American Detective: From TV Rookie to Seasoned Cop

Although Jack had told the team to wait for local police reinforcements, he and JJ didn't hesitate to break in themselves.

They had gone to the address he and Hotchner had visited earlier, which was the farthest away. After standing outside the door and listening quietly for a moment, Jack knew the place was empty.

Still, he kicked the door open and checked every corner, confirming no one was inside. After waiting for the backup officers to arrive and instructing them to guard the premises, Jack called Rossi and the others.

Rossi, Reid, and Emily also came up empty-handed, but the real worry was that Hotchner and Finlay, who had gone to the closest location and should have been done by now, hadn't reported back.

After calling them twice without getting a response, Jack knew something was wrong. He immediately turned on the sirens and sped toward the location they were responsible for.

On the way, Jack told JJ to keep trying to reach Hotchner, but then his phone suddenly rang—it was an unknown number.

He answered, and the voice on the other end belonged to Justin. She no longer needed a synthesized voice, but Jack could hear a hint of tension in her tone.

"Jack, someone hacked into the LAPD database an hour ago and accessed your files."

Her words sent a chill down Jack's spine.

Jack, who frequently relied on Justin's hacking skills, had also taken precautions against being hacked himself. He had long ago asked Justin to set up an alert in the LAPD database for his file. If anyone accessed his information through illegitimate means, Justin would be notified and could trace it back.

While there wasn't anything particularly sensitive in his LAPD file, hacking into the LAPD's database was the easiest way to get information that couldn't be found through public channels. The LAPD's servers were notoriously insecure, and any hacker could bypass their firewall. Jack had set up a Trojan horse in the system that would trigger an alert whenever someone tried to pull his file.

"Do you know who did it?"

Instead of answering, Justin sent him an address—1439 Yablov Street, the same house where Hotchner and Finlay had gone.

"Notify Chris and Hannah to watch my place," Jack said, but quickly corrected himself. "No, forget it. That guy's probably not interested in me—he's just checking me out. Tell Hannah to take Hotchner's wife and kids to the farm."

Justin agreed and hung up. JJ, who had been closely following their conversation while continuing to call Hotchner, looked even more anxious. She instinctively reached out and grabbed Jack's right hand.

"It's going to be okay. Hotch was with the FBI's SWAT team; he's not going down that easily." Jack tried to reassure her, but his foot pressed the gas pedal harder, and after a few sharp turns, Emily and the others' car was no longer in sight.

As they got within minutes of Yablov Street, both their hearts were pounding. Sirens blared in the distance, and there were also the distinct sounds of an ambulance siren.

Their Suburban sped past an ambulance and barely slowed as it drifted around the next corner, screeching to a halt right behind a police cruiser that had just pulled up.

One officer, just opening his door to see what was happening behind him, felt a gust of wind as a figure darted past him.

Jack, moving with lightning speed, leapt over a low wooden fence, crossed the front lawn, and the scene before him made his heart skip a beat.

Hotchner was lying in a pool of blood near a window, his condition unknown. The ground was covered in shattered glass, and a panicked officer was checking his pulse, shouting for help.

"Move!" Jack barked, pushing the officer aside. He swiftly removed Hotchner's bulletproof vest and immediately began using a healing technique while assessing his injuries. Thankfully, Hotchner was still alive.

With his nerves settled, Jack quickly grabbed the adrenaline shot he'd prepared before leaving the car and injected it into Hotchner's thigh.

With a sharp gasp, Hotchner's eyes flew open, and he began to breathe heavily, like a fish pulled out of water.

Jack turned to the officer he had just pushed aside and yanked him back, shouting, "Where's the other person?"

"I'm fine!" came a weak voice from inside the house. Finlay, clutching his chest, appeared at the doorway before collapsing against the frame.

Leaving Hotchner in the care of the paramedics, who had just arrived to stop the bleeding and start an IV, Jack went over to check on Finlay's condition.

The man was lucky—he'd been shot twice in the chest, but the bullets had been stopped by the ceramic plates in his vest. When Jack removed the vest, he saw large bruises and swelling, likely from several broken ribs, but compared to Hotchner, Finlay was in much better shape.

Hotchner had not only been shot but had also been stabbed multiple times. His right kidney was nearly destroyed. Without Jack's healing ability, he might have been facing a life of permanent disability.

Even with the healing, Jack had to hold back. If Hotchner's injuries were completely healed, the doctors at the hospital would notice something was off. He repaired most of the internal damage but left enough for Hotchner to spend at least a month recovering in the hospital.

"Jack... get Garcia to track... track Roy Coulson's phone," Hotchner rasped, grabbing Jack's hand as he was being loaded onto a stretcher.

"Why?" Jack asked, holding onto the stretcher as he jogged alongside it.

"Foyer... Foyer wanted to meet him. If Roy's not here, Foyer must have another place. If we find Roy, we might still have time."

Jack nodded quickly. "I get it. Roy is important to Foyer. In his book, he claimed the Reaper was either in prison or dead. Foyer will want him to correct that, so if we find Roy, we'll find Foyer."

Once Hotchner and Finlay were loaded into the ambulance, with JJ going along, Rossi and the others finally arrived.

Jack raised a finger to signal them not to ask any questions yet, then pulled out his phone to call Garcia.

Roy Coulson's phone was off, and Garcia said she would need time to trace his last known location. In the meantime, Jack quickly briefed Rossi and the others on Hotchner and Finlay's injuries.

The group then began searching the house and surrounding area. Since Jack had assured them that Hotchner and Finlay were not in immediate danger, they decided to stay and focus on finding Foyer's whereabouts and bringing him to justice.

As for Jack, in his mind, Foyer was already as good as dead. He had made up his mind—this vile man had to be eliminated to prevent future harm.

Reid was the first to make a discovery at the back door.

"There's a lot of blood here—probably more than half of what's in an adult human body. And there are clear signs of a struggle. This must be where Foyer staged his death."

"That's impossible. With that much blood loss, he'd definitely be dead. He knows we have his DNA, so he wouldn't use someone else's blood to fake his death," Emily said, confused.

Rossi shook his head. "He's been planning this fake death for a long time. He could have been slowly drawing his own blood and storing it until he had enough—just like what we're seeing here. He sets up the scene perfectly. Even if the police don't find a body, they'll believe he's dead."

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