Life in the Wind

14

Around 5, they were still working the case and she knew that Will was picking Riley up and dropping her off at the district.

She smiled when she got the text from Will that he'd arrived and went downstairs to meet her red-headed brother.

"Hey Will. Hi baby girl," Lacey smiled, taking the almost 9-month-old out of the car seat. "Did you have a good day?"

"Mama," she spoke, clapping her little hands before giving Lacey a happy giggle.

"Thanks for getting her on your break, Will. I really appreciate it." She smiled, patting the baby's back.

"No problem Lace, always here to help. You still working?"

"Yeah. Still haven't caught him. I got the playpen since we might be here a while." Lacey sighed, bouncing the baby gently.

"Alright, I gotta get back. Love you two," Will smiled, hugging Lacey and kissing Riley's head before heading out.

Lacey headed upstairs with Riley who made grabby hands at Hailey the second she saw her. "Somebody wants you,"

"I'll take her any day," Hailey chuckled, taking the baby as she reached for her. Riley immediately snuggled up, sucking on her fingers as Hailey sat back at her desk to go over more license plates. Lacey went back to her desk and started dumping the victim's phone.

By 10, everyone was spent and Riley was sleeping in her playpen by Lacey's desk. Adam was the one to get her down, walking around the second floor with her while the rest of them went over everything. Lacey carefully got the baby out of the playpen, and gently in her car seat before they all headed out to the cars.

Lacey got home, put Riley in her crib, and showered before she headed to her and Ryan's room. She got in their bed, snuggled up under the covers, and tried to sleep. She tossed and turned, tried to watch TV, tried rain sounds, everything. When she rolled over next, the clock on her bedside table read 5:45 AM.

She checked the baby monitor and saw Riley was still sleeping so she got up and made coffee before getting ready for work. At 6:15, she got Riley up and changed into a cute little outfit watching her fall asleep on the changing table. She chuckled and snapped a picture, before picking her up and spending a few minutes cuddling her.

At 6:40, she got Riley in the car and drove to the daycare, and pulled up at 6:47. She hated to be the person to drop her child off at the crack of dawn but she had no choice right now. As soon as she got inside she got Riley out and kissed the sleeping baby's head.

"I'm so sorry to be this person, I know you just opened," Lacey sighed, handing the baby over to Dani, which woke her up and had Riley start whining.

"Don't worry, I get here early anyway. I'll take the extra snuggles from miss Riley," Dani smiled, while Riley snuggled up to her.

"Thank you," she whispered, putting the car seat away and heading to the district.

As soon as she got upstairs, she got more coffee and started looking into the files of the day before.

"Hold on," she mumbled, looking at cameras outside the apartments. "Guys we're after the wrong car. He switched the plates. We thought it was the black Honda Accord but it's actually this blue Dodge Avenger," Lacey said, pulling the one picture down, and taping the other one up. Everyone kept working on pinging cellphones and looking at the footage before they finally found the car, but nothing else.