The fire raged through the building fiercely, engulfing the walls, the floors, the ceilings, everything. The flames spread through the rooms unimaginably quickly and the heat was unbearable. Smoke filled the building, making it nearly impossible to breathe. To a normal person, this situation would be indescribably terrifying, but to the Chicago Fire Department, it was just another call.
A warehouse had caught on fire and supposedly it was empty, but as Engine 51 rolled up to the scene, screams could be heard coming from the second floor. It was probably a homeless person who had been living in the abandoned warehouse.
The firefighters exited the vehicle while the Lieutenant, Casey, yelled orders back at his team, telling everyone where to go while Kelly Severide handled the rescue squad, giving them their orders before they followed Casey's team in.
The rescue squad's priority was to make sure that everyone inside the building got out so Kelly had half of them stay downstairs and check the rooms while the other half went up to check the rest of the rooms. He went with the half that went to the second floor. There weren't a lot of rooms, but the rooms that were there, were huge so they had to go all the way in and clear the room to be sure. After the fourth room, they found where the screaming was coming from. It was a man, looked to be in his 20s, leaning out the window for air. He was large, buff, so Kelly and another guy had to team up to carry him out. Within the next 10 minutes, they were handing the man off to Shay and Dawson. And 20 minutes after that, the rest of the rescue squad had cleared the building. From then on, it was just about putting the fire out safely. That took another 30 minutes and when it was finally extinguished, they did a secondary sweep of the building.
They didn't find anything shocking in the second search so they packed up everything and headed back to the station where they all individually washed up and changed before sitting down around the table to eat.
Well, everyone except Dawson and Shay, who had gotten a second call right after they got back.
The firefighters didn't pay much attention. They were all too focused on compromising on what to watch on the TV, it was proving to be annoyingly hard to come to a consensus so they just left it on the news.
Kelly ate his sandwich hungrily, he had missed breakfast and really needed to get some food in his system. For once, the sandwich wasn't too bad or maybe he was just too hungry to notice. It didn't really matter to him.
His back was to the TV, but he could hear the news anchor talking about budget cuts in the background. He tuned it out and looked up at Casey, who was sitting in front of him. "So a couple nights ago, Shay mentioned something about a ring…" He raised his eyebrows, looking at Casey.
The other man sighed, "Keep your voice down." He said quietly, "The last thing I need is the whole station knowing about it."
Kelly smiled and nodded knowingly, "So have you decided how you're gonna pop the question? And don't say that part doesn't matter because it does. It's the story you have to tell over and over again so it should be good."
Casey chuckled and shrugged, "I'll start thinking about that once the ring gets in. I mean, what's the rush if she doesn't even know about it yet?"
Kelly nodded. "Yet, being the key word. It's just a matter of time before Shay lets it slip, I'm just saying." He chuckled a little bit.
Casey opened his mouth to reply when something caught his eye on the TV. He squinted, probably reading the headline. "Woah…" He said.
Kelly tilted his head and turned around to look at the screen. A woman, a field reporter, was standing in front of a seemingly normal-looking house. The headline read:
Drug Bust Gone Wrong: CPD officer taken to the hospital
He listened closely to what she was saying.
"…two undercover officers to go in and follow up on a lead when one of the men allegedly pulled a gun and shot an unarmed officer twice in cold blood. Sources say that the officer shot was a female and part of the District 21 Police Department. Both shots were said to have been to the chest, but the officer was wearing a vest…" The reporter paused, touching her earpiece for a moment to listen and then she turned to the camera again. "I've just gotten word that this officer was part of a special unit in District 21, the Intelligence Unit, I'm told and…"
Kelly stood up suddenly.
The Intelligence Unit.
There was only one girl on the Intelligence Unit:
Erin.
Casey watched him curiously, "What's wrong?" He asked.
Kelly looked back at him, "I need someone to cover my shift." He said, heart pounding.
Casey was confused, but he nodded. "Sure of course, I think I can call-"
"Thanks." He said quickly before turning and walking out of the station. As he walked through the garage where the truck was, the ambulance was just pulling in. He started to walk past it when he heard Shay behind him.
"Kelly!" She called, running over. "We just got a call, it was Lindsay. I know you two have a thing. We just dropped her off at Chicago Med."
He nodded. "How was she?"
"It wasn't bad, but she lost a lot of blood." Shay paused, "I think she'll be okay."
Kelly nodded and then turned, jogging towards his car. "Thanks!" He called over his shoulder, barely hearing the 'You're welcome' that she called back. He unlocked his car and got in, driving to the hospital as quickly as he could. When he got there and saw the rest of her team in the waiting room, it became real. His stomach twisted and turned as he walked over to Voight, who was seated next to Antonio. "Hey, uh…" He scratched his head uneasily, "I heard Erin was in the hospital. How's she doing?"
Voight looked up, staring at Kelly for a moment, "You're Severide, right? Firehouse 51?"
He nodded, hoping that wouldn't cause some hostility between them. He knew that Voight had problems with people at his station before.
Voight nodded slowly in return before standing up so that he was face to face with Kelly, "Walk with me." He said as he walked towards the stairwell.
Kelly didn't want to follow him, but he ignored his uneasiness and walked into the stairwell with Voight. "Coming in here to rough me up?" He asked with a chuckle.
Voight stared at him for a moment and then cracked a smile, "Come on." He started walking up the stairs and when Kelly followed, he started to fill him in. "Erin was shot twice. Once in the vest and another time in the shoulder. There was some tissue damage, but they removed the bullet so it should be fine. She also got a concussion from falling after being shot." He stopped when they reached the second floor. "Look, I don't know what you have with her…she hasn't told me, but I think you're a decent guy so I'm gonna give you a chance, sound like deal?"
"Uh, sure." Kelly said, not entirely sure what was happening.
Voight nodded and pushed the door to the second floor open. "She's in Room 202. Halstead might still be in there." He gave a small shrug, "Go on."
Kelly patted Voight's shoulder, "Thank you." He said, walking down the hall for a few seconds until reaching Room 202. The door was open when he walked up and he stuck his head inside, smiling.
But the room was empty.
He tilted his head and looked back at Voight, who was standing at the nurse's station. He gave him a curious look, wondering if this was some kind of mistake. He walked over to the detective, "Where is she?"
Before Voight could even answer the question, Jay burst through the doors of the stairwell and ran to the doorway of Room 202. Like Kelly, he found it empty. "What?" He shook his head.
Moments later, a nurse pushed through the stairwell doors and walked up behind Jay. "Sir." She said calmly, "I need you to confirm that you visited the patient in this room, at approximately 3:45."
Jay ran his fingers through his hair, "Yea…I was there."
"Halstead!" Voight said, walking over. "What's going on?"
Jay turned at the sound of his voice, "I was downstairs when this nurse came up and asked me if I had been the last person to see Erin Lindsay. I told her that I didn't know and I asked her why she needed to know." He glanced at the nurse standing next to him, "And she said that Erin was gone."
Voight turned to the nurse then, "What do you mean gone?"
The nurse flinched at the harshness of his voice. "We do rounds every hour and when we got around to her room, she was gone. All her wires were disconnected and her bag full of her belongings was gone too."
Voight looked into the room, "A person can't just get up and walk out of a hospital, can they? What kind of security do you have here?" He asked incredulously.
The nurse shrugged, "We have security, but mostly to keep people out rather than keep people in. If she changed clothes, we would have no way of knowing that she was patient." She replied, "We are looking into it right now, but from what we know, this man was the last to visit her, but we aren't sure when she left."
"Or why." Jay said, walking away from her room and over to the nurse's station. He looked at Kelly, "What are you doing here?" He asked.
Kelly looked at him, "I came to see Erin." He said firmly, not going to let Jay's hostility deter him. He looked at the empty room. "I guess that's not going to happen now." He muttered. He hadn't even got the chance to see her before she left, he never got to make sure for himself that she was okay.
Behind them, Voight was arguing with the nurse.
Jay looked at Kelly and nodded slowly, "Looks like it." He glanced back at the empty room and shook his head. "I was in there with her. And she was acting weird and she told me to leave…and I just…did." He paused, "If I had stayed…If I'd had her back…"
Kelly pushed Jay's shoulder to snap him out of it. "She's gone, accept it and stop wasting time beating yourself up about it." He said firmly before gesturing to the badge clipped to his belt. "You're a detective. Find her."
"I want to see your surveillance videos." Voight demanded, showing her his badge."Now."
The nurse nodded sheepishly, "Of course." She said, walking back over to the nurse's station and calling a security guard to come. A few minutes later, a guard came up, put his code into the computer and pulled up the surveillance video.
The Intelligence Unit, who had all gathered on the second floor after Voight called them, stood around the computer and watched as the guard fast forwarded to the time when Jay walked out of Lindsay's room.
Kelly stood watching too, both curious and concerned about Erin.
The camera had a clear view of the hallway by Erin's room and with her window open, the camera had a full view of the inside of her room too. After Jay left, she just lay there for a few moments and then she looked out the window towards the nurse's station. When she did, for some reason, her behavior changed.
Tenderly, she got up out of the bed and walked to the window, quickly shutting the shades. After that, the camera couldn't see her anymore so they didn't know what she was doing, but a few minutes later, she exited her room, fully dressed and quickly, clumsily rushed down the hall towards the back stairwell.
The guard leaned forward then and cut to a different camera that showed Erin walking out the hospital doors. Once she was outside, he cut again to the outside, parking lot cameras.
The unit watched as Erin stumbled down the sidewalk, weaving haphazardly through the other people rushing down the street. She pulled out her phone, dialed a number and starting talking on the phone to someone as she walked across the street.
Voight watched the tape, completely baffled by her behavior. "Where is she going?" He asked, thinking out loud as he watched her walk across the street.
Antonio, who was standing next to him, was the first to answer. "She doesn't have a car and she's hurt. Where would she go?" He asked incredulously. He couldn't wrap his head around why she would leave.
"And who did she call?" Olinsky added from the back of the group. "Her behavior doesn't make sense. She's acting like she has something to hide."
"Maybe she does." Jay said quietly from where he was leaning against the counter. "She was acting really weird when I was talking to her and I didn't know why, but it was probably has something to do with this." He shrugged.
Ruzek shrugged and looked at Voight. "Well you two are close, right? And you know about her past, maybe that's what this is about. Last time she got like this, it was because Charlie was here."
Voight shook his head, hands in his pockets. "If it was something like that, she would have came to me or told me about it when I went to see her…"
Everyone paused, unsure of where to go from there. They knew she left, but they had no idea where she was going or why.
"The letter." Jay said softly.
Antonio turned back to him, confused. "What?" He asked, not sure if he had heard him right.
Jay started to explain. "This morning Erin came into work with this letter that she said she needed to show Voight and later when she was shot and she thought she was dying, she told me to go and look at it. But I came straight to the hospital and when I went into visit her, I mentioned the letter and she freaked out." He clarified. "We should look at that."
Voight nodded and stared at the computer screen. "Alright. Here's what we're gonna do: Olinsky and Ruzek, you interrogate Lopez and try to get the name of the guy who shot Lindsay. Atwater, I want you to get her phone records and find out who she was calling. Antonio, Jay and I will go back to the station and get that letter. We meet up at District 21 in two hours." He finished before walking towards the stairwell.
The rest of the team dispersed.
Kelly, who had been listening and watching the whole time, went to Voight. "I want to help. Is there anything I can do?"
Voight looked at the other man, clamped a hand on his shoulder and nodded. "Go back to work." He said blandly. "If we get anything, I'll let you know."
Kelly wanted to protest, but Voight was walking away before he could even begin to argue. Defeated, he went to his car and drove back to the firehouse, hoping that would get his mind off of things.
Just as Kelly was arriving back at Firehouse 51, Jay, Voight and Antonio had just gotten back to the station. They walked in with purpose, ignoring the concerned looks from the uniforms and Sergeant Platt asking if Erin was alright. They just headed straight up the stairs to Intelligence.
Jay was in front of Antonio and Voight. He rushed to Erin's desk, pulled open the drawer he saw her put the letter in and grabbed it. He looked up at Voight and Antonio as he held it. Erin had specifically asked him not to open it, but he had to so he could find her. He just felt torn.
But Voight was desperate. "Just open it already." He said, irritation accenting his voice.
Jay nodded and opened the envelope carefully before pulling out the letter. He read it out loud:
"Hello Erin,
I've been waiting for 13 years to send you this letter. I've been in jail, as you know, so I've had a lot of time to think. Everyday I've thought about that day, the takedown that put me away. How did the cops know? Did someone tip them off? Well, I finally figured it out when I talked to some of my informants. You. You betrayed me. You and Charlie and Drake lied directly to my face. You set me up. I was loyal to you, I was on honest and what did you do? You screwed me over. So now, it's time for revenge. I'm finally out and I want to repay you and everyone else for what you did to me. Don't try to run or hide anything because I will find you and when I do, I'm going to kill you."
Jay looked up, shock in his eyes. "Why wouldn't she say something about this?" He felt hurt because she thought she couldn't confide in him.
"Because she knew getting anyone wrapped into this would be a bad idea." Antonio said, "Thoughtful, but stupid." He shook his head.
Voight crossed his arms over his chest. "Let's stop talking about why she didn't say anything and try to figure out who this is from."
Jay looked at the envelope. "No return address, no signature. She must have known who it was from though."
"It's someone who wants revenge because she set them up? Do you know anything about that, Voight?" Antonio asked, thinking that if anyone knew about it, he would.
But he shook his head slowly. "But when she was my CI, she did tell me that Charlie and Drake were brothers and that they were the leaders of their group."
"Is this the same Charlie that went to jail a few months ago?"
Voight nodded, "Yes."
"Well then what happened to Drake?"
Voight shifted uncomfortably with a shake of his head. He put his hands in his pockets and let out a long sigh, realizing that he was going to have to explain.
Jay looked up when Voight didn't answer. By his behavior, Jay had to assume that Drake had been "taken care of". But he still had to ask to be sure. "What happened to Drake, Voight?"
The older man paused, "Erin probably wouldn't like me telling you this, but I think it might have something to do with the person sending her the letter." He said slowly before launching into the story.
Voight had just gotten in his car that morning. His partner was sick so he was on his own for the day, according to the sergeant. As he got situated, a voice came over the radio. Apparently someone had called in a disturbance at their neighbor's house. He responded and drove to the address he was given. When he arrived, a woman was standing in her front yard, pointing at her neighbor's house.
Voight walked over to her and as he did, he could hear glass breaking in the house next door. "Ma'am, did you call 911?"
The woman nodded. "Two men live there and they have a lot of people over sometimes, but today it was just this girl…I've seen her before, but after a while, I heard screaming and things breaking…I don't know what's going on." She told him.
Voight nodded, hearing a faint scream as she finished. "Alright, I'll check it out. Please go inside, ma'am." He watched her walk into her house before approaching the front door of her neighbor's house. He knocked loudly over their arguing, "CPD. Open up!"
The arguing abruptly stopped and there was a long pause before a girl came to the door.
Voight examined her. She had long light brown hair with blue tips and a small studded nose ring. Her clothes were dirty and baggy on her and she had a hazy look in her eyes, one that he'd seen many times before. "Hello. Are you the owner of this house?"
She cleared her throat before answering, "No." Her voice was soft and raspy.
Voight tried to look into the room behind her, but she shut the door a little more, obscuring his view. "May I speak to the owner of this residence?"
The girl stared at him for a moment, as if she hadn't heard him and then turned her head slighty without taking her eyes off of Voight. "Drake, the cop wants to talk to you."
He heard movement and then a man moved into the doorway next to girl. He looked to be at least 5 years older than her, a short beard starting to grow sloppily on his face. "Can I help you?" His eyes were bloodshot and he sounded annoyed.
Voight didn't like that. "Yes, you can. First, you can stop talking to me like I'm not worth your time and treat me with some respect, I'm a police officer." He paused, "And second, we got a noise complaint about this residence. What is going on?"
The man let out a sigh. "My brother and I were arguing about rent money. We'll try to keep it down." He started to shut the door.
But Voight had a feeling that there was something more.
So he put up his hand, preventing the door from shutting. "Arguing about rent?" He smirked, "What is your name?"
"Drake." The man answered.
Voight nodded, a threatening smile on his face. "Well Drake, why don't I come inside and have a talk with you and your brother? Or am I going to find the marijuana we both know you have? Or maybe it's cocaine." He smirked. "The point is…either I can come inside and bust you for possession of whatever you have and selling it to a minor," he looked at the girl, "or you can tell me what was really going on."
The man, Drake, paused suspiciously, but then opened the door to reveal his brother lying still on the couch. "We thought he overdosed and we were both kind of freaked out and we were arguing, but then he woke up…he's fine, just sleeping it off." He said. "I'm sorry, Officer. We'll keep it down."
"That's more like it." Voight said with a nod before turning to the girl. "What's your name?"
She stared at him. "Mary."
Voight nodded slowly, "Mary, you need to go back to school tomorrow and try to get off the drugs, alright?" He warned.
The girl nodded. "Yes, sir."
"That was the first time I met Drake Pugliese and the first time I met Lindsay." Voight told them.
Antonio creased his eyebrows. "You said the girl's name was Mary."
"Yep. The first time I met Erin, she lied straight to my face." He smirked, "But that's not even all of the story."
A week after the noise complaint at that house, Voight's partner was back and they were having a slow day. Those happened. They would get false alarms and house calls, but nothing too exciting. That day had started out that way, slow, with a false alarm burglar who turned out to be a gardener and a call about a disturbance which ended up behind a stray cat stuck under the porch. So it was safe to say their day had been uneventful.
Until the end of their shift neared and they got a call from a woman who heard screaming in the house next to hers. As they responded, Voight realized he recognized the address and he groaned, wondering what the problem was this time.
As they pulled up to the house, the sky had just started to darken. The woman was outside her house again. She started explaining the call to Voight's partner while Voight moved towards the house.
The front door was wide open and he could hear yelling coming from inside.
Quickly, he drew his gun and entered.
The living room was messy and he saw a line of coke blatantly on the coffee table. But the yelling was coming from the back of the house.
So he followed it.
It was man's voice and at first, he couldn't tell what it was saying, but as he got closer, he was about to understand it.
"Erin! Erin, please wake up!" The man yelled. "I'm sorry, baby. I'm so sorry! Stay with me, alright?! Stay awake , Erin!"
Voight walked into the bathroom, where the yelling was coming from, and observed the scene.
The girl, who had told him her name was Mary, was lying in the bath tub, limp. Her face was swollen and bloody, covered in bruises and scratches along with a few stray bruises on her arms and legs as well. She looked to be unconscious and there was a man crouched next to her.
When he yelled and shook her, her eyes weakly lulled open.
Voight put his gun away, determining that there was no real threw. "Sir." He said.
The man turned around. "Please, help!" He pleaded, gesturing to the girl in the tub.
Voight got on his knees next to the tub and felt her pulse. It was racing. "What happened?" He asked, examining the bruises scattered on her body.
The man bit his lip, not wanting to talk to the cop.
The girl was completely unconscious by then.
Voight looked back at the man. "I can't help her if you don't tell me. " He said urgently, "What did she take?"
The man paused.
"What drug?" He asked with a little more force, "What drug did she take?" He examined her arms for needle marks and found none, "Coke?"
The man nodded slowly.
"Damn it. Since when do you dealers give drugs to kids?" Voight asked incredulously as he lifted the girl up. Stepping in the tub behind her, he pulled her to her feet and turned the shower on. The water was freezing, but that was probably a good thing.
As the water ran over both of them, he patted her cheek. "Wake up. Hey! Wake up!" He said, shaking her. "C'mon, kid. C'mon!" He tried.
Her head moved slightly and she let out a cough.
"That's it." Voight said as she shook in his arms. "Keep your eyes open, okay?" He lifted his radio and called the EMTs to the address that they were at.
They arrived 10 minutes later and took the girl to the hospital while Voight and his partner took the man who had been yelling back to the police station, but didn't have enough evidence to convict him of anything so he got to walk.
But Voight wasn't satisfied.
He wanted to know the story of what had happened that night. So he went to the hospital to talk to the girl.
"So your name isn't Mary." He said, cracking a smile as he walked into her hospital room.
The girl looked up, exhaustion in her eyes. "No…it's not." She paused, looking at her hands folded in front of her, "It's Erin. I'm sorry I lied to you."
"No harm done." Voight shrugged and sat down next to her bed. "You look better than the last time I saw you."
She nodded slowly.
Voight decided to get to the point. "So I just came by today to see if you could shed some light on what happened that night." He said hopefully.
Erin narrowed her eyes, "And what do I get if I tell you?" She asked, knowing that snitching wasn't worth it if she didn't get anything out of it.
Voight reached into his pocket and pulled out a roll of cask, flashed it to her and then tucked it away again. "Talk." He said.
Erin nodded slowly. "The man you took to the station yesterday, that was my boyfriend, Charlie Pugliese. And the man that you met a few nights ago, Drake, is his brother. They do some dealing in my neighborhood and well, that night when you came by about the noise complaint…Drake blamed it on me because it had been my screaming that made the woman call the cops. And over the next few days when he lost some deals because the people had heard he has some trouble with cops, he was mad so he came, found me and…" She gestured to the bruises on her face. "And..I usually only did pot. The high from that was enough for me, I'm kind of a lightweight. But that night, Drake said he couldn't trust me unless I snorted some coke…so I did, just a little. But he said it wasn't enough. He made me do more and more and then just forced my heard into it and made me breath it in until I couldn't see straight. The rest I don't remember." She explained.
Voight nodded, anger bubbling inside of him. "You almost overdosed."
"So I've been told." She muttered.
Voight leaned forward, "Can I ask you how old you are?"
"15." She replied.
Voight shook his head. "And your parents?"
"Not around." Erin muttered, "Listen…Charlie has a house and he has money and drugs. And…at the end of the day, I don't have anywhere else to go." She told him.
Voight looked up, "Wait. You're going back to him?" He asked, shocked.
Erin nodded. "There's nothing else I can do." She said softly, "He's all I have." She finished, eyes shifting to his pocket. "Is that enough for you?"
Voight pulled the money out and handed it to her, giving her his card as well. "If you ever, ever want a better life for yourself, you give me call, alright?"
Erin stared at the card for a moment, saying nothing. And then, out of nowhere, "I heard what you did for me. The shower, all that. The doctors said that you saved my life." She said, "So thank you."
Voight nodded slowly. "Thank me later, I have a proposition for you."
"I asked her to be my CI, she said yes and that was it." Voight finished blankly, "I tried to find Drake after that, but he disappeared, laid low for a few months and came back. But Erin didn't press charges so I couldn't arrest him. I tried to find him myself after that, but he had already left again. Both those bastards got away." He shook his head.
"So whoever sent this letter is after Erin, Charlie, Drake and probably everyone in their group." Antonio said with a shrug.
Voight nodded. "We just need to figure out who else was in their group. Maybe she that's where she went." He said.
"Maybe we should go talk to Charlie in jail. He might know what happened to Drake." Antonio suggested.
Voight nodded. "Alright." He looked at Halstead, "We only need two people for that so Halstead, why don't you go talk to some CI's and see if you can find out who sent the letter. Take Burgess with you." He said.
Jay nodded slowly and turned towards the stairs, his hand in his pocket, clutching the key that Erin had given him at the hospital. He walked down the stairs only to find Burgess standing by the Sergeant's desk, waiting for her next assignment.
Jay walked over just as Platt was giving Burgess an order, "Hey. Do you mind if I borrow her for the day?" He asked, gesturing to Burgess.
Platt shook her head, "Go right ahead." She muttered before turning back to the computer.
Burgess looked up at Jay.
He gave her a nod, "Come on." He said, gesturing towards the stairs. He opened the gate to Intelligence and held it open for her. When they reached the top of the stairs, Antonio and Voight were on their way out.
"Forgot my jacket." Jay muttered nonchalantly as they walked out. Slowly, he walked to his desk and grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair.
Burgess stood by his desk. "So I heard what happened to Lindsay. Is she okay?"
Jay ignored her for a moment, walking over to Lindsay's desk and opening her drawers. He dug through her stuff, obviously looking for something. "No she's not okay." He finally muttered.
Burgess walked over to him. "What are you looking for?" She asked.
Jay stopped looking through her drawers and moved on to her computer. "Paperwork." He said, nonspecifically. He tried to log into Erin's computer, but he didn't know her password. Slowly, he stood. "Come on." He said blankly as he walked towards the stairs.
But Burgess didn't like how this was happening. "Halstead." She said, not moving from where she had been standing.
He looked back at her.
"Tell me what's going on." She demanded, "Maybe I can help."
Jay let out a sigh, contemplating it. Maybe she was right. He did need to tell someone about this soon or he would drive himself crazy. "Fine." He said, "But for right now. All of this stays between us, got it?"
Burgess nodded slowly.
Jay let out a sigh. "Lindsay was shot while we were undercover and I was with her. She was scared and bleeding and before she passed out, she told me to look at a letter in her desk. But I went to the hospital instead. She was okay, just some shoulder damage and a concussion. I visited her and asked her about the letter, but she freaked out and told me to leave. And then within the next hour, she disappeared. We looked at the security tapes and found out that she had gotten dressed and just walked right out of the hospital, alone. We didn't know why until we got back here and read the letter that she had mentioned before." He paused, "It turned out it was a death threat and we think that's why she left the hospital."
"A death threat?" Burgess asked, a shocked look on her face. "From who?"
Jay shook his head. "That's just it. We don't know. It has something to do with some people from her past so Voight and Antonio are heading to the prison to talk to Lindsay's old boyfriend. And they wanted us to go talk to some CI's, but…" He pulled the necklace that Erin had given him out of his pocket and handed it to her, "Erin gave this to me at the hospital. I didn't tell anyone because I think Erin gave it to me specifically for a reason…I just don't know what it opens."
Burgess examined the key. "You think whatever this opens has something to do with where she went?"
"Maybe." Jay answered.
Burgess looked at the key again. "It's small, probably a deposit box or something. You just need to check her bank records and see if she bought something like that."
Jay let out a sigh. "Well we don't have Jin anymore so that department has been kind of slow."
Burgess shrugged. "I can do it. The computers down stairs have access to all of that, right?"
Jay nodded.
"Okay well let's go." She said, walking down the stairs.
Jay followed, dumb-founded.
They went down stairs to the space where Jin used to do his work. It was mostly empty. Intelligence was currently in the process of finding his replacement, but hadn't found anyone solid yet so they had to do all of their research manually.
But luckily, the computers were still there and still accessible.
So Burgess sat down, used her log in and started working. It took her about 10 minutes to locate Lindsay's bank account and from there, she needed Jay's authorization to look at it because he was a higher rank then her. And once he typed in his log in, they were able to scroll through her purchases.
There were a lot of things on that list and as Jay read through them, he couldn't help feeling like he was invading her privacy. But he felt like this key would help find her and he couldn't just let that possibility slip through his fingers so he continued scanning her purchases.
It took them 40 minutes to look through a whole year of purchases and there was nothing there. It wasn't until they hit June of the previous year that they came across something.
She had bought a safe deposit box at a nearby post office.
Jay looked down at the key and then looked at Burgess. "Well let's go then." He said, standing. He clutched the key in his hand, nervous about what he was going to find in the box. They walked upstairs and were on their way to Jay's car when they turned a corner and ran into a very distraught-looking Kelly Severide.
The two men were quiet for a moment.
Burgess broke the silence. "Severide, right? Rescue squad?" She smiled at him.
Kelly nodded slowly. "And you're Officer Burgess. It's nice to see you again. I was actually on my way to the station."
"For what?" Jay asked quickly, "Erin isn't there." He muttered.
Kelly looked at the other man. "I know that." He said, "But I'm not on shift right now and I just couldn't sit around so I was hoping that I could help…"
Jay stared at him and then shook his head, "I really don't think there's anything you can help us with." He said as he moved past the firefighter. "But thanks." He muttered sarcastically.
Burgess gave Kelly a sympathetic look before following Jay.
But Kelly couldn't let it go.
"Wait Jay, come on man." Kelly said, following him. "What's the harm of me coming along?"
Jay turned, "What's the harm of dragging around an unarmed, inexperience firefighter into sensitive police work? I don't know, Severide, you tell me." He snapped before turning around again.
But Kelly grabbed him. "I'm not inexperienced. I'll just wait in the car, please just let me help. I can't just sit around, I can't." He pleaded.
Jay stared at him for a moment, saying nothing. He pulled his arm out of Kelly's grasp. "Fine." He said, "But don't get in our way."
Kelly nodded quickly before following the two cops to the car a few yards away. He got in the back seat while they sat in the front. "Where are we going?"
Burgess turned around to explain as Jay drove. "Lindsay had a safe deposit box and we think there might be something important inside of it."
"You think you'll be able to tell why she left?"
Burgess glanced at the ground for a moment before responding. "We already know why she left." She said, "They found a letter in her desk, a death threat that was anonymous and they think that's why she left, she's on the run."
Kelly ran his fingers through his hair, trying to wrap his mind around it. "A death threat?" He asked with a shake of his head, "And you don't know who sent it?"
Burgess shook her head. "They think it was from someone in her past."
Jay nodded. "The letter said that he wanted revenge because apparently Lindsay "set him up" and got him put in jail."
Kelly nodded thoughtfully, "She's never really told me much about her past."
Jay chuckled humorlessly, "Join the club." He muttered, "All I know is that she's close with Voight because he took her in and got her off the streets. Apparently she had a rocky childhood. I don't have a lot of details."
Kelly nodded slowly. "I've gathered that much. She doesn't really like to talk about it." He shrugged. "I guess I don't blame her. I just wish that she would talk to someone."
Jay nodded in agreement and then for the rest of the ride, they sat in silence, all simultaneously considering what they were about to find.
It looked crowded when they arrived at the post office, but Jay was undeterred. He walked straight up to the desk, held up his badge and asked to go to the room where the safe deposit boxes were. A worker helped him immediately, leading them to a door and unlocking it for them.
Jay mumbled a quick thank you and then went in. He remembered the number from the bank transcript.
237.
Slowly, he walked to it, pulled out the key and slid it into the lock.
It fit.
He turned the key and pulled the box open only to reveal a pile of blank envelopes full of papers.
Jay stared down at them, surprised that was what they found. He didn't know what he had been expecting, but it definitely hadn't been this. He counted 16 envelopes as he sifted through them, none labeled.
Carefully, so no papers were misplaces, he pulled them out and set them on the table in the middle of the room.
"Let's start looking." He said as he started to open the first envelope.
Burgess and Kelly did the same with two others.
Jay looked down at the papers he pulled out, reading them. The first was her high school diploma, the second was her college acceptance letter, the third was her college diploma and the last was her diploma and the last was her diploma from the police academy. He smiled a little and slid them back into the envelope before putting it to the side. "Diplomas." He reported, looking up.
Kelly was looking down at his. "Uh…these are arrest papers. Six, total." He flipped through the papers. "Retail theft, misdemeanor, simple battery, solicitation and two counts of unlawful possession of marijuana."
Burgess set hers aside. "Certifications." She said, "Apparently she's a certified scuba diver." She shrugged.
Kelly smirked, "Oh yea. I knew that. She said she got it when she visited an old friend in Florida."
Jay looked down at the rest of the envelopes. "Come on, let's get through these. There's gotta be something useful."
They continued going through the papers for a while finding apartment payments, car insurance, everything that she needed to be kept safe was in this deposit box. It wasn't until their fifth round of envelopes that Jay came across something.
Letters.
He pulled them out slowly, there were at least 10 of them, all hand-written. He looked down at the bottom to see who they were from. Half were from their father, he skimmed them. It was mostly him asking her to visit him in prison, asking how her mom was doing and wondering if she had any money she could move around to pay off some of his debt.
Jay personally wondered why she kept these. Her dad didn't seem like he cared about her, these just seemed like desperate pleas for money. He set them down, annoyed.
The other half were letters from friends that she had saved, all except one.
One single letter at the very bottom of the stack.
It was dirty and the handwriting was sloppy and unorganized. The sentences were jumbled and as a whole, it didn't really make a lot of sense. It was basically just a rant of a letter.
Sent by her mom.
It was mostly just about her mother's life, how she got wrapped up into the wrong people and got addicted to drugs at a young age, why Erin's father had gone to prison and just how she had failed to be a mother to Erin. At the end, it said she was in rehab getting clean and if Erin ever needed anything, she could call and her mother would be there because she never had been.
Jay bit his lip. As far as he knew, Erin had never contacted her mother for anything. He let out a sigh, wondering if they would ever get that mother-daughter relationship back. Silently, he tucked the letters away.
"I think I have something there." Burgess said, looking down at her letter. "It's an article from a newspaper. Apparently, 12 years ago there was a huge drug bust on the south side. They got an anonymous tip and found a guy just sitting in a parking lot with a moving truck full of cocaine." She paused, "And underneath that are two receipts, one for a moving truck and one for a disposable phone…"
Jay exchanged a look with Burgess.
"What?" Kelly asked, not understanding.
Jay looked up at him. "The police received an anonymous tip reporting a moving truck that would be in a parking lot on the south side. And they, meaning Erin and her group, bought a moving truck and a disposable phone." He paused. "It was a set up. They bought someone a moving truck, filled it up with cocaine, told him to take it to that parking lot on the south side and then bought a disposable phone and called in with an anonymous tip. Whoever they set up is the person who sent the letter." Jay finished.
Burgess skimmed the article again. "Emilio Chavez."
Jay shook his head. "That was our case." He paused, "Today, that was our case. We were out talking to CIs, asking about Chavez because apparently he's picking off members of other gangs. I can't believe I didn't put that together."
"If you were working a case about the guy who threatened to kill her, why wouldn't she say anything?" Kelly asked incredulously.
Jay sighed. "Because that's how these kinds of things work. Right now, Chavez is after Erin, but the moment she told someone else, that person would be on the list too."
Kelly let out a sigh. "So what now? You know who's after her." He said.
"But we don't know where she went." Jay reported as he put away all the envelopes except for the one Burgess had found and then locked her box again.
Kelly shrugged. "You don't need to know where she went. All you have to do is catch Chavez, which you were already in the process of doing, and then she can just come out of hiding herself."
Jay shot him a glare. "Because that's the easiest thing in the world. You have no idea what you're talking about."
Kelly put his hands up in surrender. "Maybe I don't, but it was just a suggestion." He replied, "What is your problem with me anyway? Every time I say something, you shut it down. Why? What did I ever do to you?"
Jay shook his head. "You know what my problem is Severide?" He spat the other man's name in disgust. "My problem is that you walk in here and act like you run the place, like know how this works, but you don't."
"Is this about Erin?" Kelly asking, sensing that she had something to do with his hostility.
Jay gave him a harsh glare. "Erin? Yes, it's about Erin. It's about finding her, which you are obviously getting in the way of."
Kelly walked over, getting in Jay's face. "No." He said, "You and Erin are partners and you have a special bond. I don't get it and I don't think you do either, but I think you're jealous of me. And I think that you hate that she has someone else in her life that she can lean on and talk to because before me, it had always been you." He stared at Jay, trying to read him. "Sound about right?"
Jay held Kelly's gaze, his face blank and unreadable. "I don't think you're right for her." He said softly, the argument taking a turn.
Kelly shook his head.
"No, I really don't think you're right for her." Jay paused, "You use her. You have all these problems and she helps you get over them. You're leaning on her and that's the only reason you're together. Sure, I bet you laugh and have fun together, but I don't think she trusts you and I don't think you really trust her. All you have is a superficial shell of a relationship and it's not healthy."
Kelly opened his mouth to protest, but Jay interrupted.
"No, you know what? I should keep going or else I may never get to say the rest of this."
"Halstead…" Burgess tried.
But he continued on anyway, "You two aren't even really together. You never meet in public and you never go on dates. You're just sleeping together because relationships are too hard, too messy, right? Especially when you both have the jobs that you do. And I really hate how the moment that Erin is in trouble, you decide it's time to drop in and help. You've never been around before, so why start now? You want to be the hero, don't you?"
Kelly pushed Jay with a shake of his head. "You're wrong."
Jay held out his arms. "About what?" He asked, practically yelling.
Kelly glared at him. "I care about her."
"Yea, well caring about someone and loving someone are two different things. And I think that you're kidding yourself if you think that what you and Erin have is love." Jay said.
Kelly shook his head. "No. It is love. I love her, Jay. And I know we aren't really public and that I haven't been there, but at the end of a hard day, she's the person I want to be with. And I think I'm the same for her."
"I don't know if you are."
Kelly stared at him for a long time. "She chose me. Hate it, criticize it, do whatever you want, but don't deny it." He paused, "She chose me."
Jay glared at him before huffing, pushing past him and then walking out the door.
Burgess followed him uneasily, mumbling an apology to Kelly as she skirted by and jogged to catch up with Jay. "What the hell?" She asked, completely confused about what had just happened.
Jay shook his head. "I'm just stressed and he was getting on my nerves…" He muttered.
"What's going on with you and Erin?" Burgess asked, a little bit irritated that Jay and Erin could have something together when she and Ruzek had been penalized for their relationship.
Jay shook his head again. "Nothing. She's just a friend and I care about her and I don't like her and Severide together, that's it." He said flatly.
Burgess nodded slowly, not really believing him. "Well you didn't have to go off on him like that. He did help us, you know and he wasn't really getting in the way."
Jay shrugged. "Whatever. He couldn't come back to the station with us anyway so what's the difference? At least now everything's out there."
"Not everything." Burgess muttered, referring to his relationship with Erin.
Jay glanced back at her, "What?"
"Nothing." She replied.
He nodded and they kept walking, getting into their car and then driving off, leaving Kelly behind at the post office. When they got back to the police station, the unit was already gathered, talking about everything they'd found.
"Halstead. What took you so long?" Voight asked.
Jay held up the papers. "We found something good. This is an article about a guy who got busted for transporting cocaine and these," he held up the receipts, "are two receipts. One for a moving truck and one for disposable phone. Erin, Charlie, Drake and whoever bought this guy the truck and then called it in. That's the set up the letter was talking about."
"Who?" Voight asked.
Burgess looked up at him. "Emilio Chavez." She answered.
Ruzek was the first to speak. "Emilio Chavez? Like the same guy we were just looking for?"
Voight nodded.
"Well that makes sense." Olinsky added, "Because when we interrogated Lopez about the guy who shot Lindsay, he said the guy was there picking up for a new dealer who had just gotten out of prison, probably Chavez. So he must have known who Lindsay was."
Voight nodded. "So we know who's after her and why, we just don't know where he is or where she's hiding out." He said before looking at Atwater. "What about the phone records?"
Atwater was holding a paper in his hands, he passed it to Voight. "She did call someone when she left the hospital and I traced the number back to a guy named James Long. He doesn't have a known place of residence, no credit card accounts, no bank accounts, nothing. Without this phone call, records would have said that he hasn't existed for the past 10 years."
Voight looked down at the paper. "It takes time and dedication to make sure you don't leave a paper trail. This guy is someone who doesn't want to be found."
Jay nodded slowly. "So Lindsay called him because she needs to disappear."
"Well apparently, he's an expert in that department so he should be able to help her." Burgess said.
Voight nodded, "The only problem is that if he helps her, it will be even harder for us to find her."
"Well maybe we shouldn't be looking for her." Ruzek said, "Maybe we should look for Chavez."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
"What did Charlie say about Drake?" Jay asked Voight.
He shrugged, "Not much of anything. But finding Drake is irrelevant now. We need to focus on finding Chavez like we were doing before." He paused. "I want everyone out talking to CIs, anything you can find on Chavez is helpful. Halstead, you and Burgess try to find out more on James Long, people don't just disappear for no reason. I want to know why, alright?"
They all nodded and left in groups.
Everyone except Voight, who lingered and stood by Erin's desk. He looked down at it solemnly and touched her chair, "We're gonna find you, kid." He said, "I promise."
