Disclaimer: So I still don't own WaT nor the characters, but the plot is all my own!

Warning for language content.

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CHAPTER 5 - Spinning Wheels

15.5 hours missing

Martin held his head as he watched the wheel spin and spin. He was almost sick himself and he wasn't on the damn thing. The wheel began to spin slower and without warning, the image went dark. His breath caught, was that all?

"Don't worry, lover-boy! I'll keep her safe," the harsh whisper called out from the dark screen. And with those words static once again filled the screen.

Without conscious thought, Martin ejected the disk and turned off the set. He carefully put the disk back into its case and started for his desk. He purposefully set the disk on his desktop and started to reach for his file on Leon Towers when the phone rang.

"Fitzgerald."

"Martin? It's Tava. I got that info you need."

Martin smiled in spite of the situation and pushed all thoughts of Sam out of his mind to concentrate on what she was telling him. Tava Jeffries was one of the best agents he had worked with in Seattle. "Tava! Good to hear your voice. What have you got?"

"Rusty Soltay moved to Alaska two weeks after his house flooded. I just got off the phone with the Fairbanks office and they said he was killed in a small plane crash almost three months ago," Tava paused and carefully asked her next question. "Martin, why is Rusty so important?"

Martin sighed, "Actually, now that I know this, he's not important at all. I've got someone here yanking my chain and I was looking for possible suspects. The case with Charlie and Rusty popped up as a possible, but I didn't know where to find Rusty. Thanks for getting back to me so quickly, Tava."

He heard the smile in her voice, "Anytime Martin, you know that. Call me next time you're coming this way, all right?"

"Sure Tava. And thanks again." Martin hung up the phone, picked up his file and headed towards the bullpen.

Jack was adding something to the DOD board. '11:32am - Speed-E Delivery contracted to deliver DVD – cash – no id on buyer.' He turned to find Martin staring at the board, "You ok?" he asked the younger agent. The DVD had shaken him, and his relationship with Samantha had ended years ago, not mere months ago.

"What? Oh, yeah, I'm fine, Jack," Martin pulled out the notes he had just written, "Tava Jeffries just called me from Seattle. The Soltay case is out of contention. Charlie's still in jail and Rusty's dead."

Danny, Viv and Elena watched this exchange and then glanced at each other. Martin was in shock. The other three had given Elena chapter and verse as to what was on the disk and she was just as shaken to hear what Samantha had been forced to say as if she had witnessed it first hand. But despite their personal feelings, they had a missing person to find.

Viv stood up to add her news to the case, "I received word from Warden Lewis at Elmira. Ray Ashlem's still an inmate and after a brief phone interview I'm happy to say that he holds no resentment on your part, Martin. He seems to feel that it was his time to get caught and the only person he seems to blame, is himself."

Martin just nodded at this news. What else could he do? Every time he closed his eyes he saw her spinning on that wheel and he could still hear her scream his name.

Danny had also been busy in the time Martin and Elena had driven to the ranch. "I've got news too." He grabbed a folder and checked his facts, "Leon Towers was released from Dannamora two weeks ago. His Parole Officer says he's moved into a halfway house near Essex and Rivington and has a job at a movie theater a couple of blocks from there. He'd never missed a curfew until three nights ago and then no one's seen him there since. He hasn't shown up for work in four days," Danny paused and checked the phone records. "The call that got Sam out of her apartment was traced back to a disposable cell phone that pinged off a tower in the Lower East Side."

"Did we find the cell?" Jack asked.

"Yep. NYPD found it in a dumpster half a block from the halfway house. It had been wiped clean—no prints," Danny checked his file once more. "And, Leon left everything in his room. Wallet, keys, theater id, the whole shebang."

Vivian asked, "So, we have two missing people?"

Jack shook his head, "No. Our first priority is to Samantha. If we figure out what happened to Leon along the way, so be it."

"So what do we do now?" Martin asked forlornly. "I mean if Leon is missing he probably has her. So where do we look?"

Danny reached over and gave Martin a one-armed hug, "I had an idea."