"Hey there, Beautiful." He whispered as he walked up to her a week later at the FBI office. "What are you doing here?"

"I wish I knew. Jack called me and asked me to brief him on one of my cases as it pertains to your current case."

"Well, then let me show you to the conference table." He offered his arm, but she shook her head with a smile. "Oh, that's right, business before pleasure."

"Good, Lily, thank you for getting here so quickly." Jack stood up briefly to extend his hand and offer her a chair. "It appears that our prime suspect may be being protected by your office."

She quickly glanced through the file he handed her. "Yeah, that's Sean Williams, but he's not being protected by my office."

"Good, then what can you tell us about him?"

"He's a wannabe, a real poser. He hung out with some militia men in the backwoods of Kentucky, but he's not a member of the fringe. He's a hanger on and the militia men actually kicked him out. It's the story of his life." She reached into her bag and produced a fax her office had sent her. She really owed her assistant. "This is the workup that my office has on him. As you can see, he bounced around from job to job, from gang to gang, never really belonging. He's got serious anger issues and an IQ that is borderline disabled. He dropped out of high school after only one year, so he's really not capable of much. We investigated his tips, but we weren't really impressed. The hillbillies he ran with liked to go into the woods and blow things up, shoot game, that sort of thing. Not exactly Timothy McVeigh stuff. So, what do you like him for?"

"Kidnapping, assault, and weapons charges."

"He's either trying to impress someone or he has a partner. This guy isn't really capable of all that by himself. He certainly would never have devised a plan as elaborate as the one your file indicates."

"It doesn't appear that he had help." Jack noticed the look of fear wash over the attorney. "Feel free to stick around and help out where you can. You know this guy. We need all the help we can get." He stood up and walked away.

"You OK?" Martin asked with a whisper.

"I screwed up. I thought this guy was a hanger on, no threat, and I had bigger fish to fry. His information was worthless so I had my DHS team investigate him and I found nothing that set off alarm bells."

"We'll catch him and then you can cook him. How does that sound?" She just nodded. "It'll be alright, Lil."

"No, it won't, Martin. I put this girl's life in danger because I dismissed him."

"We'll find her."

"I hope so." She pulled out her cell and dialed her assistant. "Diane, I'm sorry to disturb you again, but I need you to get that entire case up to me here in New York. There's been a development."

"I'll email it to you shortly."

"I owe you big time, Dee, thanks." She hung up and pulled out her laptop.

"When did he ask?" Samantha asked as she and Lily went over her case file, the four-carat pear shaped diamond catching the light as Lily ran her hand through her long black locks.

She looked down at her left hand and smiled slightly. "Christmas Day. I should have known something was up when his parents knocked on the door that morning, but he was able to blindside me."

"You're one lucky woman. He's a good man."

"Yes, I am and yes, he is." She smiled fully, but it faded when she noticed something in the notes on the case. "I don't know how I missed this, but your so called victim is actually your suspect's girlfriend. He's doing all of this to impress her, if she's not pulling his strings."

"I'll run this down. Thanks."

"Remember me, Sean?" Lily walked into the interrogation room two hours later, her heels clicking on the tile floor, her face reflecting the distain she had for the man in the chair.

"You're that lawyer from D.C. What are you doing here?"

She walked behind him before whispering in his ear. "I'm here to make your life miserable because you scammed me once. It won't happen again, Sean."

"That's a threat. You can't do that. You heard that, right?" He looked over at Martin.

"I didn't hear anything." He leaned against the back wall and watched Lily work.

An evil laugh echoed in the room as she stood up and walked to the other side of the table. "Don't look to him for help, Sean Baby. You are mine and you are being considered a domestic terrorist. Do you know what that means?"

"No."

"Maybe you should ask your girlfriend." She snapped her fingers. "That's right, you killed her."

"I did not! She's at her parent's place in White Plains."

"Don't lie to me again, Sean. The FBI has already been to her parents' place in White Plains. She's not there unless you stashed her body beneath the floor boards."

"I didn't kill her! I love her! She's there. I talked to her right before he," he gestured to Martin, "busted down my door."

"Do you know why he busted down your door?"

"No! I told you, Cheryl isn't missing, she's just at her folks' place."

"Quit the dumb act, Sean. You may have fooled once, but you're not going to do it again. Where did you dump the body?"

"I didn't kill her! I want a lawyer!"

Her evil laugh returned. "See, Sean, by declaring you a domestic terrorist, the Patriot Act says I don't have to provide you with a lawyer and I can keep you here as long as I want. You're being considered a traitor, Sean, and traitors are not given any of the rights as regular criminals."

"You can't do that!"

"There were enough explosives and weapons in your apartment to start and end a world war, so yes, I can and will send you far away for years."

The man across from her began crying. "Why? What do you want from me? I already told him that they aren't mine. Please, don't send me away."

"Who do they belong to? The Tooth Fairy? Please, Sean, don't waste my time. You have five minutes and I'm shipping you to Gitmo."

"They're mine. OK? You're not going to send me away, right? I told you the truth."

"You didn't tell me the truth, Sean. We both know that you aren't smart enough to amass all of those weapons by yourself. Tell us where Cheryl is and don't go down alone."

He began crying harder. "I already told you. She's with her folks in White Plains. Please stop."

Martin placed a hand on her shoulder and motioned for her to leave the room. "Enough, Lily. He hasn't wavered on where Cheryl is and you have him so terrified, I think he would have told you where Osama was just to get you to leave him alone."

She nodded and took a deep breath. "OK, I'll secure you a warrant and you can hit her parents' place. I just don't like being played by a complete moron. I should have known it was the girlfriend pulling the strings."

Her rubbed the back of her neck gently for a second. "We aren't trained to think that way, Lil. It wasn't your fault."

"I wish I could believe that."

"We'll get them now. I promise." He smiled ruefully and she nodded. "Are you always that scary in an interrogation?"

She laughed, the clouds of self-doubt momentarily forgotten. "I have to be. I am usually interrogating domestic terrorists. I have to put the fear of God into them or I don't get what I want."

"It was nice to see that side of you. Don't worry, I won't make you that mad when we're married." He winked at her and she laughed again before leaving to wake up a judge.

"I'm guessing you want to take these two back to D.C., Lily?" Jack asked as he gestured to the suspects being walked to holding two hours later.

"No, they're all yours. I'm sure that ATF will fight you for them, but you are welcome to have them talk to me. You did all the hard work, you should get the credit."

"What is this going to cost me?"

She laughed as he smirked. "I owe you. So, consider this payment on a favor."

"Thanks."

A week later, Martin walked into his apartment expecting to find Lily on the couch, as she had been every other night, but instead found it dark. "Lil?" There was no answer so he called her cell, which rang from inside her attaché case on the coat tree. She never went anywhere without her cell phone, but he waited an hour before calling anyone else even though his gut told him something was wrong. "Hey, Diane," he dialed her assistant, "it's Martin. Have you heard from Lily?"

"Not since yesterday afternoon. Why? What's wrong?"

"It's probably nothing. She must have run out for something. Thanks." He hung up and debated calling her parents. It was one in the morning in London, but if she had left him, they would know. It didn't feel like she'd left him. Her clothes were still in the closet, her laptop was still on the coffee table, and there was no note. There was definitely something off, something felt very wrong. "Hi Robert, it's Martin." He broke down and called her parents' house in Virginia. "Have you heard from Lily?"

"No, Sir. I haven't talked with her in over a week, since she phoned to tell Miranda and I about your engagement."

"That's what I thought. OK, thanks."

"Is everything all right?"

"I don't know. She wasn't home when I got home an hour ago. Her things are still here along with her cell phone. In my line of work, that's cause for concern, but she could have just gone out shopping."

"Without her cell phone, Sir?" Robert knew that Lily's cell phone was an appendage, an extension of her body, and never would she have left the house without it.

"I know, Bobby. OK, I'll look into this and let you know. Please don't alarm Ambassador and Mrs. Anderson."

"For now, Master Fitzgerald, but Miss Lily is their only child. I will not withhold this sort of information for long."

"I know." Hanging up, he was about to call Samantha when the phone rang with the same number he was about to dial. "Sam?"

"Yeah, it's me. Martin, you need get back here."

"Samantha, what's going on?"

"We just got a ransom call from the militia Sean Williams and his girlfriend belonged to. They have Lily."