Sitting back down at my desk, I tried to ignore what everyone was thinking. I didn't have to do that long, as Voight's phone rang and all eyes were on him awaiting instructions. His face looked grim as he walked out into the bullpen.
"Shots fired at 1360 South Waycrest. We're getting reports of three DOA victims." His eyes then flickered to me before moving among the team. "One of them is a seven-year-old boy. We need all hands on deck for this one. Atwater and Ruzek will meet us at the scene."
Jay and I shared a look as we pushed back from our desks at the same time. Child involved cases were already hard to deal with. I now had a daughter that age, which made the case that more personal. I already felt such empathy for the mother.
We walked quickly, all spreading out to our vehicles in the parking lot before heading out to the scene. Jay drove, which was fine with me. "You good with taking this case?" He asked after five minutes of silence in the car.
"I'm good." Shoving my hand into my jacket, I pulled my phone out, only to see my screen was only showing the time, not notifications of any missed calls. "I'm just surprised Eva hasn't talked the school secretary into calling me again."
"She knows you're busy. What did you tell her when you were on the phone with her earlier?"
"I told her I would try and pick her up early, but if not I would try and pick her up around five." Placing my elbow by the window, I laid my palm against my forehead. "I spaced asking Voight if I could leave early, so I guess I'll ask him when we get a minute."
The conversation grew silent as we pulled up to the scene; an old rundown apartment building with overgrown bushes and rusty gates. Voight, Antonio, and Kim pulled up just seconds before we had. Jay and I showed our badges to the officer guarding just beyond the police line and we all proceeded just inside the front area by where the mail was collected.
"Jay, I want you to interview anyone pulled from the building." Voight announced, pointing out the front door as we gathered together. "Kim and Hailey, I want you to see what information you can gather about the little boy and interview the mother. See if there's anything she may know about the shooting. Antonio, you and I are going to check out what Ruzek and Atwater have on the DOA guards. Report back to me when you got something."
"Copy." We all stated one after another before scattering to our various assignments. Voight and Antonio stopped to talk to a police officer, while Kim and I headed upstairs.
"Hey, so I didn't get a chance to see how you were doing after the case the other night." Kim began the conversation as we ascended the stairs.
"I'm doing okay, thanks. Nothing hurts as much as it did. I just needed a few days to figure things out." Showing our badges to a broad shouldered officer, we donned our gloves and stepped lightly into the room.
"Good to know." Kim said behind me as she snapped on her own gloves and immediately took to observing the little boy who was being prepped to be moved by forensics. "Poor little boy was just an innocent victim in all this. Probably sleeping on the couch when it all went down."
"Yeah. This door wasn't much help in protecting him either." I grasped the wood, looking at all the bullet holes riddled through the wood. This door is nothing compared to the ones you're supposed to have in a building or home."
"Frank, what can you tell me about the little boy?" Kim questioned the coroner as he stood up on his feet. He was an older man, rounded belly that matched his bald head. We had the pleasure of working with him almost every time we had a body to investigate.
"As far as I can tell, he was well-cared for and healthy. Died almost instantly, so at least we know he didn't suffer."
"Thanks, Frank." I offered as we continued to look through the house to make sure there was nothing we had missed. We both stopped in the doorway of the little boy's room. "Looks like it was just the two of them." The thin mirror had lots of pictures of different sizes held up by tape around the dark wood frame. Some from when he was a baby, playing soccer, of him and his mom at different stages in his life.
"He looked so happy. He didn't deserve this." Kim stepped in front of the mirror with heavy steps.
"No, he didn't." What little kid deserves to die ruthlessly just because he was sitting on a couch? No one. He didn't ask for someone to shoot through the door. He didn't make that decision, but someone sure made that decision for him. "I'm going to fill Voight in with what we've found so far. I'll meet you back here in a few minutes and we can go talk to his mom."
"Sounds good."
"Happened right before we got here." I heard Adam fill in Voight and Antonio as I exited the apartment and followed them to the one next door to where the guard was located. "By the time we arrived, shooters were already in the wind."
"Huh." Voight and Antonio passed through the door first as they assessed what went down in the room. "It's another stash house rip." We had plenty of those cases lately, and yet we couldn't exactly stop what was going down yet, unfortunately.
"Yeah, and they got the hell up out of here, Sarge," Kevin added onto what Voight had described just a minute ago. "Dropped a couple bricks of heroin on the way out. No cash."
"Huh."
"Bricks have a cobra logo this time. Adam piped up, pointing to the brick sitting on the second yellow plaid mattress beside the body. "Both guards were dead, just like the other rips."
"Sarge." Tipping my chin towards the hall so we could talk and move onto the next objective, he finished up his instructions to Antonio, Kevin, and Adam.
"Okay, get the casings to ballistics. See if they're a match with the other robberies."
"Copy." Ruzek acknowledged as Voight stepped out into the hall.
"Door down the hall may as well have been paper. Bullets went flying through it. Little boy in there was collateral damage."
"Mm." It was clear Voight felt the way we were all feeling, and that was that this little boy should have never been killed because of it. His mother shouldn't have the horror of finding her son shot in the head, and then have it confirmed by two cops that he was never coming back.