Robbery In Progress

*Emma*

The interview rooms at the PD were basically just interrogation rooms with a nicer name and more comfortable chairs that lacked those loops for handcuffs. Other than that, exactly the same. It didn't have that two-way mirror thing that you see on tv because that would be too obvious.

Instead, each room had small cameras in each of the corners at the ceiling. Those cameras fed back to a room across the hall where everyone monitored from.

That's where I assumed Kelsey, Matty, and Drew were going to be. Not seen or heard, but there regardless.

I shut the door behind me after finally walking into the room. Sarah was reading a magazine that most likely came from the lobby. That was probably the only form of entertainment she could get her hands on at the moment since their phones were still in evidence. Joe appeared to be drawing in a sketchpad, but he stopped when I entered.

"Emma," was all he said. The announcement had Sarah looking up too. I wasn't exactly sure what they were going to look like, or what I was expecting when this moment finally came. Yet I wasn't surprised in either regard. This was so *them*. I didn't even have the words to explain it.

"Joe. Sarah. It's nice to finally speak with you in person."

"Did you find my mom, yet?" Sarah's eyebrows scrunched together in worry, but her voice was steady. Any doubts I had about her inner strength disintegrated in that moment.

Grabbing her hand as I dropped into the seat across from her, I made sure she was looking at me when I replied, "no yet, but we are going to find her." I glanced between her and Joe. "I need your help, though."

"We already told those other guys everything we know," Sarah protested, withdrawing her hand from mine.

I shook my head, "I'm not looking for your statement of events. I have pointed questions that may seem unrelated or pointless. But I promise you, the answers to these questions could help us find her mom. Bare with me."

Joe was looking at me in awe when I turned to him, almost like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "I was a negotiator for almost thirty years, I'm sure you know that by now. I've seen a lot. A lot of people on their worst days, and a lot of negotiators doing their best to get everyone out as quickly and as safely as possible. There's no one quite like you, is there?"

His comment caused me to smile, "we will have plenty of time for flattery later. Are you ready for my questions?" They both nodded. "Okay, first question, did Jason every talk to you about his personal life? About what he needed the money for?"

Joe shook his head, "never to us. He mostly talked to the other men he hired."

"Okay, what was their role in all of this? Why did he hire them?"

"He said it was for the extra muscle, but they seemed more like bodyguards, security guys, or something."

"That's good. That's really good. Okay, do you know the name of the company these guys work for? Or where he hired them?"

A silence fell in the room as they thought that over. I waited them out, hoping something would spark if we sat there long enough. They spent four months with these guys, at some point something had to have slipped through. "Actually, yes." Joe finally spoke up. "They didn't do a lot of talking. But they were with Jason when he, uh, collected us from Boston. So I would imagine he hired them here in New York."

"Why would Jason venture all the way to Boston for you and Sarah? What's the backstory there?"

"We met him once before. A few years ago, shortly after I retired actually, we came to New York for a family vacation. It was such an insignificant conversation for me that I didn't even remember it. He reminded me of it later on." Turning, I glanced up at one of the cameras for a second. Attempting to process this information. Jason met Joe and his family in passing a few years ago, whatever interaction they had must have made an astounding impact on Jason for him to remember it when all of this came up.

"That was really good. Thank you both. I'm going to come back but I have to go follow up on something." Dashing out of the room, I rushed over to the room across the hall, where just as I suspected, they were all waiting.

"Two things." I held up my hand, ready to count them off. "One, how long was that organized crime investigation? Or rather, how long was Jason a CI for it? Two, has anyone looked at Jason's financials?"

"We did a general sweep to see where he's sitting with debt and things but we haven't had time for a deep dive." Matty responded and I nodded.

"We're going to need to make time. Because now we know his henchmen were hired by him in New York. Which means we might be able to find Samantha and possibly Jason before it's too late. And on a less time sensitive note, we need to figure out how long he's been planning this. If it's an off the cuff decision made after we broke promises, it's likely that he's holed up somewhere in the city. But if he's has months or years to think about this, he could already be on the run and we might never catch him."

"I'll call organized crime and see what they'll tell me," Drew offered. "Lawson and Collins, why don't you work on his financials? And you, Harrison, keep asking them seemingly unrelated questions. They clearly know more than they think they do."

I nodded in response and started to head out of the room after Drew and Matty but Kelsey pulled me back.

"About yesterday-" she started but I cut her off.

"Not yet, okay? I want to talk about that but first we need to handle this."

"Right, of course. Work first. Got it." She headed out of the room and I sighed. I am totally fucking this up, yet I can't seem to stop myself either.