CHAPTER SIX: TELL HER THAT IT WASN'T HER FAULT
"So Paige Williams's real name is Avery Murray," Burgess relayed to the group, when everyone (save for Erin, who had disappeared, and Voight, who was still on the phone in his office) had assembled in the bullpen. "Which is completely irrelevant, really, other than she was rescued by this unit nearly five years ago when she was only nine years old, from a sex trafficking ring."
The unit exchanged glances. Five years ago was before Burgess and Attwater's times in Intelligence, and the others had seen so many victims, and so many children, over the years that they didn't remember names anymore. And faces changed when most of them weren't even teenagers when they were rescued. Voight re-entered the room then, and perched on the edge of Erin's desk. He frowned, noticing that she wasn't there, but didn't press.
"Anyway," Jay continued, eager to draw attention away from that case before someone put two and two together and realized that Erin was involved with this kid and where she had gone. "Avery met Luca a few months ago. He had just run away from his foster home for the first time, and she'd been on the streets for nearly a year – living in shelters in the winter and on the streets in the summer – so she helped him. She scored him some drugs, too, which is why she was scared to tell us everything."
"The night of Luca's murder," added Burgess, "they had taken shelter together in an abandoned warehouse—"
"The one we found Luca in," Voight suggested, and Burgess nodded.
"Avery said she woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of hushed shouting," Burgess continued. "Said she could definitely make out Luca's voice and someone older. They were speaking in Spanish, so she doesn't know exactly what was spoken, but she said she could see a tattoo on the arm of the guy – a spider – and that after about five minutes of heated argument, a fight broke out. She wanted to help, but she was terrified and high and probably half frozen, and before she could move, the guy pulled out a gun and shot him, twice, in the head."
"Poor kid," said Ollinsky.
"That's gotta be rough, seeing your friend murdered in front of you," Atwater mused, and the silence that followed was the unit's way of agreeing.
"She ran away the second the coast was clear. Said that she doesn't trust the system. She didn't want to be around the crime scene because if the cops found her they'd just put her back into care."
"So why come forward?" Antonio asked.
Atwater shrugged. "I don't know about you, bro, but my experience with teenagers is that they can either be incredibly cynical or incredibly idealistic. Usually a bit of both. She ran away because she's cynical, but she came back because she still believes in justice. Idealism."
"Okay," Voight said. "So Ollinsky – you and Adam check our gang databases, see if you can put a face with the spider tat – preferably one with ties to our ring. If not, you can hit up Statesville and see if there are any records of a similar tat there."
Ollinsky and Ruzek nodded, and left the rest of them where they stood.
"Atwater, I want you to look through security tapes, traffic cam footage, see if you can find any evidence of this guy in the area, or get a look at his face. License plates, clothing, anything we can use to get a proper ID on the shooter."
"You don't think it was Perez himself, do you?"
Voight shook his head. "He's not that stupid. He'd send someone else to do his dirty work."
"I hear ya," Atwater agreed and retreated to his desk to begin his search.
"Burgess, Halstead," Voight barked, and beckoned them. "My office. Now."
They exchanged glances and, with pursed lips, followed their boss.
"What the hell happened in there?" he spun around, directing his sudden anger at Jay.
"All due respect, Sarge," Jay began, but Voight cut him off. Burgess hung back. She knew that Erin and Jay were dating – they'd been living together for about a year now – but she hadn't realized that there was still so much animosity between her boyfriend and her…foster dad? Father? Boss? She wasn't entirely sure what label to attach to Voight. Come to think of it, she wasn't sure that Erin herself even knew.
"All due respect?" Voight scoffed. "All due respect, Detective, but I am your boss. And you are going to answer my questions."
Jay took a deep breath. "Five years ago, you remember, we worked that sex trafficking case? It was a big one, tough on all of us, and there were videos…We'd lost some of the kids – and then we found one of them alive. And Erin couldn't bear to put her back into the system, after everything she'd been through and after some of the traffickers had been linked with corrupt and dirty DCFS employees, so she took her in, for about a week, until the case was solved and she was sure she could sort out a foster placement that she trusted?"
Voight nodded, remembering signing the paperwork to allow the kid to be put in protective custody.
"Paige Williams – or Avery Murray – is that kid."
"Oh, Jesus," Voight muttered, lifting his hands to his head. "And she recognized Erin?"
Jay swallowed. "It wasn't pretty. She was angry that Erin put her back in the system, and Erin…"
"She took off?"
"Yeah," Jay took a breath. "I can go after her, if you like?" he suggested. "I've tried calling, but she hasn't picked up, and I know a couple of places she might be."
Voight shook his head. "No. I'll try her. If not, she'll be fine. Just go home after shift, tell her that it wasn't her fault, okay?"
Jay nodded his thanks. "Thanks, Sarge. Will do."
Although Voight had given his blessing for Erin and Jay to date years ago now, and he was very much aware of their living situation, he had made it very clear from the start that he does not want to see any of their relationship at work. But sometimes, it came in handy – if he ever needed to scare Jay, for example, he just had to pull the overprotective father card. Watching Jay squirm was one of his new favorite hobbies.
But it helped, now that they were together, because it meant he had an extra pair of eyes on her. He worried about Erin, he couldn't help it, but it made him sleep just a little bit better at night when he knew that Jay was there to look out for her. And to relay information onto him, when he really needed it.
It was slightly sneaky, Voight knew, using his status as his daughter's boyfriend's boss to force said boyfriend to keep him in the loop about developments in her personal life, but he was pretty sure that Erin was aware of it by now. They still talked, all the time – he forced her and Jay to come over for dinner every now and again – but he didn't feel the need to keep checking up on her every two seconds now that he was sure that Jay had her back.
I need to know what someone has her back 24/7. He'd told Jay after he gave them his blessing, years ago.
Always. Jay had replied.
That was all the confirmation Voight needed, and though he knew the couple had been through their share of ups and downs these past few years, he knew that he could always count on him to keep his baby girl safe. And vice versa, of course.
When Jay had left, Voight turned his focus to Burgess. "Officer," he greeted her.
"Sergeant," she said in reply. It always made Voight laugh that Burgess still called him that, while others in their unit called him 'Voight' or 'Sarge' or even 'Hank'. Well, only Erin and Ollinsky called him by his first name, but still. Hearing 'Sergeant' was always so weird. It made him think he was in trouble for something. (He usually was. But that wasn't the point).
"I wanted to say well done for staying so professional in there. I know Erin's your friend; I know you wanted to make sure she was okay. But you didn't let your emotions compromise your professional integrity, and that's hard to do."
Burgess smiled. "Erin is my friend, Sir, and I'd do anything for her. But that kid, Avery, doesn't have any friends. Not anymore. So you don't have to thank me – it's my job."
Voight chuckled slightly. "You know every day that you're in my unit, you prove to me why you should be."
"Thanks, Sergeant," Burgess nodded her appreciation, and turned around, closing the door gently as she left.
When she and Jay returned to work, she kept throwing glances his way, trying to read his expression to see if Erin had called him yet, not quite having the courage to ring Erin herself. They were friends, but she understood that Jay knew more about the situation than she did and she didn't think it would do their relationship much good for her to be poking her nose in.
But she couldn't help but worry when Erin didn't return all of shift. She dropped her a quick text:
Hey Erin, sorry about earlier – I'm sure Avery didn't mean everything she said. I'm here if you need anything.
And her stomach immediately settled when she got a reply only a few minutes later:
Thanks, Kim. No hard feelings J
Burgess knew her friend. However much Erin probably was pissed off at Kim, wherever she was, she blamed herself more.
