Chapter 1
"Woods! Blake! My office! Now!"
"What the hell?"
Lexa furrowed a brow and looked at Bellamy, her partner of three years, but he only shrugged. Usually their Captain wasn't in the business of shouting at them. Something weird was going on. Bellamy got up and walked over to Gustus' office, Lexa followed suit.
"Close the door." Gustus sat behind his desk, that was always messy, and looked at them.
"We have a case and I have to know if you're up for it. It's a kidnapping."
"A kidnapping? Isn't the task force more suited for this?" Bellamy looked at him.
"I agree, but the situation is a bit delicate and the two of you have been explicitly requested."
Gustus' eyes reached Lexa who kept silent. She had a bad feeling about this.
"Maybe you should sit down."
Lexa shook her head. "I prefer standing, Sir, if you don't mind."
Gustus just nodded.
"As I already said, the two of you have been requested by the father of the victim. He says he knows you and trusts you and he has some kind of pull with the Commissioner, so ..."
"Sir, who are we talking about?" Lexa thought Bellamy's voice sounded just a little bit shaky. Almost as shaky as she felt.
"Senator Jake Griffin."
"Lex, are you okay?" Bellamy took his eyes of the road for a second and looked at her with concern. Lexa just nodded.
"Listen, I don't know why Jake thought it would be a good idea to ask for us. We are clearly not objective."
Lexa stared out of the windshield.
"That's why he asked for us. Because he knows we are not." Her voice sounded strange in her ears. "He knows we are not going to tell him what the protocol is. He knows we will do what is necessary to get her back."
They drove in silence for a while. When they reached the Griffin residence Lexa had instant flashbacks to happier times. Times spent with Clarke, in love with Clarke. Good times, before she had messed it all up.
Bellamy drove though the big gate and up the driveway. The house was huge. The Griffin family had been living here for generations. They were, as you might call it, “old money”. Lexa came from a different background. She had never met her father and her mother had died because of her drinking when she was only a little kid. From then on she had been a foster child with everything that fact entailed. The Griffins never made her feel out of place though. Actually she had never felt more welcome anywhere and still she had been the one to walk away from all of it. She had walked away from Clarke.
She opened the car door and got out. The entrance was exactly as she remembered it: three steps up to a gigantic green wooden door with a knocker that had absolutely no function, but to look intimidating.
Bellamy watched her. He knew her and he knew Clarke. They never talked about the fact that he frequently saw her, because his little sister was one of Clarke's closest friends. He had always tried to be a neutral party and that's why they got on as well as they did.
"Are you sure you're okay? We could always tell Jake to use the task force instead."
She looked at him. "Would you really walk away from this?"
He just gave her the hint of a smile. "Of course not."
He rang the bell. "Let's get our princess back, shall we?"
Jake Griffin opened the door himself. He shook Bellamy’s hand and looked at Lexa for a little while before he simply reached out and embraced her.
“Lexa.”
“Jake, I’m so sorry.”
He looked tired. “I really wished these were better circumstances, but it’s good to see you.” He smiled at her, a sad smile, then he motioned for them to come into the living room.
Lexa took a look around. Everything looked exactly the same, everything but the man sitting on one of the sofas. He seemed to be tall and he was good looking, but in need of a haircut. Jake looked at him.
“Finn, this is Lexa and you know Bellamy.”
Lexa felt Bellamy’s apologizing glance on her so she guessed that Finn was Clarke’s boyfriend. He got up and shook her hand.
“I’m Clarke’s fiancé.”
Fiancé. Lexa felt something sting inside of her, but she just smiled at him.
“Nice to meet you, Finn.”
She turned to face Jake.
“Jake, I probably should make it absolutely clear that it would be the logical thing to involve the kidnapping task force in this. But I know that you are an intelligent man and you obviously made up your mind about this, so we shouldn’t waste any time. I see that they already put a wiretap on your phone?”
Jake nodded. “Your boss insisted on that.”
“Okay. So tell me what happened.”
Jake sat down on the sofa and motioned for the others to join him.
“Clarke is in her last year of residency at the hospital. Yesterday she had a late shift and was supposed to meet us for breakfast today, but she never showed. After a few hours and several missed calls Abby and I were afraid something had happened to her so we went to her apartment, but she wasn’t there. When we arrived back home we found this on our doorstep.”
He reached for an envelope on the small table next to him. Lexa took a pair of gloves from her pocket and put them on, then she took the envelope and opened it. Inside there was a piece of paper. It was nothing special, just ordinary paper with text printed on it.
“We have your daughter. If you want her back alive, have one million dollars ready and wait for instructions. No police.” So much for eloquence.
Lexa took out the other item the envelope contained and suddenly she was very aware of the light shaking of her hands. It was a photograph of Clarke, tied up and gagged on a cement floor, staring pleadingly into the camera.
Lexa looked at the photo for a good amount of time, but couldn’t make out any further details.
“Anything else since then?”
Jake shook his head. “No.”
Lexa gave everything to Bellamy who put the items in an evidence bag.
“How many people touched the envelope?”
“Only Abby and me.”
Bellamy nodded.
“Okay. The good thing is that they want something from you. As long as they don’t have it, Clarke is safe. What about the money, Jake? Do you have it?”
“I already instructed Kane to get it. He brought it over an hour ago.”
“Good.”
Jake looked at him.
“Does that mean, we are going to pay?”
Bellamy got up.
“What it means is that we have options. I will go back to the precinct and make sure the lab works on the letter as fast as they can. I will also go and check the hospitals security cameras and the ones in Clarke’s building. Do we know how she was supposed to get home?”
“She wanted to take the subway. Her car broke down a couple of days ago and it’s still in the shop.” Finn looked at Bellamy.
“Okay. Then I’ll check those cameras, too. Lexa will stay here in case they call.”
Lexa got up, too.
“Find Monty and tell him to help you. He’s the tech whiz. If anyone knows how to speed things up, it’s him.”
She walked Bellamy to the door. “One more thing, Bell. Call the Senator’s office and find out if there were any threats in the last weeks.”
He looked at her. “Why?”
“I don’t know yet. I just have a hunch.”
He nodded. “Okay.” He was already opening the door when he started to speak again. “Listen, Lex, I’m sorry, I didn’t tell you about Finn.”
“Never mind, that is none of my business.” Even for her that sentence came out too fast.
“Just tell me one thing: Is he good to her?”
Bellamy thought about it one second and decided to give her an honest answer.
“I don’t know.”
“Abby?” Lexa knocked on the door that led to Clarke’s old room. There was no answer. She knocked again and opened the door. Abby Griffin sat on Clarke’s bed hugging a pillow. She was staring out of the window. Lexa stood in the doorway and watched her.
“Abby? Jake told me you were here …” There was no reaction and Lexa considered leaving the woman alone when she turned towards her.
“She always loved this house, you know?”
Lexa nodded. “I know. I loved it, too.”
“And we loved you. Why did you leave, Lexa?”
Lexa wasn’t prepared for this conversation. She never thought she was going to have it, let alone now. She tried to be honest.
“I needed to figure out my life, Abby. On my own.”
“You could have done that, Lexa. We wouldn’t have stopped you. Clarke wouldn’t have …” She started to cry.
“Abby!” Lexa sat down next to her and put her arms around her. In this very second she felt tired. Here was Abby Griffin, Dr. Abby Griffin, who had always been strong and proud and frankly a little intimidating, crying her eyes out.
“Abby, we are going to find her. I am going to find her. I won’t let anything happen to Clarke.”
Lexa knew that she couldn’t promise this. She knew there was nothing she could do right now, but she still meant it exactly the way she said it. She wouldn’t let anything happen to Clarke.
That’s when she heard the phone ring.
Clarke was hyperventilating. Her heartbeat was fast and she felt dizzy.
“Breath, Clarke. You can get through this.”
Of course of all people she would hear Lexa’s voice. She always heard Lexa’s voice during panic attacks. Lexa, who would help her to focus and breathe like she had always done.
Clarke had always had panic attacks or at least she had for as long as she could remember. There was nothing extraordinary that had caused them, nothing traumatic. Nothing like this. She almost giggled at the weirdness of this thought.
The gag in her mouth made it harder to breathe, but she tried to focus again, focus on Lexa’s voice. After a while breathing became easier and her heart slowed down. Clarke closed her eyes.
She didn’t remember anything; just that somebody had been there when she left the hospital through the back door. That somebody must have drugged her, because the next thing she knew was waking up on a cold concrete floor with her hands and feet tied up. She wondered how he could have known that the back door of the east wing was the exit she used after night shifts, because it was closer to the subway station?
She saw her kidnapper when he came to take her picture. She guessed that it was for her parents, to make sure they knew she was alive. The man wore a mask, which in Clarke’s book was a good thing. He didn’t want to be recognized so killing her probably wasn’t part of the plan.
She tried to move her hands a little to help with the blood flow, but the bonds were pretty tight. There was nothing for her to do, but to lie here and wait.
Her dad would be freaked out by now and her mum … Clarke knew that the image of the cool Dr. Griffin often was nothing but a front. Her mum cared deeply about people and without her “business persona” she probably would break down.
Clarke asked herself if Raven and Octavia knew about her disappearance. If O knew she would be furious that she couldn’t do anything and Raven … Raven would probably think about who or what to blow up.
And Lexa … what would Lexa do?
After a long while Clarke realized that there was one person that hadn’t been on her mind at all. Finn. What was that supposed to mean?
Lexa ran downstairs and arrived just in time to start the call trace. She motioned for Jake to take the call and put it on speaker.
“Jake Griffin?” The voice was distorted, of course it was.
“Yes.”
“If you want to see your daughter again, you will put the money in a bag and drive it to 112 Eames Street. You will find a burner phone under a bench. I will text you the other instructions. You will not bring your phone or any kind of weapon. You have 10 minutes.” The phone went dead.
Jake’s eyes went wide. Lexa looked at him.
“Give me the money and your car keys.” She took her phone from her pocket and gave it to Jake. “Call Bellamy and tell him what is going on.”
“What? No, Lexa, I am supposed to bring the money.”
“Jake, you have no idea what is going to happen and you may be a United States Senator, but you are not a cop. Let me handle this.”
“But …”
“There is no but. You didn’t want the task force. You wanted me. Now trust me.”
Jake looked at her, but it was Abby who answered.
“Bring Clarke home, Lexa. Please!”
“I will.”
She put the bag with the money on the passenger seat and placed her gun in the glove department. This wasn’t how this was supposed to go down. She should have had Bellamy at her side, but she would manage. The car was nice, a black Mercedes. She started it and drove down the driveway and onto the street. 10 minutes weren’t much to get to Eames Street so she stepped on it and was lucky: She made it in 9 minutes and found the bench. The phone was there. It blinked.
“12 Trochadero Drive. 6 minutes.” Lexa drove. After six further messages that had her driving all over town she was sure that Bellamy wouldn’t find her, but that was probably the idea. The last address was a dead end in a shady area. Lexa stopped the car and waited. The phone vibrated. “Get out of the car.”
She took at deep breath and opened the car door.
The hooded man came from a doorway to her left. He pointed his gun at her.
“Who are you? Where is Griffin?”
“My name is Lexa. I am a friend of the family.”
“Fuck this shit! You’re a cop!” He seemed to be nervous.
“Rest assured that I am not.”
He seemed to think. Lexa thought about her options. She could try to take him out, but he had a gun and she didn’t know if he had a partner. Even if he didn’t, she couldn’t be sure he would tell her where Clarke was. Her best play was to wait.
“Do you have the money?”
“Yes. It is in the car on the passenger seat.”
“Give me the car keys.”
Lexa threw them at the man who caught them.
“Step around the car and walk down the alley. Don’t try to interfere or I will shoot you!”
Lexa did as she was told. Behind her she heard the car door close and the engine start. She cursed. He would drive away. There was no tracking devise and her gun was in the damn car. She heard the Mercedes back out of the alley and turned around. The second it was out of sight Lexa ran. When she arrived at the main street she could still see the black car driving north. She only had one chance. She jumped into the middle the street and hoped that the driver that was approaching had a good reaction time. Fortunately he had. He stopped the car, tires screeching, and started to scream at her, but she didn’t care. She just knocked him out of the way and stole the car. Just like that Detective Lexa Woods was in pursuit.
Cage drove carefully. The black Mercedes was a nice car, but it was also expensive enough to be considered flashy in his part of town. The last thing he wanted was to be stopped by some cop for speeding. It took him twenty minutes to reach his destination, an old warehouse on the outskirts of town. He drove the car around the last corner and stopped. Only then he opened the bag next to him to take a look at the money. It was all there. Cage grinned. There was only one thing left to do.
Lexa stopped the car and got out. She would go the rest of the way on foot. After rounding two corners she saw the black Mercedes parked close to entrance of the old warehouse building. She looked around and didn’t see anyone. She tried the passenger door. It was closed. She considered breaking into the car to get to her gun, but knowing Jake it probably had an alarm and she really needed the element of surprise. She made her way to the entrance and tried the door. It was open.
It was pretty dark inside and her eyes needed a moment to get used to it. She heard voices though.
“I am really sorry that I have to do this, love. I would have liked to play with you a little, but I get paid and I need to keep my customers happy.”
The man laughed and there were muffled cries. Lexa followed the sounds.
“I really like the fact that your daddy gave me an extra million, but I’m afraid, it won’t do you any good.”
The man stood with his back to Lexa. He was pointing the gun at Clarke who was staring at him, her eyes wide with fear. He was clearly going to shoot her.
Lexa launched. She managed to push the gun upwards, so as he fired he only took a shot at the ceiling. There was plastering raining down.
He was surprised by her attack, but he was obviously also a professional. He hit Lexa in the face, but she still managed to hold onto the gun. They wrestled for it and just when she thought she had lost it, her finger somehow was on the trigger and she shot him square in the chest.
His eyes widened. Blood bubbled from his mouth. Then he fell. Lexa fell to the ground with him, her hands still on the gun. She lay still for one more moment then she checked his pulse. The man was dead.
She took a deep breath and turned around to tend to Clarke. She took out the gag and took Clarke’s face in both of her hands.
“Clarke, are you okay?”
Clarke just stared at her as if she couldn’t believe Lexa was there.
Lexa looked for a knife or anything sharp and finally managed to find an old army knife in the kidnapper’s pockets. She cut the ropes around Clarke’s ankles and hands and started to massage her wrists to start the blood flow. Clarke was still staring at her, so Lexa stopped.
“Clarke? Please, say something.”
At that precise moment Clarke Griffin collapsed into Lexa Woods’ arms.
“Lexa!”
The car stopped in front of the Griffin house and Lexa was forced to wake up Clarke, whose head was resting on her shoulder. She really didn’t want to. Having Clarke so close did something to her. She felt herself softening.
Bellamy turned around in the driver’s seat to look at them.
“We are here.”
“I know.”
“Do you want me to wake her up?”
“No, Bell, it’s okay. I’ll do it.”
He got out of the car to give them some space.
Lexa put her hand on Clarke’s cheek.
“Clarke? Clarke? Hey, sleepy head. We’re here.”
Clarke mumbled something. Before she had even realized what she was doing Lexa bent over and kissed Clarke’s forehead. “Hey, come on. Wake up.”
Clarke opened her eyes.
“What?”
“We are here. Are you ready?”
Clarke nodded. Lexa got out of the car and held the door for her. "Lexa ..." Just when Clarke started to speak all hell broke loose.
“Clarke!” Jake was the first to run out of the house and hug his daughter, Abby and Finn close behind. When he was finished with Clarke he put his arms around Lexa. “Thank you, Lexa! Thank you so much!”
“There is nothing you will ever have to thank me for, Jake.” She looked at him and then at Clarke who was still in her mother’s arms. “She didn’t want to go to the hospital. Have Abby check her, please?!”
Jake nodded in agreement.
“Aren’t you coming in?”
Lexa shook her head. “I think it’s better to leave you guys alone. I will be by tomorrow to follow up on some questions though and Bell and some of our colleagues will stay over if that’s okay with you?”
“Why?”
Lexa looked at him. “Just something that the kidnapper said. Something about a customer. I have the feeling that this wasn’t ‘just’ a kidnapping.”
When she saw his face she gave him a small smile.
“Don’t worry. Bell will make sure you’re safe and I’ll be there tomorrow to talk things through.”
He nodded, then he bent down and put a kiss on her cheek.
“Don’t you ever be a stranger again, Lexa.” With that he turned and told his family to come inside.
Lexa saw Clarke look at her before she vanished inside the house. She knew that Finn had seen it, too. He came over to her.
“Thank you for bringing my fiancé home, Lexa. I will take care of her now. Don’t worry, she is safe now that I am here.”
He smiled at her and left.
“What a douche!”
Bellamy dangled the car keys in front of Lexa.
“Trust me, if he tries to get too close to her tonight, I will personally kick him out.” He laughed and left her standing in the driveway.
Lexa stood there for a while longer, then she got into the car and drove home. She was sure that this was not the end of it.