Without a Trace
In Deep
Chapter Three
Tailored Past
"If those higher up get their own way it would mean more than your colleague's death for three FBI agents have already paid with their life Jack."
My father's tone now turning deadly as I watch our boss even up to him and I am furthermore unable to see from this distance, the letter which Vivian is now reading. Only that our colleagues photo has been attached to it as Malone now fires back.
His words furthermore what we are all thinking:
"So to stop an international conflict your simply going to let another FBI Agent's life hang for it Fitzgerald?"
The words biting the air as I look to Samantha who gaze has not moved off that photo of Danny as I see her now slowly lift her head my father's way. As Jack now unleashes his full prowess while at it:
"You've got more than a ransom note here Victor and whatever way we head our agent is going to be caught in the crossfire.
So yeah maybe you are just right but there is no way I am going to let him die for it Fitzgerald."
With our head agent now stopping at that, the anger and pain still fresh in his eyes plus I've yet to see what has hit Jack so hard. As Vivian now tries to restore order and the one other thing what is noticeable now and has been all morning, that not one of us has mentioned Danny by name.
As Vivian's sure professional tone tries to break the tension between the two:
"He gets the point Jack and at least we know for sure that's he's still alive."
With it not being enough as Samantha hits the point with the letter know being in her hand:
"For how long though Vivian and it still does not answer who else is involved Agent Fitzgerald."
The tension now melting as I glance to Sam seeing that she is now barely holding it together as our boss replies in a more settled tone my father taking the seat directly across from him and he's supporting Spades words:
"Our agent won't last twenty four hours and whoever else is involved has made an alliance with our unfinished business Victor.
Plus furthermore Cuba is going to turn against us in a heartbeat once they hear about those three agents and what else that letter is holding us too. "
Jack's words dying at that, the two head figures not saying anything for a moment as Sam gently places in my own hand, the letter and the picture with Jack adding one more thing something critical to all of us:
"My agent has already been seriously injured Victor and if Danny were here now he would agree to what you are about to ask me to do, for your son is already looking into it for me."
Malone now looking in my direction, my father giving his own opinion:
"So Agent Taylor was attacked by someone he knew?"
As I see our boss now nod, my father looking downwards to the photo of our colleague which sits beside me, as I hear the father of my early childhood speak:
"He's going to die before you ever find him Jack and do you have any idea when this picture was taken, for it and the letter were clean of any prints."
My own eye returning to the Spanish of the letter in front of me with it being Samantha who halts Malone from answering:
"It was taken in the early morning outside his apartment just over a week ago Agent Fitzgerald and I was with him."
The answer causing Vivian to look as I read the glance that Jack is giving Sam. With him somehow knowing to some extent what's been going down between Danny and Samantha. My father thankfully not saying anything as Malone hits the obvious question:
"You are sure Sam?"
Spades eyes meeting his as she nods finishing the statement on a personal note:
"I had just given him back the keys to the Chrysler Jack."
As my own eye moves from the letter to the photo and what can just be identified in Danny's hand the keys to his car, the light playing of them. With those same keys now being part of evidence.
My thoughts breaking there as I curse instead my lack of foreign language and it is one of those times when I am dearly in need of Agent Taylors finely tuned insight. Something that is rarely ever wrong as my eye falls objectively to my other team members.
Aware too that it is not only that part of him that we are all missing. As I go instead with what I can understand in what's now sitting in this letter before me. The writing itself clear and concise along with the elaborate artistic artwork at its end:
"For every year that Danny Alvarez has worked as an FBI agent they want the amount of money plus interest that was allocated towards missing persons."
Jack looking silently my way and it is not that which is worrying him most as I identify the clause further down:
"Great they are also looking for the extradition before nightfall of three high profile Cuban criminals that are held at Guantanamo Bay."
My eye now scanning the last paragraph's a new trepidation setting in. As my gaze returns to my earlier work the folders which Jack gave to me only an hour and half go and Danny's personal files as I find the only words that suit:
"We're not meant to get our agent back alive Jack he's the down payment as it is and they know that there is no way in hell we can meet all their demands."
As the dark eyes of my boss redirect this way with them already having further discussed that photo of our colleague and the fact he could only have been watched for some time… with him also being unaware of it - as our boss picks up on my own statement:
"Martin they are playing a very dangerous game of Russian roulette but it does state one thing clear enough."
The words hanging there for a second as he looks to my father:
"He can only be held within New York somewhere and going by that drawing of the bird their more than likely to be Cuban for it is the Islands emblem."
Jack's glare finding mines as Vivian throws her own legitimate comment in:
"That's only knocking it down to a mere eleven hundred thousand square miles of scope Jack."
As he now typically free-wheels both her and Samantha, the hand rising to stop their next actions:
"Vivian it was a professional orchestrated hit and the little physical data from that crime scene is no longer the priority.
For if we're going to find Danny Taylor alive it is not going to be by the usual protocol."
The two female members of our team, now giving Malone a guarded look with it being the second time he has used Agent Taylor's first name to force a reaction from us as I now kick in my own comment:
"He'd actually be quite glad to hear that one Jack."
My deadpan humor not having its proper effect as I receive four quizzical glares as I now try to dig myself out:
"I let you finish Agent Malone."
His gaze enough as I see the first clear ray of hope in his eyes as his glare finds my father's:
"We've got Nuru to contend with first Agent Fitzgerald and the longer we keep this out the media eye the better.
Plus three families have already lost a loved one and I don't plan on letting it get any higher are we clear on that."
The tone now deepening to clear heartfelt emotion as he now closes the ranks calling on each of us at the same time:
"It's our own agent out there and we need to find him alive. For one wrong move by any of us could not only take his life but cause international chaos.
Plus it is whoever is working with William Nuru that we need to dig the dirt on for they share some sort of history with Danny and at least they've gifted us with what Martin is currently looking at."
Our boss now pausing as my father takes the helm:
"Washington has already been in contact with Nuru and he's claiming the responsibility for the killing of those three agents but he is also, wanting to meet with us Jack."
With Samantha now breaking into the conversation:
"What do you mean by gifted us Jack?"
The answer not coming immediately as the dark eyes look round us seeing the first sign of a half-grin on the set features:
"Victor it will be Vivian that I am sending with you to deal with Nuru and Sam whoever is behind this. Is artistic, calculative, professional and probably Cuban and we've also got all the resources to find them ok?"
Samantha now looking my way to Danny's personal files giving a nod to Jack in return as our boss now changes derogative:
"How long can you stall Washington Victor, for we're going to need all the time we can to find him?"
The two now sharing a look with what they used to hold against each other now forging a bridge as my father answers easily enough:
"Midnight Jack and the only good news is that Washington will stump up a little makeshift ransom money.
For their will be no extradition and there is no way you can stop this going public when Nuru is involved."
Jack vaulting another mad glare to those words with him not commenting on it as he now lifts the letter and photo from the desk my own eye shifting to the clock - seeing the change in the sunlight with it filtering through strongly and it is after one.
With Malone moving over to my own computer printing something off from it handing it straight over to my father and it's the cut down version of Taylor's personal files. As I hear our leader now, speak his tone giving away more than the words:
"He's never let me down Agent Fitzgerald and if you want some insight into what type of agent he is then it's all there."
Vivian joining my father whose gaze for a moment redirects this way and the fact none of us need told, why Jack is giving him a copy of that personal information as Agent Malone turns to our second in command.
The woman who is expected to go with my father and keep him in check as well something that will be no easy task either. As I see the deep conversation between the two with them knowing the game plan and what each other are thinking.
Jack giving her the last word as my father now sends a courteous nod my way and evidently he is not, wanting to speak to me at his moment. Something which gives a little light relief in this dark hour with our boss passing one last message onto Vivian and my father:
"Keep in touch and there is, still some personal possessions of Danny's unaccounted for that may well turn up elsewhere if you get my drift Agent Fitzgerald."
The two sharing a look of common understanding as I swallow aware of what Jack is saying in the broader term as my father leaves on that note, Vivian following as Agent Malone looks between me and Samantha.
His professionalism starting to disintegrate as he speaks to the only female member of our team left his gaze back on the letter before him:
"It's time to let Rafael and his family, see this Sam."
With my blonde colleague following through on Jack's words:
"You're hoping he'll be able to help us shed some light on whose behind this, don't you?"
My own gaze now merging with Jack's our thoughts the same:
"He's our strongest link to Danny and there is a good chance he could Agent Spade."
With the beautiful features of Samantha Spade now looking beyond us out onto the New York skyline with her not answering immediately the head bowing instead as she replies emotionally:
"Jack he deserves to be kept in the loop for obvious reasons and he is rightfully already blaming us for what's happened to Danny."
Her soft tone petering out as the hazel eyes meet mines the look of pain and anguish hitting a whole new level in them Jack taking the initiative:
"Don't go getting all emotional on us now Sam and your earlier answer to Martin's father, explains a lot of what has been wrong with our missing agent recently."
Malone's features darkening slightly in expression Samantha looking away her features becoming paler with Jack instinctively reading her silence:
"We'll find him Sam and right now he's depending on us doing just that."
With them both know making ready to leave with not one of us arguing against those fitting words of his. As Jack now lifts the open case file which has all the details from the crime scene this morning in it.
As he now nods politely letting our intelligent female colleague to go, first Samantha releasing the score by going ahead alone as the dark eyes find mines. The features tense as his gaze sweeps to what I am looking at.
The two folders that hold every detail on our missing colleague with his words being not the one's I expected:
"You were right about him drinking Agent Fitzgerald."
My eye staying on his as I let the information filter through slowly. With him also continuing on a half-note reiterating ironically what he had told me originally when handing these private and confidential folders over earlier:
"Martin he's furthermore not here to argue against what you are looking at now."
His tone now giving way - the two things he has deliberately not added - as I now reply with my earlier dead pan humor:
"No Jack but he would be raising hell if he was."
Our eyes meeting on that comment as I see him manage a half grin before the professional mode re-ascends:
"Keep digging that's all I ask Agent Fitzgerald."
The gaze glinting of mines as my own eye buckles to the maze of the documents before me with Jack saying nothing more. Samantha remaining within view as he now takes the folder and letter with him joining her.
As they now disappear from view to his office and Danny's blood brother with their task being no less easy than the one I have been at most of the morning. My gaze swinging back at that to the official documentation and all it holds.
My thoughts somersaulting instead to what my boss has just informed me off as I think about last night, the hushed words between Samantha and Danny just before he had left. With it being then that I had figured out what was going on between them.
Danny's dejected jilted look the dead give, away and the fact they still had been too far out of earshot to hear what their actual words were. Only that they had not been good Danny leaving more or less after without so much as a goodbye to anyone.
As my thoughts hang on that thread and it something I should have figured sooner. That ironically it's only Sam who could do that much damage to one soul my thought an unfair but just one.
With having been their not making any difference and what was apparent from both sides of the fence that he was in deep his emotions and heart hers. With the unpredictable behavior, the sharp snap comments when anyone was able to get him to talk and for the past week he has been completely out of sorts…
Samantha and Jack more or less completely ignoring it with me and Vivian taking up the slack and it's over a week ago. Since Danny was anywhere like his normal as my thoughts redirect. To the case he had been working on closely with Sam and my naïve assumption that it had been down to Elena then.
That he had finely somehow gotten over her - and it had not been that at all with him in little more than a week straying far from the sharp thinking but sensitive streetwise FBI agents that usually proximate from that charisma of his.
With that in the end only being the tip of the iceberg as I now sigh, my deduction skills that he had re-hit the bottle finding voice a little too late, when I had told our boss late yesterday after our Cuban colleague had left.
As my thoughts now come to an abrupt halt with it being in the last two days alone that the Danny Taylor that I have come to know had really, fell away. His work nowhere near its usual standard and what it was combined with the complete lack of concentration.
Along with that dark intensely jaded mood which had furthermore found a far harsher meaner edge to it as I remember the uncharacteristic, distant unhinged movements of yesterday. The black humor that he had went out of his way to show too and even though not the most garrulous of colleagues.
The conversations had in the end wound down to one word answers with that quick fire temper of his revealing itself to an even higher degree, with him not making it in this morning almost coming as a half relief to both me and Viv.
That quickly changing though with it only being this morning confirming totally what I had started to suspect was going on between Danny and Samantha. The latter completely altering in passion and behavior too.
Samantha the first to raise the alarm when Danny had not turned up, the phone call that we had all dreaded coming a short time later and whatever was between them. In one way or other the ice-queen had melted.
Her emotions clear from the first and from having a history with her. They had both kept it well rapped - Spade keeping him in check - and what could only have hurt more from his perspective. Leaving him in a no man's land of where he stood with her something that Samantha seems to specialize in as I shake my head.
Aware that this is Danny we're talking about plus when it comes to both Sam and Danny, they come out on an even keel in terms of persona. With them both being the overly secretive type as my thoughts shift in sphere our missing colleague causing enough concern and worry before all this.
- Jack only leaving him be and what was apparent now for it was what I had more or less deliberately put my foot in it this morning. Samantha folding before we had even got to the crime scene to what, her true feelings are, for Danny….
As my thoughts peter out the sunlight now hitting off the folders in front of me with the weight of responsibility finding a whole new meaning as I look at what is before me. The official folder on top as my gaze focuses hard on the first certified page of that document and what on that page has taken on a whole new significance: -
To Danny's unique swirled nine year old signature and what in the time I had dated Sam added history to that. Agent Spade starting six months before him and that, they had both fundamentally come under Jack's wing in the same year.
Along with the one other thing Samantha had mentioned briefly in the passing that they had never crossed the line in all that time and that Danny had furthermore ended up spending far longer in the dog house than I had on his first day.
With my intelligent blonde colleague not saying too much else only that Jack Malone had been pretty hard on him and my own further thought on that score. That it was Danny and Sam Malone trusted most. As my gaze flickers back automatically to the full contents of the top folder which holds Taylor's every personal detail: -
From his date and place of birth, school, college, his citizenship to every good and bad mark held against him as an FBI agent. What in itself gives enough clues to that back ground of his with it being the second folder that holds the most weight, the unofficial details that the FBI by protocol dig up before taking anyone on.
My thoughts turning back to the two things my boss had left unsaid. Jack Malone by experience going more by what was before him than the actual agents past something that could only have held to true for Danny too as I slowly take a breath.
Once more scanning the deep history accounted for within these pages of this second document. The details in places far too brief and what hit hard along with it that this is no stranger's documentation that I know this individual and if he were indeed here.
He would have more than one thing to say about it with his emotional state and dark mood not changing how any of us feel. With what Jack had left unsaid earlier not needing spoken between us.
For it is more to the point what I still owe Danny for something three years past, the addiction that I had almost let take me. The kid that almost died due to my own careless actions and it had been both, Danny and Sam then who had come to the rescue.
As my thoughts tie in my slight number of years over him being little in comparison to his experience over me and that the quite Cuban, the colleague who gave me a hard time on my own first day is an individual.
I have come to understand and relate as a younger brother who more often than not knows how to take care of him-self. As my memory again spans back to three years ago and what Danny has not once spoken off with the minor scratches he had escaped with from that shooting and car crash.
Being little to the immeasurable guilt that even to this day, he is unable to hide completely from me and deep down I know the words he has wanted to say even though he has not once breached the subject.
That it should have been him who should have taken the bullet then with that one close shave being nothing compared to what he had been through throughout his life. With the car crash from his childhood marking him for life and what is dictated further in this unofficial file.
The father who loved both his son's equally had in one way or other also mistreated them with Danny's early Cuban years being loved but tortured ones. As my gaze slides back to this other folder and the fact his background could not be more different from my own.
His parents coming from a poor working class Cuban background his mother bringing in much of the household money that their father had later then drank away. With the fervent school record's giving what could be a high achiever and a kid with ability.
As my thoughts turn progressing to the area that grabbed my attention earlier and is doing so now to the time after his parents had died. The details sketchy at best giving away also the pain that went with it and it had essentially been in those vital years of adolescence before manhood.
That the crime that had so touched his brother life had slithered into Danny's life too with him in typical form, somehow managing to stay out of jail too. As my thoughts edge to how much of an effort the FBI has went to track what is here down.
Grabbing a pen as I bring the official folder back alongside with the nine year old papers being faded slightly in places as I come to an abrupt halt something leaping of the paper as I quickly figure out Taylor's age at the date stated here and he would have been no more than fourteen.
With Rafael bringing him to New York two years before that as my eyes stay where they are instinct telling me something and it's too much of a co-incidence with it going beyond that for why he has been so reticent of that past of his - as I now scan to the later history…
Foster care playing its part along with his older brother again landing himself in trouble Danny by all account's parting ways with him with Taylor's path starting to come right while his brothers had done the complete opposite.
My own thoughts tying to what could only have been going through Danny's head then at that point even then he had still been drinking heavily. As my gaze switches back to his fourteenth year to the two things held against his name, the later being the steeling of rum and that it had later proved a god send.
His path distinctly changing direction at that point as I return to the other thing of significance in that same year and what is written here concisely that he had been part of and witnessed something he should not have: -
Something that had impacted him greatly - with why he had later changed his surname to Taylor being addressed with that one criminal incident and too like most who change part or all of their name. It was also something deeply personal to him.
With that change in surname only coming into play much later - to the lawyer he had so wanted to become - alcoholism bringing that career hope to a crashing end. As my gaze drifts to the job that had eventually sent him Jack Malone's way and the individual Danny had once directed me to during my addiction.
As my thoughts amalgamate to how tough, harsh and painful my colleagues life has been with the guilt and feeling of helplessness that only had been compounded with it. As my eye falls slowly back to where it had been to the incident he had escaped with barely his life as I now make an urgent move.
Aware that I need more information before I can take this fully to our boss lifting the personal folders while at it, as I now bring my own computer back to life. Danny's details coming back up on the screen as I now delve deeper into the other archives that I am able to access from here.
Hoping the NYPD documentation are as good as the FBI records with the computer seeming to take forever as I tap the desk nervously my gaze moving to the pile of paperwork on our Cuban colleague's desk. With what I am doing now not seeming anywhere near, enough to be able to help him alive…..
As the computer in front of me now gives a re-assuring bleep in answer to my very thoughts and it is an old police report that I am looking at. The details not surprising of the era as I note my colleagues, real surname and something Danny has mentioned more than once.
That at that age they had all feared the badge as I now send the printer in motion lifting the pages as I photocopy the other details. From Danny's main file as I now highlight what will draw Jack's attention and all in all it is little to what goes with it.
With the necessary phone calls to those involved having to wait for now with their only being one man who can help us at this moment and who can in anyway give, what Danny was going through then.
Rafael Alvarez and my own hunch that there is an uncanny link to what is going down now: - with the Island of Cuba, like Danny being the innocent bystander in all this with it being those two fundamentally different things of a man's life and a Islands relations that are at the highest risk.
As I now grab the files aware that neither Jack or Sam have came back through either with my gaze now finding the clock, the sunlight starting to reach Danny's desk as I try to distance myself from what I am about to do.
Aware that time its self is already ticking heavily against us and that this is no ordinary case, that it is my colleague, friend and man that I look upon time and again as a younger brother. One who is now in deep trouble as my gaze switches to the white board.
At last finding something else to put on it and what Jack should approve off. As I slowly and carefully scroll the date thinking about the victim as I do so with what had happened then impacting him in every way possible and the other thing which is also missing from this white board now.
What not one of us has put up there. The photo of the missing person involved with protocol forcing me to do it now. As I take the old worn FBI photo from the front of Danny's main file sticking it up there.
As I now swallow wishing our missing colleagues positive energy and humor were around as I now grab my own notes - knowing this is going to be rough on all those involved - as I leave the open plan area of the main office behind.
Finding the long corridor the glass on the left hand side the sun reflecting of it as I reach Jack's closed office door. Seeing the individuals in that room there features tense as I now lightly tap the glass holding the folders up at the same time as everyone now turns and looks.
Malone nodding as he rises from his desk, Samantha staying put as my boss comes out into the corridor shutting the door behind him. The dark eyes looking directly into mines and the realization it will be me to speak first:
"How much did you know Jack?"
With it being a question within a question and what we had both left out when he had handed me these files this morning. The response not surprising either me or him as the eyes again give, me a direct look:
"Not anything more than you did Martin."
The set features turning rigid the tone off chord as I change the subject looking through the glass to Danny's brother:
"How's he taking it Agent Malone?"
The question the wrong one to ask as I get the typical Jack response:
"How you would expect Fitzgerald."
His tone dead flat as I quickly change the subject back:
"What about the Taylor part of his name Jack?"
The head rising in response the gaze half mad, that I seem to be interrogating him over his own younger colleague as he replies fully:
"Only in reference to a good tailor for all the suits this type of work requires."
With our eyes meeting to what at any other time would have been a typical bit of humor from our only other male colleague as my features turn serious. Handing the material in my own hand over to Jack his own features now becoming steadily paler as I direct him to the specific page.
The dark eyes rising in understanding as I now give him the new material to back up what is in the original file as I add my own comment:
"Cannot blame him for not, wanting to talk about his past Jack."
With the eyes rising to level with mines as I pose the only other question I have yet to put to him:
"It's too much of a co-incidence and its personal Jack, why else would he change it to Taylor otherwise?"
The words now hanging there in mid-air my boss making no move to answer his mind set only on the text on front of him.
As I change the question again, hoping for an answer this time round:
"Did Rafael recognize anything about the letter sir?"
As Malone's gaze swings from the personal files back through the glass answering the two things while at it:
"I think the drawing at the end spooked him a little but I'm just guessing Martin and your right on both counts about Danny."
The set features now directing there glance elsewhere. His dark eyes slowly returning to the documents before finishing his full statement on something more like its normal gage:
"I cannot ask the victim but the Cuban we have here bares plenty in common with his brother and with a little help from you we should be able to get what we're looking for.
Just watch out for that stubborn streak of his Hispanic's, seem to have an extra dose of it for some reason."
With Malone managing his first real attempt at humor all day as I smile recognizing he's referring as much to Danny as to his brother as I nod letting my boss go first as we both enter his office. The head's lifting to great us.
As Jack now carefully takes control his statement a one set order as we all buckle under it:
"Samantha, take Sylvia and the boys to see their uncles desk."
Our boss not needing to say anything else Sam's hazel eyes finding mines for a moment our thoughts one in that instance with her managing a half smile to what Malone has asked her to do. With her professional mode temporarily, carrying her as the boy's at Sylvia's feet show delight.
Sylvia giving her husband a different type of look, one that neither I nor Jack has missed nor the fact the two seem to have had a disagreement on some level, though not on what Malone is now asking.
With Sylvia quickly taking the boys who have by the looks of it, already had a field day in Jack's domain. Something though that is not bothering him at this moment as I see our boss again, watch the body language between man and wife.
The door now closing swiftly behind them Sylvia giving one last apprehensive look to her husband as I take the seat which had been Sam's with Rafael returning to sit directly across from Jack at his desk.
As my boss draws straight to the point:
"What happened, when he was fourteen year's old Rafael?"
With the Cuban features giving a slight twitch the answer not coming immediately as he looks my way instead:
"Do you mean when he was caught for stealing rum?"
The answer causing the look in my boss's eyes to ignite his emotions once more finding a way through:
"No Rafi before that and you know dam well what I am talking about."
With the Cuban across from me flinching at the words his eyes meeting Jack's fully for the first time, the words coming slowly and painfully:
"After our parents died bringing him to New York was the only other option left for both of us."
Jack barely letting the words filter through with the Cuban getting no leeway:
"I'm well aware of that part of his history Rafael for I questioned him on it on his first day nine years ago.
However it is what happened two years later that I want to hear now."
The two leveling up and I'm in the dark to what Jack is referring to as Danny's brother gives something on a different note:
"We loved our homeland but he was completely unable to get over the accident Jack and I was legally old enough to be his only guardian.
Plus it was the statue of liberty that he wanted to see so much that her liberty and freedom would protect us."
The dark eyes of Jack Malone now looking Rafael Alvarez direct in the eye his words hitting hard most of all on the Cuban:
"You brought him here illegally before Cuba and a new American president closed the gates Rafael and I'm not judging you on that.
It's the reality of what New York really was like for two exiled Cuban teenagers in the mid nineteen eighties and its further effect on Danny Rafi."
Jack's tone turning quite on that last note as the set features tense beside me the tone equally quite in answer:
"I let him down Jack not for the first or last time in my life and furthermore when we fled Cuba we were not the only teenagers to come from that small town."
Malone giving Rafael a measured look the Cuban's gaze remaining level as Jack reads between the lines:
"They were three teenage children of your father's friends Alvarez?"
Rafael nodding in answer as he continues:
"You could put it that way however the two brothers were more like our own worst enemies Agent Malone."
With the Cuban not stopping there:
"But there sister, Eva was an entirely different story and Danny's closest childhood playmate. From the moment he could walk and after our parents died.
It was her who was there for him and not me."
A look of pain now crossing the set Cuban features with Jack not playing on it:
"So they were childhood sweethearts Romeo and Juliet style Rafael and Elena did not enter the picture till some years later?"
The two now sharing a look, the answer not needing spoken as the Cuban adds more:
"She influenced him greatly plus her beauty was as exquisite and unique as the Island we left behind Jack and after her death. He never mentioned her to anyone."
With Rafael changing the subject matter on that note, reverting slowly back to his native tongue before my boss can again interrupt:
"He started where we all do as a carterista Jack."
Jack's gaze staying centered as he replies:
"A pickpocket in other words Rafi."
The set features now giving an uncanny look of his younger brother the reply adding to it:
"One of the best too Jack and though he never directly dealt in the drugs stealing rum was what they reverted to in spare time before the major stuff."
With Rafael giving Malone a set look the Cuban's gaze falling to the photo of his brother that sits directly between them as my boss changes direction slightly:
"He could not talk to you about how your parents died and the guilt could only have been slowly killing him Rafael.
Stealing ended up being as good an option as any especially in the streets of New York and the neighborhood where you settled."
Jack's eyes now turning a different shade, the Cuban only nodding in answer:
"Danny had little or no option Jack and we did not discuss our parents it was a bad subject at the best of times especially our father."
The set features tensing across from Malone as the insight to how they both grew up intensifies:
"Plus the gangs had jurisdiction in those days and every kid in our neighborhood was part of it in some way.
Drink, drugs and stealing from the rich ended up being the only way that any of us could survive."
With Rafael now looking between us as I for the first time add something of my own beating Jack to it in the process:
"It was rough, tough and dangerous but your life even in Cuba had been that too Rafael?"
The brown eyes showing warmth to my statement with the Hispanic talking more to himself than to either of us:
"Danny was only keeping up with her two brothers and Eva Sciorra was the love of his life."
Jack's gaze now directing to me as Rafael draws the letter with his brother's name on it slowly towards him, taping what Malone had mentioned earlier to me:
"This insignia of the Cuban bird was what she had tattooed on her left arm Jack."
With it being the first words to prove that we are indeed on the right track as I share a glance with Jack who now completely redirects the earlier words:
"He was heading for a fall big time and I gather you had a bit of rebel on your hands Rafael?"
The two now sharing a look of common understanding with the brown eyes again looking painfully at that photo between them:
"Danny never played by the rules Jack but you knew that as well as me and he probably had it figured his big brother was going to end up dead first.
Though it was no excuse I was dealing in both drugs and cars by the time he hit fourteen and we were both in deep."
His pause giving us all time to think as Jack nudges the point:
"What happened the night he was almost killed Rafael?"
With the Cuban for a moment remaining silent his gaze centered only on that photo of his younger brother as he now speaks, the words coming slowly at first:
"Five teenagers Jack and I don't think Danny knew at that point that drugs were part of the heist."
My boss letting the word's stand as he pushes for more:
"You think he would have backed out if he had known the truth?"
With Danny's brother shaking his head in answer:
"It would have made no difference Jack for he was already a good kid gone wrong and I was not there for him either in the way I should have been."
The statement hanging in silence as my boss realigns his professional tone:
"Go on Rafael."
With the eyes for a second looking my way as though seeing his brother for a second as he now ploughs on the tone breaking in places:
"It was a, understated white well of family from Harlem and the fifth teenager came from those parts.
He over seen it and Danny, Eva plus her brothers were the backbone of the operation, even though it was done on a whim like the others that were stolen from."
The words dying away for a moment, his gaze drifting to Jack as the tone changes:
"They got in easily enough separated as they usually did Eva went with Danny and one of her brothers unusually tagged along."
As Jack now butts in:
"He knew about the drugs they would find."
With the Cuban not answering him as he now continues upping the pace:
"They were caught on what should have been empty premises the sixteen year old kid had stayed home.
He took down Eva straight away turned the gun on Danny and it failed to fire. However Raul Sciorra had recovered by that time.
The kid stood no chance and was later pronounced dead by NYPD."
Rafael Alvarez shooting us both a look as he finishes the hardest part:
"Danny fled unwillingly from the scene along with both Raul and Jose Sciorra Eva's second brother but the damage had already been done.
The white kid who had overseen it ended up taking the rap plus there was another catch to what went down that night."
With Jack now cutting across aware of the later parts:
"He was spotted leaving the scene of the crime by an off duty cop who put two and two together."
Rafael now looking my boss direct in the eye:
"I knew something was seriously wrong Jack but he refused to tell me until the cop turned up at our door the following morning."
The Cuban looking to Malone for support with him not getting it as he finishes the aftermath:
"The cop took pity on my baby brother only asking for his statement and even though Raul Sciorra had committed murder for his sister's death.
No court case or hearing ever came off in his name."
Jack giving Rafael an emotional look summing up all or thoughts:
"Your younger brother's statement would not have held up even had it ever got the length of the courts. For it was a drugs and race related crime.
With two unrelated teenage kids dying and even though one of them was white. They already had a white kid in custody for the part he played in it."
The Cuban now looking up at Malone adding to his words:
"We feared the badge in no small way Jack but the white kid got off in the end and my brother was furthermore an innocent caught in the middle of all of it."
Agent Malone once more leaving the words there:
"It's no co-incidence Danny adopted that cops surname is it?"
Rafael swallowing punching the last pieces into place:
"He was a cadet cop and he seen the amount of good in my baby brother told me I should take better care of him. Were the actual words he used Malone."
With the Cuban now following through on his own words:
"It was my brothers safety and emotional state and I did not need told that I needed to take better care of him Agent Malone."
As Jack defines the words:
"Eva's brothers were already blaming Danny for her death and emotionally he had lost everything that had ever meant anything to him.
Plus the guilt and pain could only have been ten-fold for him Rafael."
The two now sharing a painful look of harsh understanding as Rafi reaches across in a different way:
"It was only then he gave me some amount of truth about how our parents died but it only deepened the widening gap between us Jack.
He started drinking heavily about that time too and he was not bothered either that Eva's two brothers were after him."
As I again stop them both:
"He thought he could look after himself in other words and emotionally he could only have been bordering on suicidal."
With the Cuban giving a glance of half agreement to the statement as he changes direction:
"I really was worried for him Jack but he was tough for his years and he was not the type to give up the fight even when the odds were all out against him."
Those words holding now in a different way as Jack turns the coin back:
"You did not take the cops further advice even though you were meant to be the one looking out for Danny?"
Rafael now sharing a glance with Jack as his gaze falls downwards:
"Eva's two brothers did catch up with him if that's what you are asking.
They beat him half to death and afterwards Danny simply returned to stealing rum with the old crowd."
With the Cuban now lifting that photo of his brother his eye drifting slowly back to Jack:
"It did not last long though he was caught again for the rum and taken from me into foster care and you are also right in what you are, saying Jack.
I worried but I done nothing other than delve deeper into my own dark streak I let him down when he needed me most and it would eventually tear us apart for good."
The brown soft eyes looking from me to Jack with my boss changing the subject back:
"Did he have any contact with either of them again or the white kid who got off with the charges?"
Rafael's features changing to a frown the reply coming quickly enough:
"Contact yes but they had all put in behind them by then Jack revenge was not going to bring Eva back and they knew that.
As for the other kid only Danny can answer that one Agent Malone."
The words petering out the brown eyes meeting Jack's as the photo in the Cuban's hands falls slowly back onto the table. The individual meaning much to both of them as Jack refers to the earlier comment:
"Foster care was not much better but it set him up for going on the right tracks but you also still got to see him then Rafael.
When did he eventually decide to part ways with you completely?"
With what Jack is asking now being unrelated to what we are looking for as the Cuban answers the head bowed:
"I was behind bars for the second time when he turned twenty and he came to see me Jack to say good bye practically.
We both knew it and he also ironically had been beaten up badly then too though I do not know, by whom."
The words causing both me and Jack to look as Rafael answers unaware that the words just spoken might actually mean something:
"He told me he was thinking about becoming a lawyer and I told him he was crazy that he would never make it."
As Malone now cuts to the chase:
"What did Danny say to that Rafael?"
The pause holding for second as the Cuban answers formally:
"It was an odd reply even for him Jack he said maybe I was right but unlike me he'd dealt with his past."
With Rafael now shrugging his shoulders unsure of why we are so, interested in this part of Danny's history as he now adds something else:
"We argued after that and I knew he was walking out of my life for good Agent Malone but he was the little brother.
Who I protected from our father and my only blood family left. I tried to tell him I would change but it was to avail and he was right.
The only words I managed in defense were that he was still running from his own past even if he could not see it."
The Cuban again adding something of his own thoughts:
"It was why I never mentioned Danny to Sylvia either."
As Jack now tips the balance:
"You were both right by the looks of it Rafael and I assume Danny seen Eva's two brothers throughout his teens by what you've said already."
The gaze of my boss and the Cuban meeting tightly as the reply comes:
"Unlike Danny they choose a different path entirely and they were always on the wrong side of the law the younger I believe was killed by an FBI agent about sixteen years ago.
But their paths did continue to cross I can vouch for that."
As Jack Malone now looks my way before directing his eyes to the Hispanic:
"I was the FBI agent involved then Rafael and it's a co-incidence I'm only now aware off but I know for certain.
Danny would have no idea it was me who took down one of those two brothers."
My own eye finding Jack's his words truth in no small terms as I find my way into the conversation:
"What about Raul and neither of them could have forgiven Danny in that big a hurry."
The words causing a re-assuring nod from Rafael as he adds his own spin:
"When he came to see me in jail Jack, my initial thought was it might have been one of them but he simply refused to budge about talking about it.
The only thing he gave away unintentionally was the fact he said. I was not the only one to have done a major wrong and don't ask me what he meant by that."
As Jack now amalgamates:
"Going by our records here Raul died not that long after his brother Martin plus somebody else from that event.
Still had it in big time for your brother going by when he came to see you in jail Rafael and by all accounts we're still looking for a needle in a haystack or a dead man."
With the words bringing a smile to the Cuban's features:
"It's Danny Jack did you expect it to be anything else?"
The humor almost as half witted as his younger brother's as my boss follows through:
"No Rafi but I bet you were equally surprised to discover your rebel but sensitive younger brother.
Had made it as an FBI agent and it was down to your lawyer and Sylvia for tracking him down for you."
My eye finding Jack's as I see the amount of damage he's doing to the Cuban, the smile disappearing the features turning serious again as the tone gives the underlying pain:
"He came to see me before the hearing Jack and I never thought he would turn up but he did and I know more so now than I did then.
How hard it was for him to do that Agent Malone."
The brown eyes now looking gently into Jack's their feelings all equal as the Cuban pushes the point home:
"Danny is my blood brother Agent Malone and even if you think Raul might still be alive this letter is not done by his hand.
For those two brothers may have been many things but neither of them would have betrayed their home country like this."
Rafael's gaze turning defiant my boss finding himself cornered from an unlikely source as the Hispanic finishes:
"I can assure you no exiled Cuban would write anything of this measure Jack."
The words causing pause between all of three of us as Malone recovers quickly:
"Rafi there is a deep connection to when Eva Sciorra died this letter and your brother.
Plus our missing colleague never once mentioned in the years after who was responsible for beating him up.
When he came to see you in jail when he was only twenty?"
Rafael now giving Jack the same glance back his now silence answering the question as he now speaks, the words no more than a whisper:
"I have told you all I know Agent Malone and until you do your job. We are going to be clutching at straws all day.
For my brother would have told me if he had wanted to and its only when he is in the deepest of trouble that he ever comes my way as it is."
The words now hitting with pain and raw anguish as I try to stop the tide of negativity:
"You think that's the other indirect reason he came to see you back then Rafael?"
"Yes Agent Fitzgerald"
With our questioning getting no further as another individual re-enters the room and its Sylvia her eye set only on her husband and she has heard our last words:
"Rafael tell them the truth of when you last seen Danny."
The feisty female leaving her husband no leeway as Samantha and the two boys now come up behind her as the still figure across from Jack answers:
"Danny has come often this time since my parole Jack but it is always when Sylvia or the kids are with me.
Yesterday afternoon he arrived at midday at my work out of the blue."
The information again being of tangent to finding him but that it is also significant in a different light as Malone nods, not looking Rafael direct in the eye this time as the Cuban.
Hits on the truth of the matter:
"I know my brother when he has been drinking Agent Malone yesterday he was just that. Only worse than I've ever seen him before and I'm sorry I lied to you before."
Jack quickly lifting his head:
"You have no reason to be sorry Rafael and you have every right to be angry with us I gather your brother typically. Did not tell you what was upsetting him so much?"
With the Cuban's eyes meeting Jack's as he now speaks the tone certain:
"Not since Eva died have I seen him so wound up Jack and yes I got no answers to what was wrong. Only I know it could only have been a woman.
Who could have done that much damage too him and it was not Elena for he's not seen her. Danny at least told me that much Agent Malone."
Jack's gaze for a moment looking Samantha's way, with our female colleague not yet knowing who Rafael is meaning by Eva as her gaze falls to the floor under our bosses stringent gaze as Malone carefully changes the subject:
"I've been well aware our missing agent has been of tilt recently Rafael.
However it is in no way related to this and when he was beaten up that time before it too might have been an unrelated incident."
With Jack knowing the full scale of what he is referring to as the Cuban hits him a further glare:
"You don't think it is though Jack and my younger brother's life going by this letter you have received.
Is the only sure fire insurance they themselves have. One which can be quickly and easily disposed off if and when it suits them is that not so?"
Malone's gaze again faltering under Rafael's with him making no further move to reply as Samantha does the talking instead:
"William Nuru and your brother's captor are utilizing on where you were both born Rafael and they need your brother alive to make any sort of deal with either Cuba or America."
Rafael's brown eyes now turning on Sam and like Danny he can read the gritty truth of the situation:
"Yes but it does not help. That if anyone even attempt to strike any sort of deal to save my younger brothers life.
He's more than likely to end up dead first. Before you can get anywhere near finding him Agent Spade and your little ransom money is only helping them along too."
The words hanging powerfully and fearfully in the frozen air both me and Sam looking now to Jack for some sort of comeback and support. To what has just been said with it still not coming as Malone's mobile phone now jumps to life.
With Sylvia and Danny's two nephews remaining peaceful also to what has just been stated the boys looking to their father. As Jack continues to talk on the phone hanging up at speed as he now makes one more phone call.
Samantha's eye finding mines with us both knowing who he is talking to and it is Viv his tone becoming more, high strung as he finishes the current phone call abruptly his gaze returning to Rafael as he speaks to him alone:
"NYPD has found the vehicle your brother was carried in."
The word's jilting the anxiety in the air as the Cuban asks the pivotal question:
"Where Jack?"
Agent Malone's eyes rising to meet Danny's brothers his words now holding further significance to what Rafael has already helped fill us in on:
"It's been abandoned for what looks like some hours beside Trinity Cemetery in Harlem at the back of the Hispanic Society building.
Plus out with your brother wallet, blood and the weapon used to attack him with. The vehicle is completely empty and apparently a stolen one."
With those words now sinking in slowly and Rafael like Jack has noted. That it is Harlem district where the events that had affected Danny years before had taken place.
As our boss speaks this time to me:
"Switch on the TV Martin."
As I now rise giving Samantha back the seat as I do so finding the remote the news channel greeting us with Nuru's face. My own eye turning to Jack and what we all know. That Viv and my father have not been able to stop him breaking it to the media circus.
With the current news having a field day on the erratic details as I hear Rafael speak in Spanish to Sylvia the woman's gaze falling fearfully on Jack's as Agent Taylor's brother again speaks:
"They will run Danny's name through the mud Jack and I know my younger brother better than he himself knows for being an FBI agent means everything to him.
He loves his work Agent Malone and he would never live with him-self either. If three Cuban's held in Guantanamo Bay on Cuba become extradited because of him."
The words causing all heads to again rise with the Cuban now finishing his pitch:
"Cuba is a rogue Island and your old foe William Nuru. Who has already done Danny harm before is now hoping to exploit it politically by using my brother's life as a bargaining chip.
For our homeland will not stand that sort of pressure for very long not even with Fidel and Raul Castro at the helm."
With Rafael having a fair idea of the international politics involved as he comes straight to the point:
"They will in the end do only what is right for their country and their people and a missing relatively young exiled Cuban American FBI agent's life.
Is not enough to keep either nation from leaving Danny to die at his captors hands is it Jack?"
The Cuban hitting the whole situation on the head as my own gaze falls to our lead agent. Samantha's doing likewise too and what neither of us has missed at this moment either. How much of that uncanny resemblance to his younger brother has filtered through in those words just spoken.
As I see our boss hesitate because of it, his gaze unable to move of the soft painful eyes of the Cuban as he at last speaks.
The tone a million miles from his usually cool outer shell:
"It won't get the length of extradition Rafi and your brother would already not be able to live with himself.
For if he knew in any way that three Hispanic FBI agents of Cuban descent were already dead because of that letter."
With Jack getting stopped mid-motion Rafael understanding where he is coming from:
"Then he would already have the whole of the FBI up in arms, for letting that happen Jack?"
Malone's gaze matching the Cubans once more as he finds another minor point:
"Maybe it's a good thing he's more than likely to be unconscious at this moment Rafael."
The Hispanic meeting his eye again with there being a double edged meaning in those words as our boss adds something of his own:
"Cuba has not have forgotten the FBI agents who helped them find a little girl eight years ago Rafael and neither nation.
Wants political genocide especially when three individuals have already lost their lives and another still hangs in the balance because of it."
With Rafael measuring the look in Jack's eye as he responds:
"Before this day is out and no matter what you say Cuba will turn against us and my baby brother will pay with his life for sure Jack."
The tone giving way as Rafael's youngest son, now runs to his father side coming up onto his lap to sit the three year olds gaze finding Jack's. Our boss now switching off the TV the kid watching his every move as Rafael ruffles the unruly jet black hair of his youngest son.
With the boy now turning towards his father giving him a big smile with the emotion in the room finding a new sphere as my own eye sees its effect on our boss. His features whitening in pain as though almost seeing someone else their as Rafael now finishes his statement:
"My sons think the world of him Agent Malone and I don't intend to have the flip conversation that I once had with Danny.
For I don't intend to be the one to have to tell them their Uncle is dead Jack."
The brown soft eyes of the Cuban meeting Jack's Sylvia coming up beside her husband, taking his hand into hers as Niki the oldest comes to the front of Jack Malone's desk:
"Are you going to find him for us or not Agent Malone?"
With that same sort of humor of his Uncle's being present across the young set features as Jack's gaze stays on him. Before slowly moving round them as he lifts the documents in front of him, his eye for a second going to Sam and then me.
Before turning back to Rafael and then Niki as he now responds in the Malone fashion that is his best trade mark:
"We're going to find him alive Niki and your father has helped a lot for his brother still turns to him when he needs him most."
The words impacting Rafael immediately hope filling the despair that can still be seen in his eyes as Jack now quickly photocopies the ransom note. Handing the original and the photo of Danny directly to me as he speaks again this time to everyone present:
"I'm needed immediately in Harlem however both Samantha and Martin will be here if you can remember anything else.
That might help us Rafael. Plus your brother like Cuba is an innocent in all this and the FBI will make sure his name is not dragged through the mud anymore than is necessary."
With Jack nodding to the Cuban in understanding telling him too that it is my father and Vivian that he is going to meet in Harlem with my bosses tone. Now cutting defiantly across to me:
"Samantha, stay here till I speak with Martin alone and Agent Fitzgerald those personnel folders of Danny hold the key to what we don't know yet."
As I now quickly rise aware that Jack is back firing on all four cylinders Rafael now sending Sam a suspicious look also as I now lift the files before me. My gaze temporarily sending the blonde a look with her playing straight back of it frustration shining in her eyes too and it is something we are all feeling in a different way.
With my thoughts turning back to Danny as the office door shuts behind us my gaze coming back to Jack as I ask the valid question:
"What could you not say to me in there Agent Malone?"
His gaze hitting my own square on:
"It's not Danny's blood they found in the trunk of the vehicle at Harlem. Even though it is a definitively a match for his blood on the wallet and weapon that are there too."
Our gaze merging to one our voices striking out at the same moment:
"They planted the vehicle to side track us."
As Jack's features now turn quickly back to grave:
"There is also another note again but there is no open threat attached as far as I'm aware but you will need to wait till I see it with my own eye Martin."
The dark eyes now looking through my own his gaze turning back to the figures in that office of his, Jack's gaze resting on Samantha as I swallow seeing what is always between them and what my own instincts are telling me now.
That Danny was all too aware of it too - as my gaze falls slowly back on Sam Danny in all likely hood thinking that he could only have being playing second fiddle to Jack and that he could not compete with him in her affections.
With that thought cancelling out as I see the pain and heartfelt love now on Samantha's beautiful unique features with my missing colleague not being entirely wrong. As my gaze moves to our boss before switching back to my female colleague and the underlying truth of what her real feelings are for Danny.
Something only now surfacing and deepening with every passing hour he is missing from us as my thoughts merge to one sound fact. What Jack and I share immeasurably with Danny being the complete opposite.
His relationship with Sam even in this last week still shaped by the easy going Grand Canyon sized friendship that had forged it to begin with and when it came to it. He is close to her in a way that neither, I or Jack ever could be….
As my thoughts now snap in two Malone's gaze having left Samantha's and that I would be skating on more than thin ice. To even mention the three way triangle that has been growing slowly more visible for the last week and what could only while at it.
Have been tearing Danny further part inside with Jack now giving me a cool glare as though he has read my every thought and there is something else now bothering him. As I opt for that question instead:
"What is it Jack?"
With my bosses gaze falling slowly to the folders and the original copy of that ransom note what is now in my own hand:
"Cannot help wondering about the major wrong our missing colleague mentioned to Rafael Agent Fitzgerald."
The dark eyes now sending me a glare and he's not called Danny by name as I feel the hair on the back of my neck rise to what Jack is trying to half entail:
"Agent Malone he would not harm anyone in the way you are implying Sir"
My words reaching their mark with my boss giving me another look:
"What if it was self-defense Martin?"
The tone completely professional and it's the one thing at this moment that I myself am completely certain off as I now come to the man I look upon as a younger brother's defense:
"Not even if it was that Jack and you are the closest individual he has to a father figure does that not count for anything Agent Malone."
Jack flinching beside me as I look to Rafael my gaze falling heavily on my boss as I find the words he is, desperately needing to hear at this moment:
"You have only two daughters Jack but Danny Taylor.
Is the nearest thing you'll ever have to a blood son and this is not the time to start letting him down Agent Malone."
With the strong figure beside me finely starting to break the tears he is at this moment trying his hardest to hide but unable to as I get the reply I am looking for:
"Shut up Martin."
The tone hitting with painful force as he now draws him-self together and he's still made no hasty move to leave as I add another quirk:
"My father and Vivian are going to be in Harlem waiting for you if you don't hurry up sir."
With him not answering me his gaze back on Danny's brother as he speaks clearly this time:
"Can you back check everything from when he turned fourteen till he became a fully fledged FBI agent Martin?"
My eye turning to Jack giving him a smile and it is no small order what he is asking as I go with my own thoughts:
"You think it is Raul Agent Malone?"
Jack nodding as he sends a look my way:
"Let me guess you think it might be the white kid?"
As I now shake my head and the fact Jack is emotionally to close to the case as I voice my thoughts:
"Not necessarily Agent Malone there is the family, who lost their sixteen year old kid as well and that is just half the likely suspects don't you think Jack?"
With our eyes now meeting on an equal pare and it's the victim in all this that Jack is now thinking about:
"It's when he visited Rafael at twenty that we really need to take a closer look at Martin Elena was out of the picture at that time.
So it's the files you are going to need to go by and more to the point I need to figure out what's been going on in that head of his for the most part."
Jack's gaze now falling downwards as I manage to find a positive:
"At least when he starts talking we usually have a lot of trouble shutting him up Agent Malone or maybe it is because he talks that fast Sir."
The set features across from me finding a smile to that one as he now hits me with another hard glance:
"Find me the cop the first Agent Fitzgerald and we're going to need to go over that night Danny was almost killed with a fine toothpick as well.
Plus you need to keep into consideration that his captor is artistic and likely a professional of some sort"
With Jack now forcing a grimace from me to the mounting work load and the fact we're a man short while at it. As I now remember another small point:
"What about the photo of Danny, will we not get anything from it Jack?"
Jack now giving me a skeptical glare:
"Your father will have already looked at that angle Martin and Nuru would have it covered anyway."
As I nod finding myself on thin ice without meaning to as Jack's dark eyes fall on mines:
"Fill Sam in once I leave Martin and it will need you both plus you seem to know more about her relationship with Danny than I do."
Our eyes meeting my gaze quickly falling and it's the one thing I had hoped he would not bring up. As I now shrug not trusting my own voice Malone doing the talking instead and he's not thinking about it in that way:
"He might have indirectly opened up to her about Eva Martin."
My gaze locking on his and that I hope in some way he is correct in what he is saying with the look I am now receiving telling me his further thoughts on that score. As he now makes ready to leave the copy of the ransom note and the missing persons file in our colleagues name being in his own hand.
As I look to Jack aware of the vast amount of trust and responsibility that he is now putting on mines and Sam's shoulders. The personnel files in Danny's name seeming to gain weight all by themselves as I now bring our boss to a halt:
"Jack"
With him still being within ear shot as he turns back this way the sun now completely filling this vast empty hall from the glass directly above as my voice echoes out across it:
"We're going to find him before it is too late aren't we?"
The handsome features tensing in almost shear pain Jack only holding eye contact for a mere second before answering his tone finding its earlier humor with it not quite working somehow:
"He would never let us live it down otherwise Martin."
As his gaze now quietly drifts and deep down I see the added concern that he's already let Danny down in a different way by leaving him be when he like everyone else had seen our Cuban colleague had been completely of par.
My thoughts now disintegrating on that level Jack leaving now at a pace and I'm not helping Danny any as I gaze again at the two confidential and private folders that I hold aware that every chapter of his life.
Is within these two folders as I remember Jack's words that the key to what we are still looking for is still within these pages somewhere as my gaze falls to that ransom letter. All it is holding us too as I look to that image of the statue of liberty on it.
Thinking about Danny as I do so - knowing now how much the statue of liberty had meant to him as a kid and that its deeper meaning could only have grown in his adulthood. With my thoughts hanging there on that sensitive precipice not wanting to think of him as being already dead and we have no way of knowing either…
As my head rises my jaw tightening aware that I still owe him big time over three years past as I remember the constant ribbing. The foreign language barrier that I more often than not fall at and what he himself cannot help but find humor in as I shake my head once more.
Finding a smile a long with it folding that ransom letter back into its original folds and that he's got a whole team now fighting to find him alive as I look to my own watch. Cursing where the hands are now at as I rap the glass of Jack's office door holding the files up again - to catch Sam's attention as she now start's to head my way.
With my grip tightening on the folders that belong this time to no stranger, that they belong to the only individual I would be proud to call my own brother as I shake off my own inner fears. Aware too that Danny has left us a mountain the size of Everest to climb and it is going to be no easy task….
As I now slowly hand the files over too Samantha giving her the first real chance to look at them closely as my hand finds hers our thoughts one and the same. That there is no way on this earth that we're going to lose him like this as my thoughts re-align understanding along with it.
The tortured soul that Danny like Jack seems to hold under that all too cool exterior and that the two are a heck of alike, in more ways than one. With our sensitive Cuban colleague having a more tailored past than the rest of us put together and its one that he had by choice not wanted to talk about either.
As Sam's eyes settle on mines new emotions showing in those clear hazel eyes as my touch now leaves hers as she now echoes my father's own earlier words, as I now follow through not letting her think otherwise.
Sending a silent prayer along with it that he is still alive at this moment and if he's getting his own back in some spirited way then he's picked a strange way of doing it - with that guilt strewn, immeasurable pain that had foretold most of his life proving in itself how strong one Danny Taylor is and he has time and again.
Put his life on the line for each of us with those fiery, off the wall methods making him one of the best agents in this team and that having him as a friend rather than a foe was a good thing. My thoughts folding in on themselves and that it is only in these last few minimal hours.
That I can really admit that I have always looked on him as some sort of younger brother who is now, needing the help he gave me in a different way three years ago and this is little enough in the way of repayment. As Sam hands the folders back with us being back in the open office as I instead sit the folders on the desk before me.
Our gaze rising too look at the more or less empty white board before us as I retake the marker pen with that area of his life. What he has never mentioned to any of us being what Sam and I are about to pull apart piece by piece and the underlying fact.
We both would father rather have him here now to fill us in on it….
TO BE CONTINUED