"A Risk Worth Taking" - Chapter 4

"Boss, we got something."

Halstead and Upton entered the bull pen. They'd gone out to finish canvassing the area where the soldier's body had been found. The 'big break' that Kim had been called in for the night before ended up being a false alarm and everyone was on edge, ready to close the case.

Layla was had been working on Kim's computer for the past hour. Though her work kept her busy, she couldn't help but hear the progress of the case. She'd been hurriedly introduced to everyone in the unit as they'd each arrived, but since then everyone had been focused on their jobs with not much small talk.

Hearing Jay's announcement, Hank came out of his office and joined everyone at the case board.

Once he had everyone's attention, Jay posted a photo on the board of a young woman. It was clearly a mugshot. She looked to be about nineteen and strung out on drugs.

"This is Emily."

"She's one of the employees that works at the bar where we found the body. She only works part-time, off the books, that's why it took us until now to find her. She really didn't want to talk to us but Upton worked her magic and got her to open up. Turns out, she saw the murder while she was walking home. She lives 20 blocks from the bar."

Kim interrupted, hopeful, "We knew the body was moved. This gives us a possible murder scene." Jay nodded.

Hailey took over. "She said our vic, Wilson, and some guy she's seen around the block called C.C. got into it in front of an apartment building one block over from hers. She ducked into an ally when she came up on the fight."

"Apparently, Wilson was asking C.C. to pay him back some money he had loaned him when they were kids. Ten grand, according to Emily. She said the way they were talking, it seemed like Wilson had loaned his friend the money to get him out from under his dealer. C.C. told Wilson that was a lifetime ago and he 'didn't owe him nothing'. Wilson got pissed and threw a punch but C.C. pulled a gun on him. She said Wilson tried to get the gun but remember the M.E. told us he'd been recovering from a dislocated shoulder so he probably wasn't in top form." Jay summarized.

"Yeah," Hailey continued, "Emily said C.C. told Wilson to go to hell before he…"

She didn't finish. They all knew the rest.

Hank stepped forward and started to give out orders but Jay interrupted. "Boss, we've got a problem though. Emily admitted to us that she was high as a kite when this all went down. That's why she was afraid to talk."

Hank balled his hands into fists at his sides and for a moment, Layla thought he might punch something.

Instead he said, "Okay, Ruzek. Get patrol down to the possible murder scene. You and Antonio go secure the scene and see if there's any evidence or any other witnesses that might be too scared to come forward."

"Got it." Ruzek said, heading to his desk and grabbing the phone to make some calls.

"Kev, see if there are any pods, any private security cameras in the vicinity. We can't use this witness so we have got to find something else that confirms her story." Kevin nodded, grabbing his coat and signalling to Kim to come along so they could canvas the areas for cameras.

"Jay. Hailey. Check the database for C.C. and see if anything pops. If not, hit up your C.I.'s and see if they know who he is. I want this guy in interrogation by tonight, is that clear?" Hank barked at his team.

"Clear, Sarge." Ruzek answered before everyone got to work.

Hank looked around and watched as his team scrambled, anger and frustration clear on his face. When his eyes landed on Layla, she snapped her attention back to Kim's computer, pretending she hadn't been listening.

—–

Two hours later, Kim and Kevin ran up the stairs. "Sarge! We've got a pod cam close to the scene. I've put in the request, I'm just waiting for the tech lab to send the file."

"Hmm," Layla said, mostly to herself but loud enough that Hank, Kim and Kevin were watching her when she looked up. "It's not really in my pay grade, but I know how to access those files. I just helped rebuild some of the code to improve the search function."

She turned her head to look at Hank.

"Do it."

Layla walked back over to Kim's computer and sat down, the other three standing behind her. Working quickly, Layla entered in the location information that Kim read off to her.

Going into a back door in the software that only the IT team used, she was able to pull up the feed within three minutes.

As the video started playing on the screen, the fight played out just like the witness said. You can clearly see C.C. pull the gun on the victim. They get into a battle for the gun but C.C. wins out, putting two quick rounds in between Wilson's eyes. Layla watched as the man's body fell to the ground, lifeless, and quickly looked away.

The others continued to watch as C.C. threw the gun into an overgrown planter and ran, panicking, out of the frame. He came back a few minutes later with a tarp and rolled up the body, apparently moving it to the location where Wilson was found.

Ki, Kevin and Hank all snaped their heads up in unison at the sight of the gun being thrown. "Call Antonio and Ruzek, tell them about the planter now!" Hank demanded.

Kevin was already on the phone. He explained quickly to Adam and waited as they searched the scene. A few minutes later Kevin yelled, "They got it!"

Everyone let out a breath they didn't realize they'd been holding. Even Layla, who was still feeling a little queasy from watching the footage. Really queasy, she thought to herself as bile started to rise in her throat.

Quickly she got up and ran to the bathroom, making it to the trashcan just in time to empty the contents of her stomach.

She was rinsing out her mouth at the sink when Kim entered the bathroom.

"Hey, you okay?" Kim asked, concerned.

"Yeah," Layla answered, reaching for a paper towel. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Kim pretended not to notice Layla's hands shaking as she threw away the paper towel.

"Sarge wants you to go home for the day. He's talking to your boss now."

Layla nodded and took a deep breath.

"You really helped us out today. Who knows what could have happened to that gun if we'd had to wait another two hours for the footage."

Kim held the door for Layla as they exited the bathroom. Hank was standing in the hallway.

"You okay, Layla?" His concern was apparent on his face.

She just nodded, a wave of nausea and dizziness causing Hank to put his hand on her arm to steady her.

Hank looked at Kim, "Burgess, why don't you take Layla home," he turned to Layla, "I'll follow with your car."

Layla started to object but another wave of dizziness came over her. She looked at Hank and nodded, Kim heading to gather her things for her.