I know the previous chapter was devastating, and I'm sorry about that, but you must keep reading! I just couldn't wait any longer to post this chapter after the last one I left you with! Thank you to those who have followed and been reading this story. It blesses me, and I'm glad you've enjoyed it. I hope this chapter cheers you up!
"Look, man. I've got to get back now." Howard Lance told Jeffrey White.
"We're not going anywhere. We can't." White objected.
"Look, I've been chased, shot at," Lance argued. "How do we know they haven't found our prints by now and ransacked my house?"
"We don't." White answered. "And we're not going to. We've got to stay here. We might've been okay, if that cop hadn't shot up the car! Now they'll be looking for it and we aren't returning it 'cause how am I gonna explain the broken glass and the bullet holes?"
"But what about..."
"Our two felines?" White rolled his eyes, but his countenance was dark with hate. "Tomorrow is the 28th. By then, they'll both have arrived at the pearly gates together."
"You sure this is worth it?" Lance asked cautiously. White gave him a death glare.
"You want your money, don't you?" He snarled. "What? My career too dirty for ya? You wanna leave, fine. Go ahead." White sneered, pulling his handgun out of his jacket.
"Whoa, whoa, hey, take it easy." Lance protested. "I just asked a question. I'm not going anywhere, trust me. I just hope you know what you're doing." White growled and shoved Lance against the wall, sticking the muzzle of his gun into Lance's throat.
"I do know!" White seethed. "I've been waiting for this for a long time. You want out? Tell me. I'll kill you right now, and free you from all this stressful pressure! So what's it gonna be, huh? Don't make any difference to me. You're disposable." Lance gulped hard with fright at the sudden extremity of White's temper. This was the worst he'd ever seen! He bit his lip and didn't say anything. White could see that he was too shook up to run away, so he sneered and took the gun away. "I thought so." He chuckled evilly. "And don't try anything stupid. Next time, I won't be Mr. Nice Guy. Get me?" Lance nodded.
Lucy's body was worn out, but her mind refused to let her go unconscious. She needed food, something to drink, she needed a jacket, but most of all, she needed out of here and needed to know where Sue was. She hadn't seen her since they'd taken her out of the room. Lucy constantly worried about her and constantly prayed for help to come...soon! Suddenly, Lance and White burst into the room that had been her prison cell the passed few days. They both approached her and she did not like the look in their eyes. "W-what do you guys want?" She asked frightfully. "Where's Sue?! What have you done to her?!" Neither man answered, but Lance quickly untied her legs then jerked her to her feet. "What are you doing?" She demanded. White just smirked and held a dark cloth up to her face, and instantly everything went black.
Meanwhile, back at the Sloans' beach house, Mark, Steve, Amanda, and Jesse along with the team, were scrambling around the files they had on White and Lance, desperately trying to find something, somewhere on where to find their two victims. "Was Tara able to trace who sent that email?" Steve asked hopefully as he stood in the kitchen.
"The ID was blocked, so no way to trace it." Dimitrius shook his head glumly.
"Blast." Steve growled.
"So our luck just keeps running out." Jesse muttered. "There's gotta be something in these documents that we've overlooked!"
"No one or nothing you can think of at all?" Amanda asked anxiously. "No favorite childhood spot, no first vacation resort, maybe an old friend?"
"There's just not enough in here to go on." Myles huffed. "And no time to go through it."
"Sometimes I really wish that slime ball would decide to sample a test of his own medicine!" Myles fumed.
"Amen to that!" Steve agreed wholeheartedly.
Tara and Mark were sitting together on the couch, gazing intently at her laptop on the coffee table. Mark had his glasses on so he could see more clearly. Tara panted with building anticipation as Mark gave her directions with his finger. "We've got it!" Mark smiled widely.
"YES!" Tara shouted, and they gave each other a painful high-five.
"Good work, Tara!" Mark praised. She pointed at him with her index finger. "Steve?!"
"Yeah, Dad?!" Steve called back.
"Get the movie projector!"
"I, igh...dad, I'm getting a phone call. It's Cheryl." Steve grunted. "Jess, do you mind?"
"Bobby? You'd better get Jack! Quickly!" Tara ordered. "I don't think he'll wanna miss this!"Bobby nodded and burst out the French patio doors, rushed down the stairs, and ran to his good friend.
"Jack!" He panted. Jack straightened up when he heard the urgency in the Aussie's voice.
"Yeah?" Jack asked, standing up.
"Come on. I think Tara's found something. She said you need to see it. Come on!" Bobby beckoned and Jack scurried back to the house with him, Levi cantering along.
"All right, what's going on?" Jack asked breathlessly, anxious for any possible clue.
"We'll find out, as soon as Steve gets off the phone!" Myles announced.
"Yeah, thanks." Steve hung up and joined everyone in the sitting room. "What's up, guys?"
"Jack? Everyone?" Mark smiled with a twinkle in his eyes. "We may have just found our most solid clue yet!"
"What are you talking about?" Steve grunted. Jesse turned on the projector which displayed against the wall the awful picture of Sue lying dead on the floor. Everyone grimaced at the sight, but Mark and Tara persisted.
"Tara and I have been going over this snapshot from top to bottom, and you'll never guess what we found!" Mark exclaimed.
"As you can see," Tara explained, "the floor is obviously red carpet. But not just any red carpet. Mark told me that the only companies who decorate their floors with it, are the fancy hotels and funeral homes."
"Great, that narrows it down to about what? Seventy funeral homes and sixty hotels?" Myles huffed with his arms crossed.
"Fifty funeral homes and two hundred hotels." Amanda corrected him.
"But I think we'll only have to look for one." Tara smiled.
"That coincides with what Cheryl just told me." Steve spoke up. "Forensics finally got back on those red fibers. And they said that they were from red carpet, produced for hotels and funeral homes!"
"The Hurst!" Bobby exclaimed. "They were using a rented Hurst..."
"Because they've been hiding out at a funeral home!" Jack and Amanda declared together.
"But, how are we gonna find it?" Myles asked.
"Tara worked her magic and was able to scan the photo thoroughly for every correct amount of depth." Mark said.
"In case you can't tell, the carpet is worn and a bit faded. And, if we zoom in on the farthest wall," Tara said, "you'll find a very aged flower vase. But let's go in even closer." The screen became enormous as Tara was able to point their attention to a reflection on the vase. As the picture sharpened, everyone could make out a small sentence of some sort spelled backwards.
"Can anyone read that?" Jesse asked doubtfully.
"Not quite yet." Tara sighed. "But let's take a look at what's outside the window!" The white window glare in the photo faded into a large restaurant logo sign!
"Figeuro's." Bobby and Steve read out loud. "What is that?" Bobby asked.
"Figeuro's, an Italian restaurant way out on the east side of LA." Steve answered quickly. "How did you do that?" He asked his favorite FBI agent, once again blown away and impressed by her ingenuity, which to him, matched his father's.
"Through a digital enhancement, algorithm filter." Tara answered with a grin.
"Is there anything you can't do?" Jesse grinned widely.
"Nope." Tara cocked her head. "Oh, but there are some things I won't do."
Jack gazed blankly at the wall, his eyes popping out. It was like a blinding light had flashed on through his mind. "Stupid, stupid," he whispered.
"Jack, what's going on, mate?" Bobby asked, eying his friend cautiously. Jack stepped forward and smacked his head forehead hard.
"You are so stupid. Hudson, you are so STUPID!" He vented, much to his friends' confusion and concern. "I can't believe I didn't put it together before!"
"Jack, everything okay?" Mark asked.
"Amanda, hand me that file right there!" Jack urged and she obeyed. He rapidly skimmed through the papers, then closed the file with satisfaction. "Guys, I KNOW where they are!" Jack said excitedly. Everyone gaped at him with their jaws dropped.
"You do?!" Jesse and Amanda asked together.
"You sure, Jack?" Steve asked cautiously.
"Positive!" Jack answered, wide-eyed. "You were right, Mark. The answer was right in front of us the whole time, in the profile documents!"
"White's background?" Bobby furrowed his brows.
"No. His old flame." Jack corrected him.
"According to the records, her grandfather used to live in LA." Amanda said with her arms crossed.
Jesse snapped his finger. "And, he owned three funeral homes in LA!"
"Yeah, but which one ran out of business fifteen years ago and had to be shut down?" Dimitrius quizzed them.
"Charlotte Wilby." Mark declared confidently. "And it's on the far east side of LA."
"Exactly!" Jack smiled.
"Didn't it also say that Jeffrey White's old flame, Charlotte, was named after her grandmother?" Amanda asked.
"Yes." Myles replied. "Her grandfather's wife died from cancer, and when he opened his next funeral home, it was dedicated in her name."
"Tomorrow's the 28th." Jack reminded them.
"When White said that she would be sorry for everything she put him through. What he called the day of reckoning." Dimitrius added.
"When Charlotte was six, her family moved to Detroit where they met Jeff White and his family." Myles explained. "As said, they were childhood sweethearts, and according to her living relatives, she and Jeff took several vacation trips back to her hometown. So, becoming part of the family-or so he thought-, he would've known all about her grandfather's business and she would've shown it to him."
"The Charlotte Wilby funeral home has been vacant for fifteen years." Jesse remarked. "So no one would suspect it if White chose to hide out there, and especially if he disguised himself!"
"What better way to fulfill his deadly mission than to destroy his final victims, his moment of triumph, at the building with his old lover's name strewn across it?" Mark suggested. Just then, Steve's cell phone rang and he answered it.
"Sloan here." He spoke. "What's up, Ben? Yeah? Really? You don't say! Thank you, Ben! Thank you very much! We owe you one." Then he hung up. "Guess what? Ben Hacker said that the renter of the Hurst promised to return it at ten this morning. It's now what? Five to eleven? Somehow I don't think the customer's gonna show up."
"Tara, can you back that up?" Mark asked, pointing to the photo. "That's good. Stop. Okay, now go back to the reflection in the vase. Uh-huh. All right, now rotate the photo 'til I say stop." Everyone listened but dared not question Mark as to what he was doing. He must be onto something good, and he'd tell them as soon as he saw it. "Stop!" Mark ordered and Tara froze the picture. Mark stood up and walked to the photo reflection on the wall. He pointed at the text smiling. "Ladies and gentlemen, now that this picture has been rotated upside down, we can now read the text which has been changed to right side up. Anyone care to tell me what this says?"
"Lotte Wilby..." The whole gang said together.
"We've got it!" Mark cheered.
"I'm calling Masters as we speak." Steve declared with determination, but not before he leaned down and kissed Tara on the cheek! Then Bobby, Myles, and Jesse did the same. Levi barked enthusiastically. He didn't quite understand what was going on, but his pals were not acting sad any longer and it encouraged him.
"Good work, Tara!" Jack smiled widely at his friend, then he looked at Mark. "You too, Mark. Thank you. You two are the best!" He gave the older man a friendly hug.
"Happy to help." Mark smiled back.
"It's a gift." Tara replied. Everyone now scrambled around, ready for action. They had a chance now, well, at least to find Sue and rescue Lucy!
"Steve and Bobby told you we'd find them!" Amanda exclaimed.
"Hello, sir?" Steve spoke into his phone urgently. "Sloan here. Yeah. Listen, chief, we know where White is hiding out, and we have a pretty good idea of where he's got Lucy. We need to pull a response team together, STAT! Yes, sir, we're sure!"
Maybe now they'll actually catch him! Are you excited? Ready for a stakeout? You'll miss something very important if you don't read the next chapter! Don't know how soon I'll get it posted because it's gonna be long, but I'll try to get it up soon. Once again, thank you for following and reading.
