The Unsub:

Author's notes: First I want to start off by saying that while I do own my dog (don't tell him that) I don't own anything to do with CBS, Without A Trace, any of the characters or anything along those lines.

Second, while I have researched locations and for the most part have described approximately their geography and relation to other places, I make no guarantees to the accuracy of the information within here, remember, this is a work of fiction.

Third, I've used some technical terms relating to driving routes, maps, the FBI as well as some medical type situations, again, most of what I've picked up is either from a brief search on the internet, reading one too many true crime novels, watching TV and while I have driven some of the roads depicted within, it's been many years and the atlas I used is almost eight years old, so again, nit pick on the details if you like, but you're only ruining the fun for yourself. 

Fourth, I'll admit that I've read one too many true crime novels in the past couple of months which is where the seed of the idea for this story came from, but I developed the story on my own and where I got lost, side-tracked, missed important parts, skimmed the surface on important moments or forget big details Silvia, my friend, beta and muse for this piece put me back on track, offered her unflinchingly honest critique (which I'll never be able to assure her enough was not taken by me as anything other than honest and necessary and completely welcome feedback), offered suggestions and pointed out some timeline inaccuracies to keep me and thus all of you on track.

Fifth, (and congratulations to all of you who have endured this lengthy preamble and are still with me at this point) this story is pretty dark, at times disturbing and, although the violence that is discussed inside is not graphically portrayed as if it is occurring, there are times where the descriptions are very clear. There are mentions of rape to women, as well as descriptions of crime scenes.

Thank you for staying with me on this page-long opening.

Without further blathering from me, I present:

The Unsub

Chapter 1:

Monday May 7th. 2007.

MPU Office 11:00 a.m.

12 hours missing…

"All right. The husband is on his way in. He indicated that his wife never came home from her shift last night. She works as a nurse at Mt. Sinai Hospital and her shift is over at 11:00 p.m. She's usually home by 12:30 a.m." Jack was standing in the bullpen while his team sat at the small table in the middle of the room. He pulled the woman's picture from the folder he was holding and turned to pin it on the whiteboard.

"When did he become concerned?" Vivian asked as she studied the woman's picture.

"Police said that he indicated he usually hears her come in but their three-year-old daughter has been sick lately and between his job and her job they've both been tired caring for their daughter and working long hours, and he just slept through until his alarm went off at 6:00 a.m. this morning. When he woke and realized Barbara wasn't there, he checked the house but there was no indication she had come home. He called the hospital to see if she had needed to work over and was told she clocked out at 11:00 p.m.

By the time he called the police and gave his report and called family and friends and so and so forth…"

"We get the call and 12 hours have already passed." Elena finished the thought.

"That's right. Martin, I want you and Danny to head to the hospital."

"Got it, Jack. We'll check security cameras as well as co-workers." Danny got up and grabbed his coat.

"The second shift comes on in about four hours, those we don't get a hold of by phone by then will be coming in to the hospital, and we'll interview them when they arrive." Martin stood next to Danny and waited for the rest of the assignments to be given.

"Great." Jack turned to Sam and Elena. "I want you two to head to the subway station. The husband said Barbara catches the subway a few blocks from the hospital and takes it to the end of the line at the Eastchester/Dyre Avenue terminal. Vivian, I need you on the financials, phone records and background. I'll interview Jim, the husband, as soon as he

gets here."

With the assignments set the team split up and headed out.

Subway Station 12:00 noon at 96th and Lexington:

Elena and Sam left the manager's office behind the ticket counter.

"Just our luck their cameras are down. We have no footage to show if Barbara was being followed when she got on the train."

"And none of the workers that were on at that time are here right now. At least the manager was able to confirm that her pass card was used here and at the terminal at the end. What do you say we take a trip to the Eastchester/Dyre Avenue stop and see if their cameras are working there?" Elena looked at Sam.

"Sounds good, let's go." The two agents exited the station, returned to their car and while Elena drove, Sam dialed Vivian and updated her on their progress.

MPU Jack's office:

"Mr. Harrison, please sit down, thank you for coming in." Jack stood as an agent escorted Jim Harrison to his door.

"Has there been any news. Have you found Barbara?" Jim Harrison continued to stand in Jack's office and his head turned taking in the activity across the hall in the bullpen and then scanned the papers on Jack's desk.

"Please, sit down." Jack indicated the chair and then, after Harrison sat, he took his seat.

"We haven't found your wife yet. I've got agents at the hospital reviewing the security footage and interviewing coworkers as well as I have two other agents at the subway station."

"What can I do to help?"

"First of all, why don't you tell me everything you know – " Jack held up his hand as he saw the flash of irritation coupled with distress cross Jim Harrison's features.

"I know. It seems like we're wasting time, but it really is helpful for me to hear you tell me exactly what you told the police, so please. When did you know something was wrong?"

"Well, like I told the police, normally I hear Barbara come in. It's usually around 12:30 when she gets home. Last night though, we've both been so tired, Katie, she's our daughter, she's been sick, just a spring cold but she's been coughing and stuffed up and well you know how kids are –" He paused for a moment and Jack nodded with a small knowing smile.

"Anyway, we've been taking turns each night and last night was the first night Katie didn't wake up and I – I guess I just didn't either because the next thing I know my alarm is going off at 6:00 a.m. I shut the alarm off and that's when I saw that Barbara wasn't in bed with me. I thought maybe she was in with Katie since I hadn't heard Katie at all through the night but, when I looked, she wasn't there. I went downstairs and she wasn't there either and her car wasn't in the driveway.

The train station is about two miles from our house and Barbara drives to the station, leaves her car and catches the train into the city. But her car wasn't there and all the doors were locked and everything was on as I left it the night before, even the outside lights and the light I leave on for her in the kitchen. I knew she hadn't been home."

"Okay. Um, where's your daughter?"

"I left her with Barbara's mom. She lives a couple houses up from us. I talked to her, too. She hadn't spoken to Barbara since the day before. She wanted to come down here but I told her it was best if she took care of Katie and stayed home. I – I don't want Katie upset if there's no need."

"That was smart. Okay. Mr. Harrison, I'm going to go through some standard questions with you, and it's important you just answer my questions. I promise I'll explain everything to you but you need to know these are standard questions that we ask everyone."

"Okay."

"Okay. Have you had any strange phone calls at the house lately?"

"No."

"No hang ups, or calls that, when you answer the phone, no one is there?"

"Nothing."

"All right. How about any people knocking on the door asking directions or realizing they have the wrong address?"

"No, nothing."

"Seen any strangers in the neighborhood? People hanging around?"

"No."

"Okay. How about strange vehicles passing slowly back and forth?"

"Again, no. Look, I can figure this out for myself. No strangers at our house, Barbara hasn't said anything about anyone following her or anyone harassing her at work. She hasn't had any weird phone calls."

"Okay. That's fine, you're doing fine. What about your marriage, everything good there?"

"Yes, everything is fine, I don't understand –"

"Mr. Harrison, I know some of these questions are going to be unpleasant, but I assure you I need to ask these questions. The better understanding I have of Barbara's frame of mind, her routine, how you two communicate the better and faster we'll be able to do our job."

"I understand, I just – I love my wife. We're not perfect, but we've been married for seven years now and we have one daughter and – Barbara left for work yesterday at 1:30 like she always does and she hasn't come home. I just want my wife. Please, please find my wife."

Jack saw Vivian indicating to him outside his office. He nodded slightly and then turned his attention back to Jim Harrison. "My whole team is working on it. Listen, I'm going to have an agent take you to a waiting area while I confer with one of my colleagues. I want you to wait there and think back over the last couple of weeks. If anything comes to mind no matter how small or how simple it appears, I want you to jot it down." Jack gave him a pad of paper and a pen. "I'll come get you as soon as I have some more information for you."

Standing up Jack walked around his desk and opened his office door so that Mr. Harrison could exit the office first. He walked Mr. Harrison past Vivian to the reception area for the unit and waved over an agent to take Mr. Harrison to the waiting area. Then he turned back and met Vivian who was waiting for him.

"I just hung up with Sam; she and Elena are heading to Eastchester/Dyre Avenue terminal. Seems Barbara Harrison's subway card was used to clear the terminal where she parks." Vivian's gaze rested briefly on the retreating form of Jim Harrison as he followed his escorting agent to the waiting area.

"Okay. That's good, anything from the boys?"

"Not yet. I'm sure as soon as they review the footage we'll get an update. I let them know what Sam and Elena are doing so they're going to try and see if it looks like anyone was following or harassing Barbara. Now, I've done a preliminary scan of their financials, everything looks normal for a two-income family with a young child living in north Bronx. I'm waiting on phone records and credit card records which should be in –"

"Agent Johnson." Vivian stopped as a fellow agent approached and handed her a folder. She thanked him for the file and flipped it open.

"Well, phone and credit card records are here now, so I'll get started on these." She turned away from Jack and headed to the table in the bullpen.

"I'll give you a hand."

Mt. Sinai Hospital: 1:00 p.m. Security Office:

Martin and Danny were sharing a small table that had been cleared for their use and were finishing watching the security footage that had been provided for them. They watched the black and white footage of the side entrance of the hospital labeled for employees only. On the screen the door opened and about 20 people streamed out the door.

"Freeze it, Martin." Danny leaned forward and peered intently at the screen. "Yep, there she is. Time code is about right, 11:15 p.m."

Martin jotted down a note and then continued the footage. It showed the people passing out of the camera view. "Okay. We're going to need this footage as well as identification on all of those people who left with her." He turned to the security manager who, along with the assistant manager of Human Resources, had been tasked to accompany them.

"I'll get you this tape and we should be able to put together the list of those employees fairly quickly. Most of them appear to be wearing nursing uniforms so, Linda, if you could take it to Nursing Administration –"

"You bet, Rich. Can you print me that picture and I'll head down there now and start getting names and phone numbers." The security manager nodded and hit the print screen button and the printer in the corner hummed to life.

"That would be great, ma'am." Danny spoke up. "Can you also find out if any of those people are going to be working today and, if they are, arrange that when they come in to work that they meet with us first but don't tell them why we need to meet with them."

"Okay." Linda answered slowly. "Why don't you want us to say anything?"

"Ma'am, it's just standard procedure." Martin spoke evenly and met Linda's eyes straight on. "When we ask them about leaving with Barbara, we want their first impressions, their first recollections of how she seemed, if anyone seemed unduly interested in her or out of place, anything like that. If anyone mentions to them before we get a chance to talk to them that she's missing and we're going to be asking them questions, then they'll start sifting and sorting through their memories and coloring their impressions or worse, discarding observations or impressions because they don't want to appear alarmist or foolish."

"Yes, and that could hurt our chances to find Barbara quickly and safely." Danny finished. Neither agent explained the other reason for not alerting the people in the picture they wanted to talk to them: if any of the people on the screen were part of Barbara's disappearance, they didn't want them alerted to the fact that the FBI was there asking questions.

"Oh, that makes sense." Linda appeared mollified. "I'll just tell their manager that we have a new security procedure that we want to go over with people who use that door." With that Linda got up and left taking the printed image with her.

Danny turned back to Rich, the security manager, "Would it be likely that she would walk the four or five blocks to the station?"

"Nope. Usually several of them share a cab to the station or if they do walk, they go in groups."

"Okay. Do you have any footage from any other angle that would show us people catching a cab together?"

"Yeah, there's another camera that shows the area on Madison Avenue where staff get cabs and would show them walking down the block.

Martin and Danny watched as the next piece of footage appeared on the monitor in front of them. They saw Barbara Harrison and two other staff members hail a cab and share the ride to the station. Danny got a copy of the image printed and added it to his folder. He and Martin would want to interview those two people to see if either remembered anyone following them or approaching them. Checking his watch he guessed that Sam and Elena would be at the terminal by now and would have an update shortly on whether there was any footage. Until then, he and Martin were at a slight pause in their activity until they got names to go with the faces of the people that shared Barbara's cab.

Eastchester/Dyre Avenue Terminal, Bronx

Sam and Elena pulled into the terminal parking area and got out. They were greeted by a man who introduced himself as Captain Kelley.

"Glad for the help. My men already talked to the manager of the terminal and pulled the surveillance tapes. There's not that many people coming through at that time of night so it was pretty easy to see her on the video footage. Doesn't appear that she was worried about anything or that anyone was paying any special attention to her, but whatever happened to her happened here. Her car is still in the lot."

Sam and Elena exchanged looks and then followed Captain Kelley through the terminal parking area to where a police cruiser was parked behind a dark blue Jetta.

"Once, Mr. Harrison told us he was headed to your downtown office to be interviewed, we figured we'd canvas the lot just to be thorough, glad we did."

Elena spoke up, "Her subway pass shows she exited here and now you have the footage as well to verify it. Are there any cameras that cover this part of the lot?"

"Unfortunately no. They're planning on upgrading their security in the lots but haven't had the opportunity or the funding to do so yet. There's good lighting and this woman was savvy enough to park under a light and in the direct path from the exit of the terminal to her car, still nighttime is a dangerous time."

"Have you searched the car, yet?" Sam was peering through the windows and didn't note anything out of the ordinary, a car seat in the back, various toys and children blankets were scattered on the seat and a coffee mug sat in the cup holder, looked normal.

"Not yet. I just updated your Agent Malone and he informed me you two were probably almost here so I decided to give you a few minutes before I popped the locks. Now is as good a time as any." Captain Kelley turned and nodded to another officer who had been standing quietly by observing the conversation, within seconds he popped the front lock and then triggered the trunk release.

Taking a breath Sam reached forward with a glove covering one hand and gently lifted the trunk lid.

Inside the trunk was a folded up stroller, a couple of jackets for the changeable late spring temperatures and some empty plastic water bottles. A further search of the vehicle turned up nothing of any material value to the investigation.

"We'll have it towed to our station and have it processed, but I'd say Mrs. Harrison never made it to her car." Captain Kelley summed up.

"I'd say you're right." Sam answered and then turned back to look at the terminal entrance wondering what had happened in the 100 or so feet from that door to this car that caused Mrs. Harrison to disappear.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the squawking of Captain Kelley's radio.

Elena and Sam stood quietly and listened to the radio exchange recognizing the codes that flashed over the airwaves.

"Roger that. I'm en route now." Captain Kelley answered the call and turned to look at the two agents. "I'm afraid we may have found our missing woman. If you'll both follow me, it's only a mile or two from here."

Leaving the one officer behind to wait for the tow truck, Captain Kelley and Agents Spade and Delgado drove through the streets to a small park that was bursting with springtime scents and colors and life. A small gathering of people up near a duck pond directed them to their destination and within moments all three stood just inside a newly taped off area just out of earshot of the few people that were gathered gawking and trying to see and understand what was going on.

Behind some bushes and just in front of the duck pond, out of sight of casual passers by was the nude body of a woman. Her eyes stared straight up sightlessly, her neck was grotesquely angled leaving little doubt that it had been broken, evidence of ligature marks around her throat spoke of strangulation and blood was dried between her legs hinting at violent sexual assault.

One look and Elena and Sam knew without a doubt their missing person had been found. Elena stepped forward to examine the body more closely but not touching it since the medical examiner was not yet on sight while Sam pulled out her phone and called Jack.

Sadly this case was over for the team but its effects would never be over for the family and friends of Barbara Harrison. What neither Sam or Elena, nor anyone else on their team knew was that this case would mark the awakening of something far more sinister and hit a lot closer to all of their lives than they ever suspected.

TBC….