"What are you talking about Whitney?"  Sammy was trying to concentrate on his driving and his chocolate shake, while Whitnery talked to her mom & he'd zoned out a little bit.

"Sammy, I remember where i've seen that guys face before, or at least why he looks so familiar!" 

"Yea," Sammy glanced her direction for just a second, "Do tell!"

"Do you remember the FBI guy that came in to the department for some kind of research information, just after Mike got shot?"  She couldn't believe she was saying this, "It was him, well, an younger version of him?  but it was the same face!  I have to call Ben!"

"Whoa, what?  Are you sure?  We don't want to send them off on a wild goose chase & waste valuable time."

Whitney couldn't help herself & gave him the look. 

"Seriously Sammy?  When have you ever known me to be anything but serious?  I'm telling you, it's a younger version of that guy on the FBI team that came in.  What was it they were looking for, do you remember?   My head was still trying to figure out what had happened with Mike, but I remember that one FBI guy because he was better dressed than the others.  Same black suit & shoes, but a better cut of cloth & his shoes were shined.  I'm telling you, they might not be the same guy, but maybe they are related somehow.  Or maybe they just look alike for some reason, but I'm telling you there's something to it.  I'm calling Ben!" 

"you know what, I think you're right Whitney, I kinda remember that guy.    I wish I could remember his names, or any of their names.  Wasn't your guy the lead investigator?  Wait, yea, he was, it was a missing persons case, from a long time ago.  They said a child  had been kidnapped & they thought th trail had led them to Neligh, but then it went cold.  What was that guy's name?  I remember he was a jerk.  Remember, he called you a baby because you were sitting in the break room & you'd been crying about Mike & waiting to hear from the hospital when they came in."

"Yeah, Yeah,  He'd walked in & interrupted our conversation when you were trying to console me, brought me a coke or something & he said something about  how these small towns in west Texas were so desperate for help they'd even rob little girl's cradles." 

At 5'3" 115 lbs, Whitney was one of the smallest recruits to ever go through training, barely making the minimum height & weight requirements, but no one, including her big brothers doubted for one minute that not only would she graduate, but she'd make a fine addition to whatever department she ended up with. Secretly they all hoped it would be the NPD so they could all keep an eye on her & it would be less dangerous than the big cities.  But a baby she was not.

"I'm calling Ben" 

Whitney heard the phone ring on the other end, then it went to voicemail, "Ben, hey, it's Whitney, I think I might have some information for y'all.  Call me when you get this."

Whitney went back to her chocolate shake & opened up her fries to eat them while they were still sort of hot.  She started thinking about stuff while she dipped her fries in her shake, a family habit. 

Growing up with 5 brothers had toughened her some and having crazy curly auburn hair, well some times it seemed more red than auburn, she'd had to deal with more than her share of taunts from her classmates.  Only one of her siblings didn't have the McKayvile red hair & that was her little sister Tara who was a true blonde.  Dad always teased her that she was a throw back to his grandmother on his mom's side of the family.  Tara would pout & stomp her little foot threatening to dye her hair red as soon as she was grown up enough.  The four oldest boys, John, Frank, Paul & Joseph all got Dad's bright red hair, while Kevin & Whitney tended more towards Mom's darker auburn hair.  They all, even Tara, got Mom's emerald green eyes.

Whitney realized she must have dozed a little bit, or at least zoned out when she jumped as Sammy tapped her on the shoulder.  "Whitney, sorry to wake you, Chief is on the phone for you."

Whitney saw that Sammy must have taken her shake fries & propped them up in the console.   She wiped the sleep out of her eyes as she took the phone from Sammy, "Ben, I need to tell you something." 

Ben interrupted her, "No wait Whitney, not now.  wait till you get to the safe house.  I'll meet you there as soon as i can & you can tell me in person.  But not over the phone.  Also, between wherever you are now & the safe house, I want you to start thinking about who made what phone calls that you know about at the house today & if you've received any weird phone calls in the last few days.  How much longer before you get there?"

"Sammy, how much longer?"

"Maybe 10 minutes?  15 if i stop for some coffee, want some?"

"no coffee for me, but get me some more fries?"  

"Ben, Sammy said about 15 minutes.  How much longer will you be?"

"I don't know Whitney,  I'll wake you if you fall asleep before I get there.  Just so you know I decided against calling Pastor, security you know?  but you know I'll be praying & I know you will be too.  We'll figure it out, I promise & i'll see you as soon as I can, but it might be awhile." 

Whitney felt a little sadness creep in but did her best to put a smile in her voice, "Ok Ben, I'll see you then,"

Ben heard the catch in her voice, "Whitney, I promise I'll get there as soon as I can & we'll talk then.  Hey, consider yourself triple hugged once i get there ok?"

That made her smile just a little, "I'll take those hugs, & maybe a couple more?"  Ok, see you soon Ben."  She ended the call feeling a little better.

"Sammy, order me a large coffee & to go with those fries please"


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

please know you, my readers, are always welcomed & encouraged to please leave helpful hints, questions, etc.
thanks! 

(just a quick note)

Just a quick note:

• If you had already read my most recent post earlier this evening, I changed it.  Sorry, just the last few lines were changed regarding Whitney's phone conversation with her dad (& mom).  You might want to reread that part.  Sorry.

• I apologize for my delay in writing.   Going forward, it won't be every day, just once, maybe twice a week, & mostly on weekends.

Thanks for your patience.  & please if you have any *gentle* suggestions, please, i am very interested in your feed back.

Even though his nudge was a gentle nudge, Ben immediately felt Whitney begin to shake & fall.   She looked up at him just as he reached out to catch her & found a catch in his throat at the same time.  Here was this woman who was normally a rock, falling apart in front of him.  She'd been at a hundred crime scenes, many that were much more gruesome & horrible than the one in her kitchen.  
Then he realized, it was HER kitchen & after what had happened to Mike, Ginny's husband, when Mike & Whitney were called to the scene of a possible burglary in process & it ended up being Mike & Ginny's house.  The burglar had escaped after a quick shoot out before he could even get in the house.  But Mike had been hit in the chest & even though the surgeon had removed the bullet and stitched up every hole he found, 2 weeks later, Mike died.  He'd regained consciousness only once, just long enough to tell Ginny he loved her, just moments before he finally gave up fighting.  
Ben couldn't begin to imagine what thoughts were running through Whitney's brain, but he knew the woman he loved needed him now more than ever, even if he didn't know what to do or what to say, she just needed him to be there for her.
"Whitney," he whispered, "Breathe baby, just breathe.  If there's an answer we'll find it, I promise.  I'm going to put Marshall in charge of the scene & take you to the safe house myself"  
Whitney stifled a little whimper, "No, Ben, with you and Marshall working together, you'll figure it out that much faster & I can come home that much sooner.  Stay here & do your job.  Just, come find me as soon as you can."
"I will, you know I will."  & Ben gave her a gentle hug trying to not make it look like a hug since there were other officers already filing back into the room.

30 minutes & 4 bags later Sammy & Whitney were pulling away from her house in an unmarked vehicle & heading towards the safe house, twenty minutes away.
Hey Whitney, Chief gave us some money for some supper for y'all.  I know you're not much of a fan of fast food, but Chief said to drive through somewhere & pick something up anyway & make sure I see you eat something.  You have any preferences?"  Sammy looked over at her briefly to watch her reaction.  If Whitney had any reaction at all, she wasn't going to let him see it.
"hmmmm, what Sammy?" well now he knew why he didn't see a reaction she wasn't really here, not emotionally anyway. "oh yea, well not really, let's just pull into the  frosty freeze.  it should be slow right now. which means we should stand a chance of getting some burgers & fries fast & hot.  2 for each of the boys, fully loaded & double fries.  Ginny's with no mustard & mine with no mustard & no lettuce.  2 salad's on the side with french dressing.  chocolate shakes all around.  And whatever you want of course.  And don't say no, since I know you'll stay with us until Chief get's there, even with 2 guards outside & 1 inside.  In fact.  order some burgers, fries & shakes for them too"
Sammy grinned & even blushed a little since he knew that Whitney knew he had a crush on Ginny.  "Ok, fine, miss smarty pants.  I'll get you back for that one Whitney!"  He chuckled a little and was surprised when she gave just a little giggle too.  
10 years her senior, but Sammy was still a little boy at heart.  He'd been her partner since Mike died.  Sammy is professional and experienced, but at the end of the day, never let her take the job too seriously. 
"Sammy, can I borrow your cell?"
"Yea, sure, it's in the cubby"  Sammy, reached to his right & opened the cubby between them. "Hey, you're not going to call your folks or someone are you?  chief said you weren't to make any calls"
No Sammy, I just wanted to see if you had any games I could play.  Of course I'm going to call my folk's house.  Mom has probably walked a hole in the kitchen floor and Dad's picked up & slammed the old phone in his office at least a hundered times, enough to make Mom yell at him 98 times.  I'm calling them.  With your cell, not mine."
"Whitney, think about it.  Even if you call them on my cell phone instead of your own.  If someone is listening, or tracking their calls, you could still put them at risk.  Chief has sent an unmarked car over there, partly to pick up Ginny & the boys, but also with instructions to let your dad call my cell from the officer's phone.  That should be safe enough, if you talk for just a couple minutes, just enough to reassure your dad you're ok, that's all.  Just be patient ok?"
"You're right Sammy.  It's just so frustrating.  None of it makes any sense.  It's like looking at all the puzzle pieces inside the box & when you look at the front of the box to see what the picture looks like, but there's no picture.  So, now all you have is a bunch of pieces you have to put together, without anything to guide you.  If even one piece is missing, you may never get the puzzle put together or know what the picture looks like.   Right now we seem to be missing a lot of pieces!"  Whitney felt herself beginning to shake again.
Sammy noticed her agitation so when he spoke he spoke slow, quiet and soft to calm her down with his voice.  A trick they'd both learned in their police training for talking to suspects and victims.  
"Yea, but if anyone can find the missing pieces you know our team will.  First things first.  Let's pull in here to the Frosty Freeze and get us something to eat"
"Sammy?"  
"Yea?"
"I want 2 chocolate shakes please?"
Sammy laughed, "You got it Whitney!"
They didn't talk again until they had the bags of food in the bag seat, Whitney and Sammy had their chocolate shakes in their hands and they were back on the road, on their way to the safe house.
"Let me ask you something Sammy, was it just me or did that guy remind you of someone?"  
"How weird you would say that Whitney.  I thought it was just my imagination.  Everyone was busy and when I was helping the CSU team with the victim, I just kept thinking there was something oddly familiar about his face.  Like, I know him, or I've seen his face somewhere before, but I can't quite remember where.  Definitely weird."  
"Ok, so either we've both seen him somewhere before, or he reminds us of someone.  Is it his mouth, his eyes, his hair? What is it?  No ID, but what do we know about him Sammy?  How tall would you say he was?"
"mmmm, 5'10", maybe 6', hard to tell since he was crumpled up on the floor like that.  Did you see his suit?  100% silk.  Designer shoes.  Not your typical burgler for sure."  
Whitney had to stop sipping her shake for a moment, "right, I'd say he was just a little older than me, but not as old as you."
"Hey, now watch it girl!"  He smiled at her.
"C'mon , you know what I mean," she smiled back, "And did you see that ring on his right pinkie?  It looked like it could have paid for my house twice over.  But I didn't see a cell phone or any kind of stuff most rich people have in their pockets.  Of course, we don't really know what was, or wasn't in his pockets.  But he might have left all of that in his car."
"Maybe, I don't recall seeing any strange vehicles in the neighbourhood, did you?"  
"No, but I wasn't really thinking about that at the time.  He could've taken a taxi too, but there wasn't any taxi waiting around in the area either.  But if he'd asked the taxi driver to wait for a few minutes and then he didn't come back out the driver would have just left.  With only one taxi company in town that should be easy enough to check out."  Whitney took a big gulp of her shake. "I also noticed his cuff links, they were real silver & monogrammed with the initials K.M.  It might take a few days before we find a missing persons report to match his initials and description.  but someone should report him missing pretty soon..  He looked like someone people would miss."
Whitney jumped a little when Sammy's phone rang.  "Sammy here.  Yea she's right her just a minute.  Whitney, it's your dad, be quick about it ok?"
"Yea, thanks Sammy.  Dad, hey, I'm ok, How are Ginny and the boys?  How's Mom?"
"They're good Whitney.  How are you, really, how are you?  Where are you guys going?"
"Dad, I'm fine, honest.  And you know we can't say where, but it will be a safe house, with guards.  I would never let anything happen to Ginny or the boys"  (she realized how odd that sounded now that she'd said it out loud, since it was her home where the body was found).
"You know your mom is coming unglued.  Do you have time to talk to her?"  
"Only for 1 minute Dad, and I mean it, just a minute."
the next voice she heard was her mom's "Whitney, sweetheart," Mom always started out all sugary sweet then, "WHAT is going on, and you'd better tell me the truth because you know I'll find out eventually anyway and you know, well you just better tell me the truth!"  
"Mom, all I can tell you for now is I'm safe, but we just can't go home tonight and we can't stay at your house either.  It's going to be ok Mom.  I promise.  But I have to go now, so the officer's there can bring Ginny and the boys to the safe house."
"Whitney, I ...."
"Gotta go Mom, I love you and I'll call you as soon as I can."
"Just tell me you didn't get shot like Mike did"
"Mom, I didn't get shot,  I'm not in an ambulance and I'm talking to you aren't I?  I have to go Mom."
As Whitney hung up the phone and took another sip from her shake, she was already thinking about something her mom had said, "
you didn't get shot like Mike did",  like Mike did? 
"Sammy, I think I know where I saw that guys face before!"