Keeping It in the Family (Linstead)

Chapter 75

Miller considered that for a few seconds. "Fine, I'll come to you. Can hardly expect you to drag a distressed child down here. Send me your address to save me having to look it up. As for what it's about, I assume you remember the name Bayley Martinez?"

"Of course. What about her?" Erin asked. The more she heard, the more confused she got.

"We'll talk when I come over. Send me your address."

"Hello, Erin. Sorry to interrupt your leave with this," Miller said when she was shown into the apartment about an hour later. She wasn't sorry of course, and Lindsay was well aware of that. It was simply the polite thing to say in such circumstances.

"It's fine," Lindsay replied, which was also untrue, and also the polite thing to say. Whatever was necessitating an urgent meeting regarding Bayley Martinez was going to be a long way from fine, she felt sure. "Come through to the kitchen. We can talk there while Clem does her school work."

"How's she doing?" Miller asked quietly as they walked.

"Well, considering what she went through. She's a stronger, tougher person than I think even I understand. Can't imagine myself in her shoes."

Miller nodded. "I hear you. Nice place you've got here."

"Thanks. It was redecorated recently. Or, I should say, most of it was. Can I get you something to drink?"

"No, I'm good, thank you."

"Okay, let's talk then," Erin said as they sat down opposite each other at the small kitchen table.

"You're not going to like what I've come here to tell you, I'll just put that out there right at the start."

Great, Erin thought, although she did appreciate her boss trying to be a bit diplomatic when she wasn't required to be. "Figured that as soon as I heard the name Bayley Martinez. What I can't imagine is what reason there could be that would involve me with her. She's in wit-sec, right?"

"She was," Miller said, raising her eyebrows a bit. "Don't ask me for specifics on this because I don't have them. The skinny is when the FBI made the deal with her for wit-sec in exchange for information, she offered up three people and they went for it. It turns out that she has a lot more juicy info that she kept quiet about back then. Turns out her dad had his finger in more pies than we, or the FBI, realised. When he died, or before, she got to know pretty much everything about those contacts."

"Let me guess, she's gone back to the FBI to try and barter a better deal, offering up more juicy names."

"Bingo," Miller said. "Only, she's not trying to barter a better deal, she's already got one. Turns out that all Martinez cares about is living the high life. Nice house, nice clothes, nice cars, all that crap."

"Can confirm that," Lindsay said. "She wouldn't let us into her house without suits on when we were under. Are you about to tell me the FBI are putting her back in business?"

Miller grimaced. "That's exactly what I'm about to tell you. The FBI are going to assist her in getting back into business and back to her own lifestyle, only now she'll be an asset."

"Jesus Christ," Lindsay complained, getting up so that could pace around the kitchen. "We bust her for gun running, and yet all that happens is she lies low for a few months, then comes back like nothing happened? She gets to live like a boss, with the protection of the FBI?"

"You didn't bust her, she turned herself in," Miller pointed out. "That was when the dynamic changed and gave her leverage."

Thanks to fucking Purrazzo, Lindsay raged internally. That failed warehouse raid continued to haunt Intelligence. Thinking about the unit reminded her that she was yet to hear what this had to do with her team.

"As frustrating as this is, why am I being told about it?"

"If you found what I've said so far frustrating, you're going to hate this. Martinez had a condition. You, as in Intelligence, are going to run her as your asset. It'll be a joint FBI – CPD operation. Funded by them, run by us, with both organisations getting the take."

"This is a prank, right?" Lindsay asked, although she knew it wasn't. "Martinez got to name conditions? This is ridiculous."

"No prank. It's politics, Erin. The FBI came to me with this and asked me to this on. In return, they're helping me out with something in one of my other precincts. It's how the game is played. Favours get earned and repaid, and everyone benefits."

Apart from me and Intelligence, Lindsay thought angrily. But then an idea came to her. "You know how much I'm going to despise doing this, right?"

Miller smiled, as if she had known all along that this part of the conversation was coming. "You're thinking you're left out of the favour exchanging on this thing. Don't worry, since I want us to have a positive and productive relationship, I'm going to consider myself owing you a favour for taking this on, although I'm giving it to you as an order."

"I appreciate that. Honestly? I'd like cash that favour in straight away. At least, I can tell you what I want straight away."

"I'm listening," Miller said with some apprehension.

"Clementine. When the time comes for Child Services to look at her adoption becoming permanent, you use your clout to make sure they let it go through. I know that you can pull something like that off behind the scenes."

"What's to say it won't go through anyway? I'm sure you and Detective Halstead are good parents."

"I'm not saying it won't go through. I'm confident it will. If it does, I'll consider your favour repaid anyway," Erin said, returning to the table and looking Miller in the eyes. "But if needed, I want you to make sure it does go through. This is my family we're talking about, and nothing is more important to me than that."

Miller weighed it up. "Alright, if you find yourself having problems when the time comes, call me and I'll get it taken care of."

"And I'll run Bayley Martinez as an asset," Lindsay said, barely able to believe what she was agreeing to.

Miller offered her hand to seal the deal, and Lindsay shook it.

"I'll likely need to meet you again during your leave, as all of this starts to come together," Miller said.

"Okay, try to give me some notice and we should be able to make something work."

"At least we don't have to rename the unit to Taskforce Martinez," Miller quipped.

Lindsay didn't find that funny in the least.

A/N: What do you think the Intelligence team are going to make of it when they find out who their new asset is?