A/N: I told you things would heat up once the story moved to Langley!

"You're certain?"

Traylor looked up at Andre and didn't blink.

"Hal was...in a rare mood, even for him, and he felt he needed to get this off his chest."

She remembered that stare he had. It was similar to soldiers who had seen combat and returned home. You could just tell. As if the human brain couldn't process the carnage and cataclysm they witnessed, so the horrors stayed in the eyes rather than the memory bank. Sometimes it seemed like that was literally the case, such as with military people who were diagnosed with "shell shock" and they would see themselves back on the battlefield during their return to civilian life.

"He was down in Bellevue for work..."

Andre turned back to his partner.

"What did Bircham do again?" he asked.

"Um..." the wavy-haired detective hummed, checking his notes. "Life Light, a medical supplies company."

"That's right!" Traylor nodded. "He was delivering this CPAP machine for an old lady's husband."

Traylor reached for the pitcher of ice water, but Andre assisted with the pouring. She silently thanked him and sipped the liquid. It echoed in her stomach like the dripping of a leaky faucet. The woman couldn't wait to have food again.

"He said he noticed a picture on the mantle, and he asked who this was, and the lady said that was her granddaughter, Nikki."

"Nikki Benson," Andre sighed, preparing for the worst.

Bircham confessed to Traylor that "the old bag" was really well off and he thought kidnapping this teenage girl and holding her for ransom would earn a huge payout.

"Guess he got tired of the job," Beck shrugged.

When they ran the name "Hal Bircham" through the system they found a litany of petty theft. His most recent infraction was just before his seventeenth birthday, which was why a lot of his transgressions didn't pop up right away. He wasn't tried as an adult for these. Had he committed a felony, like aggravated assault, that would have changed the game. From the look of things, Hal attempted to go straight (evidenced by over a dozen jobs) for as long as he could but when he hit his thirties he must have seen a dead end.

"I know plenty of people who would kill for steady employment," the Canadian added. "Maybe if he did some time, he would have learned his lesson!"

Andre couldn't get distracted and focused on Traylor, where he kept his hand within reach if she felt enough to take it.

"He tracked Nikki down, which wasn't hard as she was a senior and graduation preparations were underway. He stuck around in town for a couple of days in his car, sneaking into the YMCA to shower. Late into the night, he'd scope out the house and figure out the lay of the neighborhood."

The senior detective scratched his chin.

(He's a bastard but that was smart. Get a bean on how many cars that would be home, presumably asleep, so the night he abducted Nikki would have as few people as possible.)

"Night of the graduation," Traylor continued. "That was when he knew he had to strike. There was so much going on." She licked her lips. "When I read about the disappearances later on, I found that Nikki's parents were divorced, and it was her father's house that she crashed with her friend."

The boys remembered that detail which hurt the first 24 hours of the search. Originally, the two friends were going to stay over Heather's home, but it was beyond full as relatives were staying over to attend the graduation. Last minute, they switched to Nikki's house which would be empty. Her dad would return early the next morning. They slept at each other's houses alone in the past, so it wasn't weird.

As a result, friends and family were briefly turned around, including Nikki's mother who was furious they neglected to be informed where exactly her daughter was. The separation must have been bitter because she made no bones about shifting blame onto her ex-husband, but cops quickly ruled him out as a suspect behind what happened to the girls.

"So..." Traylor hesitated. "Hal pulled up to the house and saw only Nikki's Honda Civic in the driveway. He knew her father wasn't at home. What he didn't count on was Heather Jacobs being there, too."

She elaborated how he got the surprise on the girls, who were in the bedroom and forced them to remain quiet and follow him at the behest of the handgun he pointed at them. He ordered them to leave everything behind and they silently walked outside. The street was dead, not a single sign of life, Hal claimed. Hal threatened Heather with holding the muzzle of the pistol to her temple and warned Nikki that if she screamed, her friend would die, and he was an excellent shot, so he told her not to think about running. He said he would be in his car and gone before anybody came out to check on them.

"What could they do?" she shrugged. "What would I had done?"

"They were just eighteen," Andre softly assured her. "He was a grown man with a gun and to them he must have been enormous."

Traylor nodded gravely.

"Oh, yeah. But he was faster than he looked, too."

"You okay?" Andre asked. "Need to take a break?"

"We can pick this up later tomorrow," Beck suggested.

She shook her head, the rest of her quivering.

"NO!" Traylor then swallowed and breathed deeply. "No... I want to tell you while it's still fresh."

"Hey, man!"

Sinjin groaned, his vision a bit blurry.

"Who's there?"

A tan hand rested on his shoulder.

"Keep still," Tori assured him. "You had me going back there. I was terrified for you."

Now he was able to focus better and saw Tori standing over him.

The irony that she hung out with Sinjin to avoid the hospital only for both of them to be here now wasn't lost on Tori.

"Oh, hey Tori. Sorry I couldn't finish the ride along."

Tori shook her head.

"The chief told me to deliver you a message," the Latina began as she scooted a chair close to her fellow cop. "She said you earned some R&R and if she had it her way, your skinny butt would be heading to D.C. to receive the Medal of Valor."

Sinjin snorted softly, still feeling the pain in his side.

"How long was I out?" he asked.

"I don't know," Tori sighed with a sad smile. "I stayed with you until they took you here but you were awake then. Doctors had you in surgery for two hours!"

"Whoa..."

"Yep," nodded Tori. "One of the surgeons said you were one lucky dude."

Where Hal stabbed Sinjin, he was trying to do the most damage in one move. Your heart and brain have bones protecting them, so if you missed or didn't strike with enough force, your victim would take advantage of your folly and retaliate. He couldn't get to one of Sinjin's main arteries so his best option was the abdomen. If Tori wasn't there, he would have bled out and died.

A buzzing sound made them look down at the table. His phone had an incoming call.

"That's my mom, isn't it?" he sighed.

Tori leaned over and checked the screen.

"Uh-huh."

"Would you mind answering it, please?"

The officer picked up his cell and pressed to answer.

"Hello, Sinjin's phone?"

A high-pitched woman's voice bled through, forcing Tori to hold the device a foot from her ear.

(Holy shit, it's not even on speaker!)

"Yes, Mrs. Van Cleef. Your son is out of surgery and doing okay."

The mother was relieved but somehow louder in her tone.

"Y-Y-Yes, ma'am...I'm...I'm looking at him right now."

Tori covered the speaker to whisper, "She said they just got the word and they're on their way."

Sinjin nodded appreciatively. Tori returned to speaking with the woman on the phone.

"He's right here in room..." Tori's shoulders dropped. "No, I'm not his partner." A pause. "No, I'm not his girlfriend, either!"

She covered the phone again.

"Is she always like this?"

Beck saved the audio recording of what they got so far on his phone and started a new one for the next portion. His app had limitations on the length of an audio file and didn't want to make Traylor stop mid-sentence if she was on a roll. Best to start a second one if she were to go on for another ten minutes uninterrupted.

"Believe me, since he told me about it a couple of days ago it's all I've been thinking about. Don't think I could sleep unless I get it down."

Andre nodded.

It was as though the story was such heavy burden on Bircham, that he passed it onto her. And now, it was their turn to share the load.

"But he had a problem," she went on, checking on Beck's confirmation that he was recording. "He brought only two pairs of handcuffs and some rope, enough restraints for one. But now he had two hostages."

Bircham was ruthless but he was also in a hurry. This had to be quiet, efficient and above all, quick. Now with double the captives, he made the girls put the cuffs on their own ankles at gunpoint. This would hinder their escape while he used the rope to tie them together. Finally, Hal put socks in their mouths before covering them with blankets and taking off before a pair of headlights came down the pike.

Traylor massaged her weary jaw at the mere mention of the gagging.

(Hope you get your dick stuck in the thorniest of tumbleweeds, you shit bag!)

"He just drived and drived until the next morning."

Hal parked the car on a shoulder facing the woods. Nobody had come through in half an hour. Bircham went over to the rear to check on his "cargo" and to his surprise, during the drive, the girls loosened the ropes binding them to each other. Heather kicked him in the face with her cuffed feet and hopped away only to tumble down into the ravine. But she hoisted herself back up with a thick branch and removed the gag that was still in her mouth. Before she could scream or move further, he shot her twice until she went down.

Nikki must have been aware that her friend was shot because she started screaming and writhing. Bircham confessed that he had only wanted to quiet her down, so he got on top of her and put his hands around her throat and squeezed. He told her that he had only wanted to make her pass out.

"But that wasn't what happened," Traylor sighed. "She never woke up."

"Jesus Christ!" Beck whispered.

"Now, Hal had an even bigger problem."

He looked at the two dead bodies in his Chevy Blazer, unsure what to do with them. The plan was for them to give him their parent's phone numbers and place ransom on their safe return. He even had a burner phone for the job. Now they couldn't tell him shit. And because he secreted them away into the night without their phones, or wallets or anything; he couldn't contact the families himself.

Not that he had anything to offer. Not anymore. Even if he lied about their well-being, how would he get the ransom message out? He couldn't go back to the house; it was likely swarming with cops by now!

This whole kidnapping plot was a disaster and now his priorities have changed.

"He had to get rid of the bodies," she told them.

The detectives looked at her in stunned silence, unable to believe how this escalated so horribly. This entire time, the feds were looking for two girls who weren't even alive. Not only that, but what did Bircham do with their corpses? Could the families at least have their bodies to bury as some closure?

"What did he do with them?" Andre asked hesitantly.

Traylor bit her lip.

"He got real quiet at that point. He just...sat there, dazed. I asked him where they were, and he suddenly got up and left. I could hear him in the next room bawling his guts out. Hal kept saying over and over again that he didn't mean to do it."

Suddenly a male nurse entered and gave a friendly smile.

"I apologize, officers but Miss Greene will need her rest. You can come back tomorrow."

Beck stopped recording on his phone and made sure the file was saved into his storage.

"Right," he sighed, tapping Andre on the shoulder. "Come on, man."

Andre nodded and held Traylor's hand for a moment.

"We'll be back, okay?"

"Thank you," she smiled.

Andre couldn't fight the urge to smile back. Despite the morbid tale she spun, the comfort of her being away from that man was too big to ignore. He relinquished her hand, and they said their goodbyes.

The detectives stood in the hallway briefly, looking at one another before walking toward the elevators.

"What do you think?" Beck asked.

"I have to admit, man..." he started, rubbing his palms together. "I'm furious."

Beck raised a brow.

"For months, those feds have been tying up manpower and this whole time they were barking up the wrong tree!"

He put his hands in his pockets, shaking his head as Beck looked at his phone still following behind.

"I get it," Beck admitted. "Had they just sent a few guys our way, we might have collared him and killed two birds." His partner gave him a bemused expression. "That wasn't what I meant."

Andre sighed as the elevator dinged and they got on.

"Should we get a hold of the FBI?"

"We'd have to," Andre replied. "You said before Cat found blood in the car?"

He nodded.

"Let's meet with the chief."

A/N: This got done sooner than expected! I'll see you all next week.