Yn's POV
"Yeah, Ollie. I'll be there. What time" I ask. "Uh, 6" he replied. "Cool. I'll bring the-" I cut myself off as I entered the bullpen because I spotted a familiar mop of blonde hair. "Hey. I'll call you back" I say and hang up. At that moment, I jumped into the woman's arms and hugged her tightly. "Hailey" I shout. "I can't believe you took the job!" "Well, it's a temporary basis" she said. "Temporary or not, I'm so happy you're here. What's in the box" I ask and gesture to the white box sitting on her desk. "Loukoumades. Greek donuts" Hailey said. "You're doing great up here already" I say and take a doughnut. "Who was that on the phone" Adam asked me. "Ollie. My mom is getting out of the hospital today" I say.
"All right, Upton, you're going to be partners with Erin for now. Jay, you'll be with Al. Are we clear" Voight asked. "Yeah" Erin said. "Guys, I'm getting an emergency alert from CPIC. OEMC received multiple 911 calls alerting them to this private Facebook user group" Adam said and turned his computer so that we could all watch a video. "I'm going to stay on the line while you triangulate the signal." The video showed a man tied up to a chair taking a beating. Then, the offender dropped the bat he was using and started dumping gasoline on the man. "Ruz, tell them to work faster" Jay said. Just then, the offender lit a match, and threw it. The guy tied to the chair went up in flames in seconds. "3200 block of Larimer" Adam said. "Let's go, come on" Voight said.
By the time we got to the abandoned warehouse, the man's body had already been torched, and our offender was nowhere to be seen. However, the word "Pedophile" was written on the wall in blood. We could possibly use that to identify the victim. "All right, our victim is male, African American, mid-20s. We ran facial recognition, no matches. His fingerprints were burnt off in the fire, and his wallet was torched, so, in short, we can't ID this guy" Jay said. "What we do know is that our victim's blood type does match the writing on the wall in the warehouse. It's B positive" I say. "Someone thinks our victim is a sex offender, or wants us to believe that he was" Hailey said. "And the attack was well thought out. They live streamed the torture on a burner phone that they dumped at the scene. The gloves, the gas can, they're all standard-issue products available at every hardware store in the city" Erin said.
"Two metal objects survived the fire: this metal crucifix, which matches the one in the photo, and a key" Adam said. "Yep, and this key matches a Kia 2010 that was parked right in front of the warehouse. As we speak, the crime lab is sweeping it for prints and DNA. The car's registered to a Janice Hendricks. She has an address in Inglewood" Kevin said. "Okay, Al, why don't you and Jay go talk to her. Let's comb the neighborhood. We've got to ID this victim if we're going to figure out who targeted him" Voight said.
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"The victim is Elijah Hendricks. He's 25. He did 7 years for statutory rape at Indiana State Pen. He got out about a month ago, and he registered as a sex offender at his aunt's address" Jay said. "Elijah was 18 when he was accused of raping a 16-year-old girl. The victim's name was sealed under a plea bargain" Hailey said. "The aunt gave us the woman's name: Beth Murphy" Jay said. "No DMV records. The only photo we could find was from her high school yearbook from Crown Point, Indiana" Hailey said. "We got the phone records from Elijah's cell. On the day he was killed, he got three phone calls from Beth Murphy. We've been trying to reach her, but it keeps going to voicemail" Erin said. "Did you get an address" Adam asked. "No, just a PO box in Crown Point" Erin said. "All right, you and Upton, head to Indiana. Hey, but loop in the local police. We got no jurisdiction there" Voight said.
When Hailey and Erin were out, they sent us something to check out. "Guys, look. This video dropped on YouTube two days ago. It was posted by 'The Perv Hunters" I say. "Who the hell are the Perv Hunters" Adam asked. "I don't know. Lets find out" I say. Once Hailey and Erin got back, we shared what we knew.
"Perv Hunters first hit the radar three years ago in Toronto. They're a loose collection of vigilantes who are dedicated to the public shaming of pedophiles. Their MO is to ID sex offenders and then post videos of them online. The tech guys are trying to figure out who posted the YouTube video. No luck yet" Jay said. "So Toronto PD told us that the Perv Hunters have become a real pain in the ass. Technically, they don't break any laws, but they've jacked up a few investigations" Adam said. "Okay, so who's the boss" Voight asked. "Uh, they don't have one. They're more like a franchise. Perv Hunters have dropped ambush videos in Winnipeg, Montreal, Vancouver. The first one hit the States in Chicago last month" Jay said. "Yeah, but burning people alive? That's not their MO. They do public shaming videos, not executions" Hailey said. "Maybe in Canada. This is Chicago" Al said.
"Hey, I got something. This video just dropped an hour ago on YouTube. The cameraman sounds just like the cat that was in the Elijah video. This video is on Alan Metcalf. He's on the Chicago sex Offender Registry. He lives at 505 Larimer" Kevin said. "All right, Al, you and Halstead go talk to Metcalf. Find every Perv Hunter operating in Chicago" Voight said.
Jay and Al went to Alan's house, and Alan said he got the license plate number of the guy who took the video of him. Adam and I ran it through the plate reader and got a hit. Now, we were going to visit the owner of the car, and since he worked at a tattoo parlor, that's where we went first. "You guys lost" a man asked us. "You Craig Gorman" I ask. "Yeah. What's this about" he asked. "It's about your latest Perv Hunters video" I say. "Are you familiar with the First Amendment" Craig asked me. "Yeah. Is that the 14? 14 words" I ask and point to the tattoo on his neck. "What would you know about it" he asked. "'We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.' Fourteen" I say. "Hey, she can count" Craig said to Adam and clapped.
"You're doing great. Say it again" Adam said and grabbed Craig by the throat. "It's called free speech" Craig said. "Hey, you know what? One more word of free speech, I'll kick your teeth in the back of your throat. Move, get out of here" Adam sad and shoved Craig towards the door. "Man, I love this job" I say to myself and follow them outside.
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While Jay and Voight were interviewing Craig, the Perv Hunters posted another video featuring Alan Metcalf. It was just like the first one we saw. An unknown offender poured gasoline all over Metcalf before lighting a match and throwing it at him, setting Metcalf on fire. Now, we had a plan. We were going to have Craig post a video of Al on the Perv Hunters page, and see if we could get them to come after him. That way, if some guys did capture Al, we'd be all over them.
"The ambush video's uploading now. It'll be live on YouTube in less than 60 seconds" Craig said. "Okay. For the profile name, let's put Alvin Obolensky. O-B-O-L-E-N-S-K-Y. It's 14 letters. You should appreciate that" I say and pat Craig on the shoulder. "DOB" Craig asked. "7-1-61" I reply. "You'll tell your boss I'm fully cooperating, right" Craig asked. "Yeah. Sure" Adam said.
Our plan ended up working, and while we were staking out the house Al was "living in", a man came up to the door. We grabbed him up, checked his bag, and found zip ties, which were used to bind the hands of feet of our previous victims, and a taser. The man's name was Jeremy Pettigrew, and right now, Jay and Voight were interviewing him.
"We ran Pettigrew for any criminal history. No record, never been arrested, but his name was run through LEADS by an officer and a detective in Detroit three years ago. Here's a printout of the inquiries" Hailey said and handed him a piece of paper. "We got the officers' names and gave them a call. The lead detective told us that Pettigrew was the person of interest in a kidnapping and murder of a tender age victim that was sexually assaulted. They brought Pettigrew in, but could never arrest him. They didn't have enough physical evidence" I say. "You're thinking this guy is a pedophile" Voight asked. "The Detective in Detroit thought he was good for it. Said it's one of those cases that'll haunt you your whole career" Hailey said. "All right, we need a psych profile on Pettigrew" Voight said. "Erin knows someone. I'll have her get on it" I say.
Erin called in a psychiatrist named Dr. Richardson, and she talked to Pettigrew. "So what's your take, Doc? Is he a vigilante or a pedophile" Voight asked. "He's both. The rigid moral code, the suicide attempt, the fact the he completed evaded the whole issue about whether he was abused as a child, it's all consistent with the pathology of a self-loathing pedophile. He feels a horrible guilt, but he can't kill himself, so instead he turns his shame and his self-loathing against people who are like him" Dr. Richardson said. "So you're saying Pettigrew is killing pedophiles" Voight asked. "I think it's likely, and my fear is that he's in this frenzied state because he recently kidnapped and molested a child" Dr. Richardson said. "Which means he's got a kid out there" Erin said, causing Dr. Richardson to nod.
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"All right, we're now looking at a kidnapping by a sexual predator. Our working theory is this guy is murdering pedophiles to cleanse his own sins" Voight said. "I reached out to the ME in Detroit. Now, the juvenile that Pettigrew was suspected of killing, he was assaulted over the course of a week before he died" Jay said. "Which means that there's a chance that our kid, whoever he is, may still be alive. So these tacks, they represent every missing juvenile over the past two months. We're looking for a nexus between Pettigrew and any one of these children" Voight said and gestured to a map.
"So Yn and I have found Pettigrew's receipt book in his truck. We got the job addresses and cross-referenced them to see which of his clients have young children. As of now, there's 17" Adam said. "Yeah, and we've got patrolmen pounding on doors right now. As soon as they dig something up, they're going to let us know" I say. "The tech lab pulled the serial numbers off the phone we recovered at the Metcalf murder. They said it was a typical pay-as-you-go throwaway model. The phone was badly burned, but they were able to track it. It was sold out of a store in Canaryville, and it got activated the day Metcalf was murdered" Erin said. "Good. You and Upton run it down" Voight said.
Erin and Hailey talked to the guy at the cell phone store, and he ID'd Pettigrew, and also said that a kid was waiting in his truck which was parked out front. "We pulled the exterior cameras from the business next door. The Tech lab was able to enhance the image" Hailey said. "Any luck IDing the kid" Al asked. "No, it's too grainy for facial recognition" Erin replied. "Missing Persons is working a tender age case. Derek Robbins, he's 10 years old. He disappeared five days ago on his way to school. Last seen at his home at 4401 Burke. He was wearing a light blue jacket" Jay said, which matched the kid in the video. "Cross reference Robbins' address with Pettigrew's work orders, and let's see if we can find 4400" I say. "Negative, it's not on here" Hailey said. "Oh, hey, 4300 block South Lowe. That's a block away from Robbins' place" Al said. "You and me" Voight said to me.
Erin went to talk to Pettigrew again, and she gave us an address; 3400 Racine. She said Pettigrew mentioned an old car in the stockyards. At the stockyards, in one of the trunks, we found Derek. Jay lifted him out of the trunk and set him down before beginning CPR. However, it didn't look like it was working. "Jay" I say and place my hand on his shoulder. Jay didn't stop, and he continued CPR. "Jay, he's gone" I say. Finally, when he saw Derek was truly gone, Jay stopped.
Back at the district where Hailey and Erin were waiting, Jay stormed past and headed to the locker room while I stopped to talk. "What happened" Erin asked me. "Uh, we found Derek in the trunk of one of the cars. Jay tried CPR, but it didn't work. I spoke to the ME. He'd been dead at least two hours. There was nothing anybody could have done. Jay is kind of upset right now, so I wouldn't bring it up" I say,
Once my shift was over, I headed out, and just so happened to do so at the same time as Hailey. "So how was your first case in Intelligence" I ask. "Good. It's way different from Robbery-Homicide though" she said. "Believe me, I know. I transferred over from Homicide, and we did things completely different there" I say. "Hey, who's Ollie? That's who you were on the phone with earlier, right" Hailey asked. "Oh yeah. I forgot you're not caught up on everything. Ollie is my older brother. I also have an older sister name Chloe, who is married to this amazing guy named Noah, and they have a set of twins named Milo and Cara. Anyways, a while ago, my mom was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer, and she just beat it, so my siblings and I along with my dad are going to take her out to celebrate" I say. "Well, have fun. I'm glad your mom's okay" Hailey said. "Thanks. I'll see you tomorrow Hailey" I say.