A/N Hello, people. Yeah, I sort of forgot about updating...or at least how long it had been since I uploaded the last chapter.
Thanks to all Reviewers!
Disclaimer: I own nothing!
Dedication: to Cheryl for her review. :D
Their flight to L.A. had been relatively uneventful. Joe, renowned for his deep, abiding hatred for the morning, was half asleep for much of the flight, which took off at six in the morning. One of the other agents, an Agent Maroni was also not much of a morning person and he mostly sat in his seat grunting responses to his team members when questioned.
Frank was assured by one of Maroni's team members, Agent Garfield, that Maroni really was a pleasant person after six or seven cups of coffee. Frank had spent most of the flight discussing the case with Agent Garfield, an interesting woman of about thirty whose father and grandfather had also been agents, and Agent Klein, who he'd guess was a little bit younger than his cousin Don.
Once they tired of discussing the case they moved on to other topics, Frank discovered that Agent Klein had minored in Literature during his college days, and they passed an interesting discussion of Chaucer's intent in the Canterbury Tales.
His father spent the flight talking to the lead agent who had introduced himself to Frank and Joe as Agent Nichols.
They reached L.A. a little after eleven, and were ushered into waiting vehicles sent by the bureau which brought them to the hotel, which the FBI was paying for all the visiting agents and the Hardys to stay in while working on the case. Charlie had invited them to stay at the Craftsman but they had opted to stay at the hotel not wanting to be in the way. They just had time to check into the hotel and drop off their bags in their rooms before heading to the FBI offices. The meeting was scheduled for two o'clock that afternoon, but they wanted to spend a few minutes catching up with Don and Charlie (if he was there), before the meeting began.
When they arrived at the L.A. office Fenton spotted an old acquaintance and paused to speak to him, while Frank and Joe sought out their cousins.
"Frank, Joe, it's great to see you again." Don said swiftly hugging each of his cousins, before ushering them into a conference room. "Charlie's in here working on an analysis for one of our other cases, it's sort of on the backburner in light of recent events, but he thinks he has a breakthrough, so he's working it out." He explained as he held the door to the room open for them.
Charlie continued to write on the dry erase bored entirely oblivious to their presence and would've remained so if Don had not called out to him.
"Charlie," Said younger brother started at hearing his name called, before turning around and upon spotting his cousins rushing over to greet them. They spent a few minutes catching up, during which time Frank informed his eldest cousin that he did not care for his method of expressing concern. Frank was an adult in full control of his faculties, and as such did not appreciate having his father and younger brother contacted over something that might not even have something to do with him. Don had merely laughed and said that he'd keep that in mind for the future, although he did not look very contrite. As the eldest of both families he felt the need to look out for both his little brother and his younger cousins.
"What are you working on?" Frank questioned Charlie noticing the way his cousin's fingers twitched around the dry erase marker he currently held, obviously itching to get back to work.
"A money laundering case, it's very subtly done, in fact I would've hardly noticed it, and they're obviously professionals." Charlie explained. He spent several minutes going over the details of the case and explaining the mathematical analysis he was working on (which none of them really understood). While the math was foreign to Frank, the method of money-laundering was not.
"Wasn't there a money laundering scheme very similar to this in England, in 1987?" He asked after mulling over where he recalled the information from for several moments.
"As to that, I'm not really sure…" Charlie replied thoughtfully. "I'll have to check into that." They spent several minutes longer discussing the money-laundering case before they headed off to the larger conference room that had been set aside for strategic meetings regarding the missing person case(s).
By the time they entered most of the agents were already seated, Frank, Joe, and Charlie slipped into seats near Fenton while Don who had been designated lead agent on the entire operation headed to the front of the room to address everyone.
"Since this is our first group meeting, I think it would be beneficial to go over what we know from each crime, therefore Agent Bedingfield, would you be so kind as to take us through the details of the disappearance in Minnesota." He said nodding to the lead agent of the Minnesota team.
"Victim was a woman by the name of Janet Malone, aged twenty-seven, artistic genius. She has artwork published internationally is thought to be the next Rembrandt or something along those lines. She normally works in her private studio from five a.m. to six p.m., however her husband didn't grow concerned right away when she didn't show up on time. He says that when she get's inspired she'll work non-stop for days." The agent paused evidently straightening out the details in his mind, and Don took the opportunity to smirk at his younger brother, raising an eyebrow as if to say 'remind you of someone?' Charlie simply rolled his eyes at him.
"He called her around midnight when she didn't show up at home, apparently they had some kind of engagement the next day and she needed to be up early the next day, so he thought he should call her. When she didn't answer he headed over to her studio and when she wasn't there, he drove back home thinking he may have missed her. When she wasn't there either, he tried her cell again, and called several friends and relatives. When none of them had heard from her all day, he phoned the police who filled out the missing persons report, and referred the case to us when it seemed she had been kidnapped." Bedingfield continued to elaborate on the details of the case, which weren't extensive as they had made little headway. "We searched the studio, but there was no evidence of a struggle, and her car was still parked outside, there were no witnesses, we think he must've grabbed her when she first arrived, since she starts work so early few people were out and about, as it is her studio is in a fairly deserted area."
"You found no solid evidence of any kind?" Don clarified, even though he already knew the answer to his question. The bureau had met hopeless dead ends at every turn in regards to this case. "Agent Garrison, report to us on the Florida case." Don commanded turning to the lead agent from Illinois, she was a capable woman of around thirty-six or seven, with a definite air of authority.
"The vic is a thirty-one year old male from Chicago, he's fluent in around twenty languages including several dead ones. He is a history and linguistics professor at the University of Chicago. He never showed up for his classes the day of his disappearance, a colleague of his called his house, and his cell when he got no answer he called the police. We searched for any sign of him; we found his car parked in its usual space in the parking lot and no sign of him, nor any sign of a struggle. I'd say he walked off of his own accord if everything I know about the victim didn't go against that, as well as of course the disappearances of all the other geniuses." She concluded her recitation and ceded the floor to the agent from New Hampshire.
It was obvious that Agent Nichols was frustrated by the lack of leads in these cases, as a rule law enforcement agents aren't terribly fond of having unsolved cases especially when they involve serious crimes such as kidnapping. Like most of the agents in the room he looked like he hadn't had a decent night's sleep in a while. He began his recitation after a few moments pause to gather his thoughts on the case. "Missing person is a twenty-six year old male, and a chess prodigy by the name of Jeremy Fanfold. He runs a youth center for underprivileged kids, they offer a variety of activities, and he personally teaches the kids how to play chess. He never showed up to a private lesson he was giving one of the kids, the kid alerted another administrator at the center, who attempted to contact at him at home and on his cell. When no one could locate him they called the police. His car was still at his house, we suspect that he was taken while on his morning jog, we retraced his usual route and had several witness reports of seeing him; he usually jogs through the path at a park near his house. A vendor reported that Fanfold bought a water bottle from his cart. A couple other park regulars recall seeing him, he goes off the charts sometime between exiting the park and returning home. We suspect the perp must be using some form of drugs to knock out the victims, because Fanfold is no lightweight, he's built along the lines of Agent Granger, it's unlikely that he could be overpowered without there being evidence of a struggle, of course it's possible that whoever did this had someone clean up any such signs, since we can't even nail down exactly where Fanfold was taken from. The only other thing we have is reports that a unfamiliar, black SUV was seen on the street outside the park, on the route Fanfold usually jogs home on. However, it could have just been someone parking there and going to the park, the only reason it raised any kind of a flag is that the park is relatively small, no one really goes to it besides those who live nearby, and most of the patrons know each other. A woman by the name of Eliza Thomas said that she saw it just sitting there, engine running, when she entered the park with her kids shortly after Fanfold would've arrived. She thought maybe the driver was waiting for someone in the houses across from the park and didn't give it much thought. Upon interviewing everyone on the street, no one recognized the description of the car, however, that doesn't prove anything, because for all we know it was someone visiting the park, and even if it is the car we're looking for there are millions of dark colored SUV's in the country."
It was easy to understand why Agent Nichols looked so frustrated; they had zero leads on a major case, one which included several upstanding members of their communities, many of whom, like Fanfold, contributed heaps of their time to volunteer work. Once agent Fanfold concluded his recap, Don called on the agent from Montana to speak.
"We're looking for a woman, aged thirty by the name of Emily Vander, she's renowned for her work with computers, we've actually had her in to consult with us several times." Agent Jefferson explained, his tone making it clear that the Montana agents considered this a personal attack. "She was supposed to be working on a case for us the day she went missing, she never showed up, which of course given the fact that she was supposed to be working on a case caused immediate concern. When no one could contact her we launched an official investigation. Her family owns a farm, and she lives in one of several houses on the property. Her parents say that she usually goes riding every morning, her horse was missing, they later found it wandering around on the edges of their property without Emily. We swept the area for any sign of her but were unable to turn anything up." Agent Jefferson concluded, obviously frustrated by the lack of advancement on the case.
"Alright, so far we've established that the first four cases have resulted in zero leads." Don stated, it wasn't a criticism of the other agents, just an observation. "Fortunately, we have a little bit more on the fifth case, though not by much. Our victim is a twenty-eight year old musician by the name of Kathryn Weston, she never showed up for rehearsal. When no one could locate her the police were called in. We questioned her neighbors, and while no one saw her get kidnapped, they do remember seeing a large, unfamiliar black panel van drive up and down the street several days before. One of her neighbors thought it seemed strange, concerned that whoever was in it might have been some sort of predator, the neighborhood is home to a lot of families, and wrote down the license plate intending to call the police if she ever saw it again. We traced the plate number which led us to a Honda Civic which had been reported stolen a few years ago, so no lead there. We have put an APB out on similar vehicles though, and we're hopeful we may find some sort of lead from that direction." Don finished. "On that note let's take a brief break for lunch, and than Agent Megan Reeves, our profiler, will tell us what she has so far."
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