The Good and the Bad

Wrong Side of the Bars

Chapter Twenty-Six

*~*~*~*

"Laura! Laura!" Antonio shouted as he rushed into her bakery. His mind still racing from the phone call he'd gotten from her. A phone call telling him that his son was missing. The officers surrounding the place didn't bother to stop him, nearly all of them recognizing him from work.

"Antonio," tears continued to spill down Laura's face when she spotted her estranged husband. Antonio didn't hesitate to pull her into a hug, all of their own troubles and issues disappearing for the time being-- their focus on their son. "He's got to be so scared."

"I will get him back," Antonio promised her.

"I know you will. You have to," Laura nodded as she pulled back from his embrace. As she did so her dark eyes drifted over to where Voight and Scout were coming in through the back.

"What do we know?" Antonio asked as he moved to join them.

"There's no cameras in the alley. We're checking the streets on both sides for ATM video," Voight told the distraught parents.

"Neighbors?" Antonio pressed, desperate for any lead they could get.

"A woman said she saw a white van but there wasn't a license and couldn't give a driver description." Scout gave a small shake of her head, knowing just how useless the information was.

"Detectives are rolling, squads are canvassing the area and knocking on doors, checking for cameras." Voight assured them. "Someone's on the pods right now."

"We have security cameras out front, but nothing in the alley," Antonio shook his head.

"I know," Voight nodded.

"Para Laura! Para Laura!" They all glanced back into the kitchen, spotting a man arguing with officers at the back door. The moment he spotted the Dawson woman he fired off rapid Spanish, waving a paper over his head.

"Let him in," Voight ordered the officers. The moment he was inside the man made a beeline for Antonio, handing the paper over to him.

""Pulpo free by midnight, or your son dies."" Antonio read the note aloud, translating the Spanish it'd been written in.

"Oh, my God," Laura's stomach dropped at the words.

"Hey," Scout's voice was soft as she rested a hand on the other woman's shoulder. For a moment their gazes met, everything that had happened between them over the last year slipping away. "We're gonna get Diego back, okay? He's gonna come home to you guys, I promise."

*~*~*~*

The moment they got back to the precinct Antonio and Scout found themselves making a beeline for the holding cell-- Pulpo having been moved up from the cage at Belden's orders. Making their way into the room they found themselves greeted by the sight the man stretched out on the bench inside the cell, as if he were relaxing at home rather than in jail cell.

"Where's my son?" Antonio questioned as he leaned against the bars.

"Uh--" Pulpo glanced underneath the bench and around the otherwise empty cell before looking back at the pair. "Uh, I know he's not here. Beyond that--"

"I don't think you want me to ask you again," Antonio warned him, his eyes no more than slits.

"Ah, si, si, si, si." Pulpo nodded, an amused smile filling his lips. "I heard about this type of thing back in Bogota. Yeah. Your son was kidnapped, yes? Yes. Yeah, I read that many times. Many, many times. If the kidnapper were given what they wanted, then the wife or son was returned, not a single scratch on their faces."