Chapter 10
I was half asleep as Katy had just left, it was still dark and her words "Love you too baby" were still ringing in my ears. I truly loved that girl, ever since she had transferred from Brooklyn to LVPD. I was thinking how lucky I was when I heard a scream from outside. I jumped up out of bed and went to the safe, punched the code in, and grabbed my gun. I ran to the door flinging it open to see a dark van's side door slamming and it screeching off. I raised my gun and shot at it, there were no plates and just like that it was gone. Katy's car door was open and her bag was on the drivers seat.
I felt sick to my stomach. I ran back to the house and picked up the phone from the hall dialling 911.
"911 what's your emergency?" the operator said.
"this is CSI Stokes, we have a 207 on a detective Jackson from LVPD from my home address, a black van was seen leaving the scene" I said.
"plates?" the operator asked.
" it didn't have any" I replied.
"okay we will send someone out straight away" they said.
I went back in and threw some sweats and a tshirt on, squad cars arrived and I heard Brass call out my name.
"what the hell happened?" he asked.
"I don't know what happened Katy left and then I heard a scream I grabbed my gun to see a black van the side door slammed shut and then it sped off I opened fire but it didn't stop it" I said.
"plates?" he asked.
"they didn't have any"I replied.
"what was she doing here at this time?" he asked.
"she stayed over" I replied
"really?" he asked.
"yeah really we've been going out for 6 months" I replied.
"I didn't know"
"no one did" I said.
"right we will get CSI's in and set up a phone tap for when they try to contact you" Jim said
"me?" I asked.
"well no one got kidnapped from outside my house" he replied.
The next few hours were a haze, the whole CSI team arrived and looked at the cctv from the drive way and they followed the van on the traffic cameras until they saw it abandoned and them carry a body out from the back of the van and into a white van that pulled up shortly after. When I saw them carrying Katy out I burst in to tears. Sarah rubbed my back "I'm so sorry, we will find her" she said.
I got dressed and went to go with them to the van.
"you can't come with what if they ring?" Russell said.
"all my calls are transferred to my mobiles" I said "plus I need to do this I can't cope stuck here not being able to help"
"okay, but if it gets too much you're off the case" he said.
I locked up the house and went with Gregg in his car, we arrived to the van and broke into it, Sarah and D.B, went back to the lab to scour the cameras for the white van and where it came from before it arrived.
Julie, Gregg and I went over the van with a fine tooth comb. There was not a finger print on the whole van but,we did find a blood smear on the one panel. Gregg swabbed it and we headed back to the lab. The blood had skin cells in it and the DNA came back as a mix of Katy's and a male. Hodges ran it through the system.
"that's good she's not stupid she knew what to do" Sarah said "she left us a clue"
"I don't know what I will do if anything happens to her" I said.
"she's a strong woman Nick there isn't a chance that she is going to let them hurt her" she said.
" that's what I'm afraid of, she fights back and then they kill her" I said.
"we will find her I promise" Sarah said.
We had a hit in the system on the DNA from the van , it was for a Steven Morris who was in the system for minor crimes.
"this doesn't make sense, from shoplifting and DUI's to kidnapping?" Julie said.
"he's not the kidnapper he's the errand boy" I said, "along with these other 3 guys"
"Nick there's a package for you" the receptionist said placing a small jiffy bag on the work top. We all looked at each other. I slowly walked over and noticed that all it said was FOR THE ATTENTION OF NICK STOKES.
I came around and I still had the bag over my head, the pain in the back of my head was so bad it made my eyes hurt. I could here the guy to the right of me breathing heavily, and the van was still moving.
"Seth's on the way to the drop off point" one of them said after I heard a phone vibrate.
"I fucking told you not to use names" I heard someone say from a bit further away which must have been the driver.
"what does it matter she's going to die eventually" the first one said.
"we don't know what boss is going to do with her yet" the driver said.
" I know what I want to do with her" the heavy breather said he ran his finger across the top of my breast. I lashed out and took a chunk out of him with my nails.
"son of a bitch" he screamed out. I reached out to the nearest hard service and ran my nails along it.
"I told you to restrain the bitch" I heard the driver shout. Next thing I know I was punched in the face and I blacked out again.
I put my gloves on and sliced open the envelope open with a scalpel and tipped the contents out on the desk. There was a flash drive and Katy's necklace I had gotten her with a diamond star pendant. My heart sank when I saw it the chain was snapped and there seemed to be blood on it.
"I want every test possible run on these" I said to Hodges and Henry.
"you got it" Hodges said. They put the items into evidence bags and went off to start trace.
D.B told everyone to leave except me but I told him that everyone loved Kat they should all be there.
Russell put the flash drive in and ran the program a black screen with writing in red it read.
WELL HELLO NICK, REMEMBER ME?. I'M SURE YOU DON'T BUT YOU WILL! WE'RE GOING TO PLAY A LITTLE GAME, IF YOU CHOSE NOT TO PLAY KAT WILL DIE, IF YOU DON'T FOLLOW THE RULES KAT WILL DIE. BY NOW I'M SURE THAT ALL YOUR COLLEGUES KNOW THAT YOU'RE IN LOVE WITH KAT AND THAT YOU'VE BEEN KEEPING YOUR RELATIONSHIP UNDERCOVER FOR THE LAST 6 MONTHS. WHAT THEY DON'T KNOW IS THAT YESTERDAY WAS THE FIRST DAY YOU TOLD EACH OTHER THAT IT WAS LOVE...HOW SWEET!...HOW DOES IT FEEL NICK? TO HAVE YOUR LOVED ONE TAKEN AWAY FROM YOU? SUCKS DOESN'T IT? I'M NOT GOING TO LIE I WANT YOU DEAD NICK, BUT FIRST YOU HAVE TO SUFFER SO YOU HAVE 3 MINUTES TO ANSWER THIS RIDDLE OR KAT DIES!
Alone I am 24th, with a friend I am 20.
Another friend and I am unclean.
What am I?
A timer suddenly appeared counting down from 3minutes. Everyone was concentrating "HODGES, HENRY" I shouted, they both came running in and looked at the screen.
"X" Henry said " the answers X 24th letter of the alphabet, Xis 10 with a friend its 20 and when you see XXX what do you think"
"he's right" Russell said. So I quickly typed in X and the screen went black, then it came up,
WELL DONE NICK COME BACK IN AN HOUR FOR ROUND 2!
The clock started counting down from 60 minutes.