5.
~ "Telemarketer." Arthur said at last. "Automatic call machine. Hate those things."
"Was it a charity call? That's how they get around the do not call lists." the FBI agent asked sympathetically.
"I didn't really listen." Arthur said. He looked over his phone, but the number that had just called him said it was blocked. No return number, no way to call whoever it was back.
"So, about your girlfriend." the FBI agent said.
"I'm not sure why she's not picking up her phone. Maybe she's on her way here." Arthur cleared his throat.
"You're living with a fellow government employee? Romantically?" the agent asked.
"Yes, but we've been discrete about it. Until now that it. We leave and come to work in separate cars. We don't talk to each other during the day. We didn't want people here to know." the Point Man explained.
He was trying to keep his voice casual. His breathing calm. He was trying to put on a mask, while he felt a horrible rage burning inside him.
She was gone. If the strange caller was to be believed, she was taken from their home and she would be killed if he showed a second of fear to this FBI agent.
"You should have filled out the declaration forms for a relationship." the agent said.
"She or I would have been transferred if we did that." Arthur reasoned.
His body was on edge and he wanted to get away from the agent.
"So, you've been lying to people since you started woking here. Is that right?" the agent asked.
The Point Man took a moment to size up the agent interviewing him.
FBI only took collage graduates. Although not always in law enforcement these days. The agency liked computer and accounting wizards. They recruited chemists and language experts. Men and women who were willing to devote their lives to the cause.
This agent was talking to the head of security, so that had to mean he wasn't fresh from the academy. He was average everything. Average hight. Average build. Even his haircut was average. This was probably intentional.
If the Point Man was asked to describe this agent in looks, he would fail. There was no discernible traits to him that would set him apart of the masses. He didn't resemble anyone famous and look perfectly ordinary. However, his suit, posture and the way he spoke said he may have been in law enforcement his entire adult life.
He had the quite 'you don't know what I know' attitude that seasoned detectives have.
Arthur knew it was best not to share too much information with this agent. He wasn't a dumb as he was pretending to be.
As if the fates that be heard his hearts desire, the ordinary looking agent's phone went off. What followed was a one sided conversation about video security cameras and pass codes.
Arthur calmly and coldly gave them all the pass codes to the cameras. He was helpful and didn't show anything but a face of stone.
"Alright. There isn't anything else we can do tonight, sir." the agent said. "No damage was done to the museum, that's the best part of this. "If anyone from the press calls, your official position is that it was a malfunction in the fire suppressions system. Fire department and police responded accordingly. You will keep to that story, understand?" the agent said.
"Absolutely. I'll tell my men." Arthur agreed.
"They're already being told that." the agent said. "Last thing we need is a panic that there is a homegrown terror cell in our nation's capital. Now, best case scenario, it's just some kid who saw one too many movies, and who gets his jollies scaring people with these little toys. In order for us to catch the unsub, we will need work without his knowing anything. We can't give him anymore attention."
"That will be you best method of capture." Arthur agreed. "The video surveillance and the toy car won't hurt either."
The FBI man eyed the Point Man suspiciously.
"You're girlfriend still hasn't checked in." he said. "There isn't an answer at the door when the officer went to your place."
"I hope she isn't with some other guy." Arthur said with a fake smile.
"She'll need to report to us as soon as possible. We can't clear her as a suspect until she's found and debriefed." the agent said.
"She's not a suspect." Arthur said dryly.
"All employees are suspects until we say otherwise." the agent said. "No out of town trips for a while, alright?"
"I'm just going to go home to my girl." Arthur said as casually as he could manage.
"We'll be in contact. Try to rest and report to my office with your girlfriend before noon." the agent handed the Point Man his card.
"Agent Thomas Lake. You're in the J. Edger Hoover building." Arthur said. "Impressive."
"Not really." agent Lake laughed.
Arthur quickly pocketed agent Lake's card and shook his hand.
"We'll be there. No worries." he Point Man said.
~ Arthur couldn't leave the museum fast enough. The fire department was already gone and a small contingent of specialized crime scene personal were going though the museum now to look for more evidence.
There was a light crowd of people watching the commotion, but all they saw was two police cars with no lights on, and two black vans with a carpet cleaning logo on them. Arthur had spent enough time in this world to know covert crime scene units when he saw them. He knew that those vans were really federal agents examining the museum and not wanting the fact that the building had been bombed on the news.
No, the story of malfunctioning fire alarms would fit nicely.
'No worries folks. Just a fire alarm and we can't be too careful. And while you're all safe in you're homes, Ariadne is out there at the hands of a maniac.' he thought.
~ The Point Man raced home as fast as he could. It was almost dawn and traffic was picking up. The sun was just starting to break apart the darkness, making the neighborhood look slightly dream like when he parked in front of the town house.
The front door was closed and when he tried to open it, he was surprised to find it locked.
It seemed to take forever to unlock the door. It had a stupid, vintage door knob, original to the house, that didn't want to turn right.
Finally, he opened the door to sounds of the alarm beeping.
'He reset the alarm?' Arthur thought.
With one eye on the foyer, and one eye pressing the security code, he reset the alarm. He couldn't have the police here.
The alarm beeped twice to let him know it was reset and the motion detectors were down. The key pad turning from red to green meaning everything was secure again.
On silent, careful feet, the Point Man maneuvered around the living room. The house was still. It felt obsessively silent and almost expectant. As if he had been gone for years and not a few hours.
The Point Man eyed the stairs while maneuvering around the living room. No noise came from the second floor. Quickly and quietly, he found one of the handguns he kept hidden in the bookcase. Ariadne didn't know it was there and he kept her ignorant of his stash of weapons.
Now he wondered if she knew where all the weapons were kept if she might…
'Stay focused.' he told himself. 'Secure the first floor. Secure the second floor.'
Silently, he placed a chair under the basement doorknob. He would secure the basement last this way.
Living room, dinning room, ugly green kitchen. All were empty and untouched. They looked the same as they did last night. They had left the dishes in the sink from dinner.
The stairs creaked slightly as he carefully made his way to their bedroom. He didn't bother with the smaller bedrooms yet. Those rooms were so full of furniture, it was hard to maneuver through them.
Their bedroom.
This was obviously where she was taken. The room was ripe with evidence this was where the struggle happened. The mattress was almost pulled entirely off the bed. Her night table was toppled over. Her iPad on the floor next to her phone.
Arthur was breathing hard now.
'This can't be real. She can't be gone.' he thought to himself.
He pointed the barrel of his gun towards the bathroom, but knew it was empty. No one was lurking in the shower and everything there looked clean and normal.
He looked over the bedroom again. More signs of a struggle.
His eyes caught a bare space on the wall by the bed. It normally was home to a framed pairing an old school friend of hers had done. Now the artwork was on the floor. An indentation was there on the wall where it had once hung.
He squinted at the mark and saw to his horror what it was.
Blood and dark hair still clunk to the cracked plaster. Her attacker had smashed the back of her head into the wall during the fight. It might have been an attack brutal enough to knock her out. Maybe even kill her.
Arthur pressed his hand to the wall and wondered how much force would be needed to crate damage like that. Could Ariadne even survive an attack to the head?
Like a mad man he searched the closet, and guest rooms. Everything looked normal and nothing out of place. The basement yielded no other clues and looked the same as it always had.
'He took her.' Arthur thought wildly. 'He took her, and somehow reset the alarm to the house. How did he manage that? How did he even get inside the house?'