Disclaimer: Still don't own it
The door kicked in with a loud bang.
Instantly, Toby and a number of officers came barging in with their weapons drawn; making sure that all was clear.
The first thing that came to Toby's attention was the smell of the place; a stink that almost threw him off balance. As the police made a sweep of the apartment, to say it was a mess was an understatement. The carpet was dirty and stained, there were wrappers and other trash all over the floor, and the dust on the furnishings was pretty thick. The kitchen had peeling walls and Toby could have sworn he saw a few cockroaches scurrying about. The sink was filled with dishes that needed to be washed and the plaster on the walls was peeling; especially above the stove that really needed a good scrubbing. The front room had an old beat up couch that had seen better days with a modern television with a satellite hookup; which made sense since the deceased had a modest back account. There were porn magazines all over the coffee table and some more stacked on a rotten bookshelf in the corner.
When the all clear was given, Toby put on his white surgical gloves as the crime scene unit made their way inside. Deciding to start in the bedroom, the young man made his way inside and wasn't surprised that the room matched the rest of the house. The bed was a simple metal futon with a cheap mattress as well as dirty sheets. There were various undergarments, male and female; thrown about as well as other clothing and the closet had a pile of dirty laundry in it as well as other things that might have been stolen. There was another pile of magazines next to the bed as well as an open box of ammunition though there were was no weapon; which Myers had, had on his person. What caught Toby's eye was the safe in the corner next to the closet. It was rather old and required a combination to get in to.
Tagging the safe to be taken back to headquarters, he looked through the pile of papers that was on the dresser. Though there were mostly bills as well as other paperwork, there were notes detailing various times and dates with initials. Two of them matched the two victims of A and Toby used his phone to take pictures of the remaining initials since they could lead to other intended victims. There was a check next to one of the possible victims with one of the dates just last week while the other two were for later in the month. This told the young man that Tabitha Clark might already have a prisoner; which had been provided by the deceased. It appeared that Jonathan Myers was the muscle for the new A like Charles had with his hoodies in the past; though it remained to be seen whether or not there were more individuals out there besides the deceased former cop.
It was about an hour of searching when Spencer showed up; trailed by a blonde male dressed in a suit.
"Find anything?" Spencer asked and she sounded haggard; which was understandable given the circumstances. Given that Mona was not only attacked in her own home and as an active NSA Agent, the situation on the Federal level had to be tense right now.
"Jonathan Myers was definitely working for A aka Doctor Tabitha Clark and was her muscle; looks like he was the one who abducted the other girls as well as a possible third one," informed the young man as he showed Spencer what he found.
"Which means that we for sure have a potential victim out there; do we at least have a name?" the FBI Agent inquired with a twinge of hope in her voice. The individual she came here with was picking through the room and had put some while gloves on as well.
"No; just initials which is better than nothing. We also need to find out who these other potential victims are in case they might have a direct connection to our suspect," stated Toby as he eyed the other person. The way he stumbled about as if this was his first crime scene, Toby had a feeling that the stranger wasn't from the FBI.
"I will see if I can get a complete list of names with the initials from the FBI's missing persons database just in case the victim is out of State," Spencer said as she looked at the initials and made a note of them on her phone.
"How is Mona?" the State Police Officer asked, both out of curiosity and concern. Mona had a history of close calls and it seemed that the nickname of Vanderjesus once again came into play.
When the call came in, Mike had bolted out of the office straight away and Toby had been put in charge of finding out who tried to abduct Mona. Once he arrived at the crime scene with his fellow officers, there was the curious case of the NSA standing in the way. It seemed that Mona was rather high up on the food chain in the Agency and they wanted to take over the investigation; which prompted Toby to call Tanner for support. She then arrived to deal with the politics of the situation and it took only a few minutes for the State to finally enter Mona's home to process the scene. Once they were inside, one of the older officers instantly recognized the deceased for who he was; which then prompted the investigators to immediately head the Jonathan Myer's home.
"A little beat up but should be out in a few days; got to meet her boss and Hanna made a surprise visit," informed the young woman, which caught Toby by surprise. As far as he knew, Hanna was still in New York with Caleb.
"You're kidding me; how did that go?" inquired the boyfriend, not even imagining the reunion that must have happened.
"Well it seemed to go well; I left them talking since I had to get here. I also had to bring one of Mona's subordinates since the NSA wants a part in our investigation since Mona got hurt because of it," informed Spencer as she jerked her head towards the stranger in the room; who was kneeling in front of the vase. Toby was about to protest when he realized that the person could do them a possible favor by breaking into the safe.
"Did Mona say why A tried to have her abducted; maybe overhearing something from Jonathan Myers," Toby queried since this escalated everything. He was suddenly concerned about the other girls being targets given what had happened to Mona.
"She thinks that Doctor Clark was more satisfied with the original than dressing up a doll; thus that there is a chance that there will be six victims instead of four," answered the young woman in a grim tone, which earned a frown from her boyfriend.
"So besides you and the other three, we are at risk of having dolls dressed up like Mona and Alison. Well that does explain the other initials and we need to find those women a.s.a.p. before it was too late," stated the young State Police Officer as he glanced over at the blonde to see if he was making progress; which he seemed to be by trying to crack the combination of the lock on the safe.
"Which might escalate now that A's attempt to take Mona was thwarted; it might have sealed the fate of our abductee," said the FBI Agent with a slight fear in her voice. The last two A's had a ferocious temper which resulted in people getting hurt so it was likely that this was the case with the new A.
"Maybe not; if our deceased was Doctor Clark's only hired thug then she might keep our third victim alive for a little longer," Toby suggested, hoping that was the case. Thinking about it, it made sense that A would only have one hired thug to do the heavy lifting given that Jonathan Myers was responsible for all the initial abductions.
"We'll have to hope so; maybe we should go ask the neighbors if they know anything," proposed Spencer, hoping that maybe someone saw Doctor Clark visit Jonathan in person.
It was unfortunate that one of Mona's shots had destroyed the phone her abductor was using; though there was hope that the NSA could save the SIM card. While Spencer doubted that A would be stupid enough to communicate with her flunkie without using proxies, it was hoped that there would be enough revealed to point the investigators at least in the right direction. They really needed to find the Lair and hoped that the phone's GPS would help in that regard. Since they also had the vehicle the deceased used, there was a chance they could use the data from the traffic cameras to observe Jonathan Myer's movements these last few months. It would take a lot of work going through the tapes but Spencer had hope that it would lead to something. With Mona in the hospital the next few days, maybe she would be up to the task while the others handled the physical load of the case.
Otherwise, they would all be back to square one and there just wasn't enough time for them to find the third victim before she was left in another location without a breakthrough.
While the rest of the apartment was being checked out, the couple headed out and went to the first door on the right. After knocking a few times, there was no answer and nothing could be heard on the other side of the door; concluding that no one was home. They then proceeded to the apartment directly across from the deceased's and once again knocked. This time they could hear some movement and the door opened slightly with a person peering through the crack. It was an older woman and she looked at the two suspiciously until Toby held up his badge so that the woman could see it. She then shut the door and unlatched the door opening it again completely. The woman was short, stocky, light-skinned, and dressed in a yellow dress that went to her feet. While she had a demeanor that seemed on full alert, the woman was otherwise polite.
"Hello ma'am; my name is Officer Toby Cavanaugh of the Pennsylvania State Police and this is Agent Spencer Hastings of the FBI. We would like to ask you some questions about your neighbor Jonathan Myers," Toby told the woman with a smile, trying to be disarming. He was hoping that the fact that he worked for the State rather than the city would give him some leeway.
"The thug; what do you want to know?" inquired the older woman, becoming a little more relaxed. From her vantage in her apartment, she could see the group of officers across the hall and concluded that something major must have happened.
"Did you happen to speak with him on any occasion or know who visited him?" Spencer asked the woman.
"Never talked to him other than passing by him in the hall; always was a jerk to me so I usually just ignored him. As for visitors, just other thugs and hookers; also that fancy woman he always met outside in the small alley next to the complex," she answered and that caught the couple's attention.
"Can you describe her? Also, you didn't happen to hear what they were talking about?" Toby asked, coming to the conclusion that the woman might have seen their suspect. He pulled out a notebook and pen so that he could write down any possible description.
"Just seen them from my window so I never really could hear what they were talking about; though she would always hand him an envelope full of money so she was probably paying him for some sort of job. As for what she looked like; she was just about my height, had long silver hair, glasses, was white, and always had on some sort of fancy skirt high end ladies wear," informed the older woman noting the surprised look on their faces.
"Would you be able to get with a sketch artist?" Spencer asked as she handed the woman her business card that had her cell number on it; Toby also handed her a card as well.
"Sure; I'll be here all day," the woman said as she shrugged and took the cards.
"Thank you; we'll be in touch," Toby said to her and turned to leave along with Spencer. The woman then shut the door as they walked away.
"That didn't sound like Doctor Clark; she is a brunette and wears contacts," Spencer said to her boyfriend as they went to see if the rest of the neighbors saw anything.
"Unless she changed her appearance so that she could blend in; she has to know that we would find out about her eventually and took steps to make it harder for us," Toby stated as he texted the sketch artist to visit the woman whose apartment they just left.
"Charles did the same thing and even Mona had a complete makeover when she was A; even using multiple personalities to further her mascaraed," admitted the young woman, annoyed that their suspect was making it harder for them to find her.
The rest of the neighbors offered no helpful clues; though they seemed to back the old woman's description of the deceased's visitor. After they were back in the apartment, they headed to the room and found that the safe had been cracked with the blonde Spencer came in with going through its contents. There was a good deal of money inside as well as other jewelry and other valuables. The crime scene technicians were taking fingerprints of the bills and placing them on a laptop so that they could be identified. Toby and Spencer headed over to see if anyone they knew came up; not surprised that one of the matches was their suspect Doctor Clark as well as the deceased. When checking the jewelry, the fingerprints of the victims came up; this meant that Jonathan Myers had been stealing as well as being the one who had abducted them.
"Something just occurred to me; how did Doctor Clark get to this place to meet Myers? I doubt she walked," Spencer suddenly stated as the police began to wrap up their search of the place with Toby texting what they found to Mike.
"She had to have either driven or caught a cab; we need to see if there are any cameras around," said the young man and the couple quickly made their way out of the apartment complex to the street in front; where there were numerous official vehicles.
Looking around, they spotted a few cameras at some the businesses across the street as well as a bank with an ATM directly across from the building. The two then crossed the street and into the bank, entering it and showing their badges to the teller; asking to speak to the manager. After informing the man of what they needed, the three headed to the security office in the back to get copies of the tapes for the past few weeks. After collecting them, Toby thanked the bank manager and took the copies to be processed later. The NSA Agent had already left and Spencer suspected that he was off to report what they found to Mona's boss; which bothered Spencer slightly. She had heard stories about how the NSA liked to avenge its agents when something happened to them and would have to talk to Mona about that at some point.
After calling Toby and letting him know that she was returning to the hospital to see how things went, Spencer made her way back and hoped that Hanna had left by then. The blonde had been rather ticked that Spencer had not mentioned that she had been in contact with Mona; much less been working with her on a case as well as knew that she lived in Philadelphia now. After raging at the FBI Agent for several minutes outside Mona's hospital room, the blonde then went inside while Spencer fled. She imagined that Mona would not be happy about the encounter and did not want to be around for the coming glares as well as possible payback down the line; if Mona still held grudges. She felt slightly sorry for Mike since he was probably dealing with all the drama and Spencer didn't warn him in advance.
After parking her car, Spencer got out and headed to the lobby. After telling the receptionist on who she was visiting as well as flashing her badge, the young woman headed to the elevator. She then froze as the doors opened and Ezra stepped out, also surprised to see her. Closing her eyes, the FBI Agent lowered her head and sighed; should have expecting this. There was no doubt that Hanna probably called everyone she could in order to let them know that Mona had resurfaced all of these years. If Alison was in the country, the blonde might have shown up with an army of bodyguards while even Emily would have made an appearance. It sometimes amazed her that their first real enemy could have that much of an effect on them even after all of these years; reminding her of what happened on Thanksgiving Day all of those years ago.
"Let me guess; Hanna called you guys?" Spencer asked Ezra sarcastically. The older man had aged well these past ten years with a slight grey forming at the edges of his hair.
"Actually, Caleb called me and Aria happened to answer the phone," admitted the Professor with a shrug.
"Terrific; how ticked off is Mona right now?" inquired the young woman as she followed Ezra to the vending machine a few feet away. He put some money in and got a soda, taking a drink as soon as it rolled out.
"Well I am staying out here," stated Ezra with a sympathetic smile; feeling for the young woman.
Spencer sighed again and headed to her doom.
Please Read and Review; also a shout out to Paraddicted for the preread!