Chapter 17 – Reunions
A few hours later Hank, Lexi and Jay walked back in to the Intelligence Unit. The rest of the team had been busy whilst they had been at the prison.
The board was set up with pictures of Calvin Poe, Trent Lamont and Leslie Shay with basic information written beside their pictures, dates of birth, dates of death for Shay and Lamont. Lexi eyed the picture of Shay and averted her eyes.
"I want an update on everything right now" Hank announced "we all need to know what's happening"
"How'd it go with the cell mate?" Olinsky asked from his desk.
"Calvin made Steven believe he and Lexi were a couple" Jay told them leaning on his desk. "Knew a lot about her, her family, where she grew up. Had a picture of her on the wall. Trent visited him whilst he was inside, told him he was his half-brother"
"Yeah that's true" Olinsky added "I found out Trent's Dad, Elliott, had an affair with Trent's baby sitter, Becky Poe. Calvin was the result. I'm trying to find an address for Becky, but I think she moved out of Chicago shortly after Calvin was born"
"Okay, keep on that, that's good work" Voight praised "What else we got?"
"I've been digging in to the picture left on Lexi's car" Adam began motioning everyone over to his desk, so they could see his computer. "I found this" Adam pressed play on the video when everyone had a view of his screen. "I figured the angle of the photo must have been taken from across the street, so I pulled up all the cameras." The video showed Trent Lamont leaning over the bonnet of a black SUV using a professional looking camera to take photos of Lexi and Shay as they were entering Molly's. "You can see Lexi and Shay just at the top of the screen" Adam commentated. Once Lexi and Shay had entered the bar Trent looked directly at the surveillance camera and smirked before getting in to the SUV and driving away.
The video finished, and everyone broke away some sitting at their desks or standing by their desks. "I found footage of the person placing the envelope on your car" Burgess said looking at Lexi. "It was a white kid, about 13 or 14, with a backpack on, I'm assuming he was walking to school. He's got a coat on, so I can't see any school logos or anything. I've followed the cameras back as far as I can but there's too many blind spots and he pulled the envelope from his bag, but you never see him put anything in his bag."
"Okay" Voight said "you and Atwater go back to the area find that kid, see who gave him the envelope, maybe he walks the same route every day"
Burgess and Atwater stood from their desks and began putting their coats on.
Lexi raised her voice above the hum of the team moving about to get the job done "Wait" The Intelligence Unit came to a halt, all looking at Lexi. "I just wanna thank you all for everything. You've all worked tirelessly the last few days, you've all gone above and beyond, and I can never thank you enough for that."
"That's what family does" Burgess smiled at her.
Lexi's desk phone ringing broke the touching moment. "Okay let's go to work" Voight dismissed them as Lexi walked to her desk to answer her phone.
"Detective Shay" Lexi answered her phone "What? Okay, put him in a room I'll be down in a minute" Lexi put the phone back on the receiver and looked at Jay. "Benny Douglas is downstairs, asking to see us"
"Who's Benny Douglas?" Adam asked
"He's the other guy we lived with when we were undercover." Jay explained following Lexi to the stairs.
Lexi, Jay, Platt, Voight and Adam eyed Benny through the observation glass whilst Benny sat at the table in the adjacent interrogation room. Platt had put him in the room at Lexi's request. "Did he say what he wanted?" Lexi asked
"He just said he had some information you might need" Platt explained "but said he could only give it to you or Halstead"
The door opened, and they all turned to see Antonio enter "okay, so I spoke to the parole board" Antonio began reading from the notepad he held in his hand "he got out a year ago. He saved a guard's life during a prison riot, shortly after he found out his mom had cancer, so they gave him parole. He's been to every appointment with his parole officer, volunteers to talk with other parolee's, has a steady job at a fast food joint and goes with his mom to every hospital appointment"
"He's a changed man" Jay said "from a top drug pusher to a momma's boy"
"Let's get in there and hear what he has to say" Voight suggested "Lexi, you want in?"
Lexi thought about it for a second, she shook her head "No. I'm good out here"
"Okay Jay, you take point on this" Voight told him motioning for him to go through the door.
"Jay" Benny's smile beamed as he watched Jay walk in, Benny stood and held his hand for Jay to shake.
"Hey Benny. That's not the greeting I was expecting" Jay told him shaking his offered hand as he and Voight sat on the other side of the table.
Benny nodded "You expect me to blame you for my wrong doings? For putting me away?"
"Something like that"
Benny shook his head "No man. Going away was the best thing that ever happened to me. I found my way, I found God, well God found me" Jay and Voight exchanged a sceptical look. "I know it sounds ridiculous, and corny but its true. Prison really changed me for the better"
"So, we've heard" Voight began leaning on the cold metal table. "Perfect parolee, stable job, help your mother"
Benny nodded "Yeah, yeah, that's me. My mom doesn't have long left, I want to make sure the time she does have left is filled with happiness and joy" Jay and Voight allowed Benny to talk, the more at ease he felt the easier this would be.
"You believe this guy?" Ruzek asked Lexi watching the interview unfold.
"He seems genuine." Lexi explained "Benny was never a bad guy, just did bad things. He never did wrong by me"
"I read the report, he shot Jay" Dawson reminded her
"True. Although he only grazed his leg"
"Besides haven't we all wanted to shoot Jay at one point or another?" Ruzek joked gaining a laugh from the room.
"Benny as great as it is to catch up" Jay began "why are you here?"
Benny sighed and lost the smile he had been wearing. His expression became troubled, like he was fighting with an internal voice. "it seems this week is full of reunions" Benny started sighing "Yesterday, Calvin Poe showed up at my front door."
"What did he want?"
"Told me it was time for us to get our revenge for our lives being ruined." Benny explained "Revenge on you and Lexi." He looked at Jay and nodded towards the one-way glass, he couldn't see Lexi in the other room but must have known she was watching. "He told me your both Detective's here. That you got promotions after you took us down" Jay nodded his confirmation but didn't speak. "Hi Lexi" Benny waved at his own reflection. "Hey, do you remember that pool party we had for Lexi's birthday? During that party he told me he didn't trust either of you, he got a bad vibe from you both." Benny started telling the story of the pool party and Calvin's suspicious behaviour.
Lexi's mind flashed to the pool party not because she knew about Benny and Calvin's conversation, as it had been the first time she had ever kissed Jay.
Flashback –
Benny had decided to throw a pool party for Lexi's birthday. It was her actual birthday, when she went undercover, she was told to keep her story as close to the truth as possible, less chance of being caught in a lie.
Lexi didn't know anyone at the party, Benny, Calvin and Jay were the only faces she recognised. It was mostly bikini clad woman with a few guys who Lexi assumed Benny had invited from the gym he attended.
Benny had given strict instructions that no one was to enter the main house, the pool house and pool area only. Lexi knew it was because the house belonged to the supplier and there was a lot of money and drugs on site, if any of it went missing Benny would be blamed, he was in charge after all.
Some muscle filled guy had stopped Lexi on the way to get a drink and she was stuck making polite conversation with him.
Jay watched Lexi across the pool, she was talking to a guy who looked like he ate steroids for breakfast washed down with a protein shake and Lexi's expression told him the protein shake had more personality too.
Lexi was looking around at any one close by to try and find a reason to walk away from this guy, he kept stepping closer to her and Lexi kept edging back. If she went any further, she would end up in the pool. She couldn't be impolite to this guy, she didn't know who he was, he could have been a good customer of Benny's or something, she didn't want to make waves. But the way he was looking at her and licking his lips made her wish she had more clothes on than a purple bikini top and denim shorts.
"So how did Benny get so lucky to be living with a girl like you?" muscle guy asked reaching forward to run a finger down her breast bone.
"Hey…" Jay said grabbing muscle guys hand before he made contact, squeezing his fingers together, he warned, "…Don't touch my girl"
Lexi sighed heavily relieved for the rescue. Jay let go of muscle guy's hand, but the warning clearly hadn't registered as he didn't move. "Come on, let's go get a drink" Lexi said taking Jay's hand and leading him in to the empty main house. "Thank you for the save" Lexi told him closing the patio doors on the party, drowning out the noise. "I thought I was gonna have to fake falling in to the pool to escape" she told him pulling herself up on to the kitchen surface by the fridge as Jay took out two beers.
Jay laughed and handed her a bottle of open beer "He probably would have jumped in after you, tried to give you CPR" Jay leant against the fridge beside her.
Lexi shivered at the thought of the muscle guy's lips on hers. "Urgh, don't I may throw up."
Jay chuckled and took a swig of his beer. "So, enjoying your birthday party?"
"Oh, it's the best party ever!" Lexi joked rolling her eyes "I don't know anyone here, the female to male ratio is astounding, although I guess that's a good thing for you" Lexi smirked swigging her beer.
Jay scrunched up his face in disgust "Please, have you seen the women out there? They are all one lip injection from being completely plastic" Lexi almost spat out the sip of beer she had in her mouth at his assessment. "So, come on, tell me what you would be doing if you were at home and not living the high life with me and the boys?"
Lexi chuckled then became a little sad. "I'd be with my sister. We're really close, we've never spent a birthday apart."
"Maybe Benny will give you some time off and you can go see her" Jay said not liking the sad look in her eyes or the sombre tone to her voice. "Come on" Jay said offering her his hand "Let's get back to your party"
Lexi took his hand and jumped down from the counter top "I'm not going out there unless muscle brains is occupied"
"Don't worry about him" Jay told her standing in front of her ready to lead her out of the house "I'll make sure he knows your off limits"
"Oh yeah, and how are you going to do that?" Lexi asked looking up at him.
Jay leant in, slowly and gently kissed her lips. He pulled back a few centimetres from her and opened his eyes to look at her "I've wanted to do that since the day I walked in here" he told her.
"Well do it again" Lexi told him putting her hand around his neck and pulling his face to hers kissing him enthusiastically.
End of flashback.
Voight's fist hitting the metal table bought Lexi back to reality.
"Enough of the reminiscing" Voight yelled slamming his fist on the table. "Why are you here?"
"I told him I didn't need revenge, explained everything I just told you guys"
"How'd he take that?" Voight enquired trying to calm down, he hadn't decided what Benny's angle was here. Was he warning them? Was he helping Calvin?
"Surprisingly well."
"Did he tell you anything else?" Jay asked, he needed to know everything Benny knew.
Benny shook his head "No. He said he had a plan, that it was already in motion. He said he's going to break her first, make her lose everything, then he'll hurt her. He asked me to do him one last favour" Benny reached in to the inside of his jacket pocket and pulled out a small brown envelope "he told me if I didn't deliver these, he'd hurt my mom. I believe him"
Lexi watched Jay take the envelope from Benny and take out two photos. Lexi watched the anger take over Jay's face. Jay passed them to Voight, he scanned the photos and turned them over "I'm everywhere" Voight read the words written on the back aloud.
"He told me to tell Lexi there's no escaping him" Benny repeated the message.
"Benny, thank you" Jay stood up and shook Benny's hand then marched out of the room. He didn't slow down or acknowledge his team mates in the other room he continued to walk out in to the corridor.
Lexi started to go after him when Voight stepped in to the room and passed her one of the photos, he held the other in the envelope. Lexi surveyed the photo he offered, it showed her sitting on the breakfast bar in Kelly's kitchen the day before, Kelly standing in front of Lexi, kissing passionately. The picture had clearly been taken through the window of the adjacent building, but you could still see the desire of the kiss.
Lexi closed her eyes inhaled sharply to hold back the anger and tears that wanted to erupt as Ruzek took the picture from her hand.
"I'm guessing that's recent?" Voight enquired, Lexi nodded in reply.
"Did Jay know about it?" Ruzek asked, he felt bad for Jay, it wasn't something he needed to see but he felt bad for Lexi too, she couldn't catch a break.
"Yeah" Lexi exhaled slowly "I told him about it, but he didn't need to see it. What's the other photo?"
Voight shook his head and began walking out of the room, Lexi, Ruzek and Dawson on his heels. "You don't need to see it" Voight decided.
"Sarge come on" Lexi told him matching his brisk pace.
"It's Shay" Voight told her not stopping as he walked up to the stairs in to the intelligence office. "When they pulled her out of the building"
Lexi slowed her pace and allowed Voight to walk in to his office, she didn't want or need to see that photo, she was thankful he had hidden it from her.