Chapter 32

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I passed the first test at the academy with flying colours, receiving a 98% score. Aidan and Mei passed too.

The next few weeks went by quickly. We were taught the proper use of handcuffs and different interrogation techniques. We learned how to write reports, how to direct traffic and were tested on motor vehicle laws. Our daily physical training continued, and Mei and I continuously improved our times on the obstacle track. The rapid progress we showed was in great part due to Mei's mentor Claire's help who had offered to train with us every weekend. Aidan would occasionally join us.

As I'd promised, I had begun mentioning Jay in conversations with Aidan and had been relieved when it hadn't changed our friendship at al. Instead, it continued blossoming just as it had done before. Many possible reasons explained the lack of deviation in Aidan's behaviour towards me, but I didn't know which one applied and was too content with how things were to find out.

On the Saturday after my first week at the academy, Intelligence was assigned to a case which was the first in a long row of cases that followed. Every time the unit closed one, they were immediately assigned to the next case which meant that Jay and I rarely got to spend time with each other during the day. He worked long hours every day including the weekends, and I spent my days during the week at the academy and studying, and on the weekends, I worked out with Mei and Claire, had dinner with Martha, spent time with my mum and studied some more. This left only the nights for Jay and me to see each other. Every evening, I'd either wait at mine or Jay's apartment for him to come home, and we'd tell each other about our days. He had begun seeing Dr Charles regularly, and I was happy to witness gradual improvements in his psyche and mental state. Sometimes, he would sleep through multiple nights in a row without waking up from a nightmare.

On the Friday of the sixth week of my training, a quarter way through my time at the academy, we had our first major exam. I had studied for it throughout the entire weekend and week prior.

The hard studying ended up paying off. The following Monday, we got our exams back, and I had scored 100%, topping my class along with Mei and three other recruits. In addition, in the afternoon of that same day, I managed to complete the obstacle track in new record time for me, cutting a full 30 seconds off my time from my first try on the second day of training. Mei still struggled with the six-foot wall, but her time had also drastically improved, and she'd even managed to overtake a few recruits on the scoreboard.

Exhausted but still high on endorphins from my exam score and the achievement on the obstacle track, I unlocked my door, dropped my bag onto the floor in my hallway, and took my jacket off. Intelligence was in the process of closing their current case, and Jay and I had made plans that morning to celebrate his team's success as well as me hopefully passing my exam with a dinner date that night. I couldn't wait to tell him my score.

Quietly humming along to the music I had put on, I began cooking. My phone buzzed on the kitchen island behind me, and I opened Jay's message.

Two more reports to go, and I'm out of here! Give me an hour. Tops.

I grinned and typed out a reply. Don't jinx it! I can't wait!

He replied with a heart emoji, and I reverted my attention to the stove with a smile permanently plastered onto my face.

When the casserole was baking in the oven, I set the plates and cutlery out on the island and went upstairs to get changed into something nicer.

A few minutes later, I returned downstairs and stared at the setup on the island for a moment, deciding on elevating the mood and ambience by adding a candle. I retrieved a candlestick and candle from the back of one of the cupboards and lit it. Feeling unsure whether or not it was too much, I blew it out and relit it a few times before leaving it lit. The oven binged, and I took the casserole out. Its delicious smell wafted through the kitchen.

Wondering what was taking Jay so long, I checked my phone. He'd sent his last message just over an hour ago.

Dinner is ready. Are you on your way?

Twenty minutes later, at 8:30 pm, I hadn't received a reply yet and tried calling him. His phone went straight to voicemail. There had been a couple of times over the last few weeks where he hadn't been able to text me back for a few hours or answer his phone during work, but this was unusual. He never turned his phone off.

I sat at the island, spinning my phone in my hand and stared at the flame of the candle. I tried calling Kim next and let it ring for over a minute, but she didn't pick up either. The unit had probably caught another case, and Jay or Kim would call me back soon.

I climbed off the stool, put the casserole back in the oven and sat down on my couch and turned on the TV. I didn't mind waiting and was used to Jay having to cancel plans on short notice, but the fact that his phone was turned off didn't sit right with me. I heard the voice of the news reporter reading out the news and saw images of flooded houses and blown over power poles in Florida but couldn't focus on the TV. Every few minutes, I glanced at my phone and saw the minutes tick by but no messages or calls come in. When the 9 pm news began, I tried calling Jay again. His phone was still turned off.

I couldn't take sitting around anymore and jumped up from the couch to return to my kitchen. The candle had burned down to half its size, and I blew it out before taking the casserole out of the oven again, wrapping a kitchen towel around it, and carrying it to my front door. I grabbed my phone and keys and left the house.

If the unit had caught a new case, they wouldn't have had time to eat dinner and might appreciate the casserole. At the very least, I could drop it off at the station if they weren't there.

On the quiet drive to the station, I began going through other possibilities in my mind of what might be going on and why I couldn't reach anyone. Maybe Jay had simply lost his phone or they were in an area or building without cell service. But maybe an emergency had happened and one of them was injured.

I didn't like where my mind was going. I had known from the beginning of this relationship that situations like this where I couldn't get hold of him because of his job would come along. It would be the same for him when I'd start work.

But compared to the last few times when he'd been unreachable, this time felt different. This time, I had a pit in my stomach that had never been there before. My instincts were telling me that something was wrong, and I trusted them.

I pressed my foot down on the accelerator and sped through the dark streets, keeping a lookout for Jay's truck so we didn't miss each other.

At the station, as I climbed up the steps to the main entrance, I composed myself. I didn't want to come off as the worried girlfriend that panicked over nothing.

"Officer Goldilocks!" Sergeant Platt greeted me, looking up from some paperwork she was filling out.

I walked up to her desk and set the casserole down. "Not an officer just yet, Sergeant," I corrected and did my best to bring a small smile to my face. "Sergeant, I was supposed to meet Jay tonight, but I can't reach him. Has Intelligence caught another case?"

She set her reading glasses down onto her clipboard. "No, they weren't called to a new case," she replied and glanced at her watch. "Jay and the rest of the unit left over an hour ago now. Voight and Burgess are still upstairs though. Maybe they know something. I'll buzz you up."

She moved towards the buzzer, but the gate opened before she pressed the button, and Kim skipped down the stairs.

"Here's Burgess," Platt noticed and motioned towards her.

I approached Kim, and her face lit up when she saw me. "Hey, Hailey," she greeted me but lost her smile when she saw that I didn't reciprocate it. "Something wrong?"

"I'm not sure, Kim. Jay was supposed to come by my place tonight, but he didn't show, and his phone is turned off. I tried calling you too," I told her, unable to keep the worry out of my voice.

"Oh sorry, I had my phone set on silent while finishing my paperwork. I was a little more backed up than the others," she explained and pulled her phone from her bag. "Let me try calling him."

She found Jay's contact and put her phone up to her ear. "Straight to voicemail," she concluded, surprised. "Come upstairs with me. Let's see if Voight knows something."

She looked worried too now. I was glad that she was taking the situation seriously, but at the same time, it made my concern spike. I had hoped that the situation would clear itself up immediately once I arrived at the station.

"Sarge?" Kim announced her return as we walked up into the bullpen.

"Yeah, did you forget something Burgess?" Voight's raspy voice answered from his office.

"Did Jay tell you where he was going when he left?" Kim asked when she and I reached Voight's door.

He greeted me with a nod when he saw me. "No, why?"

"We were supposed to meet over an hour ago, and I can't reach him," I filled him in.

"Hm," he grunted and got up from his chair. "Try pinging his phone," he told Kim, and she nodded and hurried to her computer.

I followed her, while Voight looked around the papers on Jay's desk for any possible clues.

My heart thumped quickly in my chest as Kim's computer started up and she opened the program. I recited his number to her.

"His phone is shut off. The last ping was here at 7:42 pm. It went dark after that," Kim read off the screen.

"What about his truck's GPS?" Voight asked and walked over to us after coming up empty at Jay's desk.

Kim was already on it. "His truck is in Bridgeport," she informed us, puzzled. "Do you know what he's doing there?"

Both looked at me.

My brows furrowed in confusion. "No. I have no idea. He never mentioned anything or anyone in Bridgeport."

"Go check it out," Voight decided, and Kim grabbed her radio from her desk and clipped her gun and badge back onto her belt. "Keep me updated, and call if you find him or need my help."

"Thank you, Sergeant," I told him earnestly and followed Kim past the breakroom to a staircase I hadn't been in before.

We hurried down two floors and came to a door that opened up to a room with a garage door in the far wall and a cage in one corner. I wondered what this room was used for as Kim continued to a door next to the cage that led to the parking lot.

We jumped into her car and took off.

"I'm sure it's nothing, probably just a big misunderstanding," I said more to myself than Kim, trying to soothe the sick feeling in my stomach. "Maybe he just..." I trailed off. I couldn't think of a single benign explanation for this situation.

The drive felt like it took forever, and I began tapping my fingers on the armrest between the seats nervously. Kim glanced over, and I sat on my hand to stop the tapping.

When we rounded the last corner, I saw Jay's truck parked in front of a rundown, yellow house. Kim pulled up behind the truck and before we'd come to a complete stop, I jumped out of the car. I hurried to the truck and tried the door handle. It was locked and no one was inside.

"I'll go and see if anybody is home," Kim told me as she approached the house.

The screech of the rusty metal gate echoed through the dark, deserted street when she swung it open. I walked into the front yard with her, but when I wanted to follow her up the steps onto the porch, she held me back.

"You stay here, we don't know what this is yet," she murmured and headed to the front door.

Kim knocked loudly and waited for a response while I glanced up at the house and around the yard. The house was dark, and it didn't seem like anyone was home.

To see if there was a light on in one of the rooms in the back of the house, I took a few steps into the yard. Alert and on the lookout for any sign of movement, I followed a narrow stone path that forked off from the main path and led through the front yard and around the side of the house. I peeked past the corner carefully. The tree in the yard blocked the light coming from the streetlamp, and I couldn't see further than a few feet ahead.

Behind me, Kim knocked again. "Police, open up."

I moved forwards around the corner and heard a soft squish under my shoe as I stepped into a shallow puddle. I took another step, triggering a motion sensor light on the sidewall of the house. It lit up the pathway and the red puddle beneath my feet. The blood in my veins ran cold, and I froze in place, holding my breath, unable and not daring to move. My eyes followed the path the liquid had flowed in. It originated from underneath a tarp that seemed to have fallen off a stack of firewood piled up against the wall and now lay on the ground below it.

Gingerly, I began moving towards it. I heard Kim call my name and tell me something, but the sound of my blood racing through my body and the rapid thumping of my heartbeat echoed in my ears and drowned out her words.

I came to a stand next to the tarp and reached out for it with a clammy, pale white hand and lifted it.

"Jay!"

My shriek rang through the silent night.