"I used to play little league sports around here." Sonny said, taking a deep breath. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. He nodded his head toward a general direction off of the freeway. "Right over there in that area, I played football, baseball, basketball…. Whatever sport they were offering at the time. Before my parents discovered that there were schools that housed kids straight through the summer. Anyway all of the jersey's pretty much carried the same logo, for the Southside Hawks… It was green, and the writing was always curvy. When I was young I used to wonder why they let girls write the names on everything."
Will's mind raced as Sonny talked. One by one, things were clicking together for Will. "by any chance was the logo printed on the floor of the gym?" Will asked, holding his breath, until his lungs were burning.
Sonny nodded frantically, "It was… but I thought they tore that building down long ago. They were supposed to build a new Sports Plex in the area."
"Well, I guess they didn't." Will said. "We better get in touch with Threadgill as soon as possible. We are going to need to decide what we are going to do."
Sonny nodded, "Call him." He said as he merged back into the traffic. He followed the road on around to the next exit and then pulled onto the exit. Will was already dialing Threadgill's number, when Sonny took a turn that led them closer to the sports plex and away from the freeway. He hung up quickly.
"Sonny, what are you doing?" Will asked. "If you are right and Bennett is anywhere near here, if he see's us, it is over. He will run, and we may never find him."
"I know." Sonny said. "I just wanted to see if the building is still there before we report anything to Threadgill." He turned down one side street and around a corner. Everything around them was falling down, the buildings dilapidated. Sonny pulled to a stop at the next stop sign. "There it is." He said, pointing to a building that had seen its better day. It looked like it was barely standing. Sonny made a move to turn down the long driveway. The weeds had long since taken over the path, but it was obvious that someone had been through them more than a few times in recent months.
A movement behind the building caught Will's attention. The dim streetlight from across the street, gleamed off of something that was possibly glass. "Sonny… wait." Will said, pointing to the road.. "Let's go.." he said. Sonny pulled back into the road and sped off.
"Did you see that?" Will asked. "There was someone back there." Sonny nodded. "Yeah, I thought it was my imagination."
"No." Will said. "I think it was a dark colored pickup truck, or some kind of vehicle. It was just almost hid by the ridiculously high grass and weeds."
"It's probably him." Sonny said. "That bastard is probably planning his next move." He said, his fingers tightening on the steering wheel. Will's phone rang.. He looked down at the Caller ID. "It's Threadgill." He said clicking the answer button and putting the phone to his ear.
"Horton." He said, answering the phone quickly.
"Sorry I missed your call, I just left the Given's house, I always hate giving that kind of news." Threadgill said. "What do you have?"
"Don't worry about it, I kinda figured…" Will said, letting his sentence trail off. "We may have a lead." He told Threadgill. "A pretty big one, I think. Can you meet us at the station in like 15 minutes?" he asked.
"Yeah, I will be there. How big of a lead are we talking about?" he asked. "I think it could be a really big break actually." Will said. "I was thinking we should call anyone in that has been working this case, especially the ones that have been on from the beginning. I am going to call Captain Haskins and Chief Morwessell to see if they can wait at the station, they should be there for the meeting."
"It must be big then." Threadgill answered. "Let me make some calls and I will see you there."
Will disconnected the call and looked at Sonny. "Everyone will be there." He said. Sonny nodded and sped toward the station. "When we get there…. After the meeting" Sonny said quietly, "I really want you to lie down and rest, I know you are in pain." Will just nodded and pressed another button on his phone. He listened to it ring on the other end. Sonny reached out and touched his arm. "I mean it Will, Please?" Will grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze. "Okay Sonny, If it will make you feel better." Sonny smiled and nodded.
"Got the Chiefs voice mail" He said. He left a message for him to call or come back to the station for the meeting and immediately dialed Captain Haskins.
"Haskins." He answered on the first ring. "Hey sir, Glad I caught you." Will said, "This is Officer Horton, we may have had a break in the case, we are having a meeting in 10 minutes, can you be there?" he asked. "Of course, I am still here talking to the Chief, I will be there." Haskins answered. "Great!" Will said, "I just left a message for Chief Morwessell, can you bring him along to the meeting, we will be there in a few minutes."
"See you then." Captain Haskins said, hanging up the call.
Will laid his phone to the side. "I hope that we can get Bennett now." He said. "Hopefully there is some kind of evidence there that points to him." Sonny nodded, "Me too, and at some point I need to get down and talk to Mark Bennett, he may know something."
They pulled into the parking garage at the station and Sonny parked. He jumped out and ran around the car opening Will's door for him. "Come on Babe." He said, helping him out. Will was putting on a brave face, but Sonny could tell that he was in some pain. He really wished Will would skip the meeting and go lie down and rest, but he was sure that was not going to happen. He was just worried that he was going to overdo it and end up in the hospital again.
When they got in the conference room, there were several detectives and a few of Threadgill's agents already there. But Threadgill, Chief Morwessell, and Captain Haskins were not there yet. Sonny ushered Will to the front of the room and waited for him to sit down at his make shift desk. Once Will was seated, he rushed from the room; and hurried to the locker room. He looked in the first aid kit, and grabbed the bottle of ibuprofen. Sonny poured a few into his hand and grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator, before he went back to the meeting room. He made his way back to the front of the room and handed the pills and the bottle of water to Will.
Will looked up at him and nodded gratefully. He swallowed the pills with a gulp of water. "Thanks." Will said. Sonny nodded, he still wanted to insist that Will go and lie down, but that probably would probably be going too far.
Sonny turned to see that most everybody was now accounted for except for Jensen and Detective Williams who were trying to track down Bennett's whereabouts. He decided that he would fill them in later.
"Thank you all for coming so quickly." Sonny addressed the room, "Will and I were coming back from the crime scene a little earlier and I missed my exit off the freeway, while thinking about the case." Sonny said. "Anyway in ended up in the neighborhood where I used to play little league.." There was a collection of "Awes" from the crowd… "Shut up." Sonny said, "This is revelent I promise." Sonny said… He launched into his story about how all of the little leagus sports in the area had basically the same logo, telling them there was a small sports plex on the south side that had been home to the team.
Will got an idea, he opened the computer that was in front of him on the desk. Bringing up the internet, he quickly started searching for a logo for the Southside little league team… He was coming up empty, since there was no longer a team. He stopped and thought back over his conversation with Sonny.. what had he called the team? …. The Hawks? Right?… He typed in 'Southside Hawks little league basketball' and a picture of the outside of the sports plex opened in front of him. Sonny was in the middle of laying out the way the logo was painted onto the floor of the gymnasium, Will raised his hand to get Sonny's attention.
When he stopped and looked at Will expectantly, Will motioned him over, "Is this it?" He asked, motioning to the picture he had pulled up on the screen. Sonny walked over and looked at the picture. "Yes, that's it" Sonny said excitedly. "Can you print that for me." He asked. Will nodded and hit the print button, he moved to get up to go and get it from the printer. Sonny put his hand on Will's shoulder holding him down. He motioned to one of the detectives at the back of the room. "Will you grab that off the printer across the hall for me?" Sonny asked. The detective got up and stepped out of the room. "Will, call down to the analyst's office and see if Garth is still down there. I wanted to see what he thinks about this."
Will nodded and picked up the phone. He pressed the button labeled evidence analyst office and waited to see if someone would pick up. After about fifteen rings, someone picked up and rattled off a sentence that must have been twenty words long in the span of two seconds. Will recognized Garth right away. "Garth, this is Officer Horton, he still wasn't comfortable calling himself detective yet, can you come up to the conference room for the Bennett case, we have new evidence."
"On my way now." Garth said hanging up. Will wondered briefly if he walked as fast as he talked. Then shook his head, he was getting delusional, or maybe his head was just hurting that much.
"He's on the way." Will said to Sonny. Sonny nodded gratefully. "Thank you." He said. It wasn't more than two or three minutes when Garth opened the door and came into the room. Sonny immediately handed him the picture that Will had printed out. "This is the logo from an old dilapidated sports plex that I used to play little league at. Willl and I went by there tonight and it is still standing over on the southside. But what I really want you to concentrate on is the logo, against the green blemishes that are in all of the photos."
"You got it, Garth said moving over to the photo board and examining them against the photo that he held in his hand. He nodded, and mumbled to himself, turning the picture this way and that. Will shrugged Sonny's hand off of his shoulder and stood. He eased over to Garth. He watched as he looked at them from every angle, and then stood back and looked at the pictures as a whole.
"What do you think?" Will asked. Clearly startling the other man. Garth jumped at the voice so close to him, he turned to look at Will. "The more I look at this, the more I am convinced that there are words, this is quite possibly the answer that we have been looking for. Look here," Garth said, pointing to the first letter of the word Southside, and the last letter of the word Hawks" in the picture that had been printed from the internet, See how they are both slightly bigger than the rest of the letters. Not only are they taller they are thicker, it seems like the person who designed this logo wanted the first and the last letter to sort of frame the name, in other words they were designed to stick out… I would be willing to bet that they are a slightly different color, even though it isn't really visible in this picture. The color, or the size either one would make them stand out, but together it is almost all that you see. Now take into consideration that we have been thinking all along that this is fancy writing, maybe a cursive font, or even some type of modern calligraphy, but looking at this now together, I think that it is possible that these letters are what we are seeing, just in very little pieces." Garth finished. "Your thoughts?" Will took the photo that Garth was holding out to him. "I think that you are exactly right. I think that this was planned all along, especially considered the photos from the first cases, the ones that held the advertisements with the green lettering. I think that he has been sitting back wondering how long it was going to take us to figure this out. And if that is the case, then my guess is that he feels like he is untouchable. Maybe he has someone on the inside that knows the ins and outs of the case. Someone that can give him a heads up when we get close." Garth nodded. "Possible, if not probable." He agreed.
Sonny and Threadgill, had moved to stand behind Will and Garth listening to their conversation. "So wait a minute." Threadgill said. "You think that there is possibly someone that is feeding him information?"
Will turned and looked at him. "It would make sense." Will said. "These clues seem brazen, this is no coincidence." He finished indicating the pictures pinned to the board. "And also the last photo came to the station by messenger, addressed to Jackson Kiriakis."
Threadgill shook his head. "They could have gotten that from the papers. His name has been associated with this case from the beginning."
"That's true." Will conceded. "But it is a huge coincidence that Sonny played little league sports at this particular sports plex, don't you think?" he asked.
Threadgill was silent for a minute. He looked over at Sonny, and then around the room. "Gentleman, excuse us for a minute." He said escorting Sonny from the room. When they were outside the door. Threadgill pulled it closed. "Do you trust everyone in that room?" He asked quietly.
Sonny thought over who all was in the room for a minute or two…. "Yes." He said. "It rust them, I have been working with them ever since I have been here." Threadgill nodded again. "Do you think Will is right, about him getting information from someone on the inside?" He questioned. "It could be possible, but I don't know where from." Sonny said.
Threadgill nodded and opened the door, motioning for Sonny to precede him back into the room. When the door was closed again, Sonny looked around, Will was still up front talking with Garth and everyone else was sitting, quietly waiting. "Hey," Sonny said, turning to Threadgill. "When we drove by the sports plex Will and I both thought we saw someone there in the dark." He said. "We need to search it ASAP."
Threadgill nodded to a chair. "Have a seat." He said. Sonny sat down, Will came over and took the chair beside him, while Garth made his way to the door. "Thanks for your input." Threadgill told him. "Anytime." Garth said exiting the room.
"As of right now." Threadgill said loudly. "No one gives out any information on this to anyone who is not in the room right now." Threadgill said. "Does everyone understand?"
"What about our superior officers?" Someone asked from the back of the room. "NO ONE THAT IS NOT IN THIS ROOM." Threadgill reiterated.
"What if LT. Williams asks about the case." Someone else called. Threadgill looked up, "If he asks questions about the case, tell him to come and see me." He said. "I will explain to him, the imperativeness of keeping the details quiet. When I say no one I do mean NO ONE, don't talk at home to your spouses, your girl friends, boyfriends, maids, not your mother, not the LT, Not the DA, not even the President of the United States…. DOES EVERYONE UNDERSTAND?" he asked again.
"Yes Sir." Came the unanimous reply from around the room. "Meet here in the morning at 7am for assignments for the day." Everyone stood and filed out of the room, except for Chief Morwessell, and Captain Haskins, along with Will and Sonny. They sat down around a table. "Alright, we need to formulate a plan, You said the building is abandoned, right?" Threadgill said, looking at Sonny for confirmation. Sonny nodded his agreement. "Yeah, as far as we could tell, it has been abandoned for some time. I actually thought they were going to tear that down years ago." He said.
"Good, then you won't need a search warrant." Captain Haskins added. "You should all go out and take a look and see what you find." He instructed.
"Good idea." Threadgill said, moving to stand up. There was a knock on the door and DA Castleberry stuck her head in the door. "In case you have all forgotten, A woman was murdered last night, and a little girl today and I need to have a press conference about that before I can go home tonight. If someone could kindly provide me with the details that I need." She sneered.
Threadgill looked at Chief Morwessell. He nodded his head, "This is your show as far as I am concerned." He said. "Thanks." Threadgill said standing up, going over to her. "All that we have on the little girl is that she was murdered this morning, you can tell the press that we have a whole team of detectives working around the clock to make sure that this bastard is caught." He said. "As far as the murder of Brittany Nicolas, Mark Bennett is currently in custody for her murder and he will be charged with manslaughter. That's all that we have for you right now." He finished. "Fine." She said tightly, turning on her heels and stalking off.
"We better go watch this so we can step in if necessary." Chief Morwessell said, getting up and leading the way from the room. They followed the DA to the media room, where some prominent member of the press had already been assembled. They crowded into the back of the room while the DA took her place behind the podium.
"Thank you all for coming." She said. "I have a statement to make, concerning two of the cases that are currently being worked by detectives. First the case of Ms. Brittany Nicholas, the young woman that was murdered last night on Maple Lane Chicago, The police have Mark Bennett in custody for her murder, and he will be formally charged with manslaughter, as for the case of Madison Givens, the four year old child that was taken from her home late last night, I regret to inform you that the body recovered this morning behind the Atrium shopping mall was the body of this child. At this time, we will not be releasing further details, but rest assured that detectives are working around the clock to make sure that the murdered is apprehended. I will not be taking questions at this time.. Thank you." She said, stepping away from the microphone and quickly walking out of the room. The reporters all filed out of the room one by one.
"You guys ready to head over to the Gym, and take a look?" Threadgill asked. "Okay." Will said. Sonny looked at Will, "You aren't going." He said, willing to risk embarrassing Will and potentially pissing him off. "You promised you would stay here and rest." He said.
Will looked at Sonny. "We are just going to look." Will said. "I can't get hurt looking, can I?" he asked. "I'm going with you."
"No, Will." Sonny said stubbornly. "You need to rest."
"And you need to stop treating me like a child, I am your partner, remember." Will retorted. He was just as stubborn as Sonny.
"Come on boys." Threadgill said, trying not to laugh at them. "We will just go and have a little look. Besides we may need Will there." He said.
Sonny turned and stomped off without another word. Will looked over at Threadgill, bewildered. "Come on kid, he will get over it." He said, clapping Will on the back.
"Meet me in the parking garage in 30 minutes." Threadgill said. "I have to make a couple calls before we go."
Will nodded and went in search of Sonny.