Tolerance Book II

Chapter Forty-One: Drawing Conclusions

It took a few minutes for Jay to get a grip on the pain his unwise movement had elicited.  Finally he opened his eyes and looked around the room.

"What's going through your head?" Voight broke the silence as he stepped back to give the injured man some space.
"The explosion .....," the bedridden man spoke hoarsely and accepted the glass of water Adam hastily furnished before continuing after taking a sip, "we were talking when everything went to hell and ...,"
"So it went off by mistake?" Kevin guessed uncertainly.
"That doesn't make sense," Adam shook his head, "if he had explosives on board, which he did, he intended to use them.  There was no way out of there for him."
"But as Jay pointed out the IED went off mid conversation ....," Mouse noted.
"So what? Why does it matter when it went off?"
"It seemed as if it happened by accident," Jay offered thoughtfully.
"What are we missing?" Antonio looked at the prone Detective seeking answers.
"He wants us to believe he's dead.  He's never had any problems before with setting up explosions so why would he now?"
"I hate to state the obvious but his remains were identified," Kevin wasn't convinced and he knew neither were the others.
"You can't fake dental records," Al proffered with a shrug.
"Who did the post mortem?" Jay checked as he tried to find a comfortable position on the bed and winced as his right knee and ankle protested.
"Peter Grimes," Voight supplied then added anticipating the next question, "Tom is at a Conference in New York."
"When is he back?" Jay enquired of the ME he trusted.
"Tomorrow."
"Grimes won't agree to a second autopsy," Antonio knew what the young Detective was aiming for, "he's strictly by the book."
"Grimes is good," Voight pointed out, "if he says the dental records match then they do."
"I don't doubt that," Jay acknowledged wearily.
"But you still think Lyle is alive," Al spoke intuitively.
"Yeah."
"How come?" Adam demanded with a frown, it didn't seem possible.
"The bus purposefully took that route and ended up being cut off from any means of escape.  Lyle would have anticipated that.  If he intended to go out with a bang and take me with him there was no need to make the explosion look like it was unplanned by setting the device off mid conversation."
"That's not much to go on," Kevin reluctantly stated.
"He wanted us to think he was on the bus to confirm his demise ....,"
"But you spoke to him," Adam argued.
"Exactly ..... I only spoke to him.  I told ye I didn't see him.  He could have set something up."
"Easy enough to have a speaker inside the bus," Mouse nodded, "he could have been somewhere else but still have a conversation with you."
"Like a baby monitor?" Antonio questioned.
"Same principal," the IT Specialist shrugged, there were numerous ways it could have been done.
"Hang on a second," Kevin was unconvinced, "you think he set up that whole thing just to convince us he's dead?"
"It's a possibility," Jay admitted.
"But he nearly killed you," Antonio put in, "it was pure luck you survived."
"Maybe," the younger man conceded thoughtfully, "but then again maybe not."
"Care to elaborate?" Voight prompted.
"He stole the military supplies for a reason.  He left a note ....... for me ........ to say he was playing the game again."
"And?"
"If I'm dead he can't play a game with me."
"You're overlooking something," Al stated.
"Just one thing?!" Jay scoffed, he was well aware there were many things they didn't know.
"If we think he's dead how can he play the game with you?" the experienced Detective ignored the frustrated response.
"Damn," Jay cursed around a yawn, "never said I had all the answers."
"True," Al winked.

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Canteen

An hour later Will and Conor had joined Voight, Al, Kevin and Mouse in the hospital canteen for an update. Adam  and Antonio were staying on guard as the recovering man rested under the haze of the strong meds flowing through his system.  After some consideration Voight had decided it was advisable to notify the older Halstead sibling of his brothers' hunch.  As expected the redhead had not been impressed.  He had assumed King was history.