Neal shivered as the cold wind blew through his hair, stinging his cheeks… a fine mist of snow floated in the air. He pulled his coat closer. Standing outside the old building he knew it was right… the perfect place to hold a child. The office complex was all but abandoned, five or ten of the hundreds of suites were currently occupied, if the faded sign near the door and the nearly empty parking structure could be believed, the snow on the walks haphazardly removed… the hedges showing mediocre care…
All those empty floors, the long dim hallways… he shuddered, there really was no way an FBI team would be able to search them all before the kidnappers noticed them and … and maybe… he shivered again. If he wanted them to stand a chance of finding Nathen… of saving the little boy, he needed to get inside and get a much better idea where they were holding him…Neal looked at his watch 10:16… he had time…
Getting in wasn't that hard really, security was definitely lax. He saw no one, as he rewired the door. When he stepped inside the hall was dim, just as he expected it to be… lit by flickering florescent bulbs… several had burnt out entirely, as he worked his way up the long corridor… looking for something, anything that would suggest a child had been kept in the building. There were a few cameras… he avoided them as naturally as breathing. Moving quickly he watched for anyone that might be a threat. He caught a glimpse of one bored receptionist at the end of a long hallway. He ducked out of her line of sight quickly.
Peter considered swearing, decided to pace instead. He stared at the papers in front of him…Nathen Bryant's original birth certificate and a pile of adoption papers. The names were there in black and white, all over the pages… Kate Moreou… and Nick Halden, signature after signature… Neal would have a hard time convincing anyone he didn't know, that he was unaware of the adoption except… he stopped and considered the signatures…Kate's varied slightly from line to line, but Nick Halden was signed exactly the same over and over… she forged his signature and in four years of prison visits she never mentioned their child… why not? Of course he would never know now…Neal would never know… he sighed.
Maybe he could still get some information he suddenly realized… He strode out of the office down to the holding cell
"Mrs. Bryant you said you never met Nathen's biological father… what about his mother? Did you ever meet her?"
"Well yes… of course, but I don't see how that will help bring my baby home."
"This kidnapper is not targeting you and your husband Mrs. Bryant… he's targeting Nathen's birth parents… the more I know about them the better."
"Oh…of course…" the woman's face creased in concentration "She was a beautiful girl always seemed so sad… those eyes… beautiful eyes that seemed to fill her whole face…"
"I see…"
"She said Nathen's birthfather didn't want kids…or at least wasn't ready…"
"Did she say anything more about him?"
"Just that he would only stay with her if she gave up the baby…" Peter considered that bit of information… seven and a half years ago Neal might not have been ready to be a father, heaven knows his lifestyle at the time wasn't conducive to raising a child, but … he resisted the urge to shake his head in disbelief
"So he didn't want the baby?"
"Apparently not" she sighed "although…"
"Although?"
"Something about the way she said it…it just seemed off… I never could put my finger on it…but…"she shook her head.
"But you didn't quite buy her story…"
"I didn't… not quite." She hesitated "Don't get me wrong she is a nice girl… she requested an open adoption not only for herself, but for the father as well."
"Did she come to visit Nathen?"
"She did… twice a year…on his birthday and just before Christmas…every year…until…she came to Nathen's sixth birthday… we haven't seen her since… that was over a year and a half ago."
"I see" he sighed… and stood up "thank you Mrs. Bryant"
"You will find my boy… right, Agent Burke?"
"I'm doing my best."
As soon as he stepped out of the room Diana met him her face tight…
"Boss…at 10:42 we lost the signal to Caffrey's tracker."
"He cut it?"
"I don't think so… it just dropped offline… like something is blocking the signal"
Long agonizing minutes slipped by while Neal wandered aimlessly through the empty labyrinth of faded linoleum and worn carpets. Then he saw it, a sign Document Storage Facility…he should have thought of that. Every older office complex had one, a room or rooms… windowless… separately ventilated, temperature controlled, radiation shielded, fire safe rooms intended to preserve a company's important files from every imaginable threat, a place this big in its prime no doubt needed, two or three of them… now… he doubted even one was in use…
He studied the door for a long moment before he stepped through. Stairs lead to the basement. Nathen was definitely down here…Neal was certain of it. He should call Peter and get out of here. He glanced at his phone, no signal… he would have to go back outside to call… and suddenly he couldn't leave his son in this place one minute longer than he had to. Neal tiptoed down the stairs, every nerve on alert for any potential threats… not a sound came from below… not a single sound drifted down from above either…
It was colder in the basement… cold enough to raise goose bumps on his arms under his coat. He stopped at the first door… glancing in… this was not the storage room… a security camera monitoring room... he stepped past quietly… one guard appeared to be dozing… the other lost in a magazine… to busy drooling over Miss February to notice him slipping carefully down the hall…
He found the room… fifth door on the right…the first door he found that was locked. A bolt and pad lock had been added, the thick steel door prevented any sound from escaping the room…
Fifty –five seconds to unlock both doors, pretty good considering how his fingers trembled…he nearly dropped his picks twice… he pushed the door open slowly, his breath caught in his throat. He prayed what he found on the other side wouldn't break his heart…
It did…