There was no one waiting for Halstead and Lindsay this time when they pulled up out front of Bayley Martinez's house. In fact the gates were closed.
"I assume we're not supposed to break in," Halstead quipped as they got out of the car.
"Would give us a chance to show off some skills. But would probably also get us killed. I think it'll be safer to use the intercom," Lindsay said, pointing to a metal box on the wall beside the gate. They set off towards it.
"That's why you're the smart one of the two of us," he said.
Lindsay eyed him up in his very nice black suit, clearly liking what she saw a lot. "You look pretty smart to me."
"I'm sensing something else in the house might get destroyed tonight," Halstead said, thinking of their recent record of trashing the place during sex.
Lindsay smiled at him. "I think we could quite easily have the shower curtain down."
"Hold that thought," Halstead said as they reached the gate, and its intercom. He was about to press the button, but the gate started opening without him needing to. They had likely been spotted on a camera somewhere, not that he could see one.
"Well, there we go," Lindsay said.
"We don't need an escort this time. Aren't we privileged?"
Walking up the driveway, Halstead noticed the gates closing behind them. As before, there were several cars parked on the driveway. The house was going to be full of suspect people in suits again. Before they got to the front door, it opened and a man stood in the doorway.
"Ms Martinez wants to see you in her office. Come with me."
"We know where it is," Lindsay said.
Halstead had to make himself avoid smiling. 'Sophia' couldn't help backchatting people.
The man didn't reply. Much like Rodrigo, he seemed like a man of few words. Martinez probably liked that about them.
Halstead saw several other people walking about on the way up to the office, but he didn't recognise any of them. Shortly, they arrived at the office, where the man left them to it. Halstead took it upon himself to knock on the door.
"Come," Martinez called from within.
He opened the door and walked into the office. Martinez was sitting behind the desk. In front of it was the tall, hard-looking woman who had done the money counting the day before.
"Ah, Jesse and Sophia," Martinez said. "Nice to see you own some clothes worthy of the description after all."
Even 'Sophia' resisted having a quip at that, which was probably to her credit.
"Tell me, why didn't you break Angel Garza's legs yesterday?" Martinez asked. She leant back in her chair, keenly awaiting the answer. The other woman just glowered at them.
Lindsay said, "Your instructions were to go and get fifty grand out of him. You said we should break his legs if he didn't pay. He paid. If you wanted us to go over there and break his legs, that should have been your instruction."
"We did do what you asked," Halstead said a little more diplomatically.
"Yes, I suppose you did," Martinez said thoughtfully. "But you're no good to me if you're going to shy away from getting physical if it's needed."
"Getting physical isn't a problem, if it's needed," Lindsay said. This time there was no attitude in her voice.
Martinez considered that for a moment before coming to a decision. "Alright, here's the way things are. The two of you are clearly determined to work for me. You're in luck because I happen to need a couple of competent people. This is Raquel Gonzalez. She's in charge of security around here. You're going to work for her. I don't want to see or hear either of you unless I choose to speak to you. You do what Raquel says, when she says, how she says. To you, she speaks with my authority. Is any of that unclear?"
"No, ma'am," Halstead said. Inside, he was happier than he showed outwardly. They were in, at least in a fashion.
"What's the work? What's the pay?" Lindsay wanted to know.
"The work is whatever Raquel tells you to do. Do that, and you'll be paid. If that doesn't work for you, feel free to fuck off."
Back off, Erin, Halstead thought. She was right on the line of pushing Martinez too far again.
"Sorry, I didn't mean that to come out the wrong way," Lindsay said, immediately showing more respect. "Was just asking what we'll be doing, and how good the money is. I didn't mean any offense."
"Security work. And the money is good," Raquel said, getting up out of her chair. It was the first time they had seen her on her feet. She was as tall as Halstead was, and not built much differently. Nonetheless, she wasn't an unattractive woman. "For now, I don't need you. Go home. I'll call you when you're wanted."
"You got it," Halstead said, and he followed Lindsay out of the office.
'When you're wanted' had turned out to be that evening. Halstead had gotten a call from Raquel, who had given him an address for a club. It was a safe bet that the only reason Bayley Martinez, and therefore her security, would be there was because it was going to be the venue for some illegal card games she was hosting. It hadn't taken her long at all to get that venture going again, which showed how fruitless police work could be at times.
"What do you think we're going to be told to do?" Lindsay asked from the passenger seat as they neared the club.
"Security work seems pretty obvious. And since we're at the bottom of the food chain, I'm guessing we'll be working the doors, standing out in the cold. That's why I brought these just in case." Lindsay referred to the beanie hat and leather gloves that were currently in her lap.
"You're probably right," Halstead grumbled. Thanks to TV shows and movies there was a misconception that undercover police work was all action and excitement. In reality it was often tedious and boring, which was highly likely to be the case on this particular night. But it would be small progress towards the goal of earning enough trust from Martinez to be included in her gun running activities.
"There's the place," Lindsay said, pointing up ahead, on the left side of the road.
"Yep. And there's Raquel with a couple of the guys."
Their new boss was standing in the parking lot, near a couple of cars. It looked like she was giving orders to the two men who were with her. Halstead got the impression that Martinez wasn't at the club yet; security was being put in place ahead of her arrival.
He parked up next to the other two cars, and they both got out.
"You're in time, barely," Gonzalez said after a glance at an expensive-looking watch.
"In time is in time," Lindsay replied. They hadn't wanted to show up early in case they aroused suspicion by appearing overly eager.
"Okay, smart ass," Gonzalez said with some heat in her voice. "Since I hear you like making a big deal about fire escapes, that's where you're going to be all night. No one comes in that way. And if you see anything suspicious, you call me straight away. You both have my number saved?"
"Yes, ma'am," Halstead said, keeping up his part as the more respectful of the two.
"I seem to recall your man on the fire escape last time had a gun," Lindsay said.
"Yes, he did. But you don't. Now move," Gonzalez snarled, pointing towards a fire escape door at the rear corner of the building.
Halstead and Lindsay headed off along the side of the building.
"You're good at needling them a bit, but not going too far," he said.
"I'm good at preparing for eventualities too," Lindsay said, flashing him a beautiful smile as she put her gloves on.
Halstead thought about making a joke about that being why she was a sergeant and he was a detective, but it wasn't the time or the place. "I feel like this might be a long night," he said instead.
"Yes," Lindsay sighed. "I suspect very long."
"More than three weeks, Jay. I'm going to get serious grief for this when we come out the other side," Lindsay grumbled one morning over breakfast.
Yes, more than three weeks, Halstead thought. Three weeks on security duty for Bayley Martinez, or more accurately for Raquel Gonzalez. Raquel had turned out not to be all that bad a person to take orders from once she had accepted them. The only problem was that the security work didn't seem to be getting them any closer to the gun running side of things. Martinez and Gonzalez occasionally went off with some of the guys, presumably on gun business, but Halstead and Lindsay were always left at the house. If it went on much longer, they were going to have to come up with a plan B to get the undercover operation moving. He did feel like things would change soon though.
"I think Martinez might have still been harbouring suspicions about us when she hired us. It's possible she figured if we were cops we wouldn't spend weeks doing these mundane jobs. But we have done what we've been told, and done it well. For now, don't worry about the time it's taking. When we end this thing with Martinez and her crew in handcuffs, no one is going to give a shit how long it took."
Lindsay ruminated on that for a while, eating her bacon and eggs and drinking her coffee. "You're right," she decided eventually. "We'll keep at it. We're going to get her, Jay. We're going to get them all."
Halstead smiled at her. "Yeah, we are."
Nine days later, almost to the minute, Halstead's phone rang. He had just gotten out of the shower. The phone was on top of the toilet, so he was able to lean over and see a surprising name on the screen. He and Lindsay only ever got calls from Raquel Gonzalez, but this one was from Bayley Martinez.
"Good morning, Ms Martinez," he said upon answering it. She had no way to know he was standing naked in a bathroom.
"Morning. Come over to the house, both of you."
He didn't need to ask if she meant now. Bayley Martinez always meant now when she told people to do things. The greeting was new, though. It showed that he and Erin had progressed from the status of barely useful pieces of crap to the status of useful underlings. Progress.
"We'll be right over," Halstead assured the boss.
The call was terminated at the other end without reply.
"Erin! We're in business!" he yelled.
Moments later, her voice came from the other side of the door. "What do you mean?"
"Martinez just called me. Wants us over to the house immediately. This has to be gun business," he replied, doing the world's quickest job of getting dressed. He opened the door, putting a t-shirt on. He expected to see Lindsay looking excited. But no, she actually looked sceptical. "What's wrong?"
"Even if this is gun business, or should I say we're told this is gun business, it could be a test. I don't want to have Olinsky show up with the team to raid the place and make arrests, only to find there's nothing illegal going on."
Halstead looked at her with surprise, but he took her seriously. "You think Martinez would pull something like that? Why?"
"Because it's what I'd do."
A/N: What do you think Martinez wants them for? Gun business? A test? Or something else?