Oliver pulled up on scene and parked his truck behind Andy's. Sunlight was beginning to depart and it wasn't even that late in the afternoon yet. Coming up on December, the days were only going to get shorter. While he would miss the daylight, he loved December because of the holiday season. And this year Oliver was planning something special.
He walked over towards the back end of the squad car still sticking out of the house and found a detective taking pictures and making notes. The detective turned to him and offered his hand, Oliver shook it. He introduced himself as Aaron Carter from SIU. Carter was a middle-aged man, a long-time SIU Detective. Oliver recognized the name but had never met him. Of the Special Investigations Unit, Carter was one of the few that had a reputation for being pretty well-liked outside of the unit.
"Good thing this house was vacant," Carter said.
"Yeah, great thing," Oliver remarked. A pause followed, neither really had much to say. A whole lot of uncertainty surrounded this situation and with the suspect dead and Officer Young unconscious in the hospital, Carter was unlikely to get a whole lot of clarity soon.
Carter broke the silence, "There's a Traffic Detective down at the suspect car, name's Mitchell, she might have something more for you."
"Alright, thanks. I'll be around if you need me."
Oliver wandered down to the car that was still on its side. He noticed a couple tow trucks parked on the next street, waiting for the go-ahead to haul away the wrecks.
The Traffic unit was housed out of a different division so Oliver didn't know Detective Mitchell at all. She was young, probably recently minted and assigned there. "Detective? I'm Staff Sergeant Shaw, 15 Division."
"Lindsey Mitchell, Traffic." They shook hands.
"What have you got?"
"The car is registered to an Edith Clarke, out of Barrie. Marked stolen. I called up there and they are sending a unit to her house to check in on her. Hopefully hear back soon."
"Maybe that's what caught Officer Young's attention."
"Good bet. Judging by the skid marks and groves in the yard I believe this car left the road trying to make a turn, got loose and flipped like this. The officer swerved and tried to brake but got up in that yard and plowed into the house."
Oliver followed her hand as she indicated her reconstruction and nodded at the end. "Well this is your area of expertise, I'll take your word."
She smiled a bit and then dropped dons by the windshield again. "One more thing, have a good amount of blood here where the driver was ejected. Supports your officer's conclusion on C.O.D."
"Alright. Speaking of them, do you know where Sergeant McNally is?"
"Yeah, I remember her from the academy, nice to see her moving up as well. She's down with the body."
"Which is where?"
"In the back yard of the house with the coroner van in front."
"Thanks," Oliver laughed at himself. "I should have been able to figure that out, being in the white shirt must be making me rusty,"
"Don't sweat it, it's been a long day for everyone."
Oliver trudged down the street and trough the fence which Andy was leaning against on the other side.
"Hey Staff," Andy greeted him.
"McNally. I saw Detective Mitchell down by the car, she working the D.B. too or…?
"Yeah, he died of blood loss from his injuries from the accident so traffic took it."
"What's the word on Officer Young?"
"I sent Chris and Marcy with the Ambulance. They told me they were rushing her in for and MRI and Cat scan. Probably a lot of other tests, too. Fire and rescue thought she had a concussion."
"They're checking for anything as a result of the trauma. Did you give your statements?"
"Yep, talked to both detectives. Lindsey Mitchell and I were in the academy together, I didn't know she made detective. It was nice seeing her again, we'd kind of fallen out of touch."
"Yeah, it's funny. I remember guys from the academy that I lost contact with too. In a city like this, you could practically go your whole career and only run into a small portion of the entire service. What with all the divisions and specialty units. Anyway, you can get out of here if you want. Sam and Epstein are still at the hospital with the baby last I know. Price too."
"Sounds good, I'll just check in with the D's one last time then head over there."
"I'll be there later but it might be late given all of this," Oliver waved this arm around signaling the three separate scenes and investigations going on.
"Well, in case I don't see you later tonight, I'll see you tomorrow," Andy said.
"Oliver clapped her on the shoulder, "Take it easy McNally. And try to stay out of trouble, we don't need any more adventure tonight."
Andy smiled and gave a playful salute. "Yes, sir." She turned around and walked out of the yard.
Oliver looked around again, let out a sigh, and pulled out his phone. He quickly accessed his recent calls and tapped on Celery's name. She answered after the second ring.
"Hey Darling, how's your day been?"
Celery filled him in on a house cleansing she had done that day. Oliver didn't quite understand all the science behind her methods but he was intrigued by it and all the exotic materials she had to acquire to use. The fact that people paid large amounts of money for these services was a nice touch too.
"That's great, listen I know we were planning on doing some preliminary planning tonight but something came up at work."
"Oh, no. Is everything okay?"
"Well an officer is in the hospital along with an unidentified baby. A stolen car is overturned in the street, the driver was ejected and is dead. Oh, and a squad car is in a house. Soooo…"
"Wow, you got a lot on your plate. I hope your officer is okay, are you going to the hospital?"
"Yeah, I'll have to later, but I might be stuck here awhile."
"Call me when you get there, I could come join you if you want."
"Yeah, maybe, if it's not too late. I love you, honey."
"I love you, Oli. And don't worry about the planning, we have plenty of time still."
"I know, it's no big deal."
"What is a big deal is your surprise. Is that still lined up?"
"Yeah, down to the hour, in fact. Give or take."
"That's great."
"I'll call you later, take care."
Oliver hung up and went to find Mitchell again.
A couple more hours passed and finally both detectives and the coroner said they had all they needed and gave the word to clear the scenes. Both tow trucks moved in and the cars were taken off. Crime scene tape was placed around the house and the gaping whole blocked out until the construction crew could come in the next day. Oliver made arrangements to park a unit on the house overnight to make sure nobody went in.
Mitchell walked to Oliver, who was sitting in his truck.
"Just heard back from Barrie P.D. Mrs. Clarke verified that the car is hers. Of interesting note, she reports she hasn't heard from her son in a couple days, he sometimes borrowed the car but never without checking with her first. Her description that Barrie P.D. relayed to me is our vic. His name is Sean Adams but Mrs. Clarke re-married after his father died. He sometimes lived in their basement.
"Huh. So he steals his mom's car and drives down here. Where does the baby fit in?"
"I don't know. Mom says he has no kid, doesn't even have a girlfriend that she knows of. Anyway, I know you have some guys working the baby angle so I thought I'd pass this along to ya."
"Thanks Detective, I appreciate it."
She smiled and walked away.
Lots of initiative in that one, Oliver thought to himself. He was no longer needed at the scene anymore and decided to head to the hospital. First, he pulled out his phone and called Sam.
"Hey Sam," Oliver said after his best friend picked up. "The scene is cleared. You still at the hospital?
"Yeah," Sam began. They're still running the baby through some tests, you know, making sure she's all right on the inside. I got Dov and Chloe looking through Amber Alerts. She's very young but no hospitals anywhere around here report a missing baby.
"Does that search reach up to Barrie?" Oliver interrupted.
"Uh, yeah, why? You got something on Barrie?"
"Yeah, maybe something. I'll fill you in when I get there, I'm on my way. Anything on Officer Young?"
Diaz and Zettle came in with her, Andy's down with them. Last I heard, they were waiting for the MRI results."
"Let me know if anything cracks on the baby, I'll be there soon."
"See ya brother."
Oliver disconnected and called Celery back.
"Hey, I'm done at the scene. I'm going to swing by the hospital."
"You want me to come and sit with you?"
"Nah, it's getting late, and I don't think I'll be there that long. Just checking in and relaying some information more than anything. I think I've about hit my usefulness for the day," Oliver joked lightly. "I'll see you in a little bit.
"I Love you. Be careful."
"I will. Love you too."
When Oliver was about 5 minutes from the hospital his phone rang again. The screen said 'Sam'.
"Hey, Sam I'm almost there. What's up?" Oliver listened for a few seconds, flipped on the siren, and mashed the accelerator.