taking his camera into custody.

Within minutes, the hotel manager had approached the table, apologizing profusely for the interruption and for the lapse in security that let the paparazzi into the restaurant unknowingly. He explained that the basketball star Randall Corey was staying in the hotel with his new wife and that the paparazzi were hanging close to try to get a shot of them together as they headed off to their honeymoon, and he assured them that when they were ready to leave, arrangements would be made to get them out a back entrance where they would not be bothered.

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"We went out the service entrance, but there were still a couple of them there," Sam finished, folding her arms across her chest and shivering in the cool morning air.

Danny smirked triumphantly as she finished her story, and Sam knew she wasn't going to be hearing the end of this for awhile. "Our own mini-celebrity," he clucked with elation. Shaking his head and still grinning to himself, he pulled out a picture from his inner jacket pocket. "You don't happen to remember this man as one of the paparazzi from the alleyway, do you?"

She took the photo by the edges and examined it closely. "No," she said finally, "There were two guys back there; one was older, maybe early fifties and the other was younger and had blond hair. Randall Corey was making his exit at the same time, and they ran off to try to get in on that."

"You know I had to ask," he replied, shrugging.

"I know," she agreed. She glanced around the hotel and saw the alleyway that lead to both the side and freight entrances. "I tell you what, why don't I go around back and see if I can find anything."

"And I am going to head back inside to see if Naomi managed to get those surveillance tapes from security yet," he said, "If this guy decided to just run it's none of our business, but the ex-wife is worried as hell and we have to make sure we don't overlook anything."

"It was pure chaos on the street when Corey was leaving," she reflected quietly. "If someone wanted to hurt him, they could have easily slipped away unnoticed."

She left Danny to return to interviewing the doorman and made her way around to the side alleyway, where she began to crouch down and search for any evidence of foul play. Beside a garbage dumpster, she bent down when she noticed a camera laying out in the open, although it was hidden from plain sight by the shadows cast over it.

She pulled a pair of gloves from her pocket and put them on before lifting the camera to study it more closely. The lens was cracked and there was a trace substance that appeared to be blood; when she flipped the camera open, she found the Smart Card missing.

She sighed; maybe this wasn't going to be the slam dunk case that she thought. So she tightened her grip on the camera and went back out to the street.

She was going to need an evidence bag.

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