Realistic or Modern Gone But Not Forgotten

[Jupiter]

Shelley felt strange being in the room that was Eddie's. She felt strange because she'd talked to the boy in here on his phone, she'd talked to him and she had never really envisioned his room this way, but walking in there she just... She felt a strange connection to him. And it was strange because he wasn't here, he hadn't been in days, but so many other people had. Eddie's room was just a room of remembrance.

No, she couldn't think like that. This room wasn't remembrance, it was hope. Hope that he'd come back and be able to live in it once more. Not all hope was lost, even if it was dire.

Milo took the wireless mouse and gulped. It was now all on him.

And they didn't rush, no, no. He'd told them not to rush and so he didn't, he took his time and surveilled the footage, he was happy to. Occasionally Shelley would point something out that she thought might be important, but it wasn't actually that important at all. It was a trick of the eye, hoping so much for something to be there that she saw something there.

Until, eventually, they found something that was there, and it wasn't just because they wanted it to be. There it was, a direct connection between the two crimes. For the week of her kidnapping, the van surveilled her school. Same number plate, same everything.

"Hey, sir, we found something. Same van, the girls school this time." Shelley piped up, as Milo gawped at the footage. It became more and more real that Eddie was kidnapped each time that they found new evidence.

 

[DrTrollinski]

"You what?" He asked after all that time.

He scooted over to them and looked over the top of his glasses. "Well, shit." He said. "That's quite the odd surprise. Who would have thought." He said. He looked over the van a couple of times. "That makes what I'm about to tell you even more worrying."

It just went on and on, it seemed.

It just got worse.

"Someone's been watching Eddie for a while." He said, "I don't know how long exactly, but, he's got a couple of rootkits on the laptop A trojan here and there, but mainly rootkits. If you know anything about computers, then you'll know rootkits are quite literally the best of a bad bunch - in the worst way possible. They mask themselves as other software but unlock access to parts of the computer that usually wouldn't be allowed. Sometimes it's a whole new user entirely. This time we've got something hidden in the log files. Something called 'GodMi'." He said. "So, someone's taken manual control of the computer, jumped on the network, got hold of... Potentially a lot of things. Webcam access, banking information, names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, passwords, school assignments." He shrugged.

"I don't know where it traces back to yet. But right now we're dealing with someone who knows what they're doing - if they've hidden it well enough, it could take days to crack it open." He said, "It's likely he got this over email - clicked a link masked as an image, then it went to what looked like a dead link but in reality installed the malware. Anything like that." He said.

 

[Jupiter]

Milo and Shelley let him take over and look through the footage, but when they said he found something on the laptop, Milo stiffened up. Great. So they’d been watching him from every angle. He’d really and truly been targeted, hadn’t he?

He looked at him and shook his head.

“That can’t be possible. Eddie’s smart. He knows not to click a link on an email he doesn’t know that even looks or feels slightly fishy. He knows that.” Milo shook his head again and then bit his lip. It’s true, Eddie did know that, but there were many other ways for people to get that kind of software onto your computer.

He felt extremely freaked out that he could have been being watched through his webcam.

“I need to tell Marc.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialled Marc’s number. He waited until he inevitably picked up, even if he had to ring more than once, and the second he did pick up Milo began. “We have bad news. The van circled the girls school too, he’s connected to both. And they found malware on Eddie’s computer or something, like, bad. A rootkit. Something called... GodMi.” He shrugged his shoulders. He didn’t know if that would mean anything to Marc.

“They’ve has access to his files, computer data, banks, webcam, everything pretty much.” He nodded. “I don’t know for sure if it’s the same person who took him but it wouldn’t surprise me if it was. And he says that it’ll take a while to get it open.”

 

[DrTrollinski]

"Even if he doesn't, there's plenty of other ways. Fishy emails aren't the only way infections get spread. Sometimes just a corrupted website you visit with a security breach can be enough to get files onto your PC. If they're bad enough to bypass the computer security, sometimes there's no stopping them. They use... Little tricks to get through the blocks, I guess you could say. As soon as they hide in the source files of your Operating System, it's game over. If they hide as reg files, your PC just reads them as... Well, reg files. So it runs them every time the PC starts, and boom. They're in without even having to try." He said. "It's not always about how smart the user is. Sometimes the computer's dumb enough to let that shit in, and sometimes there's nothing you can do about it. I'm sure Eddie ran virus scans regularly, but rootkit detectors? Not everyone even knows that's a thing." He said.

And yes, Marc did answer the phone.

"Oh, shit, that's not good." Marc said. "The name doesn't ring any bells. Only thing I can think of is that they're implying that they're the god of the system. That's what the name gives away, really." He said. "See if there's anything else you can do, guys. Take as long as you need to crack the virus, but see if you can get any other leads." He said. "Ask him and see if there's anything else you can do. I need to be careful if there's someone penetrating the network." He said, "Because if there is... That means they know everything. They could have gotten access to some of my cases, my job, my files - some of that shit isn't meant to be seen by anyone but me, so, if they have access to that... That makes this a whole lot worse. Depends how deep they went." He said. "Thanks for letting me know, kid."

He hung up rather abruptly.

"I know something you can do." The tech guy said, "See how far you can follow the van for. Jump between cameras and trace it as far as you can. Keep in mind it might take several hours, if not more. I hope you've got the patience for it." He nodded.

 

[Jupiter]

Milo nodded his head. Okay. He'd told Marc, Marc had said he needed to do other things. He was going to be stuck with the tech guy now, he knew it. But then, he supposed that Marc wouldn't want him on the field, would he? He was only a kid, he didn't have any experience with anything in terms of guns or fighting, he was probably a lot safer down here with the tech guy. And they could be useful, he supposed. So he shoved his phone in his pocket and nodded.

"Trace the van. Got it. Patience..." Milo smiled.

"Got it." Shelley finished, and she looked back to the screen. Time to track.

-

Archer looked at Marc and then back at the road. He wasn't driving, and if Marc was driving then that meant that he had to be hooked up to the handsfree bluetooth speaker for his phone or something, because I'm sure that Marc wouldn't use his phone while driving. Which meant, Archer heard everything.

"We have evidence he was around both kidnapped victims, irregular behaviour. That's enough to justify giving this bastard what he evidently deserves." He crossed his arms across his chest and looked out of the window. "God, I hope it's as easy as he's just got Eddie locked in his basement. We could potentially be on the way there to save him right now." He mumbled.

It was never going to be that easy.

 

[DrTrollinski]

"You're right. With a bit of luck it will be that easy of a time." Marc said. "I'm just trying to ready myself for it if we do find him there. It's not rocket science to figure out that if he is stuck there then he won't be in the best shape." He said. "Not nice, I know. But that's just the way it is." He said.

"We know how scenarios like this can get." He said, "And that's just what I'm trying to mentally prepare for, just because... Well, you never know." He said, "I think as long as he's alive, I can work from there. If we're lucky, we might be able to find him here before too much damage has been done. Best case scenario with something like this." He said. What did Marc want to do? He wanted to go in there and beat this guy to a bloody pulp, honestly. It seemed like the most suitable thing. If he wasn't going to tell them voluntarily exactly where Eddie was then they were going to have to force it out of him. It was last-resort and very much against the books, but... Sometimes things like this were necessary.

They pulled up outside. It was a small place. A house that was split into two flats.

"He's on the ground floor." Marc said, "We'll do the traditional knock on the door trick. He'll never see it coming. He'll think we're a tax man or something." He said. "Just some old woman who lived upstairs. He's not going to be moving in near any kids, in all reality, is he? He would have had to make his landlord aware of it, and his landlord... She lives upstairs." He shrugged.

The front door was easy enough to get into. It was a matter of forcing the lock to the point where it broke, but, no one upstairs answered the doorbell. The downstairs flat didn't, either, which wasn't a good sign.

"Ready?" He knocked on the door, and...

Anticlimatic. No response.

He sniffed. "Jesus, smells like it's been a while since this guy had a wash, too." He whispered. "Fuck it. Let's go."

He walked so he was just in front of the door and put his back to it. He scanned around, then sent his foot backward into the door, just below the handle. The wood splintered with ease.

And that's when it hit them. The smell. The unforgetable smell. It nearly knocked Marc over.

He covered his mouth and nose and looked into the room. The floor was riddled in maggots, the walls were covered in flies. It was... Horrific.

A rotten, mostly-consumed corpse sat in the armchair.

"Oh my god." He choked.

 

[Jupiter]

Archer hoped it would be this easy. That they would get there and find that this sick fuck was just holding Eddie and hoping that this was it, they could take him home. But if this guy had been holding him for... what, 3 days there abouts... the damage could easily have been done. Someone who kidnaps singularly... well Eddie could be dead. Or beaten, raped, near death...

He didn’t want that to be the case. Not only because it meant that they failed him, but quite frankly he didn’t want to be the one to see Marc crumble. He’d always seen him as a strong man, but no one is strong when it comes to seeing their child dead. Everyone’s strength fails at that point.

He didn’t want to see that.

Anyway, he followed Marc’s lead and stayed back, hand on his gun, just in case... just in case the prick decided to fight back. This would not be a shoot to kill, no matter what the cause. They needed the asshole alive so that they could get any information out of him if it turned out that Eddie wasn’t actually here.

When Marc decided it was now a case of forced entry, Archer pulled out his gun and held it out in front of him, ready to shoot in case the person inside tried something, anything, but he remained silent and nodded at his partner, before following him inside, quickly now, quickly does it.

Until there wasn’t so much reason to be quick.

He stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of the body, but he recovered from his shock after a moment. “The body isn’t going anywhere.” Archer covered his mouth with his hand, and his nose, to block out the smell that got to the back of your throat, so consumed by the... consumed corpse. He looked to Marc. “The body isn’t going anywhere. We need to check out the rest of the place.” He insisted.

“Come on.”

He was only in a rush because... well the body was too composed to be Eddie. It could be the landlady or it could be the man they were looking for, or it could be anyone, in all fairness. But, there was the rest of the place to check out. If this was a murdered body, they needed to find the man. Any amounts of dangers could be behind the doors if they weren’t careful. Why did Marc stop? “Come on.” He repeated.

 

[DrTrollinski]

"Yeah, right." He gulped, "We need to get this body ID'd. Dental records, or something, I..." He paused and shook his head. "We need to check the landlady. I'll be fucked if she couldn't smell this. The stink would just rise, surely." He said. He wiped his nose, cleared his throat... That smell stuck to you. It was definitely a smell he'd never forget. He'd never seen such a thing - he'd seen bodies that were dumped at the bottom of lakes and had been eaten majorly by the fish and other water life, but this? This was new.

The maggots.

The flies.

He'd just developed a new phobia, he was sure.

"We'll check the other rooms. Sorry. I'm just..." He shook his head. "This is a new scene to me, would you believe it." He said.

So. Bathroom, bedroom, and... That was basically it. Kitchen, too - they didn't have much else to look for.

What they found:

1. In the bedroom, lots of indecent images of kids and teenagers stashed in various places. Nothing of Eddie or the girl, though.
2. In the nightstand, they found proof of ownership of the car. No keys, though, and the van was well out of its insurance period now.
3. In a set of drawers, they found the ankle bracelet, which had been skillfully removed somehow.
4. Bathroom... Nothing much. Antidepressants, Xanax, and other drugs that were both illegal and legal.
5. Kitchen. Nothing. Just kitchen stuff.

Nothing of real use, considering the corpse was most likely him.

"We need to check on the landlady before the basement." He gulped.

He didn't believe Eddie was here. Not now.

He ran upstairs and knocked on the landlady's door, only to receive no response.

"Jesus Christ." He whispered, "Hey!" He called out, knocking a few more times. "Anyone home?!" He asked, "Ma'am?! FBI! Open up!" He called out again.

No response.

"Investigation purposes." He said, whatever that meant, he-

He kicked that door open, too. He stopped.

Another corpse, lying in the middle of the floor. Flies. Maggots. Everywhere. It wasn't easy to see, but it was definitely the old woman, and it looked as though she'd had her throat slit.

"Oh, Jesus Christ." He said. "Oh, Jesus. Shit. We've got a double homicide." He said. "I've got a feeling the stiff downstairs is our boy." He whispered.

He stepped back out.

"Eddie's not here, is he? We can still check the basement, but..." He ran a hand through his hair. "Oh, man."

 

[Jupiter]

Archer allowed him a moment but was anxious to leave and check elsewhere. There was no saying, to him, that he was the body on the floor. He wouldn’t believe that until he’d checked the rest of the place and had some identification. He’d have to call a friend to come out and help him, someone he could trust.

This wasn’t an official FBI case, which made everything much harder. They had to sneak around, had to pretend that they were working on other cases. That was the question, though. They weren’t all going to be able to help by Monday, and if Jones got called on a case across country he’d have to go. Marc was probably an exception given the status of his son, but everyone else still had their jobs to do.

Archer pushed that from his mind and went back to his original thought. He needed to get the body identified before he’d trust that it was him. But he kept that thought to himself as he helped search the house, and upon discovery of the second body he finally lowered his gun. The house was silent anyway.

“We should probably check the basement. Can’t tell me you wouldn’t be fucking upset if you left without checking the whole place for every single potential clue you could find, only to find out that Eddie was here in the basement or there was a computer screen that had video footage of something important, can you?” He had a point. He knew that Marc was stressed with losing his son and that the bodies weren’t a pleasant sight, and they probably hit harder lately than they ever did before, but life went on. They had to continue.

“Come on. Let’s check the rest of the rooms upstairs and then check the basement.” He said, and began leading him around the body of the woman and to another room. “I wouldn’t be so sure that that guy is, well, our guy. Not yet. I’m gonna call a friend I can trust, she’s gonna come out here and she’s gonna identify the bodies. Take DNA back to the lab so that we know for sure. You can’t live this investigation based on assumption Marc, even if it’s easier.” He complained. “And besides... it doesn’t make sense. He took his ankle bracelet off without damaging it only to, what, die here? Unless someone killed him as some kind of cover up of something, it doesn’t make sense that he’d die probably ten feet from the ankle bracelet. So we check the basement. And we need to start considering this a murder that we have to investigate.”

He nodded slowly and stopped walking. “We could get Jones out here, after the cognitive, see what he thinks about it, and... and we’re definitely getting the bodies identified. I’ll call them after we search the rest of this place.”

 

[DrTrollinski]

"I'm not trying to be funny with you here, but I didn't mean to imply the guy died voluntarily." He said. "The thing that would be most obvious to me is they needed a van and they needed it from a guy who's under house arrest. This is perfect. If they kill him and he doesn't move, that looks normal on our radars, right? He's only allowed out under supervision, or in special cases. If he's got no special cases in his name then that's just it. They found the perfect target." He explained. "So far we've got the vehicle registration documents, but no keys anywhere to be found. The van's never been reported as stolen - why? Because he's dead." He said. "At least that's what would make the most sense to me."

He sighed.

"You're right about checking the basement, though. Let's do that and just get it out of the way otherwise I won't sleep tonight." He said.

First, though, they checked the rooms in the old woman's apartment. Nothing of importance, and no other bodies or anything. There were details for the tenant downstairs, though, but they were quite old now. Not much use.

Basement, finally. It was unlocked.

Not a good start, really. He was losing hope of finding anything.

Next, they went inside. It was dark, dusty, damp, and... Majorly empty. Old stuff. This probably consisted of stuff from old tenants, too, but each apartment had their own little unit. So there were two.

Marc walked up and peeked through the bars. "There's an old bike, if that's any help." He said.

Didn't seem like there was much hope at all in here. Two dead bodies.

"Should we wait here for your girl to get out here and ID the corpse?" He asked. "Just in case. Wouldn't want her here on her own."

 

[Jupiter]

Archer followed Marc around and helped to look through the items that were in the basement. He wished that they could find something of importance, but the fact that, well, Marc's theory was what it was... Maybe it was slightly clouding judgement, but they didn't find a thing. It just seemed more obvious second after second, though Archer did have the questions about whether or not they needed to steal a van, why couldn't they themselves just buy one or rent one? But at the same time, that leads back to you the same way that this leads back to him.

And it had worked, for a while, hadn't it?

God, he hoped that the kids back home were finding something with that van.

Archer, while they had been walking down to the basement, had called his friend. She seemed sceptical at first, she couldn't understand why he was doing what he was doing and why he would want to risk her getting involved, but after weighing the heavy guilt of a child's potential death on her shoulders, she agreed to come out and do what she did best. She said she'd be around an hour.

"Sure. She should be like, what, an hour still, maybe? We have a lot of waiting to do. Maybe we can look for those keys, but you're probably right about most likely not being able to find them." Archer sighed. "Hey, Jones might potentially be doing that cognitive now, anyway."

-

And indeed he was.

Well, he was currently stood outside of the door contemplating how on earth he was going to be able to ask that, but, he did what he did. He knocked on the door of the house that had had too many visitors in the last few days, too many family members and police and the FBI, someone like her doesn't return home without the interest of all nearby. Jones knew that.

He looked over towards his car as he waited for the door to be answered. He'd gone shopping, for stupid things but still things that he thought the investigation would need; a white board, some pens, places to write down their ideas and their leads. Everything was easier when it was organised as such, he believed.

How would he even start this interview?

 

[DrTrollinski]

"Maybe so." He said. "I'm not sure how long I want to be in this place. The smell will stick to us, and I certainly don't want phantom smells coming back to haunt me. Literally." He explained. He did have a fair point, too - stay around one smell too long, if it's something memorable/strong/unique and eventually your brain would just remember it now and again and be like "surprise motherfucker". Same for tastes. Marc didn't want the smell of rotten flesh coming back to him when he was sat down watching TV. The stench of this place was already making him feel sick and he really didn't want to have to spend much longer in here, either.

"I hope the mother of that girl actually lets him in." He said. "I wouldn't be surprised if she slammed the door in his face. I hope not, though." He said. "I appreciate someone who can help more on that side of things. If psychology's one of his stronger suits then he'll probably be the better people person. Hell, anyone who's a good people person would be good here, so, I suppose we can count him as a step up." He said. "He seemed a little quiet, though. Nice enough. A little... Peculiar, but no one sinister, definitely not." He said.

He leaned against a wall and wiped his forehead.

"What's his story, anyway?" He asked. "Other than the educational background. You mentioned all of that earlier." He said. "Someone doesn't work that hard for no reason."

--

Another knock at the door that the girl was never going to answer herself. She'd never answer the door again, no. She was upstairs, hidden away from everything. Her door was locked and she was trying to sleep it off. She was tucking herself away from violence, from anything that would trigger emotions or flashbacks. No Netflix, no YouTube, no TV - just... Well, not even books. She was taking up newer hobbies, like instruments and art. She didn't want anything to do with any of her previous stuff. She couldn't watch her favorite YouTubers anymore because they would just play games that would make her remember.

This would have to do.

She was sleeping for now, though, with gentle background music playing behind her.

It was fine.

The mother instead came to the door and opened it up; she looked over the young man that was stood there and gave him a suspicious look. She tried to force a smile, but she was also reliving the horror she'd been through now that her daughter was home.

"Can I help you?" She asked, softly.

 

[Jupiter]

Archer shrugged his shoulders. "I've been around enough of the dead." He ran a hand through his hair. "You never get used to it, do you?" He tried to laugh, but all that came out was sort of a forced grunt, and he eventually gestured for Marc to follow him, making his way out of the basement that they were in and up the stairs. "We may as well go outside and wait there, or in the car. The bodies aren't going anywhere, we don't have to keep an eye on them."

He had a good point. They didn't have to wait inside the house with the smell of the dead, they could always just wait outside.

When they inevitably got outside, and in the car if it was raining, Archer decided he would answer Marc's question about Jones. He messed with his hair slightly and then let out a sigh. "Jones... What I know about him is he wasn't like any other kid. He was smart, too smart, it didn't make him a lot of friends." He explained. "Imagine completing high school at 12 and college at 15. I can't imagine any of your friends in high school will really be your friends." He sighed. "Came to join the FBI right after he completed two doctorates. Isn't that crazy? He's... Strange. He knows so much about everything, he could do anything he wanted."

He laughed. "He can't shoot a gun though, he's lousy at that, and the kids not the smoothest talker in the whole wide world. Don't think he's ever had a girlfriend, either." He laughed again. "But instead of having a mind like that curing some kind of amazing disease or something, he's here, in the FBI." He shrugged his shoulders and the smile fell from his face. "I haven't looked much into it, didn't wanna pry, but I think it was something about his brother. Something happened to him, when he was a kid. He's never talked about it, not once, and we've worked quite a few cases together."

-

Jones smoothed out his vest and smiled at the lady, almost shyly. He took out his FBI identification and offered it to the woman before he spoke. "My name is Max Jones, I'm with the FBI." He gulped. "Miss Carter, I'm with the gentleman who visited your daughter I believe yesterday, Marc Prescott." He explained. "I understand if you're tired of having us turn up at your door, and I really do hate to intrude when I'm sure at this time you want to be healing..."

"I'm sure Marc explained that his son, Eddie, is missing." He gulped again and pulled a photograph out of his pocket that he had slipped out of a frame at Marc's home, of Eddie in plain view. He had the experience that showing someone a picture of the child, even if they didn't recognise them, they'd get some kind of connection, and if you told them a sad story then they'd want to help. Empathy, and all. "We have reason to believe that the person who took your daughter may have taken Eddie as well, and though wounds are still fresh, we think this is the only time anyone with this kind of connection to these kidnappings has been returned home."

"Understandably, your daughter probably is tired, and wants to stay well away from any memory of this event." He put the picture back into his pocket and looked at her, he had to make eye contact even if it made him uncomfortable. "Eddie is all Marc has. His wife, she... She passed away, and I hate to think what would happen to him without Eddie home." He pushed some hair out of his eyes. "Uh, sorry, what I mean to say is... I would really like to talk to your daughter and ask her some questions, if both you and her would be up for it. It would really be helpful to this situation and potentially even be able to prevent it from happening again..." He finally broke eye contact.

"And I'd also like to sort out some witness protection, but I can't do that until I know everything she knows, because when you are both in the program... We won't be able to contact you again." He looked at her again and frowned slightly. "I really do hate to ask, but may I talk to her? If she's up for it?"

 

[DrTrollinski]

"People that are like that don't ever have girlfriends." He said, "It's nothing to do with them as a person - they're just socially backward." He said, "Most likely got a string of autism somewhere, too. I mean, I have traits of autism, always have. But really fucking minor. So minor that they may as well not be there." He shrugged, "Obviously I'm not assuming things about the guy. He seems okay. Haven't had much of a chance to talk to him, though. All in good time, I'm sure." He nodded a few times.

It was nice to be outside, that was for sure.

Sitting in the car was good, too, because yes, it was raining. There was something relaxing about listening to rain with the car engine off.

As a driver, take it from me, there really is something cool about it. Listening to the rain hit the car roof. It's... Oddly relaxing if you're just sat somewhere doing fuck-all.

He thought for a moment.

"If something happened to his brother that would explain a lot of things." He said. "The fact that he's working a case like this one, too - the fact he's so involved and dedicated..." He shook his head, "It screams things to me. I spent a long time analyzing the bigger psychos and the most dangerous people you could imagine - a lot of them had something... Almost trivial at the root of it. There was no such thing as 'the world needs to be cleansed' - the people that believe that do a mass shooting and then pop themselves. But the real lunatics? They all have stories. They were abused, they lost a close friend, their mother, father, sister, brother." He said, "Not to say that he's a lunatic, but, you get the idea."

He sighed. "I can't say I'd know how it feels, losing a sibling. I never had any." He said. "But I've had people tell me the pain of losing a brother or sister is the same as what you'd feel if you lost a son or a daughter." He said, "So... I suppose in some senses I do know how it feels. But it's hard to say. Everyone takes things differently." He scratched the side of his head. "I suppose some rocks are better left unturned."

--

"Yes, Marc explained what the situation was with his son." She sighed, softly, and opened the door a tiny bit more. "We've been waiting to hear more about the witness protection. Please try and hold off on too heavy questions with my daughter. She's not been doing well since she came back and her talk with Marc and his friends didn't help much at all." She said. "Make it quick, if you can. She's up in her room, first door on the left. I think she may be sleeping or at the very least resting. You can go up and talk to her." She said. "She's not really left her room since she got back, so, it would be a good idea if you spoke to her up there. It might make her feel more comfortable." She explained.

"I feel Marc's pain, and I understand how hard it is to have your child missing out there, somewhere." She said. "At least my other half is still with us. How he's coping on his own, I just don't know. I have to admire that." She looked at the floor. "Feel free to go upstairs. I'll make you some coffee." She said.

"If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to be told more about witness protection once you're done with speaking to her, if you don't mind." She said. "It's not exactly something I've been part of before, after all."

 

[Jupiter]

"He's never really talked about it, so I don't know how long ago it was or how personal it got, if he's even still upset by it, but I'd imagine he is. I think his brother was taken by some creep, younger brother as well, and there's no recent pictures of him anywhere, so I'm pretty sure he's no longer kicking. It's a shame, and this is going to sound insensitive but I'm partly glad it happened. A lot of people are alive because Jones is in the FBI. The cases he's worked on... If we didn't have him, I think some of them would take half as long, and as I'm sure you know, time is really of the essence most of the time." He sighed.

"I wouldn't try and talk to him about it. I think he sees a therapist anyway, so... I don't think it'll effect things too much. But... I think that's his motivation. He's always especially keen about these kinds of cases. He always wants to find them, and preferably alive. I think it helps him... You know, heal. But I reckon he always comes back to that one issue; he couldn't save his brother. None of the kids he saves are his brother, but... They're all alive, thanks to him." He shrugged. "Anyway, enough about Jones."

"You have any theories? About the case?"

-

Jones smiled at her and came inside the house when invited. He didn't know how he could make this quick, or how he could go about not asking her the hard questions... But he just had to try, didn't he?

"Of course, Miss Carter. I'll be able to talk to you about that right after." He nodded and tried to reassure her with a smile before dismissing himself and making his way upstairs. God, the hard part was coaxing them in, making them comfortable enough to talk. He could never do that, he thought, but then he reckoned that he could, and it came a lot easier when you were actually sat down.

Jones knocked at the door of the first door on the left. "Madison... My name is Max Jones, I'm with the FBI." He gulped. "Would you mind if I came in? You can say no, but I'd be extremely grateful if I could talk to you, I think... I think I might be able to help you."

He really, really needed this.

 

[DrTrollinski]

"Maybe people will see me as some bittersweet hero if I keep working if Eddie's found dead." He said. That was only in response to Archer's supposedly insensitive comment. He wasn't saying that to be a dick to Jones, no. Maybe it just hit a nerve. A painful one. After a moment he shook his head. "Sorry." He said. "I suppose as long as he gets the help he needs that's the most important thing for him. For me, I'm happy to never work another day in my life as long as I get Eddie back." He nodded.

Getting Eddie back after today admittedly felt like a bit of a long shot. He wouldn't voice that directly, no. It was just that thought that was beginning to linger at the back of his head.

"Only theory I have is that it's much more in depth than we first thought." He turned and looked at the water running down the window. "I haven't got much more to say about it than that. The fact someone's been spying on us makes it all the more unnerving." He said.

--

A knock at the door was certainly a wake up call. Another FBI guy coming in here to talk to her. Thrilling. At first she froze in bed and didn't move at all. She was terrified- but then with further thinking she knew her mother wouldn't let someone in without knowing if they were safe to be around.

"Yes." She called out. "Come in."

When the door opened she rolled over and curled into a wall. She looked at him.

"Someone from the FBI already came to talk." She said. "He's looking for his son." She sighed, softly. "Is this about that, too?" She asked.

 

[Jupiter]

Archer didn’t question the comment about being a bittersweet hero. That wasn’t what he meant and he was sure Marc knew it. The thing he meant was that when Jones was ten that happened, and since then he’d been motivated to join the FBI. And they needed him, and because they had him he was glad they did. He was sure that Marc wasn’t really being as much of an asshole as that comment may have come across. So he didn’t say anything about it.

“My theory is the same. Something in depth. Someone who knows how to cover their tracks. From what I see, it almost seems like they are allowing us to continue, to get to a certain point and then hit a dead end. They’re allowing us to cross suspects off, but never get the list with their actual names on. They seem smart, and smart usually means big. A small organisation is usually a little more sloppy.” He leaned back into his seat and shuffled around until he was comfortable.

“But I’m sure you’re further along in this investigation than you feel. I can’t imagine that we’re really at a true dead end. I say we treat this small part like a murder investigation; for a day or so at least. Finding whoever killed these guys gives us a good indication of who stole the van, which is a good place to start to crack into an organisation like the one we’re predicting.” Archer shrugged, and shut his eyes, leaning back into his seat.

-

He entered when she called and not a second before, and when he did enter he shut the door behind him and stood by the doorway looking at her. He always hated this part. Always. He never wanted her to have to relive the memories that were so painful, but there wasn’t a way to get information without making her think. And he supposed talking about it with someone... getting it all out there and not having to harbour it like a secret... it made it sort of better.

“Yes. Marc Prescott.” He nodded. “He’s looking for his son, Eddie. He’s been taken, and Marc said that you were the last person to see him, you see.” He didn’t say see him alive, or the one who helped take him, no, he didn’t want her to feel guilt, because that would cloud everything. And besides... it wasn’t her fault, was it?

“We need to find the people who took Eddie, and you, because we want to make sure that nobody gets taken again.” He walked over to the bed she was sat on and gestured, wondering if he could sit, not too close to her but still sit. If she said yes, he did, if she didn’t, he did not. “I was wondering if I would be able to do what we at the FBI call a cognitive interview. It... I basically need to know as much as I can, every detail you can remember. And, in a cognitive, you’ll remember more details than you think you do now. I want to be honest with you, it’ll be hard and a little scary, but it will help us more than you might think. I would never put you through this if I didn’t think it would be helpful.” He bit his lip.

“Even the tiniest thing will potentially point us in the right direction. You can stop at any time you need, take as many breaks as you need. I think this may help find the people who took you.” He hoped to god she said yes.

 

[DrTrollinski]

"They killed people no one would go looking for." He frowned. "Old woman, no family. Pedophile, as well - No one gives a fuck." He said. "They've been there for... God knows how long. At least a couple of weeks, if not more. The smell." He shook his head, slowly, then took a deep breath and shut his eyes, his head going down and resting against the driver's wheel. "We're not further along than we think, not by a longshot." He said. "Think, Archer. They've been watching us for a while now. They've been back-ending into our network at home. They could have accessed a lot of things if they're skilled enough. They know I'm FBI, they know I'm going to bring an army to them if I could. They're not stupid. I just hope they didn't pick Eddie because of me." He said.

He went quiet. Just for a moment.

"What if they did?" He asked. "What if they're just looking for another challenge and they don't want Eddie at all? Why not just snatch some random kid?" He asked. "Once our tech guy gets back to us on when they started the spying, if it matches up with the time the van started circling the school, then we'll know something's really up." He frowned. "It just feels so hopeless, Archer. I'm not going to give up but I've got a feeling that there's going to be a point in all of this where I'm not given a choice. Literally." He said. "And I don't say that because I'm wanting to stop. I say that because I get the feeling someone will want to stop me."

He rubbed his forehead. "I'm just hoping this is all some fucked up dream. I really do." He said. "Before all of the bullshit 'thoughts and prayers' come pouring in. The fucking... Walmart-grade flowers and the cheap scotch. I don't need it. I don't need these 'kind gestures' for everyone I know. What I need is my son - Thoughts and prayers aren't going to get me that." He shook his head, "And the saddest part is, most people nowadays would have stood there and filmed Eddie getting the shit kicked out of him instead of helping. Putting it on Facebook and all of that other bullshit." He gulped.

"I'm losing it. Slowly. I think some son of a bitch has put a curse on me. I've had this great big fucking cloud hanging over my life, I'm pretty sure. And now it's really starting to show." He said. "First Faye, and now this? Wasn't losing Faye enough for one lifetime?" He asked.

He went completely silent.

--

She sat there and listened to what he had to say, and yes, he was allowed to sit on the bed. She didn't mind too much, but she did scoot a little further away when he sat down. It was just a natural instinct.

"Sure." She whispered.

She was up for it, at the very least. Did she want to do it? Not at all. But even with a clever play on words she still felt guilty - she thought of how Eddie was nice enough to offer her his jacket in the pouring rain, how he tried to help her.

And in return, she just sat there and watched him get dragged away. Watched him get taken. That's what it came down to - if she'd tried her luck and just ran and screamed for help, she'd have maybe been okay and Eddie would have had a chance to run, too. He was slim and tall, and no doubt fast. He could have gave them the slip easily. None of them were really in great shape, from what she could remember.

It could have all been different. But it wasn't.

"How does it work?" She asked.

Not everyone knows what a cognitive interview is. In fact, it sounded rather threatening.

 

[Jupiter]

"You need to have a little bit more faith. I'm not one of those god fearing assholes but faith has two meanings to me. Not just in him, whatever he is upstairs if he's even there, but in general. You need to think a little bit more positively. I know things are dire, they're fucking shit, this shouldn't happen to anyone, but it has. I don't believe in shit happens for a reason. I believe in shit happens because it does, and it's up to us to stop it." He sighed. "Think back to a lot of cases you've worked. I know this is different because it's Eddie, and it's personal, but... Just think back."

"Everything seems hopeless at some point in the investigation. It's going to be magnified by shit tons because of the fact that you're missing Eddie, because it's Eddie who's gone. Everything is magnified when it's personal, because of that emotion, and that's acceptable by me man, I'm never gonna say that you shouldn't feel emotion about this, or that it shouldn't be personal, because it is. We can't change that he got taken, and we can't change that he isn't here right this very second as we speak, but we can continue working to get him back."

"You have a good team, Marc." He put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a slight squeeze, and then pulled away. He wasn't the greatest at showing affection. "We're going to help you, we're not going to stop till we have Eddie back for ya', until everything is over, and then I can guarantee we aren't gonna stop when we have him if we don't have the people who did it."

"And Faye..." He did know about his wife, of course. "What happened was horrible, but it happened. Nothing can take the pain away that that caused, but, and I'm sorry if this hurts because I don't want it to, trust me, I think that sometimes we have to use the pain that we feel, deaths and accidents and situations that we are born to hate, like the kidnapping of a son or loss of a wife, and we have to use it to fuel us. We have to use it to fight, because effectively we're fighting to get rid of that pain at the same time. By using it to get what we want or where we need, we one day overcome the pain." He gulped. "And I'm sorry man, I'm not the best at this talking stuff, at helping."

"You just gotta keep hanging on. Eddie needs that."

-

Jones was happy, more than happy, that she agreed to partake. He needed her to, because he just... He felt that something could possibly help out here. Something could get them further, where they needed to be. "A cognitive interview... It's as much about the things you sensed as the things you saw. It's okay to be scared, I'll be here all the way. I'm just going to ask you a few questions, but it's... You're potentially going to remember a lot more than you currently think you do."

"I'll have to ask you about some of the things that happened, but about the things you saw, felt, physically and mentally, little details that you think might not be so important might actually be very important." He was talking very softly, because he just... Wanted her to feel comfortable. That was the main thing here. Comfort. "When I ask you things, I want you to try your best to answer as truthfully as you can, what you remember. And... I know that I'm going to ask you some questions that are slightly uncomfortable to talk about, or slightly scary, but just remember that nothing can hurt you while I'm here, okay?"

"And when it's all over, I'll be able to get you the protection you need so that you never ever have to deal with anything like that again. And... I know of some great people who might really be able to help you, to make you feel better again. Is this okay?"

 

[DrTrollinski]

"The only thing is, Archer, is that you have jobs and families to go back to. I don't. I can run relentlessly. I can run and never give up. I can spend the rest of my miserable existence looking for Eddie - but you guys can't." He said. "And I won't be angry if you need to go back to whatever it is you guys have to do. You can go back to pushing pencils and torturing terrorists whenever you need to. It's not something for me to decide or judge you on." He said.

He sighed.

"I'm not any god following peace loving hippie. Maybe for all we know fate has got a fucking axe looming over my shoulder and he just wants me to die as soon as possible. It certainly feels that way. I want to keep fighting. I will. For Eddie. I may become some tragic excuse of a man trying to get him back, I may even die, but he had a good head on his shoulders and he deserves a chance to do more in life." He said. "I've done my time. I've done everything I can. I've climbed the career ladder, got married to a beautiful wife, and now... Well, here we are." He said. "My wife is dead, my son is missing, and in my time of need I had to work my ass off to assemble my own crew because the bureau wouldn't assign it themselves." He said.

He looked at Archer and managed a faint, sad smile.

"Thanks for that, now that I think of it."

"I think it was more the way she died that hurt the most, you know." He said after a few minutes of silence, just thinking back to it. "One night we were sat there eating dinner together and she had to go lie down. Had a really bad stomach ache, she was sick for some time." He nodded, "By the time she went to a doctor it was diagnosed. Cancer. Spreading like a fucking Californian forest fire." He shook his head. "I think that was the most painful part of it. Watching her change from what she was to... What she ended up being." He said. "Laying on the couch not being able to move because she had no energy. Not getting out of bed, not because of choice, but because she couldn't do anything else. Watching her slowly slip away..." He said. "I think it was a lot harder than if she'd have just... Y'know. Died." He said. "It was a blessing as well as a curse when her suffering ended."

He rubbed his forehead. "If she was still here, you know she'd be going across the country looking for him, don't you?" He laughed, sadly.

--

"Yeah, that sounds... Fair." She said. "Scary, but fair. I can brave it, don't worry." She nodded a few times.

What more could she say? There was nothing she could say other than give consent.

She looked at him for a moment.

"Maybe a safe word?" She asked. "Just... I don't know." She looked around the room and tried to find something to take a phrase from. She saw a fluffy stuffed owl she had on top of her wardrobe. "How about... Bird's nest, or something? Just in case we need to stop?" She asked.

She wasn't sure if that was allowed, but it was always worth asking.

Regardless of the answer...

"Let's start, I guess."

 

[Jupiter]

“You probably don’t know this Marc, but a lot of people in the bureau have nothing to go back to.” He turned and looked out of the window. “What have I got? A dog, is about it, and a trail of women behind me that never quite stuck. I have nothing to do with my time; if anything this is probably the most I’ve done with my weekend for years.” Archer shook his head. “And I reckon Jones won’t rest until this case is finished with. Until there’s some kind of happy ending at least.”

“You don’t need to thank us. We all have our own reasons for being here, some of us just can’t bear to see one of our own without the help they need. It’s all a different story when a kid close to the bureau goes missing. I think I met Eddie, but only once. I can’t remember the circumstance, it was a long time ago.” He smiled. “But it still hits close to home: you’re an agent, and your loss is our loss, in some respects. Or at least in our mind.”

But how much can a man say about someone else’s dead wife? He couldn’t give a spiel about how wonderful she was when he had met her potentially only once and even then he had never really gotten past her name. And... it wasn’t his place to say anything. So he just nodded his head. “I know.”

“I know she would. I’m sorry for your loss man. I really am.” He sighed.

-

Jones didn’t reckon they needed a “safe word”. Even that word had connotations of something a lot older than Madison was. And if she’s just said she wanted to stop, he’d stop. But if she wanted that, if having that word to cling to would help her and make her feel better here, then Jones would happily oblige.

“Birds nest is fine.” He smiled slightly and then looked around her room for a moment, before finally looking at her again. “Let’s start. Remember, we can stop and take breaks as many times as you want. I’m here for you, even if you need to take all day or more than that. Okay?”

He sighed and then linked his hands in front of himself, resting them on his knee. Let’s start. Jesus.

“Okay. Close your eyes for me. And remember that nothing can hurt you while I’m here with you. You’re safe, I won’t let anything hurt you.” He smiled. When she shut her eyes, the smile fell. He didn’t really want to put her through remembering, but it needed to be done.

“Let’s go back to the day that you were taken. What day was that? What were you doing that day?” Back to before.

 

[DrTrollinski]

"I can't remember what day it was." She said, shaking her head a little. "Wednesday, maybe a Thursday. I was gone for... Quite some time." She said, "I lost count of the days, eventually I forgot all about the day I went missing and just started thinking about the days I was all locked up." She said, "I remember what I was doing, though." She nodded, "Me and my friends always walked home together, but there's this point in the walk where we split up - they live closer to the school than me so it takes me longer to walk back. They turn off down one street, I go down a quieter one and I cut across another park." She said, "Not the same park that... Eddie was taken from, though, no. Just a field. It's not as put-together as the other one." She said, "More for dogs, and things like that."

She was rambling a bit, but it was still progress.

Right?

"It was just as I left that park, in the parking lot, I mean. No one was really around, because of the rain and the cold, so... That's where it all happened. There were a few cars parked there, a..." She went quiet for a second. "A black van, I think. Yeah, and... I think that must have been what I ended up in." She said. "Things went dark. A bag went over my head, like a sack. It hurt. It scratched my face up, I know that. It was just uncomfortable, and a couple of people grabbed me. Someone held me up by my shoulders and everything, and someone else grabbed my legs. They had... Big hands."

She paused. "And... Well, that's where it all started, I-I guess."

 

[Jupiter]

Jones had a small notebook with him that he flipped open and began to jot down onto. He didn't really need it, he could guarantee he'd be able to recall this information later on, but he had it all the same, his just in case. If he died on this case, they still had the information they needed. He knew that she was taken in December, he'd read it in her case file which he'd only flicked through sat outside the house, and he knew that meant that she'd been alive since then. Now it was April.

That meant something.

He jotted down: 'extended period. Life preserved.'

From what he knew about Eddie's case, too, he needed to try and find similarities between the kidnappings, if there were any. He wondered if the sack and use of material was important. He supposed everything was, and wrote it down anyway.

And there were multiple people involved in the kidnapping. With the case of Eddie, he supposed it would be necessary. He couldn't imagine it really being so necessary for a child.

"When you were in the parking lot, do you remember if there was anything that grabbed your attention? Take a deep breath and relax your mind, let it come to you. Imagine that you're there, in that parking lot again, right before. I'm not going to let anyone take you, but did anything about it seem odd, other than the van? Was there anything that distracted you?" He supposed in a way she'd been used as a distraction for Eddie. Something must have distracted her, unless it was easier to take a child by brute force.

"And... Did you catch a glimpse of the people who took you?" He asked, softly. "It's okay if you didn't, don't worry if you can't remember anything, it was a long time ago now. And remember, you're safe here. They aren't here, it's only me and you, and I'm here to help." Reassurance was key. A cognitive interview really had the potential to suck you back in to the memory. The issue of course was they were intended for fresher memories, but he still had to try. Some memories would clearly come back more vividly. "What happened next?"

 

[DrTrollinski]

"I don't think so." She said, "I think the main thing was how loud the rain was." She said, "I'm guessing that had something to do with it. It was one of those really heavy rainy days, y'know? Like... You can only just about hear car engines and stuff. It was like that." She said, "I don't think my mom was around to pick me up, so I had to walk. But it only started raining after I split up from my friends." She explained. "There wasn't anything there to distract me, not like I did to Eddie." She said.

"I didn't see who took me, not at all." She said. "I heard their voices. Someone was... Spanish, maybe. Mexican? I don't know." She said. "Someone else had a funny accent, and another was Russian. Definitely Russian, or... Maybe Polish. Something like that." She nodded. "The man with the strange accent stood out a lot to me." She said, "Only because I'd never heard a voice like that before. I guess it was just strange." She said, "It was like... American mixed with a load of other stuff." She said. "Almost like American and... Something like German, Swedish, even British." She sighed. "I don't know how to describe it other than that, really."

She thought back to that day once again. "After the bag and ending up in the van, we took off across... Town, I guess. We ended up on the highway. It had to be the highway. We didn't stop for a few hours, either, at least a few hours. I remember lying there and listening to them talk. It was terrifying." She said. "There were a lot of other cars. That's how I knew it was on the highway. They said to me that if I screamed they'd kill me, so I just stayed quiet." She explained. "Then we ended up at this apartment. I think it was... Some sort of store - the house above it, I mean. Or a restaurant. There was the smell of food there, so it was like... Japanese, Chinese, or something, Oriental." She explained.

"That's when they took the mask off and left." She said. "And I guess... Things were a lot better there than the rest of the journey. Whoever the Asian people were, they gave me food... The man was actually kinda' nice to me." She said. "It didn't really count for much, but... I guess it was nice at the time." She said.

 

[Jupiter]

Jones nodded and wrote down that there was no distraction. Okay. Perhaps that was due to the rain, there was no one around to hear her scream and they didn't need the element of surprise with someone who probably weighed less than half of the men who took her. If she said they had big hands, they could easily be fit, active, they could definitely be the kind of people who could take down a child, of course. And there were three of them. That was something he had to note too. Initially, the investigation would have to be for three people. Or one of three, with hopes that he rat out the other two.

He wrote down the accent, and then nodded his head again. The highway. "Was it a smooth ride?" Obviously, she will have said yes, because the highway is a smooth ride and we know that they definitely went on it. Jones wrote that. A few hours on the highway. Of course, this probably meant that the case crossed state lines, but... He had no way of knowing which direction she went in. Not yet, at least.

Oriental restaurant. Right. He nodded slowly again despite the fact that her eyes were closed. "You're doing great, Madison. Don't forget you can take a break whenever you want." But he supposed that they weren't at the hardest part yet.

"They gave you food... After you ate the food, do you remember feeling funny, like sick or sleepy? And who is the man in the room with you? Describe him. It doesn't have to be just his looks if you think something might be helpful, like an accent, or his clothing. Maybe something he said, if you can remember. Really Madison, you're doing great."