Chapter 07
Ruzek's been watching his boss's room fixedly and the fact that his boss didn't notice his stare was disturbing him.
When he came in to the precinct in the morning, only Voight, Al and a sleepy looking Mouse was present. Ruzek was getting his desk ready and pulling unfinished paper work out from his locker when an overworked Will Halstead was ushered in by Platt. She exchanged a few words with Voight before she left Will in Voight's room. Soon in to their talk Voight asked Al to join them and Ruzek felt very left out. But what bothered him even more was his gut feeling that the talk was definitely about Jay.
Was he dead?Ruzek cursed himself for even doubting that but the facial expressions of those inside Voight's room left little room for him to think otherwise. Antonio and Kevin who came together stopped at the top of the stairs holding tight on to their coffee mugs.
"what's happening?" Kevin asked hoping Ruzek would have answers.
"Don't know, Doc came like he's seen a ghost and they keep talking" Ruzek stood up next to Kevin forming a united front of left out people.
"And Erin is uncharacteristically late" came observation from Mouse.
Antonio thought the better of it and took his first step to go inside Voight's room uninvited. He couldn't be left alone if it is about Jay. Jay is his responsibility. Although he had full faith in Jay to be able to handle himself, Antonio brought him to the unit and he couldn't help the feelings of protectiveness. But the threesome inside the room stood up and the blood drained out of their faces when Voight called the team to form a close circle.
"What Doctor Halstead is going to share with us now should be kept within this room" Voight's raspy voice informed the team in no uncertain terms what they were bound to. " after you hear him, you can decide whether you want in or out of what follows"
With Voight's nod Will started talking. He could see the baffled faces of his brothers team members. He knew they were fellow sufferers of the hollowness left behind by Jay. He waited a few seconds to gather his thoughts and showed his audience of baffled faces what he had inside his palm.
" A ring" Ruzek was quick to exclaim. " That was Jays, I've seen it before"
"It belonged to my maternal grand dad, he passed it down to my mom. She considered it her lucky charm" Will explained. "When Jay was getting ready for his first tour in Afghanistan, mom gave it to him and he never removed it ever since. It was his memory of two people he loved most" Will lifted his head and saw the pained faces of his brothers friends and took a long breath to hold up the tears that were at the brink of falling down. The ring was bringing him back too many memories, mom, grand dad, and Jay - three people Will Halstead loved most.
"Last night, we received a patient. He was transferred from a local hospital at river side because the patient needed more advanced treatments. He was shot , drowned, had hypothermia, severe blood loss, was unconscious and at the risk of slipping in to a coma."
The description left the team feeling even worse. "wow, that's er.. quite the list, is he still alive" Ruzek expressed his feelings in to words.
"yeah, word is he is getting better"
" What do you mean, word is" Antonio questioned trying to tie a link between the ring and the mystery patient.
" I had to go through his belongings as part of the patient registration. I found Army issue cargo pants, T shirt with a bullet hole and this" He said lifting up the ring. "He was military, and when we informed the military they were quick to identify him. Upon special request from defense department, the ICU ward he is in was emptied, other patients were moved in to a different ward. There are guards at the door, and there is a dedicated military doctor for him. No one is allowed in or to talk to him. He will be moved to an army hospital once he is stable enough"
Will took a breath and took the silence in the room to be his cue to continue. " I tried to talk to the doctor wishing he will share something out of professional courtesy...nothing " Will looked up at the people in front of him emptily knowing that if there is anyone in the world who could do something for Jay, it was them.
" How did you keep the ring with you" Antonio questioned although he had a guess." shouldn't it be with the patient ?"
"I skipped it from the form" Will said like it was the simplest thing in the world. He put the ring in to his coat pocket protectively and stood up straight. When he couldn't ignore the look from Antonio like Will was caught using his fingers to count, he decided to defend his decision. "I don't care if I get fired or go to jail for it. This ring belongs to Jay" Will said matter-of-factly. "And till Jay comes, it stays with me".
His hand went in to his coat pocket and felt the ring as if to prove himself what he was hoping for will become real in future. The room only became quieter as wills last words slipped his mouth with a shudder." Its not gonna be lost in some container with the people who would accuse Jay a traitor, And Jay IS coming back, in case any of you have doubts... I know that, I can feel it. He is alive somewhere"
"No body's doubting that Will, you know that, we are all in the same page on this, Jay is our family too" Voight said as he placed a comforting hand on Will's back.
"this guy must be someone from Jay's team, he must know something about him, you said he was found in the river , right? " Kevin asked breaking the uncomfortable silence.
"yeah"
"If he assume he was swimming for his life or he was thrown in to the river after he was shot, how long could he survive in the water with a gun shot wound, Can't we get an idea about the location where he was pushed or jumped in to the river?"
"I think we can, we have to take in to account the freezing water, bleeding wound, how fast he could have swam while wounded, the fact he must have floated after he fell unconscious, the tide, et cetera..."
"if doc think you can get a location I say you should start working on it right now, mouse pull the maps, work with Doc to pin a location" Voight started commanding. "but before we go on to this, I want you to listen to me very carefully" He said as all ears perked at him because they knew very well finding Jay was personal to all of them, and making any case personal was never a good thing for cops.
"This case will not go on the board, we are stepping in to prohibited territory" Voight observed the faces of his team before he started speaking again. He needed to know if everyone was on board with him. " So if there is anyone who doesn't want to risk it, you are welcome to enjoy a leave of absence."
They looked like they were being ridiculed by their boss.
"when has Jay ever hesitated to put himself out there for us boss? We are officially offended" Ruzek complained voicing everyone.
"Alright then, we'll start with the location " Voight gave it the go. "Nothing goes on the board, nothing leaves this precinct"
Mouse who was a silent observer of all this put his hand up to ask a question. " Boss, where is Erin?"
" She wanted a personal" Voight answered with a bit of a defeat in his voice. He was reconsidering his decision to let Erin and Jay date. Voight knew they were good to each other, but ever since they started dating a small fear always lurked inside him doubting Erin's ability to cope if something happens to Jay or if they broke up . Now he felt like his bad dream have started its manifestation in real life.
"can't be" Mouse said and everyone tuned in to this new development.
"After everything, I think its possible that she needs a day off to...process" Al stated wondering where this was leading.
"Can't be, because last night when I spoke to her she couldn't wait till its morning to come to work to analyse the video recordings" Mouse said defiantly. "she can't have asked for a leave all of a sudden"
'I think he has a point, she was on to something yesterday, she thought she had something on Jay. I don't know if the word is right, but she was actually excited" Antonio joined in.
" Elaborate please" Voight intently listened in and mouse started stuttering not knowing if it was his place to reveal what Erin asked him to handle personally.
"I don't know if ...I ...should"
"Mouse, yesterday this was personal to you and Erin, maybe Antonio, But now we all are in this, so stop bickering and just say it"
Mouse looked at Antonio who nodded in return.
"she asked me to look in to Captain and the Lab manager because she saw captain Reed at the Chicago lab entrance. She said he was surprised to see her drive by and she didn't like the look he gave her. She thought the Lab managers refusal to give away information, captain Reed, Your CI, they must all be connected"
"speaking of the lab manager, he said he will inform the pentagon about the CI detail we received, but they were a no show, may be the manager lied" Antonio suddenly remembered although the case with Voight's CI was closed.
"so what did you say you found" Al inquired. " please don't tell me you used CPD equipment to do what ever the illegal thing you did"
"course not" Mouse replied. "I ..er... obtained access to the security camera system "
"by 'obtained access' you mean you hacked in to the security system" Antonio raised an eyebrow at Mouse.
Mouse just shrugged and played in his laptop two video clips that included a conversation between the lab manager and captain Reed and another one that showed Captain Reed making a call at the exit of the Lab and throwing the phone in to the garbage bin.
"where is the sound" Ruzek inquired.
"The Lab manager can mute the security recordings, he did that when we were interviewing him" Antonio said. "Though we don't need sounds to understand that it wasn't just a professional talk, its a heated argument, look at the body language"
"The Lab manager looks petrified" Al observed. "what's with the throwing of the phone"
"it's a disposable phone" Mouse said and everybody looked at him surprised.
"How do you know that" Voight asked.
"because I scavenged the garbage dump at 3.30 in the morning" Mouse said pulling out the phone from the inside jacket of his hoodie. "waited for the night garbage truck and followed it to the dump, then waited hours until nobody was around"
"You are a piece of work" Ruzek exclaimed grabbing the phone which was secured in side a plastic evidence bag.
"The memory has only one number, I looked in to it and it belongs to one John Silva; dead several months ago" mouse provided more info. "Reed is definitely on to something in this whole drama"
Voight took a step back and looked at his team before he barked up the new set of orders. "Antonio and Atwater check out for Erin, go to her apartment, she is not answering any calls apart from the text I received at around 4.00 in the morning. Mouse try to get any cams around her apartment. Also try to pin the location with Doc, Al with Ruzek take a look around the Med, try to find what you can, I'm heading to lab managers home, time to have a private conversation"
With that the whole team dispersed in to their tasks leaving mouse and Will in the precinct.
"Anything?" Al asked from Ruzek who went to try and make small talk with the guard outside what used to be the ICU 1 of Chicago Med. Ruzek looked so disappointing.
"I swear, it's like a damned mini pentagon in the middle of the hospital" He swore. " But I saw through the glass the 'supposed to be dead' man. he is up, all wired up to the machines though"
"be a little descent to a man who survived a gun shot, hypothermia and all other conditions only Doc knows" Al said pulling out the tooth pick he was chewing and putting it in to the bin. " My gut feeling say we gotta talk to this soldier, he is our key"
"And how do you plan on doing just that?"
Al's eyes diverted up to the ceiling and ran along the Air vent line.
"Oh no, no no!" Ruzek pleaded. "I'm definitely going to loose my job"
"Its a simple choice, you want Jay back or not" Al presented the ultimatum to Ruzek.
"I do, of course" Ruzek stated " And a new job"