A/N: Hey everybody. I hope all are well. I apologize for the time away but i had some family stuff come up and it kept me pretty busy. Also, this was a transition point in the story and this case is the beginning of a long-form arc and I wanted to make sure I had it all sort of planned out ahead of time so I don't box myself into anything. Therefore I decided to take a hiatus to get all my "ducks in a row". Anyway, I'm happy to be back and to keep 15 Lives On rolling.
Peace.
An officer still manning the crime scene perimeter held up the police tape as Traci and Juliet walked under it, holding up their badges. Oliver met them on the other side and escorted them over to where Bailey and his team were, filling them in along the way. When they made it over to Bailey, he took over the escort and led them into Eaton Centre and to the bathroom where the victim was discovered.
"By the time we mobilized and made entry, we're pretty sure the shooter was already gone. Our sweep turned up one vic. Female, late twenties or early thirties. She didn't have any wallet or I.D. Phone was gone, too." They reached the bathrooms and bailey continued as they walked in. "We have a person of interest we have on camera, but no I.D. on him yet. We're working on it, though."
"Thanks, Sergeant," Ward said.
"Yeah, we'll give you a call if anything comes up," Traci added.
Bailey nodded, "Sure thing. Any time." With that, he left the two with the forensics team that had begun processing the scene. The tech closest to them gave Traci and Juliet an acknowledging nod.
"Detective Nash and Officer Ward, Guns and Gangs," Traci introduced them.
"James," the forensic tech said. "Can't tell you too much. Two GSWs to the back seem to be the cause of death. No shell casings that we've found, but we'll keep looking."
"Recover the slugs?", Juliet asked.
Actually, they're still inside of her. No exit wounds."
"Likely hollow points," Traci said, a little surprised. This was starting to look less random, and more targeted. Definitely not amateur, either.
That would be my guess," James said. "We'll have a caliber and more detail on that once we get her on the slab."
"Are you thinking this was professional?", Juliet asked Traci.
"Can we see the body?", Traci asked James, not answering Juliet.
"Sure." James led them the couple steps over to the body, which was covered by a yellow, plastic sheet. Tracie and Juliet were careful to walk in the tech's footsteps, not wanting to risk contaminating any part of the crime scene. "We didn't find any I.D. on her. Given the attention on this, I went ahead and put in for a rush on the DNA. Still, it'll take 48 hours or so." He bent down and peeled back the tarp, revealing the face of the deceased.
"Oh my god," Juliet gasped.
"You know her?", Traci asked.
Juliet gathered herself. "Yeah, to a degree. Her name's Tammy. She'd been informing for me."
"Great, then we have her information."
"Actually, we don't. I never carded her, and we ever met anywhere I can trace back."
Traci understood that. Swarek had numerous C.I.s when they were partnered that were never in the system. Traci, herself, always wanted to do things officially. But she hadn't done undercover work the way both Swarek and Juliet had. She didn't know what that life was like behind enemy lines. So, she accepted that some cops wanted to protect their informants.
"Well, at least we have something," Traci conceded. Turning to the tech, "Thanks James, let us know anything that develops."
"Of course, Detectives."
Leaving the bathroom, Traci led her partner over to an empty area of the hallway, away from all the officers and crime scene people on scene.
"What was Tammy informing you on? Who was she with?"
"She wasn't with anybody. But her brother is hooked up with the Irish."
The Irish. The last time Traci dealt with them her life basically fell apart and had to be rebuilt. A corruption scandal rocked through the Service and got her then boyfriend Steve wrapped up in it. After that, it took Traci awhile to dig out of her funk. On a professional note, She and Swarek were able to nab corrupt police commissioner Santana, with the testimony of Steve. Now they, along with a few other dirty cops were behind bars for aiding the Irish mob. As far as Aiden Kelly goes, he's still free. He never dealt face-to-face with Steve or anyone else, and therefore fall guys in the outfit took the ride.
"How involved, Ward?"
"From what she was telling me, very. We had only met up a couple times, though. I don't have much concrete."
"But you have the name, and a file started, obviously."
"Yeah."
"Okay then, let's get back to the barn and take a look."
When they got back to the office, Traci's desk-phone was blinking, meaning she had a voicemail. She picked it up and punched in her code to access the message, it was from Bailey. They were still following up on the person of interest and found him leaving a parking garage attached to Eaton Centre on a city CCTV camera. They ran his plate and just got an address back. Traci hung up on the voicemail and called Bailey back.
"Sergeant Bailey," he answered.
"Hey Bailey, it's Nash. I just got your message."
"So, you know what we know. Car is registered to a Florence Keller. You want to pay her a visit?"
"Yes, shoot me the address."
"Will do, see you there, detective."
Traci hung up and told Juliet what was going on.
"You go ahead, I'll stay here and start going through my file on the brother. Liam is the only name I have for him right now. Hopefully we'll find some next of kin for Tammy that can helps identify Liam.
"Yeah, hopefully. You sure you don't want to go."
"I mean, if he's there you'll just bring him back anyway. I'll talk to him then."
"Okay, good luck with the file."
Juliet simply nodded and dove back in to reading her own notes.
Traci rendezvoused with Bailey down the block from the target house. "Florence Keller, what do we know about her?"
"She's 64 and divorced. No record, really. Just a couple of speeding tickets. Her son, Nathan, lives with her. He's 27, pretty clean, too." Bailey pulled up a still from the CCTV footage as well as a yearbook photo of Nathan. The photos were several years apart but they seemed to be of different people.
"I did a drive-by of the house on the way here," Bailey continued, "and didn't see the car."
"Well, I don't know about you," Traci said, "but I'm ready to get over there."
"I'll lead the way," Bailey got back in his truck and triggered his headset. "Bravo, Alpha's moving in.
"Copy, no change here. Moving to the back."
With bravo moving their SUV from kitty corner to the back of the Keller residence Bailey and Traci parked their vehicles right in front of the house. Traci went up to knock on the door, but given the circumstances, Bailey stepped in front and knocked first. "Metro Police ETF. Bailey knocked again before he heard footsteps approaching. Both he and Traci put had their hands on their holstered weapons, just in case.
When the door opened, an older woman stood on the other side, she seemed completely caught off-guard by their presence. "Can I help you, officers?"
"Sergeant Bailey and Detective Nash," Bailey introduced them. Are you Ms. Keller?"
She nodded, "I am. What's this all about?"
Bailey and Traci relaxed a little bit but still were aware of everything going on. "Ma'am, is that your car in the driveway?", Traci asked.
"Yeah, why? Is there something wrong with it?"
"We're just trying to narrow things down," Traci said. "We got your car on CCTV but a young man was driving it."
"Oh, well, sometimes my son, Nate, drives it. But he's been home all day."
"May we come in ma'am?", Traci asked.
Before Ms. Keller could respond, a young man bolted down the stairs behind her and disappeared around the corner, probably to a back door.
Bailey grabbed his radio as he and Traci pushed into the house after him. "Subject's rabbiting out the back!"
"Copy, we have a visual. He just hopped a fence into the alley, we're pursuing," said one of Bailey's cover team members.
When Traci and Bailey made it too the back yard, they could hear the ETF SUV driving past them and down the alley to their right. Then they heard a small thud, a loud grunt and the SUV braking.
Bailey and Traci cleared the fence and saw the suspect was in custody. They jogged over to the action as one of Bailey's team members stood up the runner, who they recognized as Nathan Keller.
"Good grab, guys", Bailey said.
"It was all Shelby. As I pulled even she popped her door and bumped him enough to knock him down. Then she hopped out and had him cuffed before I even made it around from my side," the other ETF member, whose name was Caleb.
"What do you guys want with me? What's with all the S.W.A.T. cops?"
"We were just going to ask you some simple questions, maybe bring you back to the station with us to look at some photos but then you ran, so now you're being detained," Traci told him. You're not under arrest now, but I'm going to read you your rights, so we can ask you some questions."
That done, Traci asked if he still wanted to answer any questions, which he reluctantly assented to.
"Where've you been today?", Traci asked.
"Nowhere. Uh, Here. All day."
"I assume you heard about what happened earlier at Eaton Centre?"
"I mean, yeah. Everyone has, it's all over the news."
"Okay, so can you explain how your mother's car was at the scene when she tells us only she and you have access to it? And we know she wasn't driving it.
"Ah, damnit. I may have let someone else borrow the keys today."
"May have?" Bailey asked.
"Fine, fine, I did. But I wasn't driving it today. And so what? there were a ton of people and cars there today. You can't possibly know this is related to that.
"So, why'd you run?", Traci asked.
Nathan didn't answer. Instead he said, I want to talk to a lawyer."
"Okay then, we're done here." Traci turned to Bailey, "Hold him here, I'll call for a transport to pick him up."
"The mother?"
"I'll talk to her, too," Traci said. She decided she didn't want to climb back over the fence, so she walked back to the end of the alley and back around the block to the front of the house. Ms. Keller was watching her approach from the front porch.
"You guys are taking him in?"
"I'm afraid so, at least for some further questions. He's requested a lawyer, so we'll get him set up with that down at 15 Division."
"He's a good boy detective, he just has some questionable associations."
"Oh, really? Like who?"
"I don't know most of their names. In fact, I only know one. They've been friends since school, but Liam's always been a bit of a trouble maker. He'd wind both of them up in detention and I always thought he was a bad influence on Nate, but my son didn't have many friends. I overlooked it as childhood shenanigans, you know? Now I don't know for certain, but I think he's involved with some bad people, and I worry that's rubbing off on my boy."
"I understand ma'am, but I think he knows information that can help us, and he's not telling us, yet. And this Liam? Do you know a last name?"
"McQuinn. Liam McQuinn."