Keeping It in the Family (Linstead)

Chapter 71

After dropping Purrazzo back at Brett's apartment, Halstead had turned his attention to the next concern on his long list. Kim Burgess. He needed to go check on his friend and see how she was doing after what had to have been a harrowing experience at that mall.

To his surprise, when he drove down the street towards Kim and Adam's house he saw that a police cordon had been set up a few houses away on either side. It immediately worried him. "What the hell?" he said to himself.

When he stopped the car at the cordon, a young male officer came up to his window. "No access, sir. You'll have to go around on the next block."

Halstead responded by showing his badge. "Detective Halstead, Intelligence. What's all this about?"

"Oh, sorry, sir. Deputy Superintendent Miller ordered a cordon put up around Officer Burgess's house. You know, she's the one who shot those two sons of bitches last night. A hero. And the media thought they could stand outside her house and hound her? Not on our watch."

"That's good. I'm a personal friend of Officer Burgess. I'm coming to check on her, so if you could just..." Halstead motioned with his head for the police tape to be lifted out of the way.

"Of course," the young cop said. "Give her best wishes from everyone, will you? All everyone was talking about in the locker room this morning was what an incredible thing she did."

"Will do," Halstead promised. As he had suspected, Kim likely wouldn't be allowed to forget her heroics any time soon. For better or worse, she had made a name for herself.

The cop lifted up the police tape, and Halstead drove through. He parked up outside of Burgess and Ruzek's house, and went to knock on the door. 'Let her be okay,' he thought while he waited for an answer.

Eventually, Ruzek opened the door, looking ready to give whoever was there a rough send-off. His demeanour changed when he saw that it was Halstead. "Hey, man. Come in. Any media still out there?"

"No, just a couple of cops," Halstead reported as they shook hands. He walked inside, and Ruzek closed the door. He heard Alex crying upstairs. "How's Kim? Did I just wake Alex up?"

"Yeah, but don't worry about it. I'm glad you came. Kim's in the living room. Kim, it's Jay!" Ruzek called out as he headed upstairs to attend to his son.

When he entered the living room, Halstead was met by Burgess, who had gotten up to greet him. She looked drained and quite rough, not the usual happy, vibrant, beautiful Kim he knew so well.

"Hey," he said.

Burgess walked into his arms and they hugged, simply glad to see each other again, something that might well not have happened.

"Thanks for coming over, Jay."

"How are you?" he asked as they parted.

"Tired. Slept really well last night, thanks to whatever Will gave me. But I don't feel rested at all. My mind is going a mile a minute. I keep seeing all the bodies, the blood everywhere, all that stuff. Keep reliving both of the kills I made. The second one, that guy could so easily have killed me. We practically walked into each other. I dived and fired, somehow hitting him in the head, and he missed me. Landed in a bunch of glass, which is how I got this." She pointed to the stitched up cut on her cheek.

"You did so, so well," he said proudly as they sat down together on the couch.

"I did what had to be done, Jay. I remember praying for God to let me see Adam and Alex again, and I did. I came through it. In time, I'll get over the shock."

"Yeah, but you may need some help. Erin wanted me to tell you she's going to get you counselling through the Police Department, and she sends her best wishes."