Jay watched as the coroner placed his CI's body on the gurney and bring it to the van.
Hank came next to him, his hands in his pockets.
"What did the message say yesterday"?
"Nothing much, at least not in detail. They both said that something was going down. I told them to meet me tonight".
"Get in touch with your other CI. If he's alive bring him in so we can keep him safe and find out what it was they were referring to".
"Yeah".
"Jay, right now, there is no way of knowing if his death is linked to the fact that he contacted you, so don't go blaming yourself".
Jay nodded. He still felt as though he was to blame.
Kevin came up to them. "Place is clean man, there's nothing here. Whoever did this was pro enough to not leave any tracks. They even extracted the three bullets from the body so we can't identify them".
Hank nodded. "Ok, things just started getting interesting. Ruzek and Halstead, I want you both to head over to the morgue and you stay put until the ME has something that we can work with"!
As Hank got into the car with Alvin, he looked at him. "I don't like the way this is going. It's the first time we've got a potential suspect, removing bullets from a dead body".
"Most probably because it could lead to some other case, they don't want us to relate it to".
"There's nothing more that pisses me off than to not resolve a case, let alone two or more. We've got to get somewhere with this one and hopefully when we do, we'll be able to resolve the others".
Hank thought about it, there were plenty of unsolved cases, cold cases, as they were called, and they were every cop's worst nightmare.
Caitlin was working at her desk the next morning, filling in some quarterly recruit evaluations, when Sam Flanigan knocked on her opened door.
She looked up. "Come in".
"I hope I'm not interrupting", he said with a suave voice.
She put the evaluations in a folder and closed it. "No, what can I do for you"? she said as she showed him the empty chair across from her desk.
He sat down and looked at her. "I think my shooting skills aren't what they should be".
She leaned back in her chair. "Indeed, you're shooting skills are way off par and unless you improve you won't pass".
He nodded. "I guess I should practice more".
"That's always a good plan".
"But what's the point of practicing if I don't have someone to show me or tell me what I'm doing wrong"?
He was lying straight to her face. He had expert shooting skills. He used to go hunting with his father and could easily shoot a target at 1000 yards. He couldn't help but realize that pretending to be a sore shooter was harder than he had envisioned.
"You could sign up for some private remediation with one of the instructors during your free moments. I'm sure you'll improve in no time".
"What instructors are those"?
"There's Rogers, Pearson and McDonnell".
"Oh. You don't do remediation"?
She smiled. "Unfortunately not, I was one of the last instructors to join the team and therefore the positions go to instructors with more seniority".
He took a mental note of what she said and stood.
"Ok, then. I'll think about it".
"Don't wait too long, otherwise, the other's will leave you in the dust".
"Thank you for your time and encouragements".
"That's what I'm here for".
He left her office and thought about what his next step was going to be.
Jay arrived that morning at work, a mess. The ME had found no evidence. At least none that could lead them to the suspect and to top it all off, he hadn't been able to get in contact with his other informant.
"Jay, have you heard back from your CI"? asked Hank seeing him walk in.
"No. Either he's heard what's happened and he's keeping a low profile or he's also dead somewhere in an alley".
"Well lets hope it's not the latter. If he's gone into hiding, just keep trying to call him and tell him we can protect him".
Jay nodded and returned to his desk and tried to contact his informer.
By noon, he had already left 10 messages and still hadn't heard anything.
He looked at Al. "It's useless".
"Keep trying. At some point the voicemail will be saturated, then you know he's not getting your messages. If you keep going and can still keep leaving messages, then there's a hope he's listening to them".
Caitlin walked into District 21 a little after noon. She stopped by Trudy at the desk.
"Hi Trudy".
Trudy looked up from her sandwich. "Oh my God Cat! Would you get over here and give me a hug"!
Caitlin smiled as she walked over behind the counter and gave Trudy a warm hug.
Trudy looked at her. "I am so glad that you've decided to stay in Chicago and on top of that I am proud that you are training the future cops of my District".
"Well thanks. I'm doing my best. Think you could buzz me up"?
"Yeah but do me a favor, wipe that smile off your face, they're in a foul mood today. It's the North Pole up there if you ask me".
"Tough case huh"?
Trudy looked at her sideways. "How do you know"?
"I never reveal my sources", Cat said as she headed towards the caged door.
"Hey Cat"? yelled out Trudy. "Where are you staying these days"?
It became obvious that Trudy was one of the people Alvin had talked about who believed they knew but needed confirmation on the status of their relationship.
"With a friend".
When she arrived upstairs, they were all standing and staring at the board. Trudy had been right, the air was chilly and you could feel it.
"A set of fresh eyes, perhaps"? she said.
They all turned around as she walked up to them.
Hank tried to smile at her. "It couldn't hurt to try, but I've got to warn you, we literally have nothing".
She took a look at the board and read the various documents stuck on it. After a few minutes she looked at Hank then at Jay.
"You're right, there's not much".
"If he hadn't removed the bullets, we'd have something to work on", said Jay apparently very pissed off.
She took a closer look at the gunshot wound pictures that the forensic team had taken. She tilted her head and a few of them did the same mirroring her gesture. They weren't sure why she was doing it, but thought maybe they had missed something and had needed a different angle.
"What about casting or molding the wounds to get details on the bullet"?
"Doesn't that usually work for knife wounds and other object"? asked Kevin.
"Yes, it's never been done for a bullet wound, but at this point, what have you got to lose"?
She looked closer at the pictures. "The wounds don't seem deep, they were just shot in the right place to make the most damage. Since they weren't deep, we can hope that the suspect removed them very easily without damaging too much of the skin or tissue around it. The molding could give you a clear view of the markings on the bullet".
Hank looked at her then at the rest of them. "Well, what are you waiting for? Get the ME to do a molding of the three wounds and send that over to ballistics for identification"!
They all scattered as Hank smiled at Caitlin. "You never cease to amaze me. Where do you come up with these things"?
She laughed. "It's a Voight thing. You would have thought of it eventually".
He smiled. "Huh, a Voight thing. I like the sound of that".
"You got a minute for me"? she asked him.
His desk phone rang. "Yeah, just give me a minute".
She nodded and caught Al looking at her from his desk. She strode over.
"I love watching you work your magic".
As always she shrugged off the compliment. "It's probably a long shot". She looked at Jay. "I don't want to get your hopes up or anything".
Jay nodded. "Right now, I'll take anything I can. I'm glad you stopped by".
Hank stuck his head out of his office. "I'm all yours".
She headed for his office and sat down as he waited at the door.
"Do I need to close the door"?
"No. It's a professional discussion".
He sat down. "Shoot".
"Well there are two things. The first is that the Deputy Chief is starting to realize that special units seem to be quite attractive to new recruits and he would like to have a program put in place during the training so that recruits can spend a day in the units they are interested in".
"What would the recruits do"?
"Nothing really just watch and learn".
"Well if the Deputy Chief wants this and they only do what you've just said, I think we can arrange for that to happen. How many recruits are we talking about"?
"Not sure yet. We're going to go around and ask them which units they are interested in and put together a schedule".
"Alright then, keep me in the loop. What's the second thing"?
"Well, I got the green light from him as well about bringing in active police officers with expert knowledge on some of the things they are learning and I wanted to ask if I could borrow Jay for his shooting skills and Alvin for his knowledge on going undercover"?
He frowned.
"Don't do that", she said seeing his reaction. "It would only be for a day and it won't be both at the same time. I used to be a part of this team remember? I know you like to have all hands on deck, which is why I'm not taking them at the same time".
"Ok. Fine. I just hope that when the time comes, I'll be able to spare them. Solving these cases will always be my priority".
"I don't think anyone would want it to be any other way".
She stood. "Thanks, I really appreciate it. You've got a team with amazing skills and talent, not only do I want recruits to see that for themselves, but I also want them to benefit from it".
"You really like this job".
"Yeah, I do. I miss being out on the field but I still feel as though I'm making a difference".
He stood and joined her at the door frame. "I'm sure you are".
He looked at Al. "Alvin said that you're coming to the gala tonight. I'm glad you reconsidered".
"Even if my recruits will be there as well as the other instructors, I had already changed my mind before knowing that".
She looked at her watch. "That being said, I should get going. I still have a few things I need to do before tonight. I'll see you then"!
As Alvin was busy on the phone, she simply winked at him and left.
Adam looked at Kim. "You never wink at me".
She frowned. "Why would I? We're always together. And since we are on the subject of blaming each other for things we don't do… you never kiss me when we're in public"!
"Well, I'm not into PDA".
"But I am", she retorted back.
"Not me".
"Then consider winking PDA"! she said before turning her attention back to her work.
Adam threw his hands up in the air. "They do that stuff because they're not married"!
Kim harshly turned around. "No, they do that stuff because they love each other"! She stood and headed for the kitchen.
Alvin looked at him. "Kid, do yourself a favor and stop talking! You're making your case worse"!