Title: Death, MD Chapter 3
Author: Dancing Star
Crossover: PSI Factor / Sue Thomas FBEye
Pairing: Connor / Lindsay,
Rating: 16
Category: AU, Crime, Mystery, Romance (Warning: This story is VERY different!)
What happens: Lindsay Donner loves her job at the hospital. But then she gets hit by a lightning and since then she can read the thoughts of the people around her. Lindsay notices as one of her patients is planning a murder. She tries to prevent the murder.
Notes: The idea for this story is mine, but the characters aren´t. If this story sounds familiar to you: Congratulations. You have found me. :-)
Death, MD Chapter 3
"What do you mean?", Connor asked suspiciously.
"I know you have a secret. I know since the night in your house at Lake Mead." She asked for an answer. And when she had received it, she wanted to continue looking for Caleb.
"How do you know that?"
"I...", she didn´t know how to respond, "That does not matter!"
"Are you a secret agent?"
"No."
"How do you know my secret?," he asked and when he noticed she wouldn´t answer, he added: "I won´t tell you anything!"
A thick lump had formed in Lindsay's neck. "Fine," she finally muttered, "I'll tell you. In return, I want to know what's going on." She saw that Connor nodded.
"I was struck by lightning and since then I can hear the thoughts of other people," she confessed.
"Do you expect I believe that?", Connor was shocked she thought it was so gullible and he turned around for leaving, but Lindsay grabbed his wrist.
"That's the truth. You have to believe me. Please."
"This is completely impossible. You're..."
"...A liar. That it was what you wanted to say, isn´t it?"
Connor shook his head again. "That was random." He got into his car and drove away.
Lindsay swore as the car roared away, but suddenly the car stopped and he got out. Connor left the car in the middle of the parking garage and came back to her.
"Well, I'll tell you," Connor gave in, "But not here. Get in the car."
"Getting into your car? Are you serious? So you can put me away, as suggested by your colleague from the CIA?"
Connor rolled his eyes. "Read my thoughts, if you can. You'll realize I won´t hurt you."
"Now that you know of my ability, you could manipulate your thoughts," she said, but it was about Caleb. She needed to know where he was so she got into Connor's car. They closed the doors and Connor drove the heavy, black SUV out of the parking garage and then down the Las Vegas Strip in a southerly direction. In the darkness, the bright lights of the hotels and casinos were incredibly beautiful.
"Yes, I know," Lindsay suddenly said.
"What?", Connor asked back blankly.
"The lights are incredibly beautiful in the dark... This you've just been thinking."
Connor realized she had told the truth. It was hard for him to believe her.
"I have fulfilled my part of the deal. Now it's your turn", Lindsay reminded him.
"Al right… I am a participant of the witness protection program."
"What?," Lindsay asked. She knew he had a secret, but she had no idea it was just THAT. Rather, she had expected he was also a CIA agent.
"My real name isn´t Connor Doyle," he confessed, "Actually, my name is Connor Miller."
"How...?", Lindsay barely knew how she should formulate their question, "How did you...?"
"How did I become a member of the witness protection program? That's a long story..."
Lindsay listened again his thoughts and even though he wanted to avoid, she noticed that he wanted to tell her the truth reluctantly.
"Then tell me the short version," she demanded, "I need to know if this has anything to do with the disappearance of my son."
Connor took a deep breath. "Elizabeth Harper is my mother..."
"She can´t be your mother...!"
"Harper is the name of my grandmother," he understood immediately what she wanted to say, "She has adopted this name after she and my stepfather got divorced."
"Is that why you stole the photo of her and Professor Sawyer out of the office?", Lindsay asked.
"Yes," he admitted, "I wanted to keep her out of..."
"Out of what?... Connor, tell me! "
"All right!" While they discussed, Connor drove past the Welcome to Las Vegas sign, "Six years ago I worked with the CIA. My team blew up a terrorist ring. We thought at that time, we had turned off the terror cell completely, but one of the men escaped. My team consisted of 20 members, within one year, all were dead."
"Why?," Lindsay asked.
"The man escaped has shot the members of my team back then. Those who had families were executed together formally with their loved ones. Ten of my team members were killed by a car bomb on the way to the Pentagon... It was already too late when we realize what is going on. I have changed my name, interjected the connection between me and my mother and I moved from Washington DC to Canada. But even there he found me: One night the family that lived in the apartment next door, was killed in a hail of bullets."
Lindsay murmured a quiet "Oh God" in the passenger seat, but she didn´t interrupt him.
He firmly gripped the steering wheel. "Then it turned out that the terrorist was a doctor and he had killed several hundred people in a third world country in tests for weapons of mass destruction. They named him "Doctor Death". We asked the Homeland Security and found put the guy was American, but has attended a terrorist training camp while studying abroad... Now he has changed his name several times. But I'll never forget the tattoo of a black coffin on his forearm."
All of a sudden Lindsay was wide awake.
"This CIA agent Hudson is my best friend. He has helped me to be included in the witness protection program."
"Then you had the idea that you could hide here in Las Vegas. In my hospital."
"Yes."
She wondered how he had managed to avoid being unmasked between all the right doctors, but Connor answered her question already. "I have studied medicine for three semesters, so it was easy to hide in the hospital."
"I'm terribly sorry," she told him. But she didn´t understand why Professor Sawyer had caught the attention of the CIA. Lindsay decided to ask Connor: "Why is the CIA interested in Sawyer's death?"
"He was my father," Connor replied, "My real father."
Connor told her that he had never met his biological father. When he came to Las Vegas five years ago, he found out by chance that Sawyer was his father. The photo of Sawyer and his mother, which was taken -according to time stamp- eleven months before his birth in front of a theater in New York City, gave reasons to speculation. Although it was dangerous, Connor got in touch with his colleagues at the CIA. He had a good friend who could recommend him a discrete forensic laboratory and so Connor did a DNA test. He still remembered the feeling when he found out that James Sawyer was his biological father. He had often tried to talk to the doctor, but Connor never found the courage. So he kept the secret and he also never asked his mother about the circumstances because he was in the witness protection program and couldn´t contact her. That his father was now dead, without knowing of his existence was like a tragedy to Connor. However, this meant that someone else could possibly have found out the truth.
"Listen, I know the man whom you seek," Lindsay told, "You have spoken of a coffin Tattoo..."
"What? How do you know him?"
"He has recently appeared with a wound in the emergency room."
"Do you have a name?"
"Jimmy Weaver."
"That's not his real name," Connor said, braked and turned the SUV in the middle of the highway. Another car that was driving behind them, honked.
They drove in the opposite direction.
"What are you doing?"
"We have to get his medical records," Connor replied, "I want to know if there is a reference to where he is staying now."
They left the highway at the next opportunity and then drove on the right lane back to the city. While they were on the Las Vegas Strip, Lindsay tried to reach all kinds of people. "I need to call Peter," Lindsay decided, "Maybe Caleb traveled to his apartment by bus or taxi." She knew the two were friends and she prayed Caleb was with Peter and Claire.
After three dial tones someone at the other end of the line answered the call. "Peter Axon," a voice answered.
"Peter, this is Lindsay. Is Caleb with you?"
"Why would he be with me?"
"He disappeared. I only left him alone for five minutes when he is gone from the hospital."
"How can someone disappear out of the hospital?", Peter asked and although Lindsay wasn´t near him, she could hear what he was thinking.
"Pete, what if someone has kidnapped him?", she sounded desperate. Connor, who was steering the car, looked at her anxiously.
"I don´t think so," Peter didn´t knew a reason why someone should do this, "Where are you now?"
"On the way back to the hospital."
"Good. Ask Roger from the security department. Maybe he can show you the surveillance tapes", Peter suggested, "And if that doesn´t help ... You need to go to the police."
"I know," Lindsay gulped, "Will you call me when Caleb shows up at your and Claire´s apartment?"
Peter promised her he would do that immediately. Then she said goodbye and hung up. Lindsay now had to call her dad in Henderson and Laura, who was probably already waiting for them at home. Both reacted shocked when Lindsay told them about Caleb 's disappearance and they told her she should meet the police as fast as possible.
Close to tears, Lindsay finished the last phone conversation. "You have to take me to the police," she said to Connor.
"Not now, we... We have to find out something about Mr. Weaver and then I'll take you to the police."
"All right," she relented, because at the moment there was no other option, "Lindsay Donner is actually the name that is written on my birth certificate. If there is something else you want to tell me, Connor Miller, then you should do that."
"There's really something," he began, "No one but you and my colleagues of the CIA know, that I am a participant in the witness protection program. That's why my name is still Connor Doyle, you understand?"
"On one condition: You won´t tell of my mind-reading skills."
Connor agreed, but he couldn´t resist a comment: "You'd be the ultimate weapon," Connor told her.
"Yes, but only until everybody in the terror circles knows about my skills. After that, I'm useless and I can´t read the thoughts of all villains in the world."
For the rest of the trip they didn´t talk a word to each other. They had barely reached the parking deck of the hospital and had got out when Lindsay accelerated her pace and literally ran to the elevators. "What are you doing?", Connor asked.
"I'm looking for Roger, the Security guy." She wanted to follow Peter's advice and ask him about the surveillance tapes of the ICU.
The rooms of patients and bathrooms were not under video surveillance. All hospital corridors and entrance doors were, however. The hospital had installed the video cameras in 1999, after a man had shot dead a doctor and two nurses because he had thought they were to blame after his wife bleed to death in childbirth. Today, the cameras were there of the safety of employees. Someone who didn´t live in Las Vegas, couldn´t imagine how many drunken, rowdy people were in hospitals and how many drug addicts with serious injuries left the hospital (and took the wallet of one or another nurse).
As Peter had said, Roger was still in service and when she told him her concerns, he rolled his office chair at his computer. "When did your son disappear?," Roger asked and Lindsay called him the time period in which she had left Caleb with Melissa at the front desk of the ICU.
On the screen they saw how Lindsay said goodbye to Caleb.
"Is there no sound?", Lindsay wanted to know displeased by Roger and he said no.
Now she watched as Melissa left her workplace. She had gone to the ladies room, she had explained. Melissa was barely gone, when Caleb got up from his office chair and ran out of the image.
"I know you don´t like to hear that," Roger sighed, "But it doesn´t look as if your boy had been kidnapped."
"Yes," she nodded, "Looks like he was running away..."
Lindsay didn´t know if she should now be reassured or not when she walked alone to the radiology department. She suspected that Connor was there and sat behind his computer, reading the digital patient record of Jimmy Weaver. When she opened the front door to the radiology, she saw there was a lot of trouble next door at the ICU: Some people ran busy through the corridor. It might perhaps sound heartless, but she'd do the devil and help them. Her son had disappeared, after all.
Then she entered Connors office. "You found something?", he asked as he looked up from his computer.
Lindsay grabbed an empty office chair and pulled it behind Connors desk. "On the surveillance tapes, it looks like Caleb ran away... I couldn´t see any foreign person."
"Is that good or bad?"
"No idea. But I have to inform the police as soon as we're done here ", now Lindsay focused on the screen, "Did you find anything?"
"An address in Silverado." Silverado was a suburb south of McCarran Airport. Lindsay gulped as she realized how close this was to her home in Paradise.
She noticed how he printed the website then opened another website. His car didn´t have a navigation system, so he had to check where the road was, were Mister Weaver seemed to live. But 1284 Market Street couldn´t be found, because the road ended at house number 1184.
"The address is wrong," Lindsay realized and she could almost hear Connors teeth milling in rage, "What do we do now?"
"Nothing. There´s nothing we can do."
Lindsay knew that Connor currently had other worries than to accompany her to the police, but he insisted taking her there. In his opinion she shouldn´t drive a car in her state.
At the police department, they had to wait a while until one of the detectives had time for them.
"I don´t understand why Caleb ran away...", Lindsay suddenly said.
"Maybe he can´t stand the problems in school," Connor suggested.
"No. That's not the reason." When Lindsay listened to her inner voice, she knew why Caleb had run away. "He's tired, that I constantly work until late in the evening and I'm never there for him. I can´t even blame him."
"I'm sorry." Connor leaned back until his head touched the cold wall. He saw how a surveillance camera followed his movement and suddenly he had an idea: "Did you asked Roger to show the surveillance tapes from the intensive care unit, or the records from the clinic entrance?"
"Only the tapes of the intensive care unit. Why do you ask?"
"Because after 8 p.m., the main entrance of the hospital is the last open gate. There is then no other exit or entrance... Except the emergency room, but it´s currently closed."
"Connor, what do you want to say?", Lindsay wasn´t in the mood for guesswork.
"The clinic entrance is monitored around the clock by security personnel. Someone should have noticed a six year old boy who leaves the clinic alone."
All of a sudden she was sick. At this moment a door opened and one of the detectives asked her in to take their missing message.
After talking to the police both drove back to the hospital and visited Roger in his monitoring center again. Lindsay demanded that Roger showed her the surveillance tapes of the main entrance and because the security guard was interested in the solution of the problem, they checked all the recordings from the time Caleb had disappeared in fast forward. Finally, they reached the recordings with the timestamp midnight. "That's it," Roger said, "I don´t have more video material."
Connor found it was strange that Caleb wasn´t to be seen in the recording. He had no idea how the boy should have left the hospital.
"I'm sorry we haven´t seen Caleb on the surveillance tapes of hospital," Connor said to her when they returned to the parking deck. Connor´s car stood next to the Trans Am. Lindsay had the feeling Connor's apology sounded seriously.
"It's all right," she replied, but nothing was all right. Basically she was afraid to return home. What would Laura say? Of course she was worried about her nephew, but like always she would say Lindsay she was an unfit mother. Laura often did that when Lindsay took her son only a few minutes late to school. Laura felt confirmed in her conjecture (Lindsay sometimes guessed, Laura only said this because she and her ex-husband had no children).
"Shall I take you home?", Connor asked and Lindsay gently shook her head.
"No," she murmured, leaning against the car of her father, "No... I have to do something. I can´t wait until a cop finds my son... If..."
"I understand..."
"I have no idea what to do, you know? Normally I would start to call all his friends, but Caleb doesn´t have any friends at school."
"Are there children in your neighborhood with whom he used to play?"
"No. Caleb mostly spends his free time alone at home and he´s reading or he´s playing video games.
"Do other relatives of you live in Las Vegas?"
"My parents were both only children and my grandparents have passed away. Besides my father, who lives in Henderson, there is no one..."
"This is not easy…," Connor now admitted, but then he seemed to have an idea, "I know what we can do. Get in." He went to his black SUV and then sat behind the steering wheel. Lindsay did what he told her, but she was curious: "Where are we going?"
"There are some people I want you to meet," Connor started the engine of his car, "People who can help us better than the police."
Lindsay had no idea how many times that night they were driven along the Las Vegas Strip. This time they didn´t moved in a southerly direction, but in the north, past the Stratosphere Tower and the famous Little White Wedding Chapel, where Frank Sinatra, Jon Bon Jovi and some other celebrities already got married.
Lindsay was tired, so she leaned her head against the passenger seat and stared out the window.
"Does that mean everything you've told me was a lie?", Lindsay wanted to know, "The present your grandmother gave you, for example? Your house...?"
"Well, most things are lies, I admit. I couldn´t tell you the truth…."
They were silent again for a while.
"May I ask you a question?", Connor then asked.
"Sure."
"So you only had a date with me at Margaritaville, because you knew I had a secret?"
"I found out later that you have a secret when you showed me your mother´s house... And Margaritaville wasn´t a date… I didn´t know how to react, but I never expected you are participant in the witness protection program."
He was relieved, because although Lindsay was able to read his thoughts, she hadn´t figured out what his secret was.
"That was a lie," Connor suddenly dry said.
"What?"
"The house doesn´t belong to my mother. That's part of the deal. The truth is I haven´t talked to my mother for a long time."
"I know."
They arrived at a building in the north of the city and although it was quite late, there were many cars in the parking lot. "What is this place?", Lindsay asked as she got out.
"This is a lab."
Before they could enter an old factory, Connor had to type in a six-digit PIN and leave a fingerprint at the front door. Then the thick metal door opened almost automatically.
"What is this place?", Lindsay repeated her question, as they walked up a narrow staircase. The staircase was bathed in green light and seemed almost alien. Connor apologized: He hadn´t been here for years and obviously the commercial light bulbs were out. At the end of the staircase they had to go through another metal door and then entered a far more friendly furnished office building. Some of the offices had windows from which you could look in from the hallway. There was no daylight in the building and Lindsay noticed in some of the offices scientific equipment was stored.
"This is a CIA laboratory," Connor told her now.
"I didn´t know that..."
"As you can see, not only the FBI has labs and offices here in Vegas, but this is a top secret facility."
Lindsay knew immediately what that meant. But if she only got Caleb back alive, she could even keep silent about the existence of little green men.
"Have you worked here before?", she asked as they walked down a corridor.
"No. This is a forensic laboratory." He knew he surprised her again, because sometimes even the CIA required the service of science. "When I came to Las Vegas, I spent the first two weeks here," Connor told, "If you take part in the witness protection program, you are taken to a foreclosed place for two weeks where you can learn all the details of the new identity . And if you're lucky, you have imprinted the new life story until you think all the lies are true."
They turned to the left and came into an office, where a person, who both knew, sat behind a desk.
"Hudson," Lindsay exclaimed, astonished and the dark haired man looked up. Lindsay knew him since she was questioned about Professor Sawyer's death at the police station and he was the man with whom Connor had been talking in the emergency room. The CIA agent stood up.
"What the hell are you doing here?", he wanted to know from Connor.
"It's alright. We can trust her."
"I didn´t ask for that! What are YOU doing here?"
"Doctor Death is in town," Connor said, "Lindsay is willing to help us if we help her."
Jack Hudson's brow wrinkles. Of course he knew the wanted terrorist, but he didn´t understand how a doctor should help them. "How can I understand this?"
"Her son Caleb disappeared. We have a few better ways to find the boy again... Is Jenkins still there?"
"Yes, he is but...", Jack didn´t even have the chance of talking, "How can she help us?"
"First of all she knows how he looks today. If I am not mistaken, our last photo is six years old… By the way he calls himself Jimmy Weaver."
Jack thought it was an argument. And he would like to have asked them a few questions, but Connor and Lindsay were already on the way to Jenkins office. Connor told her that Jenkins was a brilliant computer specialist. If there were any encrypted server, he was able to crack it. He was a wise head and Connor asked Lindsay not to judge him: The staff of this laboratory were no nerds, just because they were interested in scientific topics and spent most of the time during work isolated from public.
Without knocking Connor entered the office of Jenkins. Lindsay and Jack followed him. "Jenkins, are you there?", he asked.
"Look who has returned from the witness protection program," a voice from the other corner of the office called. A tall, slender man with glasses appeared.
"No, I'm not returned. Jenkins, we need your help, "Connor now turned to Lindsay," This is Doctor Lindsay Donner. She can help us to grasp one of the most wanted terrorists in the country. In return we will help her to find her missing son again."
Although Jenkins shook Lindsay's hand, the friendly grin on his face was instantly gone. "How old is your son?", he asked her.
"He is six years old... And he's missing since a few hours."
Again, Jenkins nodded affected. He wasn´t an expert for missing children, but that the boy was gone for only a short time, was good. The longer the child was missing, the lower the chances were to find it alive. Jenkins dawned that Lindsay also knew.
"We need to find out where Weaver is now and what he's up to."
"For these matters, I have this baby here," Jenkins fumbled for a DVD and put it finally in his computer, "I call it FINDER 2.0. It is one of the fastest computer viruses I've ever programmed. Within an hour FINDER scoured the private databases of all companies in the country, without they even have a glimmer of it."
"Isn´t that illegal?", Lindsay wanted to know.
"Normally, yes," Jenkins replied then smiled reassuringly, "But we're the CIA... Also, FINDER is extremely useful when it comes to tracking down criminals. Connor, did you know Interpol has recently made me an offer: They wanted to buy FINDER for ten million dollars."
"I didn´t know," Connor took for himself and for Lindsay a cup of coffee, "I'm in the witness protection program, remember? I experience everything always as last."
"Of course, I forgot," Jenkins said, "My baby is worth more than ten million dollars. They would have had to offer something more." He didn´t care whether they thought he was a greedy person.
Jenkins offered them to sit down behind the computer, as he provided FINDER with references.
Meanwhile the virus was looking for information and it took a while, so Connor told his CIA friends that Jimmy Weaver had killed his biological father, James Sawyer and he therefore believed Weaver was close on his heels.
"There's only one thing that is not logical," Lindsay said, "Weaver wanted to kill a woman."
Connor raised his head. "Did he say that?"
"Yes, he did." Lindsay had understood their secret code immediately. Jenkins was amazed Weaver had told her of his murder plans.
"What exactly did he say?"
"I can´t remember exactly," she replied, "I think he has gloves so he won´t leave fingerprints. He has a gun, which he has filed off the serial number. He wanted to bury the corpse of the woman in the desert and throw the gun into a lake."
"There is no lake in this area," Jenkins interrupted immediately. The computer behind him sounded the alarm. "The virus has actually found something... Weaver flew to New York City with Delta Air an hour ago."
The words echoed in Connor's head. He immediately knew why Weaver was flown to New York. "My mother," he muttered and got up, "I need to talk to my mother immediately."
Connor didn´t care Lindsay could watch him through the glass window in Jack's office when he called his mother. He couldn´t hear what she discussed with Jack and Jenkins, because he was too worried. Connor waited five dial tones, the time seemed to him like an eternity. Finally, he heard a clink noise on the line, then a noise.
Elizabeth introduced herself with her full name. It was unusual she even answered her home phone, because usually she had an assistant who did this.
"Mom, this is Connor," he told her. He was relieved to hear her voice.
"Connor, my boy. I haven´t heard from you for a long time ..."
"Yes, I know." Connor sighed. He was never allowed to tell his mother he participated in the witness protection program. This also meant he never called his relatives. In fact, his mother didn´t even know he had been a CIA agent. He had told her he was working as a busy chief physician in Alaska.
"Mom, are you alright?", he asked.
"I'm very fine, Connor. What about you?"
"Where's Greg?", he then wanted to know. Greg was the assistant of his mother, who was supposed answer the phone for her.
"Greg has a few days off," Elizabeth giggled, "Where are you? Are you still in Alaska?... And what kind of phone number is this?" Apparently her telephone possessed a phone number display and because Jack's tap-proof connection was routed through three different satellites, it was almost impossible to trace the origin.
"I'll explain another time. Anyway, I'm no longer in Alaska", Connor scratched the back of his head, for he thought about how he could tell her, that he had never been to Alaska, "Can you do me a favor? Pack a few things, get into your private jet and come to me to Vegas."
"You´re in Las Vegas?", Elizabeth sounded surprised.
"Mom, don´t ask any questions and come here. And I would be very grateful if you won´t tell anyone about it. And don´t tell that I called you. The fewer people know, the better... Where is Chris?", Connor was even worried about his stepfather.
"He is in Bali with his new girlfriend," Connors mother realized something was going on, "Connor, what's wrong?"
"I can´t tell you. At least not yet", he breathed deeply for a moment," Do me a favor?"
Elizabeth thought for a second. "Okay."
"Thank you," Connor was relieved and he was glad he didn´t even had his stepfather Chris to get out of the firing line, "Hurry up, please, okay?"
"Yes, I´ll hurry. I promise." For a moment they were both silent on the phone line. Then Elizabeth said, "It was nice to talk to you, Connor. I've missed you, my boy."
"I know that... I see you tomorrow afternoon?" It was almost as if he wanted to confirm that she really left New York and came to him.
"See you tomorrow," Elizabeth promised and hung up.
When Connor returned to Jack's office, Lindsay was excited to see what his mother had said, "Is she coming?"
"Yes, she said she gets on the plane," he sounded dejected, "If she finds out that I am not a wealthy chief doctor in Alaska, but a former CIA agent who is disguised as a radiologist, she will be very disappointed."
"Did you also tell her why she should come here?," Jack asked.
"No. That's what I'll do when she's here. I would like to explain to my mother in person. This is not a conversation you should have on the phone."
She nodded in agreement.
"Can we try to find my son, while we´re waiting?", Lindsay suddenly asked.
"Of course." Now they could only wait and hope that Weaver would never find his quarry in New York City.
"I don´t like asking you for this…", Jenkins began and threw uncertain a look at his computer, "But we need a DNA sample of your son."
"For what?", Lindsay asked skeptically.
"We can register him in the statewide database," Jenkins said, "In the event that Caleb appears somewhere or for worse things." Jenkins had heard of children who disappeared without a trace and then years later showed up in another country, but he didn´t dare to Lindsay tell about it.
"Do you have any item with you, which I could use for a DNA sample of Caleb?"
Lindsay thought for a moment. Then she looked in her purse. "I have a candy in my purse, he didn´t like."
"Do not touch!", Jenkins cried, turned around and pulled out a pair of tweezers with which he carefully fished the candy from her purse, "That will be enough." He brought the candy immediately to the laboratory and handed it to his colleague. When he came out again Jenkins told her she had to wait for now. A DNA test lasted several hours: "It will take a while until Sally is done with the saliva in the electric posthesis. The DNA fragments are converted to single-stranded DNA and separated with gel. The fragments then move, which means that so-called split bands..."
"You don´t have to explain how a DNA test works," Lindsay reminded him, "That was part of my studies."
"Good," Jenkins scratched helplessly, "Maybe we can try to create an actual picture of Jimmy Weaver on the computer while we're waiting..."
He tried to bridge their awkward silence somehow. And he wasn´t good with that because they didn´t receive many visitors in this secret laboratory.
"Where's Connor?", Lindsay wanted to know instead and she didn´t know Jenkins actually breathed easier.
"I think I've seen him going to the roof terrace."
"Thank you," Lindsay decided she needed a little fresh air.
Although the summer days, the city was always served with hot temperatures, the nights in Las Vegas were cool, almost cold.
On the roof terrace of the CIA laboratories, Connor's hands shook as he reached into his jacket pocket for a box of cigarettes, opened the box and pulled out a cigarette. Of course he knew smoking was unhealthy. During his brief studies he had vowed never to start. When he had joined at the CIA, some colleagues brought him to smoking and he had found it very reassuring, but since he was a participant in the witness protection program, he had stopped smoking. Until today.
Connor thought of his mother, hoping she would be able to leave New York in time before Jimmy Weaver arrived there. He was almost frightenedas the metal door to the roof terrace squeaky opened and Lindsay came out.
"You smoke?", She asked when stood next to him.
"Occasionally."
"Where did you get the cigarettes from?", she asked, not waiting for an answer, but pulled the fags out of his mouth and pressed it on the wall in front of him. She assumed he must have smoked at least one cigarette.
"Borrowed by Jenkins", Connor replied, "There are five cigarettes in the box and I'm not going to smoke all." He held the opened box in her direction. "Would you like one?"
"No. You know that I don´t like this." A cold gust of wind swept over them.
"Because your father smokes marijuana?", While he asked this, he stuck a cigarette in his mouth and lit it with Jenkins' Kitten- lighter.
"Yes! And it's unhealthy. I don´t want Caleb sees me smoking."
"Caleb isn´t here currently, right?", Connor asked back and saw her horrified facial expression. Then he apologized for this comment. "I'm sorry. It was stupid I said that... How does Jenkins?"
"He creates a DNA profile of Caleb, in case he shows up in a hospital or a police department or if he is kidnapped and shows up years later."
"Did he say that?", Connor looked at her surprised.
"No, but he thought it," Lindsay added. Jenkins didn´t know that Lindsay could read his thoughts. It took all kinds of overcoming not to let him know she knew exactly what was going on in his head.
"What now?... What now with you and Jimmy Weaver, I mean..."
"My mother will arrive in six hours," Connor estimated, "I don´t know what will happen if Weaver arrives in New York and realizes she had left the city."
"Did you ever have to do with missing children?," she suddenly asked.
"Once," Connor gave her a worried look, "It was a two year old girl. Her name was Patty and she disappeared, when her parents were playing golf. Her older brother was home, but he listened to some the music all the time with the Walkman, so he didn´t notice what happened in the house. When the parents came back from the golf course, Patty had disappeared and the nanny was lying dead in the hallway. I think the name of the nanny was Carolyn..." Connor knew that she read his thoughts at that moment.
"Was that your family?"
"Patty was my half-sister. Her disappearance was the reason why my mom and my stepfather have separated."
"Has Patty been found again?"
"Yes. Three years later, the police in Las Vegas had arrested a couple who lived in the sewers and had a child with them. In the clinic, the doctors did a blood test and found out that the neglected girl was Patty. She didn´t recognize my parents when they came to pick her up…"
Some bums and people who had lost everything because of the financial crises were living in the sewers of the city. Because it almost never rained in Las Vegas, it was the last refuge for the poorest of the poor. Some residents lived below with their complete home furnishings and only when the weather was bad, the people withdrew from the sewers.
"I'm sorry," Lindsay said He was a worse troubled soul than he would admit. And he would never tell, but he blamed himself to Patty's disappearance.
Connor hoped they would find Caleb soon, because the longer a child was gone, the more likely it was to find it dead.
Lindsay suddenly walked away without a word. Connor wondered what he had done wrong, but then he knew it: She had read his mind again and heard he expected to find Caleb dead in the worst case.
She returned alone into building and she had asked Jenkins if there was some cafeteria for the staff. Instead, Jenkins advised the rest room in which a few beds stood.
Lindsay wasn´t in the mood for sleeping but she decided to lie down for a while. She thought it was hardly possible, but as soon as her head touched the pillow, she was asleep.
Lindsay had no idea how late it was or how long she had slept. Because there were no windows in the building, she couldn´t tell if it was still dark outside, or whether the sun was possibly already in the sky.
Still tired she ran her hands through her hair in and then shuffled through the lab. Now, some people were present that Lindsay hadn´t noticed during her arrival. Finally, she discovered a large clock and saw that it was seven o´clock in the morning. She would need to call Sue at the hospital to tell her that she wouldn´t come today. Lindsay asked Jenkins if she could use his phone when he walked into his office with a cup of coffee and he nodded. Then he advised her to get a breakfast, which they had every morning in the small cafeteria.
Lindsay thanked him and after Jenkins continued his work, she chose the phone number of Sue's connection. Sue answered the phone after three dial tones.
"This is Lindsay," she began, "Can you excuse me for today. I don´t come to the hospital."
It took a while until Sue replied, "Why? What happened?"
"Caleb has been missing since last night."
"What?", Sue sounded upset, "How are you?"
"It's...", Lindsay gasped, but her voice failed. A thick lump had formed in her throat as she thought of Caleb.
"Where are you now?"
"I can´t tell you."
"Lindsay, I..."
"Can you excuse me for today?", Lindsay repeated her question.
"Yes, but..."
"Bye, Sue. I'll call you again." Lindsay hung up. She tried to breathe deeply. Actually, she had decided not to cry. But she couldn´t so she started crying her eyes out.
Jenkins noticed with a helpless expression. Then he good up and asked Connor for help, who just come to his office with a breakfast tray.
Connor believed hours had passed until Lindsay had calmed down. Still crying, he had brought her back to the rest room and had stayed there with her until she fell asleep. Fortunately, they had a doctor in this facility, so Lindsay got a sedative, which allowed her a better sleep.
Connor sat on the bed on the opposite wall, watching her. Once he reached for his cell phone and looked impatiently at the display. His mother hadn´t called again. So he made an attempt to reach her. Instead of a dial tone, the announcement, the person you tried to reach wasn´t available, sounded through the line. He hoped she now was on the plane and came to Las Vegas as he had told her.
When Connor didn´t take it anymore, he decided to leave Lindsay alone. Maybe he could use his old CIA contacts to find out where his mother was.
Lindsay's eyes burned when she woke up again. She felt awful and her legs gave way when she tried to get up. She felt dizzy and it took a while until she had become accustomed to this feeling. As soon as she felt better, she got up and staggered back to Jenkins' office.
"Are you feeling better?", he asked and she nodded.
"I feel as if I had too much glasses of wine," Lindsay sat down on an empty chair behind his desk, "Where's Connor?"
"On the roof terrace with my cigarettes, I guess... And probably he will smoke them all because he can´t find out where his mother is." This meant that Jenkins couldn´t pursue his own addiction.
"Come to my side of the desk," he then suggested, "The autoradiograph result is there." Jenkins handed her a sheet of paper, "So this is the DNS of your son."
Lindsay considered the thick and thin lines which were lined up next to each other at different distances. She noticed how the scientist sat down behind a computer, implying that she should roll next to him with the office chair.
"What are you doing now?"
"I feed a database with that profile. If anyone somewhere in this country gets a DNA sample, which agrees with this, we get a message."
He had hardly entered the profile when the computer indicated a message.
"What's going on?", Lindsay asked, "Is there an agreement?"
"No...", Jenkins's brow furrowed, "Some laboratories also use this database for finding missing family members. In women, this works quite well because the mtDNA is always the same between the female members within a family and remains almost unchanged over several generations."
"What does that have to do with Caleb?", Lindsay didn´t understand.
"I have found your profile," Jenkins curiously clicked the "information" - Button, "It says you have given a sample after your mother has disappeared without a trace 25 years ago."
Lindsay didn´t remember, but her dad had told her of it. The whole family had to submit DNA samples back then, because the police had obviously studied their house. Lindsay's own DNA- profile appeared now next to Caleb´s on the screen. At the start of Caleb's DNA profile, there was a thin line and in the middle and at the end there were several thick lines. Lines of the same type were seen in Lindsay's own profile.
"Here's something," Jenkins said, "The other half of Caleb 's profile has been added. Because the DNA of a human inherited half from the mother and half from the father, Caleb 's Profile must include alleles from both parents."
"How is that possible?", Lindsay asked, "Does that mean his father is also registered in your database?" Her heart skipped a second because she hadn´t seen Caleb 's father for years. In addition, his father didn´t even know what had become of the child after he had left Lindsay. Lindsay tried to decide what she wanted to do with this information.
"That can´t be right," Jenkins said now and Lindsay couldn´t believe her eyes, "It says the sample of Caleb's father comes from an in-house database."
So that was it! That was the reason why Caleb disappeared. She now knew it was no accident.
"This is Connor's profile," Lindsay muttered, "He is Caleb's father..."
Fin