"Mornin' guys," Luca said, entering the locker room.

Tan and Chris were already there, and almost ready to go, as shift would start in five minutes.

Tan closed his locker, and looked up to his running late colleague.
"Hey, what happened to you? Video Game night?"

"Yeah, quite that."

The tree of them smiled.

"By the way, where's Street?" Chris asked.

"I thought he was already here," Luca shrugged. "He didn't come home for the night."

"So, he must have been lucky last night," Tan smirked, then they reached Deacon and Hondo in the briefing room.

"C'mon guys, hurry up. We have a case!" Hondo said.
"Hey Luca, where's Street?"

"Why are you all asking me that? I'm not his babysitter!"

"Yeah, but you live on his couch!" Tan stepped in.

"Fair enough... Last night he told me he was going out. That's all I know. I haven't seen him since then."

"I just tried to call him, but his phone's off." Chris said. "That's not like him."
She started to worry.

"We have no time for this right now. Gear up, focus on the raid. We will deal with that stupid rookie later," Hondo ordered.

.

The raid was quick. It was an extremely easy job.
They went in; took down two suspects; cleared the rest of the building, and went out.

No casualties, no problems. Just a routine job.

"Hey, are you trying to call Street again?" Tan said as he saw Chris busy on her phone.

"Yeah, still not responding."

"Don't be so worried. I bet he spent the night with some girl, lost track of time, and now he is to ashamed to answer your call," Tan said, as he was trying to convince even himself that nothing was wrong.

"It's just... He has never been this late, not since his first day on the job."

"Yeah, you're right, and he can't be so stupid to take his phone off this long. I think something is going on," Hondo said.

.

Once back at the HQ, they were hoping to find him there, with a pathetic excuse for his delay, but there was still no sign of him.

"Still nothing from Street?" Hondo asked.

They all shook their heads.

"I was trying to track his phone," Luca said, and he suddenly felt his colleagues' puzzled looks on him.
"What? I was the last one to see him, if something happened I want to know!
"... By the way, I couldn't trace him. He may have taken the battery off."

"That's definitely not good," Hondo said. "Are you sure you don't know where he went last night?"

Luca shook his head. "He just told me he was going to see an old friend, nothing more."

"Ok. Tan, put an A.P.B. on his vehicle."

He nodded, and brought his tablet to do so.

"If he is in some kind of trouble, we will find out," Hondo said before going to inform his superiors.

.

About an hour later they were still searching unsuccessfully, till Tan's phone rang.

"Hey! Guys, I had a heads up from my man in LAPD," Tan said, hanging up. "Street's motorcycle was spotted near a bar in Long Beach, but there's no sign of him."

"Ok, let's go take a look," Hondo said.

They arrived at the parking lot, where they quickly spotted Street's bike.

"Chris and I go in, maybe we can find someone who knows something useful," Hondo said. "You guys, take a look around."

"Sorry, we are still closed," the bartender said, hearing someone entering his place.

Hondo approached the counter, "we are not here to drink. Can we talk to you for a moment?"

"Oh, sorry officers, of course," he said looking up. "What can I do for you?"

"Are you the owner?" Chris asked.

"Yes, I am. There's something wrong?"

"No, we just have a few questions for you," Hondo continued. "Were you here last night?"

"Yes, I practically live here." He forced a tired smile.

"Do you know who's bike is it in your parking lot?"

He shook his head. "It must belong to some drunk that was clever enough to take a cab last night."

The two cops looked at each other.

"Do you recognize this man?" Chris said, showing him Street's photo on her phone.

He took a close look at it and mumbled. "Yes, I think he was here last night. He should be Grace's brother."

Chris stared at Hondo, confused.

"Who's Grace?" he asked.

"She is a regular here, a nice girl, but you know, she is the kind of girl that has always some problem to deal with. She is the classic damsel in distress, a true magnet for trouble."

"And she said he was her brother?" Chris asked.

"At least it's what she told me. Is she in serious trouble?"

"We don't know yet," Hondo continued. "How long were they here?"

"A couple hours, I think. They sat in the corner, she seemed nervous, even more than usual, and he was clearly trying to calm her down."

"Do you know why?"

"I have no idea. I don't usually spend my time overhearing my client's private conversations."

Chris sighted. "Did you know where they would go when they left?"

"Sorry, I can tell they went out together, but I didn't noticed where they went..."

"Do you have any surveillance cameras in or out here?"

He shook his head. "Never needed them."

"Ok, last question: do you know Grace 's last name or where we can find her?"

"Sorry, I said she is a regular, but she is really reserved. I just know she works as a waitress, but I'm not really sure where."

"Alright, thanks for your help," Hondo said, getting out of the place.

"No problem, officers," he said, returning to his usual business.

Once out of the bar they reached Deacon at the other end of the parking lot.

"Nothing really useful there," Hondo said. "Did you find something?"

"Maybe. There are some suspicious traces near that alley. It seems like someone was drugged by, but it can be literally everything."

Tan approached. "I found two crashed cell phones, there are pieces of them everywhere in the alley, but I'm quite sure one is Street's... I doubt we will be able to extract something useful out of them.

"Anyway there's a market across the street, Luca went to ask for their surveillance video, I hope we get lucky with that at least."

.

Back at the HQ, Luca put on the video, and started to search for some useful images.
Sergeant Munford and Captain Cortez joined them shortly after.

"Ok, you said you found evidence that Street was abducted. What do we know exactly?" she asked.

"We only know he was last seen in this bar with a mysterious girl, Grace, no last name, who claimed to be his sister, then nothing more," Hondo said.

"Except he has no sisters," Chris stepped in.

"Maybe a foster sister? Or someone close to him from his foster care days?" Deacon asked.

"No idea. He never talks about that part of his life."

"Wait, I think I found something," Luca called out, showing his colleagues the footage he was examining.

"Here, in the corner near the alley, you see?" he pointed at the screen.

They could see Street following the mysterious girl towards the alley.
"It seems he is trying to stop her." Luca pushed the fast-forward button up until the exact point when they saw a black van getting out.

"Before and after that, no one got out of there. And since it is a blind alley, they must have been in that van."

"Oh my Gosh," Chris said. "We have to find him!"

"Can you extract the license plate?" Deacon asked.

Luca shook his head. "No way, it is covered with dirt. It seems they knew what they were doing. This is definitely not some hack."

"Alright, calm down. Did he ever told any of you if he had any enemies?" Cortez asked.

"We are cops, we all have someone who wants to see us dead," Hondo said. "Luca, can you at least extract Grace's photo from the video?"

"I'm already on it, I'll insert in the facial recognition database."

"There are so many mysteries on this girl," Deacon said. "Was she the intended target? Was she a collateral damage? Or was she an accomplice of the kidnapper?"

"My team can take care of that. You should go to Street's apartment," Munford offered. "See if you can find something that might lead us to the girl. Meanwhile, we will search in his old case from Long Beach PD and see if someone stands out."

"You should also try to recover Street's child service file. Maybe there's something useful," Hondo said. "Ok guys, move. Luca, you have the keys of the apartment. Take Tan and Chris with you."

"And what we are going to do?" Deacon asked.

"There is another lead we should check." Hondo said.

They all listened carefully.

"His mother."

They stared at him, puzzled.

"Isn't she in prison?" Luca asked.

"That didn't stop her from interfering with his life before. If she could do what she did from inside there, maybe someone else is trying to take advantage of her from the outside.
I would prefer to not tell her yet, but it may be the way to find him."

"Ok, let's get to work." Cortez said.