Under Cover

Harry’s POV

The second I got back to the station I started going through camera footage to figure out what direction he took, but I lost the car after the fourth camera. He must have known where all of them were and made sure to drive down a road that didn’t have cameras or he could have switched cars. So I sent out Liam and his rookie to check out the last camera location to see if they could find any in the surrounding businesses that we didn’t know about.

By six the next morning I had exhausted every idea I could think of, unable to find anything that would lead me in the right direction. The rest of the city was on high alert searching for our fellow missing officer, but no one seemed to have any leads. I sit at my desk with my head in my hands, sighing deeply as I struggled to stay awake.

“Styles. Go home. You’re no use to her exhausted. We still have another thirty six hours and there are patrols around the river just in case he takes her there.” Jensen said as he stood in the doorway.

“What if this time is different? What if he breaks his pattern and kills her sooner than the others?” I asked him.

“If he tries Charlie is capable of getting out of it. She’ll be alright.” He said, though he sounded like he was telling it mostly to himself.

I sighed deeply and simply nodded, knowing I needed to sleep but I wasn’t sure if I would even be able to because I was so worried about her. After a moment I reluctantly got up and stuffed the files into my bag before following him outside into the hallway.

“We’ll keep looking. Go get some rest.” he said as he patted my back.

I nodded once more then headed home, sighing deeply as I laid back on my bed. I was exhausted but I kept wondering what he was doing with Charlie. Was he hurting her or touching her? The thought made me sick to my stomach. I just knew I had to find her soon.

Charlie’s POV

When I finally woke up I found myself locked up in a small bedroom on the lowest level of what seemed to be a house in a suburb of London. After the groggy feeling from the drugs finally wore off I looked around some more, seeing a bunch of similar looking houses across the street but I doubted that I could get any of the people to help me since there were bushes in the way of the window.

Upon closer inspection of the door I saw that the handle was locked and there was another chain lock on it which I could see through the small window that was on the door. Of course my first instinct was to try to figure out a way to escape so I looked around until I found a wire hanger in the closet and formed it into a hook in hopes of getting the lock undone, but before I could get very far my captor suddenly appeared at the window. I jumped and immediately scrambled backwards as he quickly unlocked the door, following my steps forwards.

My heart began to pound in my chest as I became pinned to the wall, thinking back to the body of his latest victim and everything that was done to her. I was next and maybe he was a little more nervous about such a big police presence around the city that he wanted to get rid of me as soon as possible.

He stood there for a moment and studied me before finally reaching up to touch my cheek. I jumped and moved my head away out of fear, tensing as he suddenly gripped onto my neck. It became hard to breathe and I tried to pry his hand off my neck but he was much stronger than me, especially now that the lack of oxygen to my brain was making me dizzy.

“Don’t be afraid. When this is all over you’ll be happy and free.” He said as he brought his other hand up to caress my face.

“Don’t touch me.” I snapped, finally managing to bring my leg up and knee him in the gut.

He let go of me and the first thing I did was stumble towards the door, making it upstairs and to the first phone I saw. It was a cell phone so I knew it would take longer to track so I immediately called 911, managing to give them a short description of the area before I was struck in the head and fell limply to the floor.

Harry’s POV

My phone woke me up after sleeping for a good six hours. I was groggy when I first answered, but the moment I heard what Jensen said on the other end I immediately woke up and rushed to get ready. I drove to the station as fast as I could, running into the office where I saw a few of her fellow rookies crowded around a desk. I assumed it was one of theirs and as I pushed them away I saw that it belonged to Dylan who I had learned to be Charlie’s best friend and ex lover back in their academy days. When she had first told me that of course I was jealous, especially after seeing how they still interacted like best friends who were far too close for my liking, but she assured me that they would never would out as an actual couple which helped a little.

“What do you got?” I asked him.

“We got this call fifteen minutes ago. I know it’s her. I recognize her voice.”
He said as he played back the recording.

“911. What’s your emergency?”

“I'm in a suburb. Blue townhouses across the street. Rose bushes in front of the house I’m in. I-”

A thump was heard over the other end of the line and what seemed like a small struggle before the line suddenly went dead on her end. She must have been known one of us would recognize her voice so she was trying to give us her location in case the call was too short to be tracked. It was smart, but also very dangerous because it could piss off the asshole who took her and cause him to move up the kill time.

“O’Brien, I want you to go out and canvas Belmont Circle. They have townhouses there. There are some more on the North side of the city, and West Ash street. You other rookies take your T.O.s and go out there. Let’s find where these roses are.” I ordered.

They rushed off to do as they were told and I grabbed my gun from my desk as well as my badge before running off to do the same. Half of our men were out looking for her right now so hopefully someone would come up with a clue or find the house before it was too late.

As we were out searching I got a call from Liam saying that they found the house we were looking for and it was under the bartender’s parents’ names so it had to be where he had her. I sped there with my lights on so people would get out of my way and as soon as I arrived we burst through the door and searched the house high and low. Right away I noticed that a cell phone had been thrown against a wall and the pieces were scattered across the floor. This definitely had to be the right spot.

We cleared the main floor and while another team went upstairs I led mine downstairs, finding no one there so I holstered my weapon and looked around. The first place I went was the locked bedroom and peered out the window to see exactly what Charlie described. She was here, probably just an hour before us, maybe less. I fought the urge to throw things around the room in case there was evidence in here.

“Harry, look at this.” Jensen called.

I stepped out of the room and walked over to the other side of the basement where a light had been turned on to reveal all of the victims and their photos on the wall. He had taken their photos while they were unconscious on the bed or cowering in the corner as he had them tied up unable to move. When I saw Charlie’s I became sick to my stomach. She was lying unconscious on the bed in one and another was of her lying on the floor bound and gagged with blood seeping from a wound on her head. There were obvious bruises on her neck as well so he had to have choked her once already.

“We have to find her, Jensen.” I said quietly. “She fought him once already. He’s going to kill her.”

Notes