The next morning, Luke took a scalding hot shower, and grabbed a change of clothes.
He stepped out to see Reid awake watching something on television.
Luke lay back down and placed his head on Reid's chest.
Reid bent down and kissed his forehead.
"You smell like lemon pledge."
"Alison let me borrow some of her stuff."
"Is there a reason she likes to smell like common household goods? Reminds her of where he place should be? In the home?"
"Wow. Chauvinistic much?"
"It's why I'm gay, Mr. Snyder."
Luke just snorted and turned back to the television.
He remembered that Emily had asked him to check in at the paper to talk about the budget.
He picked his phone up to see he had 27 missed calls, but only one voicemail.
He checked the missed calls to see that all of them were from the same person.
His stomach was sinking as he pressed the button for his voicemail.
When he finally heard the message, his face went completely white and dropped the phone on the floor.
"Luke, are you okay?"
Reid was immediately struggling to get out bed.
Luke rushed over there and made him lie back.
"You are not getting out of that bed, until Dr. Dixon gives you clearance. I have to go check on something at the paper, but I'll be back. I promise."
"Luke, don't lie to me. What the hell is going on?"
Luke sighed and rubbed his neck, which was a clear indication that whatever he was about to say, Reid would not like.
"I think I may have caused someone to get kidnapped."
"What?"
"Last night while we were sleeping, Amber was kidnapped. She left me a voicemail, before someone came in and cut her off. She said she was taken to a meat locker somewhere in the old warehouse district. Do you realize how many of them there are? This area is a huge meat packing district. There have to be at least twenty seven in our area. It's already been thirteen hours."
"Well, when she called did you hear any background noises or anything that could point to where she could be?"
"No, the only thing I noticed was her voice sounded really tinny, like it was bouncing of metal or something."
"Okay. Hey hand me your laptop for a minute."
"Why?"
"Because I'm going to look something up."
Reid typed a few things into the computer.
"Okay so I'm looking at an old city map of the warehouse district. We can rule out the buildings made of wood and brick. This leaves us with four buildings. Now the one on State Street is said to be still operational, so she would not be there, the one on McClintock is used as a touring facility and museum, so definitely not there, and there are two on Rupert Street. The South Side Meat Packing Company is a storage facility for the one on State Street, and the North Side Meat Packing Company has been abandoned for quite some time and was rendered useless when the cooling facilities went out in 1984. Meaning, South Side Meat Packing Company is where she is located. The cooling facilities still work and is used to store excess meat. Start there."
"Wow, how in the world?"
"I took some criminal justice classes in undergrad one year when I was bored."
"Wow."
"Let me know what you find out."
Luke was hesitant to leave Reid, but knew that he needed to find Amber.
He kissed Reid goodbye, called Jack on his way to the other side of town and prayed that he would get there in time.
He pulled up to the warehouse, but saw nothing.
He ran to the loading docks and tried to door. It was locked. He saw a bit of a gap between the overhead door and the cement, and worked the door up enough to slide under.
He ran into the belly of the warehouse.
He had no idea what the layout was like inside, and had no idea where the meat lockers would be.
After three wrong turns he finally found the main meat locker.
He opened the door, expecting to see the worst.
He saw Amber huddled in the corner shivering. He could tell she was weak and almost to the point of passing out.
He pulled her up and carried her out.
Jack was minutes behind him securing the scene and gathering the evidence, which included Amber's purse, her pepper spray, and her Taser.
Luke rode with Amber back to the hospital to make sure she would be okay.
He was greeted by Casey.
Casey was livid, and Luke couldn't blame him.
Luke stood there as Casey punched him in the face.
"You nearly got my girlfriend killed, Luke. Why would you do that? I thought you said you were giving up on the case, but instead you go after it harder?"
Luke stood there and rubbed his jaw.
"I had no idea, she was continuing, Casey."
"Don't stand there and give me bullshit excuses, Luke. You are the reason she got into this mess in the first place."
"You're right. I am. I'm sorry, Casey."
Casey was nearly in tears by that time.
"I'm sorry, dude. I know, it's not your fault really. Can we just find whoever is doing this to the people we love? I'm so tired of worrying about my girlfriend and my best friend dying because of some nutjob out there."
"Believe me, Casey. I'm trying."
A few minutes later, Dr. Bob was out of the emergency room.
"Amber will be just fine. She suffered from hypothermia and dehydration, but we have her on an IV drip, and her vitals are slowly returning to normal. She should make a full recovery."
"Can I see her?"
"Sure. Just make sure you don't overwhelm her. She had a pretty horrific experience."
"Go ahead, Casey. I'll wait to talk to her about the case, so you two can have some alone time."
"No. I won't rest easy until I know for sure that the psychopath is gone."
Luke and Casey walked into the room to see Amber resting.
"I'm going to come back, later Casey. I need to check on Reid, and you need to be with your girlfriend. Believe me I know what this is like."
Casey just nodded his head without taking his eyes off Amber.
Just then his phone vibrated.
He saw the new text.
One of these days you won't be so lucky.
Luke was tired of always feeling afraid; tired of nearly losing the people he cared about. He knew one thing though; too many people had already died for him to give up now.
He was going to get to the bottom of it. No matter what it took, but he was going to be cleverer about it.
He decided to take a few weeks off from investigating, to lull the killer into a false sense of security, and when they least expected it; he would turn up the heat.
Ten days later, Reid was released from the hospital.
In that time he had bribed three nurses to bring him food, and even got an orderly to bring him beer.
Luke finally gave up trying to convince Reid to eat healthy so he would heal faster.
Dr. Dixon took a little longer, but eventually just realized Reid would do what he wanted, regardless of protocol.
They were eating Chinese food when Dr. Dixon came in on that Friday afternoon.
He pulled up a chair and talked to both men.
"Reid, you are being released today."
Reid dropped his forkful of food.
"Seriously? I finally can go home?"
"Yes. As long as you promise to not overdo it. You still have a broken femur, which requires you to stay in your wheel chair. I do not want you walking on your leg, yet. If I find out you have been, I will send over Lewis to strap you down to your bed, so you can't further injure yourself or delay your healing. You know how gentle Lewis is."
Reid shuddered.
"Your ribs have healed for the most part, your intestine is functioning properly, and your shunt has been removed. Just make sure to allow yourself to heal. You'll be in an arm sling for about another week, and in the wheelchair for at least two. All your sutures and stitches have been removed."
Dr. Dixon turned to Luke then,
"Luke, if there are any problems at all, don't hesitate to call me or bring him back to the hospital."
"Is there anything I need to do to help him out or anything I need to buy?"
"He'll just need help bathing. Try not to get the cast wet, and you should be fine. I'm serious about him staying off his leg though, Luke."
"Oh, I know. Reid will follow directions, even if I have to sit on him myself to keep him from walking around."
"You know, when I think about being double teamed, I had something else entirely in mind."
Reid lay in his bed pouting as Luke and Dr. Dixon planned out his prison stay.
"Come on, Reid. Quit being a baby."
An hour later, Luke was filling out paperwork to get Reid released.
Casey came up to him.
"So, you are finally going home. Who am I going to watch television with?"
"You mean who you will let you watch television in their room while they do your job."
"Whatever. I'll miss you, dude."
"Believe me, I will be back in the hospital, Casey. I seem to make a trip here at least once a week for random, bizarre accidents that my family members get into."
"True, true. I think your family holds the attendance rate for most visits, besides Dusty Donovan, and considering your mom almost married him a few times, he could almost be considered part of your family."
Luke just glared at him.
"I'm going to take my boyfriend home to our new place and make sure he's settled in. How's Amber doing?"
"She's doing better. She's not having quite as many nightmares and is sleeping better. She told me she plans on going back to work in a few days."
"Well, we'll see about that. Speaking of Amber, Reid and I are going to the Lakeview for dinner tomorrow, sort of as a celebratory date about his release. You and Amber should join us, it will be a nice way to celebrate our loved ones not dying."
"Sounds like a plan. Oh, you remember that research you wanted me to do on Invicta Corporation? I have the information right here."
Casey handed over a huge file.
"It's very weird stuff. Maybe you can make more out of it than I can."
Luke flipped open to the first page, and nearly fainted when he saw the name printed across the top.