Keeping It in the Family (Linstead)

Chapter 111

Halstead and Gonzalez approached the front door of the house where Liam Dunbar lived. He was one of the twins who was known to have been friends with Adam Russell, the dead guy with the crushed head. The house didn't seem particularly well maintained. Jay suspected that Liam rented the place and didn't particularly care about looking after it.

"After you," he said, letting Gonzalez step up to the front door.

She did so and banged on it a couple of times with her fist. After about fifteen seconds she was about to knock again, but then the door was opened by a skinny man with unkept blonde hair who looked to be in his early twenties.

"Yeah?" the man said.

"Detectives Gonzalez and Halstead, Chicago PD," she said, showing him her badge. "Are you Liam Dunbar?"

"Yeah."

"Can we come in?"

"No," the man said, sounding as if he objected to the idea on principal. "What's this about?"

"Do you know an Adam Russell?"

"I feel like you know I do, otherwise you wouldn't be standing here. Like I said, what's this about?"

"It's going to be better if you let us in," Gonzalez said. Her tone suggested that her patience was starting to wear thin, and it had an effect on Dunbar, who relented. Her Mexican accent got stronger when she got closer to being annoyed, Halstead noticed.

"Fine," Dunbar grumbled, letting them step into the house. He followed them into a living room that could have used some attention from a vacuum and a duster.

"When was the last time you saw Adam Russell?" Gonzalez asked.

"Can't remember. Maybe a week ago? Why are you asking about him?"

"Because he's dead. Someone ran over him with a car last night. Ran over his head, to be specific."

"Jesus Christ," Dunbar said, sounding shocked.

"You got a problem with Detective Halstead taking a look around while we talk about it?"

"What? Uh, no," he said, seeming distracted by the bad news. Halstead liked the way his partner had dropped the question in at that moment. She definitely knew what she was doing.

Leaving her to it, Halstead went to take a walk around the house. He had already scoped out the living room, and hadn't seen anything suspicious. The same went for the kitchen, where what looked like a week's worth of dirty dishes scattered around the sink was the only thing that really caught his eye. He couldn't fathom how people voluntarily lived in such squalor.

Next he walked through the door to the attached garage. There was a white Toyota car in there. Since Adam Russell had been killed by a car, it seemed, he took a walk around it. It was clean, which he supposed was a bit of a contrast to the house, but there was no damage on it anywhere. There was nothing to arouse any suspicion.

He went back into the house and took a look around upstairs. In what was clearly Dunbar's bedroom, there were some dirty clothes lying on the floor. Halstead shifted them with his foot to see if there was any blood or anything on them, but he couldn't see any.

With no reason to dig any deeper, he made his way back downstairs and into the living room. As he walked in, Gonzalez was handing over one of the contact cards they all had to carry.

"If you do think of anything, call me on this number," she said. "And don't leave town. We may want to speak to you again."

"Sure. But there's nothing more I can tell you," Dunbar replied. He got up off the crummy old couch and showed them out.