Next morning.
Intelligence started off slow with paperwork about their last case, wrapping it up. Everyone was working quietly, focused on their task. Suddenly, Platt ran up the stairs and stumbled into the bullpen.
"Guys, we have a problem!"
She held onto one of the desks to steady herself. There was worry flickering in her eyes. The others were out of their chairs in a heartbeat and Kevin was quick to get Voight out of his office.
"What is it Sarge?", Jay asked worried.
"I just got a call from Detective Mullins from the Undercover Unit. He says they lost contact with Rojas."
No one dared to speak a word. Hailey's head shot around to face Kevin. He looked like every bit of color had drained from his face.
"How did that happen?", Voight asked.
"He said that she was supposed to report the latest news, but she never did. They tried to call her and locate her phone, but it's turned off. Then they drove to her UC apartment and…"
"What?", Adam asked impatiently.
Platt handed them some photos. It looked like a tornado had swept through. The vase from her coffee table lay in pieces on the ground, the flowers were scattered all over the floor. Her coffee table was pushed out of position and there was blood on one edge. The glass of one of the windows had been broken by a gunshot and there was a hole from a gunshot in the wall next to it. The plant in the corner of the living room was knocked over, the curtains were ripped in half and the TV was broken.
Platt had some more pictures though. They showed the corridor which led to the bedroom and bathroom. There was blood on the wall and on the carpet. There was no damage in the bathroom, but her bedroom looked almost like the living room. Everything from her sideboard was scattered on the floor, the mirror was broken and the palm tree next to the sideboard was knocked over. The door to the balcony was open. Vanessa's apartment was on the first floor, so the distance to the ground wasn't too high but it was still risky to jump. One photo showed the pavement underneath her balcony. There was a pool of blood and a trail of blood ran a few meters down the street before it ended abruptly.
Kim covered her mouth with her hand and leaned back against her desk to steady herself. Adam put an arm around her shoulder and Jay looked at Hailey to make sure she wouldn't fall.
Everyone was looking at the pictures in silence. Nobody was able to understand properly what they saw.
"When did they take these pictures?", Voight asked.
"This morning, a few hours ago. Detective Mullins sent them to me shortly after he had called. He wants to know if Intelligence is on board to help find her."
Voight looked around and nodded.
"Are they still at her apartment?"
"Yes."
"Alright guys, we meet there. Trudy will text you the address. Let's go!"
The team grabbed their things and rushed past Trudy. They practically ran down the stairs and headed straight for their cars.
On their drive to the apartment, Jay glanced over at Hailey. She looked out of the window and tried to hold back the tears.
"You think you can handle this?", he asked carefully.
"Yeah. I wanna help finding her. I hope that she's okay."
Hailey's voice broke at the end. She turned her face back to the window. Jay placed his hand on her arm and squeezed it gently.
"She'll be fine okay? We're going to find her, and she'll be fine. We got this."
Hailey nodded and looked at him. One tear fell down her cheek, but she smiled.
"You think Kevin can handle this?", she asked after a few moments of silence.
"Don't know… I mean, if it's true what you think about them, then this is hard. Very hard. I don't know if I could handle it if this happened to you."
He shook his head and refocused on the traffic to get these thoughts out of his mind. Hailey on the other hand was brought back to when Jay had been abducted with Angela. She felt a wave of emotions crashing over her and now the tears streamed down her face. She tried to cry as silent as possible, but Jay noticed it immediately. He looked for a parking lot and stopped the truck as soon as he found one. He got out and ran to her side. He opened the passenger's door and helped her to get out. He wrapped his arms tightly around her waist and soothed her back.
"It's okay, I'm here. I won't go anywhere."
Hailey's arms were locked behind his neck and she pulled him tightly towards her. Jay gently kissed her neck and whispered over and over again, that he was there and that he wouldn't go anywhere. Hailey calmed down after a few minutes and allowed him to wipe away the last tears.
"Thank you. I needed that."
"Anytime my love", he answered and kissed her lips.
Hailey smiled into the kiss. He'd never called her my love before, but she liked it. They broke apart and climbed back into the truck.
"You good?", Voight asked, when they arrived five minutes later than the others.
"Yes Sarge", Hailey answered immediately and wiped over her face to erase the last tears.
"Okay. Listen up everyone", Voight began, "we're gonna walk around the apartment to make sure that every little piece of information is collected. Don't overlook anything and call out if you're unsure about something. Rojas is family, so I want her found!"
Intelligence as well as all the officers from the Undercover Unit and the CSU listened carefully. As soon as Voight ended his speech, they started to move. Soon, the apartment was full of officers and detectives, working hard on their tasks. After Voight himself made sure that CSU collected every piece of evidence, he turned to Detective Mullins.
"CSU got everything, and they'll bring it to the lab now. Would you mind if my team and I remained here to reconstruct the course of the crime?"
"Absolutely not. We'll head back to our district and try to locate her phone. Maybe she turned it on again."
He was on the verge to leave when Voight called him back.
"Detective! How about you bring your stuff to district 21? It's easier if all the information is in one place. Just go there and tell Sergeant Trudy Platt who you are, she'll show you where you can deposit your files."
"Sounds great. See you at district 21 then."
Detective Mullins and his team left.
Voight called Intelligence into the living room.
"Alright, let's try to reconstruct what happened. Burgess, you wanna start?"
"Yes. The broken plate, the cracked glass and the dents on the couch indicate that Vanessa sat here."
Kim showed them the dents in the cushion of the couch.
"These gunshots here", she continued and pointed to the holes in the wall and the window, "came through the door."
She walked over to the door and pointed at the holes in there.
"So, she sat here, the shots are fired through the door and seconds later, it flies open. CSU told me that the offenders kicked it in. Due to the robust door lock they must have been at least two."
She waited a few moments before she continued.
"Next, there's a fight here."
She comes to stand between Jay and Hailey, right where the coffee table was supposed to stand.
"Vanessa fights them and in the process the coffee table gets pushed out of position. Either one of the offenders or Vanessa falls on the coffee table. That explains the blood on the edge. During all that, the other things fall off the table somehow. The fight is moved over here, where one person tries to hold on to the curtains. But they're not strong enough to hold the body weight of a person, so they rip in half. After the plant gets knocked over, someone tries again to hold on to the curtains, but they rip in half again. I suppose that that was one of the offenders, because next, the fight moves over here."
She points next to the couch.
"Exactly", Adam agreed and took over.
"Vanessa wants to escape the living room, but one of the offenders reaches for his gun. First, he hits the TV, then he hits her, which explains the blood on the wall here", he said and pointed to the bloodstains on the corridor wall.
"She slides to the ground, gets back up and reaches her bedroom, where they catch up to her."
The team follows Adam through the corridor into the bedroom.
"In the fight, someone breaks the mirror and the stuff from the sideboard falls to the ground. On this plant, CSU was able to find fingerprints, which means that Vanessa probably knocked it over to buy her time. Next, she opens the door to the balcony, jumps down onto the pavement."
He looked at Jay to signal him that he could continue.
"Okay, so outside, she tries to escape down the street, but she's not fast due to her gunshot wound. We found tire tracks next to the place where the blood trail ends, so presumably she was attacked by more offenders who put her in the car and fled the scene. That's all we could reconstruct. CSU found a lot of fingerprints though, so there is a chance that we can identify the two offenders in the apartment."
"What about the car?", Voight asked.
"Unfortunately, there are no cameras in this neighborhood, so we won't get a license, but CSU says that they'll get a model with the tire tracks. Narrows it down a little bit."
"We'll see", Voight said and started walking to the living room.
The team followed.
"Okay, I think we can't do much more here. Let's head back to the district, Detective Mullins and his team are waiting there. They brought all their files so we can dig into the case while we wait for news from the lab."
The team nodded in silence. Voight noticed the looks on their faces and stopped in the doorway.
"Hey, we're gonna find her okay? We're not gonna stop before we have found her."
"Of course, Sarge", Jay answered.
"Good, then we head back now."
With that, they closed the door behind them and put the yellow band in place.
On their drive back to the district neither Hailey nor Jay spoke a word. There was too much to process.
The crime scene itself looked worse than the pictures. On the pictures they couldn't see that the shots were fired through the door. That meant that the offenders didn't care whether Vanessa was alive or dead, because they could have hit her with one of the shots. So, they most likely didn't plan to let her walk alive. That put even more pressure on the team, because if they weren't fast enough, they'd only be able to recover her body.
With these thoughts, they arrived back at the district, determined to do everything in their power to find Vanessa…
A/N: Hey there!
I know it's been a long time, but here is the next part of the story. I must admit that I really like this part, it turned out better than I thought it would. Sometimes I need a good old writer's block to produce a good chapter afterwards 😊.
Anyways, I wish you all a good day and see you next time 😊! ~ D.