Chapter 18 : Confession
Both of the team got back to the SWAT headquarters in their Black Betties, tired of what just happened but glad they took these men down. Hicks and Lynch were waiting for them to question the suspects. When Luca parked his Black Betty, Hicks and Lynch were there, standing in the front of the HQ, ready to interrogate the suspects.
The LAPD officers dropped all the apprehended men at the HQ. Hondo and Tan joined Hicks and Lynch. Chris, Deac, Luca and Rodriguez stayed to clean the mess inside the vehicles. Rhokker team split into two too. O'Rourke, Witt and Barry stayed outside to clean their Black Betty while Rhokker, Kotonin and Chen followed their leader inside.
An hour later, the two teams were reunited in the building. Chris asked to Lynch to go and watch Hicks questioning Olsen behind the one-way mirror. She needed to know what this man had to say after everything he had done with his boss. After he almost killed Jim. She clenched her fists to contain her anger. Everything was her fault and she had to fix things.
Luca decided to follow her. He knew she was not at a good place right now. And from what he knew from Street and what he saw, he could tell she was totally lost at work and in her personal life. Chris was a great person. One of the best he ever met but she was a mess when it came to her personal life. He couldn't blame her, he could totally relate. His was not a great success either.
"What are you doing here?" Chris asked harshly. Even a little more harshly she wanted to.
"Easy, Chris. Just coming to watch too. This guy is an asshole and I want to see Hicks crack him up."
Chris lowered her head. "Didn't mean to… Rough day… Sorry."
"You're welcome. And in case you need anything… To talk, to yell or even to eat a pizza, you know I'm here, right?"
She raised her hear and let out a shy smile. "I do."
She focused on the one-way mirror and watched Hicks trying to break Olsen. It was not easy. The man was an old hand. He knew the technics, the tricks. Chris could tell Hicks was annoyed by the sound of his voice but he didn't let go. After an hour, Olsen had not told a single word. Lynch opened the door of the observation room. "Alonso, you're with me."
Chris looked at Luca and walked after Lynch in the corridor.
"Alonso, we're gonna break this man so hard he won't recover from this. He believes he's clever but I do know we're more clever than he. Are you with me?"
"Totally, M'dam." She let out a sigh.
"I know what you feel. He had hurt one of us, one of your teammates and there's no way he gets out of this!"
Chris nodded and before she could take a deep breath, she was inside the interrogation room with Lynch. "Mr. Olsen. I'm Officer Lynch and this is Officer Alonso. Do you need some time to process our names?"
"Oh, they send the arrogant one! I like that!" He looked strongly at Lynch, not keeping the eyes contact for some long seconds. She remained impassive. He turned to Chris who had lost any emotion on her face. "And you, pretty doll, what kind are you?"
"The kind you will tell everything about Karlsson." She was harsh, cold. She had let her emotions in the locker room, at home. She needed this to break this man.
"Oh, the cold kind. I like this too."
"Enough with the introduction, Mr. Olsen." Lynch cut him as he was enjoying the moment. "Let's talk about what is interesting us. Karlsson. Where is he?"
Olsen sneered. Lynch looked at him, smiling. "What about the assets you're hiding in the esthetician shop run by your girlfriend in Santa Clarita… Or should I say one of your girlfriend because it seems like you have invested in a bookshop in Anaheim run by another pretty girl and a dog grooming salon run by another beautiful woman in Santa Barbara…"
She looked at him in the eyes as she pronounced any of her words. Showing him observation pictures that had been sent to her by her contacts in the different precincts. Olsen remained silent, swallowing hard.
"Either you give us Olsen, or we will go and tell your girlfriend about their great boyfriend slash cheater. Up to you now."
Chris finished her sentence with a faint smile on her lips. This investigation was eventually moving forwards. Olsen was sweating. These two bitches had found his weak point and he didn't like this.
"What do you want?"
"Ready to talk as I see. Officer Alonso and I would be pleased if you give us the names and addresses of all Karlsson's hideouts."
"And don't forget one or we could randomly meet one of your girlfriends and tell her some unpleasant things about her perfect boyfriend."
"Now write all you know here. " Lynch gave him a pen and a pad.
The man took what she had given to him, reluctantly. When he was done, he threw the pad and the pen on the table. "Happy, now?"
"You have no idea how." Lynch answered with a smile on her lips, grabbing the pad and pen. "Officer Alonso, you know what to do with him." She turned to Olsen. "Sure, Officer Alonso will take good care of you."
She walked to the door and came out of the room. Chris remained alone with Olsen. She fixed her gaze upon him, hardly, strongly. Scrutinizing all the features of his face. He was the man behind the wheel. She could tell this for sure. She recognized this sadistic smile, these empty eyes, his tattoo in the neck. All became clear at this moment. Even if she claimed she didn't remember anything until now, Wendy always told her she will remember something at the moment she expected it the least.
"You are the man who ran over my colleague and almost killed him. The one who tried to kill me."
Olsen kept his head high. Refusing to speak.
"No need to speak. I know it's you. I remember now. What did Karlsson promise you if you kill me? A promotion? More money? A comfortable retreat? I want to know how my life is valued by this bastard."
Olsen remained stoical. Looking in the space and avoiding Chris's look as far as possible. She placed in front of him.
"Tell me. I want to know why I've almost lost one of my dearest friends, of my colleague." She was so angry, tears were rolling down her cheeks. Tears of anxiety. Tears of rage.
He started to snigger. She hit the table with her fist. He stopped immediately. She was not in a mood to laugh. "Tell me." She repeated, slowly but threatening. He swallowed hard looking at her dark look. She could look really threatening when she was gazing someone right in the eyes, especially when you had hurt someone she cared about.
"Tell me. " She insisted, knowing he was weakening.
"You can't do anything to me. Your colleagues will prevent you from touching me."
"Don't tempt me."
Luca entered the room. "You see, you can't touch me. "
"Oh I'm just here to enjoy the show."
Olsen swallowed hard once again. Chris kept gazing at him, unfailing. "Ok, he paid me 50 000 $ to kill you because he still bore a grudge against you since you're the person who arrested his lil bro for drug trafficking. And his lil bro has been murdered in jail because of gang rivalry. Or something like this."
"Was it so difficult to say?"
Olsen lowered his head. "Now tell us where Karlsson is? I mean the guy asks you to do all the dirty job while he's hiding. Not really fair. You've been here for him for the last 15 years and you're still doing the dirty work."
Olsen remained silent but Chris was sure he was thinking about his condition. She needed to continue. Luca nodded at her. "Fifteen years to serve Karlsson, fifteen years to listen to his orders. For what? For him to let you rot on jail and maybe being murdered like his lil bro. I assume he has a lot of enemies in prison that are looking for reasons to piss him off. What are they gonna say and do when they will see you arrive there?"
She could see he was more and more annoyed. She had almost reached her goal. "He was at San Diego. At his cousin's. For the last two weeks but he should move yesterday. I must have called him after the deal. But now he knows something has been done bad. So he must have moved… This man has so many family members and friends he can hide anywhere."
"And you could make us a list?"
He raised his head to watch at Chris. "What do you give to me in exchange?"
"Your life safe is not enough? Sending you in jail outside of California is already huge. Don't make me regret it."
"You have a pen?"
Olsen finally wrote a list with all the names he knew were related to Karlsson. Two long pages to go through to find the right connection. At least, they had something. Chris got out of the room with a smile as she handed the list to Lynch who was waiting for her in the control room.
"He made a list of the people, friends or relatives, connected to Karlsson."
"Well done Alonso. I know it was a woman's job. We're finer." She winked at her before turning to Hondo, Tan and Rhokker who had just ended to interview the buyer.
"Did he talk?"
"Chatty like a parrot!" Rhokker joked.
"The man was talking so much we had to ask him to slow down." Tan went one further.
Hondo laughed and became serious again. "He's nothing more than an arm trafficker who was happy to help LAPD if he can get away from the homicide attempt complicity charges."
"What did you get?" Lynch was curious. Hicks too, he could see in his eyes he was burning with questions. They spent hours to debrief both interviews and looking for information about the places Karlsson could hide. They called the local police stations to put in place surveillance patrols in the areas he was supposed to be, they talked to the chiefs of the districts to establish a permanent link between them and SWAT.
When the day ended, Chris felt the urge to call Street. She needed to tell him Olsen had talked and given some information about Karlsson. That it was the first step to catch this bastard. She walked to the locker room. Tan and Luca were about to leave. Hondo had still some things to figure out with Hicks and Lynch while Deac had gone for already 30 minutes to join his family.
"Time to go home, Chris." Luca warned her. "It's also valid for you Rodriguez" The young recruit smiled and finished to prepare in silence. It was definitively the big brother talking here.
"Don't worry, just time to change and I go home. Have a nice evening, guys. See you tomorrow."
"Bye girls." Tan and Luca vanished in the corridor as the door closed. Chris waved at them. "Good work today, Alicia."
"Thanks." She smiled to her. "Means a lot coming from you, Chris. "
Chris blushed. She didn't know how to handle compliments. "Good night, see you tomorrow."
And Alicia got out of the locker room. She remained alone. She looked around her to be sure no one was here and took her phone to dial Jim's number. He answered after only one ringtone.
"Hey."
"Hey." He answered softly. She could see his goofy smile on his face. And his dimples. Oh, gosh, she loved those dimples way more than she should have done.
"Everything's ok? You alright?"
"Yes, don't worry… I just call to tell you that we arrested Olsen, Karlsson's lieutenant this afternoon. "
"That's… Huge! How did you find him? I mean, the guy is good at playing hide and seek!"
She giggled. She wished she didn't. She talked quickly to erase this embarrassing moment. "We've got a tip and then we dig. And Luca knew a man who knew a man and so on and we've been able to locate him thanks to the help of the local police."
"Sounds fun. God, how I miss this!"
"The doc said when you'll be able to be back on field."
"In two weeks normally! I just need to be cleared by the therapist and all be ok."
She was both relieved to see him back at work and embarrassed to work next to him after what had happened during his recovery. "That's... Great. Happy for you."
He felt the awkwardness coming. "What about Olsen? Did he talk? Have you any lead on Karlsson? This bastard deserves to rot in jail."
"Still on the run, but we're closer to find him. " He could hear she was less stressed. She was talking about something she could handle. She told him how they had worked with the local police, how stressful the arrest of Olsen had been, that the hitmen almost broke Tan's nose but Luca punched the man instead. She was having fun telling him all that had happened. He liked when they were talking like this. As when he joined SWAT and she was her best friend.
"And you know what? Lynch asked me to question Olsen with her because he was totally muted in silence face to Hicks and we broke him bad!"
He faked surprise. He had known for a long time she was more capable of any of his other teammates. "No way? How did you do that?"
He listened to her, explaining how she trapped him because of his numerous girlfriends all over California and how she told him he was only used by Karlsson, putting his proudness and machismo in jeopardy. "The man was so pissed he told us everything about Karlsson's hideouts!"
"You should be proud, Chris. That's huge" Even if he was not with her, he knew she was blushing at this precise moment. "Soon, we're gonna lock this man and life could be normal again…"
As soon as he told those words, he felt the awkwardness be back. "I mean, you know, you and me and 20-David squad at work. Already feels good to my ears. I can't stand remaining at home and waiting for the days to pass."
She let out a laugh. "Soon. Matter of weeks now. And then you'll complain about notches and bruises."
"Never! I'm not that type."
"To others, you always talk about your field wounds for hours."
"Maybe, but they're cool? And it proves that I'm badass."
She giggled this time. She heard him doing the same. "Goodnight Long Beach."
"Goodnight, Chris."
This night, when he hung up his phone, he had a big smile on his face, he looked goofy as hell but he didn't care. He was happy to have heard her voice before going to bed.