Aaron

24- A Picture

Thea's P.O.V.

It was now the middle of January. The hunt for Miguel was still going on with very minimal leads. Once the FBI had a lead it would turn into a dead end or they were too late and Miguel was already gone.

"Thea?" Briggs said as he peeked his head out through the door. "I need to speak to you for a moment."

I got up and headed into his office. "What's up, Cap?"

"I need you to head over to the coroner's office. The DEA is requesting you."

"The DEA, why?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "Janice is there waiting for you."

I was confused because none of my cases have been about drugs.

"Trust me, I'm as confused as you are. Just be safe because I don't know what the hell is going on."

I nodded before heading out the door.
Thirty five minutes later I was walking into the coroner's office. Janice looked up from her desk with a smile, "Ms. Woods, thank you for coming so quickly."

"Is there a problem with one of the bodies and my report?"

Janice locked the door behind me, "Not exactly, come with me." and motioned for me to follow her in the back.

There were two men with DEA jackets on and Torres from the FBI, who smiled and nodded my way as we entered.

"Ma'am. I'm DEA agent Tom Stadler and this is my partner Keith Jocobs." They both shook my hand and showed me their badges. "You already know Detective Torres?"

I nodded as Stadler continued, "We're sorry to bother you and appreciate you coming here privately like this."

"I guess I don't understand why I'm here?"

"I can help explain." Janice walked over to a body covered up on a table. "The victim's name is Amelia Sanchez, she came here as an overdose but I don't think that's how she died exactly. That's why you're here."

"Alright?"

"Drugs definitely killed her but-" Janice uncovered her stomach, "her stomach was extremely swollen and black and blue when she came in. When I opened her up I found this."

"A drug balloon?"

"Yes. Loaded with heroin. It burst, killing her."

Well I was even more confused, I looked over at the agents. "I don't know this woman if that's what you're asking."

"The reason you're here is because over the course of two months, multiple women have been showing up like this. We believe the Rojas family from Columbia is shipping them here."

"Rojas?"

"The Rojas family did business with Alvaro and his operation in the past. We have reason to believe they reached out and are working with Miguel."

Now this was making sense.

"Again I'm not exactly sure why I'm here though. I worked on the Miguel case but I know nothing about the Rojas family."

"I'm the one that found Amelia." Torres finally spoke. "We had someone call in about suspicious activity at a warehouse over by the private airport. When we raided it, it had already been cleared out and they left in a hurry, leaving Amelia. My guess was because they knew she wasn't going to make it and didn't want the extra baggage. She had this in her hand."

He handed me a polaroid picture taken of me sitting on the hood of Ethan's car as I waited for him to come out with our coffee a few days ago. On the bottom it read 'eliges'.

What the hell is going on? "What does this mean?"

"Has Miguel made any more contact with you?"

"No. I would have told you if he had." I snapped. I took a breath, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap like that, I'm exhausted but that's not a good excuse."

"I get it. Clearly this message is meant for you but we can't figure out what it means. We looked it up, eliges means a poem of serious reflection, typically for the dead. Does that mean anything to you?"

"No."

"Well if you think of anything else or figure out what that could mean, please call." Stadler said, handing me his card.

"I will." I listened as they continued to talk and how they were going to put Janice under protection also. I quickly took out my phone and snapped a quick picture of the picture taken of me and put my phone in my pocket.

"That's a good idea…" I cut in, handing the picture back to Stadler. "If Miguel wanted us to find this body and that picture for whatever reason, he's probably keeping his eye on Janice or will try getting rid of any evidence. I'm going to go but if you guys find any leads, you can call my phone directly. I'd love to help with this case since I've worked so hard on it already."

They nodded. "We will inform Briggs what's going on but we need you to keep this under wraps."

"Understood. Can I do anything else for you?"

"No. We'll be in touch."

******
After work I stopped off at a restaurant and picked up some take out. I had an unsettling feeling in the pit of my stomach, almost as if someone was watching me.

"Ma'am?"

I snapped out of my thoughts, "I'm sorry." I handed them the money, grabbed my food and walked out.

The thought of Miguel taking my picture was messing with my head. I should have been more aware of being out like that and knew I needed to tell Aaron about this, and soon.

I looked around as my skin tingled, seeing if anything stuck out to me as I walked to my car but I didn't see anyone. I was about to unlock my door when suddenly, chill down my body when my eyes locked with Miguel's across the street.

He was leaning up against the wall in an alley, smiling at me. He nodded my way before he turned and walked away.

I dropped my food on the sidewalk and ran a few cars back to Beck's SUV and hit the driver side window, "Miguel's here." I warned before I took off running towards Miguel.

"MIGUEL. STOP!" I yelled as I got to the alley. Pulling out my gun from my back pocket, I chased after him.

Once I got to the end of the other side of the alley, Miguel was getting into a car, waving to me as they drove off.

I got on my phone… "This is Detective Thea Woods, I need you to run a license plate number for me." Giving them the plate numbers, I waited to see who it was registered to.

"Detective. The car was reported stolen six days ago."

"I figured. The car is heading east towards the Cross River parkway. Miguel James along with two other men are in that vehicle. Consider them armed and very dangerous if you approach." After I hung up, I turned towards Beck and the other men. "I'm really getting sick of this asshole."

I walked past them and started heading back out to my car, "Thea, I'm sorry."

I turned around confused, "What for, Beck?"

"We're supposed to be protecting you. We swept the area when you went inside that restaurant… I couldn't-"

"Hey. He was around the corner, there's no possible way you would have seen him." I tried reassuring him.

He looked down, shaking his head.

Once we were back on the street, they led me to their SUV. "I'm taking you to Aaron's house."

"Beck, I'm fine."

"Aaron's going to want to hear about this and want you there with him tonight. If I don't bring you, he's going to be pissed. I can always bring you home later if needed but we need to go talk to him."

I rolled my eyes, handed one of the other guys my car keys and got in the SUV.

A half hour later, we pulled through the front gate to Aaron's house and before we even got out of the car... Aaron was coming out of his house, heading our way.