After leaving Mrs Montgomery's house, Rick and Kate headed back to his apartment. Meanwhile Ryan and Esposito went to the precinct to search for Joseph Hawley. Hopefully he would be in the system. Esposito typed his name into the database. "Oh my God!" he muttered. He sounded shocked, even at a whisper. Ryan scooted his chair across to Espo's desk and looked at the same screen Espo was staring at. His jaw dropped too. It couldn't be.
"Deceased?" Ryan questioned. It was in big red letters beneath a photograph. It was definitely him. Ryan and Espo looked at each other, their faces a mirror of one another. Ryan read on. "Found in an alley near 165th and Amsterdam. Hold on, that was four days ago."
"Not long after he made that phone call" Espo chimed in. "What happened with the body?"
"It says that the body has not yet been released from the morgue" replied Ryan.
"We need to call Lanie!" Espo exclaimed and picked up his phone to ring her.
"Bit early for a booty call, Javi" joked Lanie.
"Not today chica" he laughed. Then his tone turned more serious. "Do you have a Joseph Hawley there in the morgue?"
"Yes, I just finished his autopsy. Why?"
"It seems that he's our mystery Mr Smith… the voice on the phone."
"Oh no. Does Kate know yet?"
"We haven't told her yet. We've only just found out. Did you find anything in your autopsy?"
"Cause of death was multiple stab wounds. I thought it looked familiar. It was very hired hitman-like. There were a few anomalies though. Come down to the morgue and I'll show you."
"We're leaving now. Be there in twenty. I'll wait until we find something before I call Beckett. I don't want to call her with just bad news."
"I'll keep it quiet until you get here then. See you soon."
Twelve minutes later, they were pulling into the car park closest to the morgue. Espo had driven and Ryan was looking a little shaken by the time he got out of the car. He really hated Espo's driving, but he had to admit, it got them there fast. Time was of the essence in this case, especially as they were working two at once. A couple of minutes later they were walking into the morgue.
"Wow, that was fast" commented Lanie.
"Tell me about it" Ryan groaned.
"Toughen up honey-milk. You're supposed to be a cop" Espo joked.
"Yeah, a cop who likes to abide by traffic laws."
"It's not like I ran a red light." He turned to Lanie, "I put on the gumball so I could get here a little faster, that's all."
Lanie rolled her eyes at the two boys bickering. "Ok, so who wants to know about the dead guy?"
At once, Ryan and Esposito snapped out of their squabble to pay attention to Lanie. "So, after I realised the significance of this one, I went back over my autopsy notes to see if anything else jumped out at me."
"And?" pushed Espo.
"And… I had noticed some bruising from maybe the day before. Once I knew the context, I figured that maybe he was pressured into revealing whatever information he had, he got away or was let go, and then he was killed later on."
"Maybe so that he could be killed somewhere out of the way. Maybe so it could look like 'gang violence'?"
"There are plenty of possibilities. From the way he was killed, I can tell it was definitely a hit. The similarities with the other murders are too great for it to be a coincidence. That's all I can say for sure though; everything else is speculation. I still need to check the body for prints, so I'll let you know if I find anything."
"Do you know who's working this case?" asked Ryan
"Karpowski, I think." Lanie replied.
"We need to be on it. We should talk to her" said Ryan.
"I'll speak to her, work my magic" said Espo, raising his eyebrows suggestively. Lanie glared at him.
"We'd better be going. Thanks for all your help Lanie. If possible, can you keep the links between the cases out of the notes for us please? If Gates knows it's related we'll never get to work the case." asked Ryan.
"Of course. Anything." she said, purposefully directing her attention away from Esposito, and talking just to Ryan.
As they walked out through the doors, Ryan hit Espo over the head. "What was that for?" he asked.
"Telling Lanie you're planning to hit on Karpowski… Stupid! Either you're trying to make her jealous or you're totally clueless about how she feels about you?"
"You think she was jealous?"
"Seriously, Javi. You two need to sort it out. It's obvious to everyone that you want to be together. All this messing around, one of you is going to get hurt, most likely both of you. Life's too short, brother."
"You're full of the big speeches lately. Where did all this sudden wisdom come from?"
"It just stands out against your stupidity. It's all relative" Ryan laughed. Then Espo hit him back over the head and grinned. They were both laughing as they headed back to the car. Ryan called shotgun on the driver's seat; he'd had enough of Espo's driving for one day.
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