The Chicago Files

P4

After a few more minutes of you studying, you had convinced yourself you should sleep, so you could get back here early. You cleared up your desk, walking downstairs. The graveyard shift had all already came in, setting up the stuff for the rest of the night.

You noticed J.T was still downstairs playing on the tablet we lent him. "Hey, little man what are you still doing here?" It was odd for a kid his age to still be here. A man came inside, running up to him.

"Oh my god J.T" The man grabbed him, burying his face on the boy's head. You walked to them, greeting the man. "I'm so sorry, I was working a double shift at my job and I don't get signal there, I thought JT was at a friend's house that's why I didn't check up on him."

"It's okay Mr. Dudley," You waved him off. JT was a good kid, he was quiet and respectful.

"Call me Micheal," You nodded, stuffing your hands in your pocket, protecting your hands from the breeze the door brings every time someone came in.

"Micheal, just be careful next time, usually by this hour JT would have been sent to a foster home for the night," You couldn't imagine how nerve-racking to think your kid is in someone else's house.

"I know, I'm so sorry this won't happen again," he apologized.

"It's fine I'm just happy you got him, it must have been scary," You tried to make small conversation.

"Terrifying, when we get home we're gonna have a little chat," JT's head spun, looking at his dad.

He whined, his eyes getting teary. "But dad I was- " His dad cut him off.

"Not now son, we'll talk about this at home," You never did find out how JT got to that side of town. You were starting to ask his dad when he cut you off. "We got to get out of here, but thank you for everything," JT had his head facing down, but you heard the small sniffles coming from him. You mumbled an oh but said your goodbye. You shook his hand, bidding them both farewell when you noticed it.

A small diamond outline, just a few inches above the wrist.

"Ms?" You noticed you had zoned out and stayed shaking his hand.

"I'm sorry about that, have a goodnight," You stayed still, waiting for both of them to leave before running upstairs.

Throwing everything onto your desk, you turned your computer back on. You knew something was not connecting and it was no coincidence that both grown men had the same tattoo. You tried to search up some information on the case that wasn't on the board but your computer was being blocked. You had no authority to search up any cases.

Turning to look at Hanks's office, you contemplated if it was worth it. You promised Hank that you would never go into his office without permission, promised him that his password was safe with you.

Knowing he would be pissed, you pushed that thought aside, coming to the conclusions you'll beg for his forgiveness before begging for permission, especially since you were technically off the case. The computer lit up the darkroom, bypassing any past issues you had.

Now no links were connecting Dudley and Brooks; Both had different jobs, living almost 20 miles apart.

Going in deeper at Brooks's past, you found out that he had been questioned for the murder of a teenage girl, Tabatha Malgrove, but he wasn't convicted because he had an alibi. A boy named Liam Jeston. The files were lost during the move, so you couldn't get much from there but you went on to his yearbook to see if there was anything there.

You stumbled upon a photo of Freddy holding on to the girl and another student, Liam Jeston. The more you focused, you could see all three teens had the diamond tattoo by the wrist, with the girl having an eerie resemblance to the three victims. What you did manage to get from the files was that she had bruise marks all over her body and a stab wound on her lower chest missing any arteries but C.O.D was the sliced throat.

When you searched for Liam's files, it was empty the only thing that showed was a name change in '90 to a Micheal Dudley.

You're not looking for one guy, You're looking for a team. Your brain was going a thousand miles a minute and for a second you regretted ignoring Hanks's request of staying off this case. You got up from the chair, grabbing your phone before running downstairs. You dialed Jay's number as you headed to your car.

The parking lot was quiet. Since you weren't a cop technically, you had to park on the outside, Hank always argued that deserved to be in the private parking, but you saved that battle for another day. After the third ring, it got sent to voicemail. Looking at the time it was close to midnight, you must have lost track of time in there. "Jay we got this wrong, its not-" Your heard sniffling coming from behind you.

"Y/n?" You turned to the voice, seeing Jt staring back at you, tears brimming in his eyes.

"J.T?" You managed to say before someone yanked you backward, cloth on the mouth, preventing you from screaming.

Struggling to break free, you tried grabbing for your keys to have some sort of weapon but the guy grabbed them putting them in his pocket. During the struggle, you saw your phone laying on the floor a few steps away from the man, you kicked it away from him so he couldn't break it. You hoped the team finds it.

He grabbed onto the back of your scalp to face him. Dudley stared back at you before slamming your head against the door knocking you unconscious. The last thing you remembered was waking up in a van with two males arguing with each other.

"This wasn't part of the plan," One of the voiced whispered.

"Screw the plan,"