Thank you to all of those who have followed/favorite/reviewed! It seriously means a lot to me!
Also, (and I know you're probably sick of reading this), please, please, please check out, like & comment on the video I made for Linstead! The title is Chicago P.D. It's Not Over. I can't post links here, but you can copy and paste them from my bio!
Without further ado, I bring you Chapter 2…no I did not intend for that to rhyme when I first wrote it, haha!
"This isn't the book she bought." Jay quickly walked back out into the store.
The manager followed him. "I'll check receipts."
"Thank you." Jay quickly grabbed another book off the shelf and turned to page 30.
He was met with disappointment when it didn't match either, but quickly realized that the second book he picked up off the shelf matched the book he had picked up earlier.
"What's wrong?" the cashier asked.
"It was the wrong book, Jamie." The manager replied, and Jay could hear the crinkling of paper in her hand.
"No, it was the right one, I'm sure of it."
"Page 30 from the security footage and the book you told me she bought didn't match." Jay piped up – not looking up from leafing through the other books of maps.
All the books he was leafing through matched the book he had first picked up also.
It didn't make much sense.
"Look, I don't know who you were watching on that tape, but I'm one-hundred-percent sure she bought the book I told you she did."
Jay just looked at her for a moment, but quickly turned back to the shelf of maps.
"Detective…" the manager said, pulling a receipt out that had just printed.
"Yeah?" Jay turned around to see her coming toward him.
She grabbed the book the cashier had first pointed them to on the shelf, and two seconds later, she replied, "My cashier is telling the truth. The book she pointed you to, is the book your girl bought."
"That's not possible." Jay said, taking the receipt from the manager.
"It is, look at the UPC numbers, they're a match."
"Then what…" And at this exact moment, an idea came to him.
"Have you been here all morning?" he turned and asked the cashier.
She nodded and he continued, "Was anybody else looking at your maps?"
The casher looked up and to her right, indicating thought. "You know, I had two customers in relatively early this morning. The one gentleman asked me for help in the food aisle, but someone else came in while he was down there. I called to him that I would help him in a minute, but he just grunted. He was in the area for a little while. I don't know what he ever looked at, or did because when I came walking back up the aisle, he left."
The manager's palm went to her forehead, "Jamie, why didn't you call me out here for help?"
Jamie shrugged, "I didn't think I'd need it, it didn't take me too long to help the first customer find unsalted peanuts…"
"What'd they look like?"
Jamie gave a vague description.
And Jay immediately looked at the manager, who nodded and motioned for him to follow her; and they went back into the office.
"Got 'em." The manager said, after only about two minutes.
"There's Jamie helping the one in the food aisle…"
"They didn't come in together…"
"But there he is…"
"And he's at the maps…"
They stared at the footage for a little while, until Halstead saw what made his blood absolutely boil.
The second guy who came in messed with the maps. The exact book that Erin had picked up.
"Shit." Halstead almost yelled. "Can you zoom in that far?"
The manager nodded.
"What the hell…" Halstead squinted.
"I'm from this area, and I've been to Chicago…and you're girl is not headed toward Chicago."
"Well…where is she…"
"She's headed north. You're just outside of Woodstock here…well, she's headed toward Wisconsin."
"How the hell is she confusing that? We're talking about a Chicago police officer here…"
The manager rolled her eyes, "Yeah, and you two are out somewhere you don't know where you are, there's your first strike. Second, look at the way the map's positioned on the page. That's what he was doing. He glued an almost identical page to the book."
Halstead looked down at the book in his hands and compared it to Erin's. Sure enough, the manager was right, the books looked identical, but he had noticed the difference the first time he looked. Chicago wasn't north of them. It's southeast, but according to the map Erin had in her hand, Chicago is northwest.
Someone had made a mirror image of the page, glued it into that book, and Erin bought it.
But how could they know…
Halstead immediately turned around and stalked out the manager's office.
"You little…"
But the she was gone.
"What is…" the manager, following him, began to question.
"You're cashier was helping them. That's why she didn't call you for help. Even with your sophisticated security system, we didn't get even a single shot of their faces. She was helping them."
The manager nodded, "I'm calling the police, but I'm not sure what good that's going to do. I doubt her real information is on my application."
"How long had she worked here?"
"About three months."
Halstead threw his head back and nodded. The manager was already on the phone.
At about the same time, Halstead got on his phone.
"You better have good news…"
"I do, but you're not going to like it." And Halstead launched into what he had found out. When he was done, he commented, "Damn, we got kidnapped working on another case, what the hell do they have against her? It's not like we saw something…"
"They don't know that. They think you did. That's where Ruzek and Al will start. Ruzek! I know you heard me! Get back to that house, now!"
Halstead even cringed.
"Find her. I don't care how. I don't care what the hell it takes, Halstead. Find her. I'm on my way." And he hung up.
And just what the hell do you think I've been doing?
"She didn't happen to leave a car, did she?" Halstead immediately asked.
The manager's eyes strayed to the key rack, then she smiled and nodded, she put her mouth on the phone, "Yeah, but I don't know or care where you found the keys." And she put her back to the rack that held the keys.
Halstead smiled and grabbed the pair of keys off the rack. For a moment, he wondered if he should go after her, he wondered why she didn't take her car to escape. He figured the police the manager was calling would find the girl, and he didn't care why she had decided to go on foot.
Once he had the keys he mouthed a "thank you" and ran out. He threw his stuff into the passenger seat, jumped into the car, threw the key in the ignition, and before he knew it, he was on the highway 47, going northwest.
Not that he really wanted to be a 'hero,' but he definitely liked her with him so he knew she was alright.
CPDCPDCPD
She didn't stop, even after she couldn't hear him yelling anymore.
Maybe he had stopped trying to track her?
She came to an abrupt stop and put her hands on her head – trying to catch her breath.
She used this opportunity to really take in her surroundings.
She was screwed. Big time.
All she saw were trees, bushes, grass, and basically everything else that was green.
"Shit." She muttered.
She knew if she went back, she'd risk running into that guy again. But if she kept going?
Who knew where the hell she'd end up? She certainly didn't. She wasn't even sure where she was now.
She turned around, propped herself up against a tree, and listened.
Nothing.
Being the best shot she had, she decided to head back the way she had come.
She moved slowly, cautiously, and in between the trees.
Since she was already making herself a target, she figured the least she could do was not be an easy one.
CPDCPDCPD
He couldn't believe he had let her get away.
He had one job to do.
One damn job to do.
Get her in the cab.
And he had screwed it up.
And now, his family was going to pay the price.
All because he was never home. He couldn't protect them.
He couldn't believe this.
Why shouldn't he just go to the nearest cliff and jump off?
It would be a hell of a lot easier than watching his family die because he couldn't get her into his cab.
Why her?
Why the hell did they want her anyway?
Why was she so special to them?
After all, she looks lost…
Correction, she is lost.
He knew because he was the one who had changed the map in her book at the store.
He knew because that stupid cashier had pointed to him.
If there was any female he wanted to kill, it was her.
First of all, you're banging at least one member of a gang.
There's her first strike.
But then, he just so happened to be the one who came in for a damn cup of coffee.
After being out with his girlfriend that night.
That's probably when they got to his family.
Damn coffee. Damn girlfriend. Damn everything.
Somewhere in the back of his mind was a little voice saying, "That's karma, you bastard…"
And that stupid cashier pointed to him, and ushered him over to her with her finger.
Then all hell broke loose.
She told him she needed his help, that her family was in danger, and that if she didn't ask for someone's help soon, they would be dead.
What a load of horseshit.
Little did he know that it would be his family in trouble soon thereafter.
Not hers.
The little shit.
Then the two members of the actual gang came in, and forcibly ushered him outside. Where they talked, but once again, more like forced, him into helping them.
Hell, they even showed him pictures of his damn family.
His wife.
He vowed to never forget how strong she looked fighting for herself and her children.
That was probably all she ever did.
And he was too stupid to notice, or care.
He also vowed, at that moment, that if they all made it out of this alive, he would immediately terminate that stupid fling with that girlfriend, and crawl back to his wife.
Almost literally. He would tell her everything.
Life's too short to make these stupid, blatant mistakes.
He knew he had a great woman at home, and he threw her away, for what?
A couple of 'exciting' nights?
No.
Not even that.
Screw it.
Screw everything.
He vowed to make sure they all, meaning his family, made it out of this alive.
Whatever that would take.
He started walking into the woods.
Ohhhh snap, another cliffhanger. Will Halstead find her?! Don't worry. I don't drag this out for much longer. Mwahahahaha
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Thanks once again for reading!