Chapter 38

Jessica and Fiona had heard me say fire. They each had a hold of my arms, trying desperately to cut off my circulation.

"Jeanie, can you tell me where the fire is?" I asked.

"The front corner ... where you were, when the window was shot out. What closet are you in?"

"The hall closet with all the coats."

"The three of you?" Jeanie asked wondering how we fit.

"Yes."

The woman from the central office cut in.

"Is the door hot? Check the door handle as well, but for Gods sake, don't open the door."

"Neither are hot," I replied after touching them. "Jeanie, can you think what the three walls of this closet are up against?"

Jeanie was being asked what was going on by her husband and Tim. She waved them away, trying desperately to concentrate.

"In back is another closet. To the left, facing the door is the furnace. To the right is the ... I think that it goes to the kitchen, or maybe the back entry hall."

"Thanks Jeanie," I said. Turning to the girls I said, "Take my crutch and bang it at this wall. Bang it hard. We want to break through."

"John! That will ruin the wall!" Jessica said, not at all thinking straight.

"Jessica! The house is on fire! This is nothing compared to that and I want to make sure you get out."

Fiona already had my crutch in hand and took a swing. She didn't have much distance to swing in the cramped closet, and hardly made a dent. Jessica helped with the next try, and with both girls using their muscles the arm piece of my crutch went through the wallboard. Once the wall was broached, the following pieces came away much more easily.

Special Agent Downs had covered his mouthpiece so nothing he said was conveyed. At the house, no one knew this. As Downs supposedly asked to find the missing girl, asking her father what clothing she had on, he waited and listened.

It took great strength to not show any emotion when the communication started again, at the Black Hawk site. He covered himself after hearing that his partner had been shot, by telling Fiona's father that they had found Fiona.

Listening more to the situation, he said, "I think you may have been right. She went to a friend's house after school. The satellite images show Fiona and the other girl entering the house. They are going over the images to make sure she didn't leave. Somehow I don't think so."

"Why is that?" Antonio asked, and then added, "So my daughter is at this house with another girl?"

"The police have just arrived. Shots were fired and now the house is on fire. Do you want to come with me?"

"Hell Yes!" Antonio said.

"I'm coming as well," his brother added.

Special Agent Downs left the other agents to watch over the house. He was a bit rattled, thinking about his partner. He wanted to get over to that house as quickly as possible. On the way over, there was the question of how they found Fiona.

"I'm sure that you know about the spy satellites. They look at everything," Downs said. "All we need to do is to have them focus on something. If we were looking in that area at the time, there it is. As we were processing information on SCOPE, we had this area under surveillance. It was just a matter of having the home office look in the right areas."

Not much of this was the truth, but the Bartenelli's had no idea Special Agent Downs was fabricating this. It fit into place very well.

If there had been more time ... if there had been a driver ... if Downs had not been thinking about Agent Barnes ... there might have been more conversation. Frankly, Downs knew it was a small miracle that he made it to the house without running red lights, or any other possible collision potentials.

As soon as they parked, halfway down the street, all three were out of the car and on foot.

The police had placed a barrier up, and stopped them.

Downs, annoyed, flipped open his wallet.

"FBI," he said.

"I'll check..." the officer started to say, as Downs and the two Bartenelli brothers were already starting to make their way in. "Hey, you can't..."

Downs looked back and said, "You tell 'whoever' that we're showing up at the house, 'cause that's where we're heading."

The ambulance had come in from a side entrance and so Special Agent Downs didn't see it pick up Agent Barnes.

Everyone heard the siren as it left the scene, but it was hard at that point to tell one siren from another, as they seemingly overlapped each other.

Theresa was left with a hospital location, which she already knew, as to where they would be taking Agent Barnes.

Almost collapsing against her sister, Theresa had to pull herself together. She had been fine, up to a point. She worked on Agent Barnes, getting most of the bleeding under control. It wasn't until she heard that her daughter was trapped in the house that Theresa lost concentration.