Hank Voight
"Love is nothing without action, Trust is nothing without proof, and Sorry is nothing without change"
Dammit! This case was turning out to be such a dead end.
No witnesses. No prints. No evidence. Just a dead body with three knife wounds.
Me and Al had just finished scouring the area to see if any cameras in shops had recorded the crime but no such luck.
I was frustrated and tired. Me and the whole team had been working overtime this week trying to figure out this case.
"Let's go back to the district for lunch and then we can regroup and go over theories", I told Alvin who nodded his agreement and we walked to the car together.
I checked in with Erin, Jay, and Adam who were also on the way back to the district.
I walked into the the 21st district as Al stayed behind to park the car.
It was hectic in here. Poor Trudy was trying to work fast but there were too many people who were all frustrated at the waiting time.
I went straight up to the intelligence department upstairs and went straight to my office, not talking to anyone.
I closed the door of my office and focused on going back through the case files, seeing if we missed anything or didn't make a connection to something.
I hadn't seen Addie in the way here but I hadn't looked at the break room, too focused on getting to my office.
I didn't want her to see me like this.
I was stressed, tired, and frustrated and I didn't want to accidently shout at her or take it out on her.
I had been going through the case files for about half an hour when my stomach rumbled and I decided to see if the team had ordered something.
"Boss, you're a godsend. How did we never know you're such a good cook?!", Adam shouts excitedly, munching on a chocolate chip cookie.
"What the hell are you talking about?", I say with exasperation.
How does he have so much energy after working early and finishing late?
"You made us lunch and choc chip cookies!", Adam exclaims making me even more confused.
"No I didn't. What the hell are you talking about?", I half shout, confused and tired.
"We found a container of chocolate chip cookies and two containers of some BBQ chicken salad in the break room. We assumed you made them since none of us did", Jay explains, looking just as confused as me.
"I didn't make them", I exclaim.
"Where do you even think I'd find the time to make all this if I've been working the same late night shifts as you?", I ask.
"Well, if you didn't make them, then who did?", Jay asks.
I look towards the break room where I assumed Addie would be but find it empty.
"Where's Addie?", I ask, my instincts warning me that something is wrong.
"What? She was just in the break room. She's probably outside for some fresh air or in the bathroom", Antonio says.
I walk towards the break room, finding Addie's coat and backpack on the floor.
"Why would she go outside without her coat? It's freezing", I think out loud.
"Then she's probably in the bathroom but who made the food?", Adam asks, following behind me into the break room.
"Well, if it wasn't any of us, who else has access upstairs, genius?", I sarcastically snap at Adam.
"Addie? But she's what 14? There is no way she learned to cook like that. Sarge, I'm telling you, that was like the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever had and the salad was pretty good", Adam rambles.
I instantly remember back to when Addie had offered to cook dinner once but I had brushed her off since she was still injured.
She wouldn't offer to cook unless she knew how to so Addie was the one who cooked.
It also saddened me that she had to learn how to live independently so young to be able to survive.
I went back into the bullpen and took one of the chocolate chip cookies from the container that everyone was eating from.
"Addie was the one who cooked all this? Did you know?", Jay asks as if I know when I'm just as clueless as them.
I'll ask Addie when she comes back.
I take a bite of the cookie and revel in the gooey chocolate that fills the cookie.
That is heavenly.
When Addie offered to cook, I didnt expect that she would be this good at it.
"How long has Addie been gone?", I ask as I take one of the plastic forks and scoop up some of the salad, surprised at the sweet but also spicy taste.
"I don't know. I haven't seen her since I got here", Jay says around a mouthful of salad.
I look towards Antonio and Mouse since they've been here all morning.
"She got here around 11am. She talked to us for a bit before going in to the break room", Antonio explains, looking a little worried.
11pm? It's 2:30pm now.
"Did you see her leave?", I ask Antonio.
"No, when I saw that she wasn't in the breakroom, I assumed she was outside for fresh air or in the bathroom", Antonio explains.
I consider the options. She could be outside but I don't think she would leave her coat. She could be in the bathroom or she could have went with Erin somewhere since Erin is the only person not here.
"Jay, check the bathrooms", I say.
Jay leaves and I go back to my office finding my phone and calling Erin.
"Hey Hank, you got any leads?", Erin asks.
"No. Where are you? Is Addie with you?", I ask trying to keep the panic out of my voice.
"Addie? No. I haven't seen her all day. I'm on the way back to the district now. Everything okay?", Erin asks.
"I don't know. Just get here fast", I say before hanging up when Jay knocks on my office door before entering.
"Hey, Addie's not in the bathroom. Is she with Erin?", Jay asks.
"No, I don't know where she is, Jay", I say, trying to keep the panic and worst case scenarios out of my head so I can focus on the facts.
Jay looks nervous now but still assures me.
"We'll find her, Hank", Jay assures.
I take a deep breath before following Jay out of the office, planning my next steps.
"Mouse, Addie took her phone with her, see if you can track it", I tell Mouse who keeps staring at me looking confused.
"If she took her phone with her, why don't you try calling her?", Mouse asks calmly.
Calling her? Dammit! How did I never think of that? Why did I just assume the worst case scenario?
I take my phone out of my pocket and call Addie.
The phone rings for a few seconds and then goes to voicemail.
I ring her again and the phone rings twice before going straight to voicemail, indicating that she declined the call.
I ring her again but this time it doesn't ring and just says that the phone is switched off.
My anger rises when I realise that we can't even track her anymore since her phone is switched off.
If Mouse had just tracked her like I asked at the start then we would have a location by now.
Mouse obviously senses my anger and tries to placate me saying, "I'm sorry, Sarge, but I can ping her phone to the nearest network tower and since she just turned her phone off, it'll be pretty accurate".
I tell him to do that before walking downstairs to talk to Trudy.
The lobby is much more quieter now and the earlier chaos has calmed down.
"Platt, have you seen Addie?", I ask the desk sergeant.
"Not since I buzzed her up in the morning", Platt says.
"You think she left?", Platt asks me.
I sigh before saying, "Yes. She's not upstairs and she was declining my calls before she switched off her phone. Mouse is trying to trace the call to the nearest cell phone tower".
"Want me to see if I can pull up the CCTV footage from when Addie came in to now so we can see when she left?", Platt asks.
I nod and walk behind her desk so I can see the computer.
"There she is", Platt says drawing my attention to the CCTV footage time stamped 11:14am.
I watch the footage time stamped 11:14am as Addie walks into the district wearing her coat and carrying her backpack which presumably contains all the food she cooked.
She smiles at Trudy who buzzes her up and then she walks upstairs.
Why would she cook all of that and then just disappear without even taking her coat.
I'm watching the footage with Platt when Erin walks in.
"Hank, what's going on?", she asks as she walks toward us.
"I don't know where Addie is", I reply vaguely.
"What? Have you checked your house? Maybe she wasnt feeling well so she went home", Erin tries to explain.
"She left her coat and backpack Erin and she declined my call. The only reason she would do that is if she was in too much of a hurry or panic to think things through properly", I reason.
"Wait. Look. Thats her again", Platt points to the screen time stamped 11:42 am where if you look closely enough, you can see Addie weaving through the crowds of people.
Due to the crowd, we can't see her face properly but we can identify that it's her since she's wearing her white cashmere jumper.
From the way, she's pushing through the people, she looks panicked and desperate.
The question is what made her so panicked and scared within 28 minutes.
I nod my thanks at Trudy and go back upstairs, Erin following closely.
"Mouse, did you track her cell?", I ask when I'm upstairs.
"Yeah. It was last active near....", Mouse rattles of an address, drawing a perimeter on the map to show us where she could be.
"Okay send Burgess and Atwater and some other uniformed officers to check it out. Unofficialy", I add.
To legally investigate a missing persons case, the person needs to be missing for 24 hours but I don't care about legalities right now.
"We should do a time line. See if we can fill in the missing pieces", Jay says.
Time lines are used all the time in missing persons cases to figure out the person's steps.
I nod my agreement and Jay wipes the whiteboard clean before drawing a time line on the white board.
"OK, so she entered the 21st district at 11:14am", Erin says.
"She left at 11:42am", I add.
Jay adds in the times on the time line.
"Mouse, see if you can access the cameras outside the entrance so we can see which direction she left", I command.
Mouse nods before typing on his computer.
"I've got it. This is the footage time stamped 11:40am", Mouse declares.
Me and the rest of the the team gather around to watch the screen.
"Now look, here she is at 11:43am", Mouse points to Addie.
Addie walks out of the district and since the area isn't crowded we can clearly see her face.
Addie has a look of panic and despair on her face and it looks like she's struggling to breathe.
She walks over to the nearby bench and sits down facing the camera so we can still see her face which now has tears streaking down.
Why is she crying? What the hell happened?
Addie stays on the bench for a few minutes, still crying but she's managed to control her breathing.
She looks around for a bit then stands up and walks left rather than right and we eventually lose her on camera. The footage is time stamped 11:48am.
I'm still trying to process the whole thing.
The only place she was between 11;14am and 11:42am is upstairs so what happened to make the smiling girl that came in, go out crying having a panic attack.
"OK so she went outside at 11:43am and stayed on the bench for 5 minutes before leaving at 11:48 am", Jay announces, filling in the time line again.
"What happened to make her so upset?", Antonio asks.
"I don't know. She was fine in the morning. I told her I was leaving for work early and to sleep in and drop by the district later. She nodded sleepily and I left", I explained.
"OK so she wakes up, decides to cook/bake and then brings the food with her to the district, then what?", Erin asks looking puzzled.
"She talked to me and Mouse for a little before going to the break room", Antonio reveals.
"What did she say?", I ask.
Did Antonio or Mouse upset her?
It seems unlikely though since she stayed in the break room for at least 18-20 minutes before leaving.
No. Whatever had upset her had happened in the breakroom.
"Just normal chitchat. I told her that you and the rest of the team were out chasing leads and she nodded and asked how the case was going and I told her we had a few strong leads. Then, she just went into the breakroom. Me and Mouse never saw her leave since we were too busy scouring through the crime scene tapes", Antonio explained.
"Ok so whatever upset her it happened in the breakroom and it must've been pretty bad judging by her reaction", Jay says.
"Have you looked in her coat pockets and backpack that she left behind?", Erin asks.
"Yes. Her backpack was mostly empty. Just a few pens, her favourite perfume, and bubblegum. Her coat pockets just had some mints and a lip balm", I told Erin.
"What if it was on her phone? The thing that upset her? Think about it, she left her coat and backpack and only took her phone", Alvin says.
"Could be cyber bullying or just something that triggered her panic attack", Jay says.
"I don't think so. Addie doesn't spend that much time on her phone. She prefers to read or watch Netflix", I say.
"It's still worth a shot. Mouse, look through her social media accounts and messages. See if there's anything or anyone that could've upset or triggered her", Al says.
Mouse gets to work. Announcing what he found as he goes.
"OK, so she has a TikTok account. It's set to private and she only has 5 followers that she also follows back. They all go to the same school as Addie and the most recent message between the girls were 3 weeks ago. Addie's most recent tiktok upload was a month ago and appears to be about her track team. Most of her videos are about track or school and occasionally a picture with her friends. Everything is non personal though. Not the typical teenage account you'd expect", Mouse comments.
"No wonder. She's mature for her age", Al says.
"She's a smart kid. Doesn't care about followers or likes. She's really mature and quiet. Prefers a small group of friends", I announce.
"OK what about other social media accounts?", Al asks.
"I'm combing through her Instagram account but it's mostly the same. Private account. Limited friends. Doesn't upload often. Most pictures are non personal and are about her piano classes and track", Mouse announces.
"So whatever upset her wasn't on social media. What about online chatrooms and stuff like that? Jay suggests.
"I've tried using her social media account usernames on popular teenage online chatrooms but it appears as though she's not part of any", Mouse announces.
"What if she had a flashback or something?", Adam speaks up for the first time.
"What do you mean?", I ask.
"You said she had a rough childhood and was physically abused and it's obvious that she has trust issues and has been badly hurt in her past. What if she had a flashback of that?", Adam asks.
"She did have nightmares for the first few days but no panic attacks or flashbacks and the nightmares were getting better with time", I say, trying to think if there's a possibility she could have had a flashback to Greg beating her up.
"I think we should send out a few additional patrol units to search the perimeter Mouse highlighted. Maybe she had a flashback that led to a panic attack and she wants to be alone for a while", Jay says.
"What if its not that and she's in real danger? I'm not willing to take a bet on my kid's life, Halstead", I shout, frustrated at the whole situation or my lack of understanding of it.
Even if Jay was right and she wanted to be alone for a while it was 4:30pm right now and it had been 5 hours and a bit since she left.
She had no coat and it was winter in Chicago making the streets extra colder.
She could be having hypothermia right now or injured or in trouble. My mind instantly went to the worst case scenarios.
"Hank, Jay's right. We can't do anything else right now. We've looked at every lead but found nothing. The patrol officers will probably find her. Why dont you try calling her again?", Erin suggests.
I pull my phone out of my back pocket and call her again. This time the phone rings twice before going to voicemail again. She declined my call again.
"What if she doesn't have her phone?", Mouse asks.
"She could have lost it", Erin comments.
I try calling her again but this time it says that the phone is switched off.
"Why don't we all get on the streets. Try and find her in the perimeter Mouse highlighted", Al suggests.
"OK, Mouse, stay here in case she comes back. The rest of you work with the patrol officers and search within the perimeter", I command.
Erin, Jay, Adam, and Antonio leave and the only ones left are me and Alvin.
"We'll find her Voight", Al reassures.
"She was just starting to open up, Al. She was starting to trust me and now this", I huff, frustrated at myself for not bringing Addie with me to the office in the morning.
Then maybe I would've been there when she got upset and I could've helped her.
"She'll still trust you, Voight. You know she cares a lot about you", Al attempts to comfort me.
Addie was so thoughtful and kind. Always trying to find a way to help and even though she was quiet and reserved, her genuine smiles always lit up the room.
What had happened to make her so upset?
The look of sheer panic and terror on her face had broken my heart.
She looked so scared and lost.
"Wait, consciously or unconsciously there has to be a reason why Addie went to somewhere within the perimeter. She was upset and panicked so the place would have to be somewhere she feels comforted and safe in", I realise.
"Where would she feel safe at?", Al ponders.
"Mouse look up any major landmarks within the perimeter", I say.
"OK, so there's an Indian restaurant, a park, a few cafes, a cinema theatre, cemetery-"
"Cemetery?", I question out loud as the realisation sinks in.
"Yeah", Mouse replies.
"See if Addie's mother or sister are buried there?", I say.
"Talia Carson and Catherine Carson are... buried there", Mouse confirms my suspicion.
"Addie probably went there, but what if she's not there right now?", Mouse asks.
"I don't know but I think she is", I reply, going to my office to grab my leather jacket.
"Hank! Wait, I'll drive", Al follows me.
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10th chapter of the book!
I feel so bad for Addie but the next chapters will be better before it gets sad again.
The next chapter will be in both Addie and Hank's POV.
Make sure to let me know if you have any new plot ideas you'd like to see in this book.
Enjoy the book and have a good day!