Partners in Crime; A Jay Halstead Fanfic

Signs of Violence

"The fingerprints off all the men's shoes in the Clarton house ID'd Ray's real name. Meet Ray Aimes. We've got a hell of a sheet for him. He's lived in 14 different states the past 20 years, multiple fraud investigations, two domestics when he was younger," Adam listed off. "It looks like he mostly deals in Ponzi and pyramid schemes." 

"What about the girls, Helen and Becca?" Hailey asked.

"Their prints weren't in the system. Ray's not legally married, but the DNA found off of the toothbrush in the home confirms that Becca is Ray and Helen's child," Adam disclosed. 

"And she's never been enrolled in school?" Jay questioned. 

Adam shook his head. "I checked everywhere that Ray lived. She's never been enrolled in school, never been to a doctor, nothing." 

"I'm guessing there's abuse in this family," Hailey hypothesized. 

"So you're thinking domestic?" I implore. 

"It makes sense. Ray has a history of domestic assault," Hailey pointed out. "He beats Helen too bad one day, throws them both in the car, and takes off before he was planning to." 

"Ladies and gentlemen, we've got a pop," Kevin announced. "Ray Clarton's debit card was used at an ATM downtown yesterday right after they went missing." 

Voight nodded approvingly. "Roll on it." So we got footage of Ray and Becca taking money out of an ATM, but right after that, they were taken by a man wearing a baseball cap. This case was getting weirder the deeper we dug, and hopefully, we could fine the family before something bad happened. "All right, who is this man? Someone from Ray's past come back to haunt him? Maybe Ray conned the wrong guy, end up over his head?" 

"I've got no large deposits on Ray's financials," Kim responded. 

"And nothing pops on the video," I add. "The clothes are generic. We can't even make out Ray's." 

"It really doesn't help we know next to nothing about this family," Jay said. 

"Yeah, I re-interviewed the neighbors on the block. Nobody knew where they worked, where they were from, their family, nothing. We have zero details on them," Kim spoke. 

"Ray and Helen are good," Jay noted. 

"Yeah, but you learn how to be that way. To shut people out, be invisible, you learn it. Becca's only 12 years old. Maybe she hasn't learned how to do that just yet," Hailey proposed. Hailey and Jay went to re-examine the Clarton house, and while there, they got important information from Annie, the girl who lived next door. Apparently, her and Becca were best friends, but they had to hide their friendship because of Becca's parents.

"They used flashlights. Anytime that Becca wanted to see Annie, she'd shine a flashlight through Annie's window. Annie would wake up, she'd go downstairs, unlock the door, and Becca would come over. Two nights ago, the night that the Clartons disappeared, Becca shined a light through Annie's window. And Annie said she saw a man in the house," Jay told us.

"Did she get a good look at him?" Kevin asked. 

"No, he disappeared through the house. Annie also said that the man put the family in a station wagon," Jay shared.

"Well then lets find the station wagon," Voight demanded. Those of us in the bullpen nodded and headed to the tech room to search through footage, hoping to find something that would lead us to the Clartons.

"It's a Mercury," Hailey exclaimed and entered the room. "I showed Annie a dozen models and she pointed right to it." All of us began typing away at our computers, trying to find a Mercury in any of the video we had.