Blinded
Chapter 3
Current Day
As the blindfold came off, he looked around the room. There were two doors on opposite walls. It all looked secure, the walls sterile and cold. Surrounded by concrete. The chair he was sitting on was metal and heavy. This was a room of fear, of capture, of torture. He shivered, his suit not providing enough warmth against the frigidity of the room, but also in combination with his feat of what may come next.
The large man moved towards him. He recognized his face, but in the haze of his headache, the dull light of the room, he was having trouble remembering who he was. He was someone from the not so distant past. What he couldn't place was the sound of another person breathing. Breathing, but not within his line of sight.
-STFBE-
3 Days Previous
Every time a new email came in, her heart dropped a little, anxiety creeping to clench at her stomach. It had been a week since she got the two emails from Anonymous 116, and there had been nothing further, but it was the absence of any more information, any leads that made her nervous.
As promised, Jack had picked her up the next morning after he had found out about the emails. She had slept so poorly the night before, almost in anticipation of something happening. Sue felt more on edge, though she attributed it more to the fatigue that she had not recovered from, from the previous case but also had a gut feeling there was something more sinister at work. She had been threatened before, but this was so anonymous and out of the blue.
That first day back at work, Jack had shared with the team what had happened with the email. The concern on her colleagues faces were evident as they glanced between Jack and Sue. Lucy stood by Sue, her hand resting on her shoulder in solidarity.
"I appreciate all of your concern" she started once Jack had finished. "I'm hoping its nothing." She gave a soft smile and a nod as everyone set off to work. She glanced over and saw Jack still looking at her. They locked eyes for a few moments, much unsaid between them. Her heart did skip a beat at the intense look in his eyes. She finally had to look away as her cheeks flushed.
Tara had not been able to source where the email had come from. Lucy and Sue confirmed that the picture had been from the morning she receive the email at the coffee shop, but no one had seen anyone taking photos, even from afar. Myles and Bobby had looked into whether anyone from previous cases Sue had worked on in the last year had been released, or anything else suspicious but could not find anything. It was dead end after dead end.
As the days passed and no other emails came in, like Sue had hoped, they also believed perhaps this was nothing. Jack wasn't quite ready just to let it go, but with nothing to go on, the case dwindled. She spent a quiet weekend at home with Lucy, laying low and pondering how to proceed without any incident. As Jack drove her to work that Monday morning, they both agreed that Sue needed to go back to living her life normally, and while they both wouldn't say they wished other wise and for other reasons, agreed Jack wouldn't be her escort each morning and evening without any further threat.
Sue tried to let herself relax. It was nice to see the others starting to laugh again, return to their between case routine of paperwork and joking around. They had even ventured out for lunch that Tuesday as they awaited their next case. She smiled and determined to put the emails to the back of her mind, and stored away in her mailbox. She got up to join the others at the coffee machine, aiming to refill her cup but more so to enjoy the friendship and camaraderie of her team. She desired that return to normalcy.
As they caught up on Tara's latest foray into online dating, she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned to look at Jack who gave her a smile then nodded his head towards the door, towards D who had just came in.
"We have a case" He said. "And this one will be more personal. We have just been alerted to a missing woman. Gayle Pavone."
"Pavone?" Myles replied. "You don't mean?"
"Yes" D answered solemnly, "Marty Pavone's wife. He just reached out. He received an email about 45 minutes ago from an unknown sender. The email noted that they had his wife as retribution for ruining his life and more information would come. There's as a proof of life picture attached of her tied to a chair holding today's newspaper." Jack sat, stunned. He'd known Marty for a long time. He couldn't imagine what his former AUSA was going through and was meaningful that he had contacted their team to look into his wife's disappearance.
Jack was the first to speak up. "How's Marty doing?" D sighed.
"Not well, as you can imagine. He's on his way here. Jack, you'll take the lead on this one. There's a reason Marty reached out to us. He trusts us. Let's make sure we do everything we can to find his wife."
