[MD4, 8:00AM, Scranton airport]
"Still worrying about the Richardson boy," Kate asked Newt. The team was waiting at Gate 2 with Agent Cohen for his flight back to New York before heading to the other end of the airport to catch their own flight home. Kate had noticed that Newt had been a bit preoccupied all morning.
"A little, I guess," Newt replied.
Kate nodded. "Well, I got a phone call last night that might interest you. From Docker," she said. She glanced up when she heard the ringing of a telephone coming from the vicinity where the rest of the team was sitting with Cohen, then looked back to Newt. "He said that Logan and his mother are in Los Angeles, with relatives. If he’s telling the truth, they shouldn’t be too hard to track down. I was thinking about making a few phone calls when we get back, but I’m going to have so much paper work to get through.."
Newt grinned. He saw right through her attempt to cheer him up - it was, after all, extremely transparent - but it seemed to be working anyway. "I suppose, if you want, I could make those phone calls for you," he offered.
"I appreciate that, Newt. Thanks." She patted his shoulder and went to rejoin the group, where she was struck immediately by the expressions on their faces, which ran the narrow gamut of stunned to shocked. She looked at each of them in turn, including Cohen who was presently talking on September’s cell phone, trying to determine if it was a good shocked or a bad shocked. "Dare I ask," she said finally.
"That.." September began. "That was Agent Lundgren on the phone. Apparently, the New York office just got the report that Cohen had been in the hospital here, and he got my name from them. Lundgren just turned up at the office this morning."
"What?"
Flynn suddenly sat up a little straighter and a look of inspiration crossed his face. He turned to Sharlyn. "Do you still have the number for that family back in Forksville, uh, the Houghs?"
"I think so," Sharlyn said. She reached into her carry-on bag and looked for her notepad, while Flynn pulled out his cell phone.
Meanwhile, Cohen handed September’s phone back to her. "He doesn’t remember a thing," he said. "Couldn’t even figure out why everyone was so surprised to see him. Like the last five days are just gone."
The boarding call for Cohen’s flight came over the loud speaker. Cohen stood up, shook hands all around and thanked everyone for helping him. He walked off toward the gate, then stopped, turned around and shook his head. "I wonder how much I should tell him. How much he’ll believe." He walked away.
Flynn, who had been on the phone through all the good-byes, hung up and gathered his things. As the team made their way toward the other side of the airport and their flight back to DC, he told them what he’d learned. "The Houghs got a phone call this morning from their daughter. She told them that she and her husband had just gotten home from their honeymoon. Said they had a good time, except their dog got lost."
"They don’t remember being abducted, but they remember.."
"Driving to Florida, just like they planned," Flynn said.
Back to mission logs.