Copnapped

9

Burgess and Roman were on patrol, so when they heard the call come through over the radio they knew they had to take it. They sped down the roads, sirens blaring and lights flashing. Burgess ran from the passenger side straight over to the crime scene. She dropped to her knees, Roman was a little slower to the scene. He caught up and stood beside his partner. "Call Voight." She yelled at him, he didn't have to think twice before dialling for intelligence.

Voight ended the call, his face went pale. Antonio walked over to him from the direction of his own desk. "What's wrong?" He asked, causing a few heads to turn towards their boss. Voight took a second to compose himself before saying. "They've found a body."

"A body?" Ruzek asked from across the room, "Whose body?" He added in case he sounded like a fool.

Voight grabbed his jacket, and stormed out of the door. The team all exchanged looks, before rushing to follow. Antonio jumped into Voight's passenger seat, there was no way he was letting him leave without filling him in.

"What's different about this body?" He asked once they were on the road. Voight didn't speak straight away, Antonio caught his reflection in the mirror, his eyes were red. He'd never seen Voight like this before.

"Voight?"

"Beheaded, they found Halstead's ID on him. There's no way to be sure that it's him yet but even if it isn't, these are the sicko's that have them."

Antonio's face fell. He had to hold himself back from punching Voight's dashboard. He didn't know what he would do if it turned out to be Halstead. He was like a brother to him.

Voight ordered for the rest of his team to remain behind the tape, he walked straight over toward the body, forensics handed him over Jay's badge. He gripped it in his hand tightly, before walking back over to Antonio who was still in shock. He handed him the badge for safe keeping. "Nobody finds out about this until we get a DNA test." He told him, before lifting the tape over his head and stepping out to the outside.

Erin was laying on the floor, she had cried until she had no more tears, she'd screamed for hours until she no longer had a voice. Her head was throbbing, her throat was sore. She was giving up on ever surviving, of ever getting out of there alive.

Part of her wanted them to come back in and shoot her, another part thought she didn't deserve an easy way out after all she was still blaming herself for all of this. Her wrists were bleeding from her trying to get out of her ties, she didn't even care anymore. She had been pushed to the edge, over it even. If they came back in, she was going to give them a piece of her mind even if it killed her. Nobody killed her partner and got away with it.

There was a corner of the room that was still bloody from where it happened, she couldn't bring herself to look over there. She'd been gagging from the smell for hours, but nothing came up. She felt like even her body was battling against her.

She wanted to go home, that's all she wanted. To go home and have Jay there with her, but in her mind, she knew that wasn't going to happen and it was destroying her.

Gabriella was distraught when her brother told her the news. She broke down in his arms, after knowing Jay a few years now. This just broke her heart. She didn't want to believe it. Antonio looked like he'd cheated death, she'd never seen him this upset. That's probably why he had come to her place instead of going straight home. Voight had sent his team home early, he didn't want them interfering in the investigation while they were hurting. He promised he'd call them if he heard back from forensics but Antonio didn't feel like being alone in that big, empty house.

He felt pathetic falling into his little sister's arms, but she welcomed him into them. She cried, and he cried harder. She told him funny things she'd remembered about Jay, and he did the same. She couldn't imagine Jay no longer coming around with Antonio and the guys, she couldn't imagine him no longer existing. She was scared, this was too real. If good people like Jay could be taken on the job, what was stopping someone taking her brother away from her too?

Casey interrupted their moment, his face looked spooked and maybe slightly uncomfortable, Gabriella looked over at him, wondering what was going on.

Casey gave Antonio a small smile, "Some guy named Alvin is outside, he said he needs to talk to Antonio." He said tapping Antonio on the shoulder for support. Antonio nodded, when Gabby mouthed asking if he was alright to go outside.

She watched her brother leave the room, Casey wrapped his arms around her, "He'll be okay."

She nodded, but didn't say a word.

Antonio walked outside into the cold air, he spotted Alvin leaning against a car. It wasn't his, it was Voight's. He figured that's why Casey had looked so uncomfortable, Voight was sitting inside the car.

"DNA came back, it's not Halstead." Alvin told him, opening the back door of the car, Antonio climbed in, the three of them drove off in silence.

"That body was one of the gang members, Tony Vasquez. It was a message for us." Voight explained once they'd turned off of Casey's street.

"So he could still be alive?" Antonio suggested, feeling relief wash over him.

"I'm guessing he is, if they'd killed him he'd have been the one we found. They're not going to be modest about killing a cop."

"Where are we going?" Antonio asked, still not sure of their course of action.

"Back to that house, we're going to search that building head to toe until we find a clue. They're sloppy they must have left something behind."

The three of them searched every nook and cranny of that house, they were there for hours inspecting every little detail in case it they missed something. Antonio was starting to give up, to him the house just looked like any abandoned building, there was no furniture or anything else to suggest people had been there recently, besides the van and all the blood in the bathroom and basement. Alvin had the right idea though, he had given up on searching the house and had started inspecting the van.

"Hank!" He shouted out, and the two men ran into the garage. Alvin held up a token, this may have meant nothing to most people but Voight would have recognised that anywhere. He was street smart after all. That token was like a key, a rare key to a very exclusive underground club, as shady as the shades emoji.

"Now that just might work." He smirked.

Voight had called the team together, they now had a new lead and the chance of Halstead still being alive. Atwater, Burgess, Roman and Ruzek were all eager to help. That's the way Voight needed it to be.

Platt was working the desk, bossing everybody around like usual, she heard a car speeding off outside, but she didn't take much notice. If she had she would have seen a man being thrown onto the side walk just outside of the district entryway.

The man walked up the steps, or at least he walked as best he could having just been thrown out of a moving car. He didn't speak to anybody, not even the ones who were staring at him. He made his way up the stairs, on his way to intelligence, to his team.

Voight looked up from the white board after debriefing his team on the plan, he almost dropped the marker when he saw one very bloody and broken Jay Halstead staring back at him.

"Where the hell did you come from?"