Reunite Her

Tender Age

*District 21: Bullpen*

"Med cleared the girl. No injuries." Hank informed, coming out of his Office.

He stopped next to Ana's desk just as she let out a small breath of relief. The older man caught it and his lips twitched up in the tiniest of smiles aimed solely in her direction.

"Yeah, Burgess is with her. We're waiting on DCFS." Jay added.

"All right, talk to us. What do we got?" The male Sergeant demanded as all traces of emotion left his face once again.

"Ward family, no priors except for Benny, who has a year-old possession charge." Hailey replied from the whiteboard with crossed arms.

"Thinking the shooter might've used a suppressor. No one heard or saw anything, and zero cams." Jay shrugged.

"I connected with Forensics. It's gonna take them some time. Three bodies, that's a lot of DNA." Adam shook his head as he appeared next to the male Detective.

"Four people living in one house, that's a lot of foot traffic." The blonde agreed.

"Well, we have to work the why first." Ana decided.

"Home invasion gone wrong? A hit? Family disagreement? Murder turned triple homicide?" Hank listed in agreement. "There can be plenty of possibilities, but it's gonna be the why that gets us to who."

"I got a possible why." Kevin spoke up, rushing over from the Interrogation Area with a file in one hand and his notepad in the other. "Benny Ward's yearlong possession charge is not the full story. Kid's got a couple gang dispersal cards, quite the social media presence. According to the Gang Unit and CPIC, he's been the enforcer for the Gangster Prophets for the past two years." The dark skinned Officer read aloud.

"Okay, so he had enemies." Jay observed.

"He's got a lot of enemies." Kevin nodded. "CPIC sent over a whole list. Over a dozen death threats online."

Hank just grunted in reply.

"So wait. We think this is gang retribution? They'd do a whole family like that?" Adam asked in disbelief.

"No reason will ever feel like it's enough, Adam." Ana pointed out, gently.

Hailey lunged for the nearest desk phone when it started ringing and hung up a second later.

"DCFS is downstairs." She reported.

"All right, so run it down. Talk to your CIs." Hank ordered. "If this was a gang hit, the streets will know."

The older man gave his wife a quick peck on the lips before heading towards the Interrogation Area.

*A Little While Later*

After asking around, Hailey's CI, with a bit of persuasion on her and Jay's part, coughed up a name. Well, more like an alias really. The guy was currently in custody and not saying a single word.

"Look, I don't care if Tru's not talking.
He's still looking good for it." Hank reasoned, coming out of his Office and shrugging his jacket on.

"And ballistics came back. The bullets match an unsolved Southside Hustler shooting." Kevin reported.

The older man stopped next to Ana's desk and let out a thoughful grunt in reply.

"Would make sense if it was a gang pass-down piece." Adam pointed out.

"All right, so we hold Tru for the 48 and, in the meantime, let's see if we can place him at the scene." Ana shrugged.

Hank went to nod in agreement but paused as something else popped into his mind.