Morning. Good morning.
Hey. Hey.
Yankees got their ass kicked last night.
So I heard.
You all right, Jack?
You look a little, uh, flushed.
Um...
My wife...
was, um...
offered a really good job in Chicago, and she took it.
So she´s moving there.
And, um...
I´ve decided to go with her,
so I put in for a transfer.
Wh-When do you leave?
Two weeks.
Uh, will you, um...
will you be doing Missing Persons?
No. Domestic Security.
Good for you, Jack.
We´re happy for you, if that´s what you want.
It is.
There´s no word on my successor yet,
but as soon as I hear anything,
I´ll let you know.
I, uh...
VIVIAN: Sam,
Martin, there´s a girl in reception
says she needs our services.
Why don´t you go see what it´s about.
Sure. Excuse me.
Hi. Hi.
I´m Special Agent Fitzgerald. This is Special Agent Spade.
What can we do for you?
Um, I was on the Internet last night,
and I put my name in a search, and I found this.
That´s me.
I was kidnapped 13 years ago.
Do you know who kidnapped you?
No, I-I don´t know. I don´t remember.
That´s why I´m here.
I really want to know who I am and what happened.
Can you help me?
JACK: I have a girl says she was adopted
three months after Serene Andrews was kidnapped.
This is a photo from when she was, uh, first adopted.
Mm, adopted parents? Yes.
What did they say?
They don´t even know she´s here.
For all Serene knows, they´re the ones
that could´ve kidnapped her.
It´s hard to tell if this is the same girl.
Yeah, I know.
I ran those photos through
the facial-recognition software.
The results were inconclusive.
And the girl has no recollection of being taken.
No, she was three years old.
She´s downstairs with Dr. Harris.
She´s gonna try and hypnotize her.
Well, here´s what Newark sent over from the old case.
Serene Andrews was grabbed
from a foster care home in Camden March 18, 1991.
The foster parents were inside the house.
The child was playing out back. Nobody saw the grab.
How did she end up in foster care in the first place?
Her biological mother, um...
Lauren Andrews,
was a crack addict in the Camden projects.
She was doing a stint in a state rehab facility
when her daughter was lifted from the foster home.
And her father?
None listed.
What about the original agent that worked on the case?
He retired in ´97, died last year.
So we´re starting from scratch.
Not really. We got the girl.
Maybe we got the girl.
HARRIS: Put everything out of your mind
and just breathe.
Now, I want you to think about when you were
three years old.
Whatever you can remember, whatever you see.
Just let go.
I´m in the hallway.
Where is the hallway?
I don´t know.
I´m walking, I think.
And there are other... other voices now.
HARRIS: Whose voices?
( children talking and laughing )
SERENE: There are other kids´ voices. They´re really loud.
I´m walking down the hall, and they´re bumping into me,
and they´re running around and... and yelling really loud.
I´m sorry. I lost it.
It´s okay.
You´re doing great.
Serene, that place you were just remembering,
is that the place you were taken from?
I have no idea.
It´s all really fuzzy.
I don´t want to do this anymore.
Okay.
That´s okay.
Um...
Let´s just talk, okay?
What did your parents tell you about your adoption?
I can´t remember the first time
that they talked to me about that.
Well, it doesn´t have to be the first time.
Um... just...
whatever comes to mind.
I can remember asking my mom about it
when I was about eight.
Mom?
Yes, sweetheart?
Tell me about my adoption.
What do you want to know?
How did you get me?
Well...
I couldn´t get pregnant,
but your father and I really wanted to have a child,
so we went to what´s called an adoption agency.
And the man at the agency
showed us many, many children.
Well, we had one look at you--
that beautiful face of yours,
that beautiful smile--
and we knew.
We knew you were meant to be with us,
and that we were meant to be your parents.
What about my real parents?
They didn´t want me?
Your biological parents loved you very much.
But they were too young to take care of you,
and they knew that you would have a better life with us.
Do you ever wish...
you had a real child?
You are our real child, and I don´t wish for a second
that anything happened any other way.
Okay?
Yep.
Mom, will you lay down on top of me?
Sure.
I used to do that with her.
I guess it...
used to make me feel safe, you know?
Yeah.
Mrs. Barnes?
Yes.
Special Agent Jack Malone with the FBI.
I´m here to talk to you about your daughter.
Did something happen to her?
No, she´s, uh, she´s fine.
She´s in our offices, downtown.
Your offices? Why?
Um... would you mind
if we continued this conversation inside?
Foster parents?
Nobody ever told us about foster parents.
This is preposterous.
Like I told you, this Serene Andrews
may be an entirely different girl than the girl you adopted;
in which case, this will be over very quickly.
Now, um, I need to know as much as possible
about your daughter´s biological parents.
We don´t know anything.
It was a closed adoption.
Well, according to Serene you tell stories about them.
When she asked, we told her
what we thought would make her feel good,
but we never knew anything for real,
other than that she was healthy when we adopted her,
and that we fell in love with her
the moment we laid eyes on her.
MRS. BARNES: It was the best day of our lives.
Just out of curiosity,
with so many adoption agencies in New York,
why did you choose one in New Jersey?
It´s so competitive at the ones in the city.
We found that we weren´t getting enough attention.
Friend of ours recommended
Linderman Hall.
We thought we´d give them a try. They were great.
We want to see Serene.
Unfortunately, that´s not possible right now.
What are you talking about?
Why not?
Because I doubt that either one of you
can tell me where you were March 18, 1991.
You think that we kidnapped Serene?
Is that what she thinks?
She doesn´t know what to think. That´s why she came to us.
Yeah.
She goes to you.
She goes to you, and not to us.
Serene´s always had difficulty trusting people.
Even us.
When we first brought her home,
it took her almost a year before she´d let us hug her.
According to Social Services,
there were 14 foster kids living in this house
when Serene Adams was left there.
Well, if it is the same girl,
she´s probably better off
living as Serene Barnes on Madison Avenue.
I´d say.
Tim Hendricks?
Yeah.
Special Agent Johnson
with the FBI.
This is Special Agent Fitzgerald.
Yes?
We´re here about Serene Andrews.
What about her?
We think we may have found her.
Alive?
We think that might be her.
She was only with us for a couple of months.
It´s been so long...
I´m sorry.
We know this is difficult,
but maybe you could tell us
something about what happened that day.
It was March, I think.
But warm...
because all the kids were playing around out here.
Come on, Serene.
Don´t you want to play with everybody else?
Everyone come in for lunch.
Let´s go.
Come on. Let´s go eat.
HENDRICKS: All those kids.
Serene never came in.
By the time we noticed, she was gone.
It couldn´t have been more than 15 minutes
she was out there by herself.
Well, according to
the police report, the neighbors saw
a white, four-door sedan parked in the alley that day.
I´m the one who told the cops that.
But I don´t know anything more.
( phone ringing )
You recognize either of those people?
Johnson.
No.
Thanks for your time, Mr. Hendricks.
Okay, thanks.
We found the Barnes´ adoption agency.
It´s in Morristown.
Jack wants us to go check it out.
All right.
Here we go-- Serene Barnes.
Adopted June 14, 1991 by Fran and Adam Barnes,
New York, New York.
May we see the file, please?
Thanks.
Birth certificate. Mm-hmm.
Ah, Serene Caldwell.
Born in Bradford, Pennsylvania
to mother Theresa Caldwell.
Do you remember anything
about this Theresa Caldwell?
No, the thing about this job--
for every happy moment
there´s an unhappy moment
where someone gives that same child away.
I guess there´s a yin and yang
to it, but...
the happy moments
all kind of blur together for me at this point,
but the unhappy ones--
you tend to remember those.
Say good-bye to Mommy now,
all right?
It´s all right, honey.
It´s okay.
You´re going to have a new mommy soon.
A better mommy, okay?
I promise.
She´s really going
to a good home?
A great home.
Trust me.
I tell you...
you never get used to that part of the job.
You did all the background checks,
hospital records, everything?
Absolutely. Always.
What´s this all
about, anyway?
I think it´s probably just a misunderstanding.
We´ll get this back to you as soon as it´s cleared up.
Be my guest. Thanks.
Well, our girl, Serene,
Well, if this all checks out,
there´s still a Serene Andrews out there somewhere.
We ought to be looking for her.
I don´t know; something´s not right.
That memory she had...
She remembers a place
where there were a lot of children.
That could be anywhere.
And sometimes with hypnosis, people give you
what they think you want to hear.
Right. Or what they want to believe, right?
Yeah.
You know, if this is true, it´s good news.
She was never kidnapped. She was legally adopted.
That should make her happy.
Yeah. I don´t want to tell her
just yet.
Not until we´ve done our due diligence.
I just... I think
she´s been on enough of a roller coaster.
I think that´s smart.
And very sensitive.
Don´t be all proud, okay?
I was smart and sensitive before our sessions.
Samantha?
Yeah?
I heard about Jack leaving.
Yeah.
If you want to talk about it...
I´m fine, Lisa.
Thank you.
Hey. I haven´t had
much luck with Lauren Andrews.
After the kidnapping in ´91, she finished up
a rehab and she moved to Virginia.
After that, nothing.
Her trail dead-ends in ´95.
Name change? Nothing on record.
I´m checking with old co-workers, friends, but...
Martin and Viv didn´t have
much luck with Social Services.
The, uh, filing system is from the Stone Age.
What happened with that woman
that gave up our girl for adoption?
We found her in East Brunswick-- Theresa Caldwell.
She´s coming in.
Jack, I... I have to say, I-I hate to see you leave.
I´d take you with me
if I thought I could drag you away from New York.
Not a chance.
This is my city.
Mine, too.
Hey.
What did you find out?
Well, we don´t have all the facts yet,
but we do know that your parents did not kidnap you.
They wanted you pretty badly, but...
not badly enough to do that.
That´s good to know.
They´re on their way in.
They really want to talk to you.
Okay, let´s go.
How awful for her--
finding something like that on the Internet
and thinking it´s her.
Yeah.
I guess when you´re adopted,
you always wonder
where you come from.
It took a lot of courage for her to come in here.
Giving up Serene was...
the hardest decision that I´ve ever made.
I´m sure.
Miss Caldwell, I can´t tell from the records
who the, uh, natural father is.
He´s dead.
I´m sorry. Uh...
When did he die?
Uh, about a year after she was born.
That´s part of the reason why I had to give her away.
And what was his name?
Steve Rogers.
We never married.
That´s why his name isn´t on the birth certificate.
And how did he die?
A car accident.
In, uh, Morristown?
Trenton.
In 1989?
Tell me about your decision
to give Serene up for adoption.
Um, like I said, it was... very difficult.
I-I would never say that I regret having her.
I mean, I would never say that.
Yes, but what
was the catalyst for making that decision?
Why are you doing this to me?
What am I doing?
Making me talk about all of this.
Miss Caldwell, there is a very vulnerable young woman
waiting down the hall to meet you.
Trust me when I tell you
she´s going to ask you
exactly the same questions I´m asking you.
I just want you
to be prepared.
She´s here now?
Two doors down.
Look, I don´t think
that I´m going to be able to handle meeting her, okay?
It was a closed adoption.
It´s my right to privacy.
MARTIN: Yes, Serene Caldwell.
We believe she was born at your hospital
January 22, 1988.
I know that was a long time ago.
Before computers-- yes, I get that.
Look, if you can just have someone check the old file room
and get back to me, that would be great.
I appreciate it.
Thank you.
Okay, I just got a little bingo on Lauren Andrews.
Her new name is Lauren Dardis.
She lives in Yonkers. She´s married,
and she´s got two kids.
She cleaned herself up.
Yes, she did.
Hi. Hi.
You´re not mad at me?
Of course not.
We´re just worried about you, honey. That´s all.
SAMANTHA: Serene?
I need to show you something.
Sure.
Do you know this woman?
Who is this?
Is this my mother?
Is she here?
We don´t know anything for sure yet.
I just need you to look at the picture, focus,
and tell me if you
remember her, okay? Okay.
I know her.
SAMANTHA: You do?
Yeah.
I knew her, but I...
But what?
( beeping )
She doesn´t think Theresa is her mother.
No, neither do I.
The dates don´t match.
Miss Caldwell?
I´m sorry, but I-I just... I can´t wait here anymore.
I just have a few more questions to ask you.
Well, maybe I could just come in another time,
or you could call me, but right now,
there´s someplace I have to be.
Right. Uh, excuse me, uh,
you, uh, have a hair.
Oh.
( nervous chuckle )
Thank you.
Thanks.
Want to put a tail on her?
Yeah. And get a sample of Serene´s hair.
We´re going to do a DNA test.
( doorbell ringing )
Lauren Dardis?
Yes.
Formerly Lauren Andrews of Camden, New Jersey?
Yes.
I´m Danny Taylor.
I´m with the FBI.
Do you recognize this girl?
This is my daughter.
Are you sure?
She´s my daughter. Of course I´m sure.
Where is she?
that someone took Serene,
I was doing good.
I was clean.
They told me...
when they put me there,
that that´s the only way that I would ever get her back.
And there I was, clean, finally.
But she was gone.
You have no idea who might have taken her?
No...
No.
How about her father?
I told the police at the time, I don´t even...
I don´t even know who her father is.
That´s what my life was like back then.
That´s why they took her from me.
( child crying )
GIRL: Are you okay, Ma?
Mama, are you okay?
Are you okay?
Shut up.
Are you okay...?
Shut up!
I can´t hear. ( phone ringing )
WOMAN: Miss Andrews,
you got a call from your neighbor.
Where are you, Miss Andrews?
LAUREN: You know, my husband--
he knows about my past.
The drugs...
and everything else,
but I never told him about Serene.
Now, maybe you can.
Same girl.
Now, that makes things simpler.
MARTIN: Yeah, thank you.
Much simpler.
There´s no record of a Serene Caldwell being born
at Bradford County Hospital in 1988.
The birth certificate is a fraud.
Let´s go see Mr. Yin-yang.
It´s not like
those birth certificates have bar codes on them.
They´re pretty easy to duplicate.
When somebody comes to you ready to give away their kid,
you don´t call the hospital to double-check,
make sure it´s actually their kid?
Of course we do.
That was 13 years ago.
You know how many assistants
we´ve had since then?
I´m sure, at the time,
I had somebody check it out.
So how did Theresa Caldwell find you?
I don´t know.
You think I remember?
Well, do you remember
if you ever had contact
with her before or after the adoption?
No.
Then you won´t mind if we have a look
at your old phone records.
Not as long as you´ve got a subpoena.
My poor girl.
I just hope whatever she learns out of this,
it frees her in some way.
I mean, she was looking for herself on the Internet
because there was something she needed to know.
Mrs. Barnes?
Yes.
Um...
I´ve just been speaking with a woman
who claims to be Serene´s biological mother.
She says that
Serene has a birthmark just below her right shoulder,
shaped like a thimble. Is that true?
That´s right. She does.
She´s here.
She´d like to see Serene.
Hi.
Serene should be in any minute.
I don´t know what I´m going to tell her.
I mean, about who I am.
I mean... about who I was.
Just tell her the truth.
That´s all she wants to hear.
Yeah, I guess so, huh?
After all this time.
( footsteps approaching )
I´ll just leave you two alone.
Hi.
Okay.
Let´s sit, okay?
SAMANTHA: Aren´t you going to miss this?
You´re not going to have moments like this
working Domestic Security in Chicago.
Yeah, I´m going to miss it.
I, uh...
I´ll, uh, check on Theresa Caldwell´s phone records.
Hey.
We left two surveillance units
outside the adoption agency.
I´m gonna finish
that background on Porter.
Okay.
( sighs )
I spoke with Van Doren.
I recommended
that you take over the unit.
That wasn´t my main concern, but thank you.
She supports it.
It´s just a question of getting through the bureaucracy.
Is this what you really want?
It´s the right thing.
If you have something to ask me, Martin,
go ahead.
Uh...
am I, uh...
Am I the only one who didn´t know?
Vivian knows.
I´m not sure about Danny.
We tried to be discreet.
Oh. Well, that´s good.
It was over two years ago, Martin.
It was before you got here.
Yeah.
Well, I guess old feelings die hard.
They don´t die.
They just
fade,
and then you feel bad that they faded...
because you wonder...
You wonder what they meant when you had them.
Well, I guess if they didn´t fade, there...
There wouldn´t be room for new ones.
No, I guess there wouldn´t.
( footsteps approaching )
What´s the matter?
My mother,
Lauren, that woman...
She says she wants me to come live with her.
She says
that I´m her daughter,
and I should be with her.
She can do that? She can take her?
Technically, Lauren Andrews never lost custody.
I-I don´t get it.
You... you said
she was living in a crack house.
That the state
took her away because
she was unfit in the first place.
It was a temporary injunction pending her recovery.
She recovered.
So what?
She-She can walk out of here with our daughter?
Is-Is that what you´re telling me?
Look,
the results from the DNA test come in tomorrow, okay?
Until then, you have temporary custody of Serene.
In the meantime, I suggest you contact your attorney.
Now if you´ll excuse me.
We got Theresa Caldwell.
JACK: You rented
a white Buick four-door sedan.
March 18, 1991.
Is that correct?
It was 13 years ago.
That was the same day that Serene Andrews
was kidnapped.
Well, actually, um,
I remember I was having a lot of car trouble
around that time. You didn´t even
own a car at the time.
In fact, that was the first time that year
that you even rented a car.
It´s just a coincidence.
Is that the same coincidence
that the neighbors saw the same car
parked in an alley behind Serene´s foster home
on the same day?
We checked the hospital records.
The birth certificate is phony.
Steve Rogers, the man you allege
to be her father, died a year before she was born.
We ran DNA tests, yours against hers.
Guess what? No match.
You are not the mother.
It wasn´t my idea, okay?
And whose idea was it? Michael Krause?
Michael?
Yes.
He´s listed as the second driver on this car rental agreement.
Oh, God.
Who is he?
Does he work for the adoption agent?
No.
Do you?
We weren´t working
for anybody, okay?
We just wanted her.
Hey, Serene.
Sweetheart.
Hi. Hi, darling.
Come on.
I´m going to give you a better life, I swear.
I am going to give you a better life.
Go.
LAUREN: Michael is not a kidnapper.
He´s my brother, okay?
I did this for him.
Then why is he so invested in Serene?
Serene is his daughter.
DANNY: Okay, last time
I spoke to you, you said
you didn´t know who the father was.
I don´t.
Apparently someone named Michael Krause
thinks he´s the father.
Michael?
Krause.
He and his sister are the ones that took Serene.
But that´s impossible.
He was in jail at the time.
No, he got out three weeks early
on good behavior.
Oh, my God.
I had no idea.
Was he your boyfriend?
Yes.
At the time that Serene was born.
Yes, but I told him then
I wasn´t even sure if she was his.
He wound up in jail
six months after she was born.
I never heard from him again.
I guess he did a little soul-searching
while he was in jail
Son of a bitch.
Have you talked to him?
Where is he?
( buzzer beeping )
KRAUSE: Look, I want to make
one thing clear here.
None of this
should come down on Theresa.
I made her do everything.
That´s going to be up to the prosecution,
Mr. Krause.
Now, would you mind telling us
how this whole thing went down?
I got out in ´91.
The first thing I did was go looking for Lauren and Serene.
I went over to her apartment, it was boarded up,
and the super said they dragged her off to some rehab
and they put Serene in a foster home.
Nobody would tell me where she was.
So I did some...
looking around,
and I found this...
adoption broker.
Anyway, he tells me
there´s no way in hell
that I´m going to get custody,
even if they did one of those paternity tests.
Said I´m not going to get custody ´cause I´m a felon,
even though the mother´s a junkie.
So what, this broker, he offers to, uh,
dig around for you?
Yeah, he had some connection downtown
with some social service.
Anyway, he finds Serene,
and he tells me where she is.
I got down there and the place is a dump.
Got kids running around all over the place,
and she´s sitting there all alone.
No one´s taking care of her.
I mean, she looked so, so unhappy.
I said to myself, "There´s no way my girl,
is going to live this life."
I go back to the broker and he tells me if I can get
my hands on her,
that he´d get me the papers I needed.
Forged birth certificate.
Right.
Tells me it´ll cost me five grand.
He does it all the time. There´d be no problem.
So we took her.
So you got through all of this to get her,
and then you give her up?
Why?
Couple of months go by and he calls me,
tells me he wants his money.
I tell him I don´t have it. I´m broke.
He tells me
if I don´t pay him, he´s going to go to the cops.
Then he tells me...
that he´ll give me $5,000 for Serene.
That he found a family that would take her.
They live in Manhattan on Madison Avenue.
She ain´t going to do better than that.
Okay, but after all we went through
to get her,
are you sure you want to do this?
Theresa, it´s not about me.
It´s about what´s best for her.
They look like
nice people.
I didn´t have a choice.
If I didn´t do what he said
he´d rat me out, and then what?
She winds up in some lousy foster home,
or with Lauren, smoking crack in some ghetto.
Did you ever deal with anybody else
from that adoption agency?
No, just him.
Look.
This guy was a real scumbag, all right.
I mean, selling and trading kids?
I mean, it´s sick.
What if that family
he showed me...
was in on the scam?
I mean, what if she...
she didn´t wind up with a good family?
She did end up with those people.
And as far as we can tell,
they´re wonderful parents.
What do you... what do you mean?
You saw her?
She´s a great kid.
So she´s in the right place?
Yeah.
She is in the right place.
Here he is.
My God, he´s beautiful.
I can´t believe you got this
done so fast.
You´re a miracle worker.
I just know my business.
FBI.
Charles Porter--
you are under arrest for accessory to kidnapping,
child endangerment, and extortion.
We have to take the baby
until we can sort this out.
Wait, what´s going on here?
This is our baby.
This may not be your baby.
You´re going to have to come with us.
This is a mistake.
It´s okay, okay.
It´s okay.
( doorbell chimes )
Hi.
Mrs. Barnes has something
she´d like to discuss with you.
I´ve thought about it, and, um...
I´ve decided that this is where you belong.
And it´s not because I don´t want you.
It´s because these are your parents now.
And I don´t want to get in the way of your happiness.
My lawyer will have the adoption papers drawn up
to make it official.
I would like to see you sometimes, though, you know?
Maybe on the weekends,
or whenever it feels right for you.
Yeah, that sounds good.
If it´s all right with you.
Of course.
Okay, okay, so... I got to go.
Lauren.
Okay.
You talked to her?
I may have said something.
Thank you.
You take care, Serene.
Hey.
I was just talking
to Dr. Harris.
About what?
About you.
Oh.
About us, I should say.
I´m afraid to ask.
Don´t be. It´s, um...
What we had, it was good.
It was what
we both needed at the time.
Yeah, I guess it was.
In another life, maybe?
Maybe.
Yeah.
I, um...
I really hope that you and Maria
will be happy in Chicago.
I´m sorry if I ever hurt you.
Me, too.
I better keep doing this or I´m going to lose my nerve.