Extracted - Chapter 11 – Round One and Round Two – Part 1 of 2

 

Extracted

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 11 – Round One and Round Two – Part 1 of 2

 

Detective Nolan threaded his way through the huge building that was more often known as Twenty-six Fed, the New York home of the FBI.  On the eighth floor, he asked for directions to find Agent Rosenberg and a woman pointed down the hallway and told him to turn right at the end of it.  He followed the hallway around and finally found the shoebox of an office that was the home away from home for Agent Ellen Rosenberg.  The first thing he noticed about Rosenberg’s office was that it was better lit than his office back in Philadelphia.  The second thing he noticed about it was that her office was just as cluttered and confused as his.  The woman inside appeared to be in her mid-forties with short curly hair showing a few areas starting to go grey already.  She was still somewhat good looking though.  “Agent Rosenberg?” he asked as he stopped at the doorway.

“Detective Nolan,” Rosenberg replied, looking up to see the tall detective in a grey suit.  He looked to be about her age she guessed.  Very good looking.  Distinguished.  Someone who’d been around for a while.  “Come in,” she invited.  “Have a seat.”

Nolan went in and sat in one of the chairs across from her.  “I emailed our file to you,” Nolan told her.  “Did you get it?”

“Yes.  Thank you,” Rosenberg told him.  “You surprised me by doing that.”

“I’ve been around long enough and have worked with the FBI more than once on cases.  I already knew you’d be asking for that file, even if our cases don’t match.”

“True,” Rosenberg conceded, sitting back in her chair to further study this man.  So far, she was liking what she saw.  In more ways than one.  “I read through the file, what little there is, but do me a favor, talk me through it from the beginning anyway.”

“Not a problem,” Nolan replied.  So far, this was going exactly like he suspected it would.  “We didn’t get the call till the next morning, after the family noticed that the kid was missing.”

“Stephen Marsh,” Ellen said, for confirmation.

“Yes.”

“How did they know he was missing and hadn’t just run off with his girlfriend or something.  From his picture in the file, he looks like he might have been old enough to have a girlfriend.”

“Oh, he does.  A girl named Melody.  But we had other factors that pointed to a different conclusion.”

“That wasn’t in the file,” Rosemberg pointed out.

“Those other factors are in the file,” Nolan pointed out.

Rosenberg had other ideas about that.  She hated even the smallest things left out of an investigation file.  “Go on,” she said.

“It didn’t take us long to figure out that this was done by professionals, not your usual break and grab guys.  And when I say professionals, I mean most likely a team of highly trained people.”

“We came to the same conclusion with our case, but walk me through it.”

The fact that the FBI had concluded the same thing in their case didn’t bode well.  “The family is well off.  Is yours?”

“Yes,” Rosenberg conceded, knowing it would give away little.

“Not surprising,” Nolan noted.  “Why else do you abduct someone, except money wasn’t the case here at all.”

Rosenberg didn’t reply.  She knew he was just fishing for more information on her case.

“Anyway,” Nolan continued.  "They disabled the backup generator, then went for the main electrical power.  They also disabled the internet connection.  Basically, they managed to disable the entire security system, including the cameras.  Pros!”

“Yes,” Rosenberg agreed.  “Our professionals did the same thing, but in our case, the family had an outside security agency monitoring that system twenty-four seven.  They noticed the system going down and called the police.  They were still gone before the police could get there.”

“Damn!” Nolan muttered.  “The Marsh family’s system was all in-house.  But with everything shut down, it gave us nothing.”

“Like we agreed, pros.”

Nolan nodded.  “We’re not even sure how they got into the house.  There was no sign of anything broken so they either had keys, or they picked the locks.  Not really much of a problem, but the neighborhood we’re talking about isn’t exactly known for any kind of trouble.  The family thought they were secure enough, especially considering the husband’s job.”

“Philadelphia District Attorney,” Rosenberg remembered.  “An important position.”

“When the family called the next day, we immediately went out looking.  The disabled generator, power, and security system tipped us off immediately that something bad had happened.  This wasn’t just a case of the kid running off to be with his friends.”

“I see,” Rosenberg replied, glad that she had asked him to talk the case through.  The fact that Nolan concluded that they were dealing with pros hadn’t been in his file at all.

“And then of course,” Nolan added, “the ransom note.”

“Yes,” Rosenberg said as she sat forward.  “Detective Nolan,” she said.  “That note is one of the primary differences in our two cases.  You got a ransom demand like I would have expected, even if it wasn’t for money.  In our case, there was no note.  Nothing at all.”

Nolan looked at her.  “Then why was she taken?”

“You tell me.”

“I don’t know.”

“Detective, neither do we.  We still don’t have the slightest clue.  We’re just glad she’s back.”

She!  There was no doubt now that a girl had been taken in the FBI’s case.  “She’s back.  No demand from the perpetrators, and you’re still investigating?  I’m guessing this is for someone who is not living day to day on just social security checks.”

Rosenberg smiled at the way he had put that.  “No.  They’re not.  So your investigation turned up nothing at all.”

“So far, nada!” Nolan agreed.  “It was as if the kid had simply vanished off the face of the earth.  We interviewed a few possible suspects, but in every case it was clear that they had nothing to do with it.  Especially in light of the fact that the note demanded the release of one of the founding members of the Planetary Eco Alliance, who Henry Marsh went after and put in prison.  We’re still sure that the group is somehow behind this, but our resources for getting to them are severely limited.”

Rosenberg nodded.  “I’ll admit, it’s possible.  It’s just that so far we don’t know of any connection between them and our abduction case here.  But then, until we saw that group in your file a little while ago, we had no reason to go looking in that direction.  I still don’t see how it could be a factor in our case, but you never know.  We’re looking at them now.”

“Good!  Maybe with your resources you can find something that we haven’t been able to dig up.”

“That’s what we’re hoping,” Rosenberg conceded.

“Anyway,” Nolan continued.  “Despite our lack of anywhere to look, the kid suddenly showed up.  He was dumped between ten and ten thirty at night on the front porch of a major restaurant near the interstate.  He looked more like he was simply sleeping there, but with a restaurant like that, nobody would expect to see any kind of homeless person napping anywhere near it.  Someone from the cleaning crew noticed him and called the police.  He was still unconscious when we got there, and he stayed unconscious for quite some time after he got to the hospital.”

“Same in our case,” Rosenberg told him, except they found the girl a few hours later.”

Nolan nodded, then continued.  “We interviewed the kid as soon as we could, but it was quickly obvious that he didn’t know a thing.  The medical report showed that the doctors thought they had kept him drugged and unconscious for the entire time he was missing.  Now, is there anything at all that you can tell me about your case?”

“Yes.  I can tell you that the security on our case is exceptionally high.”

Nolan was immediately disappointed.  “In other words, I drove all the way up here for nothing.”

“Maybe not,” Rosenberg told him.  “But what you can be told is not going to be my call.  It’ll come from someone else.  Someone who is…let’s say, more involved.”

“More involved than you?  Aren’t you the lead agent on this thing?”

“Yup.  But that doesn’t mean I can dish out any information at all.”

“So what kind of government oath or something will I have to take to get me read in?”

“More than likely, something very close to what you just described.  And just to let you know, I’m making the first decision now.”

“The first decision?”

Rosenberg picked up her cellphone and punched in a number.  “Wanda?  Ellen.  I like him.  Can we come?”  She listened for a moment.  “Okay.  See you there.”  She hung up the phone and looked to Nolan.  “On to round two.”

“Round two?”

“We take a little ride.”

“To see the family, I hope.”

“Yes…and no.”

Nolan wasn’t sure what that meant.  While she was grabbing a few things from her desk, he said, “You called her Wanda, and you gave your first name, Ellen.  You must know her fairly well.  Especially in light of how high the security is supposed to be.”

“I barely know her at all.  I only met her once, in the hospital.”

“But you’re on a first name basis already.”

“Simple code names.  We’re dealing with pros here.  What if they’ve also hacked her phone.  We’re tracking it, but it’s best not to take chances.  Anyone listening in wouldn’t know what’s going on.”

As Nolan followed her out of her office, he realized she was right.  Nothing had been said that sounded like it was the FBI working a case.  “So…he said.  “Ellen.”

“Yeah.  Believe it or not, that’s my name.”

“Oh, I believe it.”

“Nice to meet you…Thomas!” she said pointedly.

Nolan realized she had already researched him.  Did she know he was single?  Probably.  She had said on the phone that she liked him.

 

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