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The Secret Spaces

Chapter 19

Joe waited outside the room and stood next to his brother. The meeting was about to begin in a few minutes as everyone gathered their materials. Collig was sorting his notes and the police officers and FBI agents spoke quietly to each other. In the interim, Joe turned to Frank.

"What happened? What did Callie say? How is she feeling?" He couldn't get the questions out quickly enough.

Frank looked completely drained, but also incredibly relieved as he answered in a low voice. "I was only with her for a few minutes. The doctors rushed in, and…"

"What did they say?" Joe interrupted.

"Right now she's stable and she's regained consciousness. She's weak and exhausted, but...I don't know," Frank's voice faltered.

"What?" Joe asked again, eyes etched with concern.

When Frank answered, Joe noted that, despite Frank's glassy eyes, he was smiling. "I just have a feeling, Joe. I know she's going to be okay. She… she has to be, you know?"

Joe smiled back and gently squeezed Frank's arm. "I do know, and she will be."

"My in- laws are with her now. So is Vanessa." Frank added. Seeing Joe's surprised expression, Frank continued. "Cal… knows about Johnny. We didn't get to talk much, but it's almost like she knew. I think she hasn't even had time to process it, and I don't want her to- not now. I only want her to focus on getting her strength back." Frank's voice broke a bit. "When I told her- she just looked… stunned. But she held it in. I'm worried about her. But Vanessa knows, too- I told her, so you didn't have to. I think if Cal has Van- if they have each other- it'll… it'll be good. They both loved Johnny, you know?" His lip trembled a bit, and Joe felt his heart tear a bit more.

"I know. I think we all cared about him, and I know how you felt...you know… I mean…" Joe stuttered, completely suddenly incapable of expressing his feelings.

"Thanks," Frank replied softly. He met Joe's eyes and, at once, Joe sensed that somehow Frank was back in big brother mode; that he was putting his own fear and pain aside to reassure him. And Joe was comforted. "I may need your help in the next week or so. With Johnny; with Callie; and ... " he cut himself off, a little smile playing on his lips. "And maybe with your niece or nephew. I guess we'll see."

"Whatever you need- WHATEVER," Joe emphasized. "I'm here for you."

"I know," Frank replied quietly. "Thanks, Joe. You've been really incredible these past two weeks or so. I'm sorry I've been a mess."

"Frank," Joe cut in, "stop. You have nothing to apologize for. This whole thing has been complete hell. I know how you felt when Callie was missing. I was completely lost, too, when Van was gone."

Frank just nodded, and Joe saw how hard he was trying to maintain control. The difference now was that he was actually doing it. Joe went on. "I know what Callie means to you. I can't even imagine how worried you must have been since she was pregnant. I love her, too, you know."

Frank managed a small smile.

"And you've lost John. And you're exhausted. And somehow, you managed to save my wife's life, so I guess I owe you." He patted Frank's back.

Frank rolled his eyes. "Like I said, you'd be a pain in the ass to deal with if she didn't come back, so what choice did I have?" he teased gently. "But now we need to focus- and we need to get dad back. We can do this, Joe."

Joe nodded, emotional again. Damn, it was hard to control what he was feeling from one moment to the next. "I can't even think about what he's going through," he began in a voice unlike his own.

"Then don't," Frank said, firmly, and Joe stared at him. "He'll be okay. Focus on what you can control, not what you can't."

Joe let out a relieved sigh. Yes- Frank was back.

"Boys!" Collig called. "Are you ready?" One of the officers came to the door and ushered them in.

"We're ready," they said simultaneously, and then looked at each other. And they were.

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"We need to lay out what we know, so we are all on the same page," Collig began. "And I guess the best place to start is at the beginning." He looked around the room and started his tale. "Twenty years ago, ads started appearing in the Times, ads very similar to what we saw with the recent murders around New York state. At the time, the ads were taunting, and were specifically targeted to the new PI… namely, Fenton Hardy, who had made a name for himself in the NYPD as a detective. The ads indicated that people would be killed, but it was slightly different. The victims were Male, Female, Male, and they were killed in an odd order, by FIRST name and METHOD of death. For example, the first victim was Allen Carrta, and he was asphyxiated. Then, there was Zainab Beyprat, and her body was found with deep cuts made in zigzags. Then there was Xander Zickavansky. His body was found with xenotransplantation."

"What the hell is that?" Joe asked.

"It's when organic matter is transferred from a non-human into a human," Collig answered bluntly. "So he was found with his heart cut out and a pig's heart was in its place."

"That's disgusting," Joe said with a shudder.

"Because two of the victims were foreigners, we assumed some sort of xenophobia at first, especially because it was also fit that last part of the "X" pattern. But that turned out not to be the case."

"That's a strange pattern," Frank said, thoughtfully. "It seems to be about… about…" he paused, collecting his thoughts, "the spaces."

"What?" Pat Merkel asked, surprised.

"I see it," Joe said, nodding his head. "A sequence of three letters, with the space between missing. It's almost like reverse alphabetical order."

"Yes," Agent McClean cut in. "And it's highly unusual for a criminal to demonstrate such obsessiveness AND to vary method of killing. Usually, there is a preferred methodology: strangulation, stabbing, gun shot… whatever it is, it's extremely unusual to vary, in both method of death and gender of victims."

"Well, that's what Fenton figured out," Collig went on. "But it was a beast of a case. He finally came to the conclusion that you, Frank, just arrived at. That maybe there was more to it than alphabetical order. That maybe the secret was in the spaces. So he started thinking- what was missing? If he took the spaces in between, what he saw was... B-A-Y…."

Joe gasped. "He was targeting Bayport, ultimately, right?" he asked.

"I don't think he was actually targeting Bayport," Collig answered. "But he WAS targeting your dad, who lived in Bayport and who had set up his home offices here. He was seeing if your dad could crack the case before he got to him."

"And that's exactly what happened this time," Frank said, quietly.

"Yes," Collig agreed. "It is. Fenton and I worked the case. We used the pattern against the person, who we later found to be Cotnig, and we caught him. It was hard as hell to figure out every town that had the secret space as a "P", but your dad is excellent, and he had a lot of resources."

"But why did he target dad in the first place?" Frank asked.

"Good question," Collig answered. "In part, the man was obsessed with mysteries, as we came to find out. The idea of beating out a private eye appealed to him. As it turned out, your father had, as an NYPD detective, been involved in a pursuit, in which Cotnig's brother, Charles, was killed after fleeing the scene of a robbery. There you go- personal revenge and an obsessive personality. I think that's where it started."

"But- did he always work alone?" Joe asked. "It's the same issue we had with the latest set of murders. That type of violence and obsession needs a lot of planning."

"No," Collig answered. He had another brother named David and a half brother named Bill Daniels. Notice- Alan, Bill, Charles, David- alphabetical order. When we ultimately caught him, we found out that he had been working with his brother David on these crimes. They were an ugly, outcasted, very violent family. Both Alan and David were captured and sent to the state prison transfer facility, where there was a fire that tore through the building and killed 15 people and hurt countless others. It was a huge story back in the day."

"But Cotnig didn't die," Frank said evenly. "And I wonder who else didn't, either. And how that fire got started."

"Oh, the state concluded it was faulty wiring," Collig said, "but, in hindsight, why would it have been? The building was old but it was inspected often. And people didn't really care-you weren't really dealing with the upper echelon of society here. I think most people were glad they were dead. It didn't cause a stir of outrage that several murderers, rapists, arsonists, and the like were dead."

Frank's eyes flashed something so quickly that Joe almost missed it- fear? Anger? It was gone immediately. Frank quickly, though, raised his eyebrows."Arsonists?"

"Yep- that's what we are looking into now," Collig replied.

"How many bodies were recovered?" Joe asked.

"The remains of ten are accounted for," Collig replied.

"So that leaves five more unaccounted for- presumed dead- but not," Frank concluded.

"Correct," Collig added. "Cotnig was missing. As was his brother, David. So, too, was arsonist Jonas Ezekial, Dr. Christopher Tobias, who was convicted of killing patients in hospitals via overdose, and mafia strongman Remy Annunziata."

"And no one found it odd that five people disappeared?" Joe asked, incredulous.

"Like I said, no one really cared. That being said, it was absolutely shoddy police work, yes." Collig shook his head.

Frank was troubled. "So… wait. Let's assume that the arsonist set the facility on fire, working with the Cotnig brothers, right? As it so happens, one of the convicts was a doctor, which would explain why no one checked into any hospitals."

"Correct," Collig answered.

"So five people have worked together all of these years to get revenge against my father and you. Why?" Frank continued.

"We, strangely, were involved in the arrests and apprehension of at least half of the inmates in that particular facility," Collig replied. At Frank's shocked expression, Collig shrugged. "Including the five missing men. What can I say? Your father and I were very busy back in the day."

"So these five men- they're the ones who are still out there- the ones who killed Johnny- who almost killed you, and Van, and Callie- who have our dad now?" Joe asked

"Actually," Agent Jessop cut in, "there are four left. The body of Remy Annunziata was brought into the hospital with Callie Hardy and John Gellers. Presumably, Gellers shot him- we won't know the details until we can speak with Callie- and up until an hour ago, that wasn't a possibility."

Joe watched Frank flinch, but his brother remained quiet.

"So- four left?" Joe asked.

"Five- kind of," Jessop continued. "Cotnig's half brother- Bill Daniels- is in custody. He wasn't hard to apprehend."

"Why is that?" Joe asked.

Jessop looked right at him."Because he was the head writer on Criminal Hunters."

"What?!" Joe cried. "How is that even possible?!"

Jessop continued. "A lot of luck and a lot of planning. The Cotnigs pulled every string they could get to keep Daniels presumably on the up and up. When he pitched the idea for the show- as we discovered recently- close to four years ago- this was all in the works. We believe that, on the day of the abduction, Daniels was in touch with Jonas Ezekial, the arsonist, who obviously knew how to manipulate electric currents. He was able to make the grate live that Chief Collig stepped on. Unfortunately for him, Mr. Collig didn't die. Nonetheless, it left a pretty clear path to go after your father via his family first, and ultimately him. We also believe that Daniels was the leak to the press about the show and what got into the papers. To that unfortunate end, I should also add that the press is swarming the hospital right now, trying to report on Mr. Gellers. TMZ seems to have caught wind of his death. A half hour ago, a leak started. This is going to be very messy."

"I'll be damned if I let them get close to Johnny," Frank seethed.

"That won't happen," Collig said, sympathetically. "You have my word."

"So we're looking for four people," Joe recounted. "Where do we even start?"

"We're going to start immediately," Agent McClean went on. "Because we have an undercover agent on this."

"What?!" Frank and Joe said together, and even Collig turned to the agent.

"I hope there's a good explanation for what you're about to tell me," Collig replied, trying to be calm.

"Look at the ads first again," Agent Jessop stated. "The first one reads, 'seeker of truth/ follow no path/ all paths lead where/ truth is here'. You've already concluded that the ad there was meant to taunt Chief Collig and Fenton Hardy. The truth was right under our noses- and the poet's initials were EC. Then, the second ad read, 'Noises that usually woke me from rest afraid of monsters/ kept my father awake that night, too,/ and I lay in the quiet noticing him listen, learning/ that he might not be able always to protect us.' That was a part of a poem, specifically meant for Fenton Hardy- again. The poet's initials were FH. And it came true. He could not protect his children; his family. We needed to examine these leads."

"Where are you going with this?" Collig asked.

"We were involved with this case a long time ago," Agent Jessop went on. "Unbeknownst to you all, because the fire was a federal crime, the FBI never stopped investigating it. We had no idea what happened, but we sent in several agents to investigate. One of our agents became aware of David Cotnig's existence. Through a very long and complicated process, he was able to infiltrate the survivor's posse by convincing them that Fenton Hardy and you, Chief Collig, had been responsible for his father's death, and hence he had motivation for revenge as well. Both Cotnig brothers loved the idea of a rogue cop- who else could help with the plot? He has been shadowing David, not Alan, Cotnig, in the past few months. Thus, he had no idea of the whereabouts of Callie or Vanessa or John. That's why we know there's been a split. Alan Cotnig was with Tobias and Annunziata. David Cotnig was with Ezekial. We do not know where he is right now, but we are trying to locate him."

"What? Who is it?" Joe asked.

Agent Jessop looked right at him. "Special Agent Clara. He was the one who went with Agent Smith and your father to locate Vanessa's cellphone. Agent Smith had no idea about the undercover operation."

"So- so dad's with an FBI agent?" Joe asked, incredulous.

"Yes," Jessop answered. "On a very dangerous, highly volatile mission. Your dad does not know that Agent Clara is working with us- it was a top secret classification. But he does have some protection, though we have to get to them quickly."

"Let's get going," Collig said. "If we find Clara, we find Fenton."

Slowly, the room emptied.

Frank hung back, indicating for Joe to do the same. "See, Joe?" he asked. "This case is insane, but now- now we have some hope. Let's tie up some loose ends, okay, while they work? I have to go deal with Johnny… and that whole situation now."

Joe nodded. "Frank?"

Frank turned back. "What's up?"

"We need to find out what happened with Annunziata. Can I- would you care if I talked to Callie? I promise to go easy. I'll leave it alone immediately if I see she can't handle it. But I think she might have some valuable information. And- well, it's DAD."

Frank looked torn. It took an agonizing two full minutes before he answered, during which time Joe lost track of the number of emotions that passed over his face.

Finally, he spoke, meeting Joe's eyes. "Take care of her," he said at last in a tight voice, and turned to walk out the door.

"I will," Joe mouthed into the air.

Maybe, at last, they would get a break… and their father back.