| the 99th precinct |

✩*• 8. •*✩

[1st perspective, jakes p.o.v. ]

as we start to leave we can hear alicia's breathing quicken as she starts to wake, clearly terrified from her situation. amy and i close the door behind us, and as we do, alicia only said one word.

"rosa?"

amy is clearly upset by this as she speeds off down the cramped hallway in a hurry, i struggle to keep up with her.

"we have to find her jake. alicia is awake and she's going to be suspicious. i have to go solve this puzzle right now, i'll try to get someone to fill in for me maybe..."

i guide amy to the side of the busy hallway and grab her shoulders tightly.

"amy, deep breaths. look into my eyes ok?"

amy's breathing only quickens as she tries to look everywhere but at me. she fumbles at her police belt, pulling out her notepad full of scraggly notes. slowly, i reach forward and grab her hand that's holding the notepad. soon after, her eyes flicker up to mine and her breathing slows eventually, her gaze melting into mine. i pull her into a hug slowly and she sobs quietly.

"i-i just want to find her. can you even imagine what alicia is going through?? if that was me jake i don't know what i would do without you..."

"you've done it before remember?? when i was in witness protection and again in jail. if you want, you can help her. not now, but when she finally learns about rosa."

amy's head lifts off my shoulder and she nods affirmatively at me, before she struts off to find everyone else

✩*•*✩*•*✩*•*✩*•*✩

i sit at my desk with amy opposite me again, we are discussing the puzzle seemingly left by the murderer. this had to be done by a major group of people, and it had to be planned. the bodies were killed in order going from 5 down to number 1. the autopsy should come back soon, telling us any more information we need to know. as i start researching each doctor in depth, amy suddenly stands and looks over at the elevator, i turn slowly and there is terry. his face is tear streaked and his eyes are red.

this must be about ava.

amy and i slowly head over to his desk to ask if he's ok, but he only shrugs us off and runs off to presumably get some yoghurt.

"oh poor terry, sharon was telling me that ava's condition is getting worse. due to the fact she is so young too, i'm not sure how she'll be."

i shake my head in disbelief

"what is happening to this place??? rosa's gone, there's been a major murder, and now my god daughter is sick... why is this all happening now??"

i head back to my messy desk and start scribbling again. suddenly, i come to an epiphany. amy must've noticed as she stopped in her tracks and watched me curiously.

"everything going bad..."

i quickly grab the white board we had been using and flip it over. here, we had each of the victims and information about them.

"amy, i think ive found something. each victim had letters from rosa's name in them somewhere."

amy gasped, yelling

"an anagram!!"

"precisely. look at this, jordan stewart has an o, r, a and an s too!! it's the same with the other four. that's how they're all connected. i feel like the 5 was a sign. maybe we only have 5 days to solve this case or something?? i'm not sure, but whoever this is, wants us to find them."

"but maybe the rosa thing could just be a coincidence?"

"unlikely. look here, rob sanily. that's a pretty short name and it fits the trend."

amy nods and starts beaming, we head off to captain holt to tell him our findings.

"captain holt, i think we've found something"

i explain everything that we found as he just stares blankly at the two of us.

"i see. well, if we only have 5 days then i suggest that we drop all other cases for the time being and work on this one. i will inform the head of police, and we will figure this out together."

amy and i nod before exiting the room. charles is already waiting at our desk, with several files in hand.

"the autopsy came back just now!"

charles hand over the files and took a seat on the chair next to mine. we all scan through the files quickly. yep, dr. rossi was right. all killed by strangulation. the blood on each person was pigs blood, oddly. why they didn't use human blood was odd, as there sure was a lot of it at the hospital. just as i was about to push the files away, my phone starts ringing.

"hellooooo? this is your majesty -"

"jake it's me!!"

"doug??"

amy looks over at me at the mention of his name. shoot, i almost completely forgot about the other case.

"heyyyy i was told to call you."

"by who??"

there's a slight scuffle on the other end of the phone before doug tells me to look at the phone. he'd turned it onto facetime and it was almost pitch black. i quickly took a screenshot before amy looked as well.

"what is it doug? what am i looking at?"

"oh, sorry, my thumb was over the camera."

what was his thumb lifts off the lens, as the camera is hit by a blinding light before focussing on a body.

"rosa..."

"jake, i didn't do this ok?? i wasn't even a part of this. i was just called in because i knew you personally and i-"

doug was cut off by a loud noise and the camera is moved around frantically.

"doug, where are you?"

a disguised voice begins to dryly laugh

"you don't need to know. we're moving soon anyway. well done, peralta and santiago. you've figured out one of my easy clues. but be warned, we have more in store for her."

rosa seemed mainly unharmed, her mouth was gaffer taped, and her hands seemed to be tied up behind the chair she was on. her feet were tied to the chair too. she looked drained and exhausted. she also seemed confused, like she didn't know we were talking in front of her.

"please, just let her go! what do you want?"

"no no no jake. i don't need anything. i'm doing this for fun! my life's boring and i need something to spice it up. i've been planning this for years and you've all been so... ignorant. have fun, 99th precinct. have fun."

a loud beep emits out of my phone, they had hung up.

"jake, he knew what we were doing. he must have access to the mics or cameras. what if someone here is a mole??"

amy began to spiral just as captain holt stepped out of his office. amongst the commotion, most of the officers in here had heard the conversation. as i looked around, i noticed terry had left the building. he must have gone
to see ava. i stand up on my desk and look at everyone

"nine nine, we must all work together now. stakes are higher and we need to hurry. we only have 5 days to solve this thing, and we need to move now. who's with me? nine nine!!"

"NINE NINE"

the rest of the precinct yell back, including captain holt, who seemed mildly impressed by my short speech. i mutter under my breath:

"we'll find you rosa."

woahhhhh over 100 reads - that's insane!! thank you all so much for reading this, i'm having a blast writing this.