There needed to be a way to find Jessica and figure out which of the two women had snuck into the other Safehouse. Brighton just needed to come up with a plan to draw out the real culprit.
The only idea he had was to use Maggie as bait, and he didn't like that idea very much. He needed to come up with a unique plan, one that didn't put one resident in danger. He decided to talk with the group to come up with a plan that would work, and they would all be comfortable participating in.
Brighton called a house meeting, and everyone came into the living room to meet. As everyone became comfortable, Brighton began the meeting.
"We need to come up with a plan to catch whichever of the two women, Madeline or Jessica, broken into the house and has been causing all of this chaos," he said. "I have one idea, but I don't like it."
"What is your idea?" asked Maggie.
"We use you, Maggie, as bait to draw out our culprit." He answered. "It's dangerous, but it could bring out whichever of the two women is behind all of this mess."
"I'll do it!" Maggie answered as soon as he stopped talking. "If it will help catch the bad guy, I'm in."
"WHAT?" said Amelia and Andy simultaneously.
"I'm willing to do it if it helps us solve this now. I'm ready to be of help." She replied.
"It could be dangerous. I'll try to make it as safe as possible, but there is still a chance that something could go wrong." Said Brighton.
"No, I think I should be the one to draw them out. They seem to be after me, after all. They are mad at Maggie, but they want me." Said Andy.
Brighton and Maggie turned and looked at him. Amelia, who was standing up on the other side of the table, sat down suddenly. They were all dumbstruck by his assertion that he should be the one to have a target on his back.
"It makes sense. Whoever it is wants me. Wants to keep me away from Maggie. Wants me for themselves. I should be the one to be used to draw them out."
"He's right." Said Brighton.
"I don't like it, but I agree," Said Maggie.
"I think there should be some other way to draw them out, putting no one at risk." Amelia replied as she stood up again and paced. "We should be able to do this by risking no one's life!"
They argued for a while about various options that did not require anyone to put their life on the line, but none of them were viable. Finally, they decided Andy would be the bait to trap whoever from his birth family was behind the chaos.
Their plan involved Andy going unaccompanied to a dental appointment; this would give the perpetrator time to act, assuming the police observed the area unseen.
Brighton worked with his team back at the station to put everything in place so they could send Andy into action in two days. The dentist's office, closed that day, would be staffed by police officers. Everyone Andy came in contact with would be from the police department, except the perpetrator.
The next problem to solve was how to make sure Madeline and Jessica found out about Andy's appointment without directly telling them. Maggie suggested Brighton bring Madeline in for some additional questions and have a note on his desk where she could see it with the information about Andy's appointment. That way Madeline would get the information without being told.
The next morning, Brighton invited Madeline in for another conversation on the pretext of gathering more information about Jessica. He wanted to know when she had last talked to her daughter and the last time she had seen her. Madeline said she hadn't seen or heard from her since before she met with Brighton the first time. He thought she was lying.
Halfway through the meeting, there was a knock on the door. Someone needed Brighton in the bullpen for a moment. He left Madeline alone in his office, where she would have a chance to look at his desk and see the note about Andy's upcoming dental appointment. When he returned, she was standing up looking down at his desk and he knew the first stage of the trap had worked.
Now they just had to wait for the next day for the second stage of the trap to be sprung. They scheduled a team meeting for the afternoon to brief everyone, including Andy, again on their roles. They wanted to ensure everyone understood their roles and expectations.
Andy was nervous but excited to work on ending this nightmare. If his birthmother or twin sister were behind this mess, he wanted to know and he wanted it stopped. He wanted to get on with his life and get to know Maggie in a setting that wasn't supervised by the police twenty-four hours a day.
At the team meeting, the police fitted Andy with a bulletproof vest and informed him that a tracker would be attached to his shoe. That way, if anything were to go wrong, and the perpetrator kidnapped him, they could track his whereabouts with it. They were doing everything they could to leave nothing to chance.
After the meeting, Brighton drove Andy back to the new Safehouse. They made one stop on the way back to pick up pizza for dinner for everyone. The two men knew everyone was feeling anxious about the next day's plans and decided a little treat was called for.
Upon their arrival with pizza, pasta, garlic bread, and soda, the house celebrated Brighton and Andy as heroes. No one had been in the mood to think about what to fix for dinner, let alone cook it. So pizza and pasta were the perfect surprise. It was just what they needed.
The conversation while they ate was light. No one seemed to want to talk about the next day's operation. Andy had taken to calling it operation family feud in his mind. He had told no one else that, so he told them at dinner. It got a good laugh.
After dinner, Maggie pulled Brighton aside and asked him if he was sure that Andy was going to be safe. She didn't like not know what was going on and not being able to help. In her line of work, she was a helper. She always knew what was happening and what needed to be done. And more often than not, was the one making sure it got done. This sitting around waiting, was not something she liked very much at all.
"We've done everything we can to make sure that Andy is going to be safe tomorrow." He told her softly. "I want nothing to happen to him. Or you or Amelia, for that matter. I do, however, want to catcher whoever is behind all of this craziness."
After Brighton left for the evening, the residents of the Safehouse called it an early night and they all headed to their rooms. Maggie got ready for bed but couldn't sleep. She tried reading for a while, but her attention span was so short that reading was not working to help her fall asleep.
After an hour, she abandoned her attempt to sleep and went into the living room. The two officers on duty were playing cards at the dining room table and they greeted her with a little wave. She settled in on the sofa and turned on the TV, keeping the volume low so as not to bother anyone.
Maggie channel surfed for a few minutes, then settled on a rerun of the Gilmore Girls. It was a fun show that took her mind off of her worries. In the episode she was watching, the young daughter had broken up with her boyfriend and was heartbroken but didn't want to talk about it with her mother. Everyone in town thought the boy in question was a villain for breaking her heart. The girl's mother confronted the boy and found out that he had professed his love for the girl and she had said nothing, and that was what lead to their breakup.
The next thing Maggie knew, the sun was coming up, and she had fallen asleep on the sofa while watching TV. Two new police officers were sitting at the dining room table reading the morning paper and Ripley was curled up at her feet on the sofa.
Maggie checked the time, and it was 5:45 am. She got up and fix herself some breakfast and fed Ripley too. The food for both dogs was sitting together, so Maggie set out food for Ripley and Max at the same time.
As if drawn by some magical force, Max came sauntering out into the living room just as Maggie finished putting his dish on the floor, followed by his human. Andy looked like he had not slept well and really needed a cup of coffee.
"Shall I put the coffee on?" asked Maggie from the kitchen.
"Oh, yes, please!" replied Andy, as he made his way into the kitchen. "I feel like dirt this morning. I did not sleep well last night. I kept having weird dreams."
"You were probably just nervous about today." Said one officer at the table. "A big operation like this one will give anyone a case of the nerves."
"Especially a civilian, like you Andy." Said the second officer. "It's totally normal."
Andy just smiled and nodded at them as he waited for the pot of coffee to finish brewing. After pouring his first cup, he went to the fridge and looked inside, trying to decide what to have for breakfast.
Maggie was making some scrambled eggs and bacon and offered to make enough for everyone if he would start making some toast. Andy popped some bread in the toaster and pushed the leaver down to get it started.
Just then Amelia came out of her room looking like someone who had slept the sleep of the peaceful. Maggie and Andy just stared at her. Her refreshed appearance annoyed both Maggie and Andy.
Amelia got herself a cup of coffee and then set the table. Maggie had asked the officers if they wanted some breakfast, too, but they declined. It was just to be the three of them for breakfast this morning.
Scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, orange juice, coffee, and butter were set out on the table for the three residents, so enjoy. Everyone ate, but no one really had an appetite. It seemed they all had a case of the nerves.
The morning went by slowly and every tick of the clock stood out like a clang of a gong. By 7am, Maggie felt like she was walking on eggshells and turned on some music to break the tension a little. She found an oldies station that played music from the 60's and the 70's.
Around 8am, Andy decided it was time to get ready. His ride to the dentist would be there at 9am. He took a shower and shaved. As he dressed, he picked a sweater that was big enough to hide the bulletproof vest he would be wearing.
When he walked back out into the living room, the police officers had the vest waiting for him. They helped him put it on and secure it in place. It was just complicated enough that he wouldn't have been able to do it by himself, so he was glad they were there to help him.
At 9am the police driven 'ride share' car arrived to take him to the dentist. Maggie stopped him at the door and give him a little kiss for good luck. They both smiled at each other and said good luck and goodbye.
With Andy on his way, Maggie suddenly felt a flood of tears trying to break through. She looked at Amelia and started to cry. Worry and anxiety overwhelmed her, and she fell into her best friend's arms for a hug. Together they moved to sit on the sofa while Maggie cried out her fear.
"He's going to be okay. Brighton is going to take good care of him." Said Amelia as she tried to soothe her friend's fears. "You saw that was Brighton driving the car, didn't you?"
"No, I was busy looking at Andy." Maggie answered through her sobs.
"Well, it was. And he has Andy's back." Stated Amelia.
In the car, Brighton greeted Andy, and they reviewed the plan for his entry into the dentist's office one more time. Andy was to get out of the car at the curb, walk up to the outside entrance to the building, ring the bell to be let in, enter, and go directly to the office. Once inside, someone would take him to a treatment room for about 90 minutes. Long enough for it to seem like he was having some kind of dental work done. Then Brighton would return in a different car to pick him up and take him back to the house.
When leaving the dental office, Andy was to exit the office and go to the front door of the building to watch for the green SUV to arrive to pick him up. Brighton would honk three times and then Andy would leave the building and walk to the car.
The hope was that either during his wait to enter the building or his walk back to the car upon leaving the building, the perpetrator would make their move. Someone on the team would have eyes on Andy every second of the operation. The team would never leave him vulnerable.
As they arrived at the medical building with the dental office, Andy felt his heart start to race. The time was now; he couldn't back out. He got out of the car on shaky legs and slowly walked toward the front door of the building.
When he got to the front of the building, he rang the bell and waited. It was probably only thirty seconds until the door unlocked, but they were very long seconds. He walked in, turned to the left, and headed to the office.
Once inside, Andy nearly fell down. They took him to one of the treatment room and sat him in an exam chair to rest. Someone brought him some apple juice and told him it was good to get his energy back for his return trip to the car. Because they hadn't contacted him upon arrival, they worried the attempt would occur on his departure; therefore; they wired Andy with a hidden camera for his trip back to the car.
Getting that set up took most of the 90 minutes he was to be in the dentist. At least it kept him occupied and not just sitting and worrying. That would have been hell.
When it was time to make the return trip to the car, Andy walked out of the dentist's office and headed to the front door. The green car wasn't at the curb yet, so he waited inside as directed by Brighton. He heard a noise behind him coming from the opposite end of the hall and turned to find a person clad in black coming at him.
The next thing he knew, he was being forced down the hall at gun point and out the back door into a waiting van. There he was, knocked out and secured in the back of the van before they took off.
Brighton jumped out of the car and took off running for the building when he saw someone grab Andy, but he was too late. He found the officer that was guarding the back door unconscious on the floor and a dark unmarked van pulling away when he looked out the door.
Using his radio, Brighton called his team and got them working on tracking Andy's whereabouts. He also had them listening in on the wire he was wearing to see if they could hear anything good from the kidnapper. Everything was happening just as Brighton had expected, even if he hadn't filled Andy in on those expectations.