"Chief, if it's ok, I'm gonna head over to PD to see if Antonio can help find Stella. I've got my radio." Kelly said to Chief Boden.
"Yeah, go. Let me know if you hear anything." Boden responded
"I will, thanks." Kelly turned and left Boden's office.
Kelly got in his car and headed to PD. When he met up with Antonio, Antonio peppered him with questions.
"When was the last time you saw her? Did you speak to her after you saw her? When she left your place last night, where was she headed? Has she ever missed a shift without calling in? Did you two have a disagreement or fight?"
That last question got to him. "Yeah we had a fight but she would never not call out for a shift. Fight or no fight, she'd show up or call."
"I don't know, Kelly. Maybe she doesn't want to see you. Maybe she's laying low somewhere. Maybe she's not calling anyone to make you worry about her. To punish you."
"Hold on, Antonio. That's not Stella. If she was pissed at me, she'd just avoid me all shift. It's happened before and we work on different rigs. Yeah the firehouse is small, but it's not that small. I'm telling you, her disappearing means something is wrong."
"Look, Kelly, I understand you're worried. I can file an official report until she's been missing for 48 hours, but I can run her credit cards, ATM card and see if we can get a last location on her cell phone." Said Antonio.
"Man, that would be great. Anything that might help me find her would be great."
"Ok, hang out for a minute."
Kelly called Chief to let him know what was going on and ask for the rest of his shift off. Chief agreed. He would put Cruz in charge and get a floater in for the rest of the shift.
After that Kelly relaxed a little. He was relieved but thankful he didn't have to divide his attention between work and Stella. He had also been dodging messages from Renee. With everything going on, he needed to focus on finding Stella.
Kelly grabbed his phone and responded to Renee. "An emergency came up. Talk later" he texted her. He had hoped she would accept that and leave him alone but she started texting him nonstop.
"What happened"
"Anything I can do"
"Can u talk"
"Do u think u can come by later"
"I found a new witness. I need u to review his stmt"
"Kelly, I haven't heard from u. Getting worried"
"Call/text when u can"
When Antonio came back almost an hour later, Kelly was anxious but hopeful.
"Ok, no ATM withdrawals and no activity on her credit cards. We've also been able to triangulate a possible location of her cell phone." Antonio pulled out a Google maps print out.
"Ok. There a cell tower here, here, and here." He marked the 3 locations with a red "X". Her cell phone is somewhere in the area," he says as he indicated with a circle on the map.
"Any way to narrow the search location?" Kelly asked.
"This is the best we could do. This is a fairly wooded area. We are hoping she and her phone are close to the road. Maybe she had car trouble or was tired and pulled over. I'm sending a unit over there now to see if they find anything."
"Thanks, Antonio. I'm gonna head over there myself. With any luck, we'll find her." Kelly stood up, shook Antonio's hand and got up to leave. He texted Chief and Casey to let them know what he had found out and where he was going.
