"Alright. Hannah Cates." Voight began as soon as Antonio and I walked up. He already had her picture pulled up on his phone so we could get a good description of her just in case we came across her at any time. "She's eighteen. Left my card and a note at the front desk this morning-wanted help. I met her, she bolted and was grabbing right outside the coffee shop."
"Stranger abduction?" Jay questioned unsurely as we all tried our best to fill in the blanks with all this. There was so much we needed to figure out. Like why she would contact Voight and why? What I wanted to know was when did he cross paths with her? Was there a certain case they were both a part of?
"It felt like she knew these guys." Voight quelled what he was thinking. Clearly, he knew something we didn't. I just wish I knew what that something was.
"So, where was Hannah during the robbery?" Antonio asked one of the most necessary questions. How was she involved in all this? Why did she come for help?
"Tied up in the backseat, in the trunk. Dropped at a second location. We lost eyes on that car for twelve minutes." Voight couldn't hide the disappointment that we had lost those responsible for the robbery. The abductors purposely avoided the cameras to escape with Hannah, but why?
"Ah, the employee is on his way to Med." Adam appeared after stepping away for a phone call. "Bullet severed his femoral artery. Witnesses say it happened quick. Credit union opened, offenders barged inside. No one mentioned seeing a teenage girl, boss."
"Alright. Hailey, head the scene inside." Voight looked directly at me, to which I nodded back at him. "Let's talk to the FBI. See if this matches a robbery pattern. "Antonio, get a bead on Hannah for me. Her aunt is Anne Cates. That's her legal guardian, but the last known address on file is vacant."
"I'll track her down." Antonio put his hands back into his pocket and walked back towards his car while Jay and I worked on heading outside.
"Any luck on that phone call?" Jay questioned quietly, knowing we were surrounded by the people we worked with. I had to admit I was starting to regret my decision for not at least telling the team about my daughter.
"Yeah, turns out it was her teacher, trying to get a hold of me." I told him, equally just as quietly as he held the door open for me. "Thanks. The school secretary passed along her number, so I'll call her later tonight." That was the extent of our conversation because as we walked inside, we were enveloped by chaos; bullet holes everywhere, shell casings littered the floor, papers and broken glass were just the beginning of this mess.
"Hey, what did Voight mean, Hannah had his card?" I asked as I started writing down anything that could give us a lead to finding the eighteen-year-old. "His business card?"
"That's his thing." Jay shrugged like it was no big deal, more than likely he had seen him do this before. That's why I asked him because I knew he would give me an honest response when I needed one. "He's given out a bunch over the years. Usually, kids that grew up in tough neighborhoods. Looks after them. Gave one to Lindsay when she was fourteen." I could tell that was still a touchy subject, so I didn't push it as he walked away. "That's why she said Voight saved her."
"Yeah? That is a thing." Following him around the corner, we came across a lot of debris that had been unlodged during the shoot out. Next came the smeared blood from the employee who had been a casualty in all this. "They couldn't have gotten much out of the registers."
"Yeah, the teller said there was less than three grand. The real payload was in the back." Pointing his finger towards the back, we carefully stepped around the evidence as I took a glance around the room that held the real sell.
"Well, it's not a good sign. They should've used both employees back here. One opens the registers; the other accesses the back door. Helps them obey the two minute rule. Lessens the small bills."
"They didn't need to fire eighty rounds, either." Touching where the bullet holes were, I could see the wheels turning in his head.
"Hard for a man who's bleeding out to open a security door." For some reason, I decided to let him in on what life was like before I came to work in Intelligence. "I hated one like this in Robbery Homicide. Worst crews, highest body counts. They're the ones who don't know what they're doing."
"You know I haven't got a single phone call from Eva today," I told him, finishing up with taking stock of evidence before standing up and moving onto the next section of the credit union while he took pictures of everything.
"She's probably trying to figure out how to handle the situation."
"That's definitely not all that it is." I said, half-amused at his response mostly because it was cute how he was always bringing her up when I knew he was never really comfortable around children, which is why what I was going to ask next could go either way. "She's my kid. There's always more to what you're not seeing."
"Yeah? Should I be worried?"
"About her? "No."
"I meant about you. Is there something I should know? Because if anything were to happen to you-"
"It won't. But on the off-chance something does, I want to ask a tiny favor?"
"Shoot." He took another bag out of his pocket and crouched down to pick up another casing.
"Be her temporary guardian?"
"That's your tiny favor?" Standing up from his place, he zipped up the bag and went on to pick up another one. He shot me a rather crooked smile as he shrugged again. "You know I'm not super comfortable with kids."
"I do." It was kind of fun to see him squirm a little, but I also didn't want to make him do something he didn't want to do. "You do have the option to say no. Heaven knows I would have before I had her.":
"It's more like an I'll have to think about it."
"Fair enough."
