Backlash: Chapter 2: Things Brought to Light

11/7/10

Damien and I are going to walk around the town later. He wants to show me the sights. No strings attached. I still don't like him, even though he's gone as far to say he'd get tired of buying notebooks and is just going to buy me a little netbook. No Internet, though. I keep writing to bide my time. He did bring my CD collection from home, but nothing to listen to it with. I know he's not punishing me by doing this; he's trying to get to Josh. They'll find me eventually. Until then, more writing (or after today, typing)and watching movies until I fall asleep at night. How much longer will I be here?

…...

"Nothing, absolutely nothing!" Nate exclaimed. They'd been looking for an hour and found nothing about Damien that could hint to where he'd have gone. "What do we have?"

"We have a possible location," Jake said. "Albeit it's the entire Atlantic Coastline of New York."

"What about San Francisco?" Josh asked. "He could be there."

"If he did, he'd have payed for the flight with cash. But he most likely didn't go there," Nate said.

"Why do you say that?"

"Well, when you look at it, would she have gone willingly with Damien?" the rhetorical question was asked by Nate. They all knew the answer, which was no. "So that pretty much means she was taken by force, and how do you forcefully take somebody aboard an airplane? Off is one thing; on is another story."

"What if he's got his own plane?" Josh probed. He really didn't want to give up.

"Even if he did, a flight plan would've had to have been made and cleared with the flight control of the airspace, and no flight plans were scheduled between that night and the following morning. All commercial flights were checked as well. Nobody with Damien's description boarded a flight during that time."

"Let's just not rule it out entirely, okay? She might be there," Josh almost pleaded.

"We won't rule it out yet," Nate said. "Meanwhile, we now have the entire state of California and the Coastline of New York to search."

"Let's start with California," Josh said.

"I thought you were all for New York?" Jake asked.

"Well, I was and I still am. California just seems more logical now that you think about it. I mean, the farther away from us, the better for him. Right?"

"He's right. He'd want to be farther away from us," Nate interjected.

"Great, so we're going?" Josh asked, excitement in his voice.

"If we need to, yes," Nate answered. "Before you get all excited, let me check and see if he even has a place there."

"He has a place there?" Jake questioned when he saw the result.

"Apparently, he does," Nate told Jake and Josh. "A condo on the shore line."

"So, we're going, then?" Josh asked. It was clear he wanted to.

"Yeah, I guess we have to go now," Nate said.

"When do we leave?" Josh asked, excited now that they were actually going to follow a lead.

"If we're lucky, three hours," Nate told them. "I'll make the reservations. Go home and pack. Be back here in an hour."

…...

11/7/10; 2

We're going to leave soon. I'll finally be able to see where I am. Maybe it'll be New York. I've never been there before and I've always wanted to go. The only real planned thing I'd do is go to the Brooklyn Bridge and just scream off it. Of course, I'd have my NCIS ID and badge with me, so I wouldn't get in too much trouble. Just a warning and then I'm off the hook. Oh, Damien's calling, time to go.

…...

"You guys ready?" Nate asked Josh and Jake a couple hours later.

"Yeah," they answered.

"Let's go then. We got a flight to catch."

A few hours later, after the flight and the waiting. For Josh, the waiting was the worst. Every minute he spent waiting was another minute Tiffany was with him. The murder, the kidnapper, the framer.

"Oh, I'd love to insult him in Irish," Josh muttered. He smiled. That was a little bit of a joke between him, Tiffany, Nate, Jake, and Caitlin. Tiffany always laughed when someone would make one of them mad and they'd tell the other how much they'd want to insult them in Irish. Josh really missed her.

Finally, they were at their hotel. They had a suite with three bedrooms for the couple nights they'd be there.

"Well, you guys wanna go there now or later?" Nate asked, although he didn't need to. He already knew Josh's answer.

"Now," Josh answered, just as Nate predicted he would.

They'd arrived at Damien's condo not even ten minutes from when they left their hotel room.

"Nice choice of hotel, Nate. Close to the location of interest," Jake said.

"Let's stop standing around talking and start doing something," Josh said.

The three of them were wearing bullet proof vests, just in case, and carried 40 cals. They really didn't want to use them, but they had them none the less. The trio approached the door and, ignoring common courtesy, busted the door inwards and started searching. And they found... nothing. Absolutely nothing. More importantly, no people. There were no signs that anyone was living there, nor was there any sign that anyone had been here recently. San Francisco had just been ruled out as the location of Tiffany and her captor.

Great Josh thought to himself. We just wasted a day. I had to insist we went to California, even though they probably wouldn't be here. I feel like a moron. "So now what?" he asked aloud.

"No real reason to stay here, might as well go home tomorrow," Jake said.

"Why not today?" Josh asked.

"The room's already payed for, and I don't know about you, but I definitely can't do another transcontinental flight today. Let's just rest and enjoy the day," was the response.

"Alright, we'll stay," Josh replied grudgingly. He wasn't really given much of an alternative.

They stayed the night in California, then packed up and left the hotel early the next morning. The flight back to D.C. was worse than the flight from, if that was possible. It seemed longer, even though it wasn't because of the time change. It was actually shorter, but it was longer for Josh because he felt like he'd screwed up. He wasted two days of searching based on a hunch that had almost nothing supporting it. When they finally landed in D.C., Josh said bye to Nate and Jake, then went home for the night. Jake and Nate also went to their houses after they got off the flight. Tomorrow, they'd find where on the Atlantic Coast of New York Tiffany Sutton was being held as a prisoner.

…...

11/7/10; 3

HARLEM! That's where I am; Harlem, NY. I always wanted to come here. A lot of the stories I write for fun are set here. And now I get to see it firsthand. I got my netbook today. I'll try to get him to take me back around town tomorrow. He'll let me, because my being here isn't to punish me, so he'll probably let me. I'm typing this on my netbook. Tomorrow, I'm going to mail a letter to NCIS for them, saying where I am. Hopefully, they'll get it. I can only pray. Now, time to write a story and listen to Iron Maden.