Chapter Two: Missing Sniper
Greg Parker arrived at work half an hour before his shift, giving Winnie a smile as he walked in. The dispatcher smiled right back, a hint of laughter in her eyes. She was in on the latest prank Greg intended to pull on his entire team; an attempt to dispel the aftermath of the previous day's hot call. The Sergeant mentally plotted the best time to spring his prank…too early and he might miss some of his team, too late and it would spoil the image he hoped to capture. He finally settled on mid morning and, after relating his final instructions to Winnie, headed for the locker room to change into his uniform.
The rest of the team straggled in, looking a bit worn and tired, but ready to go. Parker, tallying up who was present, allowed a tiny frown. Sam was nowhere to be seen. Greg turned a little, looking up at Eddie, who was leaning against the briefing room's windows. "Seen Sam yet?" he asked.
Ed Lane blinked at his boss, glancing out at the hallway and thinking a moment. "Not yet, Boss." The team leader considered for a few seconds longer, then added, "Go easy on him today, Greg; we've got some flex time."
With a mental sigh, Greg inclined his head and turned back to his paperwork, postponing his prank for close to lunchtime…aiming for maximum effect. Fifteen minutes later, he took a stack of paperwork out to Winnie and quietly updated her, not wanting to spring the prank without Sam present.
In an effort to keep his constables from getting too antsy, Greg opted to have half of them in the workout room and the other half in the briefing room to catch up on paperwork. Yes, he and Eddie handled most of the paperwork, but every member of Team One had some of their own. He let them swap out every half hour, keeping his eyes open for Sam. But the blond sniper never appeared and, as they drew closer to lunchtime, Parker was getting more and more worried. Ed, too, was looking concerned – checking his phone and pacing out of the briefing room to check any new arrivals at the station.
With Sam close to four hours late with no calls or messages from him, Greg abandoned his paperwork and strode out to Winnie's desk, pretending not to notice the looks his team were giving him from their spots in the briefing and workout rooms. "Winnie, any calls from Sam?" he queried.
"No, sir," Winnie replied, frowning. "He's not here yet?"
"Haven't seen him," Ed drawled from Greg's left, leaning over the desk. "Want me to call him, Boss?"
"Yeah, Eddie; let's go ahead and do that." Looking over at Lou, who'd been the first one after Ed to wander over, Greg added, "Go check Sam's locker." Lou darted off.
Ed nodded, already hitting the speed dial for Sam's phone. Greg watched Eddie out of the corner of his eye as the phone rang and rang…and rang. Voicemail finally picked up and Ed left a message, demanding that Sam call him back immediately. As Ed hung up, his attention snapped to his boss. "Greg…" he started.
"Locker's untouched," Lou called, as he raced back up the stairs; his posture screamed concern and worry.
Greg, looking between his team leader and Lou, grimaced, knowing what Ed had been about to say; if ever there was a time to use his 'team sense', it was now. Briefly, he regretted the breakthrough he'd made just the week before, letting him turn his 'team sense' off for three days as long as it was on for the fourth day. He flicked it on, trying to focus in on Sam's location, only to brush up against a barrier he'd never felt before. Unconsciously, he frowned, pushing at the barrier in confusion, but his constable's location – and emotions – remained…hidden…from him. Sam was still alive, Greg could tell that much, but everything else was blocked.
Ed stiffened as his boss frowned, his brow crinkling in effort, then Parker looked up, shaking his head. "I can't find him," the Sergeant admitted softly, his eyes afraid.
"The kids," Spike offered from the side. "Maybe they could find him." By this point, all of them had abandoned their workouts and paperwork, sensing the rising tension in the atrium.
But Ed had a good idea of his boss's response to that and he was right. "Double standards, Spike," Parker parried regretfully. "If we want them to stay out of danger, we can't keep letting them help. That's essentially telling them it's okay to keep pulling their risky stunts. Right now, Sam's missing and that's all we know for sure." He pinned them with a look, firm. "Let's take a ride over to his place and see if we can figure out what's going on. Winnie."
"Yes, Sarge?" Winnie inquired.
"Any calls from Sam, you call me right away. Any calls about Sam, same thing. And let's get a BOLO ready to go, just in case."
"Copy that, sir."
As the team entered the atrium of Sam Braddock's apartment building, Spike already had his phone's search app going. To the team's surprise – and no small amount of concern – a squawk came from the wall of mail boxes on the atrium's left wall. Spike scrambled over to the mail box, stopping short as he realized the door to the box was closed. Then he looked closer and blinked, caught off guard. The door, at a casual once-over, did look closed, but on closer inspection, a sliver of light was visible. Careful, Spike tugged on the door, pulling it open and watching for anything suspicious. Inside, Sam's phone screen flashed with a silver and gray Canadian flag and his initials, lighting up the interior of the mail box. In the light from the screen, Spike saw something else…Sam's key ring, laying next to the phone.
"Guys…" he called, pulling back without touching either item. "Sam's phone and his keys are in his mail box…which was left open."
The other members of Team One looked over from their inspection of the atrium, alarm and worry blazing across on their faces. "The alert didn't go off?" Wordy questioned, remembering how it had gone off when Parker had been abducted a month and a half earlier.
"Nope," Spike confirmed, looking unhappy.
Lou frowned. "They must not have physically hurt him enough to set it off," he mused.
"And they left it behind," Ed pointed out, scowling. "Spike, is it broken?"
Greg, who was still futilely trying to use his 'team sense', observed, "They can fix themselves, Ed; remember when Walter Volcek tried to break Sam's phone?" He hid a wince; Sam had had some very pointed questions afterwards about the phones – and who had paid for them. "But if they'd broken it, I think it would have sent out the same alert mine did."
"Almost like they knew they couldn't hurt Sam or break the phone," Jules observed, her eyes and voice thoughtful.
"I'll track the manager down, get the security cam tapes," Lou offered.
"Go," Parker agreed, pulling out his phone as Lou raced away. "I'll get Winnie to issue that BOLO and get a forensics unit over here as fast as possible."
"Sarge, what about, uh, um…Commander Locksley?" Wordy questioned, rubbing the back of his neck.
For a minute silence hung, Parker almost visibly weighing the pros and cons, then he nodded. "I'll call her next, see if her people can work with forensics." He lifted his phone, speaking as soon as Winnie picked up, "Winnie, issue a BOLO for Sam, we found his phone and his keys stuffed in his mail box. And have a forensics unit dispatched here as soon as possible. We haven't checked Sam's apartment yet, but while they're on their way, we'll get the manager to open his door so we can clear it."
As soon as Greg was done with Winnie, he was re-dialing, calling Madame Locksley. "Madame Locksley, I'm afraid we have a situation. Auror Braddock's gone missing; can your people work with our forensics unit to help us track him down?" At the response, Greg allowed a smile and nodded.
"Sarge," Lou's grim voice sounded from the hallway behind them, drawing Parker around, a brow quirked up as he waited, still on the phone with Madame Locksley. "We've got video…Sam never made it back to his apartment last night."
Auror Giles Onasi had never expected to be in this position…the liaison between the Auror Division and Team One; it wasn't nearly as glamorous as Auror Wilkins had managed to make it look. As a half-blood, Onasi had a better grasp of Muggle technology than Wilkins had possessed, but Team One's lingo and technology still managed to leave him in the dust more times than he cared to admit. And now he was being called in to help with an abduction that might or might not have anything to do with magic. He kept his grumbling to himself as he traded in his trenchcoat for his favorite dark brown dragon-hide jacket and cast an illusion to make his low-slung wand holster look like a gun holster. The Auror had to duck back into his desk to grab his Muggle badge and ID, but then he was off.
He arrived to organized chaos; a Muggle forensics unit was crawling over every millimeter of the atrium for Braddock's apartment, with a Muggle Inspector watching over the beehive of activity. Giles showed his badge and asked for Parker, honestly unsure of how to handle anyone who didn't know about magic. That was another thing 'his' Muggles were working with him on; they were adamant that he needed to learn how to handle any officer or civilian he met, regardless of status.
Fortunately, Wordsworth happened to be passing through the atrium…well, actually, he was skirting around the side…and he offered to take Onasi along with him as he trekked back to Parker. As they walked, Wordsworth murmured, "Still having trouble?"
Giles ducked his head, sheepish. "It's just," he glanced back, "There's so many of them."
A small smile from the other man. "Fair enough. I guess it can get a little intimidating when you're not sure who you're talking to or where to go." A grim look settled on the normally friendly man. "Look, the tape's not all that good. We know Sam was snatched by at least four people, maybe more, and we know they left his phone behind and didn't hurt him before it was taken off him. Spike thinks one of the subjects was in robes, but like I said, the tape's not very helpful."
"Anything else?" Onasi asked, back on familiar turf. He was writing furiously in a small notebook with a high end ink pen; something Team One had reintroduced him to and which he found much easier than writing with a quill.
A soft sigh. "Forensics is checking everything; you saw them all over the atrium; but it's going to take hours for them to get back to us with even just the preliminary report. If we get fingerprints off Sam's phone or keys, if they can clean up the tape, we might get more, but that's all we got right now."
Onasi nodded as they reached Parker, who nodded once in greeting. "Constable Onasi, Inspector Stainton," Parker introduced the older detective already there. "Inspector Stainton, Constable Onasi. His division has worked with Team One several times in the past; I thought he might be able to add to our investigation," Parker explained to the detective.
With a gruff demeanor, the detective replied, "Hope you can spot something we haven't, Constable. The tape's so old it's worthless and forensics has checked Braddock's phone and keys: they're wiped clean. Not even a single print on them."
Giles winced, scowling as he thought hard. "My division's rather…specialized…Inspector Stainton; with so little evidence, I can't make any promises." He nodded towards the television. "May I see the tape?"
As he watched the tape, his mind raced as he studied the images. Something wasn't right, beyond just the utterly lousy recording. Abruptly, he lifted a hand and Young stopped the playback. "You see something?" Young asked hopefully.
"Do we have a tape from earlier…before the abduction?" Onasi queried.
"See if we catch them arriving," Stainton mused.
Not exactly, Giles thought, watching intently as a prior tape was brought up on screen. The difference was immediate: the scene brightened, the colors were clear, the image as crisp as you would wish. Leaning forward, Giles requested, "Can you fast-forward it?" As the image fast-forwarded towards the appointed hour, Giles studied the picture quality and saw the instant it dropped. "Pause it," he ordered.
Parker and Stainton had moved to see the screen better and Stainton rocked back on his heels. "Well, I'll be damned," he managed. "The tape's not bad after all…wonder what caused that." That was clear to see: the image was now just like the tape of Braddock's abduction, grainy, poorly lit, with dull colors and little bits of static on the picture.
Parker's hiked brow had a silent question behind it and Onasi shook his head ever so slightly. He didn't know what had caused the change in quality; didn't have the faintest idea. "I know what you said about forensics," Parker began, drawing Stainton's attention, "But is there any chance they might find something?"
"They'll do their best, Parker," Stainton replied, "Don't hold your breath, though…these guys are experienced and they're looking mighty glum even with the scene only half-processed."
"How long to get the results?" Onasi inquired, looking over his shoulder.
"I'll put a rush on this, but we're looking at two days, minimum."
Onasi worked to keep himself from gaping. Two days? His eyes turned back to the screen; he spotted a figure that looked even darker than the others, something was wrong with the figure, even on the grainy picture.
Two days was a very long time for Braddock to wait…if he lived that long.