Fic Post: Unraveling [Shelter/Without a Trace crossover]
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Title: Unraveling, Chapter 8
Author: dragontatt
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: Neither Shelter nor Without a Trace belong to me. No profit is being made from this work of fiction, and no disrespect is intended.
Word Count: 3972
Martin sat at Shaun’s desk, his laptop taking the place of Shaun’s which had been carefully pushed over to one side. He was staring intently at the screen and making minute adjustments on the track pad with his forefinger.
Shaun watched him in silence from the other side of the room, one foot bouncing silently on the carpet.
Danny was in the kitchen making a phone call, staying out of the front room so he wouldn’t break Martin’s concentration. His phone was squeezed tight between shoulder and cheek as he took notes in a surprisingly neat hand.
Not that there was much to write down - the ransom note, such as it was, had been written on a sheet of ordinary notebook paper that had been torn out rather carelessly. They’d been able to match the torn edge to the remains of a sheet in one of Zach’s notebooks.
No usable prints were found on the note, just smudges. Likewise there were no foreign prints on the door of Zach’s car. That, coupled with the fact that the keys were gone, suggested Zach had gotten out of the Jimmy by himself before being grabbed, but all that meant was that he probably didn’t feel like he was in danger.
“Okay, thanks. Yeah - I’ll let you know if we need anything else.” He hung up his phone and slipped it into his jacket pocket before letting out a big sigh. Well, prints were always a long shot, no matter what those CSI shows said. They’d cracked harder cases than this without ‘em, that’s for sure.
He headed to the front room and quickly but dispassionately let Martin know there were no usable prints on the note or the Jimmy.
“Okay, thanks,” Martin said absently, still intent on the videos he was examining.
Shaun looked over at Danny who just shrugged back. “Martin?”
The other man didn’t respond, still bent low over his keyboard.
“Martin?” Shaun said a bit louder.
“What?”
“Did you find anything yet?” Shaun managed to keep his voice calm but it was a struggle.
“Hmm? Oh, yeah. Come look at this.”
Shaun and Danny stood behind Martin and watched as he pointed to his screen.
“Okay, so I’ve got both videos on here, the one security camera that showed anything useful and Becky’s iPhone video. I’ve got the time stamps matched up as much as I can, they might be off by a few seconds but it shouldn’t matter too much. Now watch this.”
He clicked a large play button at the bottom of the screen, and two videos started playing simultaneously in the side-by-side windows. In the left window was the footage from the CalArts parking lot, starting some time after the UPS truck had blocked most of the screen. All that was really visible was the sidewalk that led from the parking lot toward the buildings on the left hand side of the footage.
In the right window was the footage from Becky’s iPhone, showing Jeff on his PowerJumperz springing across the lot toward the camera. As the camera moved unsteadily in an effort to stay trained on its subject, a large brown truck could be seen in the upper left corner.
Martin clicked the play button again and both videos paused. “Okay, you can see that even though the camera is mostly blocked by the UPS truck, with the video from Becky’s phone we can see at least some of what’s going on behind it.”
He glanced over his shoulder at Shaun a moment, and when Shaun nodded, Martin pressed ‘play’ again. Except for the rapidly changing numbers on the bottom, the image on the left side of the screen didn’t appear to change for several long minutes.
By contrast, the image on the right didn’t hold still for long. Jeff jumped and ran and somersaulted all around the parking lots on his super powered stilts. Even when he was standing still, he was still moving, bouncing and swinging his arms.
Shaun watched the laptop in growing agitation, eyes shifting back and forth between the two images. At one point, a green Prius rolled slowly by behind Jeff’s entourage, driver’s head swiveling anxiously in search of the closest space. Martin pointed his finger at the screen.
“Okay, look here. This lady drives by and parks somewhere, we can’t see where right now on either video, but in a few - ahh, there she is.” He pointed to the driver of the Prius who was now walking up the sidewalk that was visible on the left side of the UPS truck. “In a little bit, you’ll be able to see that she actually parked her car just a couple of spaces away from where the Jimmy was.”
Shaun leaned closer, putting his hand on Martin’s shoulder for support without even realizing it. Martin felt it though, and took in a deep breath before going on. He tapped the touchpad so that both videos moved faster for a few seconds, then tapped it again to slow them down to normal speed.
“And over here we have Jeff still jumping around like crazy. And here’s Zach,” he said as the Jimmy slowly cruised into view. He paused both videos a moment as Shaun’s fingers tightened almost imperceptibly on his shoulder.
“You okay?” he asked softly.
Shaun swallowed and nodded but he was unable to tear his gaze away from the frozen image of Zach on the screen, right hand on the steering wheel, left arm as usual propped on the open window so his fingers could drum relentlessly on the roof.
“Go ahead, Martin,” Danny said gently.
Martin tapped his finger once on the track pad and the video started up again. The screen on the left still monotonously showed only the UPS truck and the small slice of sidewalk that led to the building. On the right screen, Jeff was saying something that Becky no doubt found fascinating as she kept the camera trained steadily on him.
A few seconds after Zach drove by, a black pickup truck followed slowly along. Shaun waited for Martin to say something but the other man remained silent, watching the timestamp click steadily by.
“Well?” asked Danny.
“Just hang on.”
A couple minutes after the pick-up drove by going left, it reappeared on the far side of the lot, this time going right.
“Watch here.”
The iPhone jerked a bit to the right as the video came down to its final few seconds, and in the next to last frame, the top of the pick-up could be seen turning right out of the parking lot - the bottom of it was obscured by a sign that said ‘California Institute of the Arts.’ The video on the right stopped. Martin clicked the mouse in another place, and the timestamp for the video on the left sped up as he fast-forwarded it.
“So tell me, why would that pickup drive in and then leave so quickly? You can see from the parking lot footage that he wasn’t letting anyone out for a class, because we’d see them on the sidewalk over here.” He pointed his finger at the left side of the screen.
Shaun drew in a sharp breath as the implication of what Martin said sank in. “You mean whoever was in that truck is the one who kidnapped Zach?”
“Well, think about it. There’s really no place else to walk to from that lot,” Martin said. “Look - there goes the UPS truck,” he pointed out as it sped off quickly through the lot and off camera. “So no one came down the sidewalk, and I already checked with the footage from the other camera that’s at the entrance, no other cars drove off while the UPS truck was there. So what did happen?”
“Plenty of time from when the pickup drove in behind Zach and when it drove out for someone to grab him and throw him in the back seat, that’s for sure,” Danny said casually and then winced. “Sorry.”
Shaun didn’t look at Danny before shaking his head. “It’s okay. Now what, though? I mean you can’t really tell anything about the truck from that video.”
“I’ve already sent a copy to our video techs in New York. You’d be amazed at what they can drag out of low-quality video,” Martin said.
“Let’s hope they hurry with it,” Danny said. “The sooner we can get at least a make and model out of it, the sooner we can put out an APB. I can’t tell what it is, can you?”
All three men leaned closer to the screen, squinting. Shaun held his breath in an effort to increase his concentration. It was a big black four door pickup with darkly tinted windows, there was a light patch on the top right of the back gate that might have been a sticker of some sort, or a patch of dirt, or just a glint of light. And that was all any of them could tell.
Martin finally leaned back in frustration. “You got a printer at least? Might come in handy until they get back to us.”
“Sure,” Shaun said, heading toward the front hall closet. “It’s right in here.”
It took them a while to get the correct printer drivers for Martin’s laptop, but they finally ended up with a small stack of pictures printed on photo paper. Two of them were close-ups of the top of the driver’s side, and two of them were faraway shots while it was leaving the parking lot. And try as they might, none of them could find anything in any of the pictures that would help identify the truck or even help them decide on the make or model.
---
Zach lay on the bed in the dimness of the cabin. He didn’t think it was much past early afternoon but Wes had made Tony cover all the windows with garbage bags and duct tape, and he’d actually done a pretty good job. Besides the small lamp over near the kitchen, the only light was a feeble ray that snuck in beneath the threshold of the door.
He lay on his back, one arm propped beneath his head in lieu of a pillow. The other arm was stretched out as far as it could go to the side where his wrist was connected to the bedpost by a complicated-looking daisy chain of zip ties. They weren’t quite as heavy duty as the ones Zach had seen used by cops, but Wes had doubled them up for good measure. The plastic chain they made was long enough so he could move around on the bed a little, or sit up enough to piss into an empty Sprite bottle but that was about it.
The cabin stank of burnt food and cigarette smoke. The food was from this morning when Tony had tried to make bacon and eggs. He wasn’t a very good cook though, and he practically managed to set the pan on fire.
Zach had contemplated offering to help, but in the end he decided against it. It seemed like a good idea to remain as invisible as possible. So he just kept his mouth shut and ate the plate of half-burned bacon and crispy eggs that Wes handed to him with a silent glare.
After breakfast, Wes spent most of day either on his cell, or ordering Tony around like a slave driver. He also chain smoked, stubbing out each cigarette on the bottom of his shoe before dropping the butt into an empty Budweiser can.
Currently though, Wes wasn’t smoking - in fact, right now he was asleep on the couch while Tony went to pick up more supplies. (Zach had gotten a quick glance out the door when Tony had left and wasn’t exactly surprised to see they were in the mountains - what mountains, he had no idea though.) And except for a soft snore every now and again, the cabin was quiet and for that Zach was thankful.
While it was quiet, he could close his eyes and pretend he wasn’t here, pretend he was back home with Shaun and Cody where he belonged. Maybe watching an SpongeBob marathon or building a sand castle or…
Zach sighed and rolled over onto his side as best he could. He wasn’t technically sleepy but the odd combination of boredom and fear was enough to wear him out and even though he didn’t mean for it to happen, his eyes slipped closed and he drifted off to sleep. The last thought that crossed his mind was ‘Wonder what Shaun’s up to.’
---
Shaun was stretched out on the couch, one arm flung over his eyes in an effort to block out the light. He kept nearly drifting off to sleep, then jerking back awake with a tiny gasp. First time it had happened, Martin had looked at him in concern but Shaun had just shaken his head. He wasn’t going to confess to the terrible visions that flashed across his worried mind in that split second between awake and asleep. The last couple of times he’d done it, no one had paid any attention. They were too busy, Martin video conferencing with one of the tech guys back in NYC, Danny on the phone again, this time with the state police.
“Yeah, I know there are a lot of black 4-door pickups out there. But we can’t wait till we get a positive ID before putting out the APB, so just do it, okay?”
There was a little noise at the front door and then Cody came bounding in, closely followed by Victoria and Larry who were weighed down by bulging plastic bags. They went right to the kitchen after a quick ‘hello’ to put away the groceries but Cody headed straight for Shaun who hurried to sit up before he got squashed. “Hey there, buddy. How are you?” Shaun asked as Cody climbed into his lap for a hug.
“I’m good,” Cody mumbled close to his neck before pulling back. “We had fun. Is Zach back yet?”
Shaun shook his head but managed to keep a smile on his face as he said, “No, but Danny and Martin are working on it.” He had no idea how sad his eyes were though.
Cody hopped off Shaun’s lap and headed over to where Martin was sitting at Shaun’s desk. He peered over Martin’s shoulder at the laptop screen - it showed a fuzzy picture of a pickup truck.
Martin glanced over his shoulder at Cody and smiled briefly, but Cody wasn’t looking at him, he was looking at the screen. Martin had been working on clearing up the image of the pickup. It was pretty much their only lead at this point and they needed to ID it in some way. Hell, just a make and model would come in handy but they only been able to narrow it down to four or five possibles yet. He sighed softly in frustration.
Cody piped up from behind him. “Whatcha looking at?”
“Well, we’re trying to figure out who this truck belongs to.” Martin said simply.
Cody stood there a long time in silence, watching Martin adjust the controls on the screen in an effort to get something - anything - to come into better focus. Finally Shaun’s mom called him to come to the kitchen. Normally that would have sent him scurrying off, especially when she called, “You can have a snack while I make dinner!”
But instead he stood there, head tilted to one side, chewing on the side of his thumb in an eerie imitation of Zach. Shaun watched him a moment longer and finally said, “Cody? You okay, buddy?”
Instead of answering Shaun, Cody scootched closer to Martin, switching his gaze from the screen to the side of Martin’s face.
Martin could feel the steadiness of Cody’s gaze but he wasn’t quite sure what it was all about. He made a few more minor adjustments, all in vain and finally looked over his shoulder at Cody.
Cody’s eyes were wide and he looked scared for some reason. Now Martin had seen kids scared of him before, but he didn’t think that’s what it was this time. He lowered his hand to his lap, turning slightly, and said, “What is it, Cody?” in a gentle voice.
Cody glanced quickly over his shoulder at Shaun before leaning forward - he cupped his hand around Martin’s ear and whispered softly, “I saw a truck just like that before.”
Martin resisted the urge to glance at Shaun, he kept his gaze trained on Cody and said with an encouraging smile, “It is a pretty cool truck - where’d you see it?”
“At my school,” Cody replied slowly, staring down at his shoes.
Behind him on the couch, Shaun drew in a sharp breath and opened his mouth. But Danny gave a curt shake of his head, and Shaun froze.
“Yeah?” Martin asked. “When was that?”
“Yesterday,” Cody admitted softly, shuffling his feet on the carpet before bursting into unexpected tears. He turned and threw himself across the room at Shaun saying, “Don’t be mad at me, I’m sorry. I’m sorry!” His words ended in a frantic wail.
Shaun pulled Cody onto his lap, and held him close. He rubbed his back and made little shushing noises and waited till the tears subsided.
When Cody was calmer, and there was only an occasional sniffle, Shaun looked across at Martin and raised an eyebrow. Martin mouthed ‘you’ and so Shaun asked gently, “Why’d you think I’d be mad at you, Cody?”
“Cause Miss diRossi is,” came the soft reply. “She wrote my name on the board yesterday so I wouldn’t get any recess today. She’s mad.”
“Ahh - well, you know that teachers have to do that kind of stuff at school, but I wouldn’t get mad at you no matter what. You know that, right?”
Cody sniffled mournfully and scrubbed his hand under his nose once before nodding.
“Good, so that means you can tell me what this is all about, right? When did you see the pickup?”
“I saw it yesterday, when Zach came to give me my lunchbox. We were on the playground and Miss diRossi said I could go get it from him over the fence, but we’re not supposed to play by the fence normally. It’s the rule.”
Cody looked up Shaun through long eyelashes that had to be hereditary, and Shaun smiled, nodding at him encouragingly.
“But right after that it was time to go in and I lined up just like I was supposed to. Zach yelled he’d see me at four and he drove off. But I wanted to wave goodbye, so I left the line and ran back over to the fence so he could see me.” He paused, lower lip quivering a bit.
“That’s why I’m in trouble, I wasn’t ‘sposed to leave the line, I wasn’t ‘sposed to go over to the fence but I did and Miss diRossi got mad. I waved at Zach even though he didn’t see me and Miss diRossi yelled at me to come back and that’s when I saw the truck.”
Across the room, Martin sat up straighter in his chair and his hand clenched involuntarily on his knee.
“It drove right by the fence real slow, it was big with four doors and the windows were real dark so I couldn’t see anybody. But it felt scary, like whoever inside was looking at me. Once it went past, it sped up and then turned left just like Zach did. Then Miss diRossi came over to get me and when we got back to the room she put my name on the board to miss recess today,” he finished in a rushed wail.
Shaun patted him on the back again and whispered, “It’s okay, Cody. I’m not mad at you for wanting to wave bye to Zach.”
“You’re not?”
“No, I’m not,” he said, looking over Cody’s head at a note Martin was holding up. “But listen, do you remember if there was anything special about the truck?”
“Like what?”
“Well, could you see the license plate?”
“No, I didn’t see that.”
“Is there anything you did see, more than just a black pickup? It’s really important, Cody. Anything at all.”
Cody sat in silence for a moment before saying, “Well, there was a silver key on it.”
“A key?” Martin asked. “You mean a real key?”
“No, on the side of it.”
“A sticker then?” Like a locksmith might have?
“No, not a sticker,” Cody said in frustration.
“What then?” Shaun asked in a deceptively calm voice when on the inside he was screaming. He gritted his teeth and told himself to relax. Cody wants Zach back just as much as you do, he’s doing his best.
Cody thought for a second before jumping off Shaun’s lap and heading for his desk. On the wire shelf below the seat was a pile of sketch pads and a ziplock bag of crayons and markers.
He sat down cross-legged on the floor, pulled out a sketch pad, flipped it open with an impatient look that Shaun had seen many times before on Zach’s face before grabbing a marker. He bent over the pad and drew an odd shape. It was like a long thin rectangle with a circle superimposed near one end, so that a little bit of the rectangle stuck out.
Danny squatted down near Cody and squinted at the drawing. It did look a little like a key, or rather a key blank, with no point and no cut outs. But he had no clue what it was and he shook his head at Martin with a frown.
Cody paused, thinking for a moment and with a little smile he started again, adding some small details to the thin rectangle on the left side of the ‘key.’ First a vertical line, then two horizontal ones. Another vertical, another horizontal and then a curve that didn’t really match up to any of the others. A clumsy circle, and then all the way on the other side of the key, in the superimposed circle, a funny squiggle. Cody sat back with a satisfied look on his face.
Danny peered at it, trying to decipher it upside down and finally asked, “Can I see that, Cody?”
Cody handed over the pad and Danny turned it around. A smile spread across his face, not a huge one, but the biggest one he’d had since this case started.
“You know what, Cody? I think Shaun needs to tell your teacher to erase your name from the board, cause you’ve just given us our first real clue.”
“I did?”
“Yup,” and he turned the pad around, displaying it to Martin and Shaun. Both men looked bewildered and so Danny explained, “It’s the emblem for a Ford F-150. And this little squiggle here? That means it’s a King Ranch model.”
“That’s great,” Martin said. “Cody, you’re awesome.” And he grabbed for his phone. “We need to add this to the APB.”
“Don’t you want to know the rest?” Cody asked.
Shaun turned to look at him, but Cody was bent over another sketch pad, sharpie clenched in his fist.
Martin raised his eyebrows at Danny before hitting ‘end’ on his phone. “What rest?”
“A bumper sticker - like this one. It was on the tailgate but it was hard to read cause it was covered in dirt,” and he showed them his rendering of one of those ubiquitous white ovals seen on cars everywhere.
“PDX?” Danny asked.
“That’s Portland,” Shaun said in a rush, gaze locking instantly with Martin’s. His jaw dropped for a second and he went on, “Oh my God - Alan and Jeanne.”