Without a Trace

Please don't take my baby,please!

You don't have to do this. Stop packing the bag,okay?

-No! -please,don't take her.

Let's talk abou this. We don't deserve this.

Please don't take her ,no!

Sweetie.Just look at me. Everything is going to be okay.

Take my hand; it's okay. Come with me.

don't take her,no! No,no,don't take her!

-Mommy!Mommy! -Mommy's here.

No,no!-Mommy!Mommy!

She doesn't want to go. She doesn't want to go!

Don't take her. Please do something.

Let her go,man.I'm warning you.

Why are you doing this to us?Why?!

Mrs.Biggs,there's a n?ber on the letter I gave your husband.

Call it,somebody will tell you what your options are.

you able to find overnight housing for the girl?

Yeah,there was an empty bed over at shield house.

That's good,isn't it?

It's a bed.

Hey,we're going to hit happy hour over at the matador.

You want to come drink it off?

Not tonight,but thank you.

hey,man,how's it going?

It's going.What do we got?

We've got eric hayes,social worker.

Last night he removed a seven-year-old from her home.

Pd says the girl's father nearly took his head off.

When the janitor came in this morning, he found hayes' office looking like this.

-What time was that at? -it was just after 5:00.

He never made it home and his wife w as in philly,but she's on her way back.

What about security?

Apparently security is not in the budget around here.

And the back door was rigged so it would remain open for the smokers--

anybody could have walked in here.

I'm thinking the pissed off dad from yesterday.

Yeah,I mean,he could be holding eric hostage until he gets his daughter back,

but I'm tellingyou,there's a lot of possibilities.

In the last couple of years,

this guy has removed 19 kids from bad situations,and he's paid the price.

He's been stitched up at st.

Luke's,his tires have been slashed on his car,he's had death threats...

hello?Are you with me,man?

-Yeah,I... -you okay?What's going on?

I spent a lot of time in places like this when I was growing up.

So the faster we get out of here, the happier I'll be,all right?

Yeah,I hear you,but I don't think we're leaving here anytime soon.

17 hours missing

We've sent eric's photo to state police and all hospitals in the area,

plus I have an apb out on his car.

What about the wife?She touch down yet?

Not for another half hour,and we have an agent waiting for her at the terminal,

but I did get this: Nypd's files on thomas biggs.

Possession,aggravated assault, domestic violence...

should have lost his daughter a long time ago.

I know.The wife said that he left at 8:30 last night and never came back.

Did we talk to the foster home? See if he went after the kid?

He hasn't been there.

We should post an agent outside, just in case he decides to pay a visit.

-Got it. -All right.

So how many open cases does eric have at the moment?

He's probably pushing 30,

and most of these parents are either drug addicts,abusive,

or have some sort of criminal record.

What could you tell us about thomas and lucinda biggs?

He's violent,she takes it,and their seven-year-old daughter's caught in the middle.

Eric's pushing hard to get him into anger management

so the family has a shot of staying together.

Obviously that didn't work.

Mr.Biggs didn't like being told what to do.

Eric kept pushing though,even after he told us he was moving on.

-Eric quit? -Gave his 30-day tice last month.

Did he say why?

Same reason everyone else around here quits--it's their time.

I was sorry to hear he was leaving,but I'll be honest.

He hasn't made his last week here very easy.

What's this I hear about thomas biggs refusing entry in the home?

yeah,I showed up there yesterday for a drop in...

and you left,I read your notes.

What was he even doing there?

Mrs.Biggs swore to me she filed a restraining order last week.

And did it ever occur to you she may have lied?

I thought you made it clear how serious this is.

She has a oice,either her husband or her child.

Yeah,and what's she supposed to do,kick him out herself?

She can call the police.She can call you.

What's going on with you,eric? You know what you need to do here.

Honestly,harriet,we can take kayla biggs away from her family this minute,we have the right.

But half the placements don't have room for her,

and I'm not sure the ones that do are any better than where she's at.

Have you even looked at what you've been writing in this file?

September 13,suspected drug use in the home.

October 1,more of the same.

October 2,domestic violence call.

If we can't do better than that, there's a serious problem.

All right,fine. I can convince him to leave.

I can...I'll talk to him. I'll get him back in a program.

You tried talking and it didn't work.

Next time you go back,if thomas biggs is still in the house,you take the child out.

Eric didn't like the move,but that's his job,at least for a few more days.

Is there any chance that there was something else going on with

a case that he didn't tell you about?

I don't see what else there could be. Everything is in the file.

Let me guess,We're going to need a court order before we see the case files,right?

This isn't your first barbecue.

I'm guessing the other social workers are off limits,too,without a subpoena?

Look,I want to help you find eric, but the rules are clear.

Get me that subpoena,and I'll give you everything you want.

Fair enough.

18 hours missing

I've tried for so long to get him to quit.

Now you think this guy did something to him?

We're not sure about that,yet. We're looking for both of them.

Have you seen him before?

I don't think so,no.

Did anything happen at work that made you concerned for your husband's safety?

Not lately.

But back when he was new to the job,he'd talk about it all the time.

Every day,another horrible story.

After a while he just stopped.

But it didn't make a difference because I still saw the bites and the bruises.

Any idea why he finally quit?

Eric thought he was saving these kids from bad situations.

Last month he realized he couldn't take it anymore.

Eric,what are you doing home?

It's 4:30.

-Are you drunk? -I might be,a little.

You remember that song,"dancing queen", right?The song from the '70s?

Sure.

You know,because it was playing on my way to work today,

and it just made me think of my sister and...she--

she was crazy about that song and i hated abba,obviously.

But I would go to her room and we'd play that song so loud.

We'd blast it and we felt like, you could feel the walls shaking.

-Eric? -It's funny,

how a song can make you forget your dad's in the other room beating your mom.

I quit today.

What?

I gave my notice.30 days.

What happened?

I just...I can't do it anymore.

You know,all these years I thought I was making a difference.

I wasn't doing anything but making everything worse.

Did something go bad today?

It's just that I let this kid down.

I was so busy doing my job...

I didn't do my job.

I'm sorry.

Eric spent so much of his life running from what his dad did to them.

Then he found himself in a job where he could relate to these kids,

and he couldn't always help them.

This kid that he thought he let down, did he ever say anything else about?

I figured it was one of his cases,but I didn't ask.

Do you think it has something to do with why he's missing?

It might.

I should have made him talk to me.

I was just so happy he was getting out.

Hey.Did the,did the judge say how much latitude we have to dig into eric's cases?

You can dig as deep as you want to,

but he was a little leery of opening the door to the third-party privacy violations.

I'll let martin know.

I can't get out of here right now.

can we,...reschedule the thing for-for later?

Later.I know your definition of later.

No,I'll just go on my own,and I'll call you.

-Okay,great. -Okay.

Nobody's talking.

Think the suits and the guns have anything to do with it?

It's not the guns they're afraid of, it's the clipboards.

Hey,there's our man.

Thomas biggs,fbi!Come here!

I'll go around back!

Put your hands where I can see 'em!

Get off me,man.Get off!

Where's eric hayes?

-The hell if I know! -Get up!

You have anything in your pockets that could cut me?

-Look,you got this all wrong,man. -Do I?

Because you were chasing me,man

Hey.This is a list of emergency foster homes in the city on cps letterhead.

let me guess--eric hayes gave that to you,right?

Hey,I'm warning you,you keep throwing me around and you're gonna be sorry.

Sorry?What,like eric hayes was sorry?

Why do you keep hitting me with that?

I didn't even touch that dude.

We know you followed him back to his office

and that you did a little redecorating while you were there.

So what?So I went there.

Yeah,I doubt it was for a list of foster homes.

You went there to bash his teeth down his throat for taking your daughter.

So maybe you're right--it still doesn't change the fact that he wasn't there.

-I don't believe you. -Hey,I'm telling the truth.

Look,why are you shaking me down and not the punk that got in your boy's face the other day?

Tom,you know how this works.You're not supposed to be here now.

Unless you got a piece of paper that says I got to go,I ain't going nowhere.

Can you not see that I'm trying to help you out here?

But if you're living in the home and you're not working your anger management program,

there's nothing I can do.

Then I guess we're done here,aren't we?

All right,look,at least let me check on kayla and lucinda see how they're doing,