AN: Thanks for the compliments on my imaginary CSRD. Maybe someone will read this story and create it. :)
To all who are reading this story, I very much appreciate you. Any and all comments or questions are welcome. You never know when one of your thoughts will influence a story. My betas can attest to that. printandpolish in partcular has a line in this chapter that's totally hers because it made me laugh and I just had to rewrite a section so I could fit it in. :)
"I'm sure she's fine," Jack tried to reassure him. Dominic just pushed the button again for the elevator up to the crime lab. "From what I know of her, she knows how to take care of herself."
"Doesn't mean something bad can't happen to her. My family is filled with people who know how to take care of themselves but end up getting hurt anyway," Dom said darkly.
"Agent Dent?" Dom and Jack turned to find Detective Deveraux approaching the elevator.
"Deveraux, nice to see you again," Jack responded, shaking the hand of the other man.
"Dominic Messer?" Deveraux looked appropriately surprised to be running into Dom in New York. "Uh, are you here visiting family?" The younger man looked ill at ease.
"Not exactly. I'm here to see Kaile, but I haven't been able to get a hold of her. You wouldn't happen to know anything about where she is, would you?" The uncomfortable look that crossed the other man's face answered his question. "What do you know, Deveraux?"
"Nothing really," JD said. "She went out with Scagnetti and now they're both out of touch and your mother told me to come upstairs–"
"Wait, she's with Scags? And he's out of contact too?" Dominic felt his stomach drop. The elevator dinged behind him and both Jack and JD moved to enter.
"Dom?" Jack asked, holding open the door when it tried to close.
Dominic didn't answer or even look over his shoulder as he took off back down the hallway. His instincts had led him to New York for a reason and if he went upstairs his parents would keep him out of the search for Kaile. He had an idea of where to look for a lead and he wasn't going to let his family stop him.
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"Wake up, Kaile!" She groggily opened her eyes and glared at Scagnetti for having just delivered a kick to her foot along with the stiff command.
"Shut up, Scags." She closed her eyes only to have him kick her again.
"Stay awake, Kaile Flack, and that's an order." Beneath the anger she could see the fear but she was too tired to think anything of it.
"We're the same rank, Scags, you can't order me around." She tiredly tried to move her legs so that he couldn't kick them anymore.
"I've had more time on the force than you so technically I am your superior, but that's not the point. You need to stay awake, Kaile. I think you've lost some blood from messing with your handcuffs and coupled with the drugs in your system you're dropping off and you can't do that. Your dad will kick my ass if you don't make it out of here."
Kaile smirked. "I'm supposed to help you get out of an ass-kicking?" Her brain wasn't grasping all the concepts he was talking about.
"You would latch onto that. No, I'll gladly take the ass-kicking if you'll just stay awake, okay?"
She tried to think about what Scagnetti was saying, but her brain was doing a damn fine job of blocking the pain and the sensation of her blood on her fingers and urging her to just black out and let it all go. "I think I should lie down."
"No, damnit, you should not lay down!" Some of Scagnetti's fear was starting to leak into his voice.
"It's for a good reason," Kaile assured him. "I think…I think lying down will mean less blood flowing out of my wrists."
"Oh…I suppose that might work…" She didn't even wait for his agreement before she started trying to lay on her side. Lying on her back was pretty much out of the question with the way her hands were bound behind her body, but her side worked well enough for the job.
"You're going to have to talk to me to help me stay awake, Scags," Kaile told her fellow prisoner.
"About what?"
Kaile smiled tiredly. "I didn't think I'd ever hear you at a loss for words, Scags." She chuckled at his snort. "I don't know, tell me something that will get me ticked at you. Anger should keep me going." It always has before she thought. "Or make me laugh. You're always telling me what a funny guy you are."
Scagnetti shifted positions. "Okay, well, when I was ten, I had this pet turtle …" He went on and she struggled to stay conscious while he talked to her about anything and everything.
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"What the HELL is going on?" Sheldon looked up as Don burst into Lindsay's office closely followed by Mac.
"We don't really know," Hawkes said, trying to calm the other man down a bit. "Just like I told you on the phone, the only thing we know is that Kaile and Scagnetti are incommunicado. They went to talk to Jim Munson, but he's missing as well."
"Does this have something to do with that possible serial killer you were telling me about?" Mac asked Lindsay. "The guy who is killing deaf women?"
"Actually, the girl," Danny spoke up from the corner of the room where he had been looking at one of the files. "Lindsay and Hawkes put it together. It looks like we've got a female serial killer who's been working her way around the country following Jim Munson."
"And now this psycho has my daughter?" Don looked about ready to explode or deflate at the slightest provocation depending on the news he got next.
"We don't know that for sure yet," Lindsay tried to placate him knowing very well how flat the words fell considering she had been in Don's position just a short time ago when Ella was in trouble. "Deveraux should be here any minute and then we can figure out what to do next." She looked down at her watch. "Actually, he should have been here by now."
Sheldon looked down at his own watch. "Dominic should have been here, too."
"Dominic? What is he doing in New York?" Mac asked.
"Apparently he came to town to talk to Kaile," Lindsay told them. Hawkes noticed that she deliberately ignored Don's shoulders tensing up. Don loved his nephew, but his daughter always came first and whenever there was something going on between Dom and Kaile he obviously and understandably felt he had to take his daughter's side. "Sheldon told him to meet us up here. I'll try calling him and see what's up." She picked up her desk phone and punched in the numbers. Everyone waited in tense silence until Lindsay looked up with new worry in her eyes. "He's not answering."
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"What are you doing, Dom?" Jack asked desperately as he followed his future brother-in-law into Kaile's precinct squad room.
Dominic felt his phone vibrating. Hoping against hope that it was Kaile he pulled it out, then ignored it when he saw that it was his mother calling. "There's got to be something at her desk that will give us a clue as to where she is." At least he hoped there was. It was the only idea he had.
"I've been working this case with her ever since we realized there was a connection," JD told him. "I know everything about the cases and I'm telling you, we didn't have any suspects or even a strong person of interest that we could interrogate. There's nothing at Kaile's desk that will help."
"If you've got a better idea, I'm all ears," Dom told him as he reached Kaile's desk and started rummaging through what was on top. He ignored the looks he was getting from the detectives in the room and started rifling through the various papers and files.
"Jack!" The three men looked over to find Ana coming towards them closely followed by her sister. Dominic didn't miss the strained looks that passed between Ella and JD but he didn't have time to think about them right now. "Dominic, what are you doing? I thought you said on the phone that you guys were meeting Mom and Dad and everyone else upstairs, then Jack calls to say you're here."
Dominic ignored her questions as he started to rummage through the desk's drawers. "Yes!" he crowed triumphantly as he pulled out Kaile's PDA. "She must have left in a hurry and forgotten this." Pushing a button, he brought the screen to life.
"You're hoping she made a note of something that seemed suspicious to her but didn't mention to anyone else," Ella deduced.
"Exactly. Deveraux, what was the name of the victim in Kaile's case?"
"Abigail Jones," JD supplied.
Dom used the stylus to open the Jones file. He scrolled down what little information there was. From the date at the top he could tell she hadn't had the case for very long which was probably the reason for the lack of information. But there was one name with a couple of question marks after it. "Who is Charity Connors?"
"Connors?" JD repeated, nonplussed at the name. "She's the receptionist at the deaf community center. Why?"
"Because Kaile made a note to check into the woman a little," Dom told him, showing JD the entry in the PDA. "Obviously something about the woman made Kaile suspicious and she just hadn't gotten around to checking her out yet."
"But that's a leap to thinking that this woman is the perp and that she's done something to Scagnetti and Kaile," Ana pointed out.
"I don't care," Dom told them. "We don't have any other leads, so we might as well talk to this woman." He started to head away from the desk when Ella grabbed his arm and held on tight to keep him from going any further.
"Where do you think you're going?" she asked quietly, though there was no mistaking the heat behind her words.
He met his sister's eyes head on. "Don't think you're keeping me out of this, Ella. I've been to that community center before with Jim, so I know how to get there on my own, and there's no way you can keep me from going there."
Dominic felt like his sister was almost searching his soul with her eyes. Before she could come to a decision, JD spoke up. "He might be helpful if he's been there before. I haven't been much farther than the front lobby and I don't know the people there on a personal level."
Dom was impressed when Deveraux didn't flinch as Ella turned her angry gaze his way. Maybe the guy had the balls and character to go out with his sister after all. Ella's grip loosened on his arm as she turned back to him. "Fine. But if anything goes wrong you had better listen if any of us tell you to stay back or I'll shoot you myself. I'd rather you have a flesh wound than a fatal one." Dominic nodded, only mostly sure that her threat was only that, a threat. He watched as his sister squatted down to pull her secondary gun out of her ankle holster. "Is your New York permit up to date?"
"Yeah," Dominic replied, taking the gun she handed him. It had been a long time since he had held one and he had never had one in his hand outside of a shooting range. His father had taught them all gun safety when they were very young just to be on the safe side, even though their parents locked both of their guns far out of the reach of their children when they came home from work. When they were old enough, their dad took them to the range to teach them to shoot. Dom had never really enjoyed firing a gun, but when he was younger he practiced just so he wouldn't be embarrassed by his sisters and Kaile. Then when he got older he just kept the permits for Chicago and New York up to date out of habit, even though he wasn't even sure he remembered the combination for the safe where he kept his one gun back at his apartment in Chicago.
"Good. This is just in case and only for self defense." Dom checked the safety as he had been taught before putting the gun in his jacket pocket. Ella looked around at their group. "Ana and I drove in together and my car is right outside. Why don't we all just go in that." Everyone nodded and turned to leave the precinct. Two ATF agents, an NYPD Detective, an FBI agent and a major league baseball player made for an interesting group, but Dominic would put them up against anyone. Hold on, Kaile, wherever you are. We're coming for you.