Chapter 10
Antonio Dawson ran up the drive to the firehouse in order to get out of the pouring rain.
"Hey..." he said to Clarke and Tony, who were sitting at Squad's sacred table. "Severide around?"
"I think he's in his quarters." Clarke replied. "Want me to go get 'im?"
"That's okay...I know my way around here pretty good." Antonio answered. "You guys mind?"
"Be my guest." Clarke told him.
Tony just shrugged.
Antonio headed down the hall that led to the officers' quarters. He stopped at the door to Severide's and rapped three times with the back of his hand.
"Yeah?" Severide called from behind the door.
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The detective let himself in.
"Hey...Antonio." Severide said as he slid his chair back from the desk and held out his hand.
"Hey yourself..." Antonio answered as returned the handshake.
Kelly took a seat again, and Dawson perched himself on the edge of the desk.
"I found some stuff out about that girl...Dorrie Weinhart." he said.
"Yeah?"
"You're right...she's not all there." Dawson went on. "Special Ed all through school...she went through some kinda independent living program a few years back...and she's spent some time in a couple different psych hospitals."
"Do you know what for?" Kelly asked.
Antonio shook his head.
"Some kinda mood disorder...and "explosive personality"."
"In English?"
"She's a loose cannon." Antonio said.
"And what about the guy?" Kelly wanted to know. "Did you find out anything about him?"
Antonio shook his head again.
"I got nothin'. Not even a name." he said.
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Kelly wiped his hand down his face.
These people had gone to his wife's store...so they'd seen Alyssa. They knew who she was and where to find her. Even though that whole story Dorrie told him was pure fantasy...she had to have gotten it from somewhere...from whoever Jax was.
What else did these people know...or think they knew?
"So what do I do?"
"You already told her to stay away." Antonio said. "If she keeps comin' around you can get a restraining order. If it comes to that."
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"Truck 81...Ambulance 61...Squad 3..."
The rain had been coming down hard for the past couple of hours...and there were some deep puddles and standing water in some low-lying areas. And the drainage system was on the verge of being overwhelmed.
Three boys had been playing in the puddles by the aqueducts and when it began to rain really hard they ducked in behind a steel grate to take shelter inside one of the concrete tunnels. But as the rain continued to pour out of the sky the water flowing through the grate was coming faster and faster. And the water was rising.
Severide and Newhouse pulled their dive gear on in the back of the Squad as they raced toward the scene. Calls like this were the worst...when they knew kids were involved.
The two men jumped off as soon as the truck stopped rolling, and Kelly was already moving toward the aqueduct. He could hear the screams over the roar of the rushing water and the crash of the thunder. These kids were scared to death...and he had to work fast.
He waded into the water that was already well past his knees...almost to his waist. He could see the boys...hair plastered to their heads...the tips of their fingers a ghostly white from their grip on the grate in front of them. The grate that separated them from the firefighters.
"Hold on..." Severide called out. "We'll have ya out in a minute!"
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He grabbed hold of the rusty metal and pulled as hard as he could. But it was no use. The force of the water pushed against it and it held fast.
Kelly tried to raise it...nothing.
"How'd you get in?" he hollered.
"There's a hole!" one of the kids cried. "On the bottom by my feet! There's a little hole and we crawled in through there!"
"I can't hold on!" another boy sobbed. "My hands are tired!"
He couldn't have been more than a year of two older than Maggie.
"What's your name?" Severide asked.
"Joshua!" the little boy cried.
"I'm comin' to get you, Joshua!" Kelly promised. "Just hang on a minute longer!"
He turned to his men.
"I'm goin' down..." he said as he shrugged off his air tank.
The hole had to be pretty tiny...there was no way a SCUBA tank was gonna fit through.
Severide pulled his face mask into place...took a deep breath...and went under.
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There was absolutely no visibility...and the current was pulling him headfirst toward where he knew that grate was. He put out his hands in front of him and felt them slam against the metal.
Feeling his way toward the bottom, his knuckles scraped concrete...and he found the opening. It was barely big enough for a kid...how the hell was a grown man gonna fit through there?
But he had to. Three little boys were depending on him.
Severide pulled with every bit of strength he had and he was able to make the hole a few inches wider. He debated going up for a breath...but he couldn't take the time. Instead he forced all the air out of his lungs to make himself as small as possible...and dropped his right shoulder toward the ground. Then he slid through the opening, the jagged edges of metal catching and pulling on his wet suit. One good tug, and he felt cold against his leg. He'd torn his suit...but he couldn't worry about that.
Finally he wiggled his way through the opening that was really only big enough for a child. But like everything else on this job, you never knew what you were going to be able to make yourself do when lives were on the line. A man could lift things he shouldn't be able to...squeeze into spaces he otherwise wouldn't...couldn't. Run through a wall of flames, scale a wall...the rush of adrenaline Severide got in these situations made a lot of otherwise impossible things suddenly possible.
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Kelly broke the surface and took in a huge breath of air...then he started grabbing the boys.
And not a minute too soon...just as he reached for Joshua...the little boy's fingers fell away from the metal grate and a rush of water started to carry him away.
While Kelly held his footing in the swirling, rush of water that had risen up to his chest...and struggled to keep the three boys from being washed down the line...Clarke and Mills fired up the acetylene torches and began cutting though the rusted metal just above the water line. If they could create a "window", Severide could pass the boys to them and then climb out himself.
But they had to work fast.
The firefighters worked, totally oblivious to the fact that they had an audience.
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About thirty yards away, Dorrie and Jax stood beside an empty building.
Jax was clicking away with the camera as the rescue unfolded. Dorrie wrung her hands as she saw Kelly shrug off his tank and go under the water. It seemed like forever before he came back up again and saved those little boys. But all that mattered was that he was safe.
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Clarke cut the torch and a second later Mills did the same. Newhouse and Tony reached in and yanked and pulled the piece that had just been cut and then Casey reached in to take Joshua from behind the grate and run him over to the waiting ambulance.
Otis grabbed the next boy...and Cruz and Hermann helped the biggest one climb through the hole.
By then Clarke and Mills had set aside the torches and they reached in to help Severide climb out. Kelly stood for a moment to catch his breath and then waded from the swirling mess. That's when he saw them.
Still dripping in his wet suit he took off at a dead run toward the brick facade where Dorrie and Jax were standing...observing every move.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" he yelled as he grabbed the camera away from Jax. "You think this is some kinda sideshow?!"
"Gimme back my camera!" Jax hollered as he grabbed for the expensive piece of equipment.
But Kelly was furious.
Three kids could have died...been swept down the line and dumped into the lake. It could have taken days...even weeks to find them and figure out what happened. And in the meantime their families would be worried sick.
And these two were acting like this was all for entertainment.
He smashed the camera against the brick.
"Get outta here!" he roared. "I mean it! I don't wanna see either of you again!"
"Kelly!" Dorrie cried.
He turned to her.
"I told you before...stop coming around! If I see you again...at the firehouse...at a scene...I'm callin' the cops!"
"But Kelly..." she cried. "I just wanna see you! I wanna help you! You gotta get away from that crazy lady...you don't gotta pretend! I love you!"
"The only crazy one here is you!" Kelly said. "Now go!"
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He turned around and headed back for the Squad to get out of his wet suit. Behind him he could hear Dorrie sobbing and Jax cussing. And his belly burned with rage.
"What the hell was that?" Boden demanded as Severide came toward him.
Kelly shook his head and glared over his shoulder at the pair.
Jax was picking up the pieces of the camera off the sidewalk.
"That girl that keeps comin' 'round the house...remember?"
"Looks like she made a new friend." The Chief observed.
"Yeah...he's gettin' off on this. It's not the first time they followed us to a scene. Some of the other guys've seem 'em."
Boden leveled his stare on Dorrie and Jax.
"I think it's time we involve our friends over at the CPD."
"I already reached out to Dawson's brother." Kelly told him.
"Call 'im again when we get back." Boden said.
"I will..."
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Kelly climbed in the back of the Squad and began to pull off his gear as they headed for Station 51.
"Hey, Lieutenant..." Newhouse said. "Looks like you cut yourself. You're leg's bleeding."
Severide looked down and saw a deep gash from the middle of his left thigh down to his knee. He must have cut it when he tore his wet suit on the metal grate.
The cut looked deep...like it might need stitches. He certainly needed to clean it out. God only knew what was in that water.
He sighed as he got back into his clothes. He'd shower once he got back to the firehouse...then see what he had to do next. Prob'ly call Lyssa...
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That's what he ended up doing.
Lyssa came to pick him up and take him down to Lakeshore ER. As they walked out of Station 51 to the car parked at the curb, Kelly draped his arm around his wife's shoulders and leaned on her just a little bit.
But across the street, parked in a silver Camry...
"Where's he goin'?" Dorrie asked.
She wasn't sure they should go back to the firehouse. Kelly seemed pretty mad when he told them to go away. He even said he was gonna call the police. But Jax was mad too. Kelly broke their camera...and they needed it. If they were gonna continue to gather 'intel' on the infamous Boun-gi-o-vanni, or however the hell you pronounced it, crime family...they needed their equipment.
Jax put his hand in his pocket, making sure he had the very thing he needed. His hand closed around it and he reached for the door handle.
"No!" Dorrie cried, grabbing his arm. "What're you doin'?"
"He smashed my camera!" Jax said.
"We can get another one!" Dorrie said. "A better one! But don't hurt him!"
Jax slumped back in the driver's seat and watched Alyssa help Kelly into the passenger seat of the mini-van. She leaned in and gave him a little kiss before shutting the door and dashing around to the other side.
"Where're they goin'?" Dorrie asked again.
"There's only one way to find out." Jax told her as he turned the key in the ignition.
The Severide's car pulled away from the curb...and Jax slowly counted to ten before he made a U-turn and began to follow them.
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At the hospital Kelly got the cut on his leg washed out again with some antiseptic cleaner that stung like hell...then flushed with about a liter of saline. The doctor put four absorbable sutures in the deepest part of the gash...then closed the skin with about twenty staples.
After the PA dressed the wound they gave him a short knee immobilizer to wear for the next few days till he got the staples out.
"C'mon..." he said to Alyssa once he'd signed the discharge papers. "Let's get outta here."
He squeezed her hand as they drove toward their house.
"Are you okay?" she asked. "Does it hurt?"
"Not really..." Kelly answered. "I'm just frustrated."
He was gonna be out about three shifts...ten days...but that wasn't going to solve his other problem. What to do about Dorrie and her sidekick...Jax. There was definitely something wrong with him...worse that whatever Dorrie had goin' on.
Kelly couldn't help but be worried...for Dorrie...who was obviously vulnerable. But more for Alyssa...that guy had been in her store. And what about their kids? Had this nut job seen them?
As soon as they got home, he was going to call Antonio Dawson again. They needed to find out who this guy was...and fast...before something happened.