Partners in Crime; A Jay Halstead Fanfic

If We Were Normal

Yn's POV

"Are you serious" Adam asked me as we walked up the stairs to Intelligence. "Very" I say. "What are you guys talking about" Jay asked as we got into the bullpen. "Well, the other night at Spiaggia, a man proposed to his girlfriend, so I was telling Adam about how Noah, my sister Chloe's now husband, proposed to her while she was in labor with Milo and Cara" I say. "Oh. You went to Spiaggia" Jay asked. "Well, I forgot to cancel the reservation, and I didn't want it to go to waste, so I asked Adam to come with me" I say. "Let me just say, the chicken parmesan I had was the best thing ever" Adam said. "I'm pretty sure the lasagna I ate was better" I say. "No way. I completely disagree" Adam said. "Whatever. Agree to disagree. Anyone got anything new on the case" I ask.

"I think I narrowed down the location. Ruby said that she jumped out the car at Kinzie and Dearborn, and she told Olinsky that they drove around for about ten minutes. That would put her approximate location in this six-mile radius" Kevin said and drew a circle on the map we had taped to the whiteboard. "Ruby heard kids and sirens, which means we're looking for someplace near a school or playground. There's a bunch of them in that area" Antonio said. "Has anyone read Ruby's rap sheet? In the last year alone she's been picked up for credit card fraud, retail theft, possession of heroin" Adam said. "Where'd she say she was grabbed from" Jay asked. "Pin Pan Alley" Erin said. "The pool hall on Ashland? That's a hangout for runaways. Lots of teen prostitution" Jay said. "So she's got a history, just like everybody else" Erin said.

"All right, where are we at with the composite" Voight asked Mouse. "It just came in" Mouse said and handed Voight a sketch. "All right, so circulate it to all hospitals and urgent care centers. See if anyone matching this description came in with a stab wound. Antonio, you and Jay hit that pool hall" Voight said.

Adam and I decided we would start searching the neighborhood where Ruby was kept to see if anyone could shed some light on the case. As we were driving around, I caught sight of a mailman. "Hey. Pull over" I say to Adam. "What? Why" he asked. "Because I want to look at real estate" I say sarcastically. "Seriously" Adam asked me. "No. That was sarcasm. There's a mailman. The mailman that comes to my house knows his whole route by hand, and even knows some of the people he delivers mail to. Maybe this guy is the same way" I say.

Adam pulled over to the curb, and as soon as he shut the car off, I climbed out and walked over to the mailman. "Excuse me, sir. Is this your normal route" I ask him. "Did you lose your mail or something" the man asked. "We're actually looking for a guy who lives around here" Adam said. "Does this guy look familiar? He drives a silver Audi" I say and show the mailman the sketch we had. "Yeah, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah. 5381 Bristol. Next block over" the man said. "Would you happen to know his name" Adam asked. "No, there's been a mail hold on that address. I've never delivered a letter to the house, but I've seen him come and go" the man said. "All right, thank you" I say.

At the house, we knocked on the door, but no one answered. "Hey. Look" Adam said and pointed to a little lock box that was attacked to the door. He bent down, and after typing in the address of the house, the box opened to reveal a key. "My aunt's a realtor. They all do it" Adam said and used the key to unlock the front door. The first floor and upstairs were clear, but the door to the basement showed signs that it had previously been locked pretty well.

Downstairs, the main room was clean, but another door led to a small, stone-walled room. "Do you smell that" Adam asked me. "Yeah. Bleach. He wiped the place clean" I say. "Look at this. Ruby said he had her chained up to a wall" Adam said and nodded to a chain holder that was attached to the wall. Just then, my phone buzzed. "All right, Mouse says that the house belongs to Bill and Ruth Gainsbridge. They moved to Florida three months ago" I say. "No sign of forced entry, so somebody must've had the key" Adam said. "We'll get Mouse to get a hold of the real estate company, and get us a picture of the listing agent" I say.

...........................................

Ruby picked the real estate agent of the house we were in out of a photo array, so now we had more digging to do. "Drew Stommer, real estate agent at Cermak Reality. Business degree at Northwestern, minor is psychology. Never married, no kids, no priors" I say. "This guy looks like the world's most eligible bachelor" Adam said. "That's what they said about Ted Bundy" Voight added. "We got the results of Ruby's ultrasound back. She is seven weeks pregnant, which means it's Stommer's" Erin said. "I called the owners of the house on Bristol. They told Stommer to put it on the market six months ago. He didn't list it on MLS till last week, which means he's been sitting on the house" Jay said. "Yeah, to hide Ruby, and he had to move her because the house was about to sell" Kevin said.

"Uh, guys. I just ran Stommer through the DMV. He's the registered owner of a silver 2004 Audi A4. His office says that he's hosting an open house at a property in Hyde Park" Mouse said. "All right, Antonio, you and Lindsay go pick this guy up" Voight said. "No, I'll pick him up" Al said. "Okay, you and Atwater. Jay, get a warrant for his house. I want you to search it top to bottom" Voight said.

So it turns out that Stommer's "wife" Madison wasn't actually named Madison. Her name was Jamie Lynn Stevens, and according to the database, she went missing 7 years ago. Something was off here, and the whole team knew it, so we brought Dr. Charles down from Chicago Med to talk to her.

"Madison Turner is actually Jamie Lynn Stevens. She was arrested in 2008 on solicitation charges, and then she went missing in 2009" I say. "Who filed the missing persons report" Antonio asked. "Her mom. Then a year later she overdosed and the case ran cold" I say. "Hey, boss, we've been going through Stommer's call logs. His clients, wife, all check out except for one short phone call made three weeks ago at 2:32 a.m. on March 7 to a residence in Naperville owned by a woman named Marcia Harris" Adam said. "Yeah, call outgoing from his cell phone. It lasted two minutes" Mouse said. "Marcia has no connection with Stommer. What she does have is an 18-year-old daughter who was popped for solicitation in the exact same place where Ruby was kidnapped" Adam said. "Adam and I will check it out" Antonio said.

..............................

"Jennifer Harris. 19 years old. History of drug problems. Fits Stommer's MO. Mother couldn't give us much. Jennifer's been out of the house a year, no fixed address" Antonio said. "She got herself together enough to get on public assistance, and has a Link card that's active and purchased $13 worth of groceries on March 6" Jay said. "Damn, March 6th? The day before she called her mom" Kevin said. "Yeah, nothing after that" Jay said. "All right, get a warrant for this real estate office. We're going to hit every property Stommer represents. This girl could be out there locked up, starving, we don't know what" Voight said.

We checked out some of Stommer's properties, and we ended up finding Jennifer's body. Because of Stommer's prints at the scene, and his car's GPS placing him at the house, we charged him with murder and kidnapping. "Hey. You want to do something fun tonight" Adam asked me. "Well, considering that Jay is hanging out with Erin and I don't want to be alone tonight, sure. That sounds fun. Let's go" I say.