Thank you all for your lovely comments :)

Warning: another absurdly long chapter ahead! I considered splitting it, but since I don't want my picture on the murder board under the heading, 'violently clobbered to death with empty antacid bottles', we are getting all of it in one go!

(although, the murder thing is probably still on the table anyway.)

A Tangled Web (22)

" –think we've found the Elysian Park node; there's an underground reservoir in the southeast corner, off of Grand View Drive. Looks like a dead-end…" The disappointment in Lt. Tao's voice was audible even through the staticy radio connection. There was some more indistinct shouting and shuffling, and a couple of loud dog barks. "It's about a four-hundred square-foot, uh, thirty-feet deep tank…hold on, there's water at the bottom…"

Chief Taylor and Buzz exchanged a worried look.

In the large SIS van that served as temporary mobile command center, they were stationed more or else equidistant between the three sites that the team had been searching over the past couple of hours. Which meant that they were close enough for the back-up SIS team to lend extra assistance if needed… but far enough that they had no direct line of sight on either of the sites; news like that set off no small amount of trepidation.

Lt. Tao had affixed a camera to his jacket, but the feed they got was choppy at best. They could see flashlight beams reflecting off the murky metal walls of some sort of tank. Brown climbing vines and rusty iron bars…

"There's a ladder that goes down… I'm gonna need a suit, here! Or at least some boots… I can't tell how much water there is."

They weren't sure whether he was talking to them, or the officers around him. Both, probably.

"Lieutenant, is there anyone in the tank?" Taylor dabbed at his forehead with a handkerchief. The back of the van was air conditioned, but it was again getting unreasonably hot outside, and after over three hours of tense and fruitless search, they were all more than a little sweaty.

"I don't think so…" They saw more erratic flashlight beams, then a still body of brownish algae-covered water. The camera image jolted and got closer to the bottom, by which they inferred that Lt. Tao was going down into the tank. "I think there's only about a foot of water… probably infiltrated from the nearby riverbed, I doubt it was filled intentionally…" Some more metallic clanging, and in the corner of the screen they saw a gloved hand lowering some sort of rod into the water. "Yeah… there we go, it's… ten inches."

Flashlight beams reflected into the camera, whiting out the image for a few seconds, and they heard some more rhythmic bangs and whooshing sounds. Then Lt. Tao came through again:

"There's nothing here. It's empty. Nothing down here!" he called louder, presumably so that everyone on the surface would hear him. "This isn't the place."

There was hesitant relief in his voice, and Taylor understood perfectly well why. They all still hoped to find Captain Raydor alive, and so they'd hoped that she wouldn't be at the bottom of a thirty-foot water tank. On the other hand, that just left them nowhere, again.

"Okay Tao, hurry it up, we don't have all day." That was Provenza's impatient voice, urging him along. "You can tell SID to move to process this place after they're done with Commerce."

The control room at the Commerce site had been a bust, too. If Jensen or Captain Raydor had ever been there, there was no trace of it. SID had stayed behind to process the place, but so far they'd found about eight different sets of prints, and neither of them matching anyone of interest.

"Have Sanchez and Sykes found anything in Hollydale Park?" Having wasted a good hour on that first site, Provenza had made the reluctant decision to split the team to search the next two closest ones.

Taylor leaned forward and press the button to communicate back. "Still looking, last time they checked in."

The two detectives and one of the SIS teams had broken off toward the south, while Provenza, Flynn and Tao, along with a couple of uniforms for back-up, had followed the trail of Danny Murray's minivan north. It seemed that none of them had had any luck. And time was not on their side…

"We're moving to the next site," said Provenza.

"I've got Foothill division on standby for you. Canine units and back-up can meet you at Griffith Park."

"We'll meet them by the Park Rangers station. Sanchez and Sykes can join us there."

"Let's go." Provenza waved Tao over, and gave a couple of hurried instructions to the uniformed officers as to where to meet. "Flynn – leave your car here, for god's sake, you can ride with me and Tao."

But his partner was already getting out his keys. "This'll make it easier if we need to split up again later."

The older lieutenant just shook his head and gave up. Flynn had been insisting that they split up and search the six sites simultaneously, and the fact that they'd wasted time coming up empty-handed so far seemed to make his case. But when they did find wherever Jensen was hiding, Provenza wanted to make sure that they had enough back-up in place to actually take down the bastard. The team was already overtaxed and way more emotional than they should've been; splitting up would've been the last stupid thing to do under those circumstances.

"Just don't call me if you get stuck in the middle of the freeway," he grumbled at his partner, as he and Tao made their way to his car.

"I've got triple A," Flynn assured him; there was a tired note to his wryness, as though even their usual sarcastic back-and-forth was too effortful now.

Provenza couldn't blame him; he felt exactly the same. But tired or not, there was nothing to do except carry on. He had no intention of turning back until they'd found every last one of those goddamn project sites. Until they found Jensen. Until they found Raydor.

He was pretty sure that he'd held his breath while Tao had inspected the bottom of that water tank. If they had found her there…

…he'd refused to plan for that scenario, but with every minute that pushed them closer to the forty-eight hour mark, a small voice inside his head kept telling him to start thinking of contingency plans. To start stringing together those kinds of words. I'm afraid we didn't and I'm very sorry and Listen, Rusty…

He couldn't even picture it.

What a goddamn mess.

He climbed into the driver's seat of his car and followed Flynn out, their sirens blaring urgently as they rushed toward the freeway.

It felt weird, being in the front seat next to Cooper. A foreign car, that felt wrong and smelled unfamiliar and… everything about this just screamed 'wrong, wrong, wrong'. There was a hollow in Rusty's stomach, because what was he even going to do? Fear and anxiety roiled inside him. What if they didn't find anything? What if they did?

But he couldn't just sit at home knowing nothing, doing nothing. Two days – he just couldn't bear it anymore. Anything was better.

Two days of waiting around, one awful scenario after another running through his head, while the team did interviews and phone calls, paperwork and stupid press releases. Two days of feeling totally useless, and nobody actually going out to look...!

Two days not knowing whether Sharon was ever coming home.

At least he'd be out there doing...something!

As they paused at a stoplight, Cooper turned to him with a cautious look. "Just so we're clear, nobody knows about this, right? I mean – it's great if we find Captain Raydor and everything, but if we don't, I don't want to get in trouble for letting you ride along."

Rusty crossed his arms. "I didn't tell anyone," he muttered darkly. "Not like they were in any hurry to talk to me, anyway…"

"Okay…" Another pause. "And just remember, I'm in charge. We go where I say."

The boy rolled his eyes. "Fine, whatever." He shifted in his seat. "Let's just go."

"The chief engineer says that they were planning a whole set of interconnected irrigation systems at Griffith Park, using some infrastructure that was already in place…" Tao passed a couple of copies of the printouts to the park rangers. "I'm a little worried that some of his directions for this site might be outdated, after the fire a few years ago. But it's all we've got."

One of the older park rangers scratched the back of his head. "It's a damn big park," he said slowly, "there's a lot of 'infrastructure' out there… I was here ten years ago, or whenever you say this project started...I remember them bringing all these topographic scanners and tripod lasers and whatnot… then they came with excavators and dump trucks full of pipes… all over the place... Then they just stopped showing up one day," he recalled. "There were pipes and trash left behind for months, before I could get someone to come clean them."

The lieutenants exchanged a grim glance. That sounded about right for abandoned City projects – but it didn't help them at all.

Above, they could hear the familiar humming of a helicopter, as their promised air support circled the park in the hopes of seeing something they might miss.

"Sykes!" Julio waved his partner over, drawing the attention of a couple of their back-up officers as well. "Come look at this."

As she approached, he pointed to a corroded metal trap door at the base of a small reservoir. A rusty chain was wrapped around the door handle, suggesting that it hadn't been open in a good while.

"You think this is the place?" asked Amy. "Doesn't look like anyone was here recently."

Sanchez gave a lopsided nod, and decided not to jump to conclusions. "Only one way to find out." He motioned one of the other officers. "We're gonna need a bolt cutter."

"According to these directions, they built off of existing underground structures near some old water towers," said Tao. "No water towers show up on any park map that I could find, but the Department of Water and Power had some construction in place around here, in the twenties, so I think –"

"There are two water towers south of the golf course, near the old DWP building!" The young ranger sounded a little overexcited. "The fire didn't do too much damage to that area. We can take you there."

Tao nodded to his teammates. "I think that's our best bet…"

The older ranger put his hat back on, and spit out the piece of straw he'd been chewing. "We'll get there faster if you leave the cars here and we take the ATVs, terrain's not good for cars…"

Provenza pursed his lips at the thought, but didn't protest.

"What the –" At the sight of the gun, Rusty jumped in his seat and would've probably shot right out of the car if the ancient lock on the door hadn't confused him long enough for his brain to catch up.

"Whoa!" Cooper gave him a weird look. "I was just checking to make sure my weapon's all in order. It's what we do before every patrol shift, too... Sorry... didn't know you were so jumpy around guns."

Rusty pulled a face. "Yeah, I didn't either." There was just another new thing that Sharon would tell him to talk to Dr. Joe about. He swallowed hard. "Why do you need a – a gun, anyway?"

The young cop gave him another weird look. "Uh, because I'm a cop, on a search mission...?" He wasn't sure he liked the doubtful expression that flickered across the boy's face. "What do you think's gonna happen if we do find Captain Raydor and the bad guy?"

Rusty opened his mouth, then paused.

He hadn't thought past finding Sharon.

"Anyway… Griffith Park," Cooper put his gun away and pointed to the road sign to their right. "So… now what?"

Rusty swallowed hard again.

He hadn't really thought up to finding Sharon, either.

All he'd thought was that he needed to find her, that someone needed to find her, that they weren't doing enough to find her and – and she really needed to come back.

Belatedly, the boy wondered if maybe he shouldn't have asked the team to take him along, instead. Or told them whatever useful things he thought he knew. But ... they didn't even talk to him… if he'd mentioned riding along, Lt. Provenza would've probably handcuffed him to the conference room table.

Taking a deep breath, he pulled out the folded printout that he'd sneaked off Buzz's desk, and pointed somewhere ahead. "Just… follow this road, I think I have an idea where to start."

They found the old water towers, clumsy fifteen-foot constructions looking every bit their age, between the end of a trail and a half-dried muddy pond. The base of the towers was overrun with weeds and thorny underbrush, and searching for something like a manhole or a cellar door would prove to be a challenge.

"Careful," Tao warned as they stepped closer to the towers, "if there's underground infrastructure from the 1900s below us, the fire might've damaged it. Watch where you step, make sure it can hold your weight."

The older ranger gave him an approving look.

"Hold off on the dogs, then," Provenza instructed the handlers, then to everyone else he said, "Spread out. And you heard Tao, careful where you step. And keep an eye out for our guy... we don't want any… surprises."

The ground seemed solid enough, but progress was slow. About ten minutes in, Taylor updated that Sanchez and Sykes had found a small underground drain system at Hollydale Park, but after half an hour of inspecting low, damp sewer-like tunnels, they'd concluded that the place was deserted, as well.

Another dead end.

Damn it.

"We gotta get to the other sites," Flynn insisted. "Look, I know you don't want to split up, but it's four o'clock, we're losing daylight, and we still haven't even found the other two damn places!"

The dark circles under his partner's eyes looked even more pronounced than the night before. There were beads of sweat at the base of his hair.

"You should've brought a goddamn hat, Flynn," grumbled Provenza. "Here, take mine. We're too busy for you to have a stroke."

"Th – what?!" Andy stared at him like he'd grown a second head. "I'm not having a stroke, what's the matter with you? Did you even hear what I just said? And I don't want your hat," he rolled his eyes, handing the white cap back to this partner.

Provenza rolled his eyes too, but brought the radio up to his mouth.

"Buzz, can you patch us through to Sanchez?"

"Right away, Lieutenant," came the civilian's voice. "Go ahead, he can hear you."

"We're on our way to your location." It was Sykes who spoke; presumably Julio was driving. "About thirty minutes out."

"Change of plans," said Provenza. "We'll keep searching here – you find the Vernon site, it's on your way. Then you can join us."

There was a brief silence on the other end, during which he took the time to give Flynn a look that said 'there, happy?'.

"Got it, lieutenant." It was easy to tell from Sykes' voice that she wasn't thrilled with the orders, but they all knew better than to argue at this point.

"We should go looking for the Glendale site, too."

Well – all of them but Flynn.

"After we're done here," said Provenza, and waved a hand to preempt further protesting. "We've still got patrols searching around Verdugo. Maybe they'll spot the damn place before we get there, so we don't have to chase our own tails for an hour looking for it."

"You mean, like we've done so far," Andy muttered, but there was no heat to it, and he just went back to scanning the weed-covered ground.

That was when Tao called out, "I think I've got something!"

Almost three hours and they had nothing.

Rusty let out a frustrated groan, and fought the urge to sit down on the dusty ground and just ... give up.

"I told you it was pointless to go traipsing through the park." Sitting on the hood of his car, Cooper looked displeased. "You know, it's pretty much illegal for me to even be driving around here... this isn't even an actual road, it's a trail…"

"You're a cop, aren't you? What are they gonna do, give you a ticket?" The boy rubbed tired hands to his face. "And I told you, this is where – this is a good place to look."

"Because you used to sleep here." Cooper sighed. "Look, it's not that I don't –"

"I didn't sleep here, okay?" He'd lost his patience with the guy long ago. "But like, people did, and I happened to talk to some of those people back when…sometimes," Rusty pressed his lips together, "and they said there were some like, abandoned sewer tunnels or something around here – which is what we're looking for!" He pulled out the folded papers from his back pocket for the tenth time. "See? This says 'underground infrastructure', 'old water towers' and 'Griffith Park'!"

"Okay, but we've been here two hours," Cooper pointed out, "and we've got nothing – you sure those homeless friends of yours weren't just making stuff up?"

"They weren't my friends," Rusty muttered darkly.

The officer sighed again. "They don't seem like a great source of intel, in any case." He crossed his arms. "We're getting nowhere like this. And… you know what, since we decided that I'm in charge," he declared, "I'm making the executive decision to go –"

"We're not going anywhere!" The boy adopted his most persuasive mien. "Look – I told you, it's, it's got to be somewhere around here, just… maybe if we drive a little further west..." He swallowed. "I'm sure there's a place that fits Lt. Tao's description, okay? We just have to keep looking! And – and this is still better than giving up, right?"

Cooper pulled a face.

When he'd volunteered for the search, he'd imagined himself and the rest of Major Crimes rushing around the city chasing clues, not he and the Captain's kid driving down deserted trails in Griffith Park chasing their tails.

This was not working out the way he'd hoped.

Reluctantly, he slid off the hood. "We better find something soon..."

" –found an access point at the base of the second tower, which led into some old DWP underground infrastructure…" Through Tao's camera, they could see images of a large, greyish-looking pipe that was about his height and looked to be made out of some sort of thick plastic.

Taylor pinched the bridge of his nose. They'd been at this for six hours, now, and he wasn't sure anyone could process anything outside the essential details, at this point.

"What's down there, lieutenant?"

"Nothing yet." More jittering of the camera, and the image changed to show the surface: trees and shrubs and a couple of haggard-looking Major Crimes lieutenants. "There were two back-up reservoir chambers, no control room… we followed the old DWP tunnel, but it was caved in about four hundred yards to the west. This is really old construction..."

"So no sign of Jensen, or Captain Raydor." Again, essential details only.

Next to him, Buzz let out a quiet sigh, propping his elbows on the table and his head in his hands.

Out in the field or waiting in their mobile command center, everyone was tired.

"No, but Tao thinks that the tunnel might pick up again further out," Provenza's voice sounded somewhat muffled. "We're gonna expand the search area a little, make sure there isn't another access point. Anything from Sanchez and Sykes on the Vernon site?"

"Still searching the neighborhood..."

"Uh, Chief? That's actually Det. Sanchez on the other channel." Buzz shifted in his seat and flipped two buttons, and suddenly one of the screens changed to show a completely different image, of a wire fence, a concrete lot and a large sign that said 'Do Not Pass'.

"Hold on, Lieutenant," said Taylor, a little confused whether he was still talking to Provenza, or Buzz had totally switched him over to a different comm channel. "Who am I talking to?"

"Det. Sanchez, Sir."

" –found the place, it's not underground. Looks like some sort of shack, next to some large pipes. Can't see windows or a door, they must be facing the other side."

"This is the 38th Street node?" asked Taylor. After six hours and four locations, he was losing track.

"It's not on 38th, it's at the end of Seville Ave., off 37th," Sanchez said. "Across from a Fedex warehouse. We're setting up a perimeter now."

"Any sign of Jensen?" came Provenza's voice, startling the Chief slightly. ("I switched us all to the same channel," Buzz explained in a low tone.)

"There's a wire fence around the area… I see a couple of storage units and some abandoned cars. No sign of anyone from out here."

"Try to get a heat scan of the building," Provenza spoke again.

The camera feed from Sanchez's side shook slightly as he moved around the perimeter.

Provenza put the radio back in his pocket, and glanced at the weed-infested area by the two decrepit water towers again. Two park rangers, Tao, and Flynn were still searching through the overgrown shrubs; the trapdoor they'd found gaped wide open at the base of one of the towers, a vague swampy smells rising from within.

They'd even tried calling out for the Captain, desperate as that might have been. But there was no answer. The place was, at best, empty.

" –should've found a control room, based on what the chief engineer said," Tao disentangled the hem of his pants from yet another clingy bush, and checked the printout again, "but it could be that that's past the cave-in point… I mean, in theory this underground infrastructure could go on for miles …"

"Can't we get one of those… what did you call it? Those systems to search for us?"

"TLS," Tao nodded, "terrestrial laser scanning. And yes, I've reached out to SID asking if they can set one up for us. That should tell us exactly what's below, but… I have to say, I don't think –"

"Sir." Julio's voice erupted from the radio again, startling him slightly. "There are no heat signatures inside the construction. We're going to move in."

Everyone paused their search.

"Carefully," Provenza warned into the radio. "Remember, this guy's got a thing for bombs." He exchanged a glance with his partner, and saw the same disappointment reflected in the other man's eyes.

No heat signatures. Again. Damn it, were they looking in all the wrong places?

Flynn shook his head, walking over to his car to get a water bottle; the older lieutenant followed him with a worried gaze.

No heat signatures. So Sharon was likely (he hoped) not there, either.

Had that bastard Jensen even had her in the first place? Provenza was starting to doubt everything about this damn case. Had the rescue team missed something in the garage wreckage? But no – they'd found her blood in the minivan, Murray's damn minivan… which had gone up north on I-5, so of course she wouldn't be down at the Vernon site, but if she wasn't at Griffith Park –

"Lieutenant!" Something in Sanchez's voice immediately set him on edge. "He was here. That bastard was here!"

" –report! Sanchez! Damn it, can he hear us?" It was all Provenza could do to not take the radio from Tao, and that only because he wasn't sure he could handle driving the car eighty miles an hour in 6 p.m. traffic with just one hand.

"He can hear us," Mike assured. "Julio, we're on our way to your location – "

"What did you find, exactly?" They rushed through an intersection, cars skidding to a stop before the blaring sirens. "And where's Jensen now?"

"We don't know." Frustration was basically seeping out of the radio. "But there's evidence that someone was here recently – in the last day or two."

"What evidence?"

"There's some food that can't be older than that… signs that someone slept here…" Through the static, they could hear snippets of conversations between the other officers at the scene. Shuffling and clanging.

"Is there any sign of Captain Raydor?" asked Tao.

Julio gritted his teeth.

The small room had a desk with some dusty papers on one side, a poorly made cot on the other, and all sorts of old electronic equipment in the corners. There was a large cup of soda on the desk, liquid still left on the bottom, and some limp lettuce pieces on the floor. A phone charger was plugged into the wall, looking oddly new against the worn objects around it. A pair of man's socks in the corner, and a faint smell of smoke in the air.

The same smell that he'd felt at the wrecked garage, after the explosion.

But there was no sign that the Captain had been there at all.

"No," he growled into the radio. "Nothing."

He directed SIS to go back outside and hold the perimeter; there was chance that the guy was coming back, and if so he wanted them ready.

" –SID to come straight here, we need prints and anything else they can get." Sykes finished her instructions to a young SIS officer, then turned to Sanchez. "I can't believe this… damn it, if we'd found this place earlier…!"

They'd driven around the neighborhood for an hour, trying to figure out the exact location of this site from the former chief engineer's vague directions. Had they just missed Jensen? Had he seen them circling?

There was a receipt underneath the soda cup. Julio frowned as he scanned it. "Saturday, 3 a.m.," he read the timestamp. "Ellie's Diner." He reached for the radio again. "Jensen has a receipt from an 'Ellie's Diner'. If it's nearby, that's where he could be now."

"On it," said Lt. Tao. "We're just a few minutes out from your location."

"Julio."

He turned around; Amy was picking up something from behind the rudimentary cot. She held it up for him to see, a tense look on her face.

The evening edition of a local newspaper's Sunday issue featured their much-publicized 'Sun Plaza' scheme on the first page. There was a picture of Susan Crowley giving her interview to the press that morning – and a thick angry X drawn across the entire story, so forcefully that it had ripped the paper in places.

"I think plan B is working," Amy said.

"Great, so the plan to piss the asshole off worked." Andy sounded more than a little irritated, himself. "We're still two steps behind him!"

"No we're not," said Provenza. "We're searching the neighborhood right now – there's a good chance he's still around here, in some convenience store or diner." Sanchez and Sykes, along with a few plain-clothes SIS officers, were combing the nearby area. They'd made sure to keep patrols and uniforms away – if they were lucky, Jensen wouldn't realize they were there, and would wander right back into his hideout.

"And if not?"

"Then we know where he's going," the older lieutenant finished ominously.

The 'Sun Plaza' operation was in place, two-dozen plain-clothes officers and a bomb squad on standby. The entire area around the mall had been covered since before they'd even found the Vernon site; when Jensen so much as set foot near the place, they'd have him.

If not earlier.

"SID confirmed that Jensen's prints are inside." Tao joined them at their surveillance position behind the warehouse. "They also found another receipt from a local convenience store, from around 9 p.m. yesterday. This was definitely where he was hiding after the explosion."

Andy passed both hands through his hair. "I don't get it," he said frustratedly, "if this is where Jensen was hiding, where is the Captain?"

Tao matched his somber expression. "I don't understand, either. There's no sign of her inside... It's possible that Danny Murray took her somewhere else…?"

Neither of them wanted to think about the alternative.

Provenza reached for his radio. "I'm going to need as many unmarked cars as possible patrolling this area, keeping an eye out for our guy."

There was a brief silence, then Taylor's voice came through. "I'll see what I can get you, Lieutenant."

"And I want the same for Glendale – call everyone who's available, to help us search the two sites there. I'm leaving SIS in charge here; we'll head north and continue the search for Captain Raydor." He looked back to his teammates, waiting to see if they had anything to say.

There was no argument from Tao; Flynn was already searching for his car keys.

"What?! You can't just quit on me!" Rusty had to almost run to keep up, while the young cop strode determinedly to the parked car. "Hang on...!"

"Look, no offense, but I actually wanted to do something useful. This," Cooper waved a hand to their surroundings, "is exactly the opposite of that. So I think the best thing to do right now, is for you to go home and for me to… go volunteer for that search action."

Rusty fumed. "You're only turning back now because they put that announcement out on the, the police radio or whatever, for 'all available units'! What the hell…!"

"Nothing personal," the young cop held up his hands, opening his car door. "I just think this is better for me… and actually, for everyone, because I can be way more useful out there looking for that Jensen dude, than here."

"No, we're supposed to be looking for Sharon," Rusty argued, "look, just… please…!"

"Sorry, dude." Cooper grimaced. "I get where you're coming from, but we've been here for hours and... it was just a bad idea, alright? You'll see it eventually. Now, come on –"

"We had a deal," the boy accused.

"That was before I could actually take part in Major Crimes' operation," said Cooper. "Hey – I'm a cop, okay? They ask for all available units, it's my duty to respond to that, not chase around Griffith Park on my own with – well, you."

Rusty made an indignant noise in his throat.

Cooper sighed. "Look, I told you, it's not personal. Just the smartest decision for me right now, alright? Now get in the car, I'll drop you off at home and –"

"I'm not getting in the car!" the boy scowled. "We had a deal!"

"Okay, and now we don't have a deal anymore. This isn't court," he pointed out. "Now… can you please just get in? They meant 'all available units' now, not next week."

Rusty glared. "You. Are an asshole, did you know that?"

"Look, do you want to get in the car, or do you want to walk home?"

Rusty stared in indignant disbelief.

Andy was just pulling onto the freeway when his phone rang. He glanced briefly at the screen, hesitated seeing the caller ID.

Then he frowned.

Rusty never called him. Oh, the kid called Sharon all the time, obviously, and he sometimes called Buzz, and there might've even been a time or two when he'd called Provenza…but Rusty never called him. Ever.

So, why.

Andy picked up.

"Lt Flynn… I need your help."

He nearly veered off the freeway when he heard why.

It was just as well that his siren was already on, and cars were moving out of the way, anyway.

"What the hell were you thinking?"

Rusty had called Lt. Flynn precisely because he'd known that Lt. Provenza would lecture him and Buzz would make him feel awful – but apparently he was going to get yelled at either way. He gritted his teeth.

"Look, I know this wasn't like, a great plan or anything –"

"You think?" growled Flynn. "It was goddamn stupid, that's what it was – do you have any idea how many ways this could've gone sideways? What do you think Sharon would say if –"

"I don't know what Sharon would say!" Rusty railed. Why did people keep saying that to him? "I don't know what she'd say because She's. Not. Here! That's the point! It's been two days, and Sharon's not here and – and you're not doing anything to find her!"

"Not – are you kidding me right now?" Andy passed both hands through his hair, frustrated. "We're doing nothing but trying to find her, and how do you think it'd work out if we had to waste time trying to find you, too!"

Rusty crossed his arms, shoulders hunching. "I don't need anyone to find me."

"Yeah? Then why did I get a call from you at seven p.m. telling me you were stranded in goddamn Griffith Park?" Flynn waved a furious hand to their surroundings. "Why did I drive here to find you alone on the side of the road, like an idiot kid?"

"Because that asshole ex-narc ditched me, that's why," Rusty glowered, "and if you didn't want to – like, if you didn't want to come pick me up then…whatever, I can take care of myself."

"Oh, yeah, that's real obvious right now," sneered Flynn, "we can give you a goddamn medal. I can't believe what I'm hearing… I can't believe you'd actually pull this kind of stupid, irresponsible stunt!"

The boy's shoulders hunched further with every word. Why couldn't anyone get it? "I was just…"

"I don't even want to hear it," the lieutenant cut him off, "just get in the car and stop wasting my time. Jesus…"

"I thought –"

"No you didn't think! Going off alone, in the middle of goddamn Griffith Park, that's. not. thinking! Do you even have an idea what –"

"Yes I have an idea!" Rusty shouted back, suddenly, "I have a really. good. idea of what it's like to be out here alone, okay, lieutenant, and – and I don't want to go back to that so I – I was just trying to help, okay?!"

Andy was surprised into momentary silence.

The boy wiped an angry hand across his cheek, and turned away, taking a few steps down the dusty trail, his arms crossed tight again, fingers digging into his flesh.

Andy leaned both elbows on the roof of his car, and lowered his head against his arms. He felt a hundred years old. Exhaustion and worry a physical weight around his shoulders. It had been two days, almost to the minute, since that damn explosion, and… they'd thought they'd find Sharon by now, but Jensen had slipped right through their fingers, and the search area had turned out so much wider and more complicated than they'd thought…

The roof of the car was hot against his skin, from a whole day of being out in the sun. He could hear his heartbeat in his ears, tired, effortful.

Finally he lifted his head.

"We'll find her," he said quietly. "Rusty, we're gonna find her." And there was more he could've said, other reassurances, but after two days with no sleep his mind wasn't having an easy time coming up with good words. The rest could wait.

"Come on," he told the boy. "Let's go."

Rusty turned back around, hands in his pockets, his eyes still a little red.

"Look … you said you didn't find anything at the park yet… Since you're already here, I –"

"No," the lieutenant cut him off gently, but firmly. "Get in the car."

"But – "

Andy was losing his patience again. "Damn it, Rusty, get in the god damn car –"

The boy climbed in.

"Put on your seatbelt," Andy said unnecessarily, because giving orders right now helped.

The trail that he'd had to climb his car onto was a little too narrow to turn around right away, so he followed it for another couple of minutes in the hopes of finding a better spot. Eventually, they hit a crook in the road that seemed almost wide enough, and Andy wriggled the car in the awkward maneuvers of a too-tight K-turn.

And then he saw it.

A couple hundred yards away, peering over some spiky underbrush, the rounded, weather-beaten tip of a familiar-looking shape.

His eyes were tired and the light just before sunset wasn't great, and he'd been staring at Tao's printouts for too long so probably it was all wishful thinking anyway, but…that looked like the top of an old, wooden water tower.

They must've been at least a mile away from the other two towers, if not more. But what had Tao said?

In theory, these could go on for miles…

He hesitated.

Provenza would probably have a stroke, himself, if Andy went in without back-up. But – they'd already caught Jensen's trail, and it wasn't anywhere near Griffith Park. And the rest of them were still searching, yes, but time was of the essence. And...

...basically, there was no way in hell he was turning back without at least checking things out, at this point.

Instead of turning the car around, he drove the extra few hundred yards of the rough trail, and parked again.

"Stay in the car," he told Rusty, following the instruction with a scowl, for good measure.

He texted Provenza a rushed update, and dropped his phone on the driver's seat.

Then he cautiously approached the turn in the trail, and, stepping through some shrubbery and down a (thankfully) small slope, he saw it again.

It wasn't a real water tower, just the conical reservoir at the top, lying almost sideways on the ground, half-covered in weeds. From the blackened marks on its wooden planks, it was easy to tell that it hadn't emerged the fire unscathed as its counterparts further east. It must've burned down, the scaffolding gone completely but the reservoir more or less intact, or at least recognizable.

And as he stepped off the trail, Andy saw something else, too.

Tire tracks.

His heart beat faster.

Not just any tire tracks, but they looked large. Large, like from a minivan? Maybe. They were definitely bigger than ATV tracks.

Andy made sure that his weapon was within easy reach, as he began to look around.

The ground here was less impossible than at the other site – dusty and covered with all sorts of roots and weeds, yes, and uneven, but having burned down once, the vegetation hadn't grown back quite as tangled and gnarly yet. At least he could walk around easier.

It was hard to tell where the tower had been initially, but Andy assumed it was somewhere in that general area. The reservoir couldn't have rolled far from its original location. At first glance, he couldn't spot anything like an access point, though. He took another few steps across the dry ground, tried to guess where he'd build the underground infrastructure, if he'd been a worker on that damn project…

There were more charred wooden remains a little further out. This area must've been one of the worst affected in the fire six years previous. Maybe that was why the rangers hadn't remembered this old water tower.

Something about the fire damage felt important, but at the moment Andy couldn't remember why; he walked on.

Footsteps behind him made him swivel around, and he'd almost pulled out his gun before he recognized the familiar mop of blond hair.

"I told you to stay in the car!" He had exactly zero patience left for the kid.

"I'm sorry!" Rusty held up his phone. "It's – Lt. Provenza called you twice, I thought maybe … something about Sharon…"

He looked almost too desperate to get mad at.

Almost.

"Did you find something…?"

"No. Give me that," Andy signaled him to hand over the phone, "and go wait in the car."

Rusty was slow to leave, but just as he was about to snap again, Flynn's attention was diverted as he spotted something to the boy's left. In a few seconds he'd cleared the weeds off a corroded manhole cover; beneath a layer of grime, the year '1907' was inscribed on it in large font. Clearer evidence that this was part of the old DWP infrastructure couldn't be found.

Andy grabbed the side handles with both hands and pulled; the cover came off, though not easily. It was definitely heavier than he'd imagined. A damp, stale smell came from inside. He slid the cover to the side, and reached for his flashlight.

A first inspection revealed nothing but a dinky ladder descending into what looked like some sort of tunnel. The flashlight beam glinted off some rusted pipes.

He also took out his gun, and then he had to pause a second to give Rusty another firm look. "Go wait in the car." They couldn't know who, or what, was down there.

The boy swallowed, but turned around with no protest.

Andy couldn't even wait until he was out of sight. "Hello?" He was torn on whether to keep his voice down, or call at the top of his lungs, so he settled for some cautious inbetween. "Hello?" But there was no response.

Gun in one hand and flashlight in the other, he carefully angled himself to go down the ladder. It was a narrow fit – wide enough for him to go through, but barely. He couldn't imagine, didn't want to imagine if Jensen or Murray had forced Sharon through there under duress. Although by the grimy handles and the way the ladder creaked as he put his weight on it, it didn't feel as though it had been used recently. Tao had said that the irrigation project had added on to the old DWP infrastructure – so maybe there was another access point around?

He'd barely taken one step down, when there was a sort of wooden crack and an ominous metallic shriek, and suddenly Andy remembered why it was important that the area had been damaged in the fire.

Watch where you step, make sure it can hold your weight.

He mentally cursed Tao for always having to be right, as the ladder gave way beneath him.

The world tilted. Andy flailed ungraciously and lost his grip on both gun and flashlight. Something scratched his arm, his shoulder slammed against a hard surface, and then there were some more clanging and banging.

Luckily, the floor hadn't been that far below.

The first thing that Andy established was that he hadn't broken anything, the second thing was that he was an idiot. Third was the location of his gun, which fortunately had dropped right next to him; the flashlight had rolled off to some undetermined location, and presumably turned off because he couldn't spot it.

"Lieutenant?"

He groaned. "I told you to wait in the car! And keep your voice down."

"Uh… you sounded like you needed help." Rusty's head poked over the narrow opening, blocking out what little light there was; he saw the boy squinting to make out what was going on fifteen feet below. "Are you okay?"

"There's another flashlight in my glove compartment," Andy instructed, "go bring me that."

The boy's head immediately vanished (great, now he was good about listening to instructions), and Andy reached for his phone to call Provenza.

The damn thing wouldn't dial out. Of course.

At least he could use it as a temporary flashlight...

Cautiously, he took a few steps down the tunnel. Just like the access point above, it was impossibly narrow, and whatever function it had served must've been a thing of the past. The pipes were not only corroded, but cracked and broken in places. Dry roots poked out of the walls here and there. It was hard to tell how far the thing stretched on... Tao had said these channels usually ran up to a reservoir or nearby water source, but he had no clue of any nearby reservoirs, and they were a couple of miles away from both the river and Hollywood Lake…

But who cared about that? As he walked on, all Andy could tell was that this damn claustrophobic tunnel was obviously part of the old DWP water network, and that meant that probably it was where the irrigation project had added extra construction, somewhere, and that meant there was a good chance that –

A sound from up ahead made him startle; his grip tightened around the gun as he took another cautious step.

There was silence.

"Hello?"

His voice echoed a little.

Another muffled rustle. And then sudden metallic clanging, like objects falling together – Andy jumped, adrenaline pumping as he brought up the gun, "LAPD! Who's there!"

And there was more silence, and then–

"Andy…?"

– his heart leaped in his throat.