Officer Kayley Jones always loved when she had midnight tour. She had never come across any major situations while on them, just the occasional drunken bar patron refusing to go home, a disorderly conduct here, indecent exposure there, etc. Even the majority of the drug dealers and gang members in her sector were usually asleep during her tour. The only time she had ever run into a real mess was when she was working one of the day shifts, which was why she always put in requests for midnight tour and those requests were usually granted.

Tonight, Kayley was riding with her former TO, Officer Mike Ramos. A fifteen year veteran of the force, they had been riding days together for the majority of the past year, but when she put in for midnight duty as her primary shifts, she had somehow wound up in a rotation with three different partners, including Ramos.

Her current tour had been almost the epitome of uneventful as they crossed the halfway point around 4:00 in the morning. They had only been sent out to two calls so far, one for a drunken disorderly that wound up being one of their frequent bar flies who didn't want to go home when the bartender was trying to shut down for the night. Their other call had been a noise complaint that had been the result of a kid who decided he needed to practice his basketball skills in the middle of the night. He had been sent on his way home and now they were currently patrolling the outside of their sector.

"I would kill for some coffee right now," came the groan from her left. She glanced over at Mike, who was driving while they circled the sector, and smirked. He always crashed right around this time during tour, whether they were working days or midnights.

"Well, I don't think there are going to be any coffee places open right at this moment for you, Mike. Most of the baristas are probably only just starting to reach consciousness. You could always try an energy drink though." Kayley had been trying to get the man to consume any kind of caffeine that didn't originate from a bean, but he was fiercely against it.

If the look currently on his face was anything to go by, tonight was not going to be any exception to her usual attempts. Mike looked thoroughly horrified and gave her look like she was crazy. "Absolutely not. That stuff is all chemicals and my wife heard it can cause heart problems down the line, something I think you should consider." He shook his head as he turned the corner to head back to the house.

Kayley rolled her eyes at the comment. They had the same conversation every time, but she still enjoyed the banter. She would continue to egg him to try an energy drink, he would refuse, it was an endless cycle that always wound up with them at either a coffee shop or back at the precinct to grab some of the middling coffee for him from the breakroom. "Well, I can see that you're about to just about fall asleep, but since it's a quiet night, I guess we can head back and get you some of that nasty breakroom coffee that's probably been sitting for at least two hours."

Mike let out a hiss at her word choice. "What have I always told you? Never say the q-word. Now we're going to run into something big right at the end of tour and I'm not going to get home until 10."

Kayley snorted at his word choice while she glanced down at her phone to check the time. 4:23, right on time. "Okay, well you've always told me that and I have not once run into anything like it. Worst I've seen was when I had to break up a bar fight at 2:30 last weekend because some frat boys got into it with a bachelor party. Nothing after 3 usually except for some fender benders though."

They were halfway back to the house now, but she could tell Mike was still not at all convinced. "That's because you've only been working midnights for a few months now and when you did days, you were with me. Just watch, we'll catch something and I'm going to tell my wife it's your fault that I got home at 10 after she left for work and the kids were at school."

Just as they were a few blocks away, the radio crackled to life. "Two-nine David, we've got a call about a potential assault in an alleyway between buildings 150 and 152 off Newel Street. Caller reports that there is a large, dark puddle in the alley that they believe may be blood but are not certain."

Mike gave her a look, as if to say I told you so. "Central, this is two-nine David, show us responding."

As he hung a left and started back the way they came, he gave her a glance. "You ever had something like this come in so far?"

Kayley shook her head. "No, never. Have you?"

Mike let out a sigh. "Yeah, a few times when I'm on midnights. They can be a mixed bag. Most of the time it's just the result of some car that was parked there earlier leaking oil, a couple of times it has been blood. Hard for people living in the building to tell the difference most of the time, especially if they're not on the first floor."

"What do you think this one is then?"

Mike slowed down for a stop sign and then spoke after looking both ways. "Normally, I would say we're looking at somebody's oil leak, but since you said the q-word, I have a feeling we're going to be dealing with blood."

As they drew closer to the location, something caught Kayley's eye. An RMP was sitting in front of a closed bodega, which was odd considering they were on the edge of D sector and midnight tours usually didn't head into other sectors unless something big came up. "Hey Mike, slow down for a sec. Does that look like one of ours'?"

Mike let out a curse as they rolled up next to the car. "Yeah, it does. Check to see if someone fell asleep on duty or something."

Kayley stepped out of the car and headed over to the other vehicle. The identification on the side definitely matched the two-nine, which seemed odd to her. There was very little chance that any other officers would be in the area right now, especially since they had already radioed in that they were responding to the call. Most were probably back at the house, getting their mid-shift caffeine boost before powering through to the end.

She couldn't see anyone inside the car, so she tried the doors on the off chance that someone might have had to respond to some sort of urgent call and forgotten to lock it. No luck. Glancing inside, she could see two police caps, one on the floor of the passenger side, one on the center console. No sign of either of their owners, however.

She put her hand on the hood of the car to see if the motor was still warm, but no dice. The car hood was cool, or as cool as it could be in the late August heat, meaning it had likely been sitting there a while. She walked around to the front and wrote down the plates on the car in her notebook, as well as the identification on the side of the car, before heading back to where Mike was waiting so they could continue to their call.

"Well?" came the question.

Kayley shook her head. "No sign of whoever is supposed to be with that car. Two patrol hats are sitting inside, but the hood is cold. They must've been gone for a while, but it seems weird to just ditch your car in the middle of a shift and leave your hats behind."

Mike's face grew worried. "Let's hope that they were just stupid and locked the keys inside and had to walk back to the house." She could tell from the look on his face that he wasn't convinced by that theory. "To be on the safe side though, call dispatch and see who was assigned that car so we can make sure everything's in order."

As Mike shifted them back into gear to head to the location of this potential assault, Kayley reached up to her radio. "Hey dispatch, this is two-nine David. We have a potentially abandoned RMP that was encountered enroute to the previous call, about two blocks away from the location. Can we just get a check on who signed it out?"

The response took a few seconds but was not in any way helpful. "It probably had a mechanical issue and has been reported back to your command. Just keep heading to your location and don't worry about it," came the staticky voice.

She raised an eyebrow at the response. She didn't think it was that difficult to just check to see who had signed out the car for the shift. Mike's brow also furrowed at the response as Kayley reached up to her radio to respond. "I'm sorry, we just want to make sure that the officers assigned to the vehicle are okay. Can we just verify, please?"

If possible, the response came back more annoyed than it had sounded the first time. "No, I do not have the time for you to play at being a detective, Officer. I've been getting calls all night and having to send them out. Just do your job and let me worry about doing mine." The receiver cut off and she got the distinct impression that whoever they had been talking with had shut off their radio.

She gave Mike a wide-eyed look. "What are we supposed to do about that? I didn't think it was that big of an ask."

Her partner frowned. "It really isn't. Let's clear this call, then we'll head back to the house and talk to the desk sergeant to make sure everything is in order."

They pulled up at the end of the block and got out of the car. As the two officers approached the alley, a woman stepped out of one of the adjoining buildings.

"Excuse me, are you the cops coming about the blood in the alley?"

Kayley glanced over at Mike as they stopped to speak with her. "Um, yeah, actually we are. Were you the one who called it in to 911?"

The woman nodded. "Yeah, I noticed it when I glanced outside while I was getting ready for work. Normally I try not to get involved in other people's business, but I was worried someone might be hurt."

Mike pulled out his notebook from a side pocket to write down any information and gestured for the woman to keep talking. "If you don't mind my asking, why are you heading to work so early in the morning? As far as we know, not a lot of people are leaving their homes at 4:30."

The woman shook her head. "Sorry, this probably does seem a bit odd. I'm used to the early mornings, but I always forget it can seem weird to others for me to be up. I'm a respiratory therapist at St. Mary's Hospital uptown. I'm on 12 hour shifts and mine start at 5, before the nurses, patient care techs, and the rest of the staff get in. I'm headed to catch a taxi here shortly."

Kayley saw Mike scribbling the information down in his notebook and figured she was probably meant to continue probing the woman for information. "You said that you were worried someone might be hurt. Was there a reason that you were concerned about that?"

The woman gave her a nod of affirmation. "Yes. See, this is normally a pretty safe neighborhood, but last night I heard what sounded like some people scuffling in the alley and then it sounded like it started to escalate. I was half asleep, but I was going to call the police, but someone else beat me to it."

Mike's expression grew confused. "What do you mean someone else beat you to it? Someone else called the police here last night?"

The woman adjusted her grip on the bag hanging over her shoulder and gave another nod. "Yeah, at least I think so. I got woken up by the noise in the alley, since my bedroom window faces it, but before I was fully awake, I heard someone yell 'police.' I figured that another resident had heard or seen what was going on out there and called you guys, so I went back to bed. When I woke up this morning and was getting ready for work, I happened to glance out the window and see this large, dark puddle down there. I was worried that I might have imagined hearing the police last night, so I called 911 just in case."

Kayley noticed that Mike was scribbling this all down with an increasingly concerned look on his face. "When about was this?"

The woman shook her head. "I'm not sure, maybe 11, 11:30? Like I said, I wasn't really awake. Listen, I've really got to get going for work or else I'm going to be late. Is there anything else you needed from me?"

Judging from Mike's carefully schooled expression, Kayley was pretty certain that they weren't going to be lucky and just find a giant oil spot when they went down that alley. Her partner had a pretty decent poker face though and gave the woman a stressed smile. "Not right now ma'am, we'll let you get on your way. Could you just give us your name and contact info in case we have any further questions though?"

The woman nodded. "Of course. My name is Kenna Johnson, I live in 3F here in 150. I'll be at the hospital until 5 pm today, but I should get home soon after my shift finishes."

Mike scribbled her information down. "Perfect, we'll reach out if we have any more questions for you. If you don't hear anything, I would just assume that it was some sort of a spill and nothing to be concerned about. Better to be overly cautious than anything else."

Their witness gave them a grateful smile before scurrying off up the street. Mike flipped his notebook closed and stuffed it in the side pocket of his uniform pants, his expression grim.

Kayley eyed her partner and former TO with hesitance. "You don't think that this is just some overly worried citizen making a mountain out of a molehill, do you?"

Mike let out a sigh. "No, I don't. Based on what she just told us, I think there's a very real possibility that we're going to find a nice little pool of blood in that alley. Let's hope that the tour before us actually did bring in someone for assault though, so we can just clean it up and move on, otherwise this could be a whole lot bigger."

Based on what Kenna Johnson had just told them, they both doubted that there was anyone in the alley at this point in time, but the partners both did a quick visual clear of the side alley before stepping into it completely.

It wasn't hard to miss the cause of the 911 call. There was a pretty wide puddle of dark liquid about 15 feet inside the entrance to the alley, which reflected a faint reddish-black when Mike shone his flashlight on it.

"Son of a bitch," came the curse from her partner, while Kayley stared. Sure, she'd seen her fair share of blood during her time on the job, but never so much in one spot. She also hadn't yet come across something like this without there being a victim nearby, which added to the eeriness.

Mike bent down to inspect the puddle, but didn't touch it, instead reaching for his radio to call back to the house. "Central, this is two-nine David. Were there any assaults reported or assault victims brought to a local hospital tonight from this area?"

There was a brief crackle of static before the sound of their desk sergeant came back over the radio. "No, no assaults have been reported from your sector tonight. Looks like it's been pretty quiet overall on that side of the precinct tonight."

Mike let out a silent curse and looked up at Kayley. "Go check the rest of this alley to see if there's a victim around here. With this much blood loss, there's no way they were able to stumble home."

Kayley gave him a nod and started to look around the rest of the alleyway while her partner radioed the sergeant back to see what calls had been coming in for the area tonight and heard him ask if the nearby hospital (not St. Mary's, but St. Ben's) had had any patients come in who looked like they had been beaten up pretty bad.

Overall, there wasn't much to be seen as she made her way down the alley away from her partner. There were a few half-full trash bins, but when she glanced inside, all that was inside was garbage and a few oversized rats. She spotted some carboard piled up against one of the bins, but nowhere near enough for it to be hiding a body and dismissed it.

She was about three quarters of the way down the alley when she spotted another one branching off to her left. Lord, did she hate it when she wound up in one of these mazes, although she could see the street on the other end of the branched off alley. Kayley quickly shone her flashlight down the remaining distance of the original alley and, seeing nothing, stepped into the side alley.

This one was a bit narrower, with a lot more trash in it. She poked around in a few piles of junk but found nothing other than a few more oversized rats and a rancid smell. As she continued down the side alley, her eyes caught a small dark spot on the pavement near a dumpster. It was nowhere near as large as the initial puddle but was definitely dried blood.

Kayley started to get a sick feeling in her stomach. "Ramos. I think I've got more blood down here."

She didn't look up from where she was standing with her light shining on the spot, but she heard Mike's heavy footsteps approaching her as he rounded the corner. Glancing up as he joined her, she saw his face harden.

"Okay kid, I think it's time we call in the big dogs. Something definitely went down here, and I don't think it was just a couple of kids beating each other up." Mike let out a sigh as he turned to head back to the main alleyway and waved for her to follow.

They stopped at the end of the original alley and Mike reached up to his radio, tuning it to the channel that the desk sergeant was always on. "Hey Sarge, this is Ramos out in D sector. I'm gonna need crime scene and some detectives at my location."

The radio crackled back almost immediately. "10-4 Ramos, what's your location? And what are you looking at?"

Her partner let out a deep sigh before responding. "An alleyway between 150 and 152 Newel Street. We got called out for a potential assault and I've got a large puddle of blood in the main alley and a smaller spot off in a side one. No sign of a victim, but I've got a bad feeling about this."

There was a moment of silence as the sergeant on the other end wrote down the information her partner had just relayed. "Alright Ramos, secure the scene. I'll get CSU out there shortly and see if I can find a detective to head over." If it were any other officer, Kayley was willing to bet that the sarge would have asked for a little more explanation to send CSU and detectives out for something like this based on them having a bad feeling about it, but Mike was well respected within the squad and a solid cop. With his years of experience on patrol and in this neighborhood especially, if he had a bad feeling about something, he was usually right.

She glanced at her partner as they headed back to the car to get tape to start securing the area. "You said you had a bad feeling about this. You think it's more than just some street brawl, Mike?"

It was like he had aged 10 years in the past half hour. "I hope not, but between what that woman told us, the amount of blood down there, and the abandoned patrol car a few blocks away, I think this is a whole lot more than what we were initially thinking we'd stumbled into, Kayley."

They stopped at the end of the alleyway, and he turned to her. "All right, I'll start securing this end, you get the entrance to that side alley sealed off and start seeing if there are any doors where residents might accidentally step into the crime scene. If you find any, seal them off. Once I'm done here, I'll get the other end of this main stretch and help you secure the rest of the scene."

As she walked off, Kayley couldn't help but feel dread starting to pool in her stomach. If Mike was this serious and concerned, it meant he thought something was seriously wrong. She was starting to get an idea of what he thought was going on, but prayed that they were wrong.