Disclaimer: Still don't own it
Sorry for the late update but it's been a long week at work. Once again, a huge thanks to Paraddicted for the pre-read!
Mona caught the alert just as she glanced at the State Police's database.
It was out of pure curiosity that she even decided to look at the bolo; glad that she did since it was linked to their case.
She had been linking her own program to the databases in order to do a more thorough search; after getting permission from Tanner. The woman was still weary of Mona even after all of these years but still allowed the young woman to help. Mona didn't doubt that the woman was still feeling the burn after being taunted by A all of those years ago; Charles basically running circles around the older woman. Even though she wasn't a part of the official investigation, Tanner was still paying very close attention to the case; more so than any others that had crossed her desk right now. Toby didn't seem to mind as well as Spencer and Mike; Mona couldn't care less as long as Tanner stayed out of their way.
Currently, Mona was sitting in her bed in her private room in the hospital. Mike was sitting at a small table in the corner, watching surveillance tapes on his laptop. Her mother had gone to get some coffee and some food for the three; leaving her stuff on a small couch next to the bed. The older woman had refused to leave Mona's side ever since she had arrived, camping out in the hospital until her daughter was discharged. The daughter had tried to convince her mother that she was fine and to go home; but Leona waved her off and firmly stated that she was staying. She was already angry that Mona had been attacked in her own home again even though it had been ten years later. She was even angrier that Mona had kept the case from her as well as the fact that she was working on it; especially since there was to be no secrets between them in matters like this.
The room itself was a lot nicer than the one she had first inhabited when Mona had arrived; she had been moved several hours ago. While it looked like the typical hospital room with green walls and brown wooden floors, it was a little bigger than most as well as more comfortable. There was a small table in the corner with a couple of chairs while a grey-cushioned couch lay next to the bed. On it laid her mother's things as well as an overnight bag that the older woman had packed and brought with her to the hospital. A flat-screen television was mounted on the wall directly in front of Mona's bed; which was on but the volume muted. The young woman liked to pay attention to the news since international affairs was her purview.
Hanna and Aria had gone home; after staying a couple of hours at the hospital with her. It had been an interesting conversation with Mike's sister; who had actually apologized for what had happened back then. If it hadn't been for her mother being in the room, there was a chance that Mona wouldn't have even accepted her apologies; even ordering her bodyguards to throw her out of the room. Leona though had eyed her daughter the entire time and the young woman had been compelled to forgive; though it probably needed to be done. Truthfully, she was kind of glad that she did it since it meant that it was another stick to Alison; especially since it was now obvious that the girls were divided. She even had gotten to see Ezra, who she still considered a great teacher despite his flaws.
Pulling up the bolo, Mona studied the report and there was something about it that seemed to resonate with her. The young woman had long learned to trust her instincts; a trait that had long helped her in the past as both an NSA Agent and back at Rosewood High. As her mother came back into the room and handed out the drinks, Mona took hers while never taking her eyes off the picture of the abducted woman from the airport. Things in her head seemed to click as she then brought up the preliminary report, the crime scene still being investigated, and then pulled out her phone; sending a text to Toby who was out in the field. She then sent a similar one to Spencer and the look on Mona's face seemed to catch the attention of the room's other two occupants. Mona ignored them until she was done texting and then pulled up the picture of the abducted woman again on the laptop; making it big enough to fill the screen.
"What is it?" Leona asked concerned as she noted her daughter's sudden seriousness. Granted that Mona was serious all the time but this was more intense than usual.
"Who do you see when you look at this picture?" Mona asked the two as she turned the laptop around and showed them the photo of Sarah Maxwell.
"I think I see you," answered Mike as he focused in on the picture of Sarah. The similarities between Mona and the victim were eerily similar.
"I thought so too; it seems that Dr. Clark just made a move we didn't expect," stated the bed-ridden woman as she started looking into Sarah's life.
"You think she did this?" inquired the young man, both astounded and concerned while Leona just stayed silent. She knew her place and that all she could do was support her daughter and her friends.
"I know she did this; Myers failed to grab me and Tabitha needed another representation of me for her Dollhouse. The timing of the abduction is just too coincidental and the fact that Sarah Maxwell looks just like me tells me that she is involved. The question now though, did she do this herself or is there another person out there who also works for her?" wondered the NSA Agent out loud. She hoped for the former since it meant that Dr. Clark was now doing things herself and could leave herself open to mistakes.
"Well Charles had to do his own dirty work in the end and having a flunky is risky; no matter how smart you are," stated Mike as he thought about it; not realizing his mistake until the words came out of his mouth. If Mona was offended by the statement, she wasn't showing it.
"I already texted Toby and Spencer to head to the crime scenes; hopefully they will find out more when they get there," informed Mona as she began hacking into Sarah Maxwell's email account. It didn't look like it had been used in a while, the same could be said about the other elements of her social media.
"Did you want me to join them?" asked Mike as he sipped his coffee and glanced over at Leona; who had taken her spot on the couch and began sewing a pink sweater. His own mother liked to sew now and had sent him sweaters when he had been serving overseas.
"No; I want you to stay here and help me with Sarah Maxwell's abduction. Since her abduction is still fresh, there might be a trail for us to follow back to A's lair," ordered the NSA Agent as she smiled; her hunch was correct, there were a whole slew of A messages in the email account.
"I guess this is going to be a long night then," remarked the young man as he looked over at the time. He yawned and stretched his arms; causing Mona to sigh.
"Go home and get some rest; I'll start and you can finish," ordered Mona in a tone that the police officer knew too well. As much as he wanted to argue with her since Mike really wanted to be helpful, he had been up for about twenty hours now and knew he needed some sleep.
"He still cares about you," observed the mother as she watched Mike leave; his stuff was still on the table in the corner which indicated that he was definitely coming back.
"I know," Mona simply said dryly; not surprised that her mother caught on since she had become highly observant after the whole A drama all those years ago.
"Maybe you should do something about that; you once considered him your soul mate," reminded Leona as she put down what she was sowing to focus more on her daughter.
"That was a long time ago when I was a lot younger; also more naïve as well," responded the bed-ridden woman as she dug further into the A messages that Sarah Maxwell had received over the past few months. She was trying to trace the origin of the emails which was probably going to take a while.
"You're still young; just because you've seen a lot of things in your lifetime, doesn't mean that that you need to dismiss a future with another person in your life," Leona gently chided.
"I took three chances with people that I fell in love with and got burned each time; some people are just not into settling down and getting married mother," countered the younger woman as she hacked the internet provider that A had used to taunt the victim. Once again, it was useless since there were too many proxies that Dr. Tabitha Clark used to hide herself from intrusion.
It was apparent that Dr. Clark used the same tricks that Charles had in order to get at her victims; even some new ones along the way. Back when she had been a teenager, Mona had constantly tried to hack into Charles's network in order to find him; which had failed miserably. Like Charles, the NSA Agent speculated that Tabitha had created her own cell network as well as her own internet provider like he did. If one had enough money, it wasn't hard to do and Mona had seen it with some terrorist networks overseas. There was also the possibility that A was simply leaching off of other providers so that she could hide in plain sight; which prompted Mona to ask for help from her colleagues back at the Agency. Granted that they had a heavy case load and couldn't help her that much, but an extra set of eyes might help. If there was any issues at the top, Mona would just claim that technically, A was a terrorist; not really a lie when one thought about it.
"Two of those chances were driven by lust and need; Mike stayed true to you and did a lot in your name. I really do believe that you need to give him another shot and forgive him," Leona advised with pure sincerity.
"I seem to recall that you hated Mike just as much as I did in the aftermath of what happened back then; even throwing him out of our house and threatening him when he first came to apologize. What changed?" inquired Mona suspiciously as she looked over at her mother with her eyes narrowed. While her mother was usually a gentle person, once she hated you it lasted for a lifetime.
"When you left, I had a lot of time to think and I also witnessed the fallout from what happened to you. While I will never sympathize with Alison in being chased out of town as well as losing two of her friends, I thought it sad that the Montgomery Family had been dealt such a split. I will also admit that I had a conversation with Mike before he left for the Army and I believe his sincerity," informed the mother which caught the young woman by surprise.
"You never told me that," stated Mona, being both astounded and annoyed at the same time. It wasn't a betrayal in any means, but she should have been told.
"You never asked; just think about what I said," Leona said as she went back to her knitting. The bed-ridden woman nodded though she doubted that she would have the time.
Across town, Toby and Spencer pulled up to the security gate at the Philadelphia airport; showing their badges to the guard. When he checked the badges and saw that they were authentic, he waved them through and Toby headed to where the crime scene was. After he had gotten the texts from Mona, the two headed straight to the airport to see if there was anything that could be used as a clue. He had already called Tanner to let her know about the new development and she informed him that the State Police were already on scene; in charge of the case since it was a local crime. It was by luck that he knew the person in charge and was a friend; which would make it easier to collaborate with.
"Quite the gathering," Spencer remarked as they pulled into the parking lot and saw the numerous police and crime scene vehicles.
"There were a series of abductions last year at LAX in California with a bunch of stewardesses by a Serial Killer; which was bugled by both the airport security staff and local officials. Since then, all crimes other than terrorism are to be handled by the State Police no matter where the crime originated," informed Toby as they got out of the car after parking behind a police cruiser.
"I heard about that; the screw up was talked about around the office for a time," mentioned the FBI Agent as they were let through the yellow tape once they pushed through the small crowd that had gathered in the parking lot; airport staff who were temporarily stuck as witnesses.
"Yeah, didn't work out too well," stated a young dark-skinned man as he walked up to the two; smiling and shaking Toby's hand. The two then hugged and Spencer concluded that they knew each other very well.
"Spencer, this is Sargent Jack Norris; Jack, this is Special Agent Spencer Hastings of the FBI," Toby said, introducing the two since this was their first meeting.
"I finally meet the famous Spencer; nice to meet you though I wish it was under better circumstances," stated the other officer with his friendly demeanor turning grim.
"Tanner called you?" inquired Toby as the three headed towards the victim's car; which was crawling with crime scene investigators.
"Yep; how do you want to handle this?" asked Jack, stopping in front of the car and watching the techies do their work.
"Any help you could provide would be grateful; but we have confirmed that this is our killer that has Sarah Maxwell. What do you know so far?" Spencer asked with a slight smile as she put on some white gloves along with Toby.
"It was definitely a quick snatch. Your killer grabbed her somehow without a struggle; though we are not sure how. Someone hacked the security cameras and gave a false signal so there is no video of what happened. Also, the kidnapping happened before the security staff could do their rounds," informed the other officer. Toby and Spencer exchanged glances since Mona had been definitely right that this was A.
"Any trace evidence at all?" inquired the FBI Agent with hope in her voice. Even back in the old days, A had made mistakes and Spencer hoped that something like that happened in this case.
"No; also there are not any witnesses. What really is puzzling is how your killer was able to get in and out without being noticed. All entrances are covered by security gates and the staff swears that they didn't see anyone suspicious. This parking garage is also only for the airport staff and you have to have a special ID in order to park here," explained Sargent Norris as he motioned at the various exits.
"Doctor Tabitha Clark is a very good hacker so there is a chance that she has her own pass coming in and out. We also might have to consider that someone working in security might be on her payroll," Toby informed his colleague. He and the rest of the group fully believed that A had more than a few staff on her payroll at the psychiatric prison which explained how she was able to find out about Mona.
"I'll start reviewing the tapes and checking the bank accounts of everyone who works here. That will take a while though since this place employs a good amount of people," stated Jack.
"If we can get a copy of those tapes, we can help going through them. We are not sure though if our killer did this herself or had someone do it for her," Spencer said to the man; hoping for the former than the latter. If Tabitha Clark was doing her own abductions now, then it gave them a greater chance to catch her since she was now alone.
"I heard about your dirty cop Jonathan Myers; I have a few friends in the local departments who were burned by that guy at some point in their careers and I can tell you that Mona Vanderwaal is a hero to them for putting a few bullets in him," stated the other officer with a smile; which earned a surprised look from Spencer. She had heard that the deceased had a dark history with the police department and it seemed that it was even darker than what was let on.
"I'll let her know; anything else?" inquired Toby as he looked around to see if anything was noticeable. Something caught his attention next to the victim's car.
"Just what you now noticed; I had the techies check that out before processing the rest of the scene. There was a vehicle that was parked their recently though we are not completely sure if it belonged to out abductor," answered Norris as he motioned to the fresh tire tracks as well as puddle of water in the parking space next to Sarah Maxwell's vehicle. Spencer was about to respond when her phone suddenly buzzed.
It was a text from A.
Please Read and Review!