Chapter 3

She knew her friend was right, she wouldn't know what would happen until she told him the truth. Maybe she owed it to herself to give it a shot. That night she went to bed with thoughts of Jack and how she would tell him the truth, she finally fell into a fitful sleep.

The next day Sue walked into the office late. She had over slept and Lucy had to go to work early so she had left a note for her on the table, saying she hadn't wanted to wake her. Everyone was already at the office when she walked in and took a seat at her desk, all eyes were on her as she unclipped Levi's leash.

"Sorry I'm late, over slept." she told her co-workers. She noticed Jack glance at her from across the room with a smirk on his face, feeling her cheeks redden she looked away.

"We got a new case a kidnapping at Cameron Heights," Tara reported passing everyone a folder. "Apparently the girls name is Amanda Jenkins, she's in the first grade. Her teacher called the police when she never came back from recess."

"Alright Bobby, Miles you two head over to the school and Sue and I will go talk to the parents." Jack said grabbing his coat off the chair. Sue stood from her desk accidentally spilling her coffee, she tried to grab the cup but it was too late. It was all over the desk and the floor. They glanced at each other from across the room as Jack stepped up beside her, "Don't worry about it. Miles will clean it up," he said causing them both to laugh and turn to look at Miles who was glaring at the two of them.

Arriving at the Jenkins' house Jack knocked on the door, a petite brunette with red rimmed eyes answered. "Are you Agent Hudson?" she asked.

"Yes we're here to ask you a few questions." The woman opened the door showing them to the living room where her husband was already seated.

"Do you know anyone who would want to kidnap your daughter or do anything to hurt your family?" Jack asked taking out a pad of paper. "Could she have run away?"

"No Amanda would never do that, she's a good girl." Mrs. Jenkins told them.

"Any enemies, people who would try to hurt you or hold a grudge." Sue asked.

"Not that I know of."

"Can we see her room?" Jack asked closing the notepad.

"Sure it's right down the hall here," the mother said leading them down the hallway to the second doorway.

Sue stepped inside followed by Jack, the room was perfect for a little girl with purple walls and a small canopy bed in one corner. There were stuffed animals everywhere and dolls were scattered on the sunflower rug near the bed. They looked around the room but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. "We will have to search the rest of the house if that's alright with you two." Jack told them glancing at the parents to see if there were any objections.

"No that's fine with me, anything to help find my baby." Mrs. Jenkins said. Jack glanced at Mr. Jenkins who looked a little nervous, "Haven't you done enough searching you should be out there looking for her."

"Honey they are just trying to help find her." His wife said turning to look at him tears escaping her eyes.

"They can help by looking out there not through our house, through our personal things." He said retreating back to the living room.

Jack searched downstairs while Sue made her way upstairs to search the rest of the rooms. He prayed they would find something that would lead to the little girl, it was cases like these that he hated the most. The one's where innocent little kids were involved. Locating the office he found a laptop sitting on the desk, it was already on so he looked through the files. There was something about the father's reaction that made him think he had to be involved somehow. After clicking around a little Jack found an untitled file, curiosity got the better of him and he opened it. It was log of emails dating back to January of last year, emails between Mr. Jenkin's and some woman. It looked like Mr. Jenkins was having an affair on the side with some woman named Vanessa. He quickly sent the files over to Tara and clicked it off heading back to the living room. Maybe this was the lead they needed to find the little girl.

"Alright I think we have everything we need for now, we'll be in touch if we have anymore questions." Jack said as Sue walked back into the room. Ushering her out the door, he told her about the emails once they were away from the house. "Really? He's cheating on his wife?" Sue asked to clarify.

"Yeah looks like it. I sent the messages to Tara we'll see what she comes up with."

Arriving back at the office Bobby and Miles were waiting for them, "Learn anything from the parents?" Miles asked polishing an apple on his sleeve before taking a big bite.

"Well I think we may have something to look into, I found some emails on the husbands computer." Jack said signalling to Tara to bring it up on the screen so everyone could see. "Looks like he's been having an affair with a woman named Vanessa. Tara do you think you can trace those emails to see where they were coming from?"

"I'm on it," she answered the only sound the tapping of keys as she worked.

"Did you guys find anything?"

"Nope sorry Mate, talked to everyone who knew the girl at the school. Seems she was there for the first half of the day went out for recess and was never seen again." Bobby answered.

"Alright I found out that the woman's name is Vanessa Peterson and she lives with her boyfriend Andrew Taylor. Seems like Mr. Jenkins wasn't the only one cheating." Tara announced. "I have an address for you," she said handing Jack a piece of paper. "Also looks like they both have a rap sheet a mile long—everything from BandE to property damage to assaults."

"Alright guys this could be who we're looking for Sue and I will go to the house and talk to this Vanessa Peterson, figure out if she or the boyfriend are involved in this somehow."

The house where the woman lived with her boyfriend was small and run down the yard looked like it hadn't been mowed in months and there was piles of junk by the side of the house. "This place is a dump," Sue stated glancing around the unkempt yard.

"But what can you expect from people with that many arrest charges." Jack said trying to make light of the situation.

Knocking on the door they waited for someone to answer, they could hear a dog barking from inside and the sound was anything but friendly. A tall, thin woman answered the door she was pretty in a unconventional kinda way. "Vanessa Peterson?" Jack asked flashing his badge. "We need to ask you a few questions."

"Why what'd I do this time?" she asked pushing the large dog back behind her.

"Nothing that we know of yet, we would just like to ask you some questions."

"Fine come in," she said opening the door as they entered. "Down Buzz," she said pushing the dog down as he attempted to jump up. She led them into the small kitchen where they took a seat at the table which was covered with bottles of alcohol and god knew what else. "So what is it you guys want from me?" She asked placing a cigarette to her lips and lighting it as she leaned against the counter top.

"Were in the middle of investigating a kidnapping of a little girl..."

"So what does this have to do with me?" she asked puffing out a little curl of smoke.

"We understand your involved in some kinda way with the little girls father."

"I don't know what your talking about."

"Don't even try to lie, we have proof." Sue said immediately not liking the woman sitting before her. "If you know anything about it we need to know, her life is at stake here. If you were involved with her father we need to hear the truth."

"What's his name?" Vanessa asked with a sigh.

"Adam Jenkins," Jack told her.

"Alright I was involved with the guy but so what I don't know nothing about a kidnapping. I didn't even know he had a kid."

"Where's your boyfriend, Andrew Taylor?" Jack asked glancing at the paper with his name on it.

"He's at work, what you think he had something to do with this? He didn't even know I was cheating on him." Jack glanced over at Sue before saying,"We'll still need to talk with him."

"He's a mechanic and he doesn't like being bugged at work but he gets off at 5. If you wanna talk to him I suggest you do it when his shifts over if you wanna get anything outta him."