Lucy was at Antonio's gym at 6:00 AM that day, practically murdering the dummy, her current opponent. She didn't feel a sliver of remorse, seeing as it was not a real person, but either way...
It was sure to bruise by evening.
"Luce! Come on!" Jay yelled.
She turned her head in his direction, all the while adding two lazy punches to the chest of the dummy. She walked over to her brother, who stood by the desk.
"I get that you're really enjoying the discount and everything, but we should get going. Also..." Jay leaned to the side to look at the dummy. "I think your enemy has been vanquished." he added in a posh-like voice.
Mid-unwrapping of her knuckles, Lucy shoved him playfully to the side. They walked to the changing rooms, and she ran in to pick up her gym bag, a black Adidas one, and then exited, pulling on a cardigan as they left. It was a bit chilly out, but pretty good for October.
"So..." Jay started the car, and she sat down in the passenger seat. Lucy began putting her long blonde hair (longer than she thought it ought to be, and she thinks she should cut it short in a bit) in a bun.
"I hate it when you start your sentences with 'so'. It's like breaking up with someone."
Jay raised his eyebrows, still looking at the road. "You're my sister, not my girlfriend."
"Yeah, I don't think I could ever live up to Erin's standards. She set the bar a bit too high." Lucy said sarcastically. Although, she had to admit that she had come to really like Erin.
"Anyway. What happened to your shoulder?" He said it quickly, like it'd be less confrontational. Like ripping off a band aid. It hadn't been the first time he'd noticed the three white scars, which were normally covered by a shirt. But today, she must've forgotten about it when she put on her gym clothes.
Lucy acted nonchalant. "Huh? Oh. Nothing that I know of." A subconscious stifling occurred then, like a ghost was putting ice cold fingers on her shoulder's skin, tracing the thin yet prominent lines. She ignored the goosebumps that she could feel on her arms. "Probably from a fender bender or something. You and I both remember my amazing collegiate background," she laughed halfheartedly.
"Uh-huh." Jay was obviously not convinced, but neither one said anything more for the rest of the ride to the station.
"Hey, Dawson." Jay called. Lucy had already gone to change out of the exercise leggings and put on what he was assuming we're going to be jeans.
"Yeah?" Antonio asked, following the older Halstead into a more discreet location.
"Lucy's been acting weird for the past two months and it's been driving me nuts...so I was hoping you could try and dig into what made her come here."
"Wow, no beating around the bush, huh?"
"Listen, man. She's my sister, and I know she's keeping something important from me. Actually, more than one something."
Antonio nodded, clapping him on the back reassuringly. "I got a little sister too, Halstead, so I get it. I'll try, okay?"
"They found Toby Wilkins." Voight said, and those words made everybody quiet down. The grim, mildly disturbed expression on their sergeant's face only worsened how Intelligence felt.
"He's dead, isn't he?" Ruzek spoke up.
Antonio gripped the side of his desk, his jaw locked into place.
"Strangled." Voight's gravelly voice seemed to bring them all away from their reverie, and everyone began putting on their jackets.
"You okay?" Lucy whispered to Dawson as they left.
"Yeah." Antonio sighed. "I hope the son of a bitch who killed him winds up dead."
"I'll be sure to let you have a moment or two with him alone. As long as I don't have to hide a body."
They were at the black undercover police car, Lucy snatching the keys from Antonio and getting into the driver's side. She hated being at the side of things, unless she needed a nap of course. Naps were great.
During the drive, Lucy noticed how incredibly...fidgety her partner was. She didn't ask about how weird he was acting, but she noted in her head to do so at some point.
She made a sharp turn at a corner and parked abruptly. Both detectives got out of the car and hurriedly joined the others. Pushing through the swarm of people taking videos and photos with their cellphones, past the news journalists, away from the crying father and mother who stood by the crime scene tape.
As soon as she saw the suitcase and the clothed boy stuffed inside, Lucy stopped. Her mind had already stopped thinking as someone on the scene and gone to thinking like an analyst or profiler. She was taking in the scene without emotions getting involved.
"What do you think?" Voight was standing beside her now, same with Olinski. They watched her expectantly.
"Let me get a better look." she said, moving closer and kneeling.
Eleven year old Toby Wilkins was dead, put into a suitcase after being strangled. She wasn't an ME, but anyone could tell the boy had been beaten during the three days he was missing. It was revolting.
"You'd have to check, but I don't think he was sexually abused." said Lucy as she looked a this face- eyes closed, hands clasped.
Had his hair been brushed? And he looked...clean, almost.
"The person who took him could be female, but the way he was just put into a suitcase and left here..." She stood, turned around in a full circle. The crowd had grown, people whispering, staring.
"We need to get them to clear the area." Olinski suggested, already moving towards the parents and other uniformed officers. She grabbed his arm and continued to survey the area.
"No. If this was done by a female, it could be a concerned motherly type who showed up to know the turnout, if the boy's body is going to be properly taken care of. I think."
"You're saying that she could be here?" While Olinski sounded alarmed, calculating, she was calm and collected. Her eyes swept over the crowd, mainly looking for the concerned looking females. She took out her phone and began to video tape the whole crowd, moving around to include everyone who was gathered at the scene.
"I'm saying that any one of these people could be the kidnapper."
"No one turned up in the database." Mouse said, swivelling his chair from one side to the other, looking bored. He was frowning at the computer screen. Jay nodded in thanks.
"Damn." he muttered to himself when he reached his desk. Erin was sitting on the edge of it, writing something down on a piece of paper and passing it to him discreetly. Her eyes went to Lucy first, then to him, and finally pointedly to the paper she'd given him.
He read it,
What's going on with you two?
He gave her a, I'll tell you later type of look. She nodded, but looked slightly conflicted.
"Kim!" Lucy called out in the locker room, seeing Burgess changing out of what seemed to be a stained white top into a blue blouse.
Kim looked up, spotting the slim blonde walking towards her. She had a hold of Erin Lindsay's wrist, latched on with an iron grip. Erin looked downright confused.
"You both need a night out. Form the short time I've been working alongside you women, I've realized once again that this boys club needs to stop controlling our every move which means..." She smiled. "We. Need. A-"
"Don't say it..." Erin groaned.
"Girls night!" Lucy exclaimed enthusiastically.
Burgess, despite the sore muscles caused by an encounter with a rough-and-tumble type of purse-snatcher, nodded. "I need one of those. So I'm totally in."
They both turned to Erin. Lucy had released the grip she'd had on her fellow detective's wrist and was watching her expectantly, almost threatening her with her expression if she said she wouldn't go.
Erin sighed. "Okay," she replied in defeat.
Lucy clapped her hands together with (very) exaggerated enthusiasm. "See you two at the bar after work!"
Antonio and Lucy stepped on the 'welcome' mat of the home. People were inside, talking, crying, some were even yelling. Mrs. Wilkins opened the door, her posture delicately straight. Her short and curly brown hair was a mess, like she'd just woken up. The long robe she wore was wrapped tightly around her, like armour.
They made eye contact, she and Antonio, and the detective's were then quietly led into the home. Relatives eyed them I the way to the kitchen, and they all sat at the kitchen table.
"We're so sorry-" Lucy started her typical apology meant for grieving people.
Mrs. Wilkins held a hand up in a 'stop' motion. "I know. I've been hearing it all day. Just..." She sighed, wiping her eyes. "Ask away. I'm free all day, after all." It was a bitter comment.
"We will be as quick as we can." Lucy assured her. Antonio stood from the table, taking looks at the pictures of a young brunette girl and her little brother, eleven year old Toby. Others with teachers and groups of students after a school play or other type of even, a class photo, et cetera.
"I-I read that most child abductions are done by someone who knows the abducted child. I made... A list. Of family friends who knew Tobias well." Mrs. Wilkins pulled out a paper form her pocket with shaking hands. Antonio sat down again, and gently took the paper out of her hands, which were grasping it tightly.
"That's really helpful. Thank you." he said.
She cut her eyes at him. "Do you have kids?"
He nodded.
"Then...then you understand that this is..." Furiously, she used her sleeve to wipe her eyes, leaving blotchy red marks around her eyes.
Dawson nodded again. "I know. We just want to find whoever did this to your son."
Mrs. Wilkins hiccuped and stood, going to the sink. She took a glass, turned on the tap, and filled it with water. Then she sat down again, taking a few sips of water and then deep breaths.
"My husband is at the shooting range, I think." she said, staring at the patterns in the table. "When we got home, I fell asleep late and he's been out since then."
Antonio and Lucy shared a look. She was stuck in her own grief.
"Ma'am," Lucy tried again.
"You look young to be a detective. Really young. What do your parents think? You're so...young..." Mrs. Wilkins rambled. She had bags under her eyes.
"I graduated early from high school and went to the FBI Academy, Mrs. Wilkins." Somehow, that seemed to pull the grieving mother out of her reverie.
"Is there anyone that Toby was close with?" Antonio asked.
During the time that he was asking questions, being careful with how he phrased them and refilling her water glass regularly, Lucy thought of Toby. He was stuffed into that suitcase, dead. He wasn't shot, no, but he seemed to have been beaten to death. Bruising covered his small body, trauma to his head. But he wasn't assaulted before that, and the way he was taken care of- hair washed, body scrubbed of any dirt, he was fed daily since the eve of his disappearance...almost...motherly-
"Mrs. Wilkins," she blurted, like the puzzle pieces clicked together. Antonio and the woman looked at her, as if she'd just appeared. "Do you know any women under forty who lost children? Who knew Tobias well?"
She had a blank look on her face, thinking about it. "Under forty?" she asked with uncertainty.
"Yes. Under forty." Lucy said, seeing the different stages of confusion and thought flit over Mrs. Wilkins' expression.
And then she watched as the woman's mouth moved, realization dawning. And the words came out, along with a name.
Antonio felt very conflicted. He sat in the passenger seat of the car, having finished telling Voight what they'd learnt, and remembering what Jay had asked of him to do. It wasn't exactly his business what his partner's history was with the FBI, and all things related, but then again, she was his partner. They had to trust each other.
So... "Hey, Lou?" He used the nickname they'd gotten used to. She glanced at him quickly, turning the car onto another street and slowing down for the stop sign.
"Uh-huh?"
"Why don't you ever, um, talk about the FBI?"
She blinked. "'Cause. It was the past and I prefer to live in the present. That's why."
That was the end of what could've been a discussion, but after all, Antonio knew when to stop asking questions from her. It wasn't like he'd never asked before then. He just never had more than pure curiosity as a reason to do so.
_
"Karen Quinn!" Ruzek yelled as he, Jay, Erin and Olinski busted through the front door, guns out and vests on. They split up, all going in different directions to find their main suspect.
"Over here!" Ruzek's voice floated through the house, coming from the backyard. "She's running!"
He tackled her, unceremoniously, and brought them both to the ground, feet away from the open backyard gate.
"Karen Quinn-" he said, taking out the handcuffs and putting them on the struggling redheaded female. "You're under arrest for the kidnapping and murder of Tobias Wilkins."
She sat there, sweaty hands clasped together, in the interrogation room.
The detectives were all watching her from the other side of the glass. "Guess we won't be roughing her up, huh?" Ruzek commented, looking like he was contemplating the idea.
Lucy gave him a sideways look. "Why not?"
All the other detectives of Intelligence stared at her like it was obvious, as if she were a complete idiot.
Slowly, she came to realize the difference between the woman, woman specifically, and the men they'd roughed up in the past. Lucy frowned, almost disappointed about it. "That's stupid. I've been roughed up plenty of times. And I'm a female." The rest came out faltered and in a grumble.
At the prospect that she'd been 'roughed up' before, the others already had questions they were dying to ask. But she was already opening the door to the interrogation room, sitting down at the table and spreading out the papers of the case file. Calmly, Lucy clasped her hands together.
"And this is where the magic comes in." Antonio whispered to the others.
Lucy swept her eyes up and down, examining the woman across form her. She looks pretty anxious.
"Do you know why you're here?" Lucy asked.
Karen Gillan slowly shook her head, almost like she was calculating what was going on in her head.
"Someone murdered a young boy name Tobias Wilkins who was beaten to death and then stuffed into a suitcase by someone who didn't give a flying shit about him. And that someone was you." But before Karen could protest,may anything, express herself in any way, Lucy continued. "But first you kidnapped a child who trusted you. Made his parents suffer through the possibility of him never being found, and then the loss of their baby boy." She leaned back in her chair. "There's nothing you can do now, Karen."
The redheaded female in the small room watched as Lucy's seemingly cool glare turned into one of indifference. "You're just another kidnapper turned murderer who didn't give a shit about-"
"No!" Karen interrupted, her eyes wide. "I-" she faltered, and ran her hands over her face and to the back of her head, flattening her hair down. "I cared. I swear that I did. He just..." She sniffed. "Toby was the best one in my class. All the other students always...always picked on him. Like they did with Amanda...with Mandy."
"Your daughter?" Lucy asked, eyes still hard as ice and still looking like she didn't actually give a damn about what was going on. "Karen, she and him were two different children. Amanda is dead."
Karen shivered. "I know. I know that."
"So tell me what happened. You got angry with Toby, right? And you hit him and then you just couldn't stop..." (Behind the glass, on the outside, Jay nearly flinched at how...natural...she sounded. Like it wasn't the first time she'd had to turn into this cold hearted, indifferent human being who just didn't care at all.)
Karen shook her had vigorously, red curls flying from side to side. Her green eyes were wild. "That's not what happened. Toby tried to...he tried to leave..." She hit the table with her fist, and Lucy was surprised by the sudden burst of annoyance from the suspect. "I told him not to do that. And I got mad, and I yelled, and I ran after him, and he...he... He fell."
"What do you mean, he fell?" Lucy demanded.
"Down the stairs. And he was gone. Just-just like my other baby. My Mandy."
Lucy stood from her chair and tossed a note pad onto the table, even though she had decided to record the interrogation beforehand. "Write it down."
She left the room and as soon as the door slammed shut behind her, leaving behind the sobbing young woman, Lucy grinned victoriously. "We got her." And even though she hated these types of cases, the ones where children died or were kidnapped or where widowed mothers look for new sons or daughters, this was a victory. In some odd way, it made her happy.
It was the end to the sad tale of Toby Wilkins.
Later that night, Lucy and the others were at the bar, just enjoying a few drinks and talking about some old cases. "So, Ruzek..." She looked at him with curiosity. "You gonna get the nerve up to win Kim back?"
He offered a bittersweet smile. "Nah, not now at least."
She sipped her beer and then pointed a finger at him. "You'd better get your ducks in a row, man. She's worth it. Besides...I kind of liked you two together anyway."
Ruzek chuckled. "Thanks for the advice, Seymour, but what do you know about marriage? I don't see a ring."
She smirked, an 'I know something you don't know and probably will never know about' type of look on her face.
At the counter, Herrmann had served a small late of simple fries to both Antonio Dawson and Jay Halstead. "Sorry, Halstead." Antonio apologized. "I didn't really press further. I'd rather she was covering my back on the job instead of trying to kill me."
Jay shrugged. "It's fine. I'll just have to work this crap out myself."
Erin, on the other hand, who had just sat down, thought differently. "From what I know about Lucy since I've met her, she's not going to put up with you snooping in her personal life. She'll get pissed if you pursue, Jay."
"It's kind of a big brother thing, Lindsay." Antonio defended.
"Would you like your sibling poking around in everything you did that they don't know about? Maybe she went through something she doesn't want to reveal just yet." Erin shook her head, like she couldn't believe this was a discussion. Sure, it definitely peaked her instincts that something was up with her fellow female detective at Intelligence, that the whole story was not even near to the one she told Jay the first night she was back in Chicago.
But digging deeper could have consequences and repercussion. It could get someone hurt.
3459 words-
Next chapter:
Detectives Lindsay and Seymour go undercover, Jay asks Mouse to look up his sister's medical records and finds more than he thought he would, and Antonio (much to the happiness of his partner) enters a relationship with the girl Lucy set him up with.