Mom

A New Hope

"Another dead end.", Jones thought, rubbing a hand over his face, as he hangs up the phone.

It has been like this ever since he took over the case, and it was starting to get to him. He knew damn well that chances of finding Chloe alive were minimal. Most kidnapping victims end up dead after twenty-four hours of being missing, and Chloe has been gone for four days now. Still, he would follow any and every lead he could find.

Sitting at his desk, he looked over Chloe's file again. Who could have a motive to kidnap this woman? For all intends and purposes, she seemed like a good woman, with a happy and adoring family and friends. Sure, there's always something in everyone's closet, but the more he dug in hers, the less he found.

A knock on his door pulled him from his thoughts.

- "Yeah?"

- "You'll never believe this."

- "What is it?"

- "You know that license plate you asked me to run? The one from the van that supposedly took your kidnapping victim?"

- "Yeah, what about it? Nothing popped up at the time."

- "Right, at the time. But I just got a call from impound and it turns out the damn van has been sitting in our impound since day one."

- "You've got to be kidding me."

- "Nope. Apparently, they had a problem with the program that logs in cars that have been towed for parking tickets and such. It was illegally parked and that's why it was impounded. I already sent a CSU team down there."

- "Thanks, Taylor. I'd better get down there and see what they can find." – he says as he's about to get up from his chair.

- "Hold up, I'm not done."

- "You got more?"

- "Yep. So, after they got the program back online, we got an alert from San Francisco PD. I called them, and from what I gathered, the van was stolen a year ago in San Francisco. I asked the officer to send me the file and I'm just waiting on it."

- "Taylor, if you weren't married, I would kiss you right now. Okay, so we got a time and place for when the van was seen last, and we got from where the van was taken originally. That's good. Maybe we can find something in there that can point us in the right direction."

Jones leaned back in his chair as he watched his partner walk away to see if she already had received the file on the van from SFPD. Letting a deep sigh escape, he looked over the few leads he had now. He knew he should wait for CSU to finish processing the van, but he felt that he needed to give Chloe's family some sort of hope and the San Francisco lead was just that. Besides he needed to know how San Francisco connected with her or anyone in the family.

Leaving the precinct, Jones drove to the Ackles' household. He knocked on the door and was greeted by Gen.

- "Detective?"

- "Good afternoon, Mrs. Padalecki. I'm sorry to disturb you, but would it be possible to speak to Mr. Ackles?"

- "Of course. Come in, we're all outback. The kids needed some fresh air, but no one wanted to leave the house, so we are just sitting around in the backyard, talking about our favorite memories with Chloe. Jensen, detective Jones is here for you."

- "Detective, any news?" – Jensen got up from the lounge chair and shook his hand.

- "That's actually why I'm here. I was wondering if you could help me with something."

- "Of course. Anything."

- "Do you know if Miss Chloe has any ties to San Francisco?"

- "No, she was born and raised here, so... Besides, if she did, she would've mentioned it." – Jensen answered, feeling confused.

- "What about you?"

- "The only connection I have is through the convention circuit. We go there for conventions, but that's about it. We stay for two, three days and that's it. Detective, what's this about?"

- "We found out that the van that took Miss Chloe was stolen in San Francisco about a year ago."

- "A year ago?"

- "You don't think?" – Jared asked Jensen.

- "I mean, the timeline makes sense I guess."

- "I'm sorry, but what timeline?" – it was the detective's turn to be confused.

- "It was about a year ago that Chloe and I announced publicly that we were together. It was mostly for the fans, since those close to us already knew, but still... If the van was stolen a year ago, it falls around the same time I posted online that we were officially a couple."

- "That would mean that whoever took Chloe, started planning this around that time." – Gen finished Jensen's train of thought and said the words no one wanted to hear.

Jones watched as this new information sank in their minds and how terrifying it was. He himself couldn't help but wonder if this could've been prevented. However, this brought new hope for Jones. If this was a stalking case, that meant that as long as Chloe plays along, there was still a very good chance they could find her alive. He knew it wasn't good for a detective to be this optimistic, but he didn't care. All he cared about was bringing this woman home, no matter the cost.