I really want to explore, first, the relationship between Logan and Erin. I mean I want to make everything possible for you to like Logan. He's not a bad a guy, he's funny and kind. He's just suffering a bit on the inside. Plus, I love jealousies. Don't worry… I also prefer Linstead. )
Two years later.
"Come on Logan wake up!" Erin said as she sat next to him on the bed.
"What time is it?" Logan groaned as he looked at his watch with difficulty.
"Hum half past we are late" she replied as she got up and dressed up.
"let's just quite. You and me! We quite intelligence and we leave far far away…" he said with hope in his voice. Erin smiled.
"Do you even know how many time you asked me that? Every morning when we wake up!"
Logan groaned and put a pillows on his face to go back to sleep.
"Get out of here! I'll do some coffee!" she said. But as she was about to walk out from the room Logan straightened up, grabbed her arm and pulled her on the bed to kiss her.
When Logan and Erin arrived on the crime scene, they saw a woman, sitting on a chair. They could only see her back from where they were. She had blood everywhere. She seemed to be tortured.
"What happened?" Logan asked as he looked at the victim from behind.
"A lot of weirdoes out there with too much imagination is what happened." Antonio claimed. Logan walked around the victim to be face to face with her. He kneeled down to watch her more precisely.
"So was she electrocuted?" Erin asked as she saw the foot of the victim in a basin of water with some electric wire.
"Yeah but that's not the cause of death. Her throat was cut and the rest of this if I had to guess, I'd say she was tortured."
"Why? Who is she?" Erin asked.
"Shauna Taylor, 27. She is a patrol officer from our district." Ruzek spoke.
"Yes I know her…" Logan said as he titled his head on the side. "she started working here like two hears ago…"
"I've never met her before…" Erin said shamed in her voice.
"yeah me neither…" Antonio added.
"Okay I want everyone to start working on this. I want to know everything form her. Family, boyfriend, who she locked up, if someone threatened her…" Voight told everybody. "this is our family that has been touch. This is our priority"
Everyone nodded and drove back to the district to begin the work.
"neighbors didn't hear anything probably because she was gagged. But the guy who called it in said that he saw a guy leaving the apartment around 5:30 a.m. said the dud had fresh blood on him. Atwater's got our witness with the sketch artist now." Olinsky said as he arrived in the room.
The whole team drove back to the district and began to make their research on the victim.
"So I checked every man that Shauna put handcuffed on but none of them looked like this sketch." Atwater stuck the drawing of the man that the witness saw.
"So it's quite possible this had nothing to do with her job?
"hey, got some news." Ruzek said as he stood up form his desk and headed toward the printer. "Couple night ago, Shauna filed a harassment complaint. Apparently, three days ago, a guy confronted Shauna on her way home from work. She managed to get away and duck inside her building, but when she looked out her window, he was still out there waiting for her, so she called the cops." Ruzek said.
"Did they pick him up?" Voight asked.
"Yeah! He didn't have an I.D and he was pretty much off his rocker so they put him on a 72-hour psych hold. They I.D him during his hold. His name is Patrick Hudsford, and…" Ruzek approached from the board and stuck a picture of the man near the sketch. It was the same person.
"He was released early this morning."
"get over the psych ward. Pull his records. We need to find out who this man is." Voight said.
The team stood in front of Antonio's computer, looking at the recording of the man.
"You do not understand. We are running out of time. I need to get out of here. You have to let me go!" Patrick yelled.
"why do you feel you need to go." The psychiatrist asked him calmly.
"come on I told you! I-I, she is in danger"
"who is in danger?"
"you're not even listening to me! Shauna Taylor!" Patrick yelled again. "All I know is 12-58. That is all they told me, okay? that is how it stars, and if you are not letting me out, they are all dead. The 21 district will disappear. You understand me? Dead!"
Everyone looked confused.
"Who the hell is this guy" Logan broke the silence.
"should we believe him or…" Ruzek asked a little bit perplexed.
"The doctors and psychiatrist diagnosis him as mentally hill." Erin added.
"Somebody find me this psycho." Voight asked as he walked in his office and slammed the door behind him. Everyone looked at each other very confused and worry at the same time.
"Maybe by saving her he just meant killing her because of… a desire of revenge. I mean a witness saw him leaving the crime scene with fresh blood on him…" Erin told Logan. He was driving while Erin was on the passenger side. She finally let him drive. She never knew what made her giving up her seat.
"He's mentally ill, he doesn't know the difference between saving and killing."
"Anyway who's this CI you want to meet?"
"He's a former cop! He has some 'friends' that might help us to learn more about this…"
Erin nodded then looked through the window. The car stopped at the red light. She suddenly caught a face she thought she would never see again. She squinted her eyes to see if she was hallucinating or if he was really this person. He was having what seemed like a serious conversation. But still he was very far from her and she couldn't confirm this was him. Then a bus passed by and then the man disappeared.
"are you okay?" Logan asked her as he realized she seemed frustrated.
"Hm?" she turned around to look at him. "Yeah I just…" she looked back through the window.
"nothing" she added in a low voice. Then the car started again. She leant back her back on the seat and frowned perturbed. It was just her imagination.
Logan's CI told them he would ask around for more information but that he indeed heard some rumors about it. Logan was quite disappointed. He thought he would come back with something more solid to tell his team, but nothing. When they came back to the district, everyone was working on the case, writing on the board. It was quite noisy. Even downstairs all the patrolmen heard the rumors that everyone in district 21 would disappear. But except for 2 patrolmen everyone was loyal to the district and decided to stay to help.
Voight who noticed that the team seemed concerned about the rumors, trying to know if this was true or not, decided to appease them all.
"This is district 21, one of the safest place we can be. This guy is a psycho; all he says is a lie!" Voight tried to relax his team. "go back to work and find him!"
Atwater was on the phone and when he hung up he looked at his team "they found two more dead cops, in the streets."
Voight looked at him and his jaw clenched. The rest of the team were chocked by the news. This wasn't a joke. This guy might has said the truth.
Voight walked back into his office and when he sat on his chair, his phone started to buzz. He looked at it and frowned. This was unexpected. He looked back at his team who was working. He got up and answered the phone.
"this is a bad timing, so be quick" was all Voight said before he closed the door of his office.
While Erin was working on his computer, she looked through Voight office to see him quite agitated. She saw him hanging up and taking his vest to exit his office and making his way toward the stairs.
"Is everything okay" she asked concerned.
"Continue to work, I have to meet someone…" he told them vaguely.
Voight was in his car waiting for his meeting. When he heard the passenger door being open, he turned his head to see a man entering his car. The two of them remained silent for a moment. The man was looking in front of him, through the hood while Voight was looking at him. Then this latter decided to break the silence.
"So?"
the man turned his head to look at Voight.
"So you are in danger. You and every one from the 21 district. I heard it from New York. You need to fix this mess."
"Tell me something I don't know…"
"When I heard it, I took the first plane and began to make my own research, asking around"
"asking around huh?!"
"Believe me or not but I still have a lot of reliable CI here in Chicago"
"so what did you learn?"
"well… I heard a number 12-"
"12-58, yeah I know. What else?!" Voight asked impatiently.
"well this number has been set up by a gang… god this gang is hum…" the man stopped talking.
"Is what?! Listen I don't have all the time I would like to have, if you know what I'm talking about. I have a threat on the 21's heads so if you could just go to the point I would appreciate it"
"this gang has been created a few months ago. They don't mess around. So I asked around and I could ID some of them. But the men who gave me this information, they risked their lives. This isn't a gang like any other gang you've worked on. Once I ID them, I searched for a link between all of them. Each one of them has a member of family that has been taken away from them or put in prison because of district 21. This gang is regrouping every member who want revenge from you guys. This is serious Voight."
"How many are they?"
"I ID 7 but I believe they are more than that. It's hard to say but I would say between 10 and 15 members"
"So now that we know who they are, we can track them…"
"That's no that easy… I tried, believe me, I tried to find them. But it's nearly Impossible. One of my CI, my best one, is very comfortable when it comes to gangs. He knows everyone and everything. He tried to enter the gang but was rejected. They know how to proceed. They are very well entrained. They know how to hide and how to move without being see. Having their names isn't enough."
Voight didn't speak for a moment. He was on the edge. All of this was becoming to take a dramatic turn.
"do you have the files of the ones you could ID?"
The man took out from his jacket a USB file and gave it to Voight. "Everything you need to know is in there…"
"Thank you…" Voight looked at the man sitting next to him. This latter nodded. He was about to leave the car when Voight stopped him.
"It's good to have you back here in Chicago Halstead…" He said.
Jay turned around to look at Voight. "I'm not staying here for long. I'm just helping you guys than I'll leave when everything will be over"
"you still have your place in the intelligence you know" Voight replied.
Jay nodded. "I'll get in touch if I know anything else" he said before he opened the car's door and walked away.
Voight drove back to the district and climbed the stairs in a rush.
"Boss, they just found the body of Patrick Hudsford, dead…" Logan said.
Voight's jaw clenched again. This was beginning to piss him off. They had 4 deaths.
"Okay I got something!" he said before making his way to Antonio's desk and putting the USB key in the computer. The flies of everyone from the gang that Jay succeed to ID appeared.
"How did you got that" Erin asked.
Voight was about to reply but quickly shut his mouth. Maybe he shouldn't reveal his source or the team would be distracted. And if Jay didn't want to stay in Chicago there was no reason to tell them and perturb them. So he shrugged his shoulders in a nonchalant way "Just a CI".
But Erin noticed he was acting weirdly. She looked at him intensely but Voight avoid her glare and looked at the files with everyone. Then she looked back at the computer as well thinking she would need to have a conversation with him.
"Okay now you have everything you need to deepen the research and found each one of them. I want these guys out of my streets!" Voight said before he walked in his office.
Erin decided to follow him. She closed the door behind her and Voight seemed surprised to see her in his office.
"How can I help you"
"okay first you receive a call that seemed to perturb you, then you leave us in a rush, and you come back an hour later with a lot of information… What is going on here…"
"I just have a good CI Erin" Voight sat on his chair. But Erin didn't believe him. There was something in his tone that made her believe he was lying to her.
"Okay… we are supposed to be a team here. To share everything. And you are lying to us!"
"Because I'm the boss." He replied like it was an evidence for him to not tell everything to his team. Erin crossed her arms and threw a glare at Voight.
"Look Erin… there are things that I can't tell you. That's how it works. Now if I consider that some things need to be say I'll say them to you but for now you have to be patient."
"But…" she was cut off by her boss.
"there is no but I" himself was cut off by a voice behind his office.
"Jay?" Ruzek asked as he saw the man climbing the stairs.
Voight looked behind Erin as Erin turned around to look through Voight's office. She couldn't believe it. She opened the door and slightly stepped out. Her heart began to beat so fast. Voight arrived by behind her. She crossed her arms, looking at Jay intensely without any expression on her face. This latter couldn't look at her more than 3 seconds. She had so angriness in her, which she couldn't express right know, that it was killing her from the inside. 3 years since he left and 3 years since she was in the shallow concerning his well being. Everybody was. She tried to reach him, she left him thousands messages, she tried to search for him everywhere. She asked everyone imaginable for him. Then one day she realized he didn't want to be found and that, he wouldn't be back. So she went to his apartment. After looking at every little corners, details of his once apartment, she tore it up. A year after, she drove past his apartment and saw his apartment with lights in it. She stopped and knocked to finally find out that it was the new owner. When this latter closed the door, she leant her back to the wall and cried. This was the last time she passed by his apartment, even his street.
Everyone had eyes on Jay and this latter didn't know where to stand. Logan had his arms crossed, he was shocked but didn't want to show it. He looked angry tough. The last time he saw Jay, Logan begged him to stay but he left anyway, not even trying to listen what his best friend had to say. He left everyone behind him.
Nobody knew what to say or what do to, so everyone just stood there, in silence.
"I-um…" he began to say but everyone was looking at him so intensely he was destabilized. "I have news for your case…" Jay looked at Voight.
Erin's eyes went wide. He was the one that Voight met earlier. How could he hide something like that to her? She let out a gasp, uncrossed her arms and turned around to look at Voight right in the eyes. She slightly shook her head, expressing her disappointment. Voight and her looked at each other for a few seconds before Erin walked out. She passed by Jay without giving him a single look than walked down the stairs. Jay looked behind him watching her leave. He knew she would be mad at him. But he didn't know it would be this hard to see her totally ignoring him.
He turned back to Voight and walked forward.
"I know you guys have a lot of questions and I promise I'll answer each one of them, but for now we need to concentrate on this case. I just found my CI, dead. We need to catch them before anyone else die here." Jay was definitely worry about the 21 district.
"We" Logan asked rising an eyebrow.
"Yeah! I might have a plan…"
"what are you suggesting?" Voight asked.
"I enter the gang" he proposed as he made one stepped forward.
"You told me it was nearly impossible to enter it. Even your guy has been rejected."
"because he had no cause to enter…"
"but what if I had?"
"What do you mean?"
Jay walked toward the board and looked at every member of the gang. "each one of them has lost someone due to this district. If we create me a fake file in which we indicate that CPD has killed my fiancé or friend in action, they'll let me in."
"Are you sure this is this simple…" Antonio asked.
"We gotta try… I think they are gonna speed up the massacre. We need to act now…"
"Ruzek create me this file. Create Mouse's too." Voight ordered him.
When Jay and Logan heard mouse's name, they winced. It's been a while since they heard this name.
"Yeah, ensure we don't know he worked for CPD and that it is a cop who shot him… they'll believe it" Jay added.
"Halstead my office…" Voight ordered as he turned around to enter it. Jay followed him while everyone looked at him doing so, still chocked by his appearance.
"Are you sure you can't handle this?" he leant on his desk.
"I do Voight!"
"How long has it been since you hold a gun?!"
"It doesn't matter. I've been trained to never forget."
Voight looked at him, he didn't seem convince.
"If you have a better plan right know I am all ears"
Voight didn't reply at first, he kept looking at Jay. "Okay…" he pushed himself away from his desk. "Ruzek is making your file and then you can go…"
"thanks Voight!"
10 minutes after, the fill was made up. Jay was ready to start his undercover. It's been a while since he didn't go undercover or work the police so he was quite anxious. Plus, this gang wasn't messing around.
Logan tried several times to reach Erin on the phone but she never answered them.
Jay could tell Logan was on the edge. Erin wasn't answering, this case was making everyone nervous and Jay's come back was definitely the last thing he expected.
"You okay?" Jay asked him.
Logan looked up from his phone to meet Jay standing in front of his desk. "Why do you even care?" he replied coldly. Jay knew Logan would be angry at him for leaving.
"Listen Logan I…"
"No you listen. You bailed on us Jay! All of us!" Logan motioned his head toward his whole team who were listening at them. Jay looked at them as well. Nobody said something to contradict Logan. Jay looked back at Logan. "I looked you in the eyes Jay and I begged you to stay and you turned your back on me like it was nothing". They looked at each other for a moment. "so no, you don't come back after 3 years of radio silence and ask me if I am okay!" he took his vest and walked away. Jay looked at him leaving and then turned around to see that the rest of the team was still looking at him waiting for an explanation.
"I'm sorry I bailed on you guys and I… it's just… I felt sad, I felt… like …everything was turning against me, when I was only trying to do the right thing. I blamed myself for a lot of things and I just sat there, doing nothing but drinking… So I left." He looked at his old team "I'm sorry."
Two days after, the team was working on the gang again. Erin has been briefed about the undercover thing. They were just waiting for update from him.
"That's it! Jay entered the gang!" Ruzek said as he walked in the room. Everyone looked up from their computer to look at Ruzek. "I just had him on the phone."
"What did he tell you?" Antonio asked.
"He didn't have much time just enough to tell me he made it and that he would see us tomorrow night to give us some more information".
Erin didn't even look at Ruzek. She pretended she was still working on her computer, like she didn't even care.
The next day, at 8 p.m, everyone was waiting for an update from Jay. When this latter arrived he had a file on his hands and made his way toward the board. He stuck on it the faces of the rest of the members they didn't have.
"Here, you have them all here" he turned around and began to make a brief on each one of them, including the one they didn't have.
"And finally we have Amir. He's an Israeli. He has a brother you guys arrested like two years ago… Ghovat?" he looked at them with questioning eyes to see if they remembered him.
"Yeah he took 10 years…" Ruzek said as stepped forward.
"Anything else?" Voight asked even if this was a very good start.
"Yeah. They never met all at the same time or same place. They split up in small group to not be all caught if something goes wrong."
"Damn it…" Voight said tensed. "that's it?".
"For now yeah!" Jay said. "I'm new so they don't really trust me… I'll try to dig a little more"
"Try to find out their next target, when it will happen, who is concerned where they intend to do that!"
Jay nodded.
"Okay I think you can all go home. Good job Halstead."
Erin stood up and walked out from the room without saying a word. Everyone looked at her, and Logan followed her. When Erin arrived on the parking lot, Logan called her name.
"Erin wait…"
She turned around and waited for Logan to catch up with her.
"I'll drove you back." he said.
"No I think it's better if I stay alone tonight…" she replied as she looked at him with soulful eyes.
"You sure?" he asked her as he put one of a lock of hair behind her ear. She smiled. "Yeah, I'll call you…" she said before stepping forward, gripping the material of his vest and bringing him closer to her for a kiss. He kissed her back and then she stepped back. She smiled at him then turned around to walk toward her car.
When Erin arrived her apartment, she began to walked toward the entrance of her building but was stop.
"Erin!" Jay shout out, running toward her.
She immediately recognized the voice and decided not to stop. She began to walk toward her building but Jay quickly catch up. "Wait" he put himself in front of her, preventing her to walk away. She tried to bypass him but he always succeeded to put himself on her way.
"I need to talk to you!" he said as he looked down at her.
"No! you don't speak to me. I don't want to hear one word from your mouth directed at me. You lost the right to my attention when you decided to leave without saying good-bye. Now goodnight Jay!" she tried once again to bypass him but in vain.
"You want to hear me say I made a mistake, huh? Okay, easy, done! I made a mistake three years ago, Erin. I shouldn't have given up. I shouldn't have run away like that."
"But you did." She looked at him right in the eyes. "And I got over it."
Jay looked at her and saw the letter he wrote to her placed in the back pocket of her jeans.
"And yet you still carry my letter with you" he motioned his head toward it.
"Yeah." She took it and look at it "Yeah I keep it. Keep it as a reminder to not trust the wrong people."
Jay looked at it and saw it was still closed. She never read it. She never had the chance to understand why he did all of that. Because everything was in there. Everything he felt 3 years ago was written in there.
"Now if you would excuse me!" she said as she finally bypassed him. He let her go but before she goes he turned around.
"What's the deal between you and Logan?"
She stopped. Of course he saw them on the parking lot. She let out a cold laugh but didn't look back. How dare he to ask this question she thought. She had nothing to justify about. Especially not to him. She decided to not answer and resumed her walk.
Jay just stayed here, hanging alone in the cold, looking at her leaving. Everything that was coming out of his mouth was the steam due to the cold. After a few minutes he turned around and walked away.
