Chapter 18

Two Days Prior

Sergei Zhurov and his cousin Dimitri were hanging out at their favorite strip club, drinking and smoking Cuban cigars. Any other night they would have ogled the dancers and made frivolous conversation. Not tonight. In fact, they barely noticed the gyrating women or the throbbing music.

"Has that investigator found anything?" asked Sergei.

"Nyet." Dimitri threw back the rest of his whiskey and slammed the glass down. A torrent of Russian curses followed.

"How hard can it be to find that weasel Brad?

Sergei tilted his head and blew smoke rings toward the ceiling. "Maybe Brad is smarter than we thought. Or has connections of his own."

Dimitri scowled as he looked around the club. Irritation filled him and he glared at Sergei. "Maybe. Somehow, I didn't think he was that smart . . . or devious. And if I find out that PI is screwing me over . . ."

Stubbing out the remainder of his cigar, Sergei said, "People are rarely what they seem."

"Well, thanks cousin, for that grand pronouncement." With that, Dimitri stood and threw some money on the table. "I'm out."

"Where are you going?" said Sergei.

His cousin shrugged and walked toward the door. Sergei shook his head. Even as a kid, Dimitri was impatient and hated to lose at any game. He didn't know how to play the long game or control his temper. He thought of the broken window at Windy City Dates.

But am I any better? wondered Sergei. He didn't want to admit to Dimitri how he'd wasted several evenings sitting in his Range Rover outside the 21st District. He'd hoped to see Detective Upton either coming or going. Two nights ago, when he was about to give up, his luck changed. Detective Upton exited the back door at 8:50 p.m. A young male officer followed on her heels.

He was momentarily stunned when he actually saw her. What's the plan? Run her off the road? Snatch her? Lock her away somewhere and toy with her? He was shocked to realize he had not thought this through. He'd let anger and frustration override logic.

Before he could formulate a plan, she got in a truck with the other officer and they drove away.

Okay, I'll follow and find out where she lives.

Except he lost them when he got caught behind a multi-car wreck a mile from the District. There was no way for him to get around the fire engine and ambulances blocking the street.

He slapped the steering wheel. "Dammit!"

After 45 minutes, the injured had been loaded into the ambulances and the intersection was once more open. Sergei rubbed his forehead. He could feel a migraine developing. There was no choice but to go home and lie quietly in a dark room.

I will find you, Detective Upton. Maybe not tonight, but soon.

Voight and Dante were still at Hailey's apartment when the call came. "What is it, Kim? You're on speaker."

"Sarge, Med called. Our Jane Doe is awake," said Kim. "But here's the weird thing. They notified Hailey last night and she was supposed to interview her, but she didn't show up."

Voight did not like what he was hearing. "Something could have happened between the District and the hospital. Or maybe she came home first for some reason. There was definitely a struggle, but it's confined to the front of the apartment." He paused as he considered various possibilities. None of them were good.

"Okay, one of you get over there and talk to this girl and everybody else start reviewing all pods from the District to Med and to Hailey's apartment. Trudy can help, if you need more eyes. And what about those files from Smithson?"

Kim sighed. "There's a lot there. I'm still plowing through it."

"If you find anything relevant, call me immediately."

"Copy that."

Voight turned to Dante. "Wait here for CSI. We need to know whose blood that is. I hope to hell it's not Hailey's."

Dante felt sorry for Voight. He could feel the tension rolling off him. "She's one of the toughest women I've ever met. She may have landed a good punch on the perpetrator," said Dante.

Voight was lost in thought. Dante wasn't sure he even heard him. After a long moment, he said, "You were right on two counts. Hailey is hard-headed. She never gives up. And you were right to have her back. I can't always protect her."

Now Voight got a text. He looked briefly at his phone. "CSI is 5 mins out. I'm going back to the District. I want to have a chat with this Brad Smithson."

Dante could only wonder what form that "chat" might take.

In the Basement at the District

Per Voight's request, Adam moved Brad from the holding cell to "the cage."

"Where am I going?" asked Brad.

"Somewhere my boss can talk to you privately."

Brad's eyes darted around the basement and sweat popped out on his forehead. "Is this some kind of torture chamber? This isn't where I talked to Detective Upton last night. Did she give you the files I turned over?"

"She did. There's a lot of info in them, Brad. It's gonna take a while to sort it all out."

"You can't detain me down here. I have rights," said Brad anxiously.

"Yeah, we know all about your rights," said Adam as he rattled the lock on the cage. "Brad, calm down, man. You came whining to us wanting protection." Then he pulled out his phone. "My boss will be here in a couple minutes."

As he turned to go, Brad called out, "I want to talk to Detective Upton."

Don't we all, thought Adam. He really wanted to grab this guy and shake info out of him. But Voight said not to ask him anything yet.

The door closed and Brad was alone. Wearily, he sank down on the bench against the wall and closed his eyes. At least he was spared the drunken yelling and cursing and smell of urine and vomit from the other cells.

In less than a minute, a man entered from an outside door. He had a shield and weapon like Detective Upton. He laid his weapon on a table in the middle of the room. Then he turned toward the cage. He stared for a long minute before introducing himself.

"I'm Sergeant Voight, head of the Intelligence unit."

"Upton's boss," nodded Brad. "I told her everything I know last night. And I gave her the files."

"Yes, you did. My team's upstairs poring over them with a fine-tooth comb as we speak." Voight paused and again stared intently at Brad. "Where is Hailey?"

Brad frowned. "What? I don't know where she is."

"Are you sure? Because there was a disturbance at her apartment. Looks like she may have been kidnapped."

"Kid . . .kidnapped?" stammered Brad. "Wh . . .when?"

Voight got a key from his pocket and unlocked the cage. He picked up Brad by the front of his shirt and got in his face. "You better start talking right now. If I don't get my detective back, unharmed, Stateville's gonna seem like a freaking paradise when I'm through with you."

Brad tried to swallow, but his throat was so very dry. "Must be those . . .those crazy Russians. I swear, they're psycho. They scare the shit out of me. They have their hands in a lot of things."

"And now they're pissed because you ripped them," said Voight.

The door opened and Kevin stuck his head in. "Boss, we have updates."

Voight shoved Brad and he fell back onto the bench. "I'm not finished with you."

"The files . . . everything's there to bring them down," said Brad. "I even saw the emails he sent Upton." Brad looked at his hands. They were shaking. This sergeant was almost as scary as the Russians.

Kevin and Voight started up the stairs. "Dante called. CSI identified the blood smear as belonging to an unknown male."

"Okay, hopefully Hailey was not injured."

Kevin continued. "Kim finally got the real name of the Jane Doe – Natalia Andreeva. She was pretty shaken up when she learned about the other two girls. She said they met at a frat party at the University of Chicago and that it was Tatiana's idea to try the escort thing for extra money. Kim got the impression they really didn't understand what they were getting into. She said the missing girl is Irina Vassilieva. Unfortunately, Natalia had no other info about her. Irina's phone number was in her phone. However, that phone was either lost or stolen when she was attacked."

"So, a little bit of progress," said Voight. He sighed and ran a hand down his face. "Here's what we're going to do. Half of us will look for Irina and the other half will look for Hailey. But if we get any leads, any leads at all, on Hailey, we drop everything else and concentrate on her."

"I like this plan," said Kevin.

Hailey's Apartment

CSI departed, leaving a mess in their wake. Dante itched to clean it up for Hailey and restore some order. However, he knew he shouldn't. What if the techs needed to return for another look?

We'll find you, Hailey. I know we will. Just hang in there. For Jay.

He looked around one final time to see if they had missed any subtle clues. Nothing jumped out at him. Finally, he saw the Jay countdown calendar. Hailey had missed a couple days and a new month had rolled around. Dante opened one drawer, then another until he found the red Sharpie. He felt sure no one except Hailey had touched the pen and calendar, so he crossed off the missed days.