Cold Case

The Missing Girl, Part Two

MIDORIYA'S POV

"How's your time in cold cases going?" Aizawa asked Bakugo. "You two have made great progress in the short amount of time that you've been there."

"It's not the worst thing in the world," he sent me a quick wink. Thankfully, his boss was standing in front of us and didn't see it. The last thing we needed was for either of our bosses to find out about our interest in each other. I don't know about his place of employment, but mine likes to gossip.

"I'm glad you're here, if I'm being honest," Aizawa sighed. "Maybe you can talk some sense into your team."

Bakugo scoffed as the elevator stopped on the floor we needed. "What do you mean talk some sense into them? Last I knew, they were doing fine." We exited the elevator when the doors slid open since people were waiting to get on.

Aizawa waited for everyone to load into the elevator before continuing the conversation. "They're not doing terrible. They seem lost, though. They won't do anything without me telling them what to do. I should be able to give them a new case, and they should be able to figure out what needs to be done."

Bakugo frowned before we followed his boss down the hall. He and I have opposite problems when it comes to our team. I'm not strict and demanding enough, but he's too strict. He doesn't give his team any freedom to work things through on their own, so they're lost without someone telling them what to do.

"I'll have a word with them." Bakugo sighed.

Aizawa handed him a set of keys and told him to drop them off at the desk in the lobby when we left. He excused himself to attend a meeting, leaving us outside Bakugo's team's door. If I remember their layout correctly, they all have cubicles in the center of the main room. There's a conference room to the right, a break room to the left, and his office is straight back.

"Are you okay?" I asked quietly. His face looked blank as he stared at the door handle. We haven't been away from our teams for too long, but I think I would be nervous if I had to face all of them at once, especially since I'm torn on how I want to lead them when I get back.

He took a deep breath to calm his nerves. "I judged you for how you ran your team, but I didn't care to acknowledge or admit the mistakes I've made with my team."

"Well, over the rest of our time together, you can think about how you want to run them when you return." We can both work on what we want to do with our teams. "This is supposed to be a learning experiment for the both of us."

"Yeah," he frowned. He pushed the door open after another moment of collecting his thoughts. He held his head high as he walked into the room, with me following directly behind him.

Everyone looked up from their desks, but nobody said anything. We walked through the room in silence. Bakugo calmly unlocked his door and ushered us inside. He flipped the light on before shutting the door gently behind us.

"I'm going to find that file, and then I will talk to them while you look through it." I wouldn't want him there if I had to talk to my team, so I get where he's coming from.

I looked around his office while he began shuffling through a large filing cabinet. He had a giant mahogany desk placed in the center of the room. The only thing he had on it was the necessities. There wasn't anything personal on his desk or anywhere else in the room. He had two chairs on the opposite end of his desk. The walls were blank, and the only window had darkening curtains covering it. The only other thing in his room was a bookshelf and a small coffee station.

"Here it is," he said. I turned my attention to him as he set the file on the desk. "You can flip through it. Take a picture of whatever you think might be helpful."

He didn't wait for me to respond before walking out the door to talk to his team. I don't know whether or not I should be scared for them. He didn't look angry. He looked disappointed, which I always found to be much worse.

I opened the file and flipped through the pictures until I found one of the girl he was talking about. I pulled up the picture on my phone and set it on the desk to compare the two images. Although her hair was different colors, the two pictures look almost identical. She had the birthmark.

I placed the rest of the pictures on the desk and continued examining them. The guy she was with didn't look like anybody I had seen in our case files back at the office. He was never a suspect, which means this was most likely a random kidnapping. If it is her, and she's still alive, she's probably being trafficked.

Picking up the photo that was taken behind them, I tried looking at the back of her neck. The problem with the tattoo being on the back of the neck is that most of the girls had long hair that always covered any tattoos. I grabbed the file again and shuffled through the rest of the pictures taken from behind them. If she did have a tattoo, it could be on her chest as well, but they were most commonly known to be on the back of their neck.

The fact that she was in several photos and never had her hair up is making me feel sick to my stomach. She was so young when she went missing. We're extremely late if this is where she's been all these years.

It took a few more minutes of shuffling, but I finally found a photo I could get a good look at. It was taken behind them while they were walking down the street. It must have been a busy day because her hair is blowing everywhere.

My eyes focused on the photo carefully to examine it. It was hard to see, but I saw the black lines on the back of her neck. The only little number that I could see was a four. Tears pooled in my eyelids, threatening to fall down my face. She's been in this situation for six years. She's only fourteen, and she looks exhausted and numb. This is all she's known for almost half of her life.

"Did you find anything?" Bakugo asked while shoving the door open.

"What does this look like to you?" I asked with slight anger in my voice. How could he have missed this? If he took these photos himself, how the hell did he miss this?

"What does what look like?" he asked cautiously while taking the photo from my hand. I pointed to the back of her neck and let him examine the image for a minute.

"Is that a barcode tattoo?" I nodded my head. "How the hell did I not notice that the first time I looked at this photo? I know I wasn't investigating her, but I examined these photos."

"You probably didn't examine every inch of her," I frowned. I have to remember he doesn't have the same job I do. I already know he's impatient and likes to cut to the chase. He wants to get through every case as quickly as possible.

"That's a mistake I'll never fucking make again." he frowned. "What do we do now?"

"We go to my boss and will probably have to hand over the case. It won't be considered a cold case anymore."

He groaned loudly. "I despise having to hand over cases like this. I want to see them through."

"That's why I never wanted to be in cold cases." I frowned. I never hated the job, but I did at the same time. Maybe I can find an in-between when I return to my team. We can work on some of them when we don't have an active case going.

"Let's head back to our office then. Hand everything over to your boss and get started on a new case."

This was our never-ending cycle. Get a new case, investigate for a few days, then we either solve it or hand it off. Most of the time, we handed it off. It makes me feel like we're not really making a difference. It took a while, but I finally understand why we can never keep a team for cold cases. If I had a choice, I wouldn't be here either.

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On a completely random topic, do any of y'all play video games? I need some new gaming friends lol.