Hailey's POV

The second the drugs passed from Jay to Harris, I heard Voight through the radio.

"Move in."

Burgess quickly shifted into drive and we closed in on them.

"Chicago PD!" Jay said as he pulled out his gun. "Put your hands up."

We got out of the car and aimed our guns and Harris as well who grudgingly dropped the bag of cash and put his hands in the air.

"I knew you were a cop," Harris spat out bitterly as Jay cuffed him and started dragging him towards one of the cars.

"Well, you sure didn't act like it," Jay replied before shoving Harris into the car and closing the door. "That takes care of that."

It was dark out so I couldn't see, but I suddenly had that strange feeling that I was being watched. I looked around at the bushes and trees that surrounded the abandoned parking lot of the abandoned building but couldn't see anything. Shaking it off, I told myself I was just being too paranoid and started heading back to the district like everyone else.

Once at the district, I started filling out some of the paperwork before deciding to call it a night and finish it tomorrow.

"Night Sarge," I nodded at Trudy as I left and she nodded back.

I had just got into my car when my phone rang and I picked it up to look at the caller ID.

It was Caroline.

I quickly answered the call.

"Hello?"

"They think she's dead," Caroline blubbered, "They think Charlie's dead."

For a moment, I sat there in my car, shocked by what I was hearing. This was not what I was expecting to hear.

At all.

Charlie?

Dead?

"What do you mean?" I asked, even though I understood her perfectly.

"They think she's dead," Caroline sobbed, repeating what she had just told me, "Dead."

Dead.

"Are you at your house right now?" I asked.

"Mmhm."

I nodded, "I'll be there in five minutes."

The whole drive over, I couldn't help but feel like I was in a dream. I had a strange floating sensation all over my body that sort of made me feel like I was tingling. This had to be some kind of joke.

When I got to Caroline's house, I parked my car in front of it and hopped out, heading straight for the door.

I knocked and within seconds, the door opened the reveal, Caroline and Micheal, both looking like they were trying to cover up the fact that they were crying, despite how obvious it was.

"Okay," I said and took a deep breath as I sat down on the couch, "Why are they thinking she's dead?"

Micheal pinched the bridge of his nose, "Some passerby noticed something floating in the river. Turned out to be Charlie's student ID."

"So they think she drowned?" I asked and Caroline gave a stiff nod.

However, something didn't sit right with me. If Charlie ran away, why would she head to a river and what made her get in?

Did she drown by accident?

Or did she plan it?

Maybe someone else had something to do with it.

"Which river was it?" I asked.

"Chicago River," Micheal replied, "There are some police there searching for any other evidence that Charlie might have drowned."

Caroline let out an agonizing sob, "She can't be dead."

I didn't know what to say to that. I didn't know anything more than what they had told me.

"For all we know, Charlie could have just dropped her student ID there. It doesn't necessarily mean she was in the river," I said.

It was true. Nothing was certain yet.

Caroline and Micheal nodded and I shook hands with them before they walked me to the door.

"Charlie's like a daughter to us," Caroline gripped my wrist just as I was exiting the house, "She has to be okay."

"I'm going to pay the Chicago River a visit right now," I told her, "See if I can help out."

Caroline nodded and let go of my wrist and I headed back into my car.

Next stop, the Chicago River.

"You can't be here ma'am," A patrol officer said as he approached me.

I pulled my badge off my belt and showed it to the officer, "Detective Hailey Upton."

The patrol officer nodded and stepped to the side to let me by. I tucked the badge back onto my belt and started walking towards where the other police were.

"Detective Upton," I introduced myself to them and extended my hand.

The one with brown hair took it first, "Detective Hayes. That's Detective Inman."

The other man gave me a friendly wave and I nodded in return.

"What do you have so far?" I asked, peering down at the frothy water below.

"The only indication that she might be down there is the student ID," Hayes said, a grim look on his face, "Was she one of your CIs?"

I shook my head, "No."

"How do you know her then?" Inman questioned.

"A case a few months back. She got caught in the middle of it," I explained. "Are you two also looking into her disappearance?"

Hayes nodded, "Yeah. It's like she just vanished off the face of the earth."

"You guys didn't have any leads?" I kept my gaze on the water.

"Nope," Hayes replied, "Not until now. Some lady saw the student ID and thought it looked like Charlotte. I guess that alert paid off."

I nodded, "So what's your plan?"

Inman shrugged, "Keep looking for the girl. She's probably somewhere around here. Threw her student ID in just to throw us off her trail."

"Hmmm," I was starting to question how seriously they were taking this. "Well, call me if you get a lead on anything." I handed them both my card and turned around before heading back to my car.

For some reason, I had this gut feeling that Charlie was still alive. If she had drowned, it would make sense why we couldn't find her anywhere, but deep down, I just felt like she wasn't dead.

She couldn't be.

Not Charlie.

Not the Charlie who didn't even blink an eye when Voight yelled at her. Not the Charlie who survived being shot in the abdomen, not the Charlie who was independent and insisted on doing things by herself.

Not her.