Keeping It in the Family (Linstead)

Chapter 30

Made love to them? Assaulted them was more like it, Halstead thought. He had seen the videos to prove it.

"And you liked to film her doing it," Burgess said evenly. "We've seen some of the footage."

"It was more that she liked me to film her. We'd put the tapes on and have sex while they played in the background."

The Layfields were seriously weird people, Halstead thought. But that wasn't exactly news, given they had a garden full of dead bodies.

"Let's get back to Lauren and how she was killed. You said it started out as sex."

"Right," Layfield nodded. "Jillian had Lauren tied up on the bed."

"What was she tied up with?"

"Bondage ropes. Her wrists and ankles were tied up, and I think she had tape over her mouth. Jillian would sometimes get bored of just sex, and she would, well, she would start hurting the girls instead. She got off on their pain and their vulnerability."

That much was true, Halstead knew from the video tapes.

"What surprised me was when Jillian asked me to help her get Lauren down to the basement. That was a new one on me. Right away, I knew why she wanted her down there."

Burgess finished off her coffee. "And why was that?"

"To torture her," Layfield said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Over the next half hour, Halstead witnessed Burgess extract details of one of the most horrific crimes he'd ever worked on. Lauren Stevens had been kept tied up and gagged in the basement for two days, while being subjected to appalling abuse. By the end, Halstead imagined that death had come as a relief to the poor girl when Jillian had finally used a belt to strangle her. The good news was that with all of the gruesome details on record, there was now more than enough evidence to arrest Jillian Layfield for murder, with more charges to follow for the other victims.

"We'll take a break here, John," Burgess decided. McMahon seemed relieved, having looked queasy for some time because of the graphic details. "You can go back to your cell and have something to eat. We'll speak again, and you can talk about the next victim."

A few minutes later, the Intelligence team reconvened in their room to discuss the state of the case, everyone apart from Halstead and Burgess having watched the interview from the observation room. The awful details of Lauren Stevens' torture had given everyone a reason to be sombre, but there was also delight that they now had the evidence to charge the sadistic Jillian Layfield with murder. Overall, it made for a rather odd atmosphere.

"We're now able to charge Jillian Layfield for murder," Lindsay said. "I'm going to go do that now. Atwater, Burgess, you've dealt with her the most. You can have the pleasure of joining me."

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," Atwater said.

The three of them left Intelligence, and Lindsay recruited Platt on the way to the cells so that she could open the one belonging to Jillian Layfield.

"I'm going to enjoy this," Burgess said.

"We all are," Lindsay said with a hint of a smile.

Platt opened the cell, and Jillian Layfield got up off of the distinctly uncomfortable bed. "What is it this time?" she asked grumpily. "Let me guess, another hike around the station so you can try and get me to speak to my husband?"

"Not this time," Lindsay said calmly as she stepped into the cell, with her team members behind her. "Jillian Layfield, I'm charging you with the murder of Lauren Stevens." She proceeded to read Jillian her rights.

"Charging me with murder? I've already told you a bunch of times, I've never killed anyone!" Jillian protested.

"Yeah, you have. But now your husband is telling us the opposite. And I'm expecting evidence to confirm his story when we do a full forensics workup of your house, and of everything we pull out of the graves in your garden. You and your husband will both be going to prison for life, where you belong. And the only time you'll see him again is when he's giving evidence against you at your trial. Your best option now is to tell us the whole truth, and get ahead of it before John does. You can have a couple of hours to think about it before Officers Burgess and Atwater speak to you later today."

Leaving Jillian standing there dumbfounded, Lindsay led Burgess and Atwater from the cell. They didn't wait for Platt, who set about locking the door behind them, and they were shortly back in Intelligence.

"How did that go?" Halstead asked when they walked back in.

"I think she actually thought she was going to get away with it," Lindsay said. "Being charged with murder seemed to come as a surprise to her. Now we've got that done, from tomorrow, the case will be handed over to Homicide."

"Can I ask why?" Purrazzo said, in curiosity, not impertinence.

"Because there are going to be dozens of interviews needed with both of those too, as well as a drawn out forensics investigation and analysis. It's likely going to go on for months. I already had Superintendent Kelton on the phone, expressing his view that working this case to a conclusion wouldn't be the best use of Intelligence Unit. We're not here for that kind of extensive interviewing. I agreed that once we had charged both Jillian and John with murder, the case will be turned over. It's going to go down as a successful case for Intelligence, so I want to congratulate you all on your hard work. Everyone in this unit played a part in cracking this one. Tonight, we're all going out for drinks, and I'm buying."

It was disappointing not to see the case all the way through, but Halstead could understand why. There would soon be another case requiring the specialities of Intelligence, and they would need to be able to respond to it. The main thing he had on his mind as everyone reacted positively to the idea of celebratory drinks was not the success of the unit, but the success of its boss. This was the first case where Erin had come into her own as a sergeant, which would do both her and the unit a lot of good. Their eyes met, and he mouthed, 'I'm proud of you.'

Erin smiled gratefully, but with a twinkle in her eyes. Free drinks were not going to be the only celebrations that night, he realised. There would be sex too, and he couldn't wait.

"Okay, listen up," Lindsay said, calming everyone down. "Today, we're still on the case. Burgess and Atwater are going to interview Jillian Layfield. John can wait until tomorrow with Homicide, so the rest of you are going to work on your case notes so we've got everything squared away for the handover. If Layfield continues to insist on only speaking to you, Burgess, I'm going to loan you to Homicide for that purpose. Everything clear?"

Affirmative responses came from everyone, including Burgess. She could hardly say no to a key role in such a big investigation.

"I'll leave you to it," Lindsay said, heading for her office.

Purrazzo looked at Halstead. "So, tomorrow...?"

"A new case. Who knows what it'll be."

END OF BOOK TWO