Griffith and the Four sat in the stark meeting room of the arrow.
The Hart kids had been sighted and they'd vanished again.
Those children could ruin all they'd worked hard for.
There were secrets to be protected, people whose names needed to be kept clean from some certain ugly businesses and it fell to them to guarantee that.
Now with the documents being still in lord knows where, and the only clue to it's location vanishing, they were in a difficult situation.
The voice on the phone which the men had put on speaker didn't find it funny that they had turned up empty handed after all the resources she'd put into ensuring the end of that paper trail, aka, document.
"We're widening our search" Griffith said grudgingly softly in reply to the woman's angry tone.
She was not someone they could afford to piss off as she had power, and also personal dirt on each of them.
Nope, even as the men were angry at being admonished, they had to play cool and avoid unnecessary trouble, especially trouble with the woman. It was still time to keep playing nice.
Play nice until they had the upper hand.
"well I don't care if you turn the entire country upside down, find them!" she yelled.
"it's a search on foreign soil madam.. and unauthorized too....it could get messy if it links back to Britain" Shaun said calmly, his usual stick of cigarette between his fingers.
The woman pondered this for a while, slowly churning it over in her mind.
They were right. Attention would mean more trouble, inquiries, investigations and could uncover what she'd been stressing herself so much to protect.
"as I've said earlier, we're going through the entire neighborhood where they were last seen and we'd have them in no time"
Griffith stressed.
" you had better do... and soonest" the woman finished and dropped the call.
The men released a breath the moment the woman dropped the call.
"well at least she didn't use any threats today"
Shaun said grimly.
Griffith eyed him without a word.
"what about that police officer" asked William, thinking of a way out of the situation.
He didn't have an idea of what he was getting himself into when he signed up for this. All he wanted was more money, power, respect and rep.
He'd thought he'd only signed up to get into the family only to discover that the entire murder business went well deeper than a feud between Adam Hart and the men seated at the table.
They didn't trust him yet and he understood.
In these kinds of circles, trust and loyalty had to be earned, but he was slowly figuring out a thing or two about the entire matter.
"what about him?" asked Barth, brows raised.
"he could be made to help. Traffic cams and the sort. He's got access"
Glint's eyes sparkled with understanding.
"the officer is a strict book....you can't get him to do anything dirty even a billion dollars wouldn't sway his mind.
Now the chief on the other hand, now that's a different matter. He'd do anything for a few bucks" Glint said, pinching his beards with his thumb and index finger.
Shaun wasted no time in calling the chief.
The arsehole of a chief was glad to be of service. More assignments meant more money to him and at this rate, retirement was going to come early.
After getting the promise of a result from the chief and providing details about the last sighting of the kids to the chief, Shaun hung up and walked directly to the bar where he poured himself a glass of whiskey and downed it in one gulp. Only cigarettes and the damn thing helped to calm his nerves.
He was getting tired of this cat and mouse game. They were just children for crying out loud! yet they were more slippery than eels.
He squeezed the glass in his hands so hard it shattered.
Only when he heard the sound of breaking glass did he jump out of his thoughts and into reality.
Others were staring at him brows raised.
He opened his mouth to speak but the sound of his ringing phone shut him up as he glanced at the caller ID.
It was the arsehole of a chief....well that was pretty fast he thought.
Shaun put the call on speaker.
"we found their trail. Traffic cam on Fifth end showed them getting on a bus at 8... we're tracking the bus license plates as I speak" there was background noises and another voice was heard then the chief came back on.
"Found the driver...were on our way to him now.."
"very good Chief... Keep this up and who knows...you might make commissioner someday" Shaun said, stepping round the broken mess of his few minutes ago complete glass"
"Thank you sir...I'll keep you posted" the chief said in ecstatically, swelling with pride and click the line went dead.
"about time... some good news" Barth muttered, miraculously not typing away at a tab or a phone today.
**********
Yousef called in early at work today only to find the police at the lobby, inquiring after him.
He was an illegal immigrant who'd managed to secure a Job as a bus driver, using fake documents he'd gotten through his friend who provided cover and means of income for people like him.
The moment he saw the police, he got spooked and ran like a mad bat.
He was given chase and eventually caught, thanks to the stupid rocky grounds of the San Jose bus dispatch terminal.
The officers grabbed him and slammed his face on the nearest flat surface, which was a bus yet to be cleared for dispatch that morning.
They made sure his wrists were in an uncomfortable position behind his back and one of them cuffed Yousef to his own wrists, leaving Yousef no means of escape.
His bolting plans were ruined as the officer had one of the cuffs on himself.
There were two of them.
"what do you want from me....I didn't do nothing" he said, mumbling out the words as the side of his face was still pressed to the bus surface.
The officer sharing the cuff with him whirled him around and positioned his arms in the space between Yousef's neck and chest.
"relax Yousef...we just want a few words the second officer said, patting Yousef's shoulders.
Yousef wasn't buying it and eyed him suspiciously until the officer reached into his pockets, produced a photo of three children and positioned the photo in his face.
Yousef reached out with his free hand and grabbed the photo from the officer.
He squinted his eyes and stared for a long time at the photos but their faces came up blank in his memory.
"nope, never seen em" he said, shaking his head, his heart rate finally dropping back to normal.
When he'd first seen the police men, he'd thought it was over for him and he was going to be deported and it turned out they only wanted to talk about missing kids.
He was immensely relieved.
"take a long hard look at the photos again....you picked them up at Fifth end. Where did they get off?" the officer asked again.
"I'm telling you man ... I haven't ever seen them"
"look again" the officer said, pulling out his black shiny standard issue pistol, and flaunting it in Yousef's face.
Yousef swallowed hard.
He searched the corridors of his memory for any recognition of the children.
When the officer leveled the gun at his head, Yousef's memory got really inspired and decided to release the information.
"yes... Yes I remember now. A teenage girl and two kids. She looked like one of those people who carried around a lot of internal baggage"
Yousef said, nodding his head like a lizard that had just eaten a filling lunch and was cooling off in the sun.
"where did you drop them off at?" the officer cuffed to Yousef questioned.
"st James MN. The stopped at the bus station close to Atlas bank" Yousef replied.
"Good man" the second officer said, tapping his shoulders.
The officer cuffed to Yousef fished his pocket for the keys and released him.
Yousef flexed his wrist and massaged it the moment he was released.
The officers walked away without bothering him further, the officer who had cuffed himself to Yousef produced his phone and made a call as they walked, Yousef just stared at them as they walked away.
He would still live here a lot longer.
They hadn't figured him out yet.
**********
The entire st James MN had people crawling over the area discreetly in a matter of minutes.
They sat in coffee shops, as normal patrons in salons,doors were opened and shut. Before evening neighbourhood gossip brought about a location, a dilapidated building.
It was a small neighborhood. Gossip was an easy way to get info.
There'd been sightings of children coming from the building so with the information relayed, they made their way to the building.
It was searched thoroughly yet no trace of the children was found. The trail had run cold.