Wild Ride | ✔

John Doe

Jay and Hailey were just returning from chasing a lead when they noticed a boy around the age of ten as well as a girl around eight years old walking by. They were both dressed in slightly worn clothing and wearing backpacks as if they were on their way home from school. It was nearly three o'clock, so it was clear they weren't skipping. What kid would walk past a precinct when they were skipping school, anyway?

Still, the kids seemed to keep to themselves and didn't seem to talk to anyone else around them. When they got in front of the building, the boy tapped the girl on her shoulder and yelled "Tag, I'll race you home." as they both raced away down the sidewalk.

"Is it just me or, do those kids seem to not really fit in with everyone else?" Jay questioned, watching the path even after they had disappeared. "Most kids are looking back over their shoulder waiting to see where their friends are at. Those kids never looked back once." Hailey silently gestured for him to follow her inside as a group of kids walked by, all laughing loudly as if they had just been told a funny joke.

"The girl did look small for her age. Although that seems to be a common thing these days where kids look a lot younger than they are. What are you thinking?"

"I'm not sure yet." Jay scrubbed a hand over his chin as they paused at the bottom of the stairs. "I know not every family can afford new clothing, but something about then just doesn't seem right to me." Walking through the gate, Voight was standing in between the desks conversing with Kevin and Adam on a case we were trying to wrap up from a couple of days ago. "We finally have an ID on our John Doe found in the abandoned building this morning." Heading over to the board, he placed a magnet over the picture we had gotten from his work and wrote his name above it. "Name is Gabriel Savala; thirty-six-years old. Started at Pascal Carrier Inc as a truck driver almost two weeks ago."

"Any reason he moved up here?" Voight questioned them, knowing so far they were the ones with the most information on this case.

"When he came in for his interview last month, he told the manager he was looking for a change and gave his two weeks notice to Collins Trucking Company before moving from Georgia to Chicago."

"Guy is as clean as they come." Hailey chimed in, walking up to the board next as Jay handed her the pen. "No priors, no financial troubles, and always has a steady job. In fact, he worked for that company for ten years before moving here."

"If he has a clean record like they think he does, we need to figure out why he would be lying unconscious in an abandoned building with a gunshot wound to his chest." Voight rasped out as he looked around the room and then back at the picture in the middle of the board.

"Ballistics matched the bullet to a .45 caliber," Kim announced walking up the stairs with the report in her hands. "Whoever was at the scene with them really knew what they were doing and covered their tracks.

"So we keep digging. Go back to the crime scene, check passing cameras, look into bank records, and talk to family and friends. Let's see if we can fill in some of the blanks of what led him to getting shot." They all nodded in understanding then scattered in different respective directions.

"You cool if I take a break and check out that crime scene?" Kevin stretched his legs out and stood up from his chair.

"Go ahead." Adam looked up from the file he was working on. "I'm just finishing up paperwork for this other case and then I'll help with whatever needs to be done on this one."

"Kim." Kevin grabbed her attention from across the room as she placed the report on the board. "Feel like checking out a crime scene?"

"Yeah, let's go."

As they departed from the precinct, Jay and Hailey sat across from one another at their desks, getting ready to work on digging up some more information. "I'll start checking bank records." Jay checked with her over his computer.

"I'll work on seeing if we can pinpoint anything on cameras." Fingers moving quickly across the keyboard, Hailey pulled up video feed around and near the warehouse. No car had been found at the scene, just a lot of tire traffic, which also meant the possibility of the building as a place of business for drug trade.

Adam closed the file, putting it on the side of his desk, and got right to work looking through social media platforms, which all came up empty. Next on his radar was getting into the contents of the guy's email and his efforts yielded the same results. "Either this guy never uses his email, or it's been wiped clean."

"Bank records are clean as well. No inconsistencies, like sometimes what you would see if they're being paid large sums of money. If he is somehow involved with something we don't know about then he's being paid cash some other way so it doesn't show up on record."

"Kim and Kevin should still be at the scene, I'll check and see if they've found anything that can get us another lead." Jay picked up his phone and placed it next to his ear. "Hey. Are you and Kim still at the scene?"

"Yeah. But we're not finding much." Kevin mentioned, continuing to shine his flashlight over the ground. Kim was nearby doing the same thing, slowly moving towards two rusted barrels in the far corner of the building.

As she got nearer, it was apparent the concrete had come loose and were resting over one another. A small pocket of space was formed, but as she moved the barrel to the left, her attention shifted to a small piece of paper that was sticking out of the dirt. "Hey, I think I found something." Please help was spelled out in uneven writing as if someone had used the barrel to rest it up against while spelling out the message. Still, there were a few holes in the paper where the pencil had gone through it.

"It looks as if someone else was here. Kim just found a note buried in the dirt underneath one of the barrels to please help." Kevin took the note into hand and stepped towards the light now filtering through the dusty window. He pushed the speakerphone with his finger so she could hear the conversation on the other end.

"Are we sure this guy doesn't have a girlfriend or wife we don't know about?" Kim asked the question they were all thinking, especially considering there had been no one else in the equation up until now. She had gone back to pushing the flashlight underneath the raised concrete before pulling the pieces away but it turned up being an empty space.

"Kind of looks like a child's handwriting," Kevin observed, looking at the note again. "We sure this guy doesn't have kids?

"There are no significant others or children listed anywhere in his record." Hailey's voice came over the phone. "Just found a known address. Jay and I will go check it out and get back to you on that."