I laughed. “It isn’t as bad as it sounds.”
“I sure as hell hope not because it sounds pretty bad.” He countered.
“Why can’t you just look at the positive side?” I tried to reason with him and set his mind at ease.
“What would that be?” He asked frowning at me.
“I got some sleep last night.”
Logan laughed and returned to his desk shaking his head. “You like to live on the edge, man.”
“I’ve got it under control.” I was justifying my behavior, even to myself.
“Yeah, okay.”
My phone rang. “Craddock.”
“Boss, it’s Jared. I think we found the teacher and the kid. We need some back up.” I jumped up getting Logan’s attention. I repeated the address out loud so Logan could map it. “Okay Jared. Stay out of sight and let me know if anything changes; we are on our way.” I looked to Logan “Grab your gear call the local PD. Jared and Steph have a location on the teacher.”
Logan was up and racing for the door. “I’ll drive.” Logan said, speaking volumes about more than just the case.
I didn’t argue. I punched buttons for the local police to provide some tactical backup. We pulled up behind Jared and Steph. I slipped out the passenger side door and crept up to the window. Stephanie was waiting for me.
“What’s the status?” I asked.
“A woman and child matching the description of our missing teacher was rushed into the house about an hour ago,” Stephanie reported.
“We sure it is her?”
“A neighbor called it in said she recognized the teacher from the news reports.” Steph glanced back at the house.
“What about the person with her.” I asked.
“Tall male wearing a hoodie. She couldn’t see his face and is not sure if it was the man who lives there or not.” Stephanie replied.
“Do we know anything about the owner of the property?” Logan asked.
“It’s a rental and the neighbor says no one seems to stay very long. She isn’t familiar the current occupant,” Jared said.
“Okay, hang tight.” I crept down the block to where the local police were waiting.
“Agent Craddock?” I nodded and held out my hand.
“Lt. Bradford,” He shook my hand “What do we have?”
“We believe the teacher and her son are inside with one suspect. It was called in by a neighbor, said the woman was rushed inside by a man wearing a hoodie. Any way we can try to get eyes inside?”
“Let me see what we can do.” Bradford offered.
“Thanks.”
The lieutenant walked down the line to a van and spoke with a couple of people. He returned after a few short minutes.
“Agent Craddock, we are going to send a few men around with scopes to try and see in any of the windows. We are also setting up a heat seeking detector to find out how many people are inside and where they are.”
“Thank you we really appreciate the help.”
Bradford nodded and walked away again. I went back up to let Jared and Stephanie know what was going on. For the moment we would have to wait. I was getting antsy. Logan was better at waiting that I was. He could sit there all day with his eyes closed and not even flinch. I think I had been living on caffeine for too many months, maybe years to be able to do that.
Finally, Bradford called for me over the radio and I was glad to get out of the SUV. “No joy on the visual. We do have three heat signatures. One maybe two in the back of the house on the first floor the other is on the second floor and moving around. I can’t say which is which at the moment. If I had to guess I’d say your perp is on the second floor.”
I nodded. “Okay, let’s get into position.”
Bradford dispatched three two-man teams to cover the sides and rear of the house, and four men to back us up at the front door.
I returned to the team. “Okay this is it. There’s one upstairs and looks like two downstairs in the rear. We can’t be sure who is who. It is likely the teacher is downstairs with her son. Jared, you take another officer and join the team that is already covering the rear. Everyone else with me.”
We jogged quickly across the street. Logan stepped up to the front door and pounded.
“FBI, open the door!” We waited for any kind of response, but not for long.
Logan stepped aside and let the PD bust open the door. Not that he couldn’t do it with the heel of his boot, but the PD had more body armor than we did, so why not? We rushed into the house. “FBI!” Logan and I rushed up the stairs, Stephanie led two uniformed officers to sweep the lower front portion of the house. Jared should have breached the back door with his unit.
“FBI! Show yourself!” I called out at the top of the stairs.
I heard a scraping sound. I stopped and looked at Logan.
“Window!” Logan answered my unspoken question. He raced towards the sound of the noise, a room at the end of the hallway.
“Logan it could be a trap!” He had already crashed through the door just as our suspect was climbing out the dormer window.
“The suspect is going out the east second floor window, hold your fire! Agent in pursuit. I repeat hold your fire!” I ordered over the radio.
Logan tackled the suspect from behind and they both disappeared out the window. I rushed after them. Glass was all over the floor the curtains were laying on the ground outside. Logan had the guy in handcuffs and gave me a thumbs up. The PD was dragging the suspect away. I turned my focus back downstairs.
“Jared! Stephanie!” I called and I raced back down the stairs.
“Clear!” Stephanie called out.
“Do we have them?” I turned to the back of the house as soon as I reached the bottom of the stairs.
