Caged

Pil-1116

A

\N: Again I don't really like this. But enjoy anyways or don't. I don't really care. Comment and vote. Or don't. Thanks!

Dani walked down the sidewalk she really hoped this was going to work. She hadn't seen him following her yet. She just wanted to take a break and sit down because when she walked the movement of her shirt against the scratches hurt so badly and she was pretty sure that she would start bleeding soon if she kept this up. She had been walking for a long time. She saw the walk signal turn on and she started to cross the street. But then a car out of the blue started driving at a fast speed through the red light. Dani was startled out of her thoughts. She was positive she was going to die. But all of the sudden she felt someone grab the back of her shirt and quickly yank her out of the way of the car she fell back and landed on top of a man she boosted herself up and looked at his face. He had beautiful piercing blue eyes and shiny brown hair. Then realizing what was happening she quickly stood up, gave him her hand, and helped him up. "You just saved my life. What do you want for lunch?" "What?" "You just saved my life I'm buying you lunch." She said starting to walk away. Confused he started following her. "Um, no. You don't have to do that." "But I am, so what do you want?" "Um, Subway is fine." Once they ordered she sat down at a table and he joined her. "I'm Michael." He said putting out his hand for her to shake. "Well, thank you Micheal. Tell me about yourself." "You first, Dani." She lightly squinted her eyes as she said "I'd rather remain a mystery." "Okayyy. I work for a writing company." "Oh. Have you written any books?" He chuckled. "No. I play more into the boring roles.  I edit what people write." "That's not boring that's interesting. I've never met an editor. I guess I better be careful to use correct grammar." He laughed. Wow. Your so easy. She thought. She had learned more about his family, his job, where he lived, and had even exchanged numbers by the end of their lunch. "Thank you. I'll talk to you later." He said as he walked away. "Yeah. Bye!" She said walking the other direction. A smile crept at the corner of her mouth.

Gil, JT, and Malcolm pulled up at the building where the cult ceremonies were being held. They walked in. There was supposed to be a ceremony in ten minutes so people were already starting to come. The three of them walked up to the person they supposed was leading the group. "Excuse me." Gil said. "Are you the one running this whole thing?" Malcolm observed that he seemed to be a little bit nervous. "Yes. Is there something the matter?" His voice was deep, polite, and proper. "No. We just wanted to ask you a few questions. When was the last time you saw Tom Grade?" "About 3 and a half weeks ago." "Do you know where he went?" "Yes. He told me he was going to clear his mind else where for a little while and he left me in charge. He didn't give any details on his where abouts though. Is something wrong?" "And what about Henry Tarp? When was the last time you saw him?" "About four days ago. They planned on going together but Henry had to go a little later because he had to finish up some work." "Ok. Can you tell us anything about Garret Thompson?" JT asked. "He used to work along side us here at the cult. Tom and him were very close. But after a little while the seemed to distance themselves from each other. He disappeared a little while ago. Tom told us he wasn't going to come back. He never got into detail. Now if you will please excuse me, I have a service to run. Thank you gentlemen."

Once they were back in the car Gil turned to Malcolm. "He was telling the truth. Or at least what he thought was the truth. I was surprised when he got the time lines on point." "Ok. So I guess that doesn't really get us anywhere. Let's go back to the station and keep doing what we've been doing until we get another lead. I want the two of you to review the gas station footage of the time stamp before he disappeared." Gil said with a disappointed but motivated look on his face.

Malcolm sat at JT's desk as he got into the footage from the gas station. "Alright. Here it is." They watched for a minute. "Okay. Roll it back and stop it there. That's when he started to leave." He looked at the time stamp on it then rolled his chair over to his computer. He googled the gas station and the times. "It's open 24-7." He rolls back over to JT's desk. "Roll back a few more seconds. Ok. Stop. Right there. He checks his phone and reads something then he starts to walk outside. Can you follow him with the other cameras on the outside of the building?" "Yeah. Just..." "Okay there." He sighed. "Of course he goes into the blind spot of the camera. How convenient. Which means whoever is meeting up with him knows how to work these cameras and where there angles are already." "So the guy who disabled them when Dani shot the cop." "Exactly. And we may just be able to see the face of the guy he's talking to. Play again." He played it. "Ok stop. Right there he's grabbing Tarp right there and it looks like he's trying to get him to his car. Can you zoom in on the guy's face?" He zoomed in. "It's him." JT said. "It's Tom Grade. Which gives us more evidence that he's our guy. Okay. Can you play a little bit more and see if you can the license plate of the car he put him in before they drove away?" "Yeah. Ok. Write this down. It's-" Malcolm grabbed a pen and paper. "Pil-1116" "Got it." "Let's tell Gil and run it." Malcolm's phone started ringing and it was sitting on the desk in front of them. It read unknown number. "Um. Let me just answer this real quick. You go ahead and fill Gil in." JT threw him a curious look as he walked outside to take the call. "Hello?" "Hey, Malcolm it's me, Dani." "Can you meet?" "Sort of. Is it urgent?" "I met this guy-" "Okay, I'll be right over." Dani rolled her eyes. "Meet me outside of Subway on West 39th Street. See you there." And the line went dead. Malcolm walked back inside to find Gil and JT in the middle of the room. "Who was it?" JT asked. "Wrong number? Did you get anything yet?" "No. But we have everyone here available running it and searching for it and where it may have last been seen." "Ok. Um-I'm gonna take lunch." He turned to leave. "You never eat." JT said. "I'm turning over a new leaf." He yelled back as he walked out the door. "Something's going on with him." Gil said. "Yeah. I'm starting to notice too."

Malcolm parked a block away from where Dani asked to meet up with him. Once he had walked to the building he saw her sitting outside of it on a bench. She was wearing a baseball cap and pretending to read the paper. "I didn't know you liked New York Times." "I don't." She said setting it down. "Walk." She stood up and started walking into the parking lot. He followed. "So basically I almost died earlier but this guy saved my life. So I was like that's cool I'll buy him lunch. At first I didn't suspect anything." "But?" "Well you remember how I said that my stalker always wore a plad orange jacket?" "Yeah." "Well this guy wasn't." "But you still think he's your stalker. How can you tell if you have never seen his face?" "When we sat down to eat he introduced himself to me and I asked him to tell me about himself but he answered "You first, Dani." But I never told him my name. He also said other things as we talked that I never told him." "Wow. That's very observant of you. I'm so proud." She rolled her eyes and gave him a disapproving look. "I don't know what Tom Grade looks like but I'm pretty sure it's not him and that he has nothing to do with the incident at the gas station." "How can you be so sure?" "I don't know I just got this gut feeling. And the way he presented himself to me just didn't feel right. Anyways. I was wondering if you could send a picture of him to this phone before I pitch it. So I can see if it's Grade or not." "And if it is? "I guess you've got your guy. If not. I think we're going to have another lunch. But this time he's paying."