Erin walked into the bullpen the next morning with dark circles under her eyes. The only thing that was keeping her awake was the cup of coffee in front of her, the second one she had in the few hours since she got out of bed.
Lindsay was ready to sit down at her desk when Voight peeked out of his office. "Lindsay, can I talk to you for a second?"
Erin walked over to Hank's office and took a deep breath, "What's up, Hank?" she said, giving him a small reassuring smile.
"How are you holding up? I know you've been leaning on Halstead since the accident so I just wanted to see how you're doing." Voight said, seriously.
Erin looked down at the cup of coffee in her hands, trying to avoid eye contact. "Yeah, I'm okay. It wasn't easy to sleep last night, but I'll get through the day."
Voight could read Erin like an open book. He knew when something was on her mind, almost instantly. "Come by the house for dinner tonight. You and I. Just like old times." Hank said, smiling and putting his hands on Erin's shoulders.
"Yeah, sure," Erin said, forcing a smile and going to her desk.
Jay Halstead walked into the school and looked for the administration office. The old building was filled with loud buzz of high school students. He found the administration office and walked up to the older woman sitting at the secretary's desk.
"Hi, I'm Jason Callaghan. I'm the new deans assistant." He said to the woman, flashing his signature grin.
She rose from her seat. "Oh yes, Mr. Callaghan, we were expecting you would start today. Let me introduce you to the head dean you will be working with."
She made her way through the office into a separate room labeled "Dean's Offices". She knocked on the door before she entered, and Jay was introduced to a dark haired man with dark eyes.
"Mr. Holmes this is Jason Callaghan, our new dean's assistant," the secretary said. The man rose from his seat at his desk and walked toward Jay.
"Good to meet you. Brad Holmes, head dean," the man said, sticking his hand out.
Jay shook the man's hand firmly. "So I'll leave you to inform Mr. Callaghan of his day to day job," the secretary said walking out back to her office.
"Take a seat, detective. The superintendent notified me that you would be arriving today." Holmes said, gesturing to the chair in front of him. Jay sat down and looked around the small office. It had the faint smell of tobacco and peppermint, the walls were painted a light blue. The desk was dark oak with an old computer in the corner, filled with different papers from detention slips to hall passes.
"It's good to have you working with us. The school has been in shambles for weeks. Maybe you can give me some piece of mind and find out who's doing this." Holmes said.
"I'll do my best. Do you have anything new for me?" Jay asked.
"We caught another student this morning. His name is Demetrius Thompson. We found him with a bag of the stuff under the bleachers on the football field. Seems like it was their new distributing spot." The dean said.
"Okay. And where else have they been caught distributing?" Jay asked.
"We found another in the parking lot a few weeks ago. Other than that we aren't sure." Holmes said, shrugging his shoulders.
"What about the bathrooms?" Jay asked.
"After we found the overdosed student we try to have someone check the bathrooms nearly every hour. Looking for needles, anything really."
"And where is Demetrius Thompson now?" Jay asked.
"We had two cops take him down to district 21 for questioning. I'm hoping for the best for the kid, really. He has a bright future, he puts in the work to succeed here, I don't know why he would go down this road."
Jay nodded. "My sergeant will probably inform me of what's happening with him within the next few hours. Other than that, is there anything else you need from me?"
"Just monitor the students during your time here. Really just spend time making sure no one gets into any kind of trouble and you'll be notified of anything that's going on with the drugs."
Jay left the office and walked down the hall. Unlike when he arrived the halls were empty and quiet now. He looked up at the clock and saw that it was just after 9:30 am. It's going to be a long day, he thought to himself.
In the interrogation room in district 21 sat 17 year old Demetrius Thompson. He was tall and muscular, wearing a dark gray hoodie and dark jeans. He stared at his hands while sitting on the table, his foot tapped uncontrollably.
Ruzek and Lindsay entered the interrogation room. Ruzek took a seat at the table across from Demetrius, while Lindsay paced around the room.
"So Demetrius," Ruzek started saying, "we have no prior record of you in our system. You're not in the gang databases. Never been arrested. Hell, we don't even have you for a parking ticket. What got you into the business?"
Demetrius stayed quiet for a minute before Lindsay started to speak. "You know, one thing I hate is to see a kid with a bright future lose it because he made stupid choices. You're the star shooting guard on your basketball team, you already have scholarship offers for when you graduate next spring. Your grades are good, and like Ruzek said no prior record. So why don't you tell us who put you up to doing this?"
"Look kid you tell us who's making you do this, we'll cut a deal and you'll walk. But you have to help us." Ruzek said.
"I'm screwed either way. I don't talk, I get thrown in a jail cell like my old man. I talk to y'all, they gonna kill me." Demetrius said.
"Who's they?" Lindsay asked.
"Damn it, I'm already dead. Once they find out I got caught—"
Lindsay cut off his panic attack. "We won't let them get to you. You just have to start talking to us."
"You're gonna want to write some of this stuff down."