Life in the Wind

3

SIX WEEKS LATER

"Mmmm" Lacey sighed, rolling over at 4 in the morning to her work phone actually ringing. "Hello?" She mumbled, still half asleep.

"We got a scene. Need you here. I'll text you the address." Voight's voice came over the phone.

"Mmkay. Be there in 20" She sighed, sitting up after only an hour and a half of solid sleep. Riley had gone down before Lacey the previous night but was awake from 10:30 PM until 2:30 AM. Lacey hated that she had to go in so tired but went downstairs, started some coffee, and put some light makeup on. She brushed her teeth and threw her hair into a ponytail before writing a note to Ryan.

Voight called me in at 4. I'll see you tonight.
I Love you
Lace ❤️

She grabbed a thermos of coffee and her stuff before heading out to her car. She drove through the city, thankful that no one was really on the road and to the scene, yawning every few minutes.

"There she is," Kevin said as Lacey's car pulled up and parked next to Jay's matte gray Ram.

"What do we have?" Lacey asked with a yawn.

"Damn girl. You good?" Kevin asked, noticing all the bags under her eyes, through the makeup she'd thrown on.

"Riley was up a lot" She sighed, yawning again. "Give the coffee a minute, it'll wake me up."

The scene made Lacey immediately sad. A missing child, which just made her think of her baby at home. Neighbors had obviously woken up to the bright LED lights on all the cars and come out to check what was going on.

"Did you see anything or hear anything unusual last night? Yelling? Anything out of the ordinary" Lacey asked a neighbor with Kevin.

"No, I was sound asleep by 1. I've got a newborn, but I do know that a man named David comes over a lot. They yell on the porch" The young neighbor told them.

"Did you notice what he was wearing? What he drove? Anything can help us." Lacey asked, getting a nod from the neighbor.

"I took these pictures and I got a ring camera," She said as Kevin took pictures of the photo on her phone.

"We'll need a link to the feed" Kevin chimed in, getting the video feed link from her.

They all headed back to the district, tired as ever. The coffee wasn't helping Lacey's exhaustion one bit. She was on her computer upstairs, watching the doorbell cam the neighbor had sent when she got a text from Ryan sent with a photo of their little girl.

Ryan: Good Morning Mommy!

She didn't respond to the text as she was focused on not falling asleep on her desk. It was almost 6 AM and she was already ready to get home. She didn't realize she was falling asleep at her desk.

"Lace," Jay slapped his hand on her desk. "You okay? You don't usually fall asleep when we have early cases."

"You don't have an almost 4-month-old at home that didn't sleep last night," She grumbled, picking her head up. "Did anyone make the coffee?"

"Just got done," Adam said as he came out with his mug of the freshly brewed coffee.

Lacey sighed and got up, getting more coffee in her cup. Jay had noticed her snappy attitude and knew that was how she got when she was overtired. That coupled with the overwhelming days they had previously, she was running on fumes so he was watching her closely.