REVELATIONS
Chapter 6
Special Agent Seeley Booth's apartment: 12 midnight
Booth called the local 911 and identified himself.
"This is Special Agent Seeley Booth of the FBI; I need to know if there have been any reported incidents at the Capitol Mall this evening?"
The 911opertor answering his call took a moment to check the database that held all 911 calls. "Yes sir we had an emergency call from the Capitol Mall. The call only lasted a minute, would you like to hear it?"
"Yes please." Booth listened carefully. He heard Brennan identifying herself then Angela's cry for help.
"Is there anything else?" Booth asked.
"Yes, about 5 minutes later we received another call from the same location from a Mr. Randolph stating that two women he had been hired to guard, a Dr. Brennan and Angela Hodgins had been kidnapped by a group of men in two large vans had ambushed him. He said he had been shot at but it only grazed his head. He couldn't give us a license number."
"Alright, please contact the officer in control that someone from the FBI will be there as soon as possible." Booth didn't wait for a reply; he just hung up on the operator and called Cullen. He knew that he would have to get Cullen's okay for him to pursue the investigation since kidnapping wasn't his area and as far as he knew they hadn't been taken across state lines.
"Cullen here."
"Director Cullen, this is Booth. Dr. Brennan and Angela have been kidnapped. They were at the Capitol Mall for a book signing and they were taken as they left." Booth didn't say anymore.
"Go for it Booth. Call on anyone that you need. Do you have any idea of who might have done this?"
"Yes, I suspect it was the leader of the local Salvadoran gang. Brennan had a confrontation with him during a case a couple of years ago."
"Okay, make sure that you bring in the Gang division. They'll be able to give you the most help with the local gangs." Cullen hung up then and called the Chief of Police at the local LAPD and gave him all of the information that he currently had and why they were coming in on this kidnapping.
As soon as Booth hung up with Cullen he called Hodgins, as he had promised.
Hodgins had been pacing back and forth by the phone. His Butler, John, had heard the noise and was standing with him while he waited for Booth to call him back. He was just reaching for his phone to call Booth when it rang.
"Jack Hodgins here."
"Jack this is Booth. Brennan and Angela have been kidnapped by what I suspect are the local Salvadoran gang. Meet me at the Capitol Mall on the east side." Before Jack could ask any questions Booth hung up. He had finished dressing while he was talking on the phone so he grabbed for his ID, gun, wallet and keys and ran out of the door. As soon as he started up his SUV he put the siren on and headed for the Mall.
Since it was late at night there was hardly any traffic to speak of and Booths siren and lights cleared what little traffic there was. It was easy to find the ambushed Limousine. Booths SUV came to a screeching halt right behind the other police cars. He approached the police sergeant that seemed to be in charge.
Booth held up his FBI credentials as he came to the circle of men. "I'm Special Agent Seeley Booth of the FBI where is the driver of the Limousine?"
"He's over at the back of the ambulance." The police sergeant answered.
Booth found the man he was looking for being attended to by a paramedic. The paramedic had cleaned the blood off of the side of the man's face and put a large square bandage on the side of his forehead where the flying glass had caused more damage than the bullet that had barely grazed him.
"Are you Mr. Randolph?"
"Yes."
"I'm Special Agent Seeley Booth of the FBI. Can you tell me what happened?"
"Yes. I was hired to escort Dr. Temperance Brennan to a book signing at the Walden Book store here at the mall. She had brought a friend of hers, a woman by the name of Angela Hodgins. When I started to pull out of the mall parking lot two large white vans got on either side of me and wedged the Limo between them so that I was forced to stop. I tried using the weight of the Limo to plow through them but I only succeeded in tearing off the front fender of the van on my left. At that point a young boy, that couldn't have been more than 14 jumped out of the van on my left and fired a shot gun at me. Fortunately, as you can see, it only grazed me. Lucky for me he was so scared when he saw the glass shatter and fall all over me that he jumped back into the van without checking to see if I was dead. I could hear the doors on the back being opened and the women being pulled out and thrown into the van. I heard their tires screeching as they peeled out of the parking lot. When they grabbed the women they either must have knocked them out or used something to make them sleep because I only heard a short scuffle then the closing of the van side door."
"By any chance did you get a license plate number on either one of the vans?" Booth asked.
"No I didn't but check the fender that I tore off of the van that was on my left."
Booth went to the front of the Limo. One of the police officers was lifting up the fender and shining a light on it to get a better look. They were both surprised when they saw a license plate. It was a California license plate. Unlike many states, California required a license plate on both the back and the front and this license plate was as good as a photo of the van.
"Get an APB out on this license plate with a description of the van." Booth told the officer. He looked up when he heard another car join the rest. He could see that it was a fast little sports car. "It has to be Hodgins." Booth thought to himself and sure enough Hodgins came running over to Booth after he checked the ambulance.
"Where are they?"
"We don't know yet. We had a bit of luck though. The driver of the Limo was able to hit the van on his left and tore its front fender off. We found a license plate on it and have called out an APB on it. Let's go back to the FBI headquarters and well talk to the Gang division."
"Do you think it might have been that Salvadoran gang leader, Ortiz, that Dr. Brennan had a run in with a couple of years ago?" Hodgins asked.
"Yes, I'd bet my badge on it. Let's go, follow me to HQ then you can leave your car there." Both Booth and Hodgins ran to their vehicles and left with the sound of screeching wheels behind them.
At FBI headquarters Hodgins followed Booth. Since Booth was taller Jack had to almost run to keep up with him as he followed him through the maze of hallways and offices. They finally came to a stop when they reached a large open area with a lot of cubicles. Booth led them over to the center of the cubicles where a long table and a large long white board was set up in the middle of the room.
"Booth, glad you could make it." One of the Agents said as he looked up at him when he came into the area.
"John Hopkins, this is Dr. Jack Hodgins from the Jeffersonian. His wife is Angela Hodgins, the other woman that was kidnapped along with Dr. Brennan." Booth said. He introduced Jack to only John since there were too many people in the room to introduce each of them. When he said Jacks name one of the Agents at the table stood up.
"Dr. Hodgins, I'm Agent Denise Rodgers." Jack reached over the table and shook her offered hand.
"You're the head of the Cantilever group aren't you?"
"Jack is the "owner" of the Cantilever group." Booth said.
"I've been trying to see someone in the Cantilever group for a long time."
"Let's take care of your personnel agenda later Agent Rodgers. Right now let's concentrate on finding the two missing women. Special Agent Booth, Cullen has already informed us of the current situation and why you think that the leader of the local Salvadoran gang, Ortiz, has them. From what I understand he has a grudge against your partner." Hopkins said.
"Yes, shortly after the case we were working on was solved one of your people let me know that Ortiz had put out a contract on my partner. I persuaded him to cancel it." Everyone laughed at what Booth said. Knowing Booth, Jack guessed at how he had persuaded Ortiz.
"We believe, as you do, that Ortiz has taken the opportunity presented to him and kidnapped Dr. Brennan. Since no ransom note has been received by anyone we can only surmise that he has her and will most likely have a gangbanger party then kill her or just kill her and dump her body at your doorstep." Hopkins then looked at Hodgins. "We have no idea what he wants your wife for Dr. Hodgins. Most likely though she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and most likely she will suffer the same fate since it has been well advertised in the newspapers that the Cantilever group does not negotiate with kidnappers or terrorists."
Jack was silent for a moment. "I understand that Special Agent Hopkins. I have complete faith in Booth and the rest of the FBI. If you should need anything to help you get my wife and Dr. Brennan back just tell me and I'll see to it that you get it."
"Thank you Dr. Hodgins. Right now we are waiting for a call back from one of our undercover men. Informants are also being questioned for any news. We have a pretty good idea as to where they might be holding the women but we don't want to show too much police activity in this area or else they might decide to just get rid of the evidence faster than they planned. For now we just have to sit and wait for information to come in."
Booth walked away from the rest. One of the Junior Agents directed him over to the break room where they had coffee, sandwiches and donuts. Hodgins followed him.
After they both got some coffee and sandwiches Booth walked over to the windows and put his coffee and sandwich on the window sill. He pulled his cell phone out and his note book where he had some phone numbers listed. He looked to the back and found Brennan's fathers name, Max Keenan. He quickly punched the numbers.
A sleepy Max answered, "Hello."
"Max, this is Booth."
As soon as Max heard the name his heart started beating faster. "What's wrong? Is Temperance okay?"
Booth hesitated a second and that made Max's heart beat even faster. "Max, Temperance has been kidnapped by what we suspect is the local Salvadoran gang leader. We're trying to find her now and were counting on some contacts to give us some good news. Max, do you have any Salvadoran acquaintances that may be able to get us a clue as to where they have taken her?" Booth held his breath while waiting for an answer.
"No, I don't. The races don't mix in prison Booth unless they are forced to by being paired up as cell mates."
"Thanks Max. I thought I would play a long shot."
"Why do you think the Salvadoran gang wanted Temperance? Have they asked for ransom money?"
"No, we haven't received any ransom notice." Apparently Bones hadn't told her father about the run in she had with the gang leader so he proceeded to explain why they thought she had been taken by them.
"She knew that I would have insisted on going with her if she told me where she was going."
"Sometimes I wish I could just take her over my knee and spank her. Her Mother was the same way. She was the one that insisted that we leave the kids behind and try to draw away those that were tracking us. No matter what kind of logical argument I came up with she would insist on leaving the kids."
"Well at least Temperance came by her stubbornness honestly. I'll call you with any news as soon as I know. Call her brother, for me, in the morning. It's no use in him losing sleep tonight also." Booth hung up without saying anything more. He tried one more call, but this one he had to look up.
Booth looked around the room for Agent Rodgers. He spotted her over in a cubicle that he presumed was hers. Hodgins followed him over to the Junior Agents cubicle.
"Agent Rodgers, are you busy?" Booth asked. He didn't really care if she was or not, he just wanted to be polite and not scare her.
"Not really, can I help you with anything?"
"Yes, can you check for a phone number for me for a Jose Duarte?" Rodgers turned to her computer and started typing away.
"Isn't that the guy that was caught with his father and sisters skeletons?" Hodgins asked.
"Yeah, I'm hoping that he is still grateful to Bones for giving his father and sister a proper burial."
"Here is his last known address and phone number." Rodgers gave Booth a piece of paper with a phone number on it. He thanked her then walked back over to the windows again and punched in the numbers.
The phone rang 5 times before it was finally picked up. "Hello." A man's voice answered.
"Jose Duarte?"
"Yes, who is this?"
"Duarte, this is Special Agent Seeley Booth of the FBI. I need you to return a favor that you owe Dr. Temperance Brennan." Booth could hear a woman asking something in Spanish at the other end. He heard Duarte tell her to shut up.
"What can I do for her?"
"Dr. Brennan has been kidnapped and we suspect Ortiz. Can you find out if he has her and if he does than where is she being kept?" It was quiet for awhile.
"I don't associate with them anymore but I know someone who still does. He owes me a favor. When was Dr. Brennan kidnapped?"
"Tonight, we know that someone with a white van from California helped them."
"I'll call my friend and see what he knows. I can't push to fast on this though because they could start asking questions as to why my friend is interested. Give me your phone number and I'll call you back as soon as I can." Booth gave him his phone number and they both hung up.
"So what do we do now?" Hodgins asked.
"We wait."
TBC…