And Then There Were Nine-Nine

Part 4: Broken Connections

The hope that had taken them over the night before disappeared as they realized the fate upon them. They had hoped that if they did nothing wrong, they would be spared, but that was obviously not the case. They were now sure that they would vanish one by one every day. In four days, there would be no one left on this island.

They quietly went down the stairs to the living room, hoping that Captain Holt had a plan for their escape. Unfortunately, once they sat on the couch downstairs, all staring at their captain, they discovered that he was as clueless as any of them. Suddenly, Amy got up, sharing her thoughts from a few days ago.

"If you guys didn't cut the cable," she started. "that means that it's the kidnapper who cut it. Why would he leave a phone if he was going to cut the cable? It seems to me that this is a test. Someone wanted to see to what extent we would go to save ourselves. Who would do that?"

"It's likely that whoever did this was arrested by one of us." Captain Holt added. "Unfortunately, that is not very helpful, since we have arrested our fair share of criminals. Also, we don't have access to the internet, so we cannot see who is in Brooklyn right now."

"So what do we do?" Charles asked.

"We have to be detectives." Jake said, standing up confidently. "Maybe one of the others left a clue for us to find them."

"Good idea, Peralta." Captain Holt replied. "I will take the bedrooms. Charles, you can check the bathrooms and Jake and Amy, you can look for clues down here. We don't need Brooklyn to solve a murder. We have the Nine-Nine. Well at least what is left of us..."

So they started on their mission to solve this crime. They looked through all the rooms in the house, but the criminal was smart. There was no sign of disturbance in any of the rooms. No blood, no scratches, nothing broken. How did this person get all of these people out of the house? It was an impossible crime. It was a perfect crime.

The small mansion felt gigantic as the four detectives let themselves fall onto the couch where they had first sat down, just a few days before, ready to have a beautiful vacation filled with laughs and joy. They smiled as they thought back to that day, as if it were a memory from years ago. Was there anything left to do now? Was there any point in trying to fight for their freedom? Maybe they just needed to accept the truth and enjoy the rest of the time they had left with their friends.

In the afternoon, even though Charles volunteered to make some lunch, no one wanted to eat. Instead, they decided to explore the island again. Every time one of their colleagues had gone missing, they had quickly checked around the island to make sure that they were not still there. It only took a few minutes since it was an artificial and very small area. Now, however, they needed to search the island in detail. If the kidnapper left something behind, they were going to find it.

The first thing they discovered was that the sand has been recently disturbed near the shore. The shape of the print put in the sand indicated that a boat had been docked there recently. Then it was true. There was no way that their friends were still on the island. The kidnapper had taken them on their boat in the middle of the night and left. If only the detectives could leave their rooms at night without undeniably getting their friends killed or badly hurt. That's what the recording had said, at least.

As the sun started to go down, Jake, Amy, Charles and Holt entered the 'House of Doom' as they had started to call it. They had not found anything else of interest on the island.

That evening, the detectives talked. They talked about their thoughts, their dreams and even their hopes. This group of four was probably the closest in the squad, and they couldn't bare to lose each other. They knew that the next day, one of them would be gone. Jake and Amy looked at each other while holding hands. Amy asked herself what she would do if Jake vanished. Jake wondered the same thing.

When the squad was ready for bed, they all hugged each other. There was no more denying it: One of them would be gone tomorrow.

3 AM

Amy woke up to the sound of crackling. She instantly recognized the sound as the one from the day they heard the recording: Their first day on this island. After a few seconds, a voice spoke through a microphone that Amy could not locate. "Hello, Amy Santiago." It started.

When Amy got all of her instructions from the mysterious recording, she slowly got out of her bed, her heart pounding in her chest. She knew that following these directions was the safest thing to do for herself and for her friends. "This is how everyone disappeared!" She thought to herself. She walked out of her room, hearing the recording in her head on repeat. She felt like the voice was forcefully dragging her down the stairs. It was as though she had no control over her body. As she went down the hallway, she walked towards the door where her husband was sound asleep. She wanted to see him one last time, tell him how much she loved him one last time. She put her head against the door, hoping for a miracle. Alas, Amy Santiago did not believe in miracles. With her hand on the door, she slowly walked away from Jake's room, until her fingers left the wood. Tears started to run down her cheeks as her last connection to her husband was broken...

Charles and Holt were the first to wake up. When 7 AM struck, they quickly left their rooms. Upon their arrival in the hallway, they already knew who was gone. Amy's door was half open, and when they peered inside, the bed that she had occupied was empty. A few minutes later, Jake sleepily walked out of his room as though he had forgotten all about the past few days. When he looked up and saw Holt and Charles looking at him, pity drawn across their faces, it took him a few seconds to realize what was going on. Briskly, his eyes flew open as he ran to the door where his wife had been sleeping. Seeing it empty, he looked back at his colleagues and started shaking his head in disbelief. "No. No. This can't be..." He started. He then broke down and fell onto the ground. Holt and Charles sat down next to him and held him as he cried a river of tears. The love of Jake's life was gone. And then they were three.