Title: The Case of William Black

Author: A.Mind.of.Disturbed.Current

Rating: M

Pairing: Ali McCormick/Simon Ross

Disclaimer: I do not own Cold Squad and I make no money from this story.

Summary: COLD SQUAD. Sophie can't accept the finding that her father's disappearance was likely suicide and pleads with Sgt. McCormick to take on her father's case. Post 02x13 "Bobby Johnson".

Author's Note: There is a disturbing lack of Cold Squad fan fiction around, which is really weird since it's such a great show, so I figured I'd write some myself. Please review and let me know how I am doing.

freitazal, hope you enjoy this chapter, I'm trying to update as fast as possible without sacrificing any quality. Thank you for the review feedback is always appreciated.

Chapter Four

Inspector Simon Ross signed the last of a stack of papers that required his 'immediate signature' and sighed. He hated paperwork and found most of it quite irrelevant and of little use, but he had to get it done and on time, that would be best for his career and he knew it. But still, he would much rather take off early for dinner with Ali; as if the fiery sergeant would ever consider taking off early, he chuckled at the thought. Her concern wasn't with her career, rather doing a good job and making a difference.

He was hesitant to call their 'dinner date' a 'date,' even if only in his mind. Ross wasn't sure exactly where their relationship was going or if she even thought of their relationship the same way he did. They certainly had had their share of differing opinions in the past, and he wouldn't make the mistake of assuming they were in line on any issue. He only hoped that tonight they would be able to somehow lift the confusion to some degree.

He looked at the clock and determined that it was just about time to head down to cold squad and find Ali. He gathered the loose papers on his desk and slid them into a file folder, tidied up the rest of his desk and grabbed his coat before turning out the lights.

Descending the stairs he looked around, but didn't immediately see Ali. Detective Logozzo was still at his desk, as was Detective Carson, but there was no one else in sight. After checking her office and coming up empty, he decided to ask Logozzo, "Detective, where is Sergeant McCormick?"

Logozzo looked up with a disturbingly knowing and slightly mischievous look in his eyes, "Why?"

"That is not your concern."

He shrugged, "I don't know where she is. She left a couple of hours ago, didn't say where she was going or when she'd be back."

"And you didn't ask?" he said in disbelief.

"Hey, it's not my job to baby-sit McCormick, as I understand it, it's her job to baby-sit me." He leaned back on his chair, "Anyway, I asked earlier today and she bit my head off for it. Figured it was safer to just leave whatever 'it' is alone."

Ross sighed, resigned, "Do you know what she's working on?"

"No, she hasn't mentioned it. Some woman came to see her this morning though."

"Right."

He returned to Ali's office and looked around. It looked normal enough, but she had left an open case file on her desk, and that was something that didn't just seem like something she would do if she were leaving for the night. Which meant that she probably did intend on coming back and hadn't left for the evening.

Ross tried to convince himself that whatever errand she was on was simply taking more time than anticipated and that she would be back soon, but he couldn't help but wonder whether she had just forgotten about dinner or had changed her mind. But she hadn't called and no one seemed to know where she had gone, there was just something that didn't seem right.

He shook his head. There was no sense in speculating on what had happened. After calling both her cell phone and home and getting no answer at either, Ross left a message at both and decided to wait around a while and see if she turned up and her errand had indeed taken longer than expected. If she didn't, well, he would talk to her the next day when she would have to show up for work and have the truth then.

Ali groaned as she started to come to, but kept her eyes shut, her head was pounding something fierce. She tried to lift her head, but the pain increased and she was forced to abandon her attempt. Slowly she opened her eyes, but nothing much changed. Wherever she was seemed to be very dark, which was probably a good thing at the moment considering the state of her head.

She shifted position and found that though her wrists and calves were sore and irritated, she didn't appear to be restrained, at least not anymore. Carefully she checked her head, feeling for any injuries. There were a few bumps, but nothing too severe, at least, there was no blood as far as she could tell and the bumps seemed to be fairly minor, but she wasn't a doctor. At least she could be certain that she hadn't broken anything.

She turned her attention to her surroundings. All she could determine was that she was somewhere dark, cold, a bit damp and musty, probably a basement given that the floor felt like concrete. Ali didn't dare get up and move around in the dark, lest she injure herself further. She checked herself over again, registering that her coat was gone, as were her gun, badge and the entire contents of her pockets.

She shivered and tried to focus on the fact that soon enough Ross would notice she was missing when she didn't show up for dinner. The only problem was, she hadn't told anyone where she was going or anything about the case, she could only hope that someone would be able to figure it out and find her and fast.

The next morning when Ross came into work, Ali still wasn't there, and she hadn't called in sick. He tried calling her, but once again was unsuccessful. He lurked around the station entrance and cold squad department for an hour or so before determining that she wasn't likely to show up. Now he was getting seriously worried, it was one thing to miss dinner, but quite another to fail to show up for work the next day as well, and with not so much as an explanatory call. At this point he was certain that something was wrong, and he was determined to find out what.

TBC