Paper in a File {Brollins}

- Chapter 66 -

"What do we do if we can't find her?" Pamela sat in her chair, practically curled up in a ball, her heart feeling heavy.

"We will." Jonathan assured her,  "Somehow."

Pamela shook her head, resting her chin on her knees. "I don't know. It's been too long."

"We're missing something." Joseph interjected softly. "We just have to take a step back."

"I don't know how else we can do that." Mercedes pointed out. "Only Colby can."

"Then we can only wait." Joseph replied, knowing they were at a dead end.

Suddenly the precinct doors were thrown open, and the group turned to see what was going on.

"I know where she is!" Colby called out with a wistful smile on his face, and the group rushed over to him.

Pamela's thoughts swirled. "What?"

"If you're coming, we have to go now." He said seriously, as he started to back up.

Mercedes looked at the baby in his arms. "What about Chase?"

"I'll stay with him." Pamela spoke after a second of silence, gently taking him out of Colby's arms. "We all know my forte wasn't the breaking down doors and opening fire stuff. Even if it is the most badass... but, I do know I can keep this precious cargo safe while you go help yours."

"Pamela Martinez. You are the most badass person I know." He held her shoulders and whispered to her gratefully. "Thank you."

Once they were in Colby's car, he finally started to explain what was going on.

"And then I remembered her telling me about her teen years which spilled into her young adulthood." Colby explained as he tried to focus on their shared memories rather than speeding.

"Get on with it." Jonathan groaned from the backseat, and Mercedes promptly hit his chest in annoyance.

Colby nodded, "She wanted to be a detective."

"Okay?" Jonathan squinted his eyes in confusion. "And this helps us how?"

"Think about everything we had to learn to graduate." Colby rolled his eyes. "She learned the same things."

"Okay." Joseph spoke slowly, trying to connect the dots.

"Including Morse code." Colby informed them, smiling slightly in excitement. "So I made a transmitter."

"And you got an answer?!" Mercedes almost jumped out of her seat, the only thing stopping her was the seatbelt that locked up.

"I got an answer." Colby nodded, his small smile growing.

"How do you know it's her for sure." Jonathan leaned forward as he asked.

"Who else would give me their location that just so happened to be the same spot Rebecca talked about Riki doing business in when she was living with Ashley?" Colby reasoned, trying not to get overly excited with the possibility of getting Rebecca back or annoyed at the group's hesitance.

"Fair enough." Jonathan allowed, leaning back again as he closed his eyes.

"Okay, so obviously there are some missing pieces." Mercedes nodded as she took out her pistol's ammo clip and made sure everything was right. "And we're not caught up on everything. But that's not important right now."

Joseph looked around. "So where are we going?"

"The junkyard." Colby told them, and the group grimaced.

"Colby, we've checked there." Jonathan muttered, "Like a thousand times."

He nodded, "Yeah, sure, the junkyard grounds, but we've never gotten clearance to search the building on the plot."

Joseph chuckled, "Yeah, and we still don't have that clearance."

"It will take a few days at least." Mercedes reminded them. "And that's just for us to plead our reasoning with a judge. Then it's paperwork and warrants and-"

"And this time, I don't give a shit." Colby shrugged, "Listen, I'm not about to ask you guys to put your jobs and lives on the line for this. That's not fair."

He looked beside him at Joseph and through the mirror at Mercedes and Jonathan in the back. "But Chase's mom is in there, and so is my person. So I'm going."

"I know this guy is not dramatically acting like we aren't gonna help him." Mercedes raised an eyebrow. "Colby, where you go, we go. Whether that's with this precinct or not, we'll figure it out."

Jonathan nodded, "She would do it for us. I've been in since the beginning. I'm not about to turn back now."

After what seemed like forever of being at a standstill, Colby groaned at the traffic in front of them. "What the fuck is the hold-up?"

"It's alright, just some backup." Joseph replied, watching Colby get out of the car and look ahead.

"What the fuck?" A loud crash was heard in front of them, and they saw a transit truck topple over, blocking the path. "Screw this."

"Oh boy." Jonathan scrambled to undo his seatbelt when he saw Colby start walking down the road in the direction of the junkyard.

After some time, they reached the junkyard gates and Colby mumbled. "Here goes nothing."

"We're good. We always are." Joseph nodded and watched Jonathan and Mercedes adjust their bulletproof vests.

"Listen, you know I'm tough on you. That's not gonna change. So I'm gonna continue to call it how it is." Joseph added, "You know the chances of her being in there are fifty-fifty. He could've moved her by now, or he could've kept her there."

He sighed, "But either way, I'm gonna need you to prepare yourself for whatever else you may see. And that includes the bad and the ugly. This job isn't easy. It never was. But the second you got closer to her, you opened a new can of worms."

Joseph saw the desperate look in Colby's eyes. "This can hurt you. Way more than any other case. Maybe even more than your mom's. Just-"

Joseph swallowed hard, for the first time ever seeming uneasy to Colby. "Just... try to keep your composure. I'd rather watch him rot in a jail cell rather than die quickly. And I think Rebecca would too. Even if revenge is calling you with that trigger."