Unnatural Disasters

Virtue In Politics

Angel knocked on the door to Senator Sarc's house. 
"What are we doing here exactly?" Charles looked at Angel. Angel knocked again and began tapping her foot impatiently. 
"We're going to basically interview him, where he was during the time, find out what his agenda is so if this is a political stunt we can determine who might've done it." Angel spoke quickly. The door opened revealing a disheveled Andrew Sarc. He quietly invited the two in, recognizing them from their pictures in the paper. "Mr. Sarc I am terribly sorry about what is happening. I was hoping me and my colleague could speak with you to gain more insight." Angel said professionally. 
"Of course. Anything to help find my daughter. Please sit, I'll tell you anything you want to know." Sarc said shakily. He appeared to be extremely upset. Which Angel guessed she could understand, she doesn't know what it's like to have a daughter though. Charles and Angel sat down on the couch across from him. 
"Mr. Sarc, where were you when your daughter was taken?" Charles said, trying to remain as sympathetic as possible. 
Sarc sniffled and wiped his nose with a tissue, "I was in my office, Delilah was playing in her room. I thought she was safe, I didn't know someone had taken her.." Sarc put his head in his hands. 
"Do you have any security measures?" Angel would cross her legs and hold her hands together.
"I have an alarm system, but my security company says it was disabled by some sort of jammer. Why can people buy those things?" Sarc gripped the edge of his seat.
"Sir, I have to ask, but do you have any enemies?" Charles looked at him apologetically. 
Sarc scoffed and rubbed his face. "I'm a senator, anyone who doesn't like my agenda is basically an enemy." Angel would look around the room, there was a family photo on the fireplace that looked a couple of years old, but no recent photos of Sarc and his daughter. There was paintings and all sorts of artwork covering the living room walls. The furniture looked antique. Angel could tell Sarc was extremely materialistic. She guessed if she walked into Delilah's room, it would be filled with presents and stuff Sarc had bought her. Charles looked at Angel for guidance in what to do next. 
"Do you mind if I call one of my colleagues to inspect your daughter's room? We wanna be able to re-examine the abduction site." Angel looked at Sarc with a completely blank face, she was trying to anger Sarc by not treating Delilah's case with an ounce of humanity. Sarc just nodded. 

Diego paced back and forth behind Kyle's chair. 
"Could you stop please?" Kyle would spin around in his chair to face Diego. Diego looked at him with an incredulous face. 
"You're hogging the computer! What else can I do but pace and worry?!" Diego scowled. This case was making the entire group tense. Kyle scoffed and rolled his eyes
"You should've said something! I'd much rather be burying myself in books than this crap." Kyle stood up and stormed out of the room. A couple of policemen were huddled together and watching the fight. They looked among each other.
"These guys are the geniuses that are gonna solve this?" One of them said, unconvinced. 
Diego sat down with a huff and began scrolling through the pages. This guy wasn't very popular, he had pretty conservative beliefs. Not to say he had it coming or anything, but he wasn't a very open-minded Senator. Diego immediately questioned if anyone opposing him would go for his daughter. It just didn't make sense. Things weren't adding up. Maybe they did have to worry about a stranger abduction. If so Hajime was their best hope at finding some solid evidence to nab the abductor. 

Hajime knocked on the door, Angel had called him to look through Delilah's room with her. Sarc quickly let him in and they got straight down to business. Angel and Hajime walked up the stairs, stopping in front of Sarc's office, which was down the hall from Delilah's room. 
"I find it really hard to believe Sarc didn't hear anything." Hajime looked at Angel in disbelief. Angel sighed. "I didn't notice anything in his behavior to suggest he had anything to do with it. 
"Aren't senators like, good at lying or something." Hajime continued down the hallway to Delilah's room. 
"I think you're thinking of lawyers." Angel walked behind him into the room. Like the rest of Sarc's house, things were neat, had their place. Appearance was important to the man. Delilah had sports trophies and medals all over her walls and shelves. She was pretty decorated for a 11 year old. "Wouldn't you normally see stuff everywhere and in disarray?" Angel sat down at Delilah's desk and turned on her laptop. 
"Yeah, normally there are signs of a struggle. Which is especially weird considering Delilah plays sports, she's not typically the kind of person that would go quietly." Hajime shrugged. 
"Maybe our guy knocked her out." Angel guessed a few passwords, she got the third one right. 
"How'd you figure that out?" Hajime squinted at her before turning to the window and inspecting it. 
"It was 'ihatemydad' weak password but there's signs of it all over her room. She got stains on the wall which he obviously tried to paint over and cover up. Plus the stickers on her computer are very derogatory towards dads." Angel went through Delilah's search history and email to make sure she wasn't in contact with any strangers over the internet. Hajime would glance outside the window, there was a platform on a tree and a large enough branch that lead to the window. 
"Someone could've accessed her from here, but I find it hard to believe a grown man or any normal sized adult could easily get in and out of this tree. Besides there's no scuff marks on the window seal, the stuff near the window isn't disturbed. I don't think they came through here." Hajime crossed his arms, Angel narrowed her eyes, that was odd. Sarc leaned in the door frame. 
"I cleaned up after the forensic guys left." He said defensively. Hajime whirled around, anger crossed his face. 
"You did what?! Do you know how important it is to leave everything exactly how it is?! You know what kind of danger your daughter could be in all because you couldn't possibly bear the trauma of having a messy room in your oh so perfect house?" Hajime was upset because this kind of mistake could possibly hinder their ability to find Delilah. Angel put a hand on Hajime's shoulder and guided him out of the house. 
"Charles, stay here, keep him company. Don't take your eyes off him." Angel said quickly before leaving with Hajime. Charles scratched his head confused at why their moods changed so suddenly. 

Diego stood up and went to one of the officers. "A senate meeting was cancelled because of this?" The officer nodded. "Can I talk to the communications liaison?" The officer pointed him in the right direction. "Ma'am, what was the senate meeting about?" Diego would interrupt whatever she was doing. The lady snapped her head up and stood up. 
"I'm sorry?" 
"Oh, my bad. I'm Diego, I'm one of the consultants brought in to help with the Senator's daughter's case." Diego held his hand out. She shook it. 
"I'm Lin Smith, nice to meet you. The senate meeting today was about passing a bill on education reform." 
"Ok, was Sarc's party for or against that?" Diego asked.
"Sarc's party was half and half, but Sarc himself was against it." Lin responded. Diego thanked her and ran out, he had to go find someone that wasn't on Sarc's party. 
"Hey pretty boy." Diego walked into the room where Kyle was. "I need your help." Kyle got up to assist him. Despite their differences they still needed to find the girl. He helped him locate one of the party members and contacted him through email. They basically discussed Sarc, obviously the opinion was biased but it still offered them insight.
Angel and Hajime walked in.
"If it is a stranger abduction, we're screwed because the guy cleaned up all the evidence that forensic's might not have picked up. And let me tell you, there was not much evidence from them either." Hajime sighed in defeat and sat down. 
"Well I don't think we need to worry about that. Hear me out, because it might be a stretch. People against Sarc wouldn't have benefited from kidnapping Delilah, the meeting today was in favor of their ideals, not Sarc. And based on what the liaison said, they were going to pass the bill." Diego glanced at Kyle. 
"The meeting was cancelled, which means they prolonged the passing of the bill. If they did happen to be exposed for kidnapping Delilah, it would only hurt them, not help them. They didn't need to kidnap Delilah for anything on their agenda." Kyle would fiddle with his fingers. 
"You guys think Sarc planned for his own daughter to get kidnapped?" Hajime said with a hint of disbelief. He knew some dad's didn't love their kids, hell he had first hand experience. But it just didn't seem to click that someone could do something like that to their child. For political bullshit. 
"I don't know, he seemed genuinely concerned." Angel looked at them. "If we accuse him, we're accusing a Senator, do you guys know what that means?" 
"We don't have to accuse him yet, the only way Sarc can completely benefit from this is if he exposes them, so he's going to get Delilah's 'captors' to slip up and make a mistake so he can expose them as working for the opposite party." Diego sounded sure of himself. Angel didn't have any other leads so she was going to have to give this a chance. Chief Bens walked in just then.
"So what have you guys got?" Bens asked hopefully. All three of them looked at Angel. 
"For now, with the information we have, we need to do nothing." Angel said in a very matter-of-fact manner. Bens scoffed. 
"Seriously? You guys are joking right?" 
"Sir, with all do respect, never think that I'd joke when a child's life being in danger." Angel glared. Bens would sigh and walk out to go inform his officers. 

An hour later they got what they had been nervously waiting for. Two of the officer's came in with two men in custody, as well as a very scared looking little girl. Bens walked to the group. 
"These guys came in and confessed everything when they were caught. Sarc was right, the other side was out to get him." 
"Take everything the say with a grain of salt." Diego said to Bens. 
"Put them in separate interrogation rooms and have none of your officers speak to them. Don't call Sarc yet." 
"But he deserves to know his da-" Bens began, Angel cut him off with a piercing stare. She walked past him and knelt down in front of Delilah. 
"Hey Delilah, I'm Angel. Me and my friends have been looking very hard for you. Do you need a glass of water? Or some snacks?" Angel asked Delilah with a calm voice, Delilah shook her head. "I want you to go with my friend here, he's going to keep you company while we go get your father." Angel narrowed her eyes, Delilah reacted slightly when Angel mentioned her father. Kyle guided Delilah to the empty conference room. "Hajime, let Charles know what's going on, Diego come with me." 

Angel and Diego walked into the room. Diego sat down in the chair across from the abductor. Angel crossed her arms and leaned against the wall. 
"So let's start with your name." Diego joined his hands together and propped them up on the table. The guy rolled his eyes. 
"I already told the police everything."
"Answer the question." Diego said, unwavering. 
"Greg Nicholas." Angel was amused, two first names. 
"So you said you were told by some Senator's on Sarc's opposing party to kidnap his daughter for money. Do you have proof they asked?" Diego raised his eyebrows. 
"Yeah, on my laptop there's some emails and you'll see our bank accounts had some money wired to them." Greg wiped his cheek on his sleeve, he was sweating. 
"Drop the story Greg. Sarc already broke his deal didn't he? He said the police would never know it was you right? But they did, and now you have no choice but to go with his story because all the evidence had already been planted. You're hoping you'll get a better chance with your sentence if you cooperate." Angel walked around the table while she talked. 
"I'll cut you a deal, whatever prison you want in this state. Kidnapping is a third degree offense, you get two to ten years. I can get you three years, chance of parole. Sound good?" Greg nodded. "Just tell me the truth." Angel gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder. Greg spilled exactly what happened and what Sarc told him to do. 
"So you'll get me that deal right?" Greg seemed hopeful. 
"Of course not, you conspired for money at the expensive of an 11 year old girl. You deserve whatever the judge decides to give you. In fact, I think I'll try to convince him to give you a longer sentence." Angel and Diego walked out the door. 
"You know his confession won't be enough." Diego looked at Angel. 
"Yeah but Delilah's confession will be." She headed up to talk to Delilah. 

The five of them walked out of the court house with Delilah, her mom was waiting in the parking lot. Delilah's face lit up and she ran up to her mom and hugged her. 
"Thank you so much, Andrew had friends in that area, I never stood a chance of getting custody." Delilah's mom almost cried. Delilah went to go wait in the car. 
"Our pleasure." Charles smiled at her. The media was racing over to get statements from them. Angel urged her to get in her car before they caught up. She watched them drive off, satisfied. They then turned to face the media. This case was definitely a good one.