They stopped just short of the main entrance of the hospital and moved to stand behind a line of shrubbery, "Now, you need to listen to me." Peter's voice was firm, "Your name is Kaitlyn, got it?"
London's lip quivered, "No. Its not. I'm London. London Rae Roman." She tried to free herself from his grip.
"You want to see your mommy, right?" Peter asked her, she nodded her head, "If you do this for me, I promise we will go see your mommy, okay? Think of it as playing pretend...little girls still play that way, right?" He looked up at his own mother, "I can't believe I let you talk me into this.."
Gloria scooped London up in her arms, "Let's just go inside...we can't be standing out here forever."
"Fuck!" Kevin slammed his hand on the desk, "How many kids has this guy grabbed?" he blew out an exasperated breath.
They had found Langley's books, the guy was meticulous in his record keeping. Al had seen record keeping like this before, it was nearly twenty years ago and he was a still wet behind the ears patrolman. It was a case that had haunted him for a long time, and he could see the similarities between the two cases.
Both suspects had taken the coward's way out, they both put a bullet in their heads.
The guy from Al's past had been a serial killer. He had found his mark and stalked her for weeks on end before violently raping and killing her. Just thinking of it made Al's blood run cold. When they had finally found their guy, he had already eaten led. Once they were given access to search his apartment they had been shocked to discover the photos and notebooks full of notes on each of his victims.
This case was similar, while he had stalked his victims he wasn't the one who had ultimately killed some of them though he might as well have. He had handed them over to the monsters would had killed them.
As they rifled through the stacks of photos of the children they found a notebook with London's photo taped to it.
Al looked on as Jay caught Erin in his arms as her knees buckled and she let loose a guttural scream that would haunt him for the rest of his life.
Hank grabbed it from Jay, "Fuck!" He screamed. He had never been so afraid in his life, he could hear London's animated voice run through his head she had always greeted him with a big smile, he was her 'Uncle Hank'. Just the thought of her being in the hands of a monster was more than he could stomach.
Al held his hands out, "Hank..breathe man. They're watching you." He pointed to Atwater, Halstead, and Lindsay. "They're trusting you to get them through this." Sure they were all solid police but they had never been hit with a case like this, one that hit them square in the chest. This was their family and they were desperate to keep their heads above water, they needed their leader to remain calm.
Peter handed the clipboard to the triage nurse, "Is there somewhere private I can take my little sister...somewhere quiet. She's in a lot of pain...she's sleepy." He thumbed over his shoulder in his mother's direction. It wasn't a complete lie, the kid was in pain and she was sleepy, but that wasn't why he wanted privacy. His request for privacy was an act of self preservation, he was leery of all the different people coming in and out of the large waiting room, not to mention the cops that were stationed at the doors that led back into the treatment area.
They were a few hours outside of Chicago, but he knew 'Kaitlyn's' face had been flashed across the screens on the twenty four hour news channels, after all she was the daughter of a police officer a fact that he had been more than a bit shocked to learn.
