Page 36 of Possession

Chapter 21

Joseph

“This collar is burninga hole in my pocket.”

Nat was friends with a Dom whose submissive crafted stunning, one-of-a-kind collars and sold them online. A week ago we’d made an appointment with her to discuss designing one for Madeline. I’d picked it up today. We weren’t planning on presenting it to her immediately, but one day soon she was going to wear it. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind. She was the one for us. I knew she continued to hold back a piece of herself, but we were patient men. Well, I was anyway, although Nat was learning.

Madeline had changed him. Gone was the angry man walking around with the weight of the world balanced on his shoulders. He was learning to cope with the fact that bad shit happened, and he couldn’t always save everyone. It was a weary weight he carried, but Madeline was making him realize that he didn’t have to carry it alone.

“She’s not quite ready for it yet. Almost. Just not yet.”

My eyes widened in mock surprise. “Did I hear you right? Is this the same man who bulldozed his way into a private meeting between the Assistant Director and the Deputy Director, because he was tired of waiting out in the hall?”

Nat shot me the finger as we waited for the elevator in the lobby of the office building where Madeline practiced on the fifth floor. “Fuck off, Crocker,” he cursed good-naturedly, making me laugh. “I’m working on my patience. For Madeline.”

The elevator dinged and its doors opened. I stepped in behind him and pressed the button for Madeline’s floor. “You’re doing surprisingly well if I’m being honest. I never thought I’d see the day when we’d find the right submissive to mellow even your temper.”

Nat’s grin flattened and his expression turned serious. “I’m at peace when I’m near her. All the chaos around me disappears and I can just… be.”

The bell dinged for her floor and I smacked him lightly on the shoulder before giving it a light squeeze. “I know the feeling, man.”

We stepped out of the elevator and headed toward Madeline’s office midway down the hall. That’s weird. My steps sped up when I noticed the waiting room door open. It was always shut when we got here. Nat followed suit.

“Fuck,” he shouted, both of us whipping out our sidearms when we saw the condition of the room. Magazines lay scattered everywhere and the couch cushions were half falling on the floor. With our guns at ready, we swept the room.

“Madeline?” I called out, even though I knew she wasn’t going to answer. “God damn it.”

The waiting area was clear, her office the same. Nat holstered his weapon when I gave the all clear.

“Get on the phone now and get me those surveillance videos,” I directed as I returned to the hallway to scan for any other signs. I swept my weapon from side to side, pausing at each door I passed while I scanned the hallway. I paused for a moment at something on the wall. Son of a bitch. It looked like blood, but the forensic team would need to make a positive ID.

Nat appeared at my side. “The ERT is on their way. IT is working on getting the feed, but they said they’re having a challenge. It looks like there was a jam in the signal. They’re doing the best they can. Is that blood?” There was a hint of panic in his question. Something I couldn’t remember ever hearing from him.

“It looks like it, but that doesn’t mean it’s hers, Nat.”

“We can’t lose her.”

“We won’t. That’s a promise. Right now we need to focus on keeping our shit together. We need to treat this like any other case. Let the team process the scene and use what they find, which means we wait for them to get here.”

* * *

Forty agonizing minutes later,the same ERT and IT team that had processed Madeline’s house arrived. While we waited for them, we’d run down to the lobby where Agents Campbell and Evans were stationed. I was pissed at myself for not forcing the issue when Madeline wanted them to remain in the lobby, saying that they would intimidate her patients. None of us thought Casanova would make his move in such a public place. I took full responsibility for this happening. I’d never forgive myself if something happened to her. Unfortunately, neither Campbell nor Evans could give us any information. We instructed them to remain until the two teams left in case we needed them for something.

The ERT began the arduous task of dusting for fingerprints, taking the scrapings of what we thought was blood off the wall, as well as packaging strands of hair. They were painstakingly thorough in their task. It was taking forever, but I didn’t complain because the more diligent they were in gathering the evidence, the better chance we had of finding Madeline. The IT guys, on the other hand, were running into more challenges.

Kurt’s fingers were flying across his keyboard, his eyes darting back and forth on his screen trying to make sense of the scrambled feed he kept getting. “Damn, this guy is good. He knows his stuff that’s for sure. Every program I run is coming up against a roadblock. This is going to take some time. However, I think I got a hit on a surveillance video across the street. This convenience store has been robbed several times so a couple weeks ago they installed some extra cameras. One of them points directly at this building. They’re new enough that I don’t think anyone even realized they were put in.”

Trying not to get my hopes up, I stood behind Kurt as he pulled up a video feed. I checked the time stamp and it was just past sixteen hundred thirty hours. Nat’s focus was on the same screen as we watched people entering and exiting the office building. The picture was grainy due to the low quality camera, but it was better than nothing.

“Wait, go back. Look, there, in the alley.” Nat pointed a finger at a small area on the right side of the screen. Kurt clicked a few buttons and the video rewound before another click of a button had the video playing again. I homed in on the area he was directing us to.

“Stop.”

The frame froze on the screen.

“Can you zoom in or pixelate that thing?”

Kurt glanced at Nat. “Pixelate?”

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